Link of the Week: EarthTrends

In honor of former Vice President Al Gore's recent win of the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental work related to climate change, I thought I'd list a web resource called EarthTrends. EarthTrends self-describes as "a comprehensive online database, maintained by the World Resources Institute [WRI], that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world."

These are the same folks who put out a well-known biennial World Resources report, which is available online at their website. Sawyer Library also owns printed versions of these reports, published by Oxford University Press, so if you'd like to browse through paper versions, come in and take a look at our reference holdings.

EarthTrends includes current news links right on its opening page. But it organizes much of the rest of its content according to Research Topics which include Coastal & Marine Ecosystems, Water Resources & Freshwater Ecosystems, Climate & Atmosphere, Population, Health, & Human Well-being, Economics,Business, & the Environment, Energy & Resources, Biodiversity & Protected Areas, Agriculture & Food, Forests, Grasslands, & Drylands, Environmental Governance & Institutions, and Special Collections. In each category, there is a Searchable Database, Maps, Country Profiles, Features and Data Tables.

Articles and tables are available fulltext and often links are provided to other WRI materials, or to useful resources elsewhere on the web.

Because of its currency and "statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats," EarthTrends can be a valuable resource. However, keep in mind that the WRI " is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research" into an environmental advocacy role. Their stated "mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations."

Although Al Gore would no doubt applaud their efforts, the materials here certainly do not pass academic muster in situations where a teacher is requiring the use of peer-reviewed scholarly journal literature. In other situations, this website can be a valuable one.

By the way, it is worth noting that Vice President Gore won the Nobel in conjunction with another group, the IPCC. I featured them in our blog several months back. To take a look at that entry, click here.

Link of the Week: CSEP's Codes of Ethics Online

Business Ethics, Corporate Responsibility, Fair Trade, Whistle-Blowing, Fiduciary Obligation, Product Safety--Terms like these are bandied about a great deal....especially since scandals like Enron and WorldCom and Mattel's lead toys have come to light in recent years. But how do you codify what a professional or a corporation owes to their clients, customers, workers, or shareholders?

Codes of Ethics are designed to help, before it reaches the point of legislation and litigation.

In June 1996, the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (located at the Illinois Institute of Technology) received a grant from the National Science Foundation to put their extensive collection of codes of ethics on the web. This web collection includes over 850 codes of ethics of professional societies, corporations, government, and academic institutions. Earlier versions of some codes of ethics of some organizations represented are also available so researchers can study the development of codes. A literature review, an introduction to the codes, and a User Guide are also available at the site. And the Center maintains links to other web resources, too.

You can either browse the "Index of Codes," which is organized by professional category, or you can use a customized Google to search across all the content at the website.

Whether you are a philosophy student, a management or business law major, or merely an interested consumer, this website might be worth a look.

CSEP's Codes of Ethics Online is but one of many websites that we have included in our Business Ethics Resource Guide, which lists database, web, and print resources that would helpful for anyone interested in business ethics. Consult this guide, or browse through our other guides for research guidance on other disciplines and topics. And remember, you can always come and talk to us about your latest research project at the Reference Desk!

New Database: Massachusetts Newsstand

When searching for newspaper articles on a topic, most of us look to LexisNexis Academic as our primary resource. And in most cases, this would still be your best research tool for wide-ranging access to daily newspaper content from around the world....Despite its new and harder-to-use interface!

However, if you are researching a local story or issue in Massachusetts, then a new database-- just added this summer--called Massachusetts Newsstand, might be an easier and more efficient research tool. A product of ProQuest, the same company that provides us with our Wall Street Journal database, Massachusetts Newsstand provides full-text coverage of most of the major newspapers of the Bay State. Here is what is available:

The Berkshire Eagle; Pittsfield, Mass. Full Text: 2005 - current

Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. Full Text: 1987 - current

Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext); Boston, Mass. Full Text: 1980 - 1996

Boston Herald; Boston, Mass. Full Text: 1991 - current

BusinessWest; Chicopee Full Text: 1992 - current

Gazette; Haverhill, Mass. Full Text: 1992 - 1997, with some exceptions

New England Business; Dublin Full Text: 1975 - 1992

North Adams Transcript; North Adams, Mass. Full Text: 2005 - current

The Patriot Ledger; Quincy, Mass. Full Text: 1991 - current

Plymouth County Business Review; Pembroke Full Text: 1991 - current

Sentinel & Enterprise; Fitchburg, Mass. Full Text: 2005 - current

Standard Times; New Bedford, Mass. Full Text: 1992 - 1997

The Sun; Lowell, Mass. Full Text: 2004 - current

Telegram & Gazette; Worcester, Mass. Full Text: 1989 - current

To search across all content, simply put your search terms in the Basic Search box on the opening screen. Click the grey tab below the box for "More Search Options" whether its to pinpoint a specific field like Author or to look for specific Document Types like Editiorials. And look at the tabs near the top for other approaches. For example, click the "Publications" tab to easily select a single newspaper to search.

[FIND Massachusetts Newsstand on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "General Resources" category.]

New Database: CQ Almanac Online

If you have ever researched national legislative matters, there's a good chance that you have encountered and consulted a set of massive green books called, at various times, Congressional Quarterly Almanac, CQ Almanac, and CQ ... Almanac Plus. These annuals provide "Year-by-year analysis on politics and policy in the U.S. Congress" and are a treasure trove of "Legislative Analysis, Policy Tracking, Data, and Primary Sources." CQ Press says of this resource: "Building on the reporting and analysis done throughout the year by CQ's award-winning news staff, the Almanac offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a Congressional session. Arranged thematically, CQ Almanac organizes, distills, and cross-indexes for permanent reference the full year in Congress and in national politics. Its clear and concise language makes the Almanac an essential resource."

Unfortunately, the books are unwieldy and not a lot of fun to deal with if you need to use several volumes to track a particular issue or legislative path.

To add flexibility and ease to this valuable resource, we have added CQ Almanac Online as a new Library database. You can access the database through the direct link above, through a link in the online catalog, or as part of the CQ Political Reference Suite, which includes other valuable governmental research tools including Historic Documents, the Political Handbook of the World, Vital Statistics on American Politics, and Congress and the Nation.

CQ Press is still loading some years, but upon completion, coverage will include the contents of all volumes from 1945 to date. And an additional tool called the "Policy Tracker" is also still in planning stages.

For now, you can do keyword searches from the search bar, or you can browse by topic or by the number of the Congress. Series appendices include CQ Key Votes Tables, Conservative Coalition Tables, Floor Votes Tables, a Glossary of Congressional Terms, Interest Group Ratings, Party Unity Tables, Presidential Messages, Presidential Support Tables, Public Laws, and Voting Participation Tables.

We hope that you find this resource useful!


[FIND CQ Almanac Online as part of our CQ Political Reference Suite on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Social Sciences" category.]

Did You Know....Sawyer Library Does Library Instruction?

The business of the Reference team at Sawyer Library is to empower all of our users, from undergraduate students to faculty, to achieve the best possible research results to meet their academic research needs. To this end, we not only answer individual "reference questions" (in person, and by phone and email), but we also do Library Instruction.

Library Instruction is usually initiated by a faculty member for a class that will require students to do academic-level research. We usually chat with the faculty member in person or by phone (call us at [617-573] x8532), find out something about the course and assignment--if we can get the syllabus and/or the assignment sheet ahead of time, it's a help--and design a presentation of a half-hour to 45 minutes that will give students basic research techniques training and also show examples of the best search strategies in the most appropriate electronic resources for that class.

Fall is our busy season, since we do many frosh courses like SU-101 and the freshman seminars, but we are happy to set something up for other research-oriented classes within the constraints of our staffing and existing schedule. (In other words, we book up fast!) It is best to stop by or call us, but if it is more convenient we also have a Library Instruction Request Form. We will follow-up with an email confirmation, and probably ask a few follow-up questions.

There is also information about Library Instruction at this faculty services page.

In addition, because there are so many new students and faculty at the start of the academic year, we also offer several "drop-in" sessions. There is no need to make an appointment for these sessions, during which a Reference Librarian will provide a brief orientation towards the Sawyer Library webpage, resources, and services. Simply come to the Reference Desk at one of the below times. These sessions take about 15 to 20 minutes.



Wednesday, September 5th 5:00pm
Thursday, September 6th 1:00pm
and 7:15pm
Saturday, September 8th Noon
Monday, September 10th 5:00pm
Tuesday, September 11th 1:30pm
Wednesday, September 12th Noon
Saturday, September 15th 5:10pm


And remember, whether you can make one of these sessions or not, we are here to help. Come in and talk to us if you are ever having problems finding or accessing the information you need!

New Database: BioOne.2

Here is another "New" database, that is not so much new as "New and Improved!" (as advertisers love to say). We have actually had the scholarly scientific database, BioOne, for a couple of years. But we have just added a new module of journals to that database that has been given the dubious name of BioOne.2.

First, a word on BioOne from the publisher: "BioOne is the product of innovative collaboration between scientific societies, libraries, academe and the private sector. BioOne brings to the Web a uniquely valuable aggregation of the full-texts of high-impact bioscience research journals. Most of BioOne’s titles are published by small societies and other not-for-profit organizational publishers, and, until now, have been available only in printed form."

BioOne launched their original aggregation, now retroactively dubbed "BioOne.1", with forty titles in 2001. Now at maturity, the collection includes over eighty high-impact publications. BioOne.1 provides the scholarly community with a must-have collection of critical, high quality titles across the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. Most of BioOne.1's titles are ISI ranked and available back to Volume 1, Issue 1 through JSTOR.

BioOne.2 is BioOne's new collection, and currently includes forty high-impact titles, with additional journals to be added through 2008. The majority of BioOne.2 titles, many of which are internationally based, have not been available online until now. A subscription to the BioOne.2 collection includes access to six titles from Japan's UniBio Press.

To see a list of all 41 of the added journals, please take a look at this PDF.

By the way, BioOne automatically loads both journal sets, so you can just search for your topic on the opening screen or browse issues. You will simply see a globe-like symbol with a 2 or a 1 next to it--this will indicate which set that particular citation or journal issue belongs to.

We hope that researchers in the biosciences will find this addition useful!

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

Library News: Magnificent Map Presented to the Library

If you've visited the Poetry Center or Paul's Copy Center office on the Library's 3rd floor recently, perhaps you have seen the large, magnificent map that now resides on the wall opposite the group study tables on 3. If not, please do come by and take a look. It is a fascinating piece of cartographic history!

It is a centuries-old map of Africa. And here are a few details:

Nova Africae Geographica Et Hydrographica Descriptio
Blaeu-Jaillot Wall Map of Africa [Paris, 1669]

46 ¼ x 66 inches; 16 sheets (including text & title) joined & mounted on new linen, encased in a fine Dutch-style archival frame.

This Blaeu-Jaillot map is very rare and exceptionally well-preserved. It stands as the visually richest map of Africa produced during the Golden Age of Mapmaking. It is the first edition of the Paris plates. Alexis-Hubert Jaillot faithfully re-engraved Willem Blaeu’s map of 1608 capturing all the verve and visual drama of its Dutch model, but rendering it more accessible and readable by providing the text panels in both French and Latin and by translating place names into French. Particularly striking are the illustrations of ships engaged in battle or confronting sea monsters or monstrous seas. Notable is the variation in the conventional Neptune depiction of the sea-god, as well as the cartouche with a European woman flanked by two African women, and a border displaying contemporary depictions of costumes and centers of trade. The interior of the image of Africa teems with images of wildlife of all kinds.

This is an amazing historical document, and it is the very generous gift of Dr. Gerald Rizzo, the founder of the AFRITERRA Foundation, which is a a non-profit cartographic library and archive assembling and preserving the original rare maps of Africa.

For more on the Afriterra Foundation and and the Afriterra Collection, visit their website, where you will find many other digitized maps of Africa for armchair exploration!