HML Reference Tool

Date: 04/30/10 Time: 11:00 and 2:00

Question: Can you help me find books about Charles Manson and I need a couple articles too.

Answer given to question: I had to tell her there were currently no books on Charles Manson in this or the Law Library as I had helped a group last night and a young lady this morning. I suggested OhioLINK but quickly found out the time period was too short to request through this service so I showed the students how to look up items in the Ada Public Library catalog. I explained that APL only required a piece of mail in their name received at their college address to get a library card.
I also showed each of the students how to use Google books as several items such as the book "Helter Skelter" were available online as well as several others. I tried ACLS Humanities E-Books but there was only a book referencing the women in the Manson family and she was not interested.
As for the articles, she was interested in something written during the time period so we headed upstairs to the second floor and dusted off the "Reader's Guide to Periodicals". We found a couple good articles (they were allowed to use popular magazines for this assignment).

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Geistman
Course: SOC 261

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: sociology,crime,history

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 08:32 PM | Permalink

Date: 04/29/10 Time: 1:00

Question: I need help finding articles for Dr. Surface's class about how the NFL punishes African American players differently than white players like Ben Rothlisberger (sp) and Pacman Jones.

Answer given to question: The first thing I asked him to consider is who would write an article like this and for what audience. After a bit of thought he suggested Sports Illustrated or Sporting News. I reminded him that while those magazines contained often valid information, Dr. Surface requires scholarly peer reviewed articles. We looked under the periodical articles link at the library homepage and he decided to try Academic Search Complete and Sportdiscus fulltext.
Next we had to figure out a research strategy.
We started with NFL, race relations and then narrowed or widen the search based the the subjects headings suggested by ASC.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Surface
Course: 111

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: language

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 09:57 PM | Permalink

Date: 04/28/10 Time: 8:00pm

Question: The student needed industry reports on hypermarkets such as Wal-mart. He was looking for Traci in particular.

Answer given to question: [I realized that this sounded familiar, and that this was the student that had emailed Traci on the 26th about SWOT information on Wal-Mart. I pulled up her blog entry and was able to use her response to walk him through the next few steps.]

We went to the computers and looked up the databases for BizMiner and S&P NetAdvantage. We went through pulling up industry reports for Wal-Mart and he felt comfortable in looking for different reports on his own. Then we went to Business Source Complete and I showed him some tips for using the database (Full Text, Peer Reviewed) and talked about some of the articles he might look for on there after he had pulled industry reports.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Schertzer
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: business

Form Submitted By: Jenny

Posted by Melody at 01:39 AM | Permalink

Question: This came in as an email question.
This is Ethan Frey and I'm working on an 6-8 argument paper for Heather Surfaces writing 2 class and I'm having trouble finding sources in the schools database. My topic is in support of college fraternities, and how they are positive organizations. the trouble is, that i can not find sources that backs my side. I'v been using academic search complete, and all im getting are frats and how they are connected to drinking. Heather tolled me to ask you what database i should be looking in. If you have some time, please let me know as soon as possible.

Answer given to question: A personal visit to one of the research librarians would be a good investment of your time. Please feel free to come to the library anytime between 8a-4:30p and 6p-9p weekly for face time with a librarian.

In the meanwhile, there are a couple things to consider. Is your argument really about belonging to a fraternity or the benefits which come from belonging to any organized group? You could try searching for the "benefits of belonging to a group" and then draw parallels to greek organizations membership

Perhaps there has not been much research on this topic? If there is research, who would be doing it and from whom would it be intended?
With this in mind, you may also want to look at a few journals specific to higher education such as "Journal of college student development"
http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.polar.onu.edu/ejc/journal.cgi?issn=15433382

I still think Academic Search Complete is the place to begin searching; you might want to consider using Education Research Complete as well. Remember you can choose to search them both at the same time.
Perhaps the reason you've not been successful is due to the database you chose to use, but with the search strategy.

Go back to ASC or ERC or both and try this search Box one type in "Greek Letter societies"
In box two type in "benefits"

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Surface
Course: ENGL 151

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: language,none

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 03:23 PM | Permalink

Date: 04/26/10 Time: 11:30

Question: I've looked all over the Internet and can't find SWOT information on Wal-Mart. I was sent to find a research librarian. I didn't even know ONU had reserach librarians.

Answer given to question: I explained how to use Business Source Complete to find SWOTs and then told the young man about BizMiner and S&P NetAdvantage to help with finding the industry and marketing information he was looking for.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Schertzer
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: business,none

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 07:42 PM | Permalink

Date: 04/22/10 Time: 6:30

Question: Dr. Schertzer told me to come and ask you the best place to find information on SWOT analysis for Meijer, Sams's Club and Dollar General.

Answer given to question: Showed her how to find Datamonitor reports at Business Source Complete and emailed her a pdf of the ppt on how to do this.
PDF is available p drive, "Library instruction" folder, "Business Resources" folder, "Resources" folder.
Also talked about the best way to find parent companies and google really is the easiest way...

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Susan Schertzer
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: business,none

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:38 AM | Permalink

Date: 04/22/10 Time: 4:00

Question: I have an assignment for Applied GIS and need to find information on prison populations across the US. I need help narrowing my topic and finding articles that show digital mapping.

Answer given to question: After learning where she had searched, Google, ASC and Criminal Justice Abstracts, I gave her a handout I'd prepared for one of the sociology classes outlining valuable resources on the web for criminial justice information. I also helped her with how to find the full text of articles in CJA and she seemed much relieved. I called the professor to let him know I'd suggested websites in addition to some usual databases and he was fine with that.
The criminal justice handout can be found on the p drive under "Library Instruction" in the SOC file under "resources" the "To get you started" file.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Jimmy Wilson
Course: Applied GIS

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: crime

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:36 AM | Permalink

Date: 04/22/10 Time: 2:15

Question: What databases should I use to find information for a comparison paper on Chinese prositution in San Francisco in the antebellum period and African-American prostitution in New Orleans.

Answer given to question: The student had already done a thorough search on POLAR and OhioLINK so she was ready to move to scholarly journal articles. I asked where she had been besides the catalogs and was pleasantly surprised to hear she had already been to Early American Newspapers so I suggested she try Gender studies database as well as a couple other general Ebsco databases. Jstor is a must as well as scholar google to see what's out there. We discussed subjects headings and devising a good search strategy.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: gender,none,history

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:34 AM | Permalink

Date: 04/21/10 Time: 11:15

Question: Where can I find information about teaching methods?

Answer given to question: This is a staff member whom I've been helping with research for her PhD. Along with this question, it quickly evolved into dicussing her dissertation topic which is pedagogy of financial education for first year students at small private universities in the Midwest (or something along those lines). We talked about face-to-face vs online instruction as well as a hybrid. I started her on subject headings to best search the catalogs and then worked with her using databases such as ASC and ERIC, ERC for additional information.

Asked By: Other

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course: PhD dissertation

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: education,none

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:30 AM | Permalink

Date: 04/21/10 Time: 10:39

Question: Where can I find information about how actresses influenced the suffrage movement in the united states?

Answer given to question: After negotiation, he decided that it might be more interesting to look at propaganda plays which were written and performed by actresses and college students during this time period. Between OhioLINK, JStor and scholar.google we found several very interesting articles and books and some actual plays.
I received a thank you email so I'm assuming satisfaction.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: McManus
Course: Modern world drama

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: theater,history

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:23 AM | Permalink

Date: April 18 Time: 2PM

Question: Student was looking for information on how railroads affected small towns in the 19th century. For a Writing 2 class.

Answer given to question: We looked under Railroads -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century in OhioLINK catalog. Encouraged him to request books pronto. Note that this was for a class assignment and time was short.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: none

Form Submitted By:

Posted by Melody at 01:19 AM | Permalink

Date: 4/16/10 Time: 1:25

Question: Where can I find information on chocolate for a speech? Looking for sources besides websites.

Answer given to question: I showed the student how to use the library catalog to find materials and how to use Academic Search Complete.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: jnone

Form Submitted By: Kathleen B.

Posted by Melody at 01:12 AM | Permalink

Date: 4/16/10 Time: 1:25

Question: Where can I find licensed anti-virus software?

Answer given to question: Under Luminis.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: No

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: none

Form Submitted By: Paul

Posted by Melody at 01:09 AM | Permalink

Date: April 19 Time: 6:10PM

Question: Student called from McIntosh needing a slide projector.

Answer given to question: We have a slide projector in the 2nd floor elevator room. Just take a patron's ID to ensure return. I will update our list of AV equipment and distribute it.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: No

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course:

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: none

Form Submitted By: Paul

Posted by Melody at 11:41 PM | Permalink

Date: 04/15/10 Time: 8:45pm

Question: Where can I find resources to compare two asian military leaders to others?

Answer given to question: As this was an international student, we had some negotiating to do regarding what it was exactly he was looking to accomplish. Once he decided on specific people, Horation Nelson and Yi (Shin-sun, Shoo-sin) Sun-Sin, Alexander the great and Genghas Khan, the next step was figuring out the all the aliases for Yi Sun-Sin and looking for materials in POLAR, OhioLINK and Jstor.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: Van Buskirk
Course: ENGL 152

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: history

Form Submitted By: Traci

Posted by Melody at 01:46 PM | Permalink

Date: 4/15/10 Time: 1PM

Question: How can I find juvenile books (4th-9th grades) on measurement?

Answer given to question: Searched the library catalog, limiting to juvenile books using search terms: "measure" and "measurement". Student had about 6 books and needed a total of 15.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor: ?
Course: ?

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: none

Form Submitted By: Kathleen B.

Posted by Melody at 09:13 PM | Permalink

Date: 4/15/10 Time: 1:30

Question: Student was trying to find obituaries for her grandmother and uncle. She was using Newsbank, looking specifically at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Answer given to question: Determined that the uncle's would not be available due to the date of his death. Unable to find grandmother's either by just searching name and by searching name and date of death.

Asked for assistance from Paul, he suggested student simply submit as a ILL request, as the obituary appears to be available on the newspaper's website for a fee.

Asked By: Student

Is this for a class assignment: Yes

If for a class please enter:

Professor:
Course: Genealogy

Were you able to answer the question to your satisfaction: Yes

What is the subject term applicable t this question: none,engineering

Form Submitted By: Kathleen B.

Posted by Melody at 09:08 PM | Permalink