reference databases

reference databases

Business Insights: Essentials

Business Insights: Essentials

Last week we looked at a database that was adding new content, but sometimes our databases completely reinvent themselves.  Such is the case with Business Insights: Essentials, a database from the Gale Corporation. Formerly called Business and Company Resource Center, Gale fully reengineered the search interface, making it much cleaner and easier to use.  You can search by topic, industry type, company name, or ticker symbol, and it will recognize your syntax and return the appropriate information.  So, if you type in ‘environmentalism’, you’ll get articles about green companies and initiatives.  If you type ‘msft’, you’ll get corporate information about Microsoft.  If you type ‘consumer electronics’, you’ll get related industry profiles, and links to companies that manufacture them.  You don’t … Continued
Psychological Insight

Psychological Insight

Last week we looked at improving the library collection with a new database, but our existing databases are anything but stagnant!  New, up-to-date content is being added to them all the time.  One recent example is Wiley Online Library, which has just added the Handbook of Psychology to its extensive list of interdisciplinary titles. The WOL has always been a good source for psychology topics, boasting ebooks and journals like Clinical Psychologist, Psychology in the Schools, and the Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology.  But the 12 volume Handbook is an especially good source.  Updating the very popular and award-winning first edition, the ebook version offers searching by topic or keyword, hyperlinked cross references, and separate windows for viewing the index and … Continued
Pride in the Library

Pride in the Library

Library collections are vibrant — continually changing and growing.  We enhance the Library collection at IU East with the primary purpose to provide you with reliable and current resources relevant to curricular and research needs.  Electronic resources and databases continue to increase in relevance and usefulness, offering millions of journal articles, encyclopedias, videos, e-books, and more at the touch of a button.   A new resource that has become available is LGBT Thought and Culture.  IU East has a trial period through the end of August to evaluate it.  It includes the key works of the LGBT movement, both political and social, through the last two centuries.  It includes both primary sources such as letters, speeches, and interviews; and secondary … Continued
Gale Force Databases

Gale Force Databases

The library has added two great new resources!  Our list of databases now includes Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers and National Geographic Magazine Digital Archive, both from Gale.  Chances are you’re already familiar with a lot of great Gale databases.  From the major ones, Opposing Viewpoints and Biography in Context, to other mainstays like the Gale Virtual Reference Library, Health and Wellness Resource Center, and Literature Resource Center; their streamlined, easy-to-use interfaces offer articles, multimedia, and more on a host of topics. The first new database, Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers, is a great source for history topics, including popular subjects like Jack the Ripper, the Irish Potato Famine, or the Great Exhibition or 1851.  It includes over 15 million … Continued
African American History Month

African American History Month

Happy African American History Month!  For most of us, this is a time to hear brief biographies of black pioneers and innovators, and experience a slice of American history that can often be overlooked.  It reminds us of the universality of human achievement.  And the library can help with this – sources like Biography in Context offer great overviews of the lives of famous leaders and innovators.  But perhaps this year, you’d like to dig deeper into the African American experience.    One great source for this is the database Black Thought and Culture – including interviews, essays, pamphlets, letters, and speeches, in addition to journal articles, it offers a rich and textured look at primary documentation – black history from … Continued