Off The Shelf

Business Source Complete has a wide selection of books: over 800.   With most focused on very practical business issues, you’ll see titles such as:

• Action Research in Organizations
• A-Z of Employment Law
• Key Events & Lessions for Managers in a Diverse Workforce
• Social Responsibility of Business
• Twenty-Two Ways to Develop Leadership in Staff Managers

Unlike our ebook databases, Business Source Complete has a record for each individual book chapter.  If you do a general search in the database, you may find book chapters among your results.

You can also restrict your search to just books.  On the Advanced Search page, scroll down until you see the Publication Type limit.  You then have the option of choosing Book:

–Erin

When doing academic research, you may find yourself searching for works by a particular author.  There are several reasons you’d want to do this:

• Learn more about the topic from an established expert or seminal author.
• Develop an understanding of an author’s change in opinions or interest over time.
• Learn what journals publish in an author’s area of interest.
• Find alternative articles when the one you want is not available.

While it can be difficult to pull together a comprehensive list, there are many different ways you can go about finding works by an author:

1. Look for a website devoted to the author’s publications.  Many authors have websites where they post lists of their publications or a copy of their CV.  Use Journal Locator or Interlibrary Loan to get the full text.
2. Search Google Scholar using the author’s name.  Google Scholar typically uses the author’s first and middle initials, followed by the last name.  Use Journal Locator or Interlibrary Loan to get the full text.



3. Search the library databases.  An author’s works may be split among several databases, so check more than one.  Be sure to change the field you are searching to Author. 

FYI: the author’s name may also appear in several different forms, so you may want to search using each of the following:

• Lastname, Firstname Middlename 
• Lastname, Firstname M.
• Lastname, F. M.

–Erin

We’ve added a few popular titles to the NetLibrary ebook database!  These were all added due to popular demand:

• Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach
• Think Good, Feel Good: A Cognitive Behavior Therapy Workbook for Children and Young People
• Evidence Based Coaching Handbook; Putting Best Practices to Work for your Clients
• Becoming an Ethical Helping Professional: Cultural and Philosophical Foundations
• Designing Successful E-learning: Forget What You Know About Instructional Design and Do Something Interesting

*Note: NetLibrary is still not working with IE, but you can access any of the NetLibrary titles using the Firefox browser.

- Erin

As you accumulate research from quarter to quarter, especially if you’re working towards a dissertation, you might find it’s difficult to keep track of the research you have used. I spoke with one learner at a recent colloquia who described a complex system of labeled shoe boxes in her dining room. The boxes were filled with index cards for each resource she had used or found interesting and wanted to save for later. The individual cards had the citation as well as notes about the resource. While her effort was admirable, I could tell she needed something more sophisticated and, well, more space efficient.

The good news is that the Capella library is now offering RefWorks accounts to all Capella staff, faculty and learners. RefWorks is a Web based citation manager, which you can use to:

• Import citation information directly from Capella library databases,
• Organize your research into folders by class, project, or theme,
• Create APA-formatted bibliographies in simple steps

An official announcement will be going out to all learners soon via e-mail, but you can find a link to RefWorks right now on the Library web site. Just go to the Databases A-Z page and scroll down the list to RefWorks.

If you’re not yet familiar with services like this, I especially encourage you to check it out. In particular there is a RefWorks Tutorial and some FAQs that will further explain the advantages. Enjoy, and let us know how it works out!

-Emily

The library is packing up and getting ready to take our “show on the road” in Phoenix.  If you too will be at the Phoenix Colloquium, consider adding one of our informative sessions to your agenda.

Is this your first Colloquium or you have you had some difficulties using the Capella’s online library?

Check out the session:

Capella University Library’s Finding Scholarly & Articles and Books 

Have you been using the online library for a while and want to take your searching skills to the next level for comprehensive exams and your dissertation?  

Check out the session:

 Capella University Library’s Advanced Searching and Finding Dissertations

Are you interested in both library and non library technologies that can help in finding information for your research?

Check out the session:

Capella University Library’s Enchancing Library Research Skills with New Technologies

Can’t fit a session into your schedule, but have a specific question you would like answered or just a overview of the Library?

Schedule a 20 minute one-on-one appointment with a Librarian. In addition to scheduled appointments you can stop in without an appointment during our drop-in hours Saturday (1-5pm), Monday (4-5:30pm) or Tuesday (4-5:30pm) . Look forward to seeing you in Phoenix! Robin

According to Hitwise, Google recently hit a new high in terms of search engine traffic.  In May 2008 over 68% of all searches in the United States were done using Google.  Yahoo placed a very distant second with just under 20%.

Frequent users of Google have probably noticed that at the top of nearly every search is a single resource: Wikipedia.  In 2007 the Google Cache Blog found Wikipedia in the top ten results of 90% of their test searches.

This isn’t all that surprising.  Wikipedia has nearly 2 1/2 million entries, and each entry is loaded with links to other spots within Wikipedia.  The first sentence of Wikipedia’s Featured Article for today had 9 internal wikipedia links! (Most blogs, wikis, articles, etc. will link to resources outside themselves, as I have done repeatedly in this post.)  Google counts links as part of its algorithm for ranking search results.  The more links to a site, the more important that site must be, right?

Many web searchers never go beyond the first page of results, and it’s very tempting to choose the first or second item on the list.  And more often than not, that first or second item comes from Wikipedia.

It’s starting to feel a bit ironic, doesn’t it?  The internet makes an entire world of information available to us with so little effort, and here we are choosing to use a single tool to funnel us into a single resource.  The amount of power that gives to Google and Wikipedia is astounding.  We’re supposedly shifting from a world of publishers, reporters, and other forms of mediated content to a world where anyone and everyone can be part of the action.  But with just two players taking over such huge rolls, are we really seeing the future we thought we were?

Several years ago I was working at a news organization and we all sat down in a meeting to watch Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson’s movie Epic 2014, which documents a potential future world where major internet companies have taken over the way we all receive our “news.”  You can watch it on their website .

It doesn’t just apply to the news, however.  The ways we interact with information (and each other) depend a lot on the conduits we choose to use.  Each has benefits and drawbacks.  And they have the power to change scholarship and academia greatly.  In my humble librarian’s opinion, it’s something that all of us need to know a little about in order to truly think of ourselves as educated.

Now, not to get too down on resources such as Google and Wikipedia, here are some links to critical articles that may help you think about and evaluate what’s going on in the world of information:

• The Wisdom of the Chaperones: Digg, Wikipedia, and the Myth of Web 2.0 Democracy by Chris Wilson in Slate.
• Limits of Self-organization: Peer Production and “Laws of Quality” by Paul Duguid in First Monday. (Especially the Wikipedia section, which brings up questions of plagiarism and accuracy – important questions for any resource.)
• The Battle for Wikipedia’s Soul, from the Economist
• Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Guy Billout in The Atlantic Monthly.

How will all of this change the way we think and learn?  Will ideas will be stifled or lost in the new media world?  What new ideas finally have a chance to rise in this internet age?  Are we able to sort the wheat from the chaff?  And what happens if we don’t?

-Erin

Erin’s post last week brought up some interesting issues about ebooks and availability. I came across a blog post on the same day by Christopher Dawson, of ZDNET Education, about Steven Ballmer’s (Microsoft CEO) recent comments about all types of media going online in an electronic format.

Print a thing of the past…in the near future?

Dawson has an interesting point when he mentions the real challenge to this becoming a reality – the publishers’ buy-in. I.e., ensuring they can still turn the same (or better) profit.

While many publishers have warmed to the electronic format, some are still resisting. This is often the case when you use Journal Locator to search for a journal and you find that it’s available from 1995 to “1 year ago.” This is what is called a “publisher embargo.” The publisher of the journal is refusing to allow digitization of the last 12 months of publication in order to encourage libraries to maintain their print subscription.

Juicy library gossipy side note: There is discussion in the library email list-servs about rebelling against the publishers who impose embargoes. Possible rebellious actions include canceling subscriptions regardless that the previous year isn’t available in any subscription databases due to the embargo.

Interesting issue as we transition to a more digitized world. It isn’t just about people feeling comfortable with reading their newspaper online, but also about the newspaper publisher’s ability to generate revenue in the realm of electronic publishing.

-Sommer

Books are never far from a scholar’s hands, just as songs are never far from a singer’s lips. – Chinese Proverb

I got that quotation from a “book:” The Columbia World of Quotations from 1996, to be exact, but I didn’t go to a shelf to find it. Instead I went online and snagged it by searching Bartleby online. When you can access so much online, it may seem that the old world of books and book publishers are a thing of the distant past.

Not quite. How we get information has changed a lot in the last two decades, but many of the players in the old information world do have a role in this one. And books seem to be as popular as ever (just ask Oprah or Harry Potter). Still, it’s important to understand some of ins and outs of the publishing landscape of today.

Why?

One important aspect of information literacy is understanding how information is produced and distributed. Books, and book publishers, are major players in the information realm, and they are doing things a little differently today. If you have a basic understanding of how the industry works, you’ll have a better idea of what is produced, where to find it, and why something you want might not be around.

To help you get up to speed on the publishing world of today, check out this interesting podcast from NPR’s On The Media. You’ll learn about industry consolidation, who’s driving book sales, and the problem(?) of overabundance.

What do you think? Let us know!

- Erin

There are definite themes that emerge in the questions from new library researchers. (I’m the reference librarian embedded in the Psychology FirstCourses, which means I participate in a week of discussion every month, giving tips to new learners.)

Other times, learners may ask whether there are any essential tips that I can offer for people just starting out at Capella.

Here are the first two below:

• Too Many? Too Few? – What do you do if you get too many or too few results? This video will show you some good strategies for fixing your article results.
• Company vs. Collection — Many people make the mistake of saying they searched “EBSCO” or “ProQuest.” I can understand why, because that’s the huge logo at the top of the database screen, but it’s misleading. Pay attention to the name of the database that you click on in the Databases A-Z list. That will tell you the name of the article collection that you are searching. (This is sort of like how a Ford Taurus looks very different than a Ford Excursion. EBSCO and ProQuest are just the companies that provide the article collections. If you are searching inside an Ebscohost database, you are likely searching only one of a dozen possible collections.) Knowing the database name will also ensure that you have the right information in your APA citations.

What do you think? Are there library tips you wish you knew earlier? I’ll post more tips next week.

- Erika

Many learners contact the library asking how to find peer reviewed articles or how to determine if an article they found is from a peer reviewed journal.

What is “peer review?” From the library’s PDF guide What are Peer-reviewed Articles & How do I Find Them? Peer Review is defined as

“…a process where an article goes through critical evaluation by subject experts (usually “peer” faculty members). The article is evaluated on its research methodology, literature review, discussion, results and conclusions before it is published. If an article does not meet the criteria, it will not be published. Peer reviewed articles are considered the “gold standard” in academic publishing. Articles may also be called scholarly, refereed or juried.”

Library databases allow you to limit your search to only feature articles from peer reviewed journals. This peer review video tutorial not only goes into a bit more detail about the peer review process, but it shows you how to limit your results to peer reviewed journals when searching library databases.

Perhaps you found an article from a reference list or some other means and you’d like to know if the article is from a peer reviewed journal. One of our library databases, Ulrichsweb (located on Databases A-Z page), allows you to search by journal title and discover if the journal is peer reviewed.

Ulrichsweb uses the term refereed when referring to peer reviewed journals. As mentioned above in the definition, “refereed” is used interchangeably with “peer reviewed” and refers to the same process of review by a panel of scholars.

This 1 page guide will show you how to determine the peer reviewed/refereed status of a periodical: Ulrichsweb User Guide.

-Sommer