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March 18, 2009

Zimbabwe as a "Failed State"

I met with a sophomore student about her research in Politics 105 (Global Politics) for a term paper on the factors (political, economic, corruption, agriculture, etc.) which are combining to define Zimbabwe as a "failed state."
Here is the research guide.

December 6, 2005

"glass ceiling"

For my final paper for my industrial organizations course, I am doing a survey of the literature on the glass-ceiling. I was wondering if you had any ideas on how I could get my hands the text of the original 1986 article where the Wall Street Journal coined the term? The online archive only goes back to 1996. Thanks!

Actually, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which is pretty close to the Word of God on the etymology of English-language words, "glass ceiling" first appeared in a 1984 article in the magazine AdWeek.

We do not have access to 1984 issues (print or online) of AdWeek here at W&L, unless you use interlibrary loan.

December 5, 2005

local government in Wyoming

including characteristics of politics and government in the state.

Almanac of American Politics
Cultures of the States
Book of the States
Municipal Yearbook
American Community Survey/Census of Population/Census of Governments (from census.gov)
PAIS
JSTOR
ProQuest Research Library
America: History & Life
local govt professional associations (leading to Wyoming municipal associations)

December 2, 2005

historical economic data

It's late on Thursday evening... and now a student wants historical data on various countries' GNP's and historical bilaterial trade data between various countries.
This page made it so much easier to identify a couple of CD-ROM databases and UVa's database.

November 30, 2005

college enrollment stats

You know of a report that documents enrollment trends in the different types of colleges and universities ( including 2 yr, online, distance learning, etc.)?

Two possibilities from the National Center for Education Statistics:

here and here

I cannot find any convenient historical trend data on distance education; everything I find is annual snapshots, such as this recent one.

November 28, 2005

historic oil prices

Students working on a money and banking assignment are looking for time series data on oil prices, crude and other forms. Best source for this is the Energy Information Administration http://www.eia.doe.gov/

African Development Report

A merry chase... A student is looking for the 2005 African Development Report and according to him "Annie says that W&L has it, but the woman at the front desk said that it is currently being catalogued."

In fact, Annie says we do not have the 2005 African Development Report, nor has it even been ordered. (It is not being catalogued, in other words.) We don't have 2004, either, although we do have 2002 and 2000.
Actually, it appears to me that the 2005 ADR has not been released as yet -- I can find no link to it in the African Development Bank Web site, nor does any U.S. library have any record of it.
You can see the foreword and table of contents of the 2004 report here.

[We are now initiating a s.o. for the the ADR.]

November 16, 2005

gay African-American men

A student needs article on African American homosexuals, especially as they are perceived by other African Americans and by themselves.
Here is the research guide.

analygis

From my weekly blog roundup...

http://65.39.85.13/google/default.htm

A tool based on google maps that allows you to input an address and retrieve census data for the surrounding area. Could be useful...

November 15, 2005

Drawings and artwork

I had a student last night who needed line drawings for a project and couldn't use the internet-she wanted books. I ended up just giving her the general call number for art and telling her to browse the shelves. Can anyone think of a better way to do this?

November 14, 2005

African American churches and social networks

A student in the Race and Ethnic Relations course is researching the relationship between African American churches/religion and kinship networks.

Here is the research guide.

editorial content analysis

A student in a research methodology class needs to compare the partisan aspects of editorials in a couple of newspapers over a two-week span.

LexisNexis Academic works OK, using the search term "editorial" within the lead paragraph. (Question: Is LN catching "every" editorial? What about op-ed's and other commentaries?)

Factiva is much the same situation.

Our new NewspaperDirect PressDisplay is excellent for this, except that printing is very awkward.

November 10, 2005

Finding a publisher

Al Fralin wants to publish a book of essays in French/English. He needs to know what publishers would be interested.

* Literary Market Place 2005 -- subject index: Language, Literature, Essays.

November 7, 2005

The Country Wife

Student needs to trace editing changes in Wm. Wycherly's play The Country Wife over a period of several decades.


EEBO
to
ECCO

November 3, 2005

sexual identity

Sociology student is hunting for a topic relating to transsexuality/transgendering, perhaps developmental aspects.
Research guide is here.

rape shield laws

Sociology student needs materials on rape shield laws.
Research guide is here.

International data on poverty and clean water access

Student looking for data on various measures of poverty and access to potable water.

Good sources for both include
World Development Indicators (HC59 .W62 - latest in Ref and CD-ROM on Permanent Reserves)
Human Development Report (HD72 .H85 -latest inReference) also on the Web

and another good source for water is
World Resources (HC10 .W827 -latest inReference) also on the Web

the Statistical Yearbook from the UN is another source
(HA12.5 U57)

October 31, 2005

speech transcripts

Student needs texts of speeches delivered by Howard Dean and Barack Obama during or immediately after the 2004 Democratic Convention.
I could find the Obama (keynote) speech via ProQuest Research Library, but not a Dean speech.
The life-saver turned out to be a George Washington University site, linked from our 2004 Mock Convention research page.

[The Internet Archive does not yet have its 2004 Election collection up-and-about yet.]

October 18, 2005

technology in movies

Depictions of industry or [new] technologies in motion pictures. (For University Scholars course on industrial revolutions.)

Annie
WorldCat
Dissertation Abstracts
ProQuest Research Library
Expanded Academic ASAP
America: HIstory & Life
Art Fulltext

still mulling this...

October 6, 2005

domestic violence laws

Sociology student is working on a project to investigate the relationship between domestic violence laws/legislation and changes in patterns in recent years.

Here is the research guide.

October 5, 2005

prisoner re-entry

Student is beginning work on senior thesis on issues relating to the reintegration of released prisoners into the general population.

Here is the research guide.

October 3, 2005

Report on US Sports Industry

Encyclopedia of American Industries, Connect

Lexis-Nexis. Do a search for a sports company, then follow the link to the industry report.

wine data

Student wants wine market (sales, consumption) data, maybe specifically on geographic and demographic patterns.

Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
LexisNexis Statistical
[both surprisingly little help]

ABI/Inform -- very good

several items from the Federal Government on the wine trade in the U.S.

Congressional hearing:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/action/108-51.pdf

Federal Trade Commission report:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/07/winereport2.pdf

Bureau of Labor Statistics report:
http://www.bls.gov/cex/anthology/csxanth7.pdf

A collection of links to online sources on the wine industry:
http://winebusiness.com/IndustryLinks/

Statistics from the Wine Institute:
http://www.wineinstitute.org/communications/statistics/index.htm

September 30, 2005

mentee?

Is the recipient of mentoring a "mentee?"

Answer: yes.
Source: OED.

Live and learn.

September 28, 2005

shock vs. gradual

A POL 101 student needs just a few resources (for a short paper) which will enable her to compare shock/big-bang economic transitions to capitalism with more gradual approaches, preferably to compare Russia with China.

Annie
EconLit
PAIS
Sociological Abstracts

September 16, 2005

island conservation

A student is applying for a Watson Fellowship to study conservation/ecotourism in island environments.
The research guide is a work-in-progress.

September 12, 2005

student printing

I just discovered that I have been giving students some erroneous information about how much "free" printing they get each term. Oops.
The correct info is here.

September 6, 2005

copies of articles

This is not a big deal, but I have had at least a half-dozen inquiries from law students and faculty about access to articles from various periodicals, such as the Times of London.
The problem for law folks, of course, is that they need either physical copies of articles or PDF copies. (Other online forms are not acceptable in the legal world.) In short, I think our own increasing reliance on articles via LexisNexis, etc. is causing some problems for Law, but not for us.

August 18, 2005

international data on births out-of-wedlock


Table #1326 for "Births to Unmarried Mothers" in Statistical Abstract of the U.S.

Data was taken from more complete (?) article in the Monthly Labor Review

August 12, 2005

population data for each U.S. Congressional district

Congressional Fast Facts (link in our Web site)

August 4, 2005

Japanese 100: Study Abroad (Bibliography)

Date of Creation: 8/4/05
Course: Japanese 100
Librarian: merrilly Merrill
Department Faculty: Janet Ikeda
Students: unknown
Description of Assignment(s): readings on living and studying in Japan
Course Research Guide (URL): http://library.wlu.edu/LivinginJapan.asp

August 1, 2005

Dr. Livingston

Doctor Livingston I presume? (My test)

CVS

July 29, 2005

address of Woodstock Hotel in New York City in 1940's

Historical New York Times

July 28, 2005

merrilly test

My first attempt at blogging.

elizabeth test

this is my test blog

July 26, 2005

educational attainment level for immigrants to the U.S. by state

[This is a sample post, copied from the Blackboard database.]

It's the "by state" part that's the killer.

I have pored over the Office of Immigration's Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/ybpage.htm

and other sites and cannot find the level of data you want for your project. The Census Bureau has a "Foreign-Born Population" program, http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign.html as well as an "Education Attainment" program,http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html, but neither has the geographic level of data wanted.

I also checked the highly-useful Center for Immigration Studies,http://www.cis.org/but, again, the state-by-state breakdown of education attainment is not there.