Notable E-Book: International Encyclopedia of Communication

Sawyer Library has recently added and electronic version of an impressive new encyclopedia called the International Encyclopedia of Communication.

Jointly published by Wiley-Blackwell and the International Communication Association (ICA), it represents, according to the publisher, "the definitive reference work in this interdisciplinary and dynamic field." This electronic resource is the equivalent of a 12-volume set containing 1,339 newly-commissioned A-Z entries, divided into 29 editorial areas representing major fields of inquiry, each of which is headed by a leading expert in their respective field. Spanning the breadth of communication studies, entries cover major theories, media and communication phenomena, research methods, problems, concepts, and geographical areas. Entries range from extended explorations of major topics to short descriptions of key concepts.

The International Encyclopedia of Communication was written and edited by an international team of well-respected scholars and teachers, representing the international character of the ICA. Editorial areas include: communication theory and philosophy, interpersonal communication, journalism, intercultural and intergroup communication, media effects, strategic communication/PR, communication and media law and policy, media systems in the world, and communication and technology.

There are multiple ways to use the online version. You may click on the "Explore" option in the upper border to see various subjects, places, periods, people or key topics to browse through. Or you can simply use the search box in the upper right.

If, for example, I search for the term dissonance, I get forty results (listed to the right), ranked for relevance. These start with "Cognitive Dissonance Theory," which is followed shortly thereafter by an entry on "Leon Festinger." Or I can explore other related subjects, topics, and so forth, from the offered options in the colorful left frame.

The ICA hopes that "this unique and inclusive work will strengthen the identity of the growing field of communication studies, support its institutions, and most of all, improve the study of communication problems and phenomena worldwide." And we here at Sawyer Library hope that the Suffolk community finds this a useful online reference source.

[FIND the International Encyclopedia of Communication by searching the title in our Online Catalog or through the link in Databases by Subject, E-Books category.]

Recurring Reference Questions: What is a Journal's Impact Factor, and How Can I Find It?

An Impact Factor (IF) provides a quantitative assessment of a journal's influence or impact. Thomson Scientific (now Thomson Reuters Scientific) offers the Impact Factor via Journal Citation Reports (JCR). According to Thomson Reuters, the Journal Impact Factor is the frequency with which the “average article” in a journal has been cited in a particular year. A journal’s Impact Factor is determined by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the two previous years. A Journal Impact Factor of 4.0 means that, on average, the articles published in that journal within the past three years have been cited four times. There must be at least two years of data in order to calculate the Impact Factor.

Using Impact Factors (IF) Wisely:


As Thomson Reuters indicates on their Information About page, one should not depend entirely on JCR data to evaluate a journal because:

IF only includes journals indexed by Thomson Reuters Scientific (ISI).

IF does not evaluate individual researchers.

Journals can only be compared within the same discipline. Citation results vary widely across disciplines.

The number of articles found in journals include both research and review articles. "Citation counts in JCR do not distinguish between citations to letters, reviews, or original research articles, even though only original research and review articles are used in IF calculations."

Title changes or changes in format of a journal affects the IF.

Some Additional Methods for Constructing Impact Factors:

Google Scholar - From the Advanced Search screen, enter author and title information to obtain cited references. Publish or Perish may be used to track an author's impact using Google Scholar.

eigenfactor.org - Ranking and Mapping Scientific Journals

Journal Ranking - Center for Journal Ranking (CJR)

To Find Journal Citation Reports:

Go to the Mildred F. Sawyer's home page, and select "Databases by Subject." Choose "Business and Management" or "Social Sciences" and click on Journal Citation Reports in the list.


To Utilyze JCR:

From the opening screen, select an option.

View journals by Subject, Publisher, Country/Territory. The default option is subject categorySearch for a specific journal.

Search for a specific title.

View all journals in the JCR edition and year you selected. (The Sawyer Library has the Social Sciences edition from 1998 forward).

For example, if searching by Subject Category, select the subject from the second screen, and choose data sorted by journal title, total cites, impact factor, or other options provided from the drop-down menu. Use the Information for New Users button for more detailed information and instructions.

[FIND Journal Citation Reports in our "Databases by Subject" Lists for Business and Management and for Social Sciences]

Notable Ebook - Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture

We are happy to offer a new edition of a valuable 6 volume encyclopedia, via our easy-to-use electronic reference platform, Gale Virtual Reference Library. The set is the Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (2008). This new edition adds nearly 600 entirely new topics over the award-winning first edition of 1996. It also replaces some 150 obsolete entries and provides substantial revisions to hundreds more. According to the publisher, Scribner's/Gale, Every one of the 5,700+ entries "has been reviewed for currency of content and bibliography. An entirely new illustration program features over 100 full-color photographs in addition to hundreds in black-and-white. National statistics have been conveniently tabulated for every one of Latin America's 37 countries. New content addresses research on prehistoric environments and cultures, U.S. Haitian interventions, the consequences of NAFTA and increased Mexican immigration, the troubled aftermaths of Pinochet's Chile and Fujimori's Peru, truth and reconciliation commissions, and the still-contested legacy of the Mexico City massacre of 1968. New leaders like Brazil's Lula da Silva and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez are profiled along with hundreds of other rising figures in politics, letters, and the arts. Newly commissioned master essays synthesize current knowledge on such major regional themes as Democracy in the Americas, Hemispheric Affairs, and the Hispanic Impact on the U.S."

Because the resource is cultural, too, you will find entries on film and festivals (like Carnival), and author profile entries (like the one on Jamaica Kincaid), in addition to the many on more social science and history-related topics like indigenous peoples, public health, and U.S. policies towards Latin America, like the "Big Stick Policy."

If you go directly to the page for the Encyclopedia, simply look for the yellow search box to the left of the page and enter the topic you are hoping to find. Then click the box below to search specifically "within this publication." And because the search delves into fulltext, if I search "samba," I get not only entries on Samba, and Samba Schools, but also related articles on Popular Music and Dance and on great Samba artists like Sinhô and Clara Nunes.

And remember, if I don't click that "within this publication" box on the opening screen, GVRL will actually check all of its other collections for my topic. In the case of "Samba," I get a variety of entries, including several from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, as well.

We hope you find this new encyclopedia useful. And the great thing about eReference is that it is not only easy to search, but also available 24/7 to any current Suffolk student or faculty with an internet connection.

[FIND the Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture by searching the title in our Online Catalog, or through the Gale Virtual Reference Library link in Databases by Subject, E-Books category.]

New Database: Cambridge Histories Online

Up in the stacks of Sawyer Library, we have many valuable (and heavy!) volumes in the history series published by the Cambridge University Press. Sadly, the scholarly content of these books hasn't gotten as much use as it deserves. But we hope that will now change with the purchase of an impressive, cross-searchable archive of all of the Cambridge History volumes published since 1960.

Cambridge Histories Online (CHO) self-describes as a "unique historical reference compendium" that "allows instant access to the renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series. With access to the most up to date and authoritative scholarly content, Cambridge Histories Online is an invaluable resource, for undergraduates, graduates, lecturers and researchers alike.

All the available volumes are grouped into topics, making it quick and easy to search and browse through an array of historical subject areas. The extensive bibliographic referencing and other leading functionality, enhances usability and makes this resource ideal for any type of historical research."

CHO currently contains over 250 volumes published since 1960, equating to around 196,000 pages of historical scholarship covering not just world history, but also histories of cultural fields like music and theatre, and even science. Over 15 different academic subjects are covered by the archive. And more electronic volumes will be added each year.

Users can search and browse content (basic & advanced search and a content specific browse), and the database provides options for personalization including saved & most recent searches, workspaces, bookmarks and citation export functionality.

We hope that the increased ease of access and searching will make these useful historical series a more attractive research option for students and faculty alike.

[FIND Cambridge Histories Online on our "Databases by Subject" lists for Social Sciences, Literature, Arts and Humanities, and the Sciences].

RefWorks

RefWorks is a database provided by the Mildred F. Sawyer Library which allows the user to collect and organize references and access them from any Internet-connected computer. References or citations may be organized into folders according to topics, and they may be utilized to create a bibliography using MLA, APA, or other style format. RefWorks offers FAQs, Tutorial Basics, and a Quick Start Guide, in order to assist the new user in the most efficient use of its content.

Setting Up a RefWorks Account:

You must be on campus to sign up for a RefWorks account. Go to "Databases by Subject" from the Mildred F. Sawyer Library home page, and choose any of the first five broad subjects. RefWorks is listed under each subject. Click on "Sign up for an Individual Account." Follow the instructions for creating an individual account. You may choose your own username and password. After you have followed the sign-up procedure, you will receive a confirmation email which will include the Suffolk University Subscriber Group Code. You may need to use this code to access your RefWorks account from off campus.

Exporting Database Search Citations Directly into RefWorks:


After conducting a search and selecting citations, some databases allow the user to directly export these results into RefWorks. For example, if you are using the Academic OneFile database, you can export selected references (citations) directly into your RefWorks account, after saving them to a folder. Go to "Tools" and select "citation tools," choose the format (APA, MLA, etc.), and directly import the citation into your RefWorks account.

Many databases, such as Business Source Complete, JSTOR, Project Muse, PsycINFO, CQ Researcher, LexisNexis Academic, and others, allow the direct export of citations into RefWorks. Most require that selected citations be saved to the database folder first. For further information concerning direct export databases, see RefWorks Direct Export Partners.

Some Databases Require an Import Filter:

For those databases which are not direct export partners, RefWorks offers import filters for importing database search results into RefWorks. For the most comprehensive listing and instructions for use of imports, sign on to your account, select the Help tab, and choose "Getting References into Your Account." Instructions are detailed and quite helpful. In many cases, after completing a search, save the results as a text file. Choose the appropriate filter for the database that was used, and import the file.


Write-N-Cite:




Write-N-Cite is a utility that formats in-text citations and bibliographies. The Write-N-Cite plug-in inserts tags for your citation into your document as you type. Once you have saved and named the document, you need only choose your ciation style and click Create. The formating is completed quickly. To use Write-N-Cite you must first download the Write-N-Cite utility from the Tools pull-down menu. This plug-in is compatable with both Windows and Macintosh applications.

RefWorks is an extremely useful database for student and faculty research. Take advantage of the tutorials and guides mentioned earlier, and expect a bit of a learning curve when first using RefWorks. Check out our new RefWorks Resource Guide.




[FIND RefWorks in our "Databases by Subject" List within any of the first five categories].

Database Alert: IE 7 Causes Scary Warnings and Blocked Connections

Library database access is a fairly sophisticated process involving several systems and applications working in harmony together. Unfortunately, some harmony is hard to achieve--especially with the constant changes with both databases and browsers. We have discovered some issues with database access related to Internet Explorer 7, the latest upgrade to the most popular web browser.

The problem appears related to IE7 balking when a library user tries to access a database through the proxy server--and all of our database run through the proxy. (The proxy server is the library tool that allows you to be authenticated as a Suffolk user and then allows you to be referred into the database, off- or on-campus.)

Since the "security certificate" of the database belongs to the database company, it doesn't include the parts of the URL (or web address/link) that sends the connection through the proxy. Therefore, IE7 throws up a "Danger, Will Robinson!" message that can either frighten the library user, or in some cases, actually interfere with your access to the database.

Right now, we know that this happens when JSTOR users try to access their MyJSTOR accounts. (In this case, you just get a scary warning.) It also happens in Country Commerce, where the warning screen actually interferes with your successful login to the database.

Here is the problem and how to solve it:

If I try to access Country Commerce using the standard installation version of Internet Explorer 7, I first get this scary screen, when it tries to connect:

IE7 thinks it is doing you a favor by telling you not to attempt to connect to the next page. If you click the Continue to this website (not recommended) option, in Country Commerce, the referral will fail and you will not get into the database. Instead, you'll reach the site, but it will demand that you "login." As in this screenshot:


Since we do not use database manual logins, you would not be able to access the database.

What you need to do, to not face this issue, is to tell IE7 that it doesn't need to worry about website security certificates and whether they seem to match.

To adjust this setting. Look at the top menu settings on your Internet Explorer 7 browser. Choose the Tools option

Then click on the bottom Internet Options

Click on the far right Advanced tab. And then scroll to the bottom

UNclick (remove the check mark) in the box that reads "Warn about certificate address mismatch."

Then click the Apply button at the bottom, and then the OK button at the bottom.

See, too, the starred note at this option. It indicates that this change will not go into effect until you restart (close and re-open) your IE7 browser.

This adjustment should allow you to turn off the scary warnings in some databases and avoid the interference that occurs in others.

We are in contact with our database vendors about this issue, but this is a work-around that will alleviate the problem, for now.

New Database: PsychiatryOnline

Sawyer Library has just added another specialized database--one that will be especially useful to psychology researchers. It is PsychiatryOnline, and it is a product of American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. (APPI).

The APPI self-describes their aggregate as "a powerful web-based portal that features DSM-IV-TR®—the most widely used psychiatric reference in the world—and The American Journal of Psychiatry as the cornerstones of an unsurpassed collection of psychiatric references from American Psychiatric Publishing."

A key selling point is the easy access to the key diagnostic reference set, the DSM® Library. Titles including DSM-IV-TR, DSM-IV-TR Handbook of Differential Diagnosis, and DSM-IV-TR Casebook and its Treatment Companion.

The database also includes several valuable journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. Five peer-reviewed psychiatry journals are in the set, with ten years of backfile. (Be advised that some "deep" backfile issues are not available as part of this database.)

Respected "textbooks" (of the reference variety) are also available on the platform. These include The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry, Gabbard’s Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders and Essentials of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

PsychiatryOnline does not work that well as a searchable database. Instead of allowing a simple keyword or boolean word combination search the way most databases do, it wants your research to match PsychiatryOnline's own controlled vocabulary, or "index entries." This can be inconvenient, but does work. When you click on a subject term, it will default to giving you book content. But in the grey frame to the left, you will see a link to Journal Results.

This is often a large number of results, since the subject terms are broad. You can limit the term to the title or title and abstract of articles using radio buttons below. Or you can limit to specific APPI journals, or limit for date (perhaps only articles published in the last two years).

They describe their quirky search engine at this link.

The good news is that PsychiatryOnline is less about having a searchable database than it is having reliable electronic access--24/7 for anyone with a valid, current Suffolk ID--to several key psychiatry resources. We hope that you find this content useful.

[FIND The PsychiatryOnline on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Social Sciences" category.]

Online Catalog vs. E-book Collections

Database Use Tip: Multiple options when searching for books: The Online Catalog vs. Collections of Electronic Books (with special attention to Ebrary).

Suffolk University's Library Catalog is the key to the print circulating and reference collections for the Mildred F. Sawyer Library (including the Madrid and Dakar campuses), the Moakley Law Library, and the NESADSU Library.

The general circulating collection of the Sawyer Library includes more than 100,000 print volumes shelved in the stacks on the 4th floor. The Catalog - which is THE tool to identify and locate these items - is accessible from the Sawyer Library homepage and from the Sawyer Library computer workstations by a shortcut labeled "OPAC" (Online Public Access Catalog).

The catalog also provides access to the Sawyer Library's collections of electronic books, or E-books, which together comprise more than 50,000 titles. The Catalog is the only tool that will simultaneously search the print titles and all the E-book collections. E-books may be searched through the Catalog in the same way as print materials (title, author, subject heading, keyword combination), and most keyword searches will bring a set of results that is a mix of print and E-book sources. However, unlike print items which are physically present in the library, the content of E-books is accessed through a link on the catalog record. All of the titles in all of the various E-book collections that the Sawyer Library subscribes to may be accessed through the Library's Catalog. Catalog users may also limit their results to either print materials or E-book materials by choosing "Modify Search" once the initial search results are returned. In rare occasions the Sawyer Library may own a title both in print and in electronic format, however this is the exception, and not the rule.

Users may directly access and search the individual E-book collections from the Sawyer Library homepage by choosing Databases by Subject, and then E-books. Each of the collections will behave somewhat differently, but all of them will let the user search for a term anywhere in the content of the book.

The feature of being able to search anywhere in the content of a book is the primary distinction between the Library Catalog and the various E-book collections. A keyword search in the Catalog will look for the search term in the title, subject headings, author names, and in some instances the book's table of contents. The Catalog does not search the text of the books. Each E-book collection has the ablility to search the full text of its entire book collection. In the case of Ebrary, users must go to the advanced search to specify that the term appear either in the book's title, subject headings, or author's name.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

The Catalog will search accross all book collections that the Suffolk Libraries own or have access to, but search of the full text of the items is not possible. The E-book collections allow a search of the full text, but each collection must be searched individually, and even though results are ranked by relevancy, the term may only be mentioned one or two times in the entire book.

Example:

A keyword search for "klezmer" (traditional Yiddish or Jewish folk music from Eastern Europe) in the Catalog yields 3 results: One promising title, "American Klezmer its Roots and Offshoots" (which happens to be an Ebrary book), and two false hits where the Author's surname is Klezmer.

A simple search in Ebrary (one of the larger E-book collections), for "klezmer" yields 104 results. The first three titles ("American Klezmer : Its Roots and Offshoots," "Anglish Yinglish: Yiddish in American Life & Literature," and "Performing Ethnomusicology : Teaching and Representation in World Music Ensembles") provide a good amount of information on klezmer, but many of the remaining 101 titles only mention the term briefly.

Notes on Ebrary:

On Campus, users will have immediate access to Ebrary and all other Ebook collections (either from a link in the Catalog to a specific book, or from the list of databases) without any ID verification. Off campus, users will be prompted for their name and their Suffolk University ID number. Within Ebrary, users have the option to "Sign In" and create an account. Signing in allows the use of Ebrary features such as creating a personal bookshelf, highlighting text, and adding one's own notes. It is not necessary to sign in to view Ebrary books, even though there will be a button on the screen stating "not signed in." The Ebrary "Help" feature steps through the brief process of signing in and creating a bookshelf, and the privacy statement (available at the point of creating an account) explains Ebrary's policies regarding the information they collect from users.

New Database: Philosopher's Index

Sawyer Library is happy to add Philosopher's Index to our array of available databases to serve the research needs of the Suffolk community. It is produced by the Philosophers Information Center and is the most current and comprehensive bibliographic database covering scholarly research in all major fields of philosophy.

Entries include author-written abstracts and the database content covers all areas of scholarly research published in journals and books, including contributions to anthologies and book reviews. It includes materials published since 1940 within the fifteen fields of philosophy: aesthetics, axiology, philosophy of education, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of history, philosophy of language, logic, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, metaphilosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of science, social philosophy, and the philosophy of religion. The database indexes 570 journals from 43 countries with content representing a variety of languages.

Since it is a "bibliographic database," it provides citations and summaries, but no full-text. But the good news is that we provide this database on the EbscoHost platform (which just made it available to their clients). Therefore, we are able to seamlessly link to all kinds of journal articles that appear in Ebsco databases like Academic Search Complete and Humanities International Complete, as well as to journals we subscribe to or which are available through JSTOR. And you will also spot, below results items, additional links to the online catalog and to our eJournal Locator, which will allow you to locate even more articles that we own in additional electronic, paper, and microform formats.

For example, if I do a quick (and clearly, not very precise) keyword search for Descartes, I get almost 5000 entries. If I choose the "limit your results" option in the right frame, and restrict my results to those with "Linked Full Text," I still get over 200 items to which Ebsco can directly link.

Keep in mind that these are only the items that Ebsco can pull directly from their own files. Many of those other 4800 items would also be available, but I would need to click the "360 Link to Full Text" or "Check Library Catalog" links beneath an interesting results entry to explore these options.

If you are doing research into philosophy or even researching ethical issues related to other fields like stem cell research or corporate responsibility, the Philosopher's Index might provide useful leads for your research.

[FIND The Philosopher's Index on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Literature, Arts and Humanities" category.]

Database Alert: Blackwell Synergy Shutting Down and Merging with Wiley InterScience

Library Users, please be aware that Blackwell Synergy, the home of over 1 million articles from over 850 journals, will cease to exist within the week. However, all is not lost. As of June 30th 2008, all journal content on Blackwell Synergy merges into Wiley InterScience, which is another of our publisher aggregate databases.

Already, access to some components of the Blackwell Synergy product have become unreliable or unavailable. (I can testify to this as the keeper of the library usage statistics!) Officially, it is over the weekend of June 28th and 29th, 2008 that there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while the company "transitions and re-indexes data." Then, after July 1, 2008, Blackwell Synergy will no longer be available online, but the content therein should be available via Wiley InterScience, and any existing Blackwell links are supposed to relay to Wiley.


Still, be warned, the transition--starting now--may not be as smooth as the publisher hopes.

Putting a positive spin on this upheaval, the merger will make some 3 million journal articles in over 1400 journals available on a single site. Blackwell journal content will be searchable on Wiley InterScience, and listed under appropriately enhanced subject categories. Wiley claims that "this is a first step in the development of a next generation online publishing platform, arriving early 2009, which will deliver Wiley-Blackwell journals, online books, reference works, databases, protocols and other electronic resources through one integrated service."

More info and an FAQ are available at http://0-interscience.wiley.com.library.law.suffolk.edu/transition

For those who despair over all the mergers and changes in the world of publishing, journals, and databases, my best advice is to get used to it! Merger mania and rapidly changing delivery platforms are now the norm.

Here at the Sawyer Library, we will do our very best to stay on top of these changes and keep our library users informed about any change that will impact them and their research practices.

New Database: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

We have recently added a new online edition of one of the classic reference texts in the field of economics. This is The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. The first edition, called The Dictionary of Political Economy, was edited by Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave, and published in three volumes, the first of which was printed in 1894. Several revising editions appeared in the more than 100 years since.

The current New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics contains articles by 1,506 contributors, including 25 Nobel Laureates in Economics. It includes 1,872 articles: 1,057 of these are new to the second edition; 550 are edited original articles; 157 are revised articles; 80 are ‘classics’; and 28 are ‘signpost’ articles. For those, like me, who do not want to "do the math," this supposedly means that over 70% of this edition’s articles are either new or heavily revised.

New or expanded areas include: experimental and behavioural economics, game theory, international economics and technological change and growth. Topics are placed in their historical perspective, indicating likely future trends as well as describing the contemporary situation.

With online access, current Suffolk students and faculty will be able to search and browse the content of this important reference work 24/7, from wherever they have an internet connection.

We also purchased the 8 volume print edition, which will please those who prefer the tactile pleasures of the physical book. However, the online edition has another key advantage. It will be regularly updated with new articles, updates to existing articles, and new features and functionality. The first updates are due to go live at the end of August.

That first online update is scheduled to include the following articles: "Patent Pools" by Daniel Quint; "Thin Markets" by Marzena Rostek and Marek Weretka; "Stigma" by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume; "Cross-Country Growth Regressions" also by Durlauf and Blume; and there will also be 20 selected biographies of key economists in that load.

Like the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics does not have the most elegant or attractive interface. Still, it is a functional one, with the ability to search for keyword concepts from the box in the upper right, or browse A-Z alphabetical entries.

If you would like to consult a brief introduction to this online resource, prepared by the publisher, take a look at their Flash Tour.

And while you are exploring the Palgrave, also take a look at our re-configured Databases by Subject/E-Books page, which now includes not only large collections of eBooks, but also a list of multi-volume single-title reference sources worth exploring.

[FIND The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "E-Books" category.]

New Database: ARTstor

We are happy to announce that we have recently added an impressive online archive of art reproductions to our array of databases. The resource, called ARTstor is "a digital library of approximately 700,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes."

When you first click on ARTstor on our database lists, you will then enter the main database by clicking on the GO button in the upper right of the screen. Sometimes, people have issues with the database immediately, when the main database (aka ARTstor Client) does not open properly.

ARTstor does have certain application and hardware requirements. These include:

* A high-speed internet connection (not a dial-up connection);
* Java version 1.3 or later installed on your browser (Mac users accessing ARTstor through Innovative Proxy--which is what Suffolk has--must have Java version 1.5 or later);
* Flash Player version 6.0 or later installed;
* Pop-up blockers are either disabled or configured to allow pop-up windows from www.artstor.org;
* Cookies are enabled in your browser;
* Monitor resolution is set at 1024 x 768 pixels or higher;
* Screen colors are set to True Color (32 bit) or better.

For more on troubleshooting, look at this Systems Requirements page. And explore the rest of the pages in the Getting Started area of their website. Since ARTstor does have a bit of a learning curve, as well as technical challenges, you might want to take a look at their Online Training modules, or even take a look at their YouTube videos that explain downloading images into PowerPoint as well as registering for your own account.

The latter is an important part of the ARTstor process. If you register for your own account as a Suffolk user, you will be able to store, organize, utilize, and share the images you collect more effectively. Also, with your own account, you can by-pass our standard proxy server access when necessary.

As most Suffolk users know, we run all of our databases through a proxy server that allows current students and faculty to enter their name and ID number, be authenticated, and then access our electronic resources off-campus, as well as on campus. Unfortunately, ARTstor is such a complex platform that it does not work well, in many cases, when used in conjunction with a proxy. Therefore, you are advised to set up your account at a Suffolk IP address--that is, ON campus. And if, after you create your account, you find that the database is painfully slow, freezes up, or otherwise does not work as efficiently as you would want, one option is to go directly to the database through the general URL of http://www.artstor.org/. Once you enter the database and login using your own account, you will be able to use the database, without proxy (or on-campus) access for up to 120 days. And each time you login through our regular database list proxy link, or from a Suffolk IP, that 120 day "grace period" renews itself. For more on this, see this ARTstor page on Remote Access.

To explore the images here, you may browse by classification category, collection, or geographic region, or simply use the search box to look for a particular artist, school, subject matter or other keyword concept.

Remember, that as a registered user, you also have more options in terms of using ARTstor images. And if you make regular use of the images, you will probably want to click Tools in the upper border and download the special OIV, or Offline Image Viewer, that allows you to use ARTstor's highest-quality images, which are 3200 pixels on the long side. (When you simply download images directly from the ARTstor Digital Library for use in documents and non-OIV presentations, the images are still large at 1024 pixels on the long side, but not quite as large as images in the OIV.)

We hope to do more with ARTstor education and support, but will wait for the soon-to-launch new platform, which will introduce additional changes to the database, and will (hopefully) also resolve some of the proxy access issues that currently exist.

As this database develops, we hope Suffolk users will take advantage of this impressive (and not inexpensive!) resource.

And for further assistance with ARTstor, although Reference is happy to try to help, you are better off contacting Jessica Roscio of the Humanities Department, who is the Suffolk ARTstor Administrator for the Art History/Humanities Department (jroscio@suffolk.edu / x8257) .

[FIND ARTstor on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Literature, Arts and Humanities" category.]

Tales From The Front (Desk)--Ruminations on Why the World Still Needs Librarians

"Anyone can do good research....it's called Googling." "Who needs libraries?...Everything is free on the web!"

Librarians (to our dismay) hear statements like that every day. Don't get us wrong, we "Google" frequently ourselves, and we make constant use of materials that we find on the general internet. However, the best information that can be delivered electronically is, alas, not free at all. (Which is why we spend thousands of dollars each year providing the Suffolk community with superior quality journal databases and ebook collections.) Moreover, the issue isn't whether it is possible to find information using a search engine. For almost any search you could devise, you will indeed get hundreds or thousands or even millions of results. The question is, of the countless webpages you pull up, are any of them worth using, citing, or even reading?

One of our key missions is, therefore, to teach Suffolk students how to think critically about the thousands of "hits" they pull up on a Google search. What is the actual quality, veracity and currency of a source; who is the author and what is their level of expertise; what bias is being expressed in the content; and are the "facts" being provided documented and verifiable? (For more on this, take a look at Library Director Bob Dugan's Information Instruction Modules.)

The sheer number and variety of web resources present another danger, however. That is, many people now assume that everything worth knowing or reading or seeing is already available in electronic form--perhaps not in a free format, but at least in a fee-based database. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. Many resources, especially those written before 1990, have never been "digitized." And projects to make more research materials available in web format have floundered recently. Even the mighty Microsoft is rethinking their ambitious web book project.

Librarians sometimes worry that they are perceived as redundant and unnecessary in a web-based and electronic culture. And perhaps that perception is there. Reality is another thing. Everyday, librarians help people explore and evaluate their options using both print and electronic resources. And (more often than you might think) librarians actually do exhaustive detective work to identify and locate needed materials for serious researchers. Here's a story from my personal experience:

Recently, a member of our science faculty requested help in locating an environmental impact study that had been done in the mid-70's in response to a proposed oil refinery in "Down East" Maine. This report included a species inventory he considered essential to his research. He knew the report existed. The authors verified this fact, but claimed not to have copies. The research laboratory for whom it had supposedly been compiled also claimed to have no copy. Our wonderful ILL assistant, Phally, tried to locate a copy in the inter/national combined catalog we have, called WorldCat, but could identify no library in North America (or beyond) that owned the report.

I Googled. I called. No luck. Then I started emailing any library, organization or agency that might have a copy of the report tucked away on a shelf or in a file cabinet. Among those contacted were the Region1 (New England) EPA Library, the National EPA-RTP Library, the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, the Maine Historical Society, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Bowdoin College (where a lead author had taught), the Maine Law and Legislative Library, Maine Audubon Society, the National Resources Council of Maine, the Nature Conservancy (in Maine, and National) and the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. I must have emailed at least 30 individuals, organizations and libraries.

The Maine State Library said that they believed that they had a copy in a specific archival box, but our faculty member told me another researcher had not found it there.

I was starting to wonder if this was a lost cause. Still, even though I had already contacted the University of Maine (Orono and Machias) Libraries several times already, I remembered reading that Senator William S. Cohen had been involved in the decision-making about the refinery. Since his papers were held at the Special Collections Department of the Fogler Library at the University of Maine, I decided to send one more email out to the UMaine Archives.

Like Blanche DuBois, researchers often depend on "the kindness of strangers," and I was lucky enough to find a kindly archivist and librarian at the University of Maine (bless you, Brenda Howitson Steeves!) who took the time to sort through archival boxes in pursuit. And she found it! It didn't have the exact title I had been given, nor was it done for same agency as had been originally indicated. In short, if a librarian had not literally dug for this report and made the intellectual connection between what was asked for and what was in her hand, our happy faculty member would never have seen or read or made important scholarly use of this very rare (and never digitized) research report.

And that is why, dear reader, the world will always need the dedication and detective work that professional librarians bring to the scholarly pursuit of recorded knowledge. Google is great, but it will never replace that.

Notable Ebook - Mountains Beyond Mountains

Kidder, Tracy
Mountains Beyond Mountains [electronic resource]
New York: Random House, c2003.


Mountains Beyond Mountains is a Mildred F. Sawyer Library ebook available to Suffolk University faculty, students, and staff.

Paul Farmer is an expert in infectious diseases, a medical anthropologist, and a physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. His goal is to transform global health care by focusing on the world's poorest and most unhealthy communities. In the 1980s, Farmer helped found a nonprofit organization called Partners in Health, which cooperates with local health care providers in creating clinics in the underserved, rural communities of Haiti, Peru, and Siberia.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy Kidder chronicles Paul Farmer's remarkable story, focusing on his philanthropic medical practice. Farmer founded a hospital and health center, Zanmi Lasante, in Cange, Haiti. About a million peasant farmers rely on Zanmi Lasante for free medical care, and Kidder describes in some detail the individual stories of the patients, the financial issues of the clinic, and Farmer's role in its success. Farmer spends several months a year in Cange, treating patients and improving treatments, including utilizing drugs necessary to treat resistant tuberculosis. The book is both inspiring and engaging and leads the reader to stop and think about the politics of health care and the ethical issues involved.



[Find Mountains Beyond Mountains by searching the title in the online catalog or through the ebrary link in Databases by Subject, Ebook category]

New Database: GreenFILE

With Earth Day fast approaching, it is worth mentioning a new environmental database that we have just added. Called GreenFILE, it was recently created by EbscoHost, one of Sawyer Library's major database vendors. They describe it as a "research database focusing on the relationship between human beings and the environment, with well-researched but accessible information on topics ranging from global warming to recycling to alternate fuel sources and beyond."

EBSCO launched GreenFILE as a symbol of their corporate "commitment to environmental consciousness." Towards that end, the basic database is actually "freely accessible." Those unaffiliated with Suffolk University who might stumble upon this blog entry should know that you can use the database at www.greeninfoonline.com. However, Suffolk users will definitely want to use GreenFILE through our own library link. In this way, you will be able to take advantage of additional full text options through journals we can link to directly, and also additional journals (provided by non-Ebsco aggregates) that Sawyer Library researchers may access through our online catalog or eJournal locator links found at the end of each results entry.

GreenFILE’s initial release included indexing for more than 600 titles, providing approximately 300,000 records, with full text links for more than 4,600 items, even without Sawyer Library's additional linked full text. Comprised of scholarly journals (like Environmental Health Perspectives) as well as general interest titles (like Mother Earth News), GreenFILE even provides access to some government documents and other materials.

Like all Ebsco databases, you can perform a simple (or boolean operator combined) keyword search, or you may limit your search in some way. For example, if I do a search for groundwater contamination, I end up with 740 results. If I limit that set (on the opening screen) by checking the box for "Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals" only, my results drop to 635. And if I limit those items only to those for which GreenFILE can provide full text, my results drop to 47, but include articles from the Journal of Environmental Engineering, Journal of Environmental Science & Health, and Global Change Biology.


If I am simply trying to put together some quick readings, clicking the opening screen box to limit to Full Text is a fine option. However, if I am attempting to do more careful research, I might not wish to limit my results right away. Remember, if you click the "Check Library Catalog" link or the "360 Link to Full Text" link below an interesting entry, you may be able to access more journal content through other Sawyer Library resources.

GreenFILE is brand new and is still a very modest (if well-focused) database. Hopefully, it will develop as time passes. Ebsco President Tim Collins has said that his company is “committed to actively adding content to the database to methodically increase its value over time because we want people to have the best information to use when making decisions about their impact on the environment.”

[FIND GreenFILE on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Sciences" category.]

Notable E-Book: Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society

Sawyer Library added the Sage eReference Collection about a year ago, and we have found it to be a good way to search across many useful encyclopedias and reference handbooks from Sage, a major publisher with great strengths in the social sciences.

Within the constraints of budget, we hope to add a new updating collection of reference works each year. One such update was rolled into the collection recently. This 2007 and 2008 set includes new Sage encyclopedias on everything from Political Communication to Cancer and Society to 21st Century Psychology to Organization Studies.

One of the new encyclopedias is the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. Covering many topics related to corporate responsibility and governance, as well as the deeper philosophical issues related to how business operations impact humanity, this resource is a good starting place for either a quick overview of a known topic, or a means of browsing for topics related to a general concept.

For example, if I search the word sweatshops in the opening page search box

I get three pages of (ranked by relevance) entry hits that include that term. These range from an entry specifically on sweatshops to other related topics like Nike, Business Ethics in Developing Countries, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), and Moral Relativism. We even pull up a historical entry on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Obviously, an academic term paper should not be written completely from encyclopedia entries--found in either online or paper format. But for those interested in getting a basic introduction to a variety of subjects related to business ethics, doing some browsing or searching in this new encyclopedia can be a useful step in the research process.

[FIND the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society by searching the title in our Online Catalog, or through the Sage eReference link in Databases by Subject, E-Books category.]

New Database: Global Market Information Database (GMID)

With the B School's increasing focus on global industry, Sawyer Library recently made a major investment in Euromonitor International’s Global Market Information Database (GMID), a very extensive online information resource providing business intelligence worldwide.


According to the publisher, the database "offers integrated access to internationally comparable statistics, full-text market reports, insightful comment from expert industry and country analysts as well as thousands of sources of further information.

205 countries are researched, with extended coverage of 52.
GMID offers a unique range of international market research

* 4 million+ statistics on industries, countries and consumers
* 15,000 industry, company, country and consumer reports
* Daily articles offering topical reaction to news events
* 25,000 sources of further research information
* Market share and brand share rankings"

Euromonitor has a more-elaborate-than-average authentication process. When you first click on the shortcut, you will need to accept a usage agreement, then, after another relay, you will be transferred into the database. There, you can either do a quick search jump from the green bar in the top border, or explore search options in the left frame.

You may build a search by industries, by country, or by consumer. Below these sorts, there is even a search box that allows you to Search Companies (where you can search by global brand owner [the default] or by national brand owner). And, finally, there are searches of Analysis, which include Company and Country Profiles. To the lower right, there is a list of some of the latest reports. This gives you a sense of how much material is here. Do you want a report on the Supermarkets of Finland? Well, you can find that in GMID.

Often, you will want to step through a "Menu Search" selecting the data you wish to put together. At a certain point, GMID will offer you options in viewing prepared country reports and the like. Explore these.


(Different icons will let you know whether something is Statistics, a Report, or a Source.) Select, filter, and sort your results, and then click Go to move to the next step. When you build your own data set, you can even capture that as an Excel (look for the icons to the upper right of your data chart) to more readily manipulate the data later.


Frankly, GMID is not the most user-friendly database in the world. It is also way too complex to allow for a detailed discussion in a blog entry. I would advise that anyone interested in GMID click on the opening link on the front page that reads "Getting Started: Click Here for a Quick Tour of the Site." You will need a recent version of Adobe Flash Player to take this animated tour, but it is a worthwhile orientation to this resource.

Although most useful for international market research, GMID is certainly useful in putting any brand, company or industry you may be researching into a global perspective. And because general economic and demographic data (often more up-to-date than other web sources) is also available, this resource can even be useful to students and faculty in the social sciences.

[FIND Global Market Information Database (GMID) on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Business and Management" category.]

New Database: In the First Person Plus

Many of the social sciences are very oriented towards the latest journal literature and the research studies contained therein. History is different. In history, there is still a deep appreciation for the good, old-fashioned book (with its abiliity to analyze people and events at length and in depth). In history there is also a profound interest in "primary documents"--that is, not the work of historians looking back, but rather the memoirs, letters, diaries, oral histories, pamphlets and other materials that actually express the experiences of the people who lived through earlier times and events.

To support that need and interest, Sawyer Library has recently added a new database called In The First Person Plus. This resource, from Alexander Street Press, is not so much a database as an index and platform. In fact, the basic "In the First Person"(ITFP) is a free index to primary documents. But index is the key word here. The fact is that, except for a limited number of materials at federally-funded, academic and historical society websites that are open-access, the free "In the First Person" is an exercise in frustration, as it points to materials the general public cannot get to.

Therefore we have added five underlying databases, designed to add fulltext to "In the First Person"....hence the Plus in the title. Those underlying databases (look for the header "Companion Products" in the top banner of ITFP) are:

*North American Women's Letters and Diaries This database covers from colonial times to 1950 and "includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. " Included materials were "chosen using leading bibliographies, supplemented by customer requests and more than 7,000 pages of previously unpublished material."

*The American Civil War: Letters Diaries This file "contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs." The collection also includes biographies, an extensive bibliography of the sources in the database, and material licensed from The Civil War Day-by-Day by E.B. Long.

*British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This segment includes the "experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters....The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. "

*North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This online resource "includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants."

*Black Thought and Culture A great complement to Sawyer Library's Collection of African American Literature, this database "contains 1297 sources with 1100 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material."

Each of the above individual databases can be searched on the own and, frankly, this is probably the best and least confusing way to approach your research here. The larger In the First Person is more likely to send you to other websites. And many of the items identified at these sites are NOT actually available online. So the results can tantalize and thwart the researcher, rather than actually provide all salient documents.

Alas, the PhiloLogic search engine Alexander Street Press uses, is not particularly intuitive. Nor does it seem to take advantage of the value-added materials we subscribe to! If I do a quick search for slave narratives on the opening screen of In the First Person, I am presented with three items, none of which comes from their own databases.

The first, from the excellent "American Memory" project of the Library of Congress, does contain more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slave narratives collected during the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. The second, from the University of North Carolina, also provides some document reproductions. But the third, from Texas A&M, merely lists the narratives in their archival collection.

Yet if I search for slave narrative in Black Thought and Culture alone, I get 92 occurences of that term. Many of these "hits" do lead to useful documents. Unfortunately, even in this database, "slave narratives" is--oddly--not a part of their controlled vocabulary. Still, if I go to the Simple Search screen and click the Term button next to the Subject Headings box, I can, at least, select several subject headings related to slavery and slave life.

Since ITFP and the individual database "Companion Products" do not work that well in conjunction with one another, for best results you should search both ITFP for the general internet links AND one or more of the five fulltext products Alexander Street has put together.

The interface and document linking of In The First Person Plus definitely leaves much to be desired. (There are even some dead links to external sources.) Still, if you are patient, and spend more of your time in the individual databases detailed above, you will find many fascinating and useful "primary documents" of history here.

[FIND In the First Person Plus on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Social Sciences" category.]

New Database: Small Business Resource Center

Sawyer Library buys and leases many useful databases in support of our Business School (which can be explored at our Databases by Subject: Business and Management list). Although many of our general databases from Business Source Complete(BSC) to the Wall Street Journal provide some coverage of entrepreneurial, family, and "small" business, they are certainly weighed towards larger (mostly public) businesses and their practices. Therefore, to further support research related to start-ups and other entrepreneurial ventures, we have just added a new database from Gale/Cengage called Small Business Resource Center (SBRC).

Self-described as "a comprehensive database offering content that covers all major areas of starting and operating a business, including accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, tax and more," SBRC allows you to do keyword searching as you would in any database, but to the right of the basic search box you are also given the chance to explore materials by type of business (e.g., Child Care Services) or see an alphabetical list of the many sample business plans that the database provides, all based on their long-standing Business Plans Handbook series, which we also have in our Gale Virtual Reference Library database.



The database also does a nice job of sorting even keyword search results. For example, if I do a basic search for coffee house,

I am first presented with a sample business plan. But note the other tabs above the results. These will offer me Articles that have that concept in them (some on target, some not), as well as well as Directories entries from Gale's Small Business Handbook that will list everything from trade publications to industry associations to franchise opportunities in the business category of "Gourmet Coffee/Tea House." And the yellow frame to the left offers links to other related subject terms, too.

Many of the magazines and trade journals covered by SBRC can be found in other databases, as well. And Business Source Complete is still, by far and away, our best broad-based business database, so you should always spend some time with BSC (and often several others) when you are doing your research.

Still, the book content and handy organization of SBRC make this a very useful stop for those interested in small businesses and related topics.

[FIND Small Business Resource Center on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Business and Management" category.]

Note to Faculty: Copyright and Electronic Reserves

There have been many changes in publishing, media, and the modes to access them in recent years. The rights of the author and the publisher in this quickly changing environment is sometimes a matter of conflict for the key players--hence the Hollywood writers strike over internet access and downloads. It is also a matter of confusion for universities and faculty trying to establish electronic reserve readings for students.

In the recent past, faculty felt free to capture online texts from library databases or the web, or even scan items (like book chapters) they wanted students to read and email them to students, or put up links to these "digital" copies for students to access, read, and print. This was considered by many one of those "grey areas" of copyright that fell close enough to "fair use" to be safe and acceptable.

Well, that grey area seems to be becoming less grey.

Articles are starting to appear in the media that indicate that some universities are taking the lead in treating online readings the same way they would paper reading packets. See, for example, this recent news item from Publisher's Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6523686.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=110462130

Three universities, following the earlier lead of Cornell, have signed an agreement with the Association of American Publishers that "affirms that digital materials will be governed by the same copyright principals [sic] used for print materials."

Who knows? Even providing PURLs (stable links) to articles in databases that the Library leases may be becoming problematic. Already, journals like the Harvard Business Review add a note to their PDFs in our Business Source Complete database indicating that their articles are “not intended for use as assigned course material." They add that they are "pleased to grant permission to make this work available through “electronic reserves” or other means of digital access or transmission to students enrolled in a course” as long as you contact them for “rates and authorization.”

The librarians of Sawyer Library are not copyright attorneys, so we cannot give you definitive advice about what is proper and what is not. However, we did want to let faculty know that free and easy distribution of the work of others, without obtaining specific permission to do so, may not be the "fair use" they think it is!

Sawyer Library Expands Weekend Hours

Thanks to University funding of additional staff hours, the Mildred F. Sawyer Library is happy to announce that we have expanded our weekend hours. We are opening earlier and closing later on both Saturday and Sunday to allow students to better utilize our library facilities and services. Hours on Saturday will now be 8am to 8pm. And on Sunday our hours will now be 11am to 11pm.

To check on our regular hours and any planned changes, please check this Library hours page.

Since hours can change during holidays, breaks, inter-sessions, and major national holidays, it never hurts to consult this page as you do your research planning. Keep in mind, especially during the coldest and stormiest days of winter, that if the University closes because of inclement weather, the library will close, as well.

Because our hours page is part of a University webpage server which only updates once daily (at best), if there are any weather changes, your best bet is simply to pay attention to notices you receive from the University notification system or information found on the University homepage or closure announcements that can be found on most local TV stations.

With more hours to serve you, we look forward to seeing you at the library this Spring Semester!

New and Improved Content for Legal Researchers in Lexis/Nexis Academic

This past summer Lexis/Nexis Academic gained valuable content in the areas of state regulatory codes and in Shepard's Citations.

Regulations are administrative rules or codes which implement laws. Access to state regulations and registers (updated regulations) had previously not been available through the Lexis/Nexis Academic. They are available now, and the most efficient way to locate a state's regulations is to select the tan-colored 'Sources' tab on the opening search screen.

Choose 'Administrative Materials & Regulations,' and then select 'Regulatory Codes. '

From the drop-down menu, code select the listing which alphabetically includes your state.

For the most current information, check MA- Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) and Massachusetts Register. The user can search by using key terms and connectors and/or by utilizing the 'Document Section' drop-down menu, where a citation to the CMR may be entered.

Lexis/Nexis Academic's Shepard's Citations includes lists of citations indicating every time a decision is cited or affected by a subsequent decision. In previous years, users could utilize Shepard's Citations only with U.S. Supreme Court cases. Now Lexis/Nexis Academic offers this outstanding service for state cases, other federal cases, and for law reviews. Choose the 'Legal Tab,' and select Shepard's Citations from the right-hand menu. Enter the proper citation in the opening box.

Citation Example: 405 Mass. 191

Shepard's results will show all citing references plus provide analysis. See the Lexis/Nexis Shepard's tutorial. http://web.lexis.com/help/multimedia/shepards.htm

Lexis/Nexis Academic has provided another enhancement which aids the student conducting legal research. Now highlighted links within statutes, cases, and law reviews lead the user to the full-text of these publications with one click of the mouse. Check out all of the Lexis/Nexis Academic legal enhancements today.

[Find Lexis/Nexis Academic in the A-Z List of Databases and in Databases by Subject on the Mildred F. Sawyer Library home page.]