Analysts Turn To Software For Spotting Terrorists

There’s an interesting story from NPR’s Morning Edition that covers Palantir Technologies, a software company that has developed an application to track terrorists.

The story can be found here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106538028

At the end of the article, there are links to three related stories covering privacy.

Summer Games

If you are ready to play a computer game, stimulate a learning curve, and donate to a good cause, then it is time to go to http://www.freerice.com. This web site is educational in nature and a player can definitely learn something new by choosing to increase the difficulty of the questions. It is a charitable learning game that donates ten grains of rice for each correct answer through the United Nations World Food Program. (http://www.wfp.org/content/freerice-web-phenomenon-games-new-school-term

FreeRice is the creation of American computer programmer John Breen, and has the stated goals of providing education for everyone for free and helping end world hunger by providing free rice to hungry people for free. It has partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu). English vocabulary was the first online game at FreeRice, and started in October, 2007. Game content has expanded to include questions about English grammar, art, chemistry, geography, languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish), and math. Mr. Breen donated the site to the UN World Food Program in March, 2009.

As of today, 65,698,293,580 grains of rice have been donated to help solve the problem of world hunger. This is a game that definitely emphasizes the win-win concept.

National Parks – Free Admission Days This Summer

The National Parks Service (http://www.recreation.gov) will offer free admission to all 391 national parks on June 20-21, July 18-19, and August 15-16. You can search the site by location and/or park name, and/or usage type such as Day Use, RV sites, Cabins or Lookouts, Boat sites, etc. Or you can plan your trip around an activity such as biking, boating, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, or any of the nineteen recreational categories listed.

Giving Back (book review)

Giving back : connecting you, business, and community / Bert Berkley, Peter Economy
HN65 .B46 2008

This quick read is a useful resource for those in the business community who want make a difference in their immediate local communities.  There is a recurring theme in this work that showcases successful business leaders who create organizations to help their communities directly, rather than relying on government or outsiders to do it.  In the forward, Harvey Mackay describes the book as a tool for individuals to use as an “easy-to-follow blueprint for making a real difference in the world around them.”

Included in the book are descriptions some outstanding socially-responsible programs created by leaders of these well known companies:

Chick-fil-A
Stonyfield Farm
UPS
 
The book also features excellent narratives of the early beginnings of these successful organizations:

Horizons for Homeless Children
Kiva.org
SPORTS for San Diego

The leaders of each of these organizations are interviewed at the end of each chapter.  Thoughtful advice is given in chapter 10 for CEOs interested in starting a new organization.  For the rest of us (non-CEOs), in chapter 9, there are descriptions of organizations that enable individuals to give back to their communities.

The book is fully indexed and chapter headings are clearly laid out in the top margin of each page.  Additionally, there is a useful appendix with 14 web resources for researching, connecting, networking, and interacting with charitable organizations.  Phone numbers, fax numbers, and snail mail addresses are given for these resources as well.  Come in and check it out.

Employment Articles in Business Source Complete

Looking for a job?  Did you know that you can use the library databases to find articles that offer guidance in your job search?

Here are three recent articles that can be accessed though the Business Source Complete database:

Title:  How to Land a Job in an Economic Downturn
Author: Thompson, Kimberly
Source:  Phi Kappa Phi Forum; Spring2009, Vol. 89 Issue 1, p26-27, 2p

Title:  Writing a Recession-Proof Resume
Author:  Hosking, Rob
Source:  Office Pro; Apr2009, Vol. 69 Issue 3, p5-5

Title:  The Interview That’ll Bag a Job
Author:  Needleman, Sarah, E.
Source:  Wall Street Journal – Eastern Edition; 4/14/2009, Vol. 253 Issue 86, pD4

You can find these in Business Source Complete by searching the title and author from each article, or you can find them by using these related job hunting subjects:

EMPLOYMENT interviewing
ENTRY-level employment
JOB hunting
RESUMES (Employment)

To access the Business Source Complete database, go to the library’s website:
http://library.jwu.edu/

…then click on Databases
…then scroll down until you see Business Source Complete (Business Source Premier) in the alphabetical listing.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask…

- by using the instant message feature (meebo) in the upper-right pane of this blog.

- by phone:  305-892-7043

- or stop by, we’re happy to help.

Can’t log into the databases off campus???

If you are having trouble logging into the databases when you are off campus, it may be that the system does not recognize your barcode number. It is possible that your student ID information has not been added to the user database. If you are experiencing this type of error when logging in, check with the Library (305-892-7043) to be sure that your student ID can access the system off campus. Or, stop by the Reference Desk the next time you visit the Library, and we will be sure you have access.

Google presents: Public Data

Google has launched a new search feature that locates and compares public data by presenting the information in interactive graph form. The examples featured by Google include unemployment rates and population. The first search result for “unemployment rate Florida” is the graph of Florida’s unemployment rate from 1990 to recent data. Rolling the mouse over the graph will open windows containing the percentage number being represented by the specific data point, along with the month and year. Comparing data for various states and/or the entire U.S. is possible by simply making selections from the list presented on the left side of the graph. Clicking on the “more info” link on the top of the chart takes you to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the source of the data presented.

Searching for “population Florida” presents data in graph form from 1980 to July, 2008. The graph is interactive and reveals the population number, month and year, for each data point activated by rolling the mouse over the graph. The format for comparing data is the same and makes creating customized charts as simple as clicking various states, or the entire U.S.  The “More info” link on the population chart takes you to the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates web site.

Greenwood Digital Collection

This recent addition to our databases has over 100 e-book titles on topics that range from the arts to women’s studies.  The collection can be browsed by title, subject or author.  You can also search the collection by keyword (to search the full text within the books), title, author and other fields.

There’s a Quick Search feature at the top of every page in this resource, but most users will find that the Advanced Search offers more robust and accurate searching.  The resource also has the American Heritage College Dictionary built into it for looking up definitions without leaving the collection.

Here are a few Greenwood titles that relate to some of the majors here at JWU:

BUSINESS
Building High-Performance People and Organizations
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Successful Leadership
Global Business Etiquette Marketing in the 21st Century
Women in Business: The Changing Face of Leadership

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Battleground: Criminal Justice
Crimes and Trials of the Century
The Crime Junkie’s Guide to Criminal Law
Eco-Terrorism: Radical Environmental and Animal Liberation Movements
Offender Profiling in the Courtroom: The Use and Abuse of Expert Witness Testimony

CULINARY
The American History Cookbook
American Indian Food
The Business of Wine: An Encyclopedia
Controversies in Food and Nutrition
Food Culture in France (there are several other “Food Culture” titles featuring other countries)

FASHION
Fashion and Costume in American Popular Culture: A Reference Guide

HOSPITALITY
The Business of Entertainment
The Business of Sports
Encyclopedia of Sports in America
Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl

To access the Greenwood Digital Collection, go to the Databases section of our site, and scroll down to “G” in the alphabetical listings:

http://library.jwu.edu/research/databases/az.htm

Green Careers

The publishers of The Herb Companion Magazine have created the web site http://www.greatgreencareers.com to assist job seekers locate positions working in the new green economy. The green job market includes the energy, environment, skilled trades, and transportation industries. The site can be searched by job title, location, and keyword and there is an advanced search option. The latest jobs posted are linked from the home page. The site has an RSS feature. Testing the site revealed several positions when using search terms such as: chef, accountant, training coordinator, account manager, executive administrative assistant, and business development coordinator. Candidates can post their resumes to an online account as well as create job alerts and save customized searches. The Resources tab opens to several green-specific resource sites, useful articles from Mother Earth News, and general career resource sites. Employers can post jobs and search the online resume database.

Using the Content Specific Search form in LexisNexis

In my last post about LexisNexis, I talked about using the General Search forms and the Power Search forms.  You may also use the Content Specific Search forms which give you more control than the Easy search form and are simpler to use than the Power Search.  The Content Specific Search is designed to search a particular type of information such as News or Business.

Let’s go through an example.  When you enter the LexisNexis database, you will notice tabs at the top left of the screen.  Click on any of the tabs to utilize the Content Specific Search forms.  For instance, you need to search trade journals on the government regulation of the financial industry.  Select the News tab and enter the words in the search box just as you would on the other search forms.  You can either use the Natural Language setting, or Terms and Connectors setting.  If you are comfortable using Boolean search strategies such as “and”, “or”, and “not”, use the Terms and Connectors setting as you would when using the Power Search form.  In this case, our search phrase is “government regulation of the financial industry” and we are under the Natural Language setting.   Next we will add index terms, which are listed by category, by expanding the options under “Add index terms”.  You can select up to ten terms to add to your search.  Lets add to our search “Banking and Finance” under the Industry category; “Business Forecasts” and “Business Operations” under the Subject or Section category; and “United States” under the Region category.  Next, we will select a source for our search by choosing one from the Sources drop-down list.  In this search, we will choose “Business News Publications” from the drop-down list.   The last step is to choose a date range for our search.  A good range for our topic is the “previous 3 months”.  Finally, click on the search button located to the right of the search box to run our search.

This search yielded too many results, but we still have options to limit our results.  Since we need trade journals for our sources, we can select “Industry Trade Press” under the groups on the left hand side of the screen.  Now our results are all from industry trade journals and specifically address government regulation of the recent bailouts, executive compensation, legislation, etc.

I hope have you enjoyed this brief tutorial about using the Content Specific Search form in LexisNexis.  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions.