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home Databases & Electronic Resources, Resources and Services Database Spotlight: Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice

Database Spotlight: Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice

By Rhonda K. Whithaus   Posted in Databases & Electronic Resources Resources and Services
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Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice is a database that provides primary source documents related to the slave trade and to subsequent abolition efforts. The database covers a period from 1490 all the way up to 2007. Rather than just focusing on the slavery of the past, this database looks at the ramifications of that slavery as well as on modern-day slavery. They have 16 areas of study within the database and all of them can be thoroughly explored in their “Themes” section of the database. This is a great place to start your research because you can look at important documents related to each particular theme while also placing them in context through explanation as well as through the “Essays” section of the database. In the “Essays” section of the database several essays written using the sources in the database are gathered; they are all written by leading authorities in their areas and can be a great resource to get a better understanding of the complex issues that this database deals with.

Another great place to get a general understanding of the depth and breadth of the slave trade is the interactive chronology. This timeline looks at the slave trade all over the world from 1492 up to 2007. Though the timeline isn’t as interactive as I’d like it to be, it’s still a great way to get an idea as to the span of slavery, both in terms of its continuation and its effects.

Let’s say that you’re looking for something a bit more specific in your research though. This database is still great for that with its amazing Advanced Search. This Advanced Search is one of the most comprehensive that I’ve seen with the ability to filter your search by Region, by Theme, and even by the Library that provided the document. Given how prevalent slavery has been throughout history, it is extremely useful to be able to narrow your search by region and time period so that you aren’t searching through 500+ years of documents.

Basically, if you are looking into the slave trade and its effects on society, then Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice is the database for you.

Searching Tips and Tricks:

  • Not sure what to search for? Use the Popular Search tab!
  • Use phrase searching if you’re looking for a specific phrase, this means typing “Harriet Tubman” instead of Harriet Tubman. This ensures your search will only pull up results where those two words are next to each other.
  • Wildcard: ?
  • Truncation: *
  • The search engine won’t automatically find plurals, so make sure you use that truncation!
home Resources and Services Dodging the Memory Hole conference receives funding from Institute of Museum and Library Services

Dodging the Memory Hole conference receives funding from Institute of Museum and Library Services

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services
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Among the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grants is funding for the Journalism Digital News Archive’s Dodging the Memory Hole 2016: Saving Online News conference.

Read more at the Reynolds Journalism Institute Blog.

home Gateway Carousel Journalism, Resources and Services Extended Chat Hours

Extended Chat Hours

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Gateway Carousel Journalism Resources and Services
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Need research help? You can ask a librarian for help using our chat service–now available almost 24 hours a day.

During the day you can chat with MU librarians and library staff. At night, we offer access to a chat reference service called ChatStaff. They will be able to answer most research questions, except for some that are Mizzou-specific.

To access the chat service and see what hours chat reference is available, visit libraryanswers.missouri.edu.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library Dr. Booth: Rapid Alterations in Perirenal Adipose Tissue Transcriptomic Networks with Cessation of Voluntary Running (Open Access)

Dr. Booth: Rapid Alterations in Perirenal Adipose Tissue Transcriptomic Networks with Cessation of Voluntary Running (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services Zalk Veterinary Medical Library
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Dr. Frank W. Booth, PhD. is a Professor in the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology at the School of Medicine, the department of Nutrition & Exercise Physiology, and is a Research Investigator at the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. His research interests currently include elucidating mechanisms underlying the decreases in physical activity and gaining a better understanding of why cardiorespiratory fitness, or VO2max declines as an organism ages. Dr. Booth has published over 220 publications and has numerous national and international honor awards from exercise biology organizations. To learn more about Dr. Booth, click here.

Dr. Booth published, along with several University of Missouri doctoral students, in Public Library of Science (PLoS One), an open access journal for science and medicine.

Ruegsegger GN, Company JM, Toedebusch RG, Roberts CK, Roberts MD, Booth FW. (2015) Rapid Alterations in Perirenal Adipose Tissue Transcriptomic Networks with Cessation of Voluntary Running. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0145229. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145229

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Scanners on trial: test out two models

Scanners on trial: test out two models

By Caryn Scoville   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
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We’d like your feedback about whether to use scarce funding to purchase a new scanner for the photocopy room of the Health Sciences Library. We have two models on trial. They are easy to use, and you can send to your cell phone, e-mail or a jump drive. Please feel free to stop by and give them a try.

home Resources and Services Ebscohost Search & Find Trial

Ebscohost Search & Find Trial

By   Posted in Resources and Services
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The MU Libraries are reviewing discovery tools as our subscription to Summon comes up for renewal, and we are considering the other commercial discovery tools available.

A discovery tool provides a single search box for ease of searching many library resources at one time.  It includes citations for books, e-books, scholarly journals, magazines, dissertations, DVDs and many more resources, with links to full-text for the materials for which we have access. 

EbscoHost has provided free trial access to EDS, their discovery tool.  This trial gives the libraries and our users an opportunity to test the tool and assess whether it would be a good tool to add to our collection.

Since this is a free trial, it has not been fully customized, as it would be if we were to subscribe.  It does not contain all records from our catalog of books, but instead only  has a subset so that we can see how book records are integrated with the other records in the results.  We have also not activated all of our subscriptions to display within it.

To conduct a comprehensive search, we recommend using the Summon Search & Find and the individual subject databases we provide.  However, for other searches the EbscoHost EDS will be sufficient to identify materials.

Please test it out and give us your feedback.  We would like to know what you think about the tool – if you found it easy to use, which features you like/did not like, etc.  Your feedback will help us as we consider the future of a discovery tool for the MU Libraries.

If you have any questions, please contact Rhonda Whithaus (whithausr@missouri.edu).

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Dr. Davis: Network Scale Modeling of Lymph Transport and Its Effective Pumping Parameters (Open Access)

Dr. Davis: Network Scale Modeling of Lymph Transport and Its Effective Pumping Parameters (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
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Dr. Michel J. Davis, PhD, is a Professor and Associate Department Head, Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology. He is also a Margaret Proctor Mulligan Distinguished Professor in Medical Research. The focus of his research is research is on mechanisms of vascular mechanotransduction, currently working on projects answering the two following research questions:

  1. How is pressure / stretch transduced by extracellular matrix proteins and integrin receptors (adhesion molecules) in vascular smooth muscle to alter the gating of plasma membrane ion channels?
  2. hat ion channels and contractile proteins are important in the control of lymphatic vessel contraction?

To learn more about Dr. Davis’ research interestes and projects, click here.

Dr. Davis recently published in  Public Library of Science (PLOS), an open access journal for science and medicine:

Jamalian S, Davis MJ, Zawieja DC, Moore JE Jr (2016) Network Scale Modeling of Lymph Transport and Its Effective Pumping Parameters. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0148384. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148384

home Databases & Electronic Resources, Resources and Services Database Spotlight: iPoll

Database Spotlight: iPoll

By Rhonda K. Whithaus   Posted in Databases & Electronic Resources Resources and Services
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iPoll is a database that focuses on public opinion polls and allows those polls to be searched in a question format, this makes this database extremely useful when trying to gather data about how public opinion has changed over time. This is made even easier when the time period that iPoll covers is taken into account, iPoll was started in the 1930s which is when surveys were first starting to be used for research. This means that you can track how public attitudes have changed on issues from the 1930s to now, for example, I searched the term “global warming” between the years of 1994-1995. I then found a question that asked whether or not people thought that global warming was a problem now or would be a problem in x number of years. The largest group that gave an answer said that they believed that global warming would be a serious problem in 50+ years, 24% of respondents believed this. I ran the same search between the years of 2014-2015 and found a survey that had asked the exact same question, on this survey 50% of respondents believed that global warming was causing an immediate problem. What a difference 20 years makes.

Tracking trends is just one thing that iPoll can do, through it you can download data, look at entire surveys, and see the breakdown of the respondents based on factors such as political affiliation, gender, and region. Sadly, this last feature isn’t available for all of the surveys, but all surveys will give a simple bar graph breakdown of the responses. If you really need the breakdown of the respondents, then you can just choose the limiter iPoll plus and you will automatically cut down your results to only the ones that have that data.

 iPoll is a great resource for public opinions in the US and internationally, and with all of the options available, it should be at the top of your list when looking into public opinion.

Tips and Tricks:

-When you first enter the database, there is a list of trending topics to the left.

-Boolean Searching is available

-Wildcard/truncation is %

-Selecting a topic allows you to refine your search even more by only searching your keyword in surveys about that subject.

iPOLL
 
The iPOLL database provides access to nearly half a million public opinion survey questions on a wide range of topics.
home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Morris, Cronk, and Washington: Parenting During Residency: Providing Support for Dr. Mom and Dr. Dad (Open Access)

Morris, Cronk, and Washington: Parenting During Residency: Providing Support for Dr. Mom and Dr. Dad (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
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This week’s post features three University of Missouri Faculty:

  1. Dr. Laura Morris, MD, MSPH, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine, as well as a practicing physician with Callaway Physicians. Her clinical interests include general pediatrics, obstetrics, and women’s health. Dr. Morris currently servs on the board of the Family Physicians Inquiries Network (FPIN, see www.fpin.org ) and as an Author and Deputy Editor for their scholarly publications.  She is most proud of her Family Medicine Residency Teacher of the Year award in 2015—that really symbolizes the reason [she] chose academic medicine: to impact learners and make a positive connection while teaching.
  2. Dr. Nikole J. Cronk, PhD, is an Associate Teaching Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine. Her research interests include etiology and treatment of anxiety and depression, smoking correlates and treatment, and motivational Interviewing. To learn more about Dr. Cronk, click here.
  3. Dr. Karla T. Washington, PhD, LCSW, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine. She was involved in two projects on palliative care and hospice care: A Problem-Solving Intervention for Family Caregivers in Palliative Oncology, and Improving Information Flow to Enhance Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Hospice Care. For her academic profile, click here.

They recently published their latest research, open access, in Family Medicine, the official journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

Morris L, Cronk NJ, Washington KT. Parenting During Residency: Providing Support for Dr Mom and Dr Dad. Fam Med 2016;48(2):140-144.

Here are some of Dr. Cronk’s thoughts on Open Access:

  • Why did you choose to publish in an Open Access journal? 

    “The journal we selected is the most relevant journal for our target audience.  We sought to reach individuals involved with the training of Family Medicine residents in order to highlight the importance of our topic.”

  • Would you publish in an Open Access journal again?  If so, why? 

    “Yes, definitely.  I think it is important for the advancement of science generally, and our field specifically, to have ready access to the latest research and scholarship.  Open access journals make it easy for busy professionals to learn and benefit from the latest publications in their respective fields.”

Here are some of Dr. Morris’ thoughts on Open Access:

  • Why did you choose to publish in an Open Access Journal?

         “Family Medicine is the top journal for family medicine educators and so is considered the key journal in which to publish educational research in our specialty. I’d certainly like to publish there again.​”

home Budget, Events and Exhibits, Resources and Services Seeking input on journal subscription renewals

Seeking input on journal subscription renewals

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Budget Events and Exhibits Resources and Services
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With the prospect of a possible shortfall of $1 million to the MU Libraries collection budget in FY2017, we are seeking input on some lower-use journals, particularly the titles in the bundles purchased through publishers Elsevier and Wiley.

Follow this link to provide your input on specific journal titles between now and April 4. 

We are beginning with these bundles because:

  •  they consume a large portion of the library collections budget, amounting to about $2,000,000 annually
  •  similar to a “cable tv model”, these bundles contain many titles which were never selected for our library, (e.g. dentistry)

Also included are some high cost/low use journals from other publishers in a variety of disciplines.

Learn more about the campus-wide collections review process and the reasons for it.