Author: Nicholas

Streaming Films and MediaCore Workshop

Nicholas

MediaCore imageSwank Digital Campus imageKanopy image

The Bentley Library and the Academic Technology Center will be jointly hosting a workshop on streaming film databases and a new resource, MediaCore. The session will be held on Wednesday September 30th from 2:00-3:00 pm in the Research Instruction Center (RIC) on the bottom floor of the library.

The library has recently added two new streaming films databases to our collection, Swank Digital Campus and Kanopy. Swank Digital Campus specializes in popular feature films, both classic and contemporary. Many of the films accessible through Swank Digital Campus have been placed on reserve in the past, and, as such, this is a great curriculum resource for Bentley faculty. Kanopy focuses on critically acclaimed feature films and award-winning documentaries on political,social, and cultural topics. MediaCore is a cloud-based video solution that will allow faculty to upload videos to their course sites in Blackboard without worrying about storage space and permission issues.

Librarians will be going over how to access and  best use the streaming film databases, specifically how to easily place films from these resources in Blackboard for use in courses. Gaurav Shah and Steve Salina from the ATC will go through the process of uploading films to Blackboard using MediaCore and answer any questions about this resource.

Click here to register for the workshop.

Please see this In the Know post for more information on these new resources.

Changes to the Faculty Video Collection

Nicholas 2 Comments

VHS image

The Bentley Library is in the process of removing all VHS tapes from its Faculty Video Collection.  This decision was made due to the fact that Bentley no longer has VHS players as part of its classroom technology infrastructure, and many of the VHS tapes have started to degrade and will eventually become unwatchable.

We will be replacing with DVDs or streaming video those films that have been checked out or placed on reserve recently or have lasting educational and artistic value. The remaining VHS titles will be discarded and the tapes recycled.

A significant number of the films formerly on VHS are now available through our Films on Demand collection.

This process will be completed by the end of this calendar year.

New Streaming Films at the Bentley Library

Nicholas

Swank Digital Campus imageKanopy image

 

 

 

*Updated on 09/01/15

Have you tried to view a movie for class, and it’s been checked out? Wanted to easily embed full length, award-winning documentaries into Blackboard for use in your class? Don’t feel like making the trek to the library during a blizzard to find that classic film? The Bentley Library now has access to 2 new streaming films databases: Swank Digital Campus and Kanopy.

Swank Digital Campus specializes in popular feature films, both classic and contemporary.  We have access to over 50 films through Swank Digital Campus, including Gangs of New York, Despicable Me, Vertigo, The Dark Knight, The Lego Movie, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Every film in Swank can be placed in its entirety in Blackboard.  To place films in Blackboard, please contact Matt Van Sleet at mvansleet@bentley.edu or Stephen Tracey at stracey@bentley.edu. Many of the films accessible through Swank Digital Campus have been placed on reserve in the past, and, as such, this is a great curriculum resource for Bentley faculty.

You must download Microsoft Silverlight to stream the films in Swank Digital Campus. Microsoft Silverlight will not work in the Google Chrome browser. Microsoft Silverlight can be downloaded here.

Swank screenshot

 

Kanopy focuses on critically acclaimed feature films and award-winning documentaries on political,social, and cultural topics. Some of the well known producers whose films are available through Kanopy are Criterion Collection, Media Education Foundation, Kino Lorber, and New Day Films.  Whole films or custom-created clips can be placed in Blackboard for use in Bentley courses.

Kanopy screenshot

 

Additionally, we have recently purchased a cloud-based video solution (MediaCore) that will allow faculty to upload videos to their course sites in Blackboard without worrying about storage space and permission issues. Videos uploaded in a specific course will only be available to students enrolled in that course. Please contact ga_atc@bentley.edu for more information.

Each of these databases can be accessed from the library’s new Streaming Films page.

Database of the Month: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Nicholas

 

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts image

Looking for an article comparing and contrasting 2 countries for that Global Studies course?  Having trouble finding scholarly material for GLS102? Worldwide Political Science Abstracts from ProQuest is the database you need. Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides indexing and abstracts to over 2,500 journals from 1975-present in the fields of political science, international relations, law, and public administration and policy. A large number of these journals are available in full-text.

This database is the result of a merger of two databases in the year 2000, Political Science Abstracts from IFI/Plenum and ABC POL SCI published by ABC/CLIO.  Since that merger, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts has greatly expanded its international coverage, with around 60% of its journals published outside the U.S.

Some notable subject areas covered in this database are:

  • Comparative politics
  • Electoral systems
  • History and theory of political science
  • Politics and religion
  • Politics and society
  • Politics and communication
  • Politics and law
  • Government/political systems
  • Security and defense
  • Political economy

In addition to scholarly journals, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides access to books, reports, and dissertations and theses. The Advanced Search page in this database will allow you to limit your search to one of these source types.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts is accessible via the library’s Databases A-Z page and the Politics & Government subject page. Please contact the Reference Desk if you have questions or would like assistance using it.

———————————————

Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to a database available from the Library’s website, 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 Ask a Librarian. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact Adam Williams, Research Instruction Coordinator at awilliams@bentley.edu.

Database of the Month: Academic Search Complete

Nicholas

Academic Search Complete image

Described by its publisher EBSCO as “the world’s most comprehensive, scholarly full-text database for multidisciplinary research”, Academic Search Complete is a database suitable for many different kinds of research here at Bentley. It provides access to a broad variety of information, both scholarly and popular, in a wide range of academic fields and disciplines.  This is a great database to use for any number of classes, from English and Expository Writing  to History, Psychology, and Sociology courses.

Some of its key strengths are:

  • Indexes and abstracts over 13,780 journals
  • Provides full-text access to over 9,000 journals, 7,850 of which are peer-reviewed journals
  • PDFs of articles dating back to 1887

Subjects covered in Academic Search Complete include:

  • Astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and zoology
  • Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Ethnic & multicultural studies
  • Women’s studies
  • Psychology
  • Religion & Philosophy
  • Law
  • Mathematics

Searching

  • Use the Advanced Search screen to limit your search results to articles in scholarly journals, articles from a particular publication, or full text articles only
  • Use the Subject: Thesaurus Term function on the results page to narrow your search results by subject
  • Narrow your search results to articles published within a certain date range

ASC search screen

Other Functions

  • Print, email, and export the article to EndNote or RefWorks using the Tools functions
  • Use the Cite function to create the citation for an article in 7 different citation formats, including MLA and APA
  • The Folder function allows you to save relevant search results for later viewing
  • Use the Search for a Full Text Copy of the Article function to see if an article is available through another Bentley database

Academic Search Complete is accessible via the library’s Databases A-Z and Databases by Subject pages.  Please contact the Reference Desk if you have questions or would like assistance using Academic Search Complete.

———————————————

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 Ask a Librarian. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact Adam Williams, Research Instruction Coordinator at awilliams@bentley.edu.

On Display: Lives in Film

Nicholas

Lives in Film image

“Is the cinema more important than life?”–Francois Truffaut

Have you always been curious what Alfred Hitchcock was really like? Has the life of Oprah Winfrey or Katherine Hepburn always interested you? Cinephiles rejoice! The Bentley Library’s latest display features biographies, autobiographies, and collections of interviews of filmmakers, actors, and actresses and DVDs of the films they made or starred in. American masters, international cinema’s best, stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and more contemporary denizens of the silver screen are all to be found on this display.

Come by the library to check out the display or take a look at the list of the titles in our catalog. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, inquire at the Reference Desk.

Blu-ray Comes to the Bentley Library

Nicholas

Blu-ray imageDark Knight Blu-ray

Do you prefer your movies in lush, exquisite high-definition? If so, the Bentley Library has the answer for you! We now have over 50 Blu-ray titles in our Popular DVD collection.  The list of movies in Blu-ray now in the library’s collection includes the following:

  • The entire Harry Potter film series
  • The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first 2 films in The Hobbit series
  • The Godfather trilogy
  • A number of Pixar films such as Finding Nemo and Frozen
  • The Christopher Nolan directed Batman series
  • Gravity

Here is the complete list of titles in Blu-ray, or view the library’s Blu-ray Movies Pinterest board.

The recently purchased Blu-rays are intended as a pilot program to gauge the level of interest in this format here at Bentley.  We’ll purchase additional titles in the Blu-ray format if these titles prove to be popular among the Bentley community.

Database of the Month: ProQuest Psychology Journals

Nicholas

ProQuest Psychology Journals

Looking for a scholarly journal article for your psychology class?  ProQuest Psychology Journals is the perfect database for you. ProQuest Psychology Journals provides indexing to over a 1000 journals in a range of psychological disciplines, many of them in full text. The psychological disciplines covered in ProQuest Psychology Journals include behavioral, clinical, cognitive, developmental, experimental, industrial, personality, physiological, psychobiology, psychometrics, and social psychology.  Many of the articles contain graphs, charts, diagrams, tables, and photos which can be quite useful in papers and presentations.

In addition to psychology, ProQuest Psychology Journals also covers some related disciplines and subject areas, such as genetics, psychology of business and economics, communication, criminology, addiction, neurology, and social welfare.

The coverage for ProQuest Psychology Journals runs from 1971 to the present.

Some of the important, high impact journals included in this database are:

The American Journal of Psychiatry
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Development and Psychopathology
The Psychological Record

Searching

When searching for psychology articles you can limit by the age group you are researching.  These include newborn, infant, preschool child, child, adolescent, adult, middle aged, and aged.

You can also limit yourself to articles published in scholarly or peer reviewed journals or those available in full text only.

 

ProQuest Psychology Journals search screen

ProQuest Psychology Journals can be accessed from our Databases A-Z page and our Psychology & Sociology databases page.

———————————————

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 Ask a Librarian. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact the Reference staff at refdesk@bentley.edu.