Purdue president donates papers during Stratton portrait unveiling

March 2nd, 2012

Libraries leads effort to train future scientists in managing, curating their data

February 27th, 2012

Graduate student participants needed for search tool study

February 23rd, 2012

Purdue University Libraries is conducting a user evaluation to study interaction with a new literature search tool and compare this tool with Google Scholar. This new tool allows a user to search for scholarly information from multiple resources and examine search results in a consistent format. In the evaluation participants will be asked to complete a set of testing tasks with the new search tool and Google Scholar and provide feedback. The evaluation is expected to take up to 1.5 hours of time. Participants will receive $15 for completing the study.

Participant requirements are: (1) Ages 18 and above; (2) Currently enrolled graduate students at Purdue University; and (3) Good understanding of scholarly information resources such as databases and peer-reviewed journals.

Please contact Tao Zhang at zhan1022@purdue.edu to schedule an evaluation time.

Purdue common reading program selects book for 2012-2013

February 20th, 2012

Parrish Library’s database of the week (2/17/12): LexisNexis

February 17th, 2012

This Week’s Featured Database:  LexisNexis Company Dossier, from LexisNexis, Inc.

Link: www.lib.purdue.edu/mel, in the pull down Quick Access to Business Databases alpha list right below the Libraries’ search box.

Description/focus:  LexisNexis Company Dossier provides company information.

Start with this hint:  If you are looking for a private company, enter the company name and LexisNexis Company Dossier will give you a list of guesses.  Try, for example, Hallmark to find information about the greeting card company.  The name search strategy will also work for a publicly traded company, but it is more efficient to search by ticker.  Click here to see the basics of searching LexisNexis Company Dossier.

Why you should know this database:  The links in the left column of the company Snapshot include Mergers & Acquisitions, SEC filings, and Investment Research Reports.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum:  Stock Quotes and Charts can be customized to include historical information, and the Financials Overview includes ratio analysis.

Cost: LexisNexis Company Dossier is part of LexisNexis Academic, a subscription paid by the Libraries annually; for more information contact mdugan@purdue.edu.

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Database of the Week comes to you from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. Our intent is to give you a brief introduction to a database that you may not know.  If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact kranlib@purdue.edu.  Database of the Week is archived  at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/MGMT/. For more Purdue Libraries news, follow us on Twitter (@PurdueLibraries).

If you would like us to promote your favorite database, send an email to mdugan@purdue.edu.

Parrish Library’s database of the week (2/10/12): Mergent Online

February 10th, 2012

This feature from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. These database snapshots will give you basic information about our most relevant and beneficial online resources.

If you have a suggestion for a database or research topic that should be covered, please let us know.

This Week’s Featured Database:  Mergent Online, from LexisNexis, Inc.

Link: www.lib.purdue.edu/mel, in the pull down Quick Access to Business Databases alpha list right below the Libraries’ search box.

Description/focus:  Mergent Online provides company information.

Start with this hint:  Enter the ticker symbol or name of the company of interest and Mergent Online will give you a list of guesses.  When you select the company from the list, the resulting page has more tabs for more information.  Use the tabs ranging from Executives to Competitors or use the Report Builder for a specialized report.  Also try the links below the tabs.  For example, Highlights includes a balance sheet, management effectiveness, and liquidity indicators.  Click here to see the basics of searching Mergent Online.

Why you should know this database:  Mergent Online includes inactive companies.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum:  Mergent Online can be a one-stop database for students looking for company information. There are also country reports providing economic, industry, and trade information, as well as basic history, geography, demographic, government, communication media information.

Cost: For information contact mdugan@purdue.edu.

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Database of the Week comes to you from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. Our intent is to give you a brief introduction to a database that you may not know.  If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact kranlib@purdue.edu.  Database of the Week is archived  at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/MGMT/. For more Purdue Libraries news, follow us on Twitter (@PurdueLibraries).

If you would like us to promote your favorite database, send an email to mdugan@purdue.edu.

Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics opens with extended hours

February 6th, 2012

German business executive, politician, entrepreneur and author to speak Mar. 7

February 6th, 2012

Copyright in the News: Foreign works amendment is valid

January 25th, 2012

On January 18, 2012, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision in the Golan v. Holder case. This case was a challenge to a 1994 amendment to the copyright law which restored copyright to foreign works that had been in the public domain in the United States. The law was in response to several treaties that the U.S. entered into to help facilitate trade with other countries. One of the issues raised during the trade negotiations was that many works which were still protected in their country of national origin were in the public domain in the U.S. thus causing economic harm to that country. The U.S. then enacted the copyright restoration amendment to address these concerns.

Golan, a music professor, had been using public domain works. When this law passed, he was no longer able to use many of the works and so he challenged the legality of the law. In his lawsuit against the United States, he claimed that Congress had overstepped their bounds by removing works from the public domain and providing them once again with copyright protection. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to make changes to the copyright law and that this change was well within their purview. The restoration of copyright in foreign works amendment is valid.

Source: Donna Ferullo, ferullo@purdue.edu, (765) 494-0978

Purdue Provides Tools to Manage Research Plans and Data

January 10th, 2012

As noted in Fall 2010 Libraries Update, when the NSF issued a “mandate” in May 2010 for data management plans the University was quick to respond. And now the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) is available to researchers as resource for both creating data management plans, and for managing data. (http://research.hub.purdue.edu/)

As described at the website, PURR, “is a central hub and resource for research, collaboration, assistance, and information concerning data management.” In addition to providing resources for creating plans, the Libraries offer a “data reference” through an online tool on PURR. And they offer more in-depth consulting to discuss a range of issues related to research data: access, standards, citation and preservation. Since June, two new Libraries’ faculty have been added to work in this area, and now the Libraries is able to offer a tiered approach to data consulting.

Libraries’ faculty can advise on a variety of short term questions (data reference), such as where to find discipline specific metadata standards. They can also consult on developing approaches to handling data in new projects (data management planning), tailored to specific funders (NSF, NIH, etc.). They can work closely with researchers to help assess current research outputs (data curation profiling), identifying areas of data workflow that may need attention. And faculty in the Libraries’ Distributed Data Curation Center (D2C2) can collaborate with faculty to solve specific data related problems on funded proposals (applying library science to interdisciplinary research), such as “Integrating Spatial Educational Experiences (ISEE) into Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Curricula.”

Needless to say, Purdue Libraries have been ahead of the curve in data related research. Purdue Libraries’ faculty are not the only librarians in the country working in this area, as this is an evolving area in which all academic librarians are participating. But Purdue Libraries’ faculty have been studying research data sharing since February 2006, when Dean Mullins first visited the headquarters of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to ask what they were planning to do about research data. In FY11, the Libraries and D2C2 submitted or participated in $5M in grant proposals related to data research.

For more information on current D2C2 projects, click here.