Communication

     For some reason, I got the impression in my undergraduate career at Kent State that getting a degree in Communication was something journalism and design drop-outs did.  Obviously this is not case. Communication sounds like such an interesting field of study, applicable to almost any situation. Dawn Popoff's article proves that it is a diverse and unfocused discipline (I think we are seeing a trend in academia for disciplines being unfocused and diverse).

     The job of the librarian, of course, is to understand the nuances of their patrons information needs and wants; it may be more important to understand how people are going to perceive communication studies rather than to concern yourself defining it. However, Popoff's study is interesting in how different institutions define core collections. There is little consensus over what constitutes the core body of literature in communication; what are libraries and librarians to do? In consulting lists, there is little risk in consulting multiple lists; a collection development librarian can make their own decisions on what makes up a necessary communication collection based on need. However, the implications of disagreement between proprietary indexes are large. Discovery through the databases will be limited by what each index has deemed "core". As cost is ever an issue, most libraries will have to make decisions on what index to purchase and subscribe to. These sorts of issues must be navigated through communication with scholars and faculty, to determine what is best for the departments, faculty, and students. 

     The Communications databases that Kent offers provide a range of resources to researchers. The standard EbscoHOST journal index is available through Communication and Mass Media complete, which fully indexes over 620 publications, and provides full text to many of these. A full list is available here. 

http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/ufh-coverage.pdf

     In addition to scholarly research, the University provides several news databases in the form of Factiva, America's News Magazines, LexisNexis, and Newspaper Source. LexisNexis and Factiva have always bothered me in that it is difficult to browse the sources. In Ebsco databases, it is easy to navigate to an issue of your choice publication and scan the article titles. In these databases, I have not found a similar way to do this. It makes it difficult to research news coverage of specific events and overall these user interfaces are unsatisfactory to me. The SRDS Media Solutions database was really interesting to me, even though some of its functionality was limited at the time. This is a much more "practical" database which stores data rather than research. 

     Citizen Journalism is something that librarians should take a special interest in; our whole doctrine revolves around free access to information, as well as freedom of speech. The internet has increased our freedom to access and speech by leaps and bounds in both its technological capabilities, and its impact on culture. We take for granted that it is so easy to share our opinions and thoughts on the web that we forget it was not always so easy to do this. Citizen journalism is important in that it empowers individuals to report the world as they see it; the internet facilitates this by providing an outlet. However, citizen journalism is also fascinating from the academic standpoint. Just search "citizen journalism" in Communication and Mass Media Complete and you will get 400 some articles. It is changing the way people perceive and interact with "the news" and information. Anyone can be a journalist.

     

HIstory of the Mass Media in the Untied States: An Encyclopedia

     Margaret A. Blanchard's History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia is a comprehensive survey of mass media in the U.S. from the first newspaper in Boston in 1690 to the 1990s, when the book was published. The topics of the entries cover events, people, laws and regulations, technology, and general issues and discussions.

     The book is made up of entries in alphabetical order. The articles range from less than a page to several, depending on the importance of the topic. Some entries include further reading, while others do not. There are also sometimes cross-references to other articles. The author is listed at the end of each entry.

   While the book is generally concise, there are some features that make it stand out. It features not only an alphabetical listing of entries but also a topical listing. This makes finding entries of interest much easier. The general bibliography is also very helpful, providing reference sources to the following topics: General Media History, Advertising, Alternative Media, Books, Broadcasting, Magazines, Media Law, News and Newspapers, Photography, and Presidents and the Press. I could see this list as aiding collection development, and for finding more detailed sources for patrons. The contributors are all listed with their credentials in the back of the book, along with an index. The inclusion of photographs and photocopies enhances the experience of reading articles.

   Unfortunately, a second edition of this book has not been issued, making it a rather dated reference source. For historical research, I can still see its utility. It seems more geared towards general reference, and would be most appropriate for undergraduates or high school students. Graduate students and faculty would most likely use it to gather other sources for their research.

Blanchard, M.A. (Ed.). (1998). History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia.
     Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.

Sociology

     The ANSS website is an interesting mix of organization-specific news and features and resources helpful to any librarian. In each newsletter, there are reviews of new databases, websites, or print resources, as well as insightful articles which discuss issues important to academic librarians. The authors often write about their own experiences with day-to-day librarian work; using a new tool to create a library guide or working with a new research database. The newsletters also provide updates as to what events are going on, and what different organization members are up to. While I wouldn't read these typically, it is a good way to stay up to date on trends going on in the social sciences and to look at model-librarians for inspiration. Aside from the publications, there are also resource bibliographies, links to select subject guides from which to draw inspiration, and various assessments and standards to put to use in your library. I really liked the linked tool kits from the ALA, which provide key resources not only for patrons in sociology and anthropology but resources for librarians, such as publications through which to find book reviews, and best practices.
http://connect.ala.org/node/173714

     I had never looked at the Library of Congress Teacher Resources before, but I will definitely consult this page in the future. The guide for non-LOC sociology resources is extensive, and while some of the links are dated or broken, most of the resources are valuable. I would recommend them to teachers and librarians alike. There are similar lists for other subjects and I will be sure to look in to them in the future.

     I like videos like Cale Brook's sociology theories introduction. I think these are great ways to brush up on a subject. As librarians, we will undoubtedly come into contact with more subjects and information-situations than we could possibly be prepared for. We won't be able to go in to every reference transaction already matching the patrons understanding of a topic, nor will we be able to enter every classroom with the same grasp as the students or professor. While we are surely equipped with the tools to find any book we could need on a subject, sometimes little explanations like these are all we need to get up to speed on a subject, at least until we have a better understanding. If I was asked last minute to provide bibliographic instruction to a sociology class, I might not have time to wade through all of the necessary material to understand sociological theories in full. A short video like this, made specifically to teach people would be a great resource to consult for a quick refresher. The multitude of informational videos on Youtube from amateur and professional teachers alike eases my mind that I will never know nothing about a topic, even on short notice. The same can be said for free online courses and podcasts. Understanding even the gist of sociological theories would allow me to provide better instruction to sociologists. The same goes for any topic.

http://libguides.bc.edu/content.php?pid=174749&sid=4431332
     When I'm looking for resources on my own I always try and look for ones that are open access. I liked this guide provided by Boston College for open-access sociology resources. The Directory of Open-Access Journals is a great portal to journals freely available to anyone. The link in the LibGuide takes you to the social sciences section, where there are many journals to look through. You can also search the entire DOAJ for articles of interest. The other pages include the open-access publisher/repository of the University of California. It would be great to one day see all state universities follow suit!

https://support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2571232?hl=en
     Fusion Tables is a visualization tool that sociologists can use to analyze and publish their data in an accessible environment. I have not played around with it too much yet, but it uses spreadsheets to visualize or map data. What makes it special is that you can take other people's public data and incorporate it into your own projects. The "merged" tables are live and will change as others modify or add their data. This could be a really interesting collaborative tool students and researchers. Of course, it works with Google Drive, and so any spreadsheets you already have will be ready to go. Unfortunately, it does not seem to do statistical analysis, so one would have to do that sort of work in another environment.


   



   

Encyclopedia of Social Measurement

     The Encyclopedia of  Social Measurement is another methodology resource for social scientists. This 3 volume set is an extensive kit of research methods, models, tools, data sources, and other topics relating to social sciences. I think this source would be appropriate for undergraduate levels and up, for any area relating to the social sciences.

     The subject areas included in this encyclopedia are: analytical techniques, constructs and variables, data collection, data sets and websites, data sources and subjects, fields and applications, historical events and figures, interpretation and data limitations, measurement models, research designs, and sampling design. If this list seems exhaustive it is because there are 356 articles in total. The different areas covered allow for all facets of social measurement to be covered; this is not limited to one part of research, but to all. A foreword by Bent Flyvbjerg lauds this text for its comprehensive and inclusive approach to social science, particularly for its equal consideration of qualitative and quantitative methods. He calls the text a guide on "how to do science." This is as apt a description as any that I could come up with.

     Each article includes its main text, along with an introduction, glossary, cross references to other articles, and a bibliography. When appropriate, the articles include illustrations, graphs, charts, equations, and other visual aids. I think the inclusion of a glossary for each article makes the encyclopedia more accessible. The well over 200 contributors come from a wide range of subject areas and institutions. The articles are arranged alphabetically but are also listed at the beginning organized the subject areas I listed. The index has 130,000 items, so this can be a very helpful tool for locating needed information as well.

     This resource is especially interesting because it is not limited to simple instruction on how to formulate research, but provides background in to the different schools of thought and methodologies in social science. It includes historical context in to methods, disciplines, and people, as well as covering emerging trends in the social sciences (as of 2005).

Kempf-Leonard, K. (Ed.). (2005). Encyclopedia of Social Measurement. Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier.

Geography

     Geography really does encompass any and all topics you could possibly think of.  I think Reddit user the60thparallel sums it up nicely...when asked the question, "What is geography?" they make the case that it is more appropriate to ask "What isn't geography?" I think this is spot on. In fact, every module we have studied so far in this class could be considered geography. Political science? It is hard to separate geography from that field. History? How can you understand the events and people of the past and present without taking in to consideration space and place? Even psychology can be related back to geography; how we mentally perceive and create places, how our mental maps function, etc. The60thparallel says, "There is a spatial component to every aspect of this world," and I think this is what geography is all about. In geography you learn to think about how every little piece of the world works together as a system. There are no islands. We are constantly looking at both the big picture and the little picture, and everywhere in between. Scale is a word that gets used a lot in introductory courses; we learn about map scales at a relatively early age, and this same principle holds true in geography. There is always another of looking at an issue, and another way we can frame what we are looking at.
    This fall in Kent State's geography department, students can take a variety of classes: Community Landscapes, Memory and Heritage, GIS and Health, Environmental Justice, Conservation of Natural Resources, Marxism and Geography, Spatial Programming, Geography of East and Southeast Asia, and my favorite, Geography of Wine; the list goes on. Many students from other departments enroll in geography courses; and likewise, we as geography students were encouraged to explore courses out of our department. At the reference desk and in the Map Library, I've helped students in anthropology, geology, translation, and public health look for geographic information. And I've helped geography students look for information on public health and musicology research. It's a little ironic how infrequently geography students need maps from the map library.
    Of course geography IS also the study of places. Many geographers devote their research to studying a particular part of the world. Most of our introductions to geography involve a map or photographs of somewhere far away. National Geographic, though it may have forever biased many non-geographers to think that geography is just the study of places is a wonderful example of geography in action. Aside from telling people where they can find the magazine on our shelves, I can see the Education section of the webpage being a valuable tool to provide to education majors looking for resources to include in their lesson plans, where resources are organized by grade level. Is a patron going to be studying abroad next semester? I would direct them to the Travel section of the website to learn a little more about the culture they will be living and learning in.
    Taking things a step further, Atlantic Cities is a really cool website that features articles with a geographic mind. The articles here would be interesting to geographers and non-geographers alike, and one of my favorite things about it is that the news that gets featured here does such a good job of showing how place and space matters, while rarely seeming to get academic. Readers would have to go a step further and research the principles and concepts behind the events and developments, but if you want to show someone why geography matters, Atlantic Cities is the place to send them.
   

Websites that I frequently use or would use are:

http://wikimapia.org/ This one totes itself as a map version of Wikipedia; anyone can edit the map, just like OpenStreetMaps, but Wikimapia lets you take the process a little further by describing the feature in Wikipedia like articles. Its a great tool for simple discovery and exploration of your neighborhood, but I could see this a good resource for documenting and mapping geographic phenomena.

http://walking-papers.org/ Walking Papers is a DIY paper atlas creator. It allows you to print off detailed maps of an area, mark up your paper maps however you like, and then upload the marked-up maps back up to the server. The website introduces itself as a way to improve on OpenStreetMaps data, but I think this would be valuable for researchers who want to map phenomena on the ground without having to use expensive and sometimes un-intuitive GIS interfaces. This could be another form of grassroots mapping. One cool thing about geography is that many researchers are concerned about not only learning more about a phenomena, but spurring social justice through change. Maps allow us to record something that is happening and communicate it geogrtaphically to others.

http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/ OSGeo4W is a package of several high-quality opensource geospatial programs. The industry standard in GIS is ArcGIS, a software package from ESRI. It is high quality but very expensive. Students and faculty at Kent are entitled to a free license, but I think libraries should be investing more in implementing open source software whenever possible. QGIS and GRASS, as well as the other programs included in this package are very capable. If individuals, groups, or whole departments and institutions needed to use GIS and were unable to get access to proprietary software like ArcGIS, I would definitely recommend looking in to OSGeo4W.

   
     

Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography

This was my required course reading for a special topics Geography course, Qualitative Research Methods, two years ago. When I was looking through Kent's reference section for this assignment, I found The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography (http://kentlink.kent.edu/record=b3344097~S1). I read through the introduction and while I'm sure it is an informative text, I don't think I would have selected it to be included in the reference collection. I think Oxford's Qualitative Research Methods is much more concise and usable as a reference text and I was happy to see that I hadn't gotten rid of the book so that I could write about it.

Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography is written as a comprehensive guide to various methods of research used by social geographers. It also introduces the idea of qualitative research as opposed to quantitative research, and discusses its place in the field of geography. Following the enumeration of methods, there are also sections that discuss communicating and constructing research proposals and findings. From start to finish it can be a very important text, priming someone new to research to the process. As a reference text, though, it can aid in the planning and design of one's own research. Each chapter covers the logistic considerations associated with each method of research, as well as ethical concerns.

The chapters are written by contributing authors. Most of the authors hold PhDs in the field. They typically write by combining concise instruction on the method or topic with personal experiences they have had in their own research. This makes the text an easier read and also offers insight that might not be gained from a simple "how-to" guide for research. The authors elaborate on mistakes they may have made or nuances to research that they have discovered by doing. There is also an emphasis on considering your role as the researcher, and how you are affecting the "subjects" of the study. We referred to this as reflexivity.

This is the third edition (2010), with the original appearing in 2000. The editor, Iain Hay, writes that the text has been updated to reflect changes in how the Internet and other technologies have changed qualitative research. I think this text should make its way in to more reference collections; there are 20+ copies in OhioLINK of the different editions, but none of them seem to be marked as reference books. I would recommend this as a guide for research to anyone in the social sciences, and especially to geography undergraduates and graduate students.

Hay, I. (ed.) (2010). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography (3rd ed.). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. 

Psychology

     I had never truly considered how broad the study of psychology is. It is not surprising that in 1962 Kuhn speculated that psychology might not be a true "science" due to its disjointed theories and lack of general consensus. This does however make psychology an incredibly exciting and diverse field of study, no matter how you define "science."

     Bennet and Simmings explore the effect that "embedding" a librarian in to a course has on the students, faculty, and library. Their study of Capella University's embedded librarian in psychology courses offered conclusions that embedded librarian increase student access to librarians. When students are encouraged by their professors to consult librarians, and are given direct contact to the librarian in the form of an online message board, we see that utilization of librarians increases. This model allows librarians to demonstrate their value at the point of need, rather than waiting for student patrons to approach them. Particularly in the online environment of many of today's institutions, I think this is an important method to take. While this is not by any means applicable only to psychology, the sheer number of psychology classes that undergraduates take may make these classes a good starting point for universities to implement embedded librarians.

   While searching in PubMed, I found a similar study by Alison Konieczny (2010). Konieczny writes in the first person describing her own experiences. She writes that the time commitment varies greatly depending on the need of the class, the class size, etc. She also comments on the variety of roles a librarian might take in the class; sometimes a librarian may only be present in the class at the beginning, preparing introductory content on how to perform research. Other classes might require the librarian to remain embedded the entire time to assist on research needs. Konieczny is sure to note that in particular, online students benefit from embedded librarians because librarians are not as visible to distance learners as they are to students physically attending classes on a traditional university campus. Nevertheless, I think that the concept of embedded librarians is worth exploring even in traditional, in-person classes. Librarians take on more of a central role and students are given more opportunities to explore them as a resource.

      In terms of actual reference sources, there seem to be a huge variety on the web and published in print. Because of the many different areas of study in psychology, these sources are often quite specific. Resources like AmoebaWeb from Vanguard University provide users with websites, blog posts, and resources in specific psychology subtopics like memory, language, social psychology, culture and psychology, etc. There are also the standard databases like PsychINFO and the other APA databases. The APA offers a broad range of products for libraries, from journals, databases, to books and other educational materials.

     In particular, I will be on the look out for more resources related to data and datasets. The APA offers this page as a guide: http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/data-links.aspx. There are also various LibGuides from different institutions providing links to data sets. One nice thing about these LibGuides is that frequently the datasets are not proprietary, even when most LibGuide resources at that institution are. I thought UCLA's guide to datasets was helpful as well. http://guides.library.ucla.edu/content.php?pid=32842&sid=2408190

   




Konieczny, A. (2010). Experiences as an Embedded Librarian in Online Courses. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 29, 47-57. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02763860903485084.

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming

    I was pleased to see that this was not a dream encyclopedia! Mary A. Carskadon's Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming is very much a scholarly reference book about the various psychological, physiological, and cultural aspects of sleeping and dreaming. The book starts with a short preface discussing the current (as of 1993) trends in sleep and dream research. Carskadon writes that the book is aimed at students. While the age of the student is not noted, much of the material is quite scientific in nature. It would be appropriate for the undergraduate level. As a reference it would still be relevant for graduates as well. The book is organized alphabetically with entries by various contributors. There are also "guidepost" entries which serve to help readers navigate from broad topics to more focused entries. Most entries include references to other sources, as well as cross-references to related entries.
     Because the book covers so many types of topics, I believe it is a real strength to take contributions from many authors. There is a list of articles by contributor which also notes the institution of the contributor. The articles range in topic from chemicals and hormones, to sleep practices of different cultures. One or several authors might not have had the expertise to elaborate on these narrow subjects, but the large pool of contributors appears to have done a good job.
     The book is most troubled by its age; it is 20 years old and has not seen a second edition. There is bound to be important research that has been left out due to its age. All the same, I see this book as a good introductory resource for students interested in this part of psychology.

Carskadon, M.A. (Ed.). (1993). Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Anthropology

     Of the disciplines we have reviewed so far, anthropology is the one I would have figured reference services for it would have been the most straightforward. After going through the module, I can't decide if this feeling has been confirmed or turned inside out. On one side, anthropology produces knowledge in a way I have not really observed other disciplines do. Economics, history, and political science all seem to constantly be changing, and aside from basic concepts, most knowledge produced is related strictly to current events. Anthropology appears to me to create knowledge about people that I could really see ending up in our much beloved reference books and staying there. An anthropologist makes discoveries and observes; their research should NOT alter the subject. Alternatively, political science and economics research may involve running simulations with controls, etc. In this way, I feel that reference services can be more straight forward to anthropologists.

    However, all of the material we have read and watched shows that this is not a passive field of "facts" and truths" but is also one that is constantly changing. Any of the blogs will show that new research is constantly pouring out and changing the way we formally looked at a specific phenomenon or group of people. The field itself seems to be changing, as writers talk about their changing discipline as much as their research.

     The breadth of good web resources for information really solidified my feeling about anthropology as being a slightly different discipline for librarians to relate to; since anthropology is the study of humans and our cultural heritage; there is already quite a lot of resources out there related to this that anthropologists might want to find. Quite a lot of this is already in libraries, archives, and museums (anthropologists are also concerned with digging up the rest of this heritage). I say this only in sort of jest; humans have been interested in humans for quite a long time, and it is easier to preserve human artifacts than it is to preserve political or economic artifacts. It is also easier to digitize a human artifact and put on the web, in some form or another. Cultural anthropology is a different story.

     It is also one that is fighting to preserve cultures and publicize injustices. My anthropology professor worked with Somali Bantu refugees in America, studying them but also helping them to adjust to life in this country. Her research helped to bring light to a story of tragedy for a people whose culture was at risk of being wiped out. While my professor worked with refugees as part of her research, many anthropologists are concerned with preserving cultures in their own lands. The stories reported in Cultural Survival Quarterly are sad but it is good to see an organization that works to keep these people and these cultures alive and empowered. I am reminded of recent reports concerning the price of quinoa becoming to high for those who have traditionally grown it to afford it; while this NPR article makes it appear that this is not entirely true (http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/07/17/busting-quinoa-myth) it shows me that our economic, social, and political decisions can have anthropological effects. I am sure this is just one example of the disciplines we are studying being put to use for advocacy and human rights.

Anthropology -- Encyclopedia of Creation Myths

     This book has probably been the most fascinating to pick up and flip through. David Adams Leeming's Encyclopedia of Creation Myths briefly describes the creation myths of cultures and religions from around the world. Each tale is presented in summary, as well analyzed in the context of broader themes in creation myths. There are entries for common themes and characters as well; for instance, there are many creation myths which involve a great flood and this theme gets its own entry. Entries are cross referenced by being emboldened in the text of other entries.

     I can see this book being useful for researchers needing simple facts about a specific culture's belief systems. What makes it so valuable, I think, are the cross references to cultures with a similar belief system and to common themes. In the same way that Aarne-Thompson tale-type numbers discussed in Christine Goldberg's article (2003) categorize folktales, different types of creation myths are typified in Leeming's book. This is also valuable to researchers interested in the oral tradition, in the evolution of myths from culture to culture, or in the survey of creation myths themselves.

     I could not find information on Leeming's background, but he has published many titles on myths, folktales, and storytelling. Kent State has 26 titles alone (several are alternate editions of the same book). Many of them are included in the reference collection. I cannot think of a way to verify that Leeming did not leave important myths out, but he provides sources for much of his information, and there is a full bibliography listed in the back of the book.

     The entries are not detailed. Usually a brief synopsis of the creation myth is given, but it is enough to get an idea of the tale. From then on, the bibliography could be used to locate other sources, or library research could be done. For this reason, I think this resource would be more suited for underclassmen, or as a source used for discovery. It is comprehensive nonetheless.

     The book was published in 1994. There is a second edition which Kent State University does not have. This edition, published in 2009, has been expanded with new myths, as well as an increased focus on the relationships between myths. This edition seems as if it would be even more valuable and perhaps more worthy of scholarly research.

Leeming, D. A., Leeming, M. A. (1994). Encyclopedia of Creation Myths. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara.

    

Economics Module

    I liked this week's guided tour through the different kinds of sources of information available to economists (and probably most social scientists). Economics is something I am painfully clueless about so it was interesting to read about what economists study (much more than money) and how they are studying it.
     I am always interested in free sources of data. I took classes on GIS in my undergrad, and while it was sometimes tedious, the possibilities of what you could do with just a collection of numbers was pretty amazing to me. I think a lot of people conceive of libraries as places where you go to get books and maybe access journals, but especially undergrads probably never consider having to search for data sets. At least at KSU, I think this is probably because we never really had to. We are given data sets to work with in our classes, probably with the assumption that we will develop the skills needed to collect or find our own when we get to that point in our academic or professional careers. Anyway, lists like these http://rfe.org/showCat.php?cat_id=3 could open up possibilities for students and researchers alike to pursue interests of theirs. Our jobs as librarians will be just as much to be able connect patrons to data as it will be to connect them to information...
... and showing them how to use it. http://rfe.org/showCat.php?cat_id=86. More and more we are expected to know how to use computers and computer programs and troubleshoot problems, but working in the sciences or around scientists, we should have some understanding of the kind of programs they use. We should be versed in basic database usage and statistical analysis. It might even benefit us in our own projects.
     On the other end of the spectrum from data are Reddit and podcasts, I would say. Both of these sources are great for keeping up to date on new developments and ideas in the field without having to get in to anything too technical. Especially in the case of Reddit, a lot of the articles are relatively short and digestible. Many of the topics on Econtalk sounded fascinating. Something like that would be a great substitute to your normal radio or podcast show in the morning. Here are some more: http://www.learnoutloud.com/subcategory_podcast.php?cat=0&catid=31&level=1&id=51&.
    http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/content.php?pid=129114 This was a great LibGuide from Purdue which highlights the different government sources from which we can get economic information. One benefit of these sources is that they are usually free. They are also detailed and extremely relevant. I have seen links to stories and research published by Federal Reserve Banks before. They are available both here http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/default.htm and from the individual banks at :http://www.federalreserve.gov/otherfrb.htm.
     Economics is often the topic of either the regular posts or the news story posting over at the Internet Scout. I've posted this before but couldn't resist because it was so topical. With all of the available sources online, I wonder how much of these accounted for the numbers which showed both faculty and students preferring online resources. While those numbers might look alarming at first glance, there are a lot of really great resources out there. It is not such a bad thing when the quality of information and data is so high.

Economics Module Reference Book -- 2013 State Profile Ohio

     State Profile 2013, published by Woods & Poole Economics, is a resource which has compiled well over 100 pieces of economic data for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, and 2015, with additional projections for the years 2015, 2020, 2030, and 2040 for the nation, states, metropolitan areas, smaller urban agglomerations, and counties. Included in Kent State's reference collection is only the publication with pages for Ohio, but data for all states can be purchased. The data ranges from purely demographic (population by age and race) to education, employment, income, industry, and sales information.
     I could see this information forming the basis of a variety of geographically focused economic studies. The data itself comes from various sources: the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census and American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Woods & Poole Economics itself. The paper version is a three ring binder with loose leaf pages contained inside; I assume that each year new data and new projections are released (though I could not determine the frequency from Woods & Poole's website). In paper form, the data is displayed in tables. Each geographic area takes up two full pages. Thankfully for researchers, a CD form of the publication exists as well, with datasets available as CSV (comma separated values) files. In this form, the data can be displayed and manipulated using spreadsheet and database software, such as Excel, SPSS, ArcGIS, SAS, and others.
     The scope of the data is within the realms of political science and economics, but it could all be related to other data to perform new analyses of economic phenomena. From the website, data from any state can be purchased either in print, on CD, or downloaded. The nature of the way data is collected can impart bias, and the publisher makes sure to note that the accuracy is not guaranteed. However, the publication itself has only compiled data and performed projections and calculations; presumably very little bias went into this process. At the start of the volume there are descriptions of each indicator to explain exactly what is contained in the data. The most current year in the data set is 2011, but changes have been made in the 2013 version to include more information. Projections extend to 2040.
     I chose to review the State Profile because I was intrigued at how the nature of data (and more importantly accessing it) has changed. I couldn't imagine having to manually tabulate the extensive calculations that went into releasing this data set. Nor can I imagine manually performing the analysis it is intended for. Economists of today have the blessing of statistical software and quick, immediate access to data that researchers of former generations would have never dreamed of. This publication seems o be relatively accessible with clearly labeled data fields. However, often times when dealing with raw data things are not so clear, which makes me think back to the first week, reading about data repositories. I foresee less and less of printed data sets of this type; but with slew of data being stored digitally, I hope it is curated in a way that it will be discoverable and accessible to researchers.


Woods & Poole Economics, Inc. (2013). 2013 State Profile Ohio. Washington, DC: Author.

History Module

     I will absolutely be modeling any future LibGuides I create after the ones found at Temple University's library webpage. The depth and care taken for annotating each resource specifically for that guide is very different than others I have seen (where there is one annotation that appears in every guide that a resource appears in). David C. Murray's guide http://guides.temple.edu/content.php?pid=1264&sid=15632 for history is up to par with what I have seen from Temple. He includes three separate pages for Primary Sources for the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and demos for finding articles. There are several well though out sections, including one that contains resources for finding theses and dissertations specifically in the area of history. He also includes links to other guides to specific courses. For the class Hollywood and American History, Murray includes resources for film and popular culture in addition to more typical history resources. This is a great example of making sure to provide relevant instruction; it is good to appeal universally, but it is also good to appeal specifically. Contextualize your information to your target audience. Historians, especially, might approach differently from other students and faculty, and so explaining how each resource is relevant to them is an important part of the process.

     Something I had never considered when thinking of different subject areas of study are how diverse different researchers needs and interest could be in one discipline. There are a large number of nursing and public health students who frequently contact the reference desk for help. Between the two groups, they primarily use PubMed, CINAHL, and Medline. Dalton and Charnigo's study finds that of a wide variety of history electronic databases, only four are used by more than 10% of the study population. Perhaps both because history is such a spread out discipline, over time and place, and the nature of historical resources, in that digitizing them is expensive and time consuming, it is difficult to present these resources in universally appealing databases. Historical societies, archives, and museums take on a much larger role in historical research, I think, than in other disciplines, and maybe for similar reasons are the sources used by historians more varied.

          It is interesting to me how wide reaching historians' study can be. The Royal Society's library is a portal to the history of science and medicine. Most college freshman would probably not include the study of medicine and science in their description of history. I probably would not have either! But anybody is likely to be a historian on something. And any museum or collection is preserving some history. It is just up to people themselves to make these connections and discover new meanings from the record we have preserved.

     The list of history resources offered by the Digital Librarian reminds me of the Internet Scout, a weekly compilation of multidisciplinary resources organized by the Computer Sciences department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I think that the list has some great resources but there also dead links. There is no organization either! We are left to scroll the extremely large page to find what we are looking for. The Internet Scout similarly compiles links to interesting websites; many of which are digital libraries themselves or digitized collections. The links can be viewed by week published going back into the 1990s (yikes!) or they can be searched or browsed by subject . I check it weekly as the distractions it provides might end up being useful to a patron some day. Equally interesting are the free software posts that usually appear (though not this week).

    Looking through Kent's LibGuide, I'm actually surprised that I don't get more questions about these resources. I do not know if it is because people generally know how to use them, but anytime I get questions about research related to history, the patrons usually seem to be more interested in books (as reported by Dalton and Charnigo). I do not believe I have ever fielded a question by a history faculty member (of which 2% in the study said they consult librarians for help). A resource I have enjoyed in my own time is Chronicling America, which I'm assuming was down throughout the shutdown. It is weird to think how this discipline's access to information can be regulated by government; if the government controls access to the past through its archives, it can, if it wishes, withhold information which will change historians' understanding of the past (and present).
   

   

Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artificats to Cyberspace -- History Module

     As we have no doubt seen, historians pull from a large variety of source types, many of them outside the normal scope of popular citation styles, like APA and even Chicago. How do you cite a gravestone? What about the records of an insurance company? The multitude of unconventional and unpublished source types can make historical and genealogical research difficult to document properly. For that purpose, Evidence Explained exists.
     In its pages are example upon example of historical source citations, for virtually any kind of resource. There is definitely an emphasis on primary resources, for which other style guides often provide vague instructions for citations.The source types are organized in a relatively easy to navigate structure: archives and artifacts, records for businesses and institutions, cemeteries, censuses, churches, local & state governments, national governments, and publications of all types. In each section, there is a contents list, a "quickcheck model," and more detailed explanations of the citations. The quick check models are extremely helpful in that they breakdown each part of the citation into individual units. The detailed instructions are also very thorough, typically describing procedures for online access to resources of that nature and the various nuances of the source type. For example, the differences between films and fiches made for preservation purposes only and those made for commercial distribution are covered in the archives section.
     There is also a chapter related not to the citation of sources but to their analysis. Here the author covers primary and secondary sources, legal terms, criticisms to consider when analyzing sources, and a "process map for evidence analysis," all in significant detail. This section is valuable for understanding how arguments can be made and proven soundly in research.
     The author, Elizabeth Shown Mills, is a well known historian and genealogist. She was a former president of the American Society of Genealogists. he book itself is published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. Because of this, perhaps, the book does seem to be geared towards genealogists and local historians (or maybe this is my own projection/bias for having taken a class on local history and genealogical research methods). Either way, the list of source types is extensive; it is hard to imagine a source that would not be covered here. I do not think this bias matters much as there seem relatively few sources a historical researcher would use that a local historian would not.
     The book does a good job of considering both the multitude of sources that one might cite, and also the format that these sources might be viewed (in person or electronically, etc.). The 2nd edition has apparently added much in the way of content due to consideration by the author, suggestions by readers, and the changing nature that researches access their sources.
     Many of the explanations include instructions that do not necessarily come from any documented style. For example, for citing a photocopied material received from another individual, Mills notes that you should indicate who supplied the photocopy. These comments seem to be made at the discretion of Mills, but lean to the side of reason and care.
     Overall, this book is an extremely helpful source for those utilizing sources not covered in APA, MLA, and Chicago. History faculty and students alike would benefit from its availability; few things are more frustrating to me then trying to cite a source when there isn't a clear format for that type. Evidence Explained takes the guess work out of bibliographies and notes and allows the researcher to focus on their research. 
    

Mills, E.S. (2007). Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.      Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company.

Political Science Module

     I thought it was a really valuable exercise reading through the research competencies outlined by the ACRL. These competency lists can be immensely important not only for measuring your own competency, but for how much of your own research skills and methods you impart on your patron. Part of being a reference librarian means teaching your patrons how to do better research. Being mindful of these skills and values and how you communicate them to patrons while assisting them in research will make each reference transaction more meaningful and valuable.

     One of the core competencies for any sort of information literacy is knowing which kind of source to use at what time. Very often, students assume that they absolutely must use a scholarly journal for their research, even when it is not appropriate. For instance, I had a student today ask if several different journals she wanted to use were considered professional web sites. It turned out that several of those journals did have professional websites accompanying them that she was able to use. In the case of current events and political science, I think CQ Researcher is a great resource that doesn't fit into the usual "scholarly journal" kind of resource that many students automatically assume they need. Especially for looking at issues, CQ Researcher offers valid arguments for and against many issues in the news today. Pointing out resources like this and others that do not fit the bill of scholarly journal is important for all disciplines because information comes in so many different forms.

      I chose to read one of the more recent articles in our prompted search in the International Political Science Abstracts. Hammond, Jen, & Maeda (2007) studies the relationship between the organizational hierarchy of governments and library catalogs. The research is quite interesting, although it struck me as a bit abstract, or even "theoretical" (it was published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics). Interestingly enough does give some insight into how political science researchers (or at least the three authors) approach research at the library. The entire basis of the article is to explore the overlap of "books on the shelf" next to a target book in two libraries using different classification systems. The findings show that there is very little overlap between two universities using Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal. This is all well and good, but the authors make the assertion that because of this, researchers will not have access to the same materials. This would be true only if their research method only involved one catalog search and shelf browsing. The authors go further to compare this phenomena to intelligence gathering in our government being spread out among different offices and jurisdictions. While I cannot say that I consider the authors' findings particularly applicable to political science, it is interesting to see this kind of abstraction in a scholarly journal. My only political science class was almost all abstraction, although it was an introductory course on political thought.  

     My undergraduate background was in social geography, and some of my professors employed a fair amount of abstraction as well. This is a far cry from the type of research done by other researchers which is hard, fact or evidence based research. Clearly, political scientists also use scientific and statistical evidence. I am just interested how the scientific research differs from political scientists more interested in the broad abstract concepts, which are obviously still important and relevant. I think if I had some free time I would consider taking an MIT course (or some other MOOC) that discusses political science research methods. These few looked promising:
 http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-869-political-science-scope-and-methods-fall-2010/index.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-878-qualitative-research-design-and-methods-fall-2007/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/political-science/17-960-foundations-of-political-science-spring-2005/

I had never thought of taking a free online class in order to make myself more helpful to potential clientele. If I were working for an institution that would pay for furthering my education, I would love to take classes in areas that would give myself a better understanding of the subjects I served as a liaison to. MOOCs offer an easy alternative.  

     I was happy to stumble across this LibGuide by Rick Lazenby at Temple University (http://guides.temple.edu/political_science). I will definitely use this a model for any subject guides I create in the future. So many of the ones I see simply list a few sources and give a brief description of the materials found inside. This is appropriate for an overall list of the resources available at the library, but for a subject guide to really provide value, it should explain how to use the resources. Lazenby's guide succeeds in doing this. For instance, he walks the reader through the different kinds of sources (books, journals, magazines, etc.) and when each source would be appropriate. He also covers where to find poll results, government documents, and news sources, and discusses the nuances of each of these source types.

     UCSanDiego provides this libguide with a variety of statistical and data sources (http://ucsd.libguides.com/content.php?pid=62534&sid=567117), many of which are available to the public. It is nice to see universities that indicate and promote the use of non-proprietary sources.

     I have not used it at all, but have been seeing it mentioned in various places around the web, I think it might worth mentioning here: http://www.r-project.org/. The R-Project is an open source software and computer language written for statistical analysis. From what I can tell, it is quite powerful. There is also R Revolution Analytics, which is based on R and seems to provide more support. http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/downloads/. This software and many other open source options might be useful for political scientists, as well as many others in the social science world. I am a big fan of open source software and always try to plug for it when I can.



Hammond, T. H., Jen, K. I., & Maeda, K. (2007). "Learning in hierarchies: An empirical test using      library catalogues." Journal of Theoretical Politics, 19(4), 425-463. doi:10.1177/0951629807080776.

Speeches of the American Presidents -- Political Science

     Speeches of the American Presidents is a great resource for those interested in the public discourse of American presidents dating back to the first presidency. Containing over 200 of the most well-known and important speeches from every president from George Washington to George W. Bush (the current president at the time of publication), the reader is able to study the development of the presidency, as well as observe how the use of speeches by the presidency has changed. Readers are given a look into key events and issues of each presidency through the topics presented in speeches and public addresses. The book is both a resource for studying individual presidents, the presidency, and speeches as a means of political communication.
     The book begins with a table of contents. The speeches are organized by president and in chronological order. In the preface to the book, Janet Powell comments that for the most part, speeches included were selected only from those made during the presidency. However, in some cases, important speeches were included that were given prior to the presidency. It is noted that a few of the speeches that exceeded a reasonable length to be fully included appear in excerpted form. Some "annual messages," now known as State of the Union address, were included from early presidents, even though these were read by an intermediary, not the president himself. The text of the speeches themselves were retrieved from the National Archives and Records Administration and the White House websites.
     The introduction serves as a narrative of speech-makings place in the presidency. It outlines changes in technology that have impacted public addresses by the president, and the various capacities in which the presidency has used speech toward political goals.
     The sections for each president begin with a brief one or two page description of the president and his presidency. Podell and Anzovin typically outline the president's prior political experience and cover the major events of the presidency. The editors also include commentary on the presidents' speaking style and political tone.
     For each speech included in this text, there is a brief introduction to the context in which it was given. The number of speeches included average from 3-5 for the earlier presidents to 6-9 for later presidents. There is no commentary provided, save the contextual information given. The book concludes with an index with entries for people, events, and topics.
     Speeches of the American Presidents is by no means a comprehensive source for scholars on the presidency, but I think it serves a great reference for students studying the art of speech in a political context, or who are interested in a particular president or time in American history. It includes speeches made by every president from all eras of our country's two-hundred plus years, and serves as a base for further interest in public addresses made by presidents.
     However, I feel the book lacks in several ways. As a reference source, there is no bibliography section, or even reference to where an interested reader can find more speeches by presidents. It simply says that speeches were retrieved from www.whitehouse.gov and www.nara.gov. This would have been an easy and invaluable addition to the work as a whole. Readers are left to find other speeches on their own. There is also surprisingly little discussion of the speeches in the context of public discourse, although this adds to the authority of the book as foremost being a collection of primary resources. Again, I feel as though the editors could have provided a bibliography for the discourse surrounding these speeches, or at least a discussion of doing that sort of research.
    Although there are some shortcomings, overall I do like this source. It accomplishes what the editors set out to do: compile some of the most important speeches in the history of the presidency. It can be used as a source for actual speeches, and, by consulting the indexes and introductions, to analyze the presidency and political history of the country in the context of speeches.


Podell, J., & Anzovin, S. (Eds.). (2001). Speeches of the American Presidents (2nd ed.). New York:    
     H.W. Wilson Company.

Introduction module

Hello class members...

I think my perception of librarians and other information professionals is definitely centered around the day-to-day interactions I see and take part in at the reference desk. This is my own bias and I need to work past it. To start with, this is only the front end of reference services at Kent State University. The librarians here are all involved in their own projects that I normally don't hear about it. Some of them only have 4-8 hours of desk time a week. Going further, I have only really gotten to know reference services at KSU. Other universities and colleges, and other information repositories, all have their own cultures as well as unique programs and degrees that likely shape their libraries' services.

If I was basing my perception of libraries and reference librarians solely off of my own experiences as a student reference assistant, I would say that librarians generally help patrons find secondary sources of information. I very rarely get approached by patrons looking for data. In most instances when they are looking for data, it is in a historical context (documents, first-hand accounts, photographs, etc). This probably has something to do with the fact that most of the patrons who approach the reference desk in the traditional manner are undergraduates. Typically the kind of work undergraduates do does not involve producing knowledge in the way a researcher does, but rather seeking out and interpreting, maybe synthesizing, already established knowledge. This means the bulk of reference questions lead to book and journal sources.

Obviously, in an academic setting, knowledge IS being generated. Professional researchers collect data, whether qualitative or quantitative, and analyze that data to draw conclusions. The research process and conclusions get documented and published in academic journals. This is how knowledge gets advanced. Undergraduates do do this, but at a much lower capacity. Both of the articles we read this week focused on professional researchers, likely graduate students and PhDs. As a possible future academic librarian, I will probably spend a lot of time communicating with researchers. That is why it is a good idea to understand the environment and processes involved in social science research.

The model that Meho and Tibbo is similar but also very different from other models of information seeking behavior, like Carol Kuhlthau's. In classes like Access to Information, I think we focus on library patrons coming to the library to solve some information need assuming they will find it in the library. This might mean a book they want to read, or sources for a homework assignment, or learning how to do something they need to do. Social scientists (and any other scientist) cannot do this at a library in the traditional sense. They must make observations about their topic of study, and usually this means observing some phenomena in the real world. What I gathered from both of the articles we read was that there is now more than ever an opportunity to change this in some respects. By understanding how researchers go about their research, we can design repositories that facilitate the sharing of usable data. By having access to not only the published findings of researchers, but also their data, other researchers would be able to share, collaborate, innovate, and further their respective fields of study. We as librarians should be advocating for the development of these sort of data repositories.

Sadly, I was not even aware that these were already being used by institutions. There interfaces are somewhat foreign to me (I looked at the Odum Dataverse and Harvard Dataverse). I will make it a point to become more familiar with the repositories themselves and also the concepts that they employ.