If you missed any of this semester’s Cultural Film Series presentations, you can still catch up with the library’s DVD collection.  See the Spring 2011 features, or all recent Cultural Film Series features.

Falvey Memorial Library is pleased to announce its recent subscription to ComAnalytics.  CIOS offers ComAnalytics as a way for Communication faculty and departments to assess and compare article publication productivity.

Also, congratulations to our Communication Department for its ranking as  a “Top Ten” department in the study of metaphor!

• ComAnalytics has the only system for calculating the prestige value of publication in a majority of the field’s scholarly journals. While no cross-institutional system for performance analysis can tell the whole story of faculty accomplishment, ComAnalytics provides baseline data that takes account of both quantity and quality of scholarly performance.

• ComAnalytics provides customizable assessments. Compare faculty performance to relevant baselines: other faculty with the same years in service, other faculty at programs granting the same degrees. Compare departments with the same number of faculty. Compare departments to selected peer institutions.

• ComAnalytics’ interactive environment allows subscribers to explore analyses and generate printed reports that can be submitted to administration as part of peer assessments and annual reviews.

________________________________
Kristyna Carroll
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

ICPSR holdings include several time series and other types of aggregate data, its holdings consist mainly of raw data derived from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. The data holdings contain some 6,000 studies and 450,000 files that cover a wide range of social science areas such as population, economics, education, health, social and political behavior, social and political attitudes, history, crime, aging, and substance abuse.

ICPSR is a great resource for those times when you would like to complete a project that involves manipulating data, but you do not have time to collect your own.  Or, use the data to support your own research.

In order to download data, you will need to create a MyData Login.

For example, see this description of a 2007 study – Interest Group Activism on the Web: The Case of Environmental Organizations.

Or, use the Variables Database to search for variables across different datasets.  And, you can even analyze data online without having to download the data files!

You can also deposit your own data to be shared with the consortium.

————————————————————————
Kristyna Carroll
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

Falvey Library has recently required a collection of films about, starring, or directed by Native Americans, Aborigines, and other native groups.  Many of these films were featured on Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, an installment of Independent Lens.  See the full list of films, or check out some highlights below:

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
2001
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk
Starring Natal Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, and Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq
The telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior’s endurance and battle of its menace.*

Rabbit-Proof Fence
2002
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Kenneth Branagh
In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a trek across the Outback.*

Smoke Signals
1998
Directed by Chris Eyre
Starring Adam Beach, Evan Adams, and Irene Bedard
When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold’s remains, but only if Thomas will also go with him. Thomas and Victor hit the road.*

Flags of Our Fathers
2006
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring Ryan Phillippe, Barry Pepper, Adam Beach, and Joseph Cross
The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in WWII.*

The Last of the Mohicans
1992
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, and Russell Means
Three trappers protect a British Colonel’s daughters in the midst of the French and Indian War.*

*Movie information from IMDb.com.

————————————————————————————
Kristyna Carroll
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

Resolved to organize your research this year?  Try these tools!

Personal Accounts

Find yourself consistently performing searches in EBSCO or CSA?  Take a moment to set up a personal log-in.  This feature allows you to store records in organized folders, save searches, share your work, and set up alerts.

CSA

EBSCO

Search Alerts

Set up search alerts in your favorite databases to automatically receive new articles on your research interests.  Alerts can be set for particular journals, specific search strings, or more general topics.  The alerts can be received on a daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis and received within the database or via email or RSS feeds.  If you would like assistance with setting up alerts, please email Kristyna.

Citation Managers

Citation managers such as Refworks and Endnote are useful tools for collecting, storing, and organizing article and book citations.  You can also use these tools to generate your bibliography in APA style, and to automatically format your in-text citations.

Refworks is a web-based tool that is generally simpler to use than Endnote.  I highly recommend it for students working on research products.  The RefShare feature allows for some collaboration among students.  Graduating students are encouraged to back-up their work as they will not have access to Refworks after graduation.

Endnote software is installed on your computer and is more advanced than Refworks.  Faculty tend to prefer Endnote, and I would recommend it for students considering continuing studies after graduation, as the software and your citation library are housed on your computer, giving you permanent access.

RSS Readers

An RSS reader will aggregate all of your favorite RSS feeds into a single site or email alert.  The site or alert will showcase the headlines from your favorite blogs or websites.  Any site that provides an RSS feed can be entered into your reader.

For Google users, try Google Reader.  Other popular sites are outlined on the Top RSS Readers post from Why RSS?: The Really Simple Guide to RSS.

iPhone users may be interested in the 5 Best RSS Feed Reader Apps from CallingAllGeeks.

Collaboration Tools

Collaborating online can be difficult.  Find a tool to make it easier:

MyNetResearch
This tool allows you to connect with other researchers in the style of a social networking site, but with targets for specific disciplines and topic areas.  The second aspect is a toolbox for online collaboration on research projects.  Perhaps the most useful feature allows group members to check out a document, preventing duplicate effort on the same draft.

DimDim
This web-based product allows you to share your screen after a small download and installation.  Others can access your screen cast without downloading anything.  The free version also features live chat and recording options.

Jing
The free version of Jing allows you to record video screen casts with audio up to 5 minutes in length.  Videos can be shared from a web-based library.

__________________________________________
Kristyna Carroll
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

Wondering what communication scholars are thinking of during the Christmas season?  Here is a selection of articles found through searches of Communication & Mass Media Complete, Communication Abstracts, and Film & Television Index.

Campbell, W.J. (2005).  The grudging emergence of American journalism’s classic editorial: new details about “Is There a Santa Claus?”.  American Journalism, 22(2), 41-61.

Clarke, P. (2007).  A measure for Christmas Spirit.  Journal of Consumer Marketing, 24(1), 8-17.

Kimura, J. & Belk, R. W. (2005).  Christmas in Japan: globalization verus localization.  Consumption, Markets & Culture, 8(3), 325-338.

Krider, R.E. & Weinberg, C.B. (1998).  Competitive dynamics and the introduction of new products: the motion picutre timing game.  Journal of Marketing Research, 35(1), 1-15.

Nathanson, P. (1993).  You can’t go home again…or can you? Reflections on the symbolism of TV families at Christmastime.  Journal of Popular Culture, 27(2), 149-161.

O’Cass, A. & Clarke, P. (2002).  Dear Santa, do you have my brand? A study of the brand requests, awareness and request styles at Christmas time.  Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2(1), 37-53.

Pawlowski, D.R., Thilborger, C. & Cieloha-Meekins, J. (2001).  Prisons, old cars, and Christmas trees: a metaphoric analysis of familial communication.  Communication Studies, 52(3), 180-197.

Ray, G., Maguire, K. & Poulsen, S. (2007).  Constructing and performing family identity: an analysis of American holiday letters.  Conference Papers — International Communication Association, 1.

Turner, L.J. (2005).  Elmo’s story: a ticklish media creation.  Public Relations Review, 31(2), 297-299.

Tuten, T.L. & Kiecker, P. (2009).  The perfect gift card: an exploration of teenagers’ gift card associations.  Psychology & Marketing, 26(1), 67-90.

Image retrieved from AdViews, a digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials and advertisements dating from the 1950s to the 1980s from Duke University Libraries Digital Collections.

_________________________________________________

Kristyna Carroll
Research Support Librarian
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

Finished your final papers but not your bibliographies?  Not sure how to cite a website or a book chapter?  The library can help!

Tools like Refworks are great for storing articles and other resources in a single, organized space, and they’ll even create a bibliography for you!  If you have been exporting articles to Refworks, then automatically creating a bibliography is easy.  Take a look at their great tutorials for help, or contact a librarian.

Although having a computer program write your bibliography may seem magical, it’s far from perfect — be sure to double-check for errors like improper capitalization, typos, or extra periods!

Writing that Works Cited page by hand?  Answer those nagging questions about which words to italicize with these handy resources:

Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association – The official word on APA style.  Paper copies are available for use in the library.

Research & Documentation Online – Check out examples of the APA List of References.

Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) APA – An easy-to-understand guide to writing and citing in APA style.

Still need a hand?  Want someone to check your work?  Ask a librarian!  Don’t forget, good citations are are an important aspect of Academic Integrity.

___________________________________________________

Attention RefWorks users!  You can share your references with others directly from the RefWorks program.

Under the Tools Menu, select Share References.  You will see a list of your folders.  Click Share Folder to choose a particular folder for sharing.  Set your preferences and use the Email URL button to share your references with others.  Great for group projects!

__________________________________________________________

Kristyna Carroll
Research Support Librarian
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391

Get to the deeper meaning of your favorite movies and television shows!

Ever wonder why Batman never kills the Joker?  Wondering about the philosophical interpretation of all that awkwardness on The Office?  Take a book from the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series home over Thanksgiving Break!

Batman and philosophy: the dark knight of the soul
Edited by Mark D. White and Robert Arp

Chapters include:
“Why doesn’t Batman kill the Joker?”
“Should Bruce Wayne have become Batman?”
“Alfred, the Dark Knight of faith: Batman and Kierkegaard”
“Why Batman is better than Superman”
–

The Office and philosophy: scenes from the unexamined life
Edited by Jeremy Wisnewski

Chapters include:
“Can Michael ever learn? empathy and the self-other gap (US)”
“The virtues of humor : what The office can teach us about Aristotle’s ethics (UK)”
“Humiliation in The office (and at home) (US)”
“The hostile office : Michael as a sexual harasser (US)”

Other titles include:

• The Daily show and philosophy : moments of zen in the art of fake news
• House and philosophy : everybody lies
• Ultimate Lost and philosophy
  
• Iron Man and philosophy: facing the Stark reality
• Twilight and philosophy : vampires, vegetarians, and the pursuit of immortality
• Watchmen and philosophy : a Rorschach test

________________________________________

Kristyna Carroll
Research Support Librarian
kristyna.carroll@gmail.com
610-519-5391

Did you guess that the meanings of these slang terms from The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English had a Veterans’ Day theme?  Here are the definitions:

• Blisterfoot: noun an infantry soldier.
• Eggbeater: noun a single-rotor helicopter.  Coined well before the war in Korea, but used extensively by US forces in Korea.
• Moonbeam: noun a flashlight.
• One of the original twelve: noun an extremely high-ranking officer.  Us naval aviator usage.
• Red-legs : noun the artillery.  From the red stripes on the trousers of Union artillerymen during the US Civil War.

______________________________________________

Kristyna Carroll
Research Support Librarian
kristyna.carroll@villanova.edu
610-519-5391