Author: Liz

Drop-In Research Help: I Just Need Three Sources by Tomorrow!

Liz

In the library during activity period? Need help finding that scholarly article or deciding what information is okay to use for class?

This spring, the library will continue to offer drop-in workshops every Monday from 2:10 to 3:25 (during activity period) for students to get one-on-one help with finding sources for papers or projects.

Bring whatever you are working on to a reference librarian and get immediate, one-on-one, expert assistance in finding the information you need, whether it be articles, statistics, company information, or books. You will walk away with the source or two (or three) that you need!

There is no RSVP or appointment needed. Just drop by the library’s Research Instruction Center (RIC) any Monday from 2:10 to 3:25, February 13th through April 30th. (Some holiday Mondays this workshop will not be offered – check our events calendar for the full list.)

RSVP to Save Your Spot at our Citing Sources Workshop!

Liz

Reminder! The Library and Writing Center are joining forces next week to offer two sessions of a workshop on Citing Sources: Why, When, and How. Get a leg up on research and on your classmates! RSVP to library@bentley.edu to attend.

Citing Sources Workshop (presented jointly with the Writing Center)

Why do your professors spend so much time talking about citations? Does it feel like busywork? Come learn how to cite sources for any format. We’ll show you how to do it, where to find resources, and why you should care.

Have sources or a bibliography you need help with? Bring it with you!

Two sessions:

  • Monday, October 17, from 5:00 to 6:00
  • Tuesday, October 18, from 5:00 to 6:00

(The workshop will take place in the Research Instruction Center (Room 11) on the library’s lower level)

October is Massachusetts Information Literacy Month

Liz

National Information Literacy Month 2011 BadgeGovernor Deval Patrick has proclaimed October 2011 to be Massachusetts Information Literacy Month. Never heard of it? The official proclamation says that information literacy:

“provides the tools and skills to find, evaluate and use credible information from all sources in our constantly evolving world”

and that:

“Individuals who are comfortable working with the informational resources available in the digital world are able to seek highly skilled jobs and compete at high levels in the global economy.”

Information literacy is crucial to seeking and understanding information, whether you’re writing a research paper, making health-related decisions, or trying to find unbiased news coverage.

Want to see what the Bentley Library does to promote information literacy? Visit our Information Literacy and Instruction Research Guide to learn about library instruction and initiatives related to finding, evaluating, and using information of all kinds.

Curious about what this has to do with being a member of the business community or of a business university? Come to the library’s October 26 event “Who Wrote This and Why Should I Care? Evaluating and Understanding Information in a Business Context.” A panel of experts will discuss the challenges of evaluating information, and being information literate, in an ever-changing information landscape. More information can be found in this blog post.

For even more information on information literacy, click on the badge in this post to be taken to the website of the National Forum on Information Literacy.

Upcoming Workshop: Citing Sources: Why, When, How (with the Writing Center)

Liz

The Writing Center and Library are joining forces to offer a workshop that takes the mystery out of citing sources:

Citing Sources: Why, When and How

Why do your professors spend so much time talking about citations? Does it feel like busywork? Come learn how to cite sources for any format. We’ll show you how to do it, where to find resources, and why you should care.

Have sources or a bibliography you need help with? Bring it with you!

Offered at two different times:

  • October 17, 5:00-6:00
  • October 18, 5:00-6:00

Both sessions take place in the Research Instruction Center (RIC), Room 11, on the library’s lower level.

Presented by: Greg Farber-Mazor, Interim Director, Writing Center and Liz Galoozis, Reference Librarian

Email library@bentley.edu to reserve your seat now – and tell us which session you’ll be attending!

Workshop Series This Fall: I Just Need 3 Sources By Tomorrow!

Liz 2 Comments

This fall, the library will offer drop-in workshops every Monday from 2:10 to 3:25 (during activity period) for students to get one-on-one help with finding sources for papers or projects.

Bring whatever you are working on to a reference librarian and get immediate, one-on-one, expert assistance in finding the information you need, whether it be articles, statistics, company information, or books. You will walk away with the source or two (or three) that you need!

There is no RSVP or appointment needed. Just drop by the library’s Research Instruction Center (RIC) any Monday from 2:10 to 3:25, September 12 through December 5.

Database of the Month: ERIC

Liz 1 Comment

ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center, is “the world’s largest digital library of education literature.” If you’re doing research on teaching or learning, or if you want to keep up with trends in education, it is an essential database. While ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Bentley Library subscribes to ERIC through the EBSCO platform. This allows for easy exporting and saving, as well as linking to the full text of documents only available in other library databases.

More than Journals

ERIC indexes more than 1100 journals (90% of which are peer-reviewed), from the Journal of Higher Education to the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. But it also contains a wealth of other, specialized publications, including:

  • conference papers
  • policy papers
  • grey literature
  • dissertations and theses
  • reports from government agencies, research centers, and professional organizations

In the past, you may have used these ERIC documents in microfiche, but ERIC is working on digitizing many of these materials. See a sample ERIC document here (opens into a PDF).

Advanced Searching

It’s easy to hone in on the materials you want with ERIC’s particular search limiters. You can search by:

  • Educational Level (e.g., Postsecondary Education, Higher Education, Early Childhood Education)
  • Intended Audience (e.g., Policymakers, Administrators, Researchers)
  • Publication Type (e.g., Legal Materials, Numerical/Quantitative Data, Tests/Questionnaires)

You can also explore a topic using ERIC’s unique Thesaurus; click on “Thesaurus” at the top of the search screen. This feature helps you discover related subjects and terms you may not have thought of; for example, the entry for “Information Networks” is below.

 

Connect to this Database

Please visit ERIC to explore this valuable database further, or visit our Databases page to view a complete list of our resources.

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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to an important research database, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases) please contact the Reference Desk.  If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact our Coordinator of User Education, Elizabeth Galoozis.

Preliminary Findings from our Research Journals Project

Liz

This semester, the library asked 15 students to keep journals for a week (February 24 – March 2, 2011), recording every time they engaged in an information-seeking activity related to their academic lives. We also interviewed the students afterward to ask them about their research habits. We learned a lot from this window on students’ real-life research – this is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll share more information in the fall.

Our student participants included:

  • 6 grad students and 9 undergrads (1 freshman, 4 sophomores, 2 juniors, and 2 seniors)
  • a range of majors, including 4 LSM students

The most frequent tasks students engaged in were:

  • searching for information on a topic, like “college students’ behaviors” or “freedom of speech” (31 searches)
  • searching for a known item, like a particular book, article, or video (27 searches)

The most frequent methods students used to complete their tasks were:

  • searching Google (42 searches)
  • searching a specific library database (17 searches)

The most popular databases students used were ProQuest, Academic Search Premier, and CCH IntelliConnect. The most popular websites they searched were Wikipedia and specific companies’ home pages.

Students most often did research during the afternoon (12:00 to 5:00), and most often in their dorm room (if they lived on campus). The students in our study generally said that the part of research they find the most difficult is coming up with the right search terms – both in online search engines and library databases – to get “the right information the first time.”

Stay tuned later this fall for more of what we learned about how students use information, the library, and other campus resources. We have a lot of data to analyze!

April is National Poetry Month

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Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has been celebrating April as National Poetry Month. And while poetry probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think about the Bentley Library’s collections, the library does own plenty of books of and about poetry; a recent catalog search for the word “poems” yielded almost 1500 results. Almost all of those books can be found on the second floor, from our most recent acquisitions — St. Lucian poet Derek Walcott’s latest book White Egrets and a new definitive edition of Massachusetts native Elizabeth Bishop’s collected poems — to classic favorites like Shakespeare’s sonnets and the complete poems of Emily Dickinson.

Don’t know where to start? Try the Poetry Foundation’s website, where you can explore poems by topics like friendship or pets, or read their Poem of the Day. If you’re new to poetry, you might also be interested in Emily Gould’s short article “Independent Study,” which details one poetry newbie’s foray into the genre. Or check out the official National Poetry Month website, which includes a national Poetry Map of Events for April.

And for the moment, enjoy the beginning of a poem from the new Elizabeth Bishop book mentioned above. The poem’s title is, sadly, appropriate for this particular April: “A Cold Spring.”

“A cold spring:
the violet was flawed on the lawn.
For two weeks or more the trees hesitated;
the little leaves waited,
carefully indicating their characteristics.
Finally a grave green dust
settled over your big and aimless hills.”

(In Bishop, Elizabeth. Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011, page 55).