SPSS

I just had a patron in Media asking about the availability of SPSS software or the SPSS database for Social Sciences. Her professor is Mr. Harvey. Anyone know about this? Thanks

BlackBoard Login

Your old login for BlackBoard will not work anymore. It has been changed to your regular university login. It has not been updated with instructional materials this year since we have LibGuides.

Check This Out

A Most Interesting New Service/Site.

NYTimes: September 3, 2008, 10:05 am
An Alternative to the Glut of Opinions Online

By Claire Cain Miller http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/cmiller/
Google a controversial topic and you will be swamped with blogs and message boards filled with readers' thoughts, some insightful, others biased or not factual. Russell Fine hopes to provide an alternative with Opposing Views http://www.opposingviews.com, a Web site that went live in July. It presents debates between two experts on either side of controversial issues, along with reader responses.
"Our basic mantra is to focus on issues people really care about, the things that keep you up at night, and our goal is to provide you a way to become educated and well-informed," Mr. Fine said.
The experts, who are not paid to contribute to the site, make their case in point and counter-point debate format. They break down their arguments using bullet points and can add supporting videos or documents. Opposing Views posts recent news articles on each topic, and users can start discussion threads on particular points of an expert's argument. Readers can search for debates that are "most heated" or have generated the "most objections."
Experts from LifeWay Christian Resources and the American Public Health Association debate whether schools should teach abstinence-only sex education, for example. Representatives from Save the Internet and the CATO Institute debate net neutrality and a porn star and member of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families debate whether pornography harms the country. (Mr. Fine acknowledged that most arguments are not black and white and promised multi-sided debating on the site sometime soon.)
Mr. Fine, who co-founded the horse-racing and online-wagering site Youbet.com, hatched the idea for Opposing Views two years ago, after turning to the Internet to research the death penalty. He found he had to jump from site to site to get a broad range of opinions on the issue. Missing from the Web, he thought: a service that presented the expert viewpoints of both sides of an issue in one place.
That sounds a lot like what newspapers aim to do. Is this site yet another step in the exodus of readers from print versions of papers to the Web?
Mr. Fine claims not. For one, he said, Opposing Views doesn't report events. Instead, Mr. Fine wants the discussion on the site to go beyond news stories and therefore complement newspapers. "It's more like an op-ed for the reader who really cares about something they read about and wants to dig deeper and read both sides," he said.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/an-alternative-to-the-glut-of-opinions-online/index.html

Oxford (formerly Grove) Online

There is an issue with Oxford's proxy server so they have given us a temporary username/password for Oxford Music Online and Oxford Art Online. It is wssurams for both.

Assignment for James Braswell: 3 definitions of good health

I had two questions at the reference desk and Mel had the same question yesterday on the following:

Students have the assignment of finding three sources (any format - magazine, newspaper, book, etc) providing 3 definitions of good health. I spoke to the instructor, James Braswell via phone. He said that students are to find 3 sources outside of the textbook that provide at least 3 components of good health. These can be dealing with personal hygiene, diet, wellness or any other aspect "good health."

I tried to use Acaedmic Search Premier because there is the option of limiting results to magazines, journals, etc. I had little to no success. I am still looking and I will email one student a bit later. This is a heads up to everyone else. If anyone has any sugesstions, please share.

CETL Calendar

For students and faculty asking at the Reference Desk for classes, if it is not a library class, it could be taking place in CETL. To get to their calendar through the WSSU Web site, go to: http://cf.wssu.edu/workshop/ws_registerDirectURL.cfm?ws_sponsor=CITTLE.

There is another calendar that pertains only to their lab. It is a public folder in Outlook. Go to “Public Folder,” go to “All Public Folders” > “CITTLE Labs” calendar > “Multimedia Lab” calendar.

Dr. Davis assignment/200 black males from NC

Hello all

We can use the African American Studies Center for the assignment that we all know about, where students have to find 200 black males from North Carolina. I found two "tried and true" resources.

African American Studies Center
I used the African American Studies Center database.

When you access it, go to "Search" in the top left, and then click on "biographies."

You can set your search limits to "males" and birth place to North Carolina. Then click search, and it gives 173 males born in North Carolina.

Africana Encyclopedia (DT14 .A37435 2005 )
The students can look up "North Carolina" as an entry or browse the names for those affiliated with North Carolina.

There are probably other resources, but these are the simplest to explain.