What's new? Communication Studies @ the UW Libraries

Database Trial: Historic Seattle Times

2010-02-16T15:20:00.000-08:00

Looking for local news stories and advertisements about Jimi Hendrix, the famous guitarist born in Seattle? Try the digitized version of the Seattle Times that currently covers from 1896 through 1969. You can search for specific articles (see search example below) or browse through the newspaper page by page.

This digitized version of the Seattle Times is currently on trial until April 1st. Given the current budget situation it is not known if the libraries will be able to purchase this database so use it while you can. Please email your comments to me at jalbano@u.washington.edu

**Note: Off-campus access is restricted to current UW students, faculty, and staff. To access this trial database from off campus, follow these steps:

go to www.lib.washington.edu
click the "off campus access log in" button near the top right corner of the screen and log in using your UW NetID
under Find it, select E-Newspapers
go down to the list of news databases and select Early American Newspapers Series II
follow the search example above to limit your search to the Seattle Times

Database Trial: American History in Video

2010-02-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Do you know that these events happened on January 25, 1960?

DEMOCRATIC DINNER: spotlighting the four front-running Presidential hopefuls, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Symington; 20 DIE IN ALGERIA RIOTS; COAL MINE DISASTER: At Coalbrock, South Africa; NETHERLANDS FLOODS; 25 YEARS AGO: the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.

View footage of these events and thousands of other rare newsreels that aired from 1929 through the 1960s; including the entire series of both Universal and United. You'll also find the historic Longine Chronoscope broadcasts and hundreds of hours of documentaries from leading producers such as The History Channel®.

This American History in Video collection is on trial through April 1, 2010. Given the current budget situation it is not known if the libraries will be able to purchase this collection so use it while you can.

Please email me at jalbano@u.washington.edu with any comments before March 1, 2010 as a proposal for funding will be submitted in mid-March. Your comments could be used in the proposal.

Publishing and Authors' Rights Discussion

2010-02-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 23
10:30am to 12 noon
Odegaard Undergraduate Library (OUGL), room 220

Whether you are starting out as a new author or already have a long list of publications you should find our panel on publication and author's rights of interest. Panelists will discuss questions about publication practices, copyright transfer agreements and how authors can ensure that they keep appropriate rights to their work. Other possible topics are public access mandates for research that is federally funded and the UW Faculty Senate resolution on publishing alternatives and authors' rights. Bring your questions and learn how trends in scholarly communication are likely to affect your research and publication.

Participants: Dave Eaton, Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences & Associate Vice Provost for Research Clark Shores, Assistant Attorney General, Attorney General's Office

Inaugural Words: 1789 to the Present

2009-01-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

The New York Times presents "Inaugural Words: 1789 to the Present," an interactive chart that looks at the "most-used words" in each inaugural address. The words appear in the chart, sized by number of uses.

Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Communication

2008-12-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

Online access is now available to the Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Communication. A special thanks goes to the librarians at the UW Tacoma Library for purchasing the e-encyclopedia for researchers at all three UW campuses. Thanks to librarians in OUGL and Suzzallo Reference for paying the annual access fee.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

12 titles added to Oxford Digital Reference Shelf

2008-12-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

12 encyclopedias were added to our subscription to Oxford Digital Reference Shelf. Some titles may be of interest to students and faculty in Communication:

Oxford encyclopedia of rhetoric
Oxford encyclopedia of women in world history
Oxford encyclopedia of the modern world
Black women in America
Grove encyclopedia of materials and technology in art

Access will be available over the next few months. Until then, most of these are available in paper in a UW Library.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Spotlight: ProQuest Dissertations

2008-12-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

ProQuest dissertations & theses full text (formerly Dissertation Abstracts, ProQuest Dissertations) provides citations to 2.4 million dissertations and theses written at U.S. universities from 1861 to the present. More than 1 million full text dissertations are NOW available to download in PDF format.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Media Re:public, News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age

2008-12-31T14:25:00.000-08:00

Berkman Publication Series presents Media Re:public News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age, a series of papers exploring the potential and the challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment.

Download these papers in pdf form:

- News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age
- International News: Bringing about the Golden Age
- Principles for a New Media Literacy
- Public Broadcasting and Public Affairs: Opportunities and challenges for public broadcasting's role in provisioning the public with news and public affair
- Digital Media, Democracy and Diversity: an Imperfect Discourse
- Pride of Place: Mainstream Media and the Networked Public Sphere
- Editors - the best is yet to come?
- A Typology for Media Organizations
- iReport: Participatory Media Joins a Global News Brand
- The Gothamist Network: Gateway to Local News?
- The Forum, Deerfield, NH: Seeking Sustainability in Hyperlocal Journalism
- The Chi-Town Daily News: Creating a New Supply of Local News

UW EMC consolidated with the Media Center

2008-12-31T13:53:00.000-08:00

To better serve the University of Washington community, the Educational Media
Collection is being consolidated with the University Libraries Media Center
collection. Starting January 1, 2009, please forward all requests for titles to
the Libraries Media Center (ULMC) at medialib@u.washington.edu or via phone at
206-543-6051. Due to the fragility of 16mm films these formats will no longer be
available for viewing. Please contact the ULMC at the above email/phone for
other options for viewing 16mm film content.

The Educational Media Collection (EMC) web site will remain active as the EMC titles
are consolidated into the ULMC. If the title you are seeking is no longer
found at this site, please check the ULMC catalog at:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/
The ULMC is located on the mezzanine level of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

Hours of operation for Winter Quarter 2009 (January 5-March 20, 2009) excluding
holidays* are:
    Monday-Thursday: 8 am-Midnight 
    Friday 8 am-9 pm 
    Saturday 11 am-9 pm
    Sunday 1 pm-Midnight

*See the ULMC website for holiday hours:
(http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/hours/media.html)

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google

2008-11-20T10:19:00.001-08:00

Search millions of photos in the LIFE Photo Archive from the 1750s to today through Google. Add "source:life" to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive. For example: television source:life

Summit Changes: Update

2008-11-18T09:53:00.001-08:00

Exciting news: We just learned that the loan period in the new Summit has been changed from 4 weeks to 6 weeks. Renewals are still not possible, but that is a high development priority.

If you would like to stay informed, check for updates.

Obama to give weekly address via YouTube

2008-11-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports that President-elect Obama will broadcast his weekly address in the traditional way - on the radio - but will also post video of each address on YouTube. Obama will begin this week, airing and posting the weekly Democratic address.

Summit Catalog Changes Coming

2008-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

The price of the software running the Summit system that allows you to borrow from academic libraries in Washington and Oregon increased substantially, making it impossible for the Summit member libraries to afford. The contract with the software vendor expires on 31 December and the Libraries will switch to a new product.

If you use Summit, you need to know:

Beginning November 21, material checked out in the current system will have a progressively shorter loan period or renewal.
All material checked out in the current system must be returned by December 12.
Requesting through the new Summit system will begin December 1, 2008. These books will have a four-week loan period. There will continue to be shorter loans for some materials, such as CDs and DVDs.
Renewals are not yet possible in the new system. If you need an item longer than four weeks, you will need to place a request for another copy, or return the item and re-request it. Enabling renewals is a high development priority for the new system.
Materials you have requested will not appear in your library account until they are received by the library.
You will still be able to visit member libraries to check out books in person (e.g., Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, Portland State University, etc.). This will require verifying your UW status at the other library. This verification process will also enable you to request that books from other member libraries be delivered to the member library of your choice (for example, books from the UW can be delivered to Portland State for pickup by a UW student).

We recognize that the ability to request items through Summit is a service that is valued very highly by UW users. UW Libraries and Summit staff are working to ensure a smooth transition between the old and new systems, but there may be a few bumps along the way. If you have problems or questions, please contact the Libraries through this link.

Get updates on the system through this link.

PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication

2008-11-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication is a new, biannual open-access online publication founded by the Media and Communications Program, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. It is refereed by an international board of scholars.

Student newspapers going digital

2008-11-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

Going Digital: If student newspapers are to remain vital as both news providers and keepers of their colleges' historical records, they must digitize, writes Brian Farkas.

Do newspaper endorsements help candidates?

2008-11-02T12:56:00.001-08:00

I don't know the answer to that question, but I still find it interesting to know which candidates the Seattle papers, The New York Times, and even my home state of Idaho's newspapers endorse. Here are a few interesting newspaper endorsement resources concerning the 2008 election:

Christian Science Monitor ends daily print edition

2008-11-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor is the first national newspaper to cancel their daily print subscription and move to an almost entirely online presence. This cost-cutting measure will begin in April 2009. For more information, read "Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy".

Video news content added to Access World News

2008-10-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

The complete video package from respected media distributor Voxant includes the following sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, as well as coverage from Canadian Broadcasting, Agence France-Presse and more.

Highlights:

Play news videos within the NewsBank interface, in the same space used to display text articles
Select specific videos from a comprehensive results list that also includes news articles, or limit your search to "video only"
Email links of specific videos to friends, or embed them in a presentation

This new content will be added in stages. A short advertisement that can be immediately closed by users will appear prior to each video. Please note that a free Flash plug-in is required
to play these videos. It can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer. Your default settings will not be affected in any way.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

LexisNexis now has a Twitter channel

2008-10-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

The LexisNexis Twitter channel will provide status updates for all of the academic products such as Academic, Congressional, Statistical, DataSets, and our UPA Collections. Our "tweets" will include items such as favorite searches, important links, new wiki articles, tips, and general product news. These updates will be much more frequent, shorter, and more casual than listserv messages.

Visit https://twitter.com/LNAcademic and click the "Follow" button below our icon to get the latest news on all of your LexisNexis subscriptions.

Questions? Email me and I'll connect you with the LexisNexis rep.

Hand cleaner available in UW Libraries

2008-10-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

With the flu and cold season approaching, it’s a good idea to clean your hands regularly. For your health and convenience, there is now a public Purell® dispenser available for users in uzzallo/Allen Library near the reference desk on the first floor and near the Access Plus workstations in the Microforms & Newspapers Collection on the ground floor. Purell® dispensers are also available in the other libraries on campus.

"Just a little longer" image courtesy of the Pacific Northwest Sheet Music collection, UW Libraries Digital Collections.

Mellon helps NCA study publishing options

2008-10-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

The National Communication Association (NCA) and eight other society publishers in the social sciences and humanities have received Mellon grants to explore open access (OA) publishing options for their journals.

From the American Anthropological Association announcement (October 13, 2008):

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is pleased to announce today that it has been awarded a $50,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to conduct preliminary research on the economic issues faced by scholarly society publishers in the humanities and social sciences as consequence of the demand for open access to their peer reviewed journals.

The grant, will provide support for an examination of the publishing programs of nine social science and humanities societies and the development of an information base from which publishing model options might be derived to assure ! societies of the ability to sustain their publishing programs in an open access environment.

Work on the effort will begin immediately, with a final report expected to be released in the first quarter of 2009.

"This study is another step in AAA's effort to better understand the conditions under which the future of our journal publishing program must operate, to learn from the experiences of other social science and humanities journal publishers and to carefully examine the issues, opportunities and problems presented by open access," AAA Executive Director Bill Davis said in a statement released today.

AAA Director of Publishing Oona Schmid commented today, "Current open access models were developed within the Scientific, Technical, and Medical publishing communities. However, scholarly publishing in the social sciences and in the humanities differs in substantial ways. This study is our first step in understanding these differences, in! order to locate a model that
supports our discipline fully."

AAA is joined in this effort by the Modern Language Association, the American Sociological Association, the American Historical Association, the American Economic Association, the National Communication Association, the American Statistical Association, the Political Science Association and the American Academy of Religion, under the auspices of the National Humanities Alliance Task Force on Open Access and Scholarly Communication.

LexisNexis Web Seminars

2008-10-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

LexisNexis offers free online seminars to help you research using their products - LexisNexis Academic, Congressional Record, business research, finding sources, legal research, and datasets.

View the seminar schedule and register now for the series of seminars that begin next week. You must register 24 hours in advance of the seminar that you want to attend.

Presidential debates and Google searches

2008-10-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Google observes search patterns during the Presidential Debates. People searched for the meanings of words, info about Meg Whitman and Warren Buffett, "but the biggest rising query was Senator McCain's paraphrasing of Theodore Roosevelt's motto.

NewsFilm Online

2008-10-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

NewsFilm Online is a growing online resource for news footage drawn from collections managed by ITN/Reuters. Access is currently free to users at UK colleges and universities. If you're traveling to the UK, stop by an academic library and ask to see footage from 1920 through 2007 on a variety of topics including art & culture, environment, politics, and sports.

For those of us on the other side of the pond, we can browse footage. Email me if you think the UW Libraries should subscribe to this product. While our budget is tight, I'm always willing to consider a product that fills the research needs of the UW Department of Communication.

Need more news transcripts and videos? See more on my Finding news images, stories, transcripts, and videos page...

Humor and Hard Facts: Are you ready to vote in the 2008 Presidential election?

2008-09-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to vote for President in November? Do you know the facts? Do you know where to find accurate information? Discover library databases and websites that provide current news and candidate information that will help you think about your 2008 decision.

See the display of information sources - candidate info, news, political cartoons, campaign ads, debate video, and more - located in Microforms & Newspapers, ground floor of Suzzallo Library.

See the web version of the display, "Election 2008: Are you ready to vote?"

Event: Celebrate Constitution Day

2008-09-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

You won't want to miss the annual public reading of the U.S. Constitution on Friday, October 10, at noon outside the Suzzallo Main Reading Room. Hear a nine-year old girl read the 19th Amendment! Bring your own kids and their pals to this educational event (Seattle Schools are closed that day). Sign up online to be a reader. Full event details are also available.

JibJab -Time for Some Campaigning

2008-09-08T09:52:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

iPoll Databank

2008-08-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

iPoll Databank @ the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is now available through the University of Washington Libraries. This is good news for those who have missed the Roper data that is no longer available in LexisNexis.

To access iPoll, you will need to input your email address, register with the databank, and accept a usage agreement. These steps are required of all UW students, faculty, and staff.

For more public opinion resources, visit my Public Opinions webpage on the Communication subject page.

A special thanks to Emily, the UW Political Science librarian for gathering the funding necessary to subscribe to iPoll.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

LexisNexis Wiki for Higher Education

2008-07-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

The LexisNexis Wiki for Higher Education includes product guides and research help.

The product guides include overviews of LexisNexis products (Academic, Congressional, Statistical, UPA collections) as well as frequently asked questions, helpful links, and, in some cases, user
guides. These pages are locked and will only be edited by the LexisNexis Wiki Editorial Staff.

The research help pages include tips on how to research certain topics and areas of study. Contributors (students, faculty, librarians) add their favorite ways to find topics in LexisNexis products and other avenues of research. LexisNexis Wiki Editorial Staff encourage you to create articles for new topics, add to articles that are already there, and create new categories, just
as you would with any other wiki.

Ebsco database changes

2008-07-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Communication & Mass Media Complete and the other EBSCO databases are getting facelifts.

To see a preview, begin from any Ebsco database, click on the red New Features! link near the upper right corner, then click on the "Test Drive" link.

You will also find links to the Ebsco 2.0 Support Center which includes
Powerpoint slides, Flash demos, screen shots, FAQ and downloadable
documentation.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this interface upgrade.

Back to work and posting to this blog ...

2008-07-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back at work after spending several months at home tending to the new addition to our family. You can find me working in Microforms & Newspapers and Suzzallo Reference three days a week. You can always reach me through email.

Email: jalbano@u.washington.edu
Office: G070B Microforms & Newspapers, Suzzallo Library

IM: Reach me when I'm in my office via instant messaging:

jalbano_UW (Yahoo)
commlibrarian (AOL)
jalbano@u.washington.edu (MSN)

Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC)

2007-12-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Do college students get all of their news online? Will the Internet destroy print newspapers? Are immigrants uniting on the Web? Find scholarly journal and magazine articles about these and other subjects related to communication and mass media.

Provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for over 300 journals, and selected coverage of over 100 more. Includes full text for over 200 journals. Many major journals are covered from their first issues to the present (some dating as far back as he early 20th century). CMMC incorporates CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association NCA), and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Pennsylvania State University).

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Journal Impact Factors called into question

2007-12-18T13:57:00.000-08:00

The editors from the Journal of Cell Biology and the Journal of Experimental Medicine have joined with the Executive Director of the Rockefeller University Press in reporting their inability to verify published impact factors using data provided by Thomson Scientific (ISI) itself. Published impact factors affect authors' decisions about manuscript submission, funding awards, and promotion and tenure. Read the editorial by Mike Rossner, Heather Van Epps, and Emma Hill published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

*You may need to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet to read this editorial from off campus.

LexisNexis Academic Loss of Roper Opinion Polls

2007-12-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

LexisNexis announced that they will lose the Roper Opinion Polls content
this month. The publisher decided to opt out of the agreement that made it
possible for LexisNexis to bring this content to academic researchers. LexisNexis licensing team will continue discussions with the publisher in hopes of reinstating this content in the future (2009 at the earliest).

Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out survey

2007-11-30T08:37:00.000-08:00

UW Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education releases Social Sciences PhDs - Five+ Years Out survey report. They surveyed PhD recipients who received their degrees between 1995 and 1999 from 65 U.S. universities in six social science disciplines including communication. The survey assessed current employment status, type of job sector and satisfaction, evaluated graduate programs, and more.

Spotlight: CQ Researcher

2007-11-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

CQ Researcher is an awesome resource for information about issues in the news today. The reports cover many topics, such as U.S. policy with Iran, consumer safety, public health issues, and so much more. Reports published from 1923 to the present are available. Use the issue tracker to trace an issue throughout that period of time.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

7 things you should know about Citizen Journalism

2007-11-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Presented by EDUCAUSE, these 7 things you should know begin with a basic definition of "citizen journalism." It refers to a wide range of activities in which everyday people contribute information or commentary about news events. With the birth of digital technologies, people now have unprecedented access to the tools of production and dissemination...

Libraries offers Netflix for Instruction

2007-10-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

The Media Center is pleased to offer UW instructors access to a free Netflix DVD rental service. This service will augment our permanent collections by offering access to titles we do not currently own, faster access to popular titles we do own, and the opportunity to preview titles before requesting they be purchased by the Libraries. Read more about how to use the service.
This is a pilot project and will be evaluated at the end of the Fall 2007.

Scholars retain copyright with Comm journals

2007-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Call for papers from Marquette Books LLC:

Eight new open access communication journals that allow scholars to keep the copyright to their submissions are seeking high quality submissions for 2008 issues and beyond.

They are Journal of Global Mass Communication, Russian Journal of Communication, Journal of Health & Mass Communication, Journal of Media Law & Ethics, American Journal of Media Psychology, Journal of Communication Studies, Journal of Media Sociology and International
Journal of Media and Foreign Affairs. Several journals are publishing special issues. More information about the journals and how to submit can be found at www.marquettejournals.org

In addition to being available electronically at no charge to the public, the journals will be published in hard copy form for distribution to library and individual subscribers. The hard copy
subscription rates are 50% to 80% lower than comparable scholarly journals. The first issues will be published in January/February 2008.

Works published in the journals will have maximum exposure to academic and public channels. The contents of each issue will be e-mailed to more than 45,000 librarians, scholars, citizens,
journalists and policy makers around the world.

Most major scholarly journals in the field of communication are available only through paid subscription. Almost all conventional publishers also require submitters to relinquish the copyright to their works. Publishers often earn royalties from the works, but the authors do not. In contrast, scholars who publish in Marquette Books journals keep the copyright to their articles, which means they may republish, resell or distribute their articles at will.

Spotlight: Polling the Nations

2007-09-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Polling the Nations provides full text public opinion polls conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and 100 other countries around the world.

It's now possible to create pie charts, bar charts, and more. The chart, question wording, and polling source info can all be pasted into Word, Power Point, etc. to enhance a report or presentation. Just use the "Graph This Question" button to get started.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Want more information? Visit the Public Opinions page on the UW Libraries Communication Studies Web page.

LexisNexis Academic

2007-09-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

LexisNexis Academic has a new interface. Although it takes some getting used to, I believe that the ability to search across all news categories (US news, world news, transcripts...) makes the change worthwhile.

I recommend that you view the tutorials under Related Links to familiarize yourself with the new search features. Please contact me if you can't find what you're looking for and have any other questions!

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Los Angeles Times, 1881-1985

2007-09-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

The LA Times is the newest addition to our collection of electronic historical newspapers. Search the newspaper and find digital images of every article, advertisement, and photograph. Download pdf versions of the articles, images, and complete newspaper pages.

Don't forget the other historical e-newspapers: Chicago Defender, New York Times, Times of London, and Wall Street Journal. To access these e-newspapers, see Finding News Articles on the Communication Subject Page.

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Early American Newspapers

2007-09-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

Early American Newspapers, series 2 is a collection of more than 50 19th-century digitized newspapers. Papers include the Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia) from 1860 to 1900, Idaho Statesman from 1864 to 1900 and the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1860 to 1900. There is even a bit of coverage for Washington State: Morning Olympian (1881-1900) and Tacoma Daily News (1890-1898).

*Be sure to use the Off-campus proxy bookmarklet before using this database from home.

Printing & Copying in the Library

2007-09-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Two new changes in printing and copying in the UW Libraries:

Your Husky card must now be used to pay for printing and photocopies. Cash can be put on your card via the online form or in-person at the HUB ticket office.
Microfilm printing now 20 cents per page (dimes only).