Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

By Linda Hauck

Villanova faculty and students now have access to Pitchbook. Pitchbook provides data on companies, investors, and deals in the private equity and venture capital space.

Pitch book offers screeners for companies, deals, funds, investors, and service providers. These are not your typical screeners limited to filtering by geography, profitability, and industry.  The screeners are much more granular than most, including specialized criteria relevant to rapidly evolving businesses with deal types, debt characteristics, web and social media metrics, verticals, and patent holdings, to name a few.

The Pitchbook Library Research Center has reports on industries, technologies, and public and private market performance and benchmarks. Here, you’ll find surveys on sustainable investment, European M&A activity, and reports on agtech and food as medicine. Pitchbook is the best tool at our disposal for learning about emerging businesses. If you’re looking for firms working on renewable ocean energy, youth banking, anti-aging, smart packaging, or cannabis beverages, browsing the emerging spaces will get you there.

Use cases for Pitchbook include business development and marketing, tracking competitors investments, environmental scans for innovative products and services, finding potential investors,  analyzing industry and vertical trends, and finding Villanova alumni.

Access Pitchbook with your Villanova email address.  Downloading is limited and regrettably our subscription does not include live support, the mobile app or Excel add on.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

By Kallie Stahl 

To quote the band Aqua, “I’m a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie world.”

If you’ve read Shawn Proctor’s blog, or you’ve seen the numerous memes surrounding this summer’s biggest rival, then you know it’s Oppenheimer vs. Barbie. Proctor covered Christopher Nolan’s film on Wednesday, and I felt Barbie deserved equal coverage. After all, she’s everything. He’s just Ken.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

Short Review:

Both films hit theatres Friday, July 21. I didn’t score tickets to an early screening of Barbie (as Proctor did with Oppenheimer), so I’ll leave the review to Manohla Dargis of the New York Times:

“Like Air, Ben Affleck’s recent movie about how Nike signed Michael Jordan, as well as other entertainments tethered to their consumer subjects, Barbie can only push so hard. These movies can’t damage the goods, though I’m not sure most viewers would want that; our brands, ourselves, after all. That said, [director] Greta Gerwig does much within the material’s inherently commercial parameters, though it isn’t until the finale — capped by a sharply funny, philosophically expansive last line — that you see the Barbie that could have been. Gerwig’s talents are one of this movie’s pleasures, and I expect that they’ll be wholly on display in her next one — I just hope that this time it will be a house of her own wildest dreams.”

View Barbie showtimes here.

The Story Behind the Movie:

Fast facts courtesy of www.barbiemedia.com and USA Today:

• Barbie was created by Mattel in 1959 (Ken joined her in 1961).
• Barbie was invented by Ruth Handler (Mattel was co-founded by Handler and her husband Elliot).
• The initial idea for Barbie came to Handler after watching her daughter play with paper dolls.
• Barbie was modeled after the Bild Lilli doll (Mattel bought the rights to the doll and made their own).
• Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts (named after Handler’s daughter, Barbara. Ken is named after her son, Kenneth).
• Her birthday is March 9, 1959, the day she was unveiled to the toy industry during New York Toy Fair.
• Barbie is from (fictional) Willows, Wisconsin.
• Her first outfit? Black-and-white striped swimsuit.
• Barbie’s signature color is Barbie Pink (PMS 219).
• She’s had over 250 different occupations.
• It takes more than 100 people to create a Barbie doll and her fashions.
• Barbie is the most popular fashion doll ever produced and the No. 1 fashion doll property.
• More than 100 Barbie dolls are sold every minute.
• The best-selling Barbie doll? The 1992 Totally Hair™ Barbie.
• Over 18 billion minutes of Barbie user-generated content is created every year.

Further Reading with Falvey Library Resources:

• Barbie Culture (Rogers, 1999)
• Barbie’s Queer Accessories (Rand, 1995)
• Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body (Toffoletti, 2007)
• Athena to Barbie: Bodies, Archetypes, and Women’s Search for Self (Wright, 2021)
• Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (Kafai,2008)
• Bury Me with Barbie (Senna, 2014)
• Has Barbie Lost Her Luster? (Academic Video Online, 2013)

References:

• Barbie. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2023, from http://www.barbiemedia.com/about-barbie/fast-facts.html
• Dargis, M. (2023, July 19). Barbie’ Review: On the Road and Out of the Box. The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/movies/barbie-movie-review.html
• Munson, O. (2023, July 13). Barbie history: The story behind the world’s most popular doll. USA Today. Retrieved July 19, 2023, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/07/13/who-created-barbie/11746176002/

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Some of her favorite Barbie dolls of the 90’s: Bead Blast Barbie Doll, Olympic Gymnast Barbie Doll, Movin’ Groovin’ Barbie Doll, and Dorothy Barbie Doll (The Wizard of Oz). 

By Linda Hauck

Falvey now has access to premium data on the Sports Business Research Network (SBRnet), which conducts twice yearly consumer surveys of a representative sample of U.S. consumers 13 years and older.  The surveys include questions about sport and team fandom by demographic characteristics (gender, age, income, geography, and education), media usage (social media, device usage, and channels watched), spending on merchandise, sports travel behavior, and select food and beverage consumption patterns and insurance, banking, and credit usage.

This new content compliments the news, directories and additional data sets in SBRnet. There are directories for sports venues, marketing agencies,  sport associations and team and player performance sites.  Its a one-stop shop for sporting goods spending, participation, attendance, fan demographics, and media usage data, downloadable in Excel format. Use it to keep up to date on business developments on everything from baseball to fantasy football, sports gambling, pickleball, and sports law to name just a few topics.

SBRnet is a top pick for sports analytics, marketing and management students.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

By Nicole Daly 

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has done it again! With the guiding force of University of Michigan professor Libby Hemphill and in collaboration with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, they have expanded their many data collections to include SOMAR, a social media archive for researchers to find and investigate data dealing with social media. 

As of May 1, 2023, the repository only holds 5 datasets, but it is growing and will be updated frequently to add more resources. For more information on using or adding to this resource go to the Social Media Archive (SOMAR) @ ICPSR.

Similar to its hosting site, ICPSR, SOMAR allows researchers to browse for datasets by collection or keyword. Users are able to narrow their search results by social media platform, allowing them to browse for data on or about specific sites, such as Facebook. Once a user has found a study and dataset of interest they will be able open the item record to read about the study details to determine if they would like to login and download the dataset.

A reminder, Villanova is a member institution of ICPSR, allowing faculty, staff, and students access to a vast collection of datasets in the social science realm. To begin using ICPSR, a free account must be created while on campus to gain access to the full collection. Once you have created your account you will be able to use this resource, and its linked collections like SOMAR, off campus. 

For any questions, contact Social Science Librarian Nicole Daly.

This resource is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library. 

Help us celebrate Love Data Week, the international celebration of all things data related! Love data is a week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating how data influences our world! 

This year’s theme is “Data: Agent of Change,” focusing on inspiring significant change through data, whether large or small, ranging from policy change, structural change, and social change! If you have not participated previously, now is the time! To help new and seasoned data users find data training and resources to move the needle on issues they care about, I have created a list of resources one could use to explore those issues. 

With February also being Black History Month, I wanted to bring attention to some of the research and data sources available covering issues with race, not only in the U.S. but worldwide.   

Check out these resources to learn more. 

U.S. Census Information on Race: https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race.html  

Race, Ethnicity and Marriage in the United States: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/07/interracial-marriages.html  

Pew Research Center Race and Ethnicity information: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/race-ethnicity/ 

ICPSR is a data repository available to Villanova students, faculty, and staff. They host a variety of datasets that have been curated for ease of use, including many sets dealing with social issues. Two helpful features they offer are the Thematic Data Collections, which includes the Resource Center for Minority Data, and their Current Events in the Bib page, which shows publications dealing with current society issues and how data is being used in to broaden the scholarship. Explore ICPSR to find datasets available for secondary analysis to advance policy and social change. 

The International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology, IASSIST, recently released a webinar titled “A Conversation About Data on Race & Ethnicity Around the World” By Bobray Bordelon, Barbara Levergood, Kevin Manuel, Nigel de Noronha, Anja Perry, and Anne Zald. The panel was moderated by Alexandra Cooper and Deborah Wiltshire.

Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, recommends the book, Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein. “The book touches on why data scientists need feminism and how data can perpetuate intersectional inequalities. The book also provides examples of different projects like Data for Black Lives: https://d4bl.org/.” 

It is important to also highlight some of the inherent issues that are prevalent in data science. Beaudry Allen, University Archivist, recommends Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Noble to learn more about the systematic racism found in data science. 

For more information about different data resources Falvey offers check out the Falvey library blog. There were different data related posts throughout the week! Make sure to join us again next year for Love Data Week 2024, which will run from Feb. 12-16.

Follow and spread the word about Love Data Week 2023: @lovedataweek on Twitter and Instagram #lovedata23 

This event is hosted by ICPSR, a data repository that is available on Falvey Library’s homepage, Databases A-Z list. 

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Library.

Villanova researchers now have access to BoardEx, which presents data on companies, board members, and individuals serving on C-Suites in North America, Europe, the UK, and the “Rest of the World” from 1999 to present.  Public, private, and nonprofit organizations are included. Detailed attributes about board members and officers is provided including: age, gender, role, education, employment, achievements, compensation, networks, and committee appointments.  Summary data on organizations include nationality mix, gender ratios, attrition rates, board networks, and remuneration practices.  The use of common company identifiers simplifies linking to other products such as CRSP and Compustat/Capital IQ.

BoardEx data have been a key underlying source for empirical research in accountancy, finance, and management generally and corporate social responsibility specifically.  The Library is thrilled to be able to provide direct access to this data via the Wharton Research Data Services platform.

David Ratigan, Director of the Gmelich Lab for Financial Markets approves registration for faculty and students. Duo security app for two-factor authentication needed.

Photo: Damir Kopezhanov (Unsplash)

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is the Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

By Linda Hauck

Graduate and undergraduate business students often work on international market entry strategies for cases and consulting clients. Devising a winning strategy is contingent on analyzing a wide range of data about specific locations. National level data isn’t always sufficient. That’s why the Library added the Cities module to Passport (Euromonitor). Students can spend less time tracking down data and more time interpreting it to solve business problems.

The Cities module contains time series data on consumers, economic conditions, and sustainability. Historic and current consumer data covers demographics, income, expenditures, wealth, and digital access.  The economic variables available include GDP, employment, unemployment, labor force participation, inflation, consumer prices by sector, exports, and wages. Measures of mobility, pollution and climate can be used to assess sustainability potential. Coverage is not limited to the single financial or commercial center of a country: Over 1200 metropolitan areas on every continent are included.

These same data points are contextualized in Cities Reports, which benchmark and rank each city against their home countries and regions using a variety of data visualizations. Significant changes are highlighted as are unique or stand out conditions.

Accessing the Cities Reports and Data can be tricky due to the wealth of information on Passport. The Economics tab and Search all Categories box enable drilling down to the cities and variables needed.

Passport (Euromonitor) Economies: Cities module isn’t the only Library-subscribed content for learning about urban centers. Statista offers Global Business Cities Reports which feature social, economic, and cultural data.  Access World News and Factiva provide access to foreign language and English newspapers published in cities around the world.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is the Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

Falvey Memorial Library’s Dig Deeper series explores topics of importance in our society and the news. It connects these subjects with resources available through the Library, so our faculty, students, and staff can explore and learn more, potentially sparking new research and scholarship. 

In June, the US Supreme Court reversed its prior 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade, the decision that provided a “constitutional right to abortion,” according to one National Public Radio report. Abortion rights in nearly half the states have been “rolled back.” And the issue, debated across the country long before the Roe v. Wade case, has returned as a top political and legislative subject. 

The Library possesses many resources for anyone who wishes to learn more about the history of abortion or the Roe v. Wade decision as well as the many facets of reproductive rights and the impact of the Supreme Court’s June decision. 

The midterm elections show that in every state where abortion was explicitly on the ballot voters came out to support the right to choice.

We invite you to peruse Falvey Library’s relevant resources, curated by Sarah Wingo, Subject Librarian for the departments of English Literature, Theatre and and Romance Languages and Literature, here: https://library.villanova.edu/Find/MyResearch/MyList/10015.

By Jutta Seibert

Falvey currently offers trial access to the Art & Architecture ePortal (A&AePortal), an authoritative source of academic art and architecture books. Electronic access to art, art history, and architecture monographs and journals is a somewhat recent development. Reproduction quality of image and copyright permissions were among the major drivers for this delay. Technological changes in recent years have resulted in electronic image quality that is often superior to that in print media. Covid-19 access restrictions to print collections accelerated and incentivized the transition to e-books in art and art history.

A&AePortal is a great example of a high-quality and innovative e-book collection in this discipline. It features a collection of authoritative works on art and architecture including artist monographs, surveys, museum catalogs, and catalogues raisonnés. Most works are part of the catalog of Yale University Press publications complemented by selected books from other highly regarded university and museum presses including electronic access to the acclaimed The Image of the Black in Western Art series edited by Bindman, Gates, and Dalton and published by Belknap Press.

Falvey owns many of the works in print but some of these critical works have been lost or damaged over the years and are currently out of print. Online access offers the convenience of easy access to often oversized and weighty books. In some cases black and white images that appeared in the print publications have been replaced with high-quality color copies. The portal features a searchable image archive, citation and annotation tools, as well as a personal book shelf.

Library staff invites you to explore the A&AePortal. Trial access to the collection will end on December 30th. We are looking forward to your comments.

Jutta Seibert is Director of Research Services & Scholarly Engagement at Falvey Memorial Library.

By Nicole Daly 

If you have used any of our marketing and public relations databases or serials in the past, you’ll be happy to hear that Falvey Library has expanded access to PR Week online. In the past we have maintained access to PR Week articles, but there was a publication gap, limiting access to the newest and most up to date information in the field. Now with our expanded access students, faculty, and staff will have the opportunity to create a free account for the PR Week website. Giving access to the most relevant and up to date information! 

PRWeek has been around since 1998 and offers a website for public relations and marketing professionals to easily access news and opinion pieces relevant to the field. Our subscription now includes access to Breakfast Briefings each weekday morning, US Breaking News Alerts, and a Weekly Edition,which will provide students, staff, and faculty with the latest news coverage affecting the marketing communications industry. For more information on this resource go to https://www.prweek.com/us/about_us.

To benefit from unrestricted access to PRWeek.com you must be registered with your Villanova email address and not a personal email.

How to gain access:

Already registered? As long as you are registered with your Villanova email address, all you need to do is ‘Sign out’ and ‘Sign in’ at https://www.prweek.com/login

Not registered? Activate your subscription by completing a short registration Form.

• Step 1: To create your online account using your Villanova email address, visit https://www.prweek.com/register/ . Please provide your firstname, lastname, email and password, select your region and then click “CONTINUE”

• Step 2: Subscribers will automatically receive the Breakfast Briefing, Breaking News, Weekend and Weekly Online editions; Be sure to click “REGISTER” to complete your registration and activate your account. Once logged in, you may go to My Account, sign up for other newsletters and/or update your newsletter preferences.

Online support:

Forgotten your password? Simply enter your email address at users.prweek.com/password/ and a new password will be sent to you.

For further assistance please visit the FAQ page at prweek.com/us/faq . Alternatively, you can contact the support team at subscriptions@prweek.com . 

This resource is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.