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.

Trial Access to the HSTalks Business and Management Collection Available Through April 30

The Business and Management Collection, produced by Henry Stewart Talks (HSTalks), consists of over 1,000 video lectures and case studies by experts from commerce, industry, the professions and academia. The Cheng Library is providing trial access to the collection through April 30.

The Collection is divided into six broad subject areas:

• Finance, Accounting and Economics
• Global Business Management
• Management Leadership and Organizations
• Marketing and Sales
• Strategy
• Technology and Operations

Content is presented in four different formats:

• Traditional format lectures with high quality graphics - The entire lecture as well as extracts can be embedded in course notes and online learning systems.

• Case study interviews - They are designed to explore how different participants in commerce and industry, from start-up entrepreneurs to large corporation executives, confront the challenges they encounter. Additionally, all videos are accompanied by suggested topics for discussion and individual and group projects. 

• Extended form case studies - These accounts of real world experience describing what was done, how, when and with what consequences can be used as prompts for in-class discussions.

• Bite-size case studies - These short descriptions of real world commercial activities come with suggested topics for consideration and discussion.

We invite you to try the HSTalks Business and Management Collection to see what it can offer you and your students. Please contact Cara Berg (email or 973-720-3189) or Richard Kearney (email or 973-720-2165), Library Liaisons to the Cotsakos College of Business, if you have questions or comments about this product.

American Council of Learned Societies Humanities E-Book Collection Offers Over 4,600 Titles Online

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of a major new electronic resource this semester. The American Council of Learned Societies Humanities E-Book Collection contains over 4,600 full-text, cross-searchable books in the humanities and social sciences selected by scholars for their continuing importance for research and teaching. The collection includes titles from over 100 publishers of scholarly and academic books and covers a wide variety of humanities and social science disciplines. Among the subjects covered are: archaeology, art, Biblical studies, environmental studies, film and media studies, folklore, hip-hop studies, history, Jewish studies, law, LGBT/Queer studies, linguistics, literature and literary criticism, medicine, musicology, performance studies, philosophy, political science, religion, science/technology, sociology, and women’s studies. A complete title list (in Excel format) is available here.

The collection can be browsed by author, title, and subject. Full-text and bibliographic searching is also supported. The database provides page images for online reading as well as plain text, and 10-page excerpts can also be downloaded in PDF format. Brief videos illustrating How to Search the Humanities E-Book Collection and How to Navigate a Book in the collection are available to get you oriented quickly.

Bibliographic records for all of the books in the collection are available in the Cheng Library catalog and in ChengFind, providing multiple points of access to individual titles, and URLs are available to create links to individual titles in Blackboard for reading and research assignments.

We encourage you to try this collection and to consider incorporating it into your courses as appropriate. Please contact Richard Kearney (email or 973-720-2165) if you have questions or need more information about the American Council of Learned Societies Humanities E-Book Collection.

Start the Semester on the Right Foot with Credo Reference's Academic Core, Now with Over 800 Titles

It's a new year, a new semester, and a new set of learning challenges for students. For those courses requiring research papers and projects, one of the Cheng Library's most useful research starting points is Credo Reference's Academic Core database, a full-text collection of over 800 high-quality reference works, including single- and multi-volume specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, chronologies, handbooks, and atlases.

Sometimes the biggest hurdle in a research project is getting started - deciding on a topic, getting a general orientation to it, coming up with a good research question, and getting tips on where to look next. The best reference works are designed to meet all of these needs. Written by subject specialists who presume little prior knowledge on the part of the reader, the materials in Credo Reference's Academic Core will help students get on the right track at an early stage in their research, providing the essential background and context, clear definitions, important search terms that can be used in other databases to yield high-precision results, and useful bibliographies for pursuing a topic in greater depth. Covering every subject area in the WPUNJ curriculum, it's one of the best first resources to use for research projects on any size.

In addition to the many titles that are included with our subscription, the Cheng Library has purchased the following additional titles thanks to special funding provided by the Office of the Provost:

• An ABC of Early Childhood Education
• Cambridge Marketing Handbook: Philosophy
• Characterization of Biomaterials
• Computer and Information Security Handbook
• Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective
• Dictionary of DNA and Genome Technology
• Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy
• Encyclopedia of Environmental Change
• Encyclopedia of Health Communication
• Encyclopedia of Media Violence
• Encyclopedia of Social Deviance
• Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics
• Foundations of Education Studies: Policy and Education
• Gower Business Handbooks: Handbook of Project Management
• Guide to U.S. Health and Health Care Policy
• Handbook for Clinical Research
• Handbook of Energy: Diagrams, Charts, and Tables
• Handbook of Recycling
• Jazz Theory
• Leading From the Emerging Future
• Nonprofit Organizations: Theory, Management, Policy
• Research Methods for the Arts and Humanities: Research Methods for English Studies
• Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication
• SAGE Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment
• Stedman's Medical Abbreviations, Acronyms & Symbols
• The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies
• The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music
• The SAGE Handbook of Special Education

It's easy to create a link to Credo Reference's Academic Core in Blackboard, or to create links to any individual title in the collection. Please contact Richard Kearney (email or 973-720-2165) or you have questions or need more information about Credo Reference's Academic Core.

Statista Provides the Numbers You Need

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce that it has added Statista to its database collection for the 2015-2016 academic year. The Statista database provides a portal to quantitative data on over 80,000 topics from over 18,000 sources. Designed for use by business customers, researchers, and students, it offers access to data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets. Data sources include market research reports, such as the Ipsos Affluent Survey published annually by Ipsos Media, Simmons National Consumer Studies, and Consumer Insights from Scarborough Research, as well as trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases. For each statistic, Statista provides available metadata including but not limited to source, release date, number of respondents, and any other relevant details to facilitate verification of all statistical information.

The easy-to-use search engine provides access to data on any topic, but the database is also organized into predefined sections, including:

• Industries - The following 20 industrial sectors are covered, with each one further divided into sub-sectors: agriculture, chemicals and resources, construction, consumer goods and FMCG, e-commerce, energy and environmental services, finance, insurance and real estate, health and pharmaceuticals, international, internet, life, media and advertising, metals and electronics, retail and trade, services, society, sports and recreation, technology and telecommunications, transportation and logistics, travel, tourism and hospitality. 

• Industry Reports - From mechanical engineering and healthcare to telecommunications: our 60 industry reports provide you with all the facts you need for getting to grips with an industry. Our clearly structured and easy to understand reports provide you with information on the ins and outs of your chosen industry, presenting not only numerical data on areas such as trends in turnover or revenue, but also on identified strengths and weaknesses. Our reports are updated annually, ensuring they contain only the most recent data out there. 

• Dossiers - Our dossiers are compositions of the data most crucial in gaining a strong foothold in a subject area. We compile our dossiers in accordance with the most regularly searched-for terms, meaning that we are able to provide our users with dossiers on the topic areas that interest them. In easy to understand PowerPoint formats, our dossiers serve as research facilitators for users wishing to gain a rapid but comprehensive insight into a topic. Regular updates and routine additions guarantee that our 1,000 dossiers are always up to date. 

• Studies Database - If you’re interested in a more in-depth insight into the overall context of a subject and you find that individual statistics just aren’t sufficient in serving your needs, then our study database can help. With numerous studies from market researchers, governmental institutions and businesses sourced from over 600 industries, our study database provides our users with the chance to access to the most detailed information on an array of topics. 

• Forecasts - Statistical forecasts for a multitude of trends from a wide variety of sources.

• Companies and Topics - Especially useful for market and marketing research, this section of the database provides tables covering longitudinal trends on various measures pertaining to sales and revenue, income, customer satisfaction, consumption, market share, etc.

• Infographics - Each weekday Statista's editors produce infographic charts featuring helpful visualizations based on the statistics available in the database. Over 1,500 infographic charts are currently archived in the database, with more being added all the time.

Each statistical table in Statista can be modified and downloaded for use in assignments and presentations according to a user's personal preferences. For example:

• Any statistical table can be rendered as a bar chart, a line graph, or in tabular format

• Data labels can be applied, removed or customized; they can also be rotated at 90 degree angles

• Customized tables can be downloaded in PNG, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF format, and printed

Users can also request notification for any updates to a given statistic as new information is added to the database.

We invite you to try Statista and explore its potential usefulness for your work. Please contact Richard Kearney (email or 973-720-2165) or you have questions or need more information about Statista.

Trial Access to the Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts Series Database Available Through March 21

Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Volume I and Volume II, from Alexander Street Press, is a unique online series that lets students and researchers peer deeply into the client-therapist relationship and follow the progress — and the setbacks — of clients across multiple therapy sessions. The Cheng Library is providing trial access to these collections from now through March 21.

This multi-part collection is growing to include 6,000 transcripts of real therapy sessions, 44,000 pages of client narratives, and 25,000 pages of reference works in one cross-searchable interface. Together, these materials bring the therapeutic process to life and provide unprecedented levels of access to the broadest range of clients.

Designed to meet the needs of therapists-in-training, the collection shares firsthand the experience of assisting clients through a wide range of issues. It lets students witness in detail therapists’ treatment processes and assess their impact. Transcripts are provided by hundreds of practicing therapists worldwide and all adhere to the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Guidelines for use and anonymity, so users can rely on the information for its accuracy and diversity.

This collection also opens gateways for researchers to make reliable, real-life observations and draw empirical, data-driven conclusions. Scholars can use the collection to compare therapeutic methods, relate them back to client outcomes, examine language patterns across different types of psychotherapy, and explore countless other lines of inquiry with unprecedented accuracy.

At the present time, the series is being provided through two different web portals:

• Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Volume I contains more than 2,000 transcripts of actual therapy sessions, 44,000 pages of client narratives and 25,000 pages of major reference works. There are diaries, letters, autobiographies, oral histories, and personal memoirs along with the full text of therapy and counseling sessions themselves. All accounts are non-fiction, delivered in the first person and, where possible, contemporaneous.
• Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Volume II provides a deep look into the client-therapist office, allowing readers to follow the progress and setbacks of clients over the course of multiple therapy sessions. This collection features a diverse set of clients, a wide range of presenting issues, and multiple therapeutic approaches with some 4,000 new transcripts of actual therapy sessions. Because all content was recorded in 2012 or later, Volume II features contemporary issues and the most up-to-date therapeutic approaches to treat them.

We invite you to try Volume I and Volume II of the Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts Series to see what it can offer you and your students. Please contact Bill Duffy (duffyb@wpunj.edu or 973-720-3191), Library Liaisons to the Psychology Department, or Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165), Electronic Resources Librarian, if you have questions or comments about the database.

Trial Access to Euromonitor's Passport Database Available Now Through December 12

From now through December 12, the Cheng Library is offering trial access to Euromonitor International's Passport database.

Euromonitor's Passport is a global market research database providing statistics, analysis, reports, surveys and breaking news on industries, countries and consumers worldwide.  Passport connects market research to a company's goals and annual planning, analyzing market context, competitor insight and future trends impacting businesses globally. The database offers detailed analyses of consumer and industrial markets around the world across 781 cities, 210 countries, and 27 industries with historic data from 1997 and forecasts through 2020.

Passport's main features include:

• Industry Data - Multi-country relational database of market and category sizes, market shares, distribution patterns, sales forecasts and other measurements relevant to each sector.
• Country Reports - In-depth analysis reports on both developed and emerging national markets. Each report provides qualitative commentary on sales trends, new product and marketing developments, consumer preferences, national company and brand competition and market strategies, and the views and assumptions underlying national sales forecasts.
• Global Reports - These assess the key issues affecting international market performance, with a focus on important developments by product sector and big picture competition strategy.
• Company Profiles - Analytical profiles of the top international players in an industry, compiled in a standardized format for cross analysis.
• Comment - Articles and presentations on key themes and discussion topics around the dynamics of the category.

Passport can be used for doing very specific analyses or for looking at big picture economic or social changes. Typical applications are annual and multi-year company plans, target-setting, market entry thinking; price/position/channel strategies, ad claims, new product development; customer profiling, segmentation, defining key demographics; competitor intelligence, benchmarking against peers, anticipating threats; route to market strategy, new business development, account handling; procurement, logistics, and value chain strategy.

We invite you to try Euromonitor's Passport and see what it can offer you. Please contact Cara Berg (bergc@wpunj.edu or 973-720-3189), or Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165), Library Liaisons to the Cotsakos College of Business, if you have questions or comments about Euromonitor's Passport.

SocINDEX Offers Research on All Aspects of Society from A to Z

The Cheng Library's new SocINDEX database provides access to the broad spectrum of sociological study. With a backfile extending to 1895, it features more than 2.1 million records and contains citations and abstracts from over 4,400 journals, over 1,000 books, and over 400 magazines, plus additional references to working papers, educational reports, trade publications, conference papers, and more. Subject coverage extends to all areas of sociology and its sub-disciplines, including 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 topics.

The SocINDEX database provides a subject classification system (thesaurus) of over 20,000 terms to support high-precision searching and enable students and researchers to retrieve the most comprehensive result sets for any topic of interest. It also includes a directory of author profiles covering the most prolific, widely cited, and frequently searched-for authors in the database. Each author profile includes biographical data and bibliographic information, which together allow users to ascertain an author's areas of expertise and academic/professional focus. All author profiles are updated on a routine basis as new information about each author becomes available.

SocINDEX replaces Sociological Abstracts in the Cheng Library's collection.

We invite you to try SocINDEX and see what it can offer you. Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165), or Anthony Joachim, Library Liaison to the Sociology Department (joachima1@wpunj.edu or 973-720-3665 if you have questions or comments about SocINDEX.

Let's Get Political: With Political Science Complete and Public Affairs Index, We've Got You Covered

The year the Cheng Library is offering two new databases to support undergraduate and graduate study and research in politics and public policy.

Political Science Complete is a full-text resource on politics and public policy offers access to:

• over 900 academic journals (with full-text access to almost 500 titles)
• over 300 books
• over 43,000 conference papers from the major national, regional, and international political science associations, including:

• American Political Science Association
• Northeastern Political Science Association
• International Studies Association
• Midwestern Political Science Association
• New England Political Science Association
• Southern Political Science Association
• Western Political Science Association

• almost 300 country reports
• and almost 50 magazines

The database also features a subject-specific thesaurus with over 17,500 terms to provide high-precision searching guidance to researchers. Subject coverage includes comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations and political theory. Over half the full-text titles offer backfiles to the year 2000, with approximately 30 percent of the full-text titles offering backfiles ranging from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Public Affairs Index is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of national and global contemporary public policy issues ranging from public health, economic policy, the environment, education policy, labor, housing, human and civil rights, to international commerce and conflict. It indexes over 2,000 academic journals, over 660 magazines, over 350 country reports, over 340 trade publications, and a variety of other sources, including industry reports, newspapers, conference papers, government documents, and more. Indexing coverage extends back to 1990 or later for approximately 90 percent of the titles, with over 400 titles offering indexing coverage extending to prior decades. The database is designed to provide up-to-date information on a broad range of topics of concern to the world today, and links to full-text materials are provided where available.

Together, these databases provide comprehensive access to the research literature, news, and other expert analyses of politics and policy. These databases replace Worldwide Political Science Abstracts and PAIS International.

We invite you to try Political Science Complete and Public Affairs Index and see what they can offer you. Please contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources Librarian (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165), or Nancy Weiner, Library Liaison to the Political Science Department (weinern@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2161 if you have questions or comments about these databases.

There's Music in the Air (and Online)!: Naxos Music Library and Jazz Library Now Available

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce that we are now offering TWO new databases providing music online through streaming audio technology:

The Naxos Music Library is a large online classical music library. It offers streaming audio access to over 100,000 albums and features over 1.4 million tracks covering both standard and rare repertoire. Over 800 new albums are added to the library every month. The database offers the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus the complete catalogues or selected titles from over 650 record labels. Along with classical music, a modest selection of jazz, world, and pop/rock are also represented. The Naxos Music Library can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, anytime. With the iPhone/iPod and Android mobile apps, subscribers can also access the service on the go, and the HTLM5 player can stream music though the standard internet connection of the most phones and tablets. The contents of the library can be searched by composer, work, genre and label; by keyword search; and by a sophisticated advanced search engine with up to 11 combined search criteria. In addition to the audio, Naxos Music Library provides liner notes for many recordings. Listeners can create personalized playlists or use predefined Naxos Music Library playlists.

Naxos Music Library Jazz is one of the most comprehensive collections of jazz music available online. Naxos Music Library Jazz comprises Naxos Jazz, the catalogue of Blue Note Records, and the 22 labels of Fantasy Jazz along with Prophone and Proprius. It currently offers over 100,000 tracks of jazz from 260 labels, and over 12,000 jazz artists are represented. U.S.-based Fantasy has the world's deepest jazz catalogue and offers the very best in blues and R&B. Blue Note offers albums featuring the legendary artist John Coltrane and iconic artists such as Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter and many others. Through a sophisticated online search engine, users can locate works by featured artist(s), disc, song title and catalogue number. Playlists can also be easily created for educational use, or for hours of continuous enjoyment. New jazz releases are continually added to ensure that the music library is always up-to-date.

Both Naxos Music Library and Naxos Music Library Jazz are excellent tools for musical education. They give faculty the opportunity to plan course work and assignments around much wider collections of material than are usually available in libraries, with the option to create customized playlists. Students will have access to the playlist recordings, on or off campus. Multiple users can listen to the same or different tracks at the same time. In the classroom, teachers can choose from a great selection of music to play without having to find or purchase CDs.

Both databases enable users to create static URLs linking to individual albums, playlists, repertoire, and tracks.

The audio in both databases is streamed through the web site. Adobe Flash is the default player, and recent versions of any major web browser software that meets the requirements for Adobe Flash should work fine. The music is streamed in Flash AAC format, and the standard sound quality produces near-CD quality audio.

Naxos offers brief overview videos that will introduce you to the content and features of each database, so try the overview video for Naxos Music Library and Naxos Music Library Jazz for a quick and easy orientation.

We invite you to try Naxos Music Library and Naxos Music Library Jazz. Please contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165) in you have any questions or need any additional information or assistance.

GenderWatch Database Offers Full-Text Support for Women's, Gender, and LGBT Studies

GenderWatch is our newest full-text database for supporting teaching and research in gender and women's studies, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) research. The database offers over 300 titles, with more than 250 in full-text, from an array of academic, radical, community and independent presses, with coverage back to 1970. Researchers and teachers may access more than 219,000 full articles on wide-ranging topics like sexuality, religion, societal roles, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, healthcare, and the workplace.

GenderWatch's strong collection of important, current titles provides users comprehensive support for gender, family, ethnic, and societal studies from both academic and grassroots perspectives.  Users will find essential titles such as Off Our Backs (1970 to current) and Transgender Tapestry, international titles such as Sister Namibia and the Australian Feminist Law Journal, community newspapers such as Out & About and the Windy City Times, and many other diverse and interdisciplinary publications.

The database features a wide array of publication types, including scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and reports of government and non-governmental organizations (a complete title list is available online). It is provided on the ProQuest platform and provides powerful search and browse capabilities.

We invite you to try GenderWatch and benefit from its diverse and high-quality content. Please contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165) if you have any questions.

Got Data If You Want 'Em: The Statistical Abstract of the United States Available Online Once Again

Following a budget cut in 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau terminated the collection of data for its Statistical Compendia program, resulting in the discontinuation of major statistical publications, including the Statistical Abstract of the United States, one of the most important and useful reference publications ever produced. Subsequent to this decision, the database company ProQuest began publishing a new version of the Statistical Abstract online, and the Cheng Library is happy to announce that the current (2014) edition is now available online to the WPUNJ community.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States is the most authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. It offers convenient access to a wide variety of data on such topics as population, education, elections, all major sectors of the economy, health and nutrition, government, science and technology, transportation, housing, and much more. Every table in the Statistical Abstract provides citations to more extensive and detailed sources of data for its subject, which also makes it an efficient guide to data sources. The data in the Statistical Abstract is drawn from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations.

The online version of the Statistical Abstract features an easy-to-browse table of contents and keywork searching. All statistical tables can be exported to PDF or to Excel format for further analysis, and most of the data source citations appearing in the notes at the bottom of each table are hyperlinked for easy navigation to additional detail. A Quick Start Guide to the online edition is available featuring useful tips.

The older editions of the Statistical Abstract remain available through the Census Bureau's web site, but please the current edition for more recent data.

Please contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165) if you have any questions or need additional information about the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

New This Fall: The PsycTESTS Database

Starting this fall, the Cheng Library is offering PsycTESTS, a research database produced by the American Psychological Association that provides access to over 20,000 psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the test and its development and administration. The database is a most valuable resource for any student or faculty member engaged in data collection, survey development, testing and measurement, methodological issues, or assessment.

PsycTESTS focuses primarily on unpublished tests, that is, tests developed by researchers but not made commercially available. Most records in the database link to a variety of materials describing the test in peer-reviewed literature, technical reports, or dissertations as well as links to related peer-reviewed literature describing test development, review, or use. All records include a summary that describes the test, with its purpose and some history of its development, and most records include the actual test instrument.

Each record in PsycTESTS includes data on the scope of the test, test implementation, a high-level overview of the test's development, and reliability and validity data (when available). Tests include those compiled from a systematic review of peer-reviewed journals published by APA, Hogrefe Publishing Group, and other large publishers; technical reports from the APA's PsycEXTRA database; contributions from individual test authors; collections from the Archives of the History of American Psychology; and more. Commercially available tests indexed by APA are also included, with links to purchase the instrument from the publisher.

The database, which we are providing on the EBSCOhost platform, offers a variety of search and browse options, including access by test name or acronym, author, construct, subject, format, population, year, and other attributes.

We invite you to try PsycTESTS and see what its unique content has to offer. Please contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165) if you have questions or comments about PsycTESTS.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database Now Available

The Cheng Library is pleased to announce that the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database is now available. The database includes three million dissertation and theses citations from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with over one million full-text dissertations available for download in PDF format. It represents a significant enhancement to the University community's access to current and historical research, and it will be of special interest to faculty and graduate students.

The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works.

More than 80,000 new full-text dissertations and theses are added to the database each year through dissertation publishing partnerships with 700 leading academic institutions worldwide and collaborative retrospective digitization of dissertations through ProQuest's Digital Archiving and Access Program. Full-text dissertations are archived as submitted by the degree-granting institution. Some will be native PDF, some PDF image.

Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from as far back as 1637. Where available, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses provides 24-page previews of dissertations and theses.

The database supports a wide variety of search and browse options, including
searching by institutional affiliation, degree awarded, advisor, and department. Retrieved records can easily be saved, emailed, exported to bibliographic management software, or printed.

Theses and dissertations submitted by WPUNJ students will continue to be available through our special Theses and Dissertations @ The William Paterson University of New Jersey portal as well as in the larger database.

We invite you to try ProQuest Dissertations and Theses this semester. Please contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973-720-2165) in you have any questions or need any additional information.