Off the Shelf

Google is launching their own online encyclopedia, Knol.  Unlike Wikipedia, Knol will be written by experts who sign each entry.  This will directly combat some of the major criticisms of Wikipedia:  posts can be poorly researched or written, and no one is held responsible for the quality of an entry.

Knol, by contrast, will err on the side of expertise.  The encyclopedia will still use Web2.0 technologies, such as rating entries for usefullness and adding user comments. 

You can see their official blog announcement and a sample page. 

Here are a few of the advantages I see:

• I’ll know that an actual expert’s reputation is on the line - they’re likely to be more careful about what they write.
• Entries will be more substantial, and less like the random stubs that make up a lot of Wikipedia articles.
• I’ll have a one-stop-shop for background information.  I won’t have to do as much general web surfing and website evaluation. 
• I will be able to see what others think - smart people will be able to add what they know in a comment (without changing the basic content of the post).
• Experts will be more likely to add useful bibliography entries.  Then I can use the bibliography to learn more.

Still Wikipedia (the mob) does have some advantages:

• Wikipedia has articles on the latest pop culture phenomenon.  You can’t beat Wikipedia for a list of Pokemon characters and their DVD releases!
• Knol will be slower and smaller.  Experts take time to build good entries, and it will be a while before there are a lot of them.  Wikipedia may have a lot of stub articles, but at least they’re a start.
• Wikipedia is almost always at the top of Google results - it’s extremely easy to find.  (We’ll see if Google puts a stop to that phenomenon . . . )

So, what do the rest of you think about this?  Will it be just another internet flash in the pan, or do you think Knol will take off?

-Erin

If you’re a frequent EBSCOhost user (Academic Search Premier, PsycINFO, etc) you’ve probably already heard the news.   On Wednesday morning, EBSCO finally rolled out the new interface they are calling EBSCOhost 2.0.   They say the change “will provide you with the most powerful, clean and intuitive interface available.”

Rest assured that a search in the new interface should work the same as a search the old way.  Things are just rearranged, “cleaned up” and hopefully enhanced.

Here’s a quick look at what you will find:

We have definitely run across some…idiosyncrasies.   I have a few questions outstanding with the vendor, so I guess it’s still a work in progress.  I have also experienced delays and errors on a fairly frequent basis, so please be patient if working on a search.    As soon as the kinks are worked out, we’ll update our many guides and other materials to reflect this new interface. 

Stay tuned and try to stay with us as we roll with this rollout.

-EmilyW

We now have access to Journal of Positive Psychology.   It will show up in Journal Locator and Article Linker tomorrow.  We have access from 2006 to present.

PsycBOOKS added the following titles to its coverage list in May and June 2008. Of the titles added, 7 were APA books and 14 were designated classic books.  Classic books are landmark titles in psychology and are selected by APA experts.

APA Books

• Assessing Hispanic clients using the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A, by Butcher, James N.; Cabiya, Jose; Lucio, Emilia; Garrido, Maria, © 2007  
• Case studies in emotion-focused treatment of depression: A comparison of good and poor outcome, by Watson, Jeanne C.; Goldman, Rhonda N.; Greenberg, Leslie S. © 2007
• Everyday creativity and new views of human nature: Psychological, social, and spiritual perspectives, © 2007, by Richards, Ruth (Ed)
• Handbook of clinical health psychology: Volume 2. Disorders of behavior and health. Raczynski, by James M. (Ed); Leviton, Laura C. (Ed), © 2004  
• Handbook of clinical health psychology: Volume 3. Models and perspectives in health psychology, by Boll, Thomas J. (Ed); Frank, Robert G. (Ed); Baum, Andrew (Ed); Wallander, Jan L. (Ed), © 2004 
• Inhibition in cognition, by Gorfein, David S. (Ed); MacLeod, Colin M. (Ed), © 2007
• Psychology’s interpretive turn: The search for truth and agency in theoretical and philosophical psychology, by Held, Barbara S. ©2007  

Classic Books

• Design for a brain: The origin of adaptive behaviour (2nd ed. rev.), by Ashby, W. Ross, © 1960  
• The dialogues of Plato: Translated into English with analyses and introductions (Vol 2), © 1901, by Jowett, B.
• The fate of man in the modern world, by Berdyaev, Nicolas, © 1935 (Reprinted 1961)
• Lectures on the true, the beautiful, and the good, © 1857, by Cousin, M. V.; Wight, O. W. (Trans)
• Man: A creative first cause, two discourses, © 1883, by Hazard, Rowland G.
• The murderous trail of Charles Starkweather, by Reinhardt, James Melvin, © 1960  
• Objective and experimental psychiatry, © 1935, by Cameron, D. Ewen
• Outlines of cosmic philosophy, based on the doctrine of evolution, with criticisms on the positive philosophy (Vol 3), © 1902, by Fiske, John
• The pathway to reality, Stage the second, being the Gifford lectures delivered in the University of St. Andrews in the session 1903–1904,  © 1905, by Haldane, Richard Burdon
• The principles of psychology, © 1869, by Bascom, John
• Recent British philosophy: A review with criticisms including some comments on Mr. Mill’s answer to Sir William Hamilton, © 1866, by Masson, David
• The riddle of personality, © 1908 (Reprinted 1909), by Bruce, H. Addington
• The wild boy of Aveyron (Rapports et mémoires sur le sauvage de l’Aveyron), by Itard, Jean-Marc-Gaspard; Humphrey, George (Trans); Humphrey, Muriel (Trans), © 1932
• William James (2nd ed.), © 1912, by Boutroux, Émile; Henderson, Archibald (Trans); Henderson, Barbara (Trans)

– Erika

I received many questions this morning in the Library’s email box about writing and the APA format. Besides the APA Publication Manual,  the first resource I think of for these questions is Capella’s Online Writing Center.

Here is the path through iGuide: Academic > Academic Support Resources > Online Writing Center, now you can see where I came up with the title of this article.

I also point out this resource when I am talking to someone on the phone. They are often pleasantly surprised at the amount of and quality of information the site contains. 

I want to highlight two sections for you to bookmark or add to your favorites:

Need some help “distilling” the APA Publication Manual? Check out the recently revised APA Style and Formating interactive module.

Need some help with an Annotated Outline, Writing in the Third Person, or Writing a Course Paper? Check out the many helpful handouts/modules on the Writing Center’s Handouts & Modules  page.

I have reviewed and used several of these modules and handouts for my own writing and have found them very ”user-friendly” and helpful.

Can’t find what you need at the Online Writing Center? You can contact the Capella’s Writing program at: writingprogram@capella.edu  Currently there is not way to contact them by phone.

Let me know what you think about these resources, did you find anything surprising?

Robin

Are you using print books in your research?  Sick of typing the information into an emptry RefWorks form? 

You don’t have to mess with that any more!  You can use WorldCat to get APA citation information into RefWorks quickly and easily.  Check out this video that WorldCat has added to YouTube:

WorldCat is a great way to find out which local libraries have the books you want, save lists of things you’d like to read next, and generate APA citations.

You can fnd WorldCat on the open web (www.worldcat.org) or from the library’s Databases A-Z list. 

–Erin

Whenever I or the other Capella librarians bring up web resources such as blogs, learners will often respond with the question:

“How can I use those in my papers?  They’re not scholarly sources.”

That’s a great question.  Blog posts aren’t peer-reviewed journal articles.  Many of them are hardly more than a paragraph or two.  They aren’t going to be suitable for a paper or your dissertation, but they are a great way to find out about scholarly research.

How?  Many scholars and professionals blog about their fields.  They’ll mention important events and publications, or talk about recent hot topics.  Most will also link to other resources or cite important research papers.  You can then use that information to drill down to the actual research.

I just had that experience today.  I saw a post on one of the librarian blogs I monitor: “You’ll Like This Post.”  The post mentioned some recent research into the effect of reading novels.  I was intruiged by the idea that reading novels can improve social skills, so I checked out the link embedded in the post. 

That brought me to the Globe and Mail article “Socially Awkward? Hit the Books.”  It mentioned a recent article in the journal New Scientist that surveyed the research on the topic.

With that bit of knowledge I went to Journal Locator, looked up New Scientist, and then searched in that journal for articles with the keyword “fiction” from the last month.  I very quickly found “The Science of Fiction; Reading Novels Isn’t Just Entertaining, It Helps You Navigate the Complex Social World.”

That article mentions several scholarly journal articles - I was able to use Journal Locator to find several of the scholarly journal articles mentioned, including “Bookworms Versus Nerds: Exposure to Fiction Versus Non-Fiction, Divergent Associations with Social Ability, and the Simulation of Fictional Social Worlds.”

One article is still in press.  To make sure I can still find that article when it’s finally available, I can manually add it to my RefWorks account and put it in a “too read” folder.  Then I can check for it later.

So, from a simple blog post I was able to pull together the full text of several research articles in under 10 minutes.  And I now have evidence that my time spent reading on the bus is making me a better person!  Not that a librarian would be biased on that account . . .

- Erin

 When we first talked about getting RefWorks, we were asked about how RefWorks works with APA style.  It works quite nicely, in fact.  When you are ready to produce a bibliography, you can chose whatever citation style you choose.  For most of us, that style with be the most recent version of APA.  So, how do you choose the right style for your bibliography? 

Go to the Bibliography page.  Under Output Style, RefWorks has a handy category called Capella University Specific.  There you’ll see APA - American Psychological Edition, 5th Edition listed.  Just choose that and you’re on your way.

Of course, that’s not the only thing you have to do to make sure your bibliography is correct.  Have you ever heard the saying “garbage in, garbage out?”

Well, that’s especially true for bibliographic management tools.  RefWorks is fabulous, but it’s still only as good as what gets put in it.

So, when you’re using Refworks, be a conscientious user.  If you are manually entering citation information, make sure you haven’t missed any required fields.  When you produce a bibliography, check your references to make sure that they are correctly formatted.  RefWorks won’t make your APA manual obsolete, but it should help you stay organized and save a lot of time.

–Erin

For many of you Monday is the start of a new quarter.  Did you know the Library has a tool that can help your manage your assignment deadlines?

Check out the Assignment Calculator on the Library’s Guides & Tutorials Page. This tool not only helps you plan your time, it also gives you links to helpful resources that will help you with a particular stage of the assignment.

Enjoy your Holiday weekend!

-Robin

A few weeks ago I posted two library tips for new learners.

Here are two more below:

1. Sort by Relevance:
Sometimes your results look random at first, since the databases sort articles by date as a default.  So the most recent article will be at the top – not the most relevant.  Luckily, there’s an option to change the way articles are sorted to Relevance.  Look for a Sorting drop-down menu all the way on the right of your article results list – straight across from the number of articles.  It should say “Sort By – Date.”  Change it to “Sort By – Relevance” to bring the best articles to the top (according to your keywords).

2. Contact a Librarian for Search Help:
The librarians are available most weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST.  We recently added extra hours on Monday, when we are open until 8 p.m.  We’ve added some Saturday hours, as well: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CST.  These are the hours you can normally get us right away via phone.  We promise a reply in 8 business hours for email, but our average is much lower.  (If you don’t get a response in eight hours, check your junk mail folder or let us know!  Sometimes our emails get rejected without us knowing.)

– Erika