Library News

Course instructors, are you satisfied with the quality of the sources your students use for term papers and other research assignments? Tired of seeing references to Wikipedia?

Falvey librarians can teach your students how to access and navigate the authoritative, information-rich resources available through the library website. Full text-journal articles, national and international newspapers (current and historical), statistical reports, handbooks and raw data sets: all these resources are literally at students’ fingertips.

Unfortunately, many of our computer-savvy students, unaware that the library home page is their gateway to these high quality sources, never find these valuable tools.

Broaden your students’ research horizons by scheduling a library instruction session for your students with a subject specialist librarian. If you do not know the name of your liaison librarian, check the contact list by department, or contact Barbara Quintiliano, instructional design librarian. Sessions can be scheduled during a regular class period or at another convenient time.

You and your students are welcome to come to the Griffin Room on the library first floor for hands-on instruction, or librarians can do a demo in your classroom. Librarians are also available to prepare online course and topic guides, as well as handouts to assist your students.

Give your students the edge they need. Contact your liaison librarian today!

Above: Rob LeBlanc teaches students some strategies for fruitful searching.

By Demian Katz

VuFind, the library catalog, was recently tested and upgraded for the new semester. The most noticeable improvement is a more detailed set of values in the Collection facet of the search results. You can now do things like limit your results to Special Collections, main stacks, etc. Other changes are minor bug fixes and behind-the-scenes adjustments that are unlikely to significantly affect day-to-day use. The section below will take you through the changes.

Catalog Search Tip: Filtering By Collection

The library catalog, searchable through the “Books & more” option on the Search tab of the library home page, contains a mix of useful materials. Most are physical books and journals owned by the Library, but some are links to online materials such as free government documents. It is usually helpful to have a large variety of options available in the catalog, but sometimes things can get in the way. This week’s upgrade to the catalog system adds a new option that should help you find exactly the items that you need.

Suppose, for example, that you want to check out a recent book about Medicare. You can do a Books & more search for Medicare, and you will see results like this:

The top three results show up as books, but they are actually online articles, and none of them are especially recent.

You can sort by “date descending” to bring newer items to the top:

This is better, as the first result is now a recent book. However, there are still a lot of online documents cluttering up the results. That is where the new feature comes in. If you look to the right side of the screen, you will see a Collection filter:

This allows you to limit your search results to a particular area of the collection. Since you don’t want Internet items, you can click on “Main Stacks” to limit to items in our main physical collection. Now you get these search results:

The top three results are all books from 2012 that you can access in the Library.

Of course, these books may not cover the aspect of Medicare that interests you.  That’s okay!  Because you filtered out the unwanted Internet resources, the other filters in the “Refine search” box should now show more relevant options, making it possible to further refine your search until you find exactly what you need.

Let us know what you think about these new enhancements in the Comments section below.

Demian Katz , a library technology development specialist at Falvey, is a major contributor to the enhancement of VuFind.

Over on the Philosophy blog, Nikolaus Fogle extols the virtues of the original, and best, “companions to” series. “They’re ideal resources for term papers, since each volume is carefully curated to inform and advance the scholarship at the same time.”

Through the library catalog, you can find Cambridge Companions for many  topics and writers, from baseball to Aristotle.

With Thanksgiving behind us and the end of the semester fast approaching, the season for paper writing has begun in earnest.  Here at the Library, we offer a number of resources to aid you as you research and write.  Take a look before you get too swamped—we might be able to help you with some of the heavy lifting:

1. Citation Styles: A Primer with Resources—This topic guide features resources for all the major citation styles. If you’re having trouble collecting and arranging sources, or if you’re interested in the finer details of a certain style, this guide can point you in the right direction.
2. RefWorks Tutorial—RefWorks is a tool which automates some of the work behind citation gathering. Here’s a tutorial detailing how to use this valuable resource—definitely worth checking out if you have a longer research paper.
3. The Writing Center—The Writing Center is located in the Learning Commons on the second floor of the Library. Make an appointment with a member of the very capable staff there as you build or edit your work, and your paper will show for it. Tutors are available to help writers in any field, and with any amount of experience.

As always, check out the Library website often for more information. Happy writing!

The Library is hosting a trial to Data Citation Index, a brand new Thomson Reuters database for discovering data sets and studies in persistent and stable repositories, such as the Pennsylvania State University,  the National Cancer Institute and Stanford School of Medicine, to name a few. The trial only lasts until Nov. 30.

Research data from the social sciences, physical sciences, life science, and arts and humanities is included, and discoverable data sets are linked to the scholarship it informs.

This new resource has the potential for facilitating the creation of Data Management Plans required by the National Science Foundation for funding.

For additional information about the Falvey trial to this important initiative see Linda Hauck’s blog.

Associations are terrific sources for learning about businesses, professions and interest groups. Typically, trade and professional associations provide insight on trends, regulatory developments, employment opportunities and best practices. They publish newsletters, statistical profiles, research reports and membership directories.

I rely on associations for many facets of my daily work. Not long ago I took an online continuing education course on geo-spatial information resources via my national professional association, the American Library Association (ALA). I have, in addition, used ALA’s local and national association databanks to post Falvey Memorial Library’s employment opportunities.

In fact, the reputations of association publishers inform my collection-development choices. When looking for practice-related materials for human resource development, I don’t hesitate to buy guides published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). I am pleased that association websites often help me to guide student researchers to just the right bit of information needed to make a good analysis great.

This week, for example, a student was having a tough time doing a comparative analysis of cable TV stations using customary sources, such as news and business reports. After identifying a few cable broadcasting associations, she had what she needed to do a stellar estimation of her target station’s performance. (more…)

By Alice Bampton

Christopher (Chris) Hallberg, a native of Milford, N.J., is beginning his second year as a graduate assistant for Falvey Memorial Library’s Technology Development team. Chris works with David Lacy, software development specialist; Demian Katz, technology development specialist; and David Uspal, senior web specialist for library services and scholarly applications.

Chris’ duties involve writing and documenting code. He assists with VuFind, VuDL and other smaller projects.

Katz says, “Chris has been a tremendous help with the huge project of updating VuFind for a 2.0 release. His eye for visual interfaces has led to some nice cosmetic improvements to the look and feel of VuFind, and his work will also eventually lead to a major overhaul of the Digital Library book reader.”

Chris has two bachelor’s degrees, one in interactive multimedia and the other in computer science, from The College of New Jersey in Ewing. He is enrolled in the Department of Computing Sciences at Villanova University, working on a master’s degree, which he plans to complete in 2013.

He is considering pursuing a doctorate. “If not, I’ll be looking for work as a web developer. I will be starting a game studio with my close undergraduate friend, Brett Taylor, in the time that my regular job doesn’t consume,” Chris says.

He was the lead web and research developer at RiverSound Media Group, East Setauket, N.Y., before coming to Villanova.

His hobbies are practicing yoga, climbing rocks and playing guitar.

Photo by Alice Bampton

Marijuana. Fracking. The Occupy Movement.

The Library’s online resource Opposing Viewpoints Resources in Context is a great place to start your ethics research.  Opposing Viewpoints provides an overview of both sides of numerous ethical issues through viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, website links, geographic maps and full-text magazine and newspaper articles. Read more on Rob LeBlanc’s recent blog.

Got 30 minutes? Learn how RefWorks can organize your references and then produce your bibliography in a snap – and in any of the major citation documentation styles.  Participants should bring their own laptops (PC or Mac).  Students, staff and faculty welcome. Sign up for any of the following 30-minute sessions.

BE SURE TO BRING YOUR LAPTOP! Sign-up contact: Barbara Quintiliano

Location:  Learning Commons, 2^nd floor, Falvey

• Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 4pm – Rm 204
• Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 4pm –Rm 205 [Note room change]
  
• Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 4pm – Rm 204
• Wednesday, November  14, 2012, 4pm – Rm 204

By Merrill Stein and Corey Waite Arnold

With the Presidential Election less than a month away, there’s no shortage of media coverage. Despite the chatter, it can be difficult to make a well informed and closely researched decision about whom to vote for. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a brief list of election resources. Behind each link you’ll find valuable information to help you strengthen your perspective and inform your vote when you finally hit the booths this November.

THE PARTIES

While the big two parties dominate the airwaves, don’t forget that a wide range of political perspectives are represented by plenty of candidates running for president in this year’s election. Here’s a list of a few major political parties in America along with their platform positions:

Thomas Nast's political cartoon, 1870 (courtesy of The Library of Congress)

The Democratic Party

The Republican Party

The Tea Party

The Green Party

The Libertarian Party

The Reform Party

The Democratic Socialists of America

The Constitution Party

POLLS

Political polls are an invaluable resource during election season, both for political players and the average voter looking to follow the status of a given candidate.

George Gallup, inventor of the Gallup Poll

Roper Center Public Opinion Archives

Gallup Polls: Election 2012

Politico Election Polling

ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior

FACT CHECKING

Given this year’s contentious political atmosphere and the extraordinary speed of the contemporary news cycle, fact checking has emerged as a major media force in this year’s election. Check out some of the more reputable fact checking organizations after debates, and make sure to keep your candidate honest:

Factcheck.org

Opensecrets.org

Politifact.com

INTERNATIONAL NEWS SOURCES

International news sources provide a valuable perspective on an election that doesn’t just affect the United States, but instead impacts the world at large.  Reading outside news sources can truly expand your thinking during this and other important elections.

Image courtesy of BBC News

The BBC

The Guardian UK

Reuters

Aljazeera

BOOKS AND OTHER LIBRARY RESOURCES

Be aware that as a member of the Villanova University community you have unique access to a variety of library resources. Here are just a few relevant books from our collection:

The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty

Exit Polls:  Surveying the American Electorate by Samuel J. Best and Brian S. Krueger

Who’s Counting? : How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk by John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky

And finally, the following databases include article search engines to help you find information on a specific election topic:

ProQuest Newspapers, Ethnic NewsWatch, Lexis Nexis Academic, ABI/INFORM Global, Vital Statistics on American Politics, CQ Press Voting and Elections Collection, CQ Weekly,  America: History and Life, JSTOR, Historical New York Times.

Go to the Ignite Change, Go Vote blog post for information about voter registration.

Links and resources contributed by Merrill Stein, History/Political Science Liaison Team