Three New Open Access Primary Source Collections Spotlight Voices of Dissent

The Cheng Library has recently added three primary source databases to its collection. Produced by Reveal Digital and hosted on the JSTOR platform, the databases spotlight under-represented 20th-century voices of dissent. They are:

American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

On March 24, 1800, "Forlorn Hope" became the first newspaper published within a prison by an incarcerated person. In the intervening 200 years, over 450 prison newspapers have been published from U.S. prisons. Some, like the "Angolite" and the "San Quentin News," are still being published today. American Prison Newspapers is an open access database that brings together hundreds of these periodicals from across the country into one collection that represents penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women's-only institutions. Over 1,790 issues are currently available to search and browse.


Independent Voices Periodical Collection

Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of over 20,000 issues of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.


Student Activism Collection

Student Activism is an open access primary source collection containing items documenting the voices of students across the great range of protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy from the 20th and early 21st century United States. The primary sources are broad-based across time, geography, and political viewpoint - from the conservative to the anarchist. The collection contains materials drawn from special collection libraries and archives around the country. These include circulars, leaflets, fliers, pamphlets, newsletters, campaign materials, protest literature, clippings, periodicals, bulletins, letters, press releases, ephemera; and meeting, demonstration, conference, and event documentation. While the collection currently has over 170 items, it will grow to approximately 75,000 pages.

Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian, at 973-720-2165 or by email at kearneyr@wpunj.edu if you have any questions about these databases.

Three New Databases Spotlight Social Justice Issues

The Cheng Library has recently added three new databases to its collection. Produced by HeinOnline, the databases form part of Hein's "Social Justice Suite": 

Gun Regulation and Legislation in America - Featuring periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, congressional hearings, Congressional Research Service reports, Supreme Court briefs, links to several hundred scholarly articles, and a balanced selection of external resources, this database is a useful resource for researching gun regulation and legislation in the United States.

Civil Rights and Social Justice - This database contains hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on landmark legislation, Congressional Research Service and Government Accountability Office reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights which illuminate the struggle for equality in the United States. The database also includes a varied collection of books on related civil rights topics and a list of prominent civil rights organizations.

Open Society Justice Initiative - The Open Society Justice Initiative, part of the Open Society Foundations, was established in 2003 to provide expert legal support for Open Society’s broader mission and values through strategic human rights litigation and other legal work. This database contains reports, handbooks, briefing papers, legal and policy submissions, and fact sheets exploring and advocating on issues of human rights and justice around the world. 

For several years the Cheng Library has also offered the fourth database in Hein's "Social Justice Suite," Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law. Students and faculty will find these resources useful for a wide variety of assignments and research projects.

 

Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian, at 973-720-2165 or by email at kearneyr@wpunj.edu if you have any questions about these databases.

Trial Access to Social Explorer Now Available (through the end of the Spring 2020 semester)

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce it is providing trial access to Social Explorer during the
Spring 2020 semester. Social Explorer is a web-based data mapping tool you can use for research and presentations on a wide variety of topics. The database provides hundreds of thousands of data indicators across demography, economy, health, education, religion, crime and more, from a variety of difference sources. Many of the indicators are available at different geographic levels, including national, state, county, Zip Code, neighborhood, and more. Among the data sources available through Social Explorer are:

• The entire U.S. Census (1790 to 2010) and the American Community Survey (2005 to 2018)
• FBI Uniform Crime Reports (2010 to 2016)
• U.S. election results (1912 to 2018)
• The Religious Congregations and Membership Study (1980 and 2010) compiled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies
• The Vulcan Project study on carbon emissions data (2002)
• U.S. Business Patterns data (2014)
• County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Program data (2010 to 2016)
• The United Kingdom Census (2011)
• The Canadian Census (2011)
• Eurostat (1990, 2000, 2010 to 2014)
• World Development Indicators (1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• Irish religion and population data (1911, 1926, 1936, 1946, 1961, 1971, 1981,  1991, and 2001)

In addition to Social Explorer's mapping capabilities, it also makes its datasets available for download in convenient formats for use in GIS, Excel, SAS, R, STATA or other packages. You can also upload your own data to create visualizations.

To take full advantage of Social Explorer's potential for your area of interest, we recommend you

One-hour training webinars for Social Explorer are available throughout the trial period; just use this link to sign up for one. Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian, at 973-720-2165 or by email if you have any questions about Social Explorer.

New Online for the Spring Semester: Nursing Journals and Books

The Cheng Library has converted several Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins subscription journals to an online format, and the following are available now:

CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing (Volume 20, Number 2, March/April 2002 - Present)
Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing (Volume 20, Number 1, January/February 2001 - Present)

Holistic Nursing Practice (Volume 13, Number 2, January 1999 - Present)

Journal of Nursing Care Quality (Volume 12, Number 3, February 1998 - Present)

Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (Volume 18, Number 1, February 2004 - Present)

Nurse Practitioner (Volume 26, Number 1, January 2001 - Present)

Nursing (Volume 32, Number 1, January 2002 - Present)

Nursing Education Perspectives (Volume 23, Number 1, January/February 2002 - Present)

Nursing Management (Volume 32, Number 1, January 2001 - Present)

Articles are accessible directly from the journal home pages, and also through citations in CINAHL and other health science indexes.


The Cheng Library has also recently purchased the following ebooks:

21st Century Nursing Leadership, edited by Mary Magee Gullatte (Pittsburgh, PA: Oncology Nursing Society, 2018)

Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice (Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association, 2015)

Nursing Professional Development for Clinical Educators by Joan Such Lockhart (Pittsburgh, PA: Oncology Nursing Society, 2016)

Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice (Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association, 2015)

Teaching IOM/HMD: Implications of the Institute of Medicine and Health & Medicine Division Reports for Nursing Education (Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association, 2017)


If you have questions about any of these resources or require further information, please contact Sarah Hughes (973-720-3190), Library Liaison to the Nursing Department, or Richard Kearney (973-720-2165), Electronic Resources Librarian.

Get a Great Start on Your Research with Credo Reference Titles

The Cheng Library's recent purchase of 37 new reference titles on the Credo Reference platform brings our online full-text reference collection to over 1,030 titles from 125 major publishers, just in time for a new semester and new research products. Our customized collection is built to focus on the majors and programs offered at WPUNJ, and it offers one of the best starting points for research projects in any subject area.

The collection, which is easy to search and browse, features specialized encyclopedias, subject and biographical dictionaries, directories, handbooks and guidebooks, almanacs and chronologies, statistical sources, atlases, primary source collections, and other resources covering every field of study offered at the University.

Most of the titles in Credo Reference are written by subject experts to provide concise and up-to-date overviews of topics, providing great introductions and research starters. Students can use Credo Reference to explore possible research topics, get oriented to the major questions and findings, pick up useful search terms for use in other databases, and obtain book and article recommendations for moving on to the next stage of a project.

Some of our new titles include:

Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2nd Edition, John H. Byrne, Editor-in-Chief (Oxford: Elsevier Science and Technology, 2017)

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology, Amy Wenzel, Editor (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2017)

Encyclopedia of Cardiovascular Research and Medicine, Douglas Sawyer, Editor (Saint Louis: Elsevier Science and Technology, 2017)

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, Martin Abraham, Editor-in-Chief (Oxford: Elsevier Science and Technology, 2017)

Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management, Victor C.X. Wang, Editor (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2017)

Public Health and Welfare: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, Information Resources Management Association (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2017)

Advertising and Branding: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, Information Resources Management Association (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2017)

Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, Mike Allen, Editor (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2017)

Although Credo Reference can be useful at any stage of an assignment or research project, we invite faculty and students to make use of it early in the semester to get your work off to a great start. Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian, at 973-720-2165 or by email if you have any questions about Credo Reference.

Trial Access to Morningstar Investment Research Center Now Available (through May 11)

From now through the end of the spring semester the Cheng Library is offering trial access to the Morningstar Investment Research Center, which offers real-time access to comprehensive data and independent analysis on thousands of investments, spanning mutual funds, stocks, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds.

The database currently provides information on:

• 14,500+ Stocks
• 24,800+ Mutual Funds
• 1,500 Exchange Traded Funds
• 700 Closed End Funds

In addition to data on stocks and funds, the database provides access to analyst reports, industry and sector reports, and an archive of newsletters written by Morningstar's financial experts. The database's "Portfolio" tool enables users to construct and evaluate a set of investments, interpreting asset allocation and comparing its holdings to industry standards. The database's "Help and Education" section provides both investment training resources and help on using the database.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact Richard Kearney (x 2165), Library Liaison to the Economics, Finance, and Global Business Department.

New Resources for Historical Research: The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912 and Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture and Law

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of two databases containing large collections of primary source material for historical research.

The American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection, 1684-1912, on the EBSCOhost platform, provides full-text access to over 7,500 historic periodicals published between 1684 and 1912, digitized from the extensive collections of the American Antiquarian Society, a major research library of pre-twentieth century American history and culture. The periodicals cover a vast array of subjects, including agriculture, applied science and technology, art and literature, business, education, music, politics, religion, and women's studies, and they offer students and faculty broad access to unique source material for research into American history and culture prior to the twentieth century. The database contains scanned page images of the original periodicals, and it supports the bookmarking and annotation of individual documents with a personal account, the export of documents to PDF format, and the ability to create direct links to specific documents for use in course assignments or to share with classmates.

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture and Law, provided by HeinOnline, offers a
wealth of full-text primary and secondary source materials for research into the history of slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. It includes legal case and trial transcripts and court opinions, debates, histories, legislative and other government reports, letters, literary works, pamphlets, poems and songs, conference and convention proceedings, organizational reports, slave narratives, memoirs, sermons and speeches, legal treatises, and other materials. Over 1,400 titles representing every perspective from pro-slavery advocacy to radical abolitionism are included. Approximately 75 percent of the materials in the database were originally published in the nineteenth century, but the database also includes both 18th and 20th century works. Personal accounts can be created to store "bookmarks" and notes for selected documents, and to save search queries for re-use.

Both databases are available now from the Cheng Library's website. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Richard Kearney (x 2165), Library Liaison to the History Department.