Reference Transactions

After visiting Erich Uffelman's Chem 350 class to teach SciFinder on April 20, I was asked to come in to show the students Refworks and how to use it with SciFinder on Thursday April 23. There was a bit of a learning curve for me, but the class was successful and interesting to the students. It lasted 90 minutes, and was the same 5 students from earlier in the week.

All of these students are working on the same project, so they needed to be able to share references with each other. Since we no longer have RefShare, I taught them how to create a "group account" with a common password. I also showed them how to import references from SciFinder, which has no direct export option and requires saving a .txt file to a disk and uploading it to RefWorks. Along the way, I explained how RefWorks will work for individual users, since they all seemed interested in using this outside of Chem 350.

I also showed them Write-N-Cite, which was a huge hit. Prof Uffelman, an Endnote user, is interested in importing his library into RefWorks. The students all told him that he should have me show this to much lower level chemistry classes as well.

I plan to create a tutorial for Scifinder/Refworks this summer, since it's a little more complicated, as well as a tutorial for shared accounts. Refworks is really taking off!

Posted by Mary Abdoney at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I taught two open sessions for the new SciFinder Web on April 24 and April 27. Even though I had advertised this liberally to students and faculty, I only had three attendees total: one professor and two students, all of whom are working together this summer on a project.

We basically went through the basics of setting up an account, navigation, and searching. Since everyone had used the old SciFinder, many of the techniques were old hat, so I concentrated on the new features (such as alerts, cited reference searching, and functions within the personal account), which were extremely appealing to the attendees.

I wish more people had attended, because I think they got a lot out of this session. I will probably offer this again in Fall.

Posted by Mary Abdoney at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Professor Kiracofe asked that I assemble a research guide for this new course, which has 25 students enrolled. Each student is to write a research paper.

Posted by Dick Grefe at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with Doug Cumming's Spring Term class, which includes 7 students. Each student is charged with coming up with 25 magazine article ideas, which means that there is a wide range of possible topics. (Cockfighting, aerial dance, old fraternities at W&L are some early examples.)
The research guide tries to address the basics (?), but probably will need to be "enhanced" as the term progresses.

Posted by Dick Grefe at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brad Reichek is a new professor in French, but he also is trying to develop a film studies curriculum here. He asked that I make a presentation to his Spring Term freshman seminar (9 students) to help them with their research assignments.
Here is the research guide.

Posted by Dick Grefe at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I made a presentation to Harvey Makowitz's class (12 students), covering this research guide.
Each student is to write a research-based term paper.

Posted by Dick Grefe at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Legal journalism expert Toni Locy has 6 students with a variety of assignments, including a research paper, on about 20 famous trials in U.S. history, from Peter Zenger to John Brown to Charles Manson to Timothy McVeigh.
I made a presentation to the class, discussing this research guide.
FWIW, Professor Locy plans to expand this course to be taught in 12-week terms.

(And thanks to Wanda and Laura for getting several of Greenwood reference e-books in time for this course.)

Posted by Dick Grefe at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Psych 120 Quantitative Literacy
Spring Term 09
Tiffany Pempek
F hour
~30 students
Focus: PsycINFO
1 hour

Very quiet group, about half had used PsycINFO before. This is the first psychology class where students do real research.

Posted by Mary Abdoney at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chem 350 Advanced Inorganic
Spring Term 09
Erich Uffelman
C hour
5 students
Focus: using SciFinder Web
1 hour

There will be a follow-up class on Thursday about Refworks.

Posted by Mary Abdoney at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

David Novack asked that I assemble a course research guide for this Spring Term class, which has not been taught in several years.
There are 7 students in the class and they have multiple research assignments, including a six-page essay, a class lecture, and a term paper.
David will send individual students to see me, as needed. Here is the research guide.

Posted by Dick Grefe at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had a few students who are having problems doing an online test or quiz for Interdepartmental 201. This quiz is NOT in blackboard or sakai-it's on some commercial site. The course is some kind of info-literacy course for business students.

Special software is needed to run this quiz. It's supposedly installed in the 101 lab here, and in the lab in Huntleigh Hall. I've had reports of the quiz not working in 101, so if a student is having trouble, direct them to Huntleigh.

Posted by Kyle Felker at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)