The Library is making The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics available to the entire campus as a trial ending Jan. 10. Let us know what you think!
The Encyclopedia, published in November, is an online comprehensive reference resource covering the highly diverse field of applied linguistics. Coverage includes “27 key areas of the field, including Language Learning and Teaching, Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Assessment and Testing, Corpus Linguistics, Conversation Analysis, Discourse, Cognitive Second Language Acquisition, Language Policy and Planning, Literacy, and Technology and Language.”
Additional features available with the online resource includes regular additions and updates to articles, including new entries, to keep the Encyclopedia current and cutting edge and a wealth of additional material, including sound files, and direct links to cross referenced articles, creating a multifaceted learning experience. Entries are available in both HTML and PDF, enabling users to print in a clean, easy-to-read format, which includes citation and cross-references. The encyclopedia is easy to navigate with 24/7 access to this major resource.
A List of Entries, in PDF format, found in the Encyclopedia is available for review.
Comment below or contact Susan Ottignon with your feedback before Jan. 10.
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.
by Merrill Stein and Kristyna Carroll
A trial of Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (WPSA) is available until Feb. 11, 2011.
WPSA is one of the premier databases in political science, covering many areas of study, including comparative politics, developing nations, electoral systems, environmental policy, labor relations, political psychology, and many more!
Hosted on the ProQuest platform, WPSA allows for simultaneous searching with other databases, such as PAIS International (CSA), ProQuest Newspapers, ProQuest Social Science Journals (ProQuest) or Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest). Advanced searching includes limiting by document type and language. The WPSA trial also introduces ProQuest’s new Google-like interface, promoting a link to scholarly journals.
A 
in the citations will link to any journal subscriptions to which we provide access.
Several institutions that have had success with WPSA are the University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Dickinson College and Johns Hopkins University.
Are you looking for the latest regional or international news? Access World News includes a wide variety of local, national, and international news sources such as the Main Line Times, Le Monde (France) and the Irish Times. Among the over 2,500 U.S. titles are major newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as well-known regional dailies such as the Philadelphia Inquirer. Access World News includes close to 2,000 newspapers and news wires from all over the world. The Library has access to this resource on a trial basis until the end of the fall semester.
For more information, see Jutta Seibert’s history and sociology blog.
Do you need historical reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives?
What about the legislative and executive documents, many originating from the important period between 1789 and the beginning of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set in 1817?
Have you worked with the print Serial Set before or did you always shy away from using it because of the time and effort involved in tracking down documents included in this series?
For the next 30 days (until Oct. 11), Villanova faculty and students will have access to the full text of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and the American States Papers on a trial basis. The Library is evaluating the purchase of this valuable resource, and we would like to hear your opinions as we evaluate this product.
The Serial Set goes back to the 15th Congress (1817). The online version currently on trial includes the years 1817 to 1994. It contains House and Senate documents as well as House and Senate reports. The documents cover a wide variety of topics and include reports of independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.
The American State Papers, 1789-1838 are part of the trial access.
Take a look, evaluate its value for faculty and student research projects and e-mail your feedback to Jutta Seibert.
For another related source of legislative information currently on trial, please see the CQ Almanac blog.
by Merrill Stein
On trial until October 1. CQ Almanac Online, providing annual, comprehensive coverage and analysis of U.S. Congressional legislation, is now available for trial within the CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Electronic Library at the Online Editions section.
From the Library homepage, select Databases A-Z and locate the CQ family of resources.
Coverage is complete from 1945, the 79th Congress, 1st session, to 2008, 110th Congress, 2nd session. Updates are annual and currently planned for October, 2010. Volumes can be searched using keywords or concepts across all years, Congresses and sessions, in a table of contents format by year, Congress and session, by pre-arranged topics within years or by decade.
View tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues. Results can be sorted in ascending or descending order.
CQ Almanac is a companion to CQ Weekly and pairs the vital, newsworthy coverage found in CQ Weekly with the Almanac’s analytical summaries. (more…)
The DSM-IV-TR from the American Psychiatric Association is used by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health workers to assess and diagnose patients. This latest edition identifies some 300 disorders in contrast to about 100 disorders in the first edition of 1952.
The manual’s aim is to provide clear descriptions of diagnostic categories. For example, see the manual for the gradations of attention-deficit and disruptive behavior disorders.
The trial ends Sept. 30. Let us know what you think!
TELL ME MORE® ( Username: trial and Password: trial) is the best way to successfully learn a new language focusing on all major areas of language learning (speaking, comprehension, reading and writing). Offering more content and activities than any competing product, TELL ME MORE® language learning is the only solution focusing on these crucial four areas, teaching you all of the skills necessary to become truly language proficient.
TELL ME MORE® supports the following language programs: English (ESL), Spanish (both Castillian and Latin), French, German, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic.
The initial log requires you to sign in. Username: trial and Password: trial. Click on ‘Demo Access’ to begin. Each user will create their own individual username and password and then log in to the database. Your individual trial accounts are good for 30 days.
The TELL ME MORE® experience includes:
* Easy-to-comprehend content created by expert instructional designers
* 2,000+ hours of dynamic content per language
* Supplemental Business and Culture specific content
* Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening Workshops
* 37 different types of learning activities/interactions
* Speech Recognition with playback and achievement scale
* Spoken Error Tracking System (SETS®) technology automatically detects and corrects your pronunciation errors
* 10,000 vocabulary words classified by lexical group * Anytime, anywhere accessibility
Mango Languages is a web-based, self-directed application designed to help you learn a new language. Falvey Memorial Library is featuring a Mango Languages trial, which offers an overview of many languages including Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese. This product also offers languages with international flavors, such as Arabic (Levantine), Chinese (Mandarin), Farsi, Turkish and Hebrew.
Features include—
—complete control of each lesson by a click-of-the-mouse ability to repeat words and review phrases.
—a combination of audio format and written text that focuses primarily on conversational skills.
—lessons tailored for each language, though all cover standard tourist and language learner topics. Native speakers (male and female) give pronunciation, then pause for the learner to repeat. Review modules for vocabulary, phrases also included.
—grammatical and cultural notes that provide insight into the language and customs, as well as quizzes and conversations that focus on practical experiences.
by Linda Hauck
Now available: a trial for EconLit with Full Text! EBSCO, one of the leading academic database platform and journal subscription agents, offers an enhanced version of the American Economic Association’s indexing and abstracting service, EconLit. (To try it and for more information, see the Business Reference blog.)
