DawgBlog : Research

RefWorks Now Available to Alumni

spfitzin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:08:00 GMT

RefWorks-COS is pleased to announce that the Alumni Program will now be offered as a standard feature of RefWorks, providing lifelong access to users that are alumni of subscribing institutions. As long as an institution subscribes to RefWorks, alumni will have access, allowing them to continue using their personal research databases for future professional and academic endeavors.

Lifelong access to RefWorks will be an added benefit for alumni, and help academic institutions maintain the healthy alumni relationships that are so essential for donations, rankings and other ongoing involvement.

To learn more about the Alumni Program, please click here.

The Library is Coming to YOU!

elutz — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:36:00 GMT

Need help doing research for that final paper?

Having trouble formatting your bibliography?

Well, don't worry because the Library is coming to you!

Librarians will be providing research assistance in Ross Hall on Tuesday, December 2 from 7:00-10:00 pm and in ResCo on Sunday, December 7 from 7:00-10:00 pm.

Stop by with your research questions and pick up a flyer about CRAMMAJAMMA, when Irwin Library will be open all night!

Butler Libraries obtain Citation databases (Web of Science)

sneal — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:39:00 GMT

Butler Libraries has subscribed to the following Web of Science, Science Citation databases:

Science Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index
Arts & Humanities Citation Index

The Libraries obtained backfiles to 1999, and plans are to add more backfiles in future years.

The power of these databases resides in being able to track who is citing whom and how often articles are being cited, resulting in an article's impact within a field.

To access these databases go to: www.butler.edu/library and select 'Databases'

For assistance in learning how to navigate these research databases, contact the Butler Libraries Reference Services:

Irwin Library: 940-9245
Science Library: 940-9401

or

www.butler.edu/library/ask

Career-Related Resources

spfitzin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:10:00 GMT

Irwin Library has a collection of career resources in print and online that can provide you with loads of information to help you make decisions about your future. There are books about jobs in various fields, graduate schools, internships, and even how to write a resume or do well in a job interview.

There are two locations for these materials.

Career Reference

The Career Reference collection is separate from the regular Reference collection, but is in the same room. Specifically, on the right near the computers when you walk into the Reference Department. These are still Reference books, which means they cannot be checked out, but most of the time the books are used for quick reference, so they're not normally needed in that way.

The Career Collection Online

This is a collection of 100 electronic books that are available for free online through NetLibrary. The books are all in PDF format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Topics include resume writing, job hunting, interviewing, and more. Just select a book then search within it for a keyword related to what you need to know. Or start at the beginning and read through it like any other book.

If you have any questions, please stop by the Reference Desk or Ask A Librarian.

Research Starts Here

spfitzin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:31:00 GMT

Are you starting a research project? Your first stop should be LibGuides.

Our librarians have gathered all kinds of resources into the new LibGuides system, making it your one-stop-shop for research. Visit http://libguides.butler.edu to get started.

(We're also in Facebook! http://apps.facebook.com/libguides/ )

Creating a Works Cited List

spfitzin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:39:00 GMT

We're quickly approaching the end of the Fall semester and due dates for papers and projects. This is the time of the year when people are finishing papers and suddenly needing to know how to reference their sources for the "Works Cited" page at the end of those papers. Fortunately, the Butler Libraries have provided some guides to help you get everything in the right order and formatted correctly.

Just visit http://www.butler.edu/library/?pg=544 and pick the style you need. Whether MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, or other more specialized formatting styles, we've got them all, complete with examples for books, articles, electronic sources, and other types of media.

You can also get to the Citation Guides by going to the main Library webpage, http://www.butler.edu/library, and clicking on Citation Style Guides (listed in the Research column).

If you need more detailed examples than what are provided on our website, stop by the Reference Desk and grab the complete manual. You're also welcome to Ask a Librarian for assistance with citations.

RSS Feeds from EBSCO Searches

spfitzin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:03:00 GMT

EBSCO databases have long used "alerts" to help you keep track of new materials that interest you. Now they've begun delivering those alerts via RSS feeds.

Users can now create an Alert directly from the Result List, Search History, or the Publication list. Create instant RSS feed Alerts by clicking on the orange RSS Feed icons.

What does this mean? It means you can create a search in any EBSCO database, grab the resulting RSS feed, and get information sent to you about new materials that have been added to that database that fit your search criteria. And without having to re-do your search every time.

(If you need an RSS reader, we recommend Google Reader or Bloglines.)

Butler Libraries currently subscribe to over 35 different EBSCO databases, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, ERIC, MasterFILE Premier, MEDLINE, Newspaper Source, PsycARTICLES, and SocINDEX with Full Text.

Open WorldCat

spfitzin — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:04:00 GMT

Want to find a book, but don't know what libraries it's in? Checked the Butler Library Catalog and couldn't find that book or CD? Try OpenWorldCat.

WorldCat has been available to Butler students, faculty, and staff via the Library Website for quite a while. But now WorldCat is available to everyone via http://worldcat.org/. Just do a search like you normally would, type in your zip code, and they'll show you libraries near you that own the item. "Books, videos, downloadable audiobooks... if it's in a library near you, you can find it in WorldCat no matter where you are on the Web." You'll even get links to the libraries' websites and services like "Ask A Librarian."

If you want to search Open WorldCat right from your browser, you can download one of their toolbars. You have the options of the WorldCat versions of the Yahoo Toolbar or Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer or a Firefox browser search extension. All of these include installation notes and "how to use" notes.

Open Access Journals

spfitzin — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:45:00 GMT

A new database that is available on the Library Website is the Directory of Open Access Journals. This database covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals with the aim to cover all subjects and languages.

There are now 2,433 journals in the directory.
Currently 714 journals are searchable at article level.
As of today 119,344 articles are included in the DOAJ service.

Open Access Journals are peer-reviewed or editorial-quality journals that are freely available online. They define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. From the BOAI definition of "open access", they won't include a journal in the directory unless the users have the right to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts" of the articles.

Journals can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. Once you get to the journal, you can browse by issue/year or even search some of the journals for a keyword in a particular article. These are online journals being made open-access by their publishers via their own websites, so the features and functions will vary.

Visual Search in EBSCO Databases

spfitzin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:17:00 GMT

The EBSCO databases have a cool new way to search for information. It's called Visual Search. "Visual Search allows you to search efficiently across broad subjects, and then returns a visual map of results, organized by topic."

You just search for a topic and you're given a visual picture of your search results, where circles represent related topics and squares represent actual articles. To move back (or up) in the map, click outside of a circle or square. Click on Top Level to view the entire map. You can even use the filters at the top of the map to limit or focus information by keyword, date, or publication name.

Click on the circles to focus on that particular topic. Then mouseover any square to get the citation info for its article. If you want more, click the square to view the information on the right side of your screen. You can even see whether the article is available full text.

To search visually rather than textually, just click the "Visual Search" tab at the top of any EBSCO database.

Career Resources

bmatthie — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 20:02:00 GMT

Students graduating may want to peruse the Career Subject Resource Guide:

http://www.butler.edu/library/research/srg/career.html

It is a complete list of all our career resources. Better still, most titles can now be checked out by students.

Brad Matthies
bmatthie@butler.edu

Finding the Author of an Article

spfitzin — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:23:00 GMT

Need to find the name of an author when you don't know the name of articles they've written?

Many of our databases have Indexes where you can search and browse through all the entries they have for that field (such as Author, Subject, Publisher, or even Language). Just look for the Indexes button at the top of the screen and select the field you want to search. Then put in one or more of the letters that the name starts with. It may take some browsing through screens, but it can help you find an author when you don't know how to spell his/her name.

Alternative Source for Journals

spfitzin — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 17:45:00 GMT

Did you know that the Butler Libraries have FULL-TEXT ONLINE JOURNALS available? If you've searched our catalog and can't find it listed, be sure to check to see if we have it available electronically. From the library home page, click on "Search for E-Journals." The easiest way to search is just type the first couple words of the journal title and click the "Start Search" button. If we have it available online, it will be listed, along with the date range that we have access to. Click the link by Online Holdings to get to the online version of the journal. You can browse by issue (click on the year) or "Search Within This Publication" for a keyword or author.

Finding Old Newspaper Articles on Mark Twain

spfitzin — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:31:00 GMT

Newspaper and magazine articles prior to the mid-1900s can be found in the following sources:

The New York Times Index starting in 1851.

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature starting in 1802.

The Readers Guide to Periodical Literature starting in 1890.

All indices are found in the Atrium of the Irwin Library; just left of the Reference Desk.

If you need help using these indices, or finding older articles, please ask for help at the Reference Desk!

-Brad

Industry Norms & Business Ratios

spfitzin — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:31:00 GMT

To all:

Business students who are looking for industry statistics (or similar phraseology) with which to compare to a particular business (or businesses) should see:

Industry Norms & Key Business Ratios: REF DESK HF 5681 .R25 I53 03-04

Despite what students may have heard (or misinterpreted) we do not have industry norms/ratios in electronic format.

However, you can compare company to company norms & ratios in Research Insight, and to a lesser extent in Market Insight (peer group, etc.). See Business Databases.

Brad