Library Reference Desk Closed July 3-4

The library Reference Desk will be closed on July 3rd and 4th.  Normal hours will resume on Sunday, July 5th.

As always, the research databases are available 24/7.

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably.

Use the Ask  A Librarian form to query the library.

Webinar Archives Now Available

In May the library offered a series of live, online presentations on various library topics.  If you missed out on these presentations, you can view recordings of some of the sessions on our library web site. Just visit the How Do I…? page and look for the Webinar Archives.

Theorists through the Library!

Need to find a theorist? Not sure where to start? The Library can help!

Through the library, you have access to encyclopedias that contain information on theorists and theories. One of the best sources to start with is The Encyclopedia of Social Theory.

• Start at the library’s homepage: library.waldenu.edu
• In the center of the page under Books, click on eBooks.
• On the next page, click on e-reference from SAGE.
• You should then see a search box and a list of subjects. Scroll to the bottom of that list and click on Sociology.
• On the next page you’ll see a list of titles related to Sociology. Scroll to the bottom and click on Encyclopedia of Social Theory.
• On the next page, click on ‘Reader’s Guide.’
• You should then see a list of topics, among which are Theories and Theorists!! 

Feel free to browse through these names to learn more about them and how they can relate to your research!

For questions about this or anything else in the library, please feel free to contact us through the ‘Ask a Librarian’ button on our web site!

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably. Use the Ask  A Librarian link at the top of  the right hand column!

 

Search Tips for the Health Sciences

1. Identify the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) associated with your topic . You can do this inside the library”s MEDLINE or CINAHL databases by using their browse features or you can explore your topic in the National Library of Medicine MeSH Browser.

2. When you are searching the literature in MEDLINE and CINAHL, it is important to search for each topic separately and then combine them. You can expand your Search History to see the sets you have created in both MEDLINE and CINAHL. You will also locate the buttons near the Search History to combine the sets.

3. Select the Explode option if it is available when browsing and selecting a Subject Heading. Selecting this option will broaden your retrieval. This is especially true if you are combining and applying limits to fit the parameters of your research.

4. Consider using keywords combined with Subjects or in addition to a Subject search. You can truncate words to search variations, for instance: diagnos$.tw. in MEDLINE and diagnos* in CINAHL.

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably. Use the Ask A Librarian link at the top of  the right hand column.

Finding Required Readings in the Library

Are you having trouble locating required readings for your class?  The Walden Library has a search engine that will help you find your required readings – and any article that you know the title of!

The Course Reading Quick Search is located in the Thoreau database.  This search engine will search all of the databases for your articles, so you don’t have to spend time searching each database on your own.

Here is how to find articles using the Course Reading Quick Search:

1. Click on the Thoreau button on the left hand side of the library website.
2. There is a brown box on the left side of the page.  In the box underneath “Course Reading Quick Search”, type in the title of your article.
3. If your article title includes punctuation, please omit them from your search.
4. Click Search.
5. The search engine will now search all of the databases.  Once the search says “Complete”, scroll down until you see your article.
6. Click on the “View PDF” or “Walden 360” link to get the full text of your article.

As always, the Walden Librarians are here to help if you have any questions!

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably. Use the Ask  A Librarian link at the top of  the right hand column.

Higher Education Statistics from IPEDS

If you need data on higher education in the United States then you need to know about the IPEDS resource maintained by the Department of Education.

IPEDS – or the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System – is a FREE and extraordinarily rich source of statistical data available online.

The IPEDS program surveys over 6,700  postsecondary institutions annually – this includes every college, university, and vocational school that participates in the federal student financial aid programs.  Data is collected on several dozen variables, including:  institution size, academic calendar, admissions and enrollment, student demographic data, completion rates, degrees conferred, tuition rate,  financial aid, funding, institutional spending, retention and more.

IPEDS stores and archives vast amounts of data collected from these surveys online, and they offer a wide variety of tools to help researchers use the information.  Popular tools include:

• College Navigator – a very user-friendly search to help one pull up data on individual institutions or to compare data on two or more schools.
• IPEDS Data Center - a very complex data center that includes tools to create custom tables, track trends on specific variables, perform advanced statistical comparisons and more.
• IPEDS Tables Library – a resource for downloading pre-configured data tables for commonly used statistics.

You can start exploring IPEDS at their homepage.  If you want more information about the system, the “About IPEDS” page is a good place to start.

For help using any of the IPEDS tools, look for HELP links in the data exploration web pages.  You can also contact IPEDS support staff for more information.

Remember -please don’t use the comments field to ask a library research question — this will delay your response considerably. Use the Ask  A Librarian link at the top of  the right hand column.

Using WorldCat

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that the Walden Library is a virtual library. No bookshelves. No check-out desk. No library cards. All well and good – but what if you want a hard copy of a book? WorldCat is a tool that can help you find one in your area.

WorldCat is an international database that catalogs books, articles, music and more, and that shows which libraries hold them. It is the world’s most comprehensive listing of library holdings. Here’s an example of how to use it:

Say I live in St. Paul, Minnesota and want to borrow a copy of Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Socks, but I don’t know where to look.

• First, I could go to WorldCat, at; http://www.worldcat.org/ (it is also linked from the “Quick Links” list on the Walden Library home page.)
• Then, I select the “Books” tab and type “Fox in socks” in the search box.
• Many editions come up. I decide I want the original 1965 edition and click on it.
• Bibliographic information appears, along with a search box that says “Enter your location.” I type in my zip code, 55101, and hit the “Find Libraries” button.
• Now I have a list of all the libraries in my area that own the book, including my own St. Paul Public Library.

But I can take it a step further. By clicking on the name of a holding library, I can see their local catalog, find out how many copies of the book they have, see if they’re checked out or not, or learn about their lending policies, hours, and location.

So next time a PDF won’t cut it, remember WorldCat!

Changes to Document Delivery Policy June 1, 2009

The Walden Document Delivery Service will be restructured starting June 1, 2009.  Document delivery costs have risen 458% over the past year due to increased costs for articles and book chapters (an average of $40 each) and increased demand. Thirty percent of the requests for document delivery are for articles and book chapters already owned by the library. The library doubled the amount of full-text scholarly journals and purchased access to over 14,000 ebooks in the past year. In light of this information, the Walden Library will make the following changes to our Document Delivery Service.

PhD students. If the articles and book chapters requested are not owned by the Walden Library, the articles and book chapters will be requested through our suppliers.

Master’s students. Requests will be reviewed by the librarians who will determine if the item is owned by the library or if sufficient materials on the topic are in the library collection. Master’s students working on research intensive projects such as theses and capstone projects will be put through to the document delivery queue once need is determined.

Undergraduate students. Undergraduates are encouraged to contact the library for help finding what they need. Undergraduate projects generally have a shorter turnaround time than can be met by document delivery. Our expert librarians can help undergraduates find what they need fast.

There will be new forms for Document Delivery Service. Students who have signed up for an ILLiad account will not need to sign up again. Turnaround time is 10-14 days. The 25 requests per month and $50 per article cost limits will continue to be in effect.

All students are encouraged to contact the library about their research needs. Our experts can help you strategize your literature review for a dissertation, show you how to locate peer-reviewed articles and book chapters for classes, and search the Walden databases more efficiently. We have recently expanded our hours of reference service later into the evening so students working late or who are in various time zones can benefit from contact with our professional staff. Thank you for helping the library keep a cap on costs so we can continue to offer you more content and services.

FAQ

Will the service continue to be free?
Yes, we will continue to provide this service at no charge to the student. The library pays our suppliers an average of $40 per article (adding up to thousands of dollars per week.). Students are asked to be sure they need an article before making a request through Document Delivery Service.

How can I make sure my requests get through quickly?
Check the Walden A-Z list first for the journal. If we own it, you can save lots of time by using the full-text available to you for free, immediately on your desktop.

What if I can’t wait 10-14 days?
You can go directly to the publisher to purchase an article. Be sure to check the Walden  Library first so you aren’t buying something we already have! The librarians can also assist you in locating materials at your local library.

I’m a master’s student writing a thesis. How is this going to work for me?
Your request will be sent to a reference librarian who is a specialist in your field of study. The librarian will contact you to discuss your research needs and whether the library might have other resources for your topic. If the librarian determines that specialized resources outside of the Walden library are needed, he or she will add your request to the front of the Document Delivery Service queue.

How will you know if I’m a master’s student or an undergraduate?
The Document Delivery Service form requires this information and student status will be checked before any requests are made to our suppliers.

What can I do with articles and book chapters or book chapters I get from Document Delivery Service?
You may only use articles and book chapters for your own personal use. According to U.S. copyright law you are not allowed to redistribute the article (i.e., send it to other students in your class or anyone else for that matter), record an audio version of it, make paper copies and distribute it, or otherwise transfer it into another medium and distribute it. You may keep an electronic copy for yourself or one paper copy for your own use.

I am a student with disabilities. How will this affect me?
Students with disabilities should contact the Office of Disability Services to make their needs known. The library works with the office to provide materials to students who have special vision or mobility needs.

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably. Use the Ask  A Librarian link at the top of  the right hand column!

What’s in that database?: Mental Measurements Yearbook…

It’s a database!  It’s a print series!

It’s BOTH!

That’s right: Mental Measurements Yearbook is a database to which Walden Library subscribes.  But, long before we had computers, back when scholars only did old-fashioned book research, Mental Measurements Yearbook existed only as a print resource.

(To read more about the print resource and find out how long it has been around, see the publisher’s site here: http://www.unl.edu/buros/bimm/html/catalog.html)

The print collection of Mental Measurements Yearbook is comprised of hundreds (okay, I exaggerate… I think we’re up to eighteen…) of volumes.  In each volume, one would find abstracts and reviews of different tests, measurements, questionnaires, etc.   These are usually of the psychological kind, like a test to measure anxiety…or sometimes of an educational kind, like a test to measure reading-readiness.

And that is exactly what one finds in the database version of Mental Measurements Yearbook.   The print resource still exists, but the publishers also feed those same reviews of tests into an electronic format and make it “searchable” in a database of the same name!

So what do I mean when I say “reviews and abstracts”?  Well, that means that a researcher takes a specific test and reviews it to find out:  Is the test valid?  Was it properly researched and developed? Is it skewed in some way to a certain population group?

An abstract of a test would give one a general overview of what the test actually measures and what methodology it uses.

So who would use this database?  What is it good for?   Students in several subject disciplines may need to research a test or measurement.  Normally we think exclusively of psychology students, but also those of you in any social science field or in education might find it useful.

But how would a review of a test be beneficial?  Shouldn’t one want to get the actual test?  This is a good point.  A review of a test or measurement can be quite helpful.   These reviews tell one a lot about the test and its reliability and use.

Sometimes we here at the library speak with students who do wish to obtain the actual test or measurement they are researching or wish to use in their own dissertation research.   That gets pretty tricky.

See, the people who painstakingly created these tests and measurements are, quite rightly, protective of their work.  They only want qualified practitioners in their field (say, a licensed psychologist or a school counselor) administering their test to a patient or client.  Tests and measures usually need to be purchased from the licensed publisher of that test.  So most often a student needs to track down who that publisher is, or who the author of the test is, in order to obtain it.  Sometimes publishers or authors of a test have a special “student version”  (along with a “student price”!) of their test because they want to support fellow-scholars’ research, which is pretty nice of them.

And that’s where Mental Measurements Yearbook comes in:  by locating the review of the test, you also find out who the author is, and sometimes, who the publisher is!  Then we librarians can help you search for contact information.

Some tests and measurements are close to impossible to obtain.  Others are easily accessible.  It depends on the test.

Regardless, Mental Measurements Yearbook is the resource to use when you want to find information about a test.  You can not only search by the known title of a test, but you can search by keyword for tests and measurements too!  So if, for instance, you wanted to find a test measuring, say…library skills…you would type in the search box:

library skills

…and click the Search button.  Voila!

This has been a brief introduction to the database called Mental Measurements Yearbook.  Questions?  Ask a Librarian!

(Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably.

Use the Ask  A Librarian form to query the library.)

Pulling APA citations from the Walden Databases

Did you know you can get citations in APA format in the Walden databases?

Once you find an article in the Walden databases, you can often get the APA citation for that article right from the database.  Most of the databases provide article citations in a variety of formats; look for the “cite this” or “cite this article” link on the article abstract page.  Choose the citation format you wish to use, and presto!- you have the article citation in your desired format.

However - and this is a really big however- these citations aren’t always correct! The database pulls these citations directly from the article publisher and occasionally the publisher doesn’t provide accurate information.  It is very important that you look over the citations to make sure they are correct!

In the long run, there really is no faster time saver than learning the APA guidelines for frequently cited materials.  Yes it is painful, but you will be so glad you did it in the end.  When you know the APA guideline, you can quickly check the citation provided by the database and make any changes necessary.  And even if the citation from the database is wrong, at least you have all of the component parts of the citation, it is just a matter of copy and paste!

The Walden University Writing Center has an extensive APA style guide-  here.  And they are more than willing to answer any APA questions you have.  They will even spot-check your citations!   You can find more information about how the Writing Center can help you and how to contact them on their wonderful website.

The library is happy to answer any questions you have about pulling APA citations from the databases.  Please direct questions about actual APA citations to the Writing Center.

Please don’t use the comments field to ask a question — this will delay your response considerably.

Use the Ask  A Librarian form to query the library.