Export.gov is the U.S. Government’s export promotion and finance portal, bringing together information from a number of agencies to assist small and medium-sized American businesses planning to export or conduct business overseas. This Database of the Month blog post will focus on two research resources accessible via Export.gov – Country Commercial Guides and the Market Research Library.
Country Commercial Guides (“Doing Business In…” Guides)
Country Commercial Guides are “doing business in…” guides prepared by trade experts at U.S. embassies worldwide. Country Commercial Guides are designed to be a comprehensive starting point for anyone interested in exporting and doing business overseas. Guides are produced for more than 125 countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia. Each guide focuses on eight important areas:
Market Overview, Challenges, Opportunities, and Entry Strategies
Export.gov’s Market Research Librarycontains more than 100,000 industry and country-specific market reports, authored by U.S. Commercial Service specialists working in overseas posts. The Market Research Library provides access to Market Research Reports and Best Markets Reports. The Country Commercial Guides, mentioned above, are also included within the Market Research Library.
Full access to the Market Research Library is only available to U.S. students/researchers who register with Export.gov. Registration is free. A registration link is available on the Market Research Library page and at http://www.export.gov/registration/studentform.aspx.
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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 contact the Reference Desk at 781.891.2300 or refdesk@bentley.edu.
The idea for JSTORoriginated in a library that was running out of space at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, a small, prestigious liberal arts college. The Doane Library made a request for expansion of its building to house academic journals in print. At that time in 1992, the higher education market for scholarly literature in hard copy format was active and increasing steadily. Rising costs and infrastructure limitations applied pressure on academic libraries. Many feared this pressure would result in fewer libraries collecting less scholarly output, so the JSTOR Project was the answer, launched with help from a Mellon Foundation grant in 1992. JSTOR digitized multiple print and microfiche sources immediately and began offering paid electronic access to these files. Its broad mission was, and still is, to help the academic community access scholarly resources online while capitalizing on advances in technology. It grew to become its own independent not-for-profit organization (1995), and today JSTOR is owned by Ithaka, a not-for-profit organization based in New York, NY. JSTOR enjoys a strong reputation for delivering quality, scholarly content.
What sets JSTOR apart?
2,000 academic journals with a large backfile, some of which dates from the 1850’s
2 million primary sources
All scholarly
Libraries choose to subscribe to individual archive collections. Bentley’s subscription to JSTOR includes material from 78 different areas (“disciplines”) and the Bentley courses most likely to use JSTOR are:
business (marketing, management)
social sciences (writing, ethics, psychology)
natural and applied sciences
Searching JSTOR Efficiently
JSTOR is special because it contains a rich vocabulary drawn from the accumulation of many terms over many years, all of which potentially can point researchers to subtleties in the literature. Researchers can use to their advantage keyword combinations joined by AND, OR, and NOT operators. The sample search below is built to get articles about Native Americans but not the country in southeast Asia which also uses the word “Indian”.
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Researchers can set limits and seek only in specific content areas (see below).
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JSTOR serves up its articles in PDF format. This is the landing page of an article with metadata and options:
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Technical Features
Like many databases, JSTOR offers…
Organization tool, MyJSTOR in which researchers can set up journal alerts, save searches, and manage citations
Mobile device access which is a recent development, boasting of responsive design enabling the JSTOR interface to adapt its output to the screen of a hand held device
Friendly citations issued in a neutral style which can be exported to outside bibliographic citations tools such as RefWorks or EndNote
Persistent and stable URL’s for suitable for email or posting in Blackboard
JSTOR carries publications with a time delay. Much of this database’s collection content is subject to a “grace period” or embargo before users can access it. From the JSTOR website they explain these are “moving walls,” usually between 3 and 5 years. Publishers may elect walls anywhere from zero to 10 years.
JSTOR will also carry current publications as well as inactive publications. Journals which have no new volumes being added to their archives have a “fixed wall.”
Did You Know?
JSTOR is philanthropic at its roots. In 2006 JSTOR’s library was made freely available in Africa to all educational (and other non-profit organizations) who met their criterion. This benevolent program has expanded to 40 nations beyond Africa since 2008. See JSTOR’s Developing Nation Access Initiative for more information of how they waive or offer reduced participation fees to academic material.
Did You Know?
Pre-1923 content has recently become available for free to all users due to easing of copyright restrictions. At JSTOR, their Early Journal Content (EJC) initiative makes more than 200 journals published prior to 1923 freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world.
JSTOR is special because many of its rich resources are entire runs of academic journals. Although JSTOR houses not quite everything under the sun, sometimes result sets will give that impression. When searched thoughtfully, JSTOR can amply support the research needs of Bentley students in undergraduate, graduate, PhD, and online programs.
Reference Librarians are, first and foremost, researchers, and the Bentley Librarians have a particular expertise with the content, collections and scope of the resources available at Bentley University.
We are here to help you achieve the goal of an excellent paper or project.
We assist with:
Planning a research strategy.
Database selection & searching.
Locating specific materials.
Many of these activities can be done directly with a librarian at the Reference Desk, but booking an appointment can help save you time and will help you get the most out of the resources available to you.
Assistance is available for all skill levels and interests! Examples of these might include:
First year student working on a pro/con paper.
Upperclassman working on an honors capstone thesis.
Student researching a company in preparation for a job interview.
Graduate student team working on a strategic marketing plan.
PhD student working on a dissertation.
Professor working on her/his own research or curricular design.
And many more…
Click here to schedule a one-on-one research consultation with a Bentley Reference Librarian! Consultations last about 30 minutes to an hour depending on the needs of the user and take place during normal Reference Librarian hours. Consultations need to be booked with at least 24 hours advanced notice for users to make the most of these sessions.
For more immediate assistance, help is also available at the Reference Desk.
Want to learn how to use Refworks and missed our workshop? These video clips are available to help.
RefWorks is a tool that creates bibliographies and formats research papers in the citation style of your choice (e.g. APA, MLA). Learn to export citations, create bibliographies, and organize sources for all your research papers and projects – all in one place.
If you decide you’d like to use Refworks, just visit RefWorksand look for the link to “Sign up for a New Account”. It is important to use your Bentley University e-mail address when creating this account. Help using RefWorks is also available at the Bentley Library. Just ask a librarian.
World News Digest is a domestic and international news database covering major political, social, and economic events since November 1940. On top of getting quick updates about topics in the news, this database gives the ability to search for news by topic, decade or country and to find facts and statistics by exploring the tabs across the top of the page. Researchers can create a chronology of a specific issue and follow a story back in time to understand its importance.
The Infobase Learning section at the bottom of the page provides:
Presidential Elections information from 1940 to 2012.
Historical Documents
Editorial Cartoons
Featured Biographies
Obituaries
Newspaper Editorials
Facts & Statistics
Country studies
World News Digest is updated twice weekly and includes a searchable hourly news feed. All documents have a how to cite area and also a record URL which can be linked to for classroom presentations or course assignments.
WestlawNext is a new database that replaces Westlaw Campus. This new offering from Westlaw allows users to search for state and Federal cases, statutes and regulations and is designed for students to be the starting point for legal research. WestlawNext allows users to search for citations to cases and statutes. Users can simply enter a citation in the West Search search box at the top of each page. West Search allows users to easily switch between Federal and state jurisdictions while searching for legal information.
When users run a search on WestlawNext, they don’t need to select a database. The search is automatically run across eight content categories:
Cases
Statutes and Court Rules
Regulations
Administrative Decisions and Guidance
Secondary Sources
Briefs
Proposed and Enacted Legislation
Proposed and Adopted Regulations
WestlawNext also provides users with the option of searching for legal terms. WestlawNext supports the Boolean search method that allows users to enter a query that consists of key terms from their issue and connectors specifying the relationship between those terms. The Advanced Search page enables users to search for terms within specific parts of a legal document and to limit by jurisdiction. After search results are returned, users can use the WestlawNext filtering tool to find the exact document they need. WestlawNext allows users can email download, print, place in DropBox, or view with Kindle search results and documents.
For more information about WestlawNext please contact the Bentley Library Reference Desk at 781.891.2300 or refdesk@bentley.edu.
The Bentley Library is pleased to announce a new research tool, BrowZine, for the Bentley community. BrowZine is a free web or mobile application that allows users to browse, read, and follow academic journals from the Library’s online collections. BrowZine allows tablet users to read articles in a format that is optimized for their device. Users can also create a bookshelf with their favorite journals. Tablet users can download the BrowZine app from the Apple or Android app stores or by going to Bentley’s BrowZine site at http://browzine.com/libraries/748/. Once the app is downloaded users can select “Bentley” from the list of BrowZine libraries to access the Bentley Library’s online academic journal collections.
The web-based version of BrowZine can be used with a browser and does not require a mobile device. To access BrowZine via the web point your browser to http://browzine.com/libraries/748/.
A Bentley email address and network password are required to access BrowZine content from off-campus. Please contact the Bentley Library Reference Desk at refdesk@bentley.edu or 781.891.2300 with any questions regarding BrowZine.
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.
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.
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.
