By Nicole Daly 

Falvey library now has access to the Compendium of Scales and Measures in Communication (COSMIC) which is a part of our CIOS resource package. COSMIC is the communication and journalism fields’ database for scales and measures. It is a unique new repository for the field that will be of value for anyone designing research projects, conducting literature reviews, or teaching research methods, or about the progress of theory and research in the field. 

This resource contains entries for scales, measures, and observational systems, with a focus on the scales and measures published literature from the fields of communication and journalism. COSMIC offers multiple search options allowing users to browse the collection using free-text search, instrument title, subject areas, or using cataloging terms from any of the three coding dictionaries applied to each record.

This database currently holds over 800 scales and measures and is updated frequently to add more resources. For more information on this resource go to https://www.cios.org/www/cosmicabout.htm 

Falvey Library recently added CIOS’ Compendium of Scales and Measures in Communication (COSMIC) to Databases A to Z. 

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

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library. 

By Alfred Fry

Above image from https://www.jabref.org/

JabRef is free, open-source citation management software for people who use LaTex instead of MSWord. LaTex is free, open-source software for typesetting documents in markup language primarily used by people who need to format mathematical formulas. So, LaTex users are probably in mathematics, statistics, or engineering. JabRef will create the citation in the LaTex document, according to the customized JabRef protocols.

Like Zotero and Mendeley, JabRef has a desktop version and a browser plugin. JabRef also allows you to search databases from within JabRef. Of particular interest to Falvey Library users are the ability to search Springer, MathSciNet, and arXiv, among others.

For more information use the links below:

• Download JabRef: https://www.fosshub.com/JabRef.html Install the browser plugin: https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension
• Install the browser plugin: https://docs.jabref.org/collect/jabref-browser-extension
• A fairly recent introduction to JabRef can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11qMBE_PSBw

Alfred Fry is Science and Engineering Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

By Merrill Stein

Empire (Adam Matthew Digital) is a collection of full-text primary documents spanning five centuries, from 1492 to 1962, structured in five thematic sections: Cultural Contacts; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire, Religion and Empire and Race; and Class, Colonialism, Imperialism.

Included are manuscripts, along with printed and visual source materials for the study of ‘Empire’ and its theories, practices and consequences. Material is accompanied by scholarly essays, chronology links shared with a unique Global Commodities collection, brief biographies, external links, interactive maps, and some secondary source documents up to 2007.

Empire (Adam Matthew Digital) is part of a collection of over sixty Adam Matthew Digital projects. look for these other collections on the Falvey Library list of databases or at AM Explorer (Adam Matthew Digital).

Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

Are you interested in sports medicine? Athletics marketing and advertising? Sports psychology? The sociology of sport? Sports studies is an interdisciplinary field and it can be hard to know where to search for information. Falvey Memorial Library has a solution for you!

We have arranged for campus-wide trial access to SPORTDiscus with Full Text, an online database for articles and other materials on all aspects of the study of sport.

SPORTDiscus provides access to the scholarly and popular literature of sport, including medical, social, biomechanical, business and management, public health, and psychological aspects of the topic. It offers indexing and full text of scholarly journals, magazines, books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and more. Coverage is international and goes back to 1800.

Full text journals covered include everything from NCAA News, Soccer & Society, and the Journal of Sport History, to Kinesiology Review, the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sports, and the Entertainment & Sports Law Journal.

“Sport studies is a very interdisciplinary area, and until now Villanova hasn’t had a library resource that could help a researcher get access to all facets of the topic at once. SPORTDiscus with Full Text is the premier resource for the study of sport,” says Susan Turkel, Social Sciences Librarian.

To access, click here: SPORTDiscus with Full Text  or navigate to the database from the library’s Databases A-Z listing.

Villanova has trial access to this resource through November 30, 2019. Please contact Susan Turkel (susan.turkel@villanova.edu) or another subject librarian if you’d like to recommend this database for purchase by the library.

Scholars interested in the early modern period (1450-1850) will appreciate the Encyclopedia of Early Modern History for its interdisciplinary approach, its focus on global connections, and its unique central European viewpoints and voices. Translating the Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit into English for a wider audience was a worthwhile, but difficult project that is still in progress. The Library offers trial access to the partial translation of the Enzyklopädie. At this time entries up until “La” have been published by Brill and can be consulted in English. Articles not yet translated are already cross referenced and will be published shortly.

Although much of the scholarship referenced in this publication is in languages other than English, there are nevertheless a fair amount of English language sources cited. Indeed, one of the strengths of the Encyclopedia is the network of international scholarship it presents.

Most articles are concise and to the point. They are cross referenced with a core of in-depth key articles that deal with overarching concepts such as knowledge, culture, nationalism, race, colonialism, the environment, the Atlantic world, and the everyday world to name just a few of the over one hundred key articles. While most article titles are translated into English, in some cases editors decided to retain German terminology for the sake of clarity (e.g., Bildungsbürgertum and Frauenzimmer).

“The Castle of Batavia” by Andries Beeckman 108 x 151.5 cm, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1901318

Trial access is available until November 8. Contact Jutta Seibert to recommend this resource for the permanent collection.

On Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m., in Falvey’s Speakers’ Corner, join a faculty panel for conversation and questions about the upcoming decennial census on April 1, 2020. Discussion will aim to provide context and insight into the history of the Census, its use in research and policy-making, and issues particular to the 2020 Census. Faculty panelists include Camille Burge, PhD, Political Science; Judith Giesberg, PhD, History; Rory Kramer, PhD, Sociology and Criminology; and Stephen Strader, PhD, Geography and the Environment. This ACS approved event, sponsored by Falvey Memorial Library with support from librarians Deborah Bishov and Merrill Stein, is free and open to the public.

Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the populations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Mandated by the Constitution, the results determine the number of seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives and provide helpful data for public service/administration members and local communities.

Traditionally, Census respondents completed a short questionnaire by phone or mail. This year, individuals will be able to complete the questionnaire online or through their mobile device. For additional information and ways in which you can get involved, visit the United States Census Bureau website.

Dig deeper: Check out the links below to learn more about the Census. Resources courtesy of Librarian Merrill Stein.

• Census Bureau Library
• Explore Census Data
• U.S. Census Data and Statistics
• Standard Hierarchy of Census Geographic Entities
• US Census Bureau Geographic Entities and Concept
• What Census Calls Us: A Historical Timeline (Pew Research Center)
• Census in SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development
• History of the Census in Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia
• Encyclopedia of the U.S. census: from the constitution to the American community survey
• Census 2020: examining the readiness of key aspects of the Census Bureau’s 2020 census preparation: hearing before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, second session, June 9, 2016
• Social Explorer (Falvey Library database)
• Data-Planet (Sage) (Falvey Library database)
• ESRI Tapestry Segmentation. Explore Your Neighborhood
• AncestryLibrary (ProQuest) (Falvey Library database)
• Census Bureau Genealogy
• National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) – The IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides free online access to summary statistics and GIS boundary files for U.S. censuses and other nationwide surveys from 1790 through the present. (Using NHGIS: An Introduction)
• Longitudinal Tract Database
  

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  Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library. 

Photo by Jan Mellström on Unsplash.

Are you looking for a Villanova thesis or dissertation? You’ve come to the right place! Falvey Memorial Library has been collecting masters theses and doctoral dissertations written by Villanova students since 1920!

However, they’re not always so easy to find…

• Some dissertations and theses are held in print on library shelves, although they’re housed in a locked area and must be retrieved by Access Services staff.
• Others are online, some of which are in the Villanova Digital Library and others of which are accessible via ProQuest.
• A portion of the print copies housed in Falvey are represented in the online library catalog, while others are not.
• We also hold undergraduate honors theses from the most recent 20 years, and a small number of other undergraduate theses, in our online collections.

It’s confusing.

To facilitate access to these Villanova-authored materials, we have created a quick guide to finding dissertations and theses at Falvey Memorial Library, organized by school/college and by year of publication. You can access the guide here (https://library.villanova.edu/research/self-help/general-tutorials/finding-villanova-theses-and-dissertations). Follow the steps described, and you’ll be blissfully reading that thesis in no time.

If you need more help finding dissertations or theses, please contact your friendly librarian. We are always happy to help!

Susan Turkel, MA, MLS, is the Social Sciences Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

The Library’s search bar enables patrons to search and browse Falvey Memorial Library’s collection of books, journals, audio/video materials, electronic resources…almost anything. Input a term (in this case, Augustine) and the search results provide, from left to right,

• a list of relevant books and media; articles from academic publications;
• the related subject librarian;
• library website results, including entries from the blog; and
• items available by request from other libraries.

This is useful for kicking off research for a class paper, almost asking “What resources and information are available?” It’s essential for finding the articles and librarian that can take your initial idea and shape it into a strong thesis. It’s ideal for double-checking your sources when you have that late night anxious worry that maybe, just maybe there was another article that would help put the finishing touches on your work.

In short, it’s the beginning of your success story at Villanova. What term will you type in to begin yours?

Shawn Proctor, MFA, is communications and marketing program manager at Falvey Memorial Library.