Resource of the Week

September 26, 2007

Biography Reference Bank

Biography Reference Bank contains biographical information on more than 500,000 people from antiquity to the present including more than 110,000 biographies. It brings together Biography Index, Current Biography Illustrated, the World Author Series, the American National Biography series, Nobel Prize Winners, World Artists, World Film Directors, American Reformers, and more into one database. Also included are more than 36,000 images.

Search tips:

  • When you select Biography Reference Bank you will be brought to a database selection page. To begin your search, click in the box by the words Biography Reference Bank. This will take you to the advanced search page. You can perform a basic search by entering the name of the person you want to search for in the box next to the word Find and clicking on the word Start. As the library has a limited number of user licenses, please always click on the words Exit Program in the upper right hand portion of the page when you are through with your searches.

  • The search defaults to an “All-Smart search”. This search will assume truncation (for example if you type in cat, the system will search for cat, cats, catalyst etc.) It will also assume Boolean search operators such as AND, OR, NOT. For example if you search Thomas Jefferson, it will also find Jefferson, Thomas and could potentially find George Jefferson and B.J. Thomas if they were both mentioned in the same article. The database lists names last name, first name, for example Jefferson, Thomas. For the most exact search when you know the name you are searching for, type last name, first name in quotation marks; for example “Jefferson, Thomas”.

  • If you wish to get a list of people who all share the same career or background and gender, for example female engineers, use the drop down boxes at the bottom of the advanced search page. Using these boxes you can perform a search, without using a name, by profession, gender, and place of origin. For example you can develop a list of female engineers born in the United States.


    Where is it: Go to the UNLV Libraries' home page http://www.library.unlv.edu. Select the Articles and Databases tab, click on the A-Z List of Databases and then on the letter B and select Biography Reference Bank.

    Quick Link:
    http://hwwilsonweb.com/

    • Posted by Shelley Heaton on September 26, 2007 4:57 PM |

    September 20, 2007

    Ulrich's Periodicals Directory

    Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory provides detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative information on serials, including journals, magazines and newspapers, published throughout the world. The information includes whether or not they are peer reviewed and which indexing/abstracting databases cover them. It covers all subjects and includes information about publications that are published regularly or irregularly and are circulated free of charge or by paid subscription.

    Search tips:

    • If you are looking for a specific periodical, the fastest way to search is by using the Quick Search box located at the top of the page. Use the drop down box to select title (exact). If you use the default keyword search you will get a long list of every journal that contains some of the words you entered. However, you do need to have the title of the journal exactly right to use this search or you will get no result.

    • In the advanced search feature, when using the Boolean search function, if the search terms contain the words OR, AND, or NOT, place quotation marks around the word. For example: ti=Deeds "and" Data. This will allow for a precise title search rather than a search for every title that has both words.

    • To find out if a journal is peer reviewed/scholarly, look under document type. To find out which indexing/abstracting services offer coverage of a specific journal, click on the red tab at the top of the journal entry page that says Abstracting/Indexing and Article Access.

    Where is it: Go to the UNLV Libraries' home page http://www.library.unlv.edu. Select the Articles and Databases tab, click on the A-Z List of Databases and then on the letter U and select Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory.

    Quick Link: http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/

    Posted by Shelley Heaton on September 20, 2007 4:22 PM |

    September 4, 2007

    African Writers Series

    The Heinemann African Writers Series (AWS) was founded in 1962 with the publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and with Achebe himself as Founding Editor. Achebe, who in 2007 won the Man Booker International award in recognition of his achievement in fiction, remained Series Editor until 1972, by which time the series included 100 titles, and he continued to have an influence on the series well after this date.

    This series publishes authors mainly from English-speaking countries in western, southern and eastern Africa. The online collection includes novels, plays, poetry, traditional African folk materials and non-fictional accounts of African culture and history. Also searchable from within LION.

    Search tips:

    • For truncation searching use the * character to represent 1 or more characters in your search term. For example, searching for music* will find musical and musician, and the phrase made in he* will find made in heaven, made in heuen, and made in hell. For finding cognate forms use the ? character to represent 0 characters or 1 character in your search term. For example, searching for colo?r will find color and colour, and wom?n will find woman and women.

    • The African Writers Series uses two proximity operators NEAR and FBY. NEAR - allows you to search for terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in any order. FBY (Followed BY) - allows you to search for terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in a specified order.

    • You can select individual entries in the List of Results and transfer them to your Marked List. Check the box next to an entry to select it or click Select all records to select all entries on the current page. Click Add selected records to marked list.
      The selected entries will be transferred to your Marked List.
      You may wish to download citations for selected records in your Marked List either as plain text or in a format which allows you to import them into your citation management software. Click the Download citations link above the list to open the Download Citations page.


    Where is it: Go to the UNLV Libraries' home page http://www.library.unlv.edu. Select the Articles and Databases tab, click on the A-Z List of Databases and then on the letter A and select African Writers Series.

    Quick Link: http://collections.chadwyck.com/home/home_aws.jsp

    Posted by Shelley Heaton on September 4, 2007 4:56 PM |

    September 3, 2007

    Historical Annual Reports

    Historical Annual Reports include over 800 companies' annual reports (1844-current) available through searchable PDF images. The collection includes digital reproductions of over 1.3 million pages found in more than 43,000 reports. Key data (financial, Fortune 500 ranking, industry classification, key people, geographic location, auditor, and related companies) are indexed in the citation and can be searched. Important source of information on financial performance, key officers, competitors, and market trends. Reports can be browsed by company name, industry or date. Cross-searchable to other ProQuest historical periodical databases.

    Search tips:

  • To search for a specific company’s annual report, enter a company's name, or click Browse companies to open the Browse Companies window. The terms in the Browse Companies window are listed in alphabetical order, making it easy for you to browse them. Scan the list for the term you want to use for your search.

    You can move to terms starting with a particular letter by entering the letter in the box and clicking Find Term. You will be taken to the first term beginning with that letter.

    You can also search for a company using Find Term. Enter the term in the box and click Find Term. You will be taken to the nearest match (alphabetically). If you reach the end of a page and haven't come to the term you want, just click Next to move to the next page. When you've found the word you're looking for, click Add to Search to add the term to your current search.

  • To limit your search by date, select the radio button for one of the predefined date ranges:
    • In this year (reports published in the specific year you define)
    • Before (reports published in the year specified and all previous years)
    • After (reports published in the year specified and all subsequent years)
    • From / To (reports published during the range of years you specify)
      Search using years such as 1984 or 2000, do not include months.

  • There are three choices to sort your search results. You can select to sort by most relevant first, oldest (historical) first or most recent first. To change the sort on your search results use the drop down box in the upper right hand corner of the search results screen.


    Where is it: Go to the UNLV Libraries' home page http://www.library.unlv.edu. Select the Articles and Databases tab, click on the A-Z List of Databases and then on the letter H and select Historical Annual Reports.

    Quick Link: http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTQwMzkmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=17675

    • Posted by Shelley Heaton on September 3, 2007 12:23 PM |

     

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