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January 16th, 2018
Welcome to Database of the Month, a feature from the Parrish Library. Each of these monthly snapshots will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This month’s database is D&B Business Browser, formerly OneSource, brought to you by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
Link: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/businessdatabases 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: D&B Business Browser is an aggregate database of company, business news, and industry information.
Tutorial: Click here to see the basics of searching D&B Business Browser.
Start with this hint: From the D&B Business Browser homepage you can do quick searches for Companies, Executives, News and Industries. Once you have your results you can use the OneStop Report to select specific financial statements and reports you are interested in. D&B Business Browser also allows you to build a list of executives based on job title, industry, company size, or geographic location.
Why you should know this database: D&B Business Browser provides information on public and private businesses, with access to SWOT reports for some companies.
Interested in Company Info?
Some other databases you might want to check out, are:
Database of the Month 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 monthly feature.
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, MGMT
November 27th, 2017
Purdue University Libraries Associate Professor Michael Witt has been awarded a visiting research fellowship at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Lund University in Sweden, where he will spend a month as a part of a sabbatical during the Spring 2018 semester.
According to the Pufendorf IAS website, it hosts international experts on different themes that revolve around one or more current research issues. Witt will participate in the “DATA” theme, which incorporates five distinct threads that relate to archiving vanishing languages, data visualization, text mining, creating astronomical catalogs, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Witt’s research focuses on the application of library science principles to the management and curation of research data.
“The DATA theme is taking an integrated, interdisciplinary approach that includes the university library as a partner and incorporates library science as a fiber that could potentially be woven into all of its five threads,” Witt said.
The aim of his sabbatical is to gain a better understanding of data repositories and to promote the practice of using data repositories, in particular, in underrepresented disciplines and geographic regions of the world, Witt noted.
“One way of increasing the impact of research is to share the underlying datasets that support the findings in an appropriate repository and make them available to other researchers to reproduce the results and to repurpose the data for new research,” he added.
Witt, who is also the head of the Distributed Data Curation Center (D2C2) in the Research Data unit of Purdue Libraries, will begin his six-month sabbatical in February.
The Pufendorf IAS is named after Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694), a philosopher and a faculty member at the 350-year-old Lund University.
Witt is featured on the Pufendorf IAS website at www.pi.lu.se/en/activities/theme-data/michael-c-witt and in a video profile at www.pi.lu.se/article/videoportratt-av-tema-datas-gastforskare.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, UncategorizedNovember 16th, 2017
Welcome to Database of the Month, a feature from the Parrish Library. Each of these monthly snapshots will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This month’s database is eMarketer brought to you by Axel Springer SE.
Focus: eMarketer provides e-business and online marketing statistics, aggregated and analyzed from over 2,800 sources on topics such as market research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies.
Link: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/businessdatabases 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.
Search: Click here to see the basics of searching eMarketer.
Start with this hint: From the eMarketer homepage, try searching for keywords in the search box, then refine your results by type, geography, publication date, topic, industry, or demographic.
Why you should know this database: eMarketer provides coverage by geographic location on subjects such as mobile, social, digital advertising, demographics, media usage and ecommerce for industries such as advertising, automotive, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail, small business, technology, and travel.
Interested in Market Research?
Some other databases you might want to check out, are:
Database of the Month 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 monthly feature.
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, MGMT
October 26th, 2017
Suresh V. Garimella, Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, was honored with the 2017 Leadership in Open Access Award from Purdue University Libraries and the Office of the Provost Monday, Oct. 23.
This week (Oct. 23-29) academic institutions and libraries across the globe are celebrating the benefits of Open Access for research and scholarship during the 10th annual International Open Access Week commemoration.
According to Dean of University Libraries James L. Mullins, Garimella was selected to receive the recognition this year for leading by example in the Open Access movement at Purdue University. Garimella has more than 400 works posted in the Purdue e-Pubs repository, which have been downloaded close to 256,500 times.
“Dr. Garimella has demonstrated leadership in Open Access to Scholarly Publications by depositing his numerous papers and articles, consistent with copyright and contractual agreements, into Purdue e-Pubs. Therefore, we present the 2017 Leadership in Open Access Award to him in recognition of his outstanding leadership and continued partnership with Purdue e-Pubs to increase visibility of scholarship at Purdue,” Mullins noted.
“It is a great honor to be recognized for our research group’s commitment to Open Access. I am deeply thankful to the scores of students in my group who, over the years, have contributed to the impactful publications that have been eagerly downloaded through the University’s excellent Purdue e-Pubs portal,” Garimella said.
Since 2012, Purdue e-Pubs has close to 15,153,000 downloads from users all over the world, with the average download rate of 2,256,893 per year.
“Dr. Garimella embodies the spirit of the land-grant institution through his work to make scholarly research widely available,” said Jay Akridge, interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity. “I congratulate him and all of the students in his group who contribute to global learning by broadening the reach of scholarship.”
For more information about Open Access at Purdue, visit www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess. Learn more about Purdue e-Pubs at http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_releaseOctober 24th, 2017
Kenny Nguyen (Hilliard, OH), a Purdue University senior majoring in neurobiology and physiology, knows something about applying classroom learning to real-life research work.
“Taking joint lecture-lab science courses not only taught me about the life cycle of cells, but also how to raise them in a real research environment,” he noted.
In 2015, Nguyen experienced a “real” research environment, when he was selected as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship intern and received the William H. Phillips Undergraduate Research Grant from the Purdue Department of Biological Sciences. In addition, he completed an internship at the National Institutes of Health.
In the Fall 2016 edition of JPUR (Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research), Nguyen published “Degeneration of Neuronal Mitochondria in Parkinson’s Disease” (p. 41), the result of his studies examining “the degeneration of mitochondria in neurons and the implications in Parkinson’s disease.”
The information literacy skills Nguyen — who plans to pursue an M.D. or a Ph.D. in the medical field — has developed in his coursework at Purdue has led to his successful research, publishing, and internship endeavors outside of the classroom.
In his answers below, Nguyen talks about the ways he has learned to use information in his undergraduate studies at Purdue, as well as why it will be important for him to continue to develop his information literacy skills throughout his career in the medical field.
Q. What ways are you learning to use information at Purdue that will be useful for your future professional (or personal ) endeavors?
Through Purdue, I am learning how to apply the information I have learned in the classroom into real-life work directly, such as research or in medical centers. These skills will be vital to me in my future career in the medical field, in which physicians are expected to be updated continually on the progress of medical technology, news, and research. I will be expected to understand these findings and apply them directly to my work. I believe that my time at Purdue has strongly prepared me for my future profession.
Q. Describe a time when you learned to use information in a new way to help you accomplish something.
I used to be the managing editor for the “Purdue Review, Inc.,” the premier campus news magazine. In 2015, we decided to venture onto the online platform to provide news for students in a more easily accessible, convenient manner. None of the members in our organization had knowledge on developing a website, so we used the information and resources available to us for our advantage.
The design team had to learn to design not only magazine spreads, but also online pages, and the writers had to learn how to write articles in a succinct, eye-catching manner that is more suitable for online. And I learned how to upload news articles online and manage the operations of the website.
I had knowledge on how to use Microsoft Office, and by applying the information and skills that I was already familiar with, I learned to effectively use an online software that was entirely new to me.
Q. Have you learned to use information in a course that you have applied to a different situation?
During my freshman year I took a course called COM 217, “Science Writing and Presentation.” In this course, I learned the basics of presenting science to informed and lay audience members, how to craft compelling and informative posters, and write science articles. I used the skills and information I learned in this course to present my research poster for the first time at the Purdue Undergraduate Research Symposium, and publish my work in the 2016 edition of JPUR. Had I not taken this course, I would not have known how to present science, both orally and through writing, effectively.
Filed under: general, UncategorizedOctober 16th, 2017
Welcome to Database of the Month, a feature from the Parrish Library. Each of these monthly snapshots will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This month’s database is Data-Planet brought to you by Conquest Systems, Inc.
Link: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/businessdatabases 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: Data-Planet provides easy access to an extensive repository of standardized and structured statistical data containing more than 90 billion data points from more than 70 source organizations.
Search: Click here to see the basics of searching Data-Planet.
Start with this hint: From the Data-Planet homepage, try searching for keywords in the search box, then refine your results by either subject, source, or database.
Why you should know this database: Data-Planet contains over 2 billion time series that provide immediate access to data presented in charts, maps, graphs, and table form, via multiple points of entry.
Why students should know this database: Data-Planet pulls data from all types of sources which include Public, Private, Domestic, and International data. Data can be searched by key economic indicators like Dow Jones and S&P 500 Index, by subject, or by source.
Like Data-Planet?
Some other databases you might want to check out, are:
Database of the Month 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 monthly feature.
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, MGMT
October 9th, 2017
Yvonne Pitts, assistant professor of history, was awarded $3,380.00 by the Purdue Library Scholars Grant Program to conduct research for her article, “’Vile Characters’ and Property Law: Regulating Prostitution and Creating Property in Civil War Era Nashville, 1860-1868,” which examines the short-lived system of regulated prostitution during wartime in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Library Scholars grant is awarded to untenured and associate professors tenured after July 1, 2015, to support research-related travel expenses to archives and collections outside of Purdue. For guideline and submission instructions to the Library Scholars Grant Program — now accepting applications no later than 5 p.m., Friday, November 10 — visit www.lib.purdue.edu/scholars/guidelines.
In her answers below, Dr. Pitts shared a bit about her travel to two different archives for her research, which the Library Scholars Grant Program supported.
Q: Yvonne, what is the focus of the research you conducted with the Library Scholars Grant Program?
A: My project examines crime and vice regulation and the system of regulated prostitution imposed by Union military authorities in occupied Nashville during the American Civil War. I am concerned with the exercise of legal authority on the ground in Nashville, which after occupied by the forces of General Ulysses S. Grant, had several competing law enforcement forces. My work at the two archives I visited reveal a complex, often haphazard system of multiple law enforcement actors that evolved in response to military demands, civilian hostility, and the threat of public disorder. During this period, soldiers often became the object of scrutiny for law enforcement agents while prostitutes, while subject to licensing and inspection, gained greater zones of legal autonomy.
Q: When did you travel to the unique collection/archives and what did you find there?
A: I traveled to two archives. The first, the Nashville Public Library holds the local civilian court and government records, including case files and the Aldermen’s minutes. The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington D.C. holds the federal government records which includes the Army records, the Provost Marshal (military’s law enforcement force), and Surgeon General’s reports. Access to these records, which are rarely digitized or even indexed in any detail is essential to my project.
Q: How did this grant enable you to complete or add to your research?
A: The Library Scholars Grant allowed me to study important local law enforcement records. After these trips, I have been able to write grants for more research funding, develop a plan of research for a book manuscript, and write an article draft.
Q: What are some highlights and memories from your travels?
A: One highlight was finding the Jail Record books in the National Archives. As I discovered at the Nashville Public Library, many of the criminal case files from Nashville had been destroyed, so I was not able to read transcripts and judgments from local civil arrests by the Nashville Police. At the National Archives, I discovered the U.S. Army Provost Martial’s Jail Record Books. These books contained information about charges, prisoners, sentences, and locations of arrests. They are a wealth of information. On another note, after I left the Nashville Public Library at closing, I had some of the best barbeque of my life in Nashville.
Q: What tips would you give to scholars applying for this grant?
A: Be specific about the collections you hope to access. I called and emailed with archivists from both locations for about two weeks before I finished the application. I included their names and the specific collections, sometimes to the volume or folder level, that I planned to access. I sought to convince the Library Scholars Grant Committee that I would hit the ground running on my first day.
Filed under: Applications, general, Library Scholars GrantSeptember 5th, 2017
The newest issue of the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research, Volume 7 (2017), debuts this week online and in print. This volume, like all previous volumes, is available online and open access. Below is a first-person account of an experience with undergraduate research and the subsequent publication process via JPUR with the student featured on the cover, Jack VanSchaik, who investigates spatial soundscape ecology on page 65 of the volume. The open access version of his article may be found here. 
What is undergraduate research? I first heard about it at a Purdue summer biology camp during high school. Immediately, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue in college. After being accepted to Purdue, I was determined to participate in research my freshman year. However, it proved more difficult than I imagined, and at first, I was rejected due to lack of experience. Then it was hard to find a project that was compatible with my interests and coursework.
However, halfway through my freshman year I received a call from Dr. Mark Ward of the Statistics Department encouraging me to apply to his Sophomore Statistics Living Learning Community (LLC). I did and was accepted into what turned out to be a vital experience of my undergraduate career. Dr. Ward collaborated with professors from a variety fields and disciplines to create undergraduate-friendly research opportunities for LLC students. One professor’s project fascinated me. It was Dr. Bryan Pijanowski and his idea of soundscape ecology. Dr. Pijanowski introduced me to his lab, the Center for Global Soundscapes, where I found my undergraduate research project! I applied my newfound knowledge of big data from my LLC courses to my areas of interest: sound and the environment. I spent a year and a summer at Purdue completing my research project. This experience opened up doors for me to be involved in other projects at the Center, working on statistics, education, and community outreach. I ended up staying after my sophomore year at LLC to continue work on other projects.
When my research neared completion, I submitted it to the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research (JPUR). I was extremely excited when my project was selected for a full article! It was reassuring to know that after so many hours, my research was worth publishing. However, there was still a lot of work to do. I had to format, edit, and finalize my article. Working with JPUR gave me the opportunity to experience something I had only heard about from Dr. Pijanowski, Dr. Ward, and so many graduate students—paper writing. Participating in the writing and publishing process gave me a glimpse into academic research and ultimately helped me decide to attend graduate school.
Not only did working with JPUR help me decide my future path, but there are several benefits to being published as an undergrad. Graduate schools notice an applicant’s research experience, and it demonstrates his or her capacity to produce publishable work. Similarly, it demonstrates to a company an applicant’s ability to see a substantial project through to its end. Moreover, getting one’s work published also can be a personal milestone. However, I think the most important benefit for publishing one’s research is for the science itself. Every piece of new knowledge, regardless of the field, academic standing, flashiness (the list goes on…), is important. Science is constantly driven forward by humanity’s pursuit of knowledge. Every pursuit of knowledge pushes science forward. When that pursuit stops, science stops, and that cannot happen!
Filed under: general, press_releaseJuly 26th, 2017
Purdue University Libraries has been selected as the academic library system to host Project Information Literacy’s new Visiting Research Scholar program during the 2017-18 academic year.
The Project Information Literacy (PIL) program will provide Purdue Libraries faculty researchers with access to a research consultant in the form of expert information literacy researcher Alison Head, the founder and executive director of PIL. Throughout the academic year, Head—who is also a senior researcher at the metaLAB at Harvard—will mentor Purdue Libraries researchers on their scholarly research projects, both large and small, through the PIL’s Visiting Research Scholar program.
“We are thrilled Purdue Libraries has been selected as the 2017-18 home of Project Information Literacy’s Visiting Research Scholar program,” noted Libraries Dean James L. Mullins. “The PIL program will give our faculty members a unique opportunity to work with a pre-eminent leader in information literacy research, and we anticipate the PIL program will further develop their research skills. We look forward to working with Dr. Head in her mentoring role this coming year in the Libraries,” he added.
As the selected library organization for the Visiting Research Scholar program this academic year, Purdue Libraries will benefit from having access to two research methods webinars, as well as 15-20 one-on-one research consultations, via video, with Purdue Libraries researchers conducted by Head. She will also travel to Purdue University and deliver a campus-wide keynote presentation during her on-site visit as part of the program.
“Purdue Libraries has a vibrant community of information literacy researchers working on a range of groundbreaking research projects. That’s why I selected Purdue Libraries as the host institution this year. In addition, information literacy is clearly a top priority for the entire Purdue University campus,” she said.
According to Head, the PIL Visiting Research Scholar program began with a pilot phase in 2016-17 at the University of Nebraska Library.
“The program’s sole purpose has been for PIL to provide a year of research consultations, so that librarians may be become more qualified and improved information literacy researchers,” Head explained.
Since 2008, Head and her team of PIL researchers have interviewed and surveyed over 13,000 undergraduates at more than 60 U.S. four-year public and private universities and colleges and two-year community colleges. PIL has published nine open-access research reports as part of the ongoing study.
In a 2016 Inside Higher Education column, Barbara Fister called PIL: “hands-down the most important long-term, multi-institutional research project ever launched on how students use information for school and beyond.”
Articles about PIL’s work have also appeared in The Atlantic Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Education Week, Inside Higher Education, Library Journal, and The Seattle Times.
Head also led the 2007 exploratory information literacy study, a forerunner to PIL, at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she taught as the Disney Visiting Professor in New Media for 10 years.
Head earned her Ph.D. in information science, as well as her MLS and BA degrees, from U.C. Berkeley. She was awarded the inaugural S. T. Lee Lectureship in Library Leadership and Innovation at Harvard Library for 2017-19. In addition, she has been a Research Fellow and a Faculty Associate and at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, as well as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, where she studied human-computer interaction.
Learn more about PIL at www.projectinfolit.org.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_releaseJune 30th, 2017
Purdue software toolkit, originally developed to help law enforcement officers reduce crime and assist in using big data for decision-making, will play a vital role in a project led by researchers in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The project aims to find supporting data on a link between animal abuse and child abuse in Greater Lafayette.
Nicole Kong, an assistant professor in Purdue Libraries, also will assist with the project by providing her expertise on geographic information systems.
Read more about the project from Purdue Research Foundation News at www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2017/Q2/purdue-law-enforcement-toolkit-helps-researchers-study-link-between-animal-abuse-and-domestic-violence.html.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, Uncategorized