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September 12th, 2018
Due to construction, Hicks Undergraduate Library will be closed from 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13 through 7 a.m. Friday, Sept. 14.
Hicks Library will again close at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14 through 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15.
For more information, contact Hicks Library at (765) 494-6733 or via email at ugrl@purdue.edu.
Filed under: facilities, generalSeptember 12th, 2018
Purdue University Press announces 12 new books for the Fall/Winter 2018-19 season. These new books, slated for publication from September 2018 through February 2019, feature works in the subject areas of flight and space, library and information sciences, business and leadership, veterinary studies, global languages and literature, literary criticism, Jewish studies, and European history.
Part of this slate of new scholarly and popular books is the release of the revised and expanded paperback edition of Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom. A book on the life of the famed Purdue astronaut that The Wall Street Journal described as “thrillingly told, taking the readers into the cosmos with Grissom, conveying the sense of wonder and danger that accompanied these early voyages.”
To find out more about these forthcoming books download the seasonal catalog or go to www.press.purdue.edu.
Purdue University Press is the scholarly publishing arm of the University and is a unit within the Purdue University Libraries. Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, the Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including aeronautics and astronautics, business, technology, engineering education, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. The Press is also a partner for university faculty and staff, centers, and departments, wishing to disseminate the results of their research.
Filed under: general, press_release, scholcommSeptember 11th, 2018
Parrish Library’s Featured Database will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This time we’re featuring ProcurementIQ, formerly IBISWorld Procurement Reports, brought to you by IBISWorld Inc.
Link: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/az.php?s=71213 is the alphabetical list of the databases specially selected for those in a business program of study. Access the databases off-campus with your Purdue login and password.
Focus: ProcurementIQ is a collection of procurement research reports in more than 1,000 areas, designed to help businesses make better purchasing decisions.
Tutorial: Click here see the basics of using the ProcurementIQ.
Start with this hint: Browse reports by title by clicking on “All reports” from the homepage.
Why you should know this database: ProcurementIQ procurement research reports provide information on pricing environments, including key trends, price drivers, product characteristics, and purchasing process.
Related Resources
Some other databases you might want to explore, are:
*This database is part of Thomson One and requires Internet Explorer.*
This Featured Database comes to you from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact parrlib@purdue.edu. Also let us know if you know of a colleague who would benefit from this, or future Featured Databases.
Since usage statistics are an important barometer when databases are up for renewal, tell us your favorite database, and we will gladly promote it. Send an email to parrlib@purdue.edu.
Filed under: database, general, MGMTSeptember 7th, 2018
Last week, the Washington Post published an article about the data a Purdue University professor (and two of his research colleagues) gathered on “every confirmed, line-of-duty police killing a civilian in 2014 and 2015.” Logan Strother, assistant professor in the Purdue Department of Political Science, used the Purdue University Research Repository, or PURR, to publish the dataset of police shootings he references in the piece. (Co-authors include Charles Menifield and Geiguen Shin, both at Rutgers University, Newark.) According to Data Repository Outreach Specialist (Research Data, Purdue University Libraries) Sandi Caldrone, by using PURR to publish the dataset, Strother is promoting transparency in scholarship.
“It also allows others researchers to replicate or build upon his work,” she noted.
She said the dataset referenced in the Washington Post piece is freely available for public download on the PURR website at doi.org/10.4231/R70G3HCR. It is an example of how one Purdue faculty member uses the valuable PURR research data-management tool.
“PURR is available to anyone at Purdue—faculty, staff, and students,” Caldrone said. “We support researchers throughout the research data-management lifecycle, providing help with data-management planning, online file storage for ongoing projects, data-publication services, and data preservation and archiving.”
According to Vikki Weake, assistant professor in biochemistry at Purdue, she and her lab team members have used PURR extensively to archive datasets associated with their published studies.
“Data management and archiving are becoming increasingly important in the life sciences,” Weake noted. “This is really important, as other researchers have access to the raw data, so they can replicate our analyses and results. The National Institutes of Health have recognized that we need efforts to improve rigor and reproducibility in biomedical science, and services that make raw data freely available are a great way for labs to be transparent about the work that they are doing. Ideally, other groups should be able to take our data and replicate our findings, or if new knowledge becomes available—they might use our data to gain novel insight into a biological process.”
In a brief Q&A below, Caldrone shares how PURR fits into the work that researchers at Purdue University perform and how she and Libraries’ faculty and staff can support them via PURR.
Q. How does PURR fit into the resources and services provided to campus by the Purdue Libraries?
Caldrone: Most of our resources are available online at purr.purdue.edu, but what really sets us apart from other data-management tools is that we have a team on campus to help every step of the way. We’re part of the Research Data unit, which provides consultations and support to help Purdue researchers plan, describe, disseminate, steward, and archive datasets.
Q. Why would faculty and students want to use PURR for their research needs?
Caldrone: Data is a valuable research product, and increasingly funders and publishers expect that product to be shared with the public. We provide the support to meet those funder and publisher requirements. There are lots of other places to publish data online. Our advantage is that we have support staff on campus to help with the process.
Since we are part of the Libraries, we also take preservation seriously, and we carefully archive all of our published datasets. During data collection, many researchers also take advantage of our online file storage space. It’s accessible anywhere on the web and is a simple, easy option for sharing files with off-campus collaborators.
Students learning about data should also look to PURR for sample datasets. See what data looks like in your discipline, download data files, and use them to test data analysis and visualization tools. Or, just explore our collections.
Q. Recently, PURR was redesigned. Why it was needed? What changed about it?
Caldrone: Our look hadn’t changed much since we started in 2011, so we were definitely due for a visual redesign. We took that opportunity to make functional improvements, as well. We increased our storage space, streamlined the registration process, and really expanded our collection of help resources.
Q. When in the research process should a researcher at Purdue begin to think about using PURR?
Caldrone: We’re happy to help researchers at any stage, but ideally we hope people will think about PURR early in the planning process. We provide helpful resources and in-person guidance for researchers writing data-management plans, whether or not they decide to publish their data in PURR. Having sound data-management practices in place before data collection starts saves a lot of work and stress down the road.
Q. How should a researcher reach out to you and your team members about using PURR? What kind of customer service help can you provide them to help get them started?
Caldrone: We have written instructions and video demos online showing how to use the PURR (see purr.purdue.edu/guides). We also provide one-on-one or group training sessions and consultations. Researchers can reach out to us at purr@purdue.edu or submit a support ticket on the website. You can also reach the entire Libraries Research Data team at researchdata@purdue.edu.
Q. Any other information you would like to impart to the audience at Purdue?
Caldrone: We’ve had some exciting data collections published recently. Standa Pejsa, PURR’s data curator, worked closely with Professor Nicholas Rauh in classics to publish an image database of hundreds of pottery sherds from Dr. Rauh’s archaeological work in the Cilicia region in what is now Turkey. Their publication is the result of years of hard work and can be found at https://purr.purdue.edu/publications/2924/1.
We’re also working with the philosophy department to publish audio recordings and transcripts of lectures given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. This work is still underway, but we have several semesters’ worth of lectures already published. Anyone who would like to hear what it was like to take a course with Deleuze can check out The Movement-Image: Bergsonian Lessons on Cinema.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, UncategorizedSeptember 7th, 2018
Purdue University Libraries’ unique archive on psychoactive substances research has been named and is now known as the Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection. Recently, with Gordon’s support, Purdue Libraries established an endowed archivist position in the Purdue Archives and Special Collections (a division of the Libraries) to lead and grow collections relating to the history of psychedelics research.
Stephanie Schmitz is the first Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Archivist at Purdue University (effective July 1, 2018).
First established in 2006 with generous funding provided by the Betsy Gordon Foundation, the archival collections comprise unique materials that document the history of psychoactive substances and their applications for medicine and healing. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of research studies surrounding psychedelics, e.g., the Heffter Research Institute‘s studies on psilocybin for cancer distress and addiction.
“I am pleased to be able to help in developing, through Purdue Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, an archive and library centered on the work of so many dedicated chemists and clinicians who have worked in the field of psychoactive substances,” noted Gordon, a founder of the collecting initiative, who recently donated funds to name the collection and endow the archivist position. “As we have learned from the past, psychoactive substances hold untold potential in the area of reducing human suffering and healing. With such an archive, and through sharing with other universities and research institutions, all the work can be collectively stored and shared through this collection at Purdue,” she added.
According to Purdue University Archivist, Head of Archives and Special Collections, and Professor Sammie Morris, the renaissance in research surrounding the use of psychedelics for mental, physical, and spiritual health is attracting a growing number of scholars to Purdue to use the collection.
“Substances that once brought panic and fear to the public are now being recognized as having substantial health benefits in treating post-traumatic stress disorders, addiction, individuals facing terminal illnesses, and other health concerns,” she noted. “What many people may not know is that there is a long and rich history of psychedelics research conducted by psychiatrists, scientists, and health care professionals prior to the association of these substances with the counterculture movement. The past discoveries and research findings are highly relevant today in informing the future of this research.”
In 2006, Gordon and David Nichols, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at Purdue, recognized the need to create a unique collection on the history of psychoactive substances research. According to Morris, the collection has increased dramatically over the last 12 years.
“The scholarship and learning that have resulted from the use of this growing collection would not be possible without Gordon,” Morris noted. “The Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection is the premier archival collection of its kind in the United States. It is the only major research collecting effort in the nation specifically centered on acquiring the original, historical primary-source papers of researchers in the field. Other libraries and museums have some collections on this topic, but no other academic institution has been dedicated to collecting these types of one-of-a-kind, original documents, images, and artifacts comprehensively. These items are critical to supporting an understanding of the history of psychedelics research.”
The endowment of the archivist position allows the collecting effort to expand and ensures the sustainability of the collection into the future, Morris added.
The collection benefits researchers in a wide array of disciplines, attracting historians, anthropologists, chemists, and clinical psychologists. Scholars have traveled from around the world to consult the collection, and faculty and students at Purdue and in the local community routinely use the collections for teaching and learning.
Schmitz has led the collecting initiative since 2007. She frequently collaborates with faculty to incorporate the collections into Purdue’s educational mission.
“One of the most compelling things I do is to introduce this fascinating and interdisciplinary area of research to others. There is nothing more gratifying than witnessing the trajectory of archival materials from their inactive use while still in the possession of the donor, to their transfer to archives, and ultimately into the hands of scholars, where their work is referenced in publications such as books, journals, and presentations, further legitimizing this area of research,” Schmitz noted. “These collections of archival materials capture the triumphs and struggles of the work that was carried out in the past, helping to inform current and future research. Betsy’s generous gift will allow me to take this collecting area to new levels, increasing our acquisition of collections, promoting them for research use, and using them in course instruction,” she added.
Purdue University Department of History Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine Wendy Kline said the collection is one of the most valuable sources she has encountered on the history of psychiatry and mental health.
“My forthcoming book, ‘Coming Home: How Midwives Changed Birth’ [Oxford University Press, 2018] draws on the papers to demonstrate the curious and fascinating connections between alternative birth and psychedelics,” Kline explained. “This collection draws historians from all over the globe, and it will continue to draw in more scholars as interest in these substances and their history grows, as it undoubtedly will. I have used the papers in undergraduate history research seminars and witnessed students come to life as they discover the collection’s fascinating contents. It has made them rethink the connections among science, medicine, and the counterculture.”
These substances, when used in appropriate settings under care of a medical professional, have been shown to increase the quality of life for people suffering from a wide array of illnesses from cancer patients to veterans of war to individuals who have had lifelong struggles with addiction.
“Works by authors such as Michael Pollan (‘How to Change Your Mind’) are informing the public about the health benefits of psychedelics and their potential in addressing issues of national concern, such as the opioid crisis,” noted Interim Dean of Libraries Rhonda Phillips. “The Libraries is proud to hold a comprehensive collection of archival materials dedicated to this research, to preserve and share the history of psychedelics for current and future generations of scholars.”
Learn more about the Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection at http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/psychoactive/.
For more information, contact Schmitz at sschmit@purdue.edu.
Filed under: general, SPECSeptember 6th, 2018
In celebration of #ReadABookDay, Purdue University Press asked around the office to see what our team have been reading. We hope you enjoy their responses, and that you’re inspired to let us know what what you’re reading, let us know on Twitter and Facebook!
Liza Hagerman, Assistant Production Editor
I’m currently reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It’s super long, but I’m finding it easy to get lost in the beautiful writing and intimate stories of the characters. I finally picked it up after several recommendations from friends who were incredibly moved by it—it’s intense, in a good way.
Katherine Purple, Interim Co-Director and Editorial, Design, and Production Manager
I just finished Difficult Women, by Roxanne Gay, which was a Secret Santa gift from December (it only took me eight months to finish — no fault of the author’s!), and before that it was David Sedaris’s Calypso. Now I’m focused on finishing another book I was reading concurrently, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara, a thrilling account of her research into the Golden State Killer. Next on my list is to revisit Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is one of my favorite books in the world, and which I try to re-read every so often. Normally, however, my job keeps me so busy reading professionally that I often prefer long-form journalism to full books read for pleasure, and my go-to site is www.longform.org. Not a day goes by that I can’t find something enticing to read on that curated site.
Kelley Kimm, Senior Production Editor
I’m starting to read But Can I Start a Sentence with “But”? by the University of Chicago Press editorial staff. The title of the first chapter is “It’s not so much an issue of correctness as of ickiness.” That’s what attracted me.
Matthew Mudd, Marketing & Outreach Specialist
I’ve just started Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It was a gift from my sister and I’m very thankful, as I’m really enjoying it and probably would not have picked it out otherwise. Also, I always have a sports book in progress and right now it’s Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano, which takes a takes a look at the game of basketball through questions like “Who is the Greatest Dunker of All Time?” and “What is allowed and not allowed in a game of pickup basketball?”, so it’s been a great read. Finally, I’m reading through the Harry Potter series for the first time (late to the party, I know), and just got to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’m finding I appreciate the extra character development and narrative that the movies could not quite provide!
Marcy Wilhelm-South, Digital Repository Specialist
I’m reading Feedback and A Wrinkle in Time (and a few other books but I’ll restrict myself to two 🙂 ). “Feedback” is in a series I’ve read before but is the story of the first novel in that series told from a different perspective; because I loved that original book so much, I wanted to see what the new take was. What has been interesting has been seeing some small details included that seem to reflect on the changes that have happened in the world since that first book’s original publication. “A Wrinkle in Time” is just one of those kids’ classics that I’ve never read, and so my stepdaughter has become my excuse to visit it along with other children’s literature I was never exposed to back then – we are reading this one together. This is also how I’m introducing her to the concept of reading a book before you see the movie.
Nina Collins, Scholarly Publishing Specialist
I’m currently reading, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (2017). I guess I just like being immersed in history. I recently bought an old sewing machine; and, I’ve been skimming The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sewing. As all my grandmothers have passed away (and it’s been a very long time since they taught me how to sew), this is a valuable resource. I like the clever chapter titles, like chapter 10, “Win One for the Zipper”.
Susan Wegener, Acquisitions Assistant
I just finished reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It has one of the quirkiest, most brilliant, and sympathetic main characters I’ve ever read, and the story is like a Victorian novel combined with spy fiction. It is over 500 pages and I read it in two days!
Chris Brannan, Graphic Designer
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick imagines an alternate timeline where Japan and Germany have split control of the United States, and continue to fight for world domination. It is a story of mystery and intrigue in business and daily life living under totalitarian rule, and the glimmer of hope found in the myth of the man in the high castle.
Alexandra Hoff, Assistant Production Editor
I’m currently listening to the audio book version of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, which is about two executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company who are competing for the same job promotion. With a captivating story and brilliant, hilarious writing, this book easily takes a spot in my top-five list of favorite books of all time.
Bryan Shaffer, Interim Co-Directer, Sales & Marketing Manager
I just finished Catch Every Ball: How to Handle Life’s Pitches by Johnny Bench, arguably the best catcher to ever suit up in a Major League Baseball uniform. An easy read, yet gave some insight into how a normal kid can triumph over adversity and reach his goals and dreams. Another book I recently read was The Cathedral Builder: A Biography of J. Irwin Miller. This book hit home for me because J.I. Miller was an icon from my hometown of Columbus, Indiana. Because of him, that small Southern Indiana town is now rated in the top ten globally in architecture and is home to Cummins Engine, a global powerhouse in diesel engines. Finally, I just bought and look forward to starting Scholarly Communication: What Everyone Needs to Know by Rick Anderson.
What are you reading? Looking for something new for #ReadABookDay? Use discount code PURDUE20 for 20% off any book from our website and #ReadUP.
Filed under: Uncategorized