JSTOR E-Journal Archive Gets a Major Upgrade with Addition of the Arts and Sciences VII Collection

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce the addition of JSTOR's Arts and Sciences VII collection to its JSTOR archive of electronic journals. The Arts and Sciences VII collection contains over 180 titles across thirty-five disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art and art history, business and economics, Classical studies, health policy, history, language and literature, linguistics, philosophy, political science, sociology, and statistics. The collection builds on the strengths of the three JSTOR journal collections already acquired by the Library, adding over 100 titles not previously available at WPUNJ in any format.

As with the other JSTOR journal collections, the purpose of Arts and Sciences VII is to provide a permanent electronic archive of major journals rather than current issues. For most titles, issues are added to the collection on a regular schedule following a time lag of between one and ten years while current content is often available through other databases. With the addition of the Arts and Sciences VII collection, the Cheng Library's JSTOR archive now includes a total of 527 titles for which new content will be added each year.

Please contact Richard Kearney (973-720-2165 / kearneyr@wpunj.edu) if you have any questions about JSTOR's Arts and Sciences VII collection.

Trial Access to Four Full-Text Databases from EBSCO Until March 5

The Cheng Library is offering trial access to four full-text databases on the EBSCOhost search platform from now until March 5. During the trial period, students and faculty will have access to the following databases:

Art and Architecture Complete

Art and Architecture Complete provides full-text coverage of more than 330 periodicals and 215 books. It also offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for nearly 730 academic journals, magazines and trade publications, plus selective coverage for more than 70 additional publications and an image collection of over 64,000 images provided by Picture Desk and others. This database covers a wide variety of pertinent subjects, including antiques, art and art history, interior and landscape design, and much more. [See complete title list]

Education Research Complete

Education Research Complete offers a large collection of full-text education journals covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals. This database also includes full text for nearly 500 books and monographs, and full text for numerous education-related conference papers. [See complete title list]

Political Science Complete

Political Science Complete contains full text for over 400 journals, and indexing and abstracts for more than 2,000 titles, including top-ranked scholarly journals, many of which are unique to the product. The database also features more than 180 full-text reference books and monographs, and over 27,000 full-text conference papers, including those of the International Political Science Association. [See complete title list]

SocINDEX with Full Text

SocINDEX offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. These include abortion, criminology and criminal justice, demography, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, marriage and family, political sociology, religion, rural and urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse and other addictions, violence and many others. The database features more than two million records with citations drawn from over 3,400 journals. [See complete title list]

Please contact Richard Kearney (973-720-2165 / kearneyr@wpunj.edu) with any questions or other feedback about these databases either during or after the trial period.

Over 550 Additional Journals Added to SpringerLink E-Journals Collection

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce that our SpringerLink E-Journals Collection has been enhanced with the addition of over 550 new journals, bringing the total collection size to over 1,940 titles. Springer titles cover a wide variety of disciplines, including behavioral sciences, biomedical and life sciences, business and economics, chemistry and materials science, computer science, earth and environmental science, engineering, humanities, social sciences and law, mathematics, medicine, physics and astronomy. The additional journals will provide substantially improved access to published research literature for many programs on campus.

A complete list of the new titles is available here (in PDF format).

Please contact Richard Kearney (973-720-2165 / kearneyr@wpunj.edu) if you have any questions about the SpringerLink E-Journals Collection.

"askcheng" Text Messaging Service Now Available from the Cheng Library

Starting September 1 the Cheng Library will be participating in a year-long text reference pilot project sponsored by the statewide QandANJ virtual reference service. The Library will be using Mosio’s Text a Librarian software to administer the service, which - like our local chat reference service - will be staffed 89 hours per week during most weeks of the semester, although messages may be sent at any time.

To send the Library a text message from a phone or other mobile device, students, faculty and staff should use the following simple steps:

1) Dial 66746
2) Start the body of your text message with the keyword askcheng
3) Enter the rest of your text message/question

Patron info is private and anonymous. Library staff will answer your questions at the earliest opportunity.

Please contact Richard Kearney (973-720-2165 / kearneyr@wpunj.edu) if you have any questions about the service. Please give text reference a try this year, and get librarian expertise wherever you are!

American History in Video Offers a Unique Collection for Teaching and Learning

During the 2009-2010 academic year, the Cheng Library is serving as part of a nationwide advisory group to Alexander Street Press and will be evaluating its product American History in Video, an online database currently providing over 1,400 documentary, archival, public affairs, and newsreel videos in streaming format covering the span of U.S. history. Each video is accompanied by a complete transcript that can be searched to identify the most relevant segments of footage for research and teaching purposes. In addition to its search engine, the web-based interface supports browsing of the complete collection by historical era, specific years or events, people, places, and topics. The database also provides the creation of personal accounts students and faculty can use to compile and share customized playlists or collections of clips from individual videos.

Significant parts of this collection include:

* 292 television interviews on public policy topics conducted between 1951 and 1955 for the CBS television interview series "Chronoscope." The interviewees include government officials, business leaders, political figures, and public intellectuals discussing topics of the early Cold War era. Each program is approximately 15 minutes long. The original kinescopes were donated to the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch of the National Archives by the program's sponsor, the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Company;

* 370 programs produced for the History Channel from series including "America at War," "Biography," "Battleline," "Civil War Journal," "Great Blunders in History," "Investigating History," and several others;

* 256 newsreel films produced during World War II by the Office of War Information and financed by the U. S. government for screening in U.S. and overseas theaters. Most of the films are approximately 10 minutes in length and addressed both military operations and stories and events on the U.S. home front during the war;

* An additional 540 newsreels produced between 1957 and 1964 by Universal Studios as part of the long-running (1929-1967) series Universal Newsreel. These newsreels have been in the public domain since being turned over to the National Archives in 1976 and approximately 400 Universal Newsreels covering other time periods during the span of the series are available in the Moving Image Archive at the Internet Archive.

Please contact Richard Kearney with any questions about using American History in Video.

Initial Collection of WPUNJ Graduate Theses Now Available Online

The first fruit of a collaboration between the Cheng Library and the University's Graduate programs, an initial collection of 19 digitized master's theses is now available online through Theses @ The William Paterson University of New Jersey, an online database using the ProQuest search interface. The majority of titles in the initial collection are from recent Communication Disorders program graduates, but in 2009 the program is expanding to include other programs and the collection will grow as new theses are submitted for digitization. The theses are available both on- and off-campus to WPUNJ account holders. Please contact Jane Bambrick if you have any questions about digital theses at WPUNJ.

Pre-CINAHL Now Fully Merged With CINAHL

The Pre-CINAHL database, which provided searchers with current awareness of the newest journal articles, and included a rotating file of limited bibliographic information while the complete citation records were being edited, has been fully merged into the CINAHL database and discontinued as a stand-alone resource. As a result, searches in the CINAHL database will include Pre-CINAHL content. Pre-CINAHL citation records in CINAHL normally will not include abstracts or assigned subject terms, although citation information and links to full-text (where available) will be included. Searchers will have the option to exclude Pre-CINAHL records from search results by using a checkbox available on the search screen.