The librarian is: BLOGGING | Journalism Library, Columbia University

Archives and manuscript collections may be housed:

They are unparalleled sources of primary materials such as letters, original manuscripts, and collections associated with individuals often include personal effects (such as Herbert H. Lehman’s collection of dog figurines).

Locating archives and manuscripts:

How archives are described:

Archival collections are described using guidelines which are different from those used in cataloging books in a library collection. EAD, or Encoded Archival Description, is the technical standard used for encoding archival finding aids.

Finding aids are your point of entry into a given archival collection.

Library catalogs:

“Hybrid” databases (bibliographic information, plus full text):

Full text journal collections:

National libraries:

CLIO is Columbia’s library catalog. A journal title search will tell you which journals we receive, print or electronic versions.

JSTOR is a multi-disciplinary full text journal repository, with an emphasis on historical back issues of journals. The archive can be searched or browsed.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations has the downloadable full text of dissertations completed in the US back to 1997, and an index of completed dissertations back to the 19th century.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers has the searchable full text of a number of US newspapers, back to the 19th century. Results are shown in PDF format.

Readers Guide Full Text and Readers Guide Retrospective are indexes to articles that have appeared in general interest magazines and journals, and which may not be covered by other databases.

CLIO is Columbia’s library catalog. A journal title search will tell you which journals we receive, print or electronic versions.

General Science Full Text: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) A multidisciplinary database that indexes articles in general science periodicals back to 1984 (with full text available from 1995 on for selected titles).

PsycINFO: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The premier database for literature in psychology and related disciplines, PsycINFO includes references back to 1880.

MEDLINE: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The premier database for finding research articles in the biomedical sciences. Columbia offers students and faculty access to Medline via the OVID interface, which has a more sophisticated search mechanism, and which makes locating online full-text versions of articles indexed in Medline simpler, via Columbia’s “e-Link” feature.

Medline is also accessible free to the public via PubMed, at http://www.pubmed.gov/ There are not as many bells and whistles in PubMed, and it doesn’t automatically link you to full text of journals, as the OVID interface does.

Scientific American Archive Online: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The full text of the magazine, with images, archived back to 1993.

Web of Science (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) is a workhorse database which compiles bibliographic citations to articles across all disciplines (including the sciences). Using Web of Science, you can find out how many times a particular article has been cited, which is an important measure of its impact.

Science Libraries at Columbia: The science libraries at Columbia are: Biological Sciences Library, Chemistry Library, Engineering Library, Geology Library, Geoscience Library (at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), Health Sciences Library (at Health Sciences campus, 168th St.), Mathematics & Science Library, Physics & Astronomy Library, and the Psychology Library.

Welcome, Class of 2007! Here are the links that I visited during my talk today. You can find most of these, and other links on the J-school Current Students page as well.

Columbia University Libraries

CLIO, Columbia’s library catalog

AP Multimedia Archive contains photos, audio, and stories from the Associated Press, dating back to as early as 1844. It is copyrighted content, but can be used for school projects.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers (NYT and other newspapers, scanned as PDF, back to 19th century) (Access restricted to current Columbia affiliates)

Ethnic Newswatch (full text of ethnic newspapers from US & Canada, English and Spanish language) (Access restricted to current Columbia affiliates)

Infoshare Online (all kinds of data about NYC by neighborhood, community district, and more!) (Access restricted to current Columbia affiliates)

Scoping Out Your Beat is a guide I created with selected web links and other recommendations, to help you start exploring your beat neighborhoods

Today, we’ll be looking at the AP Multimedia Archive, which is a source for content (images, audio, and text) from the Associated Press, back to as early as 1844.

If you’re looking for maps, here is a link to databases licensed by Columbia University Libraries that have maps in them. The CIA World Factbook is a very good source of simple reference maps. Another good online source for maps is the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection from the University of Texas. They’ve scanned hundreds of maps and made them available online.

You may want to see some of the religion reporting resources I have mentioned previously on this blog. Also, remember that in addition to the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary (whose holdings are listed in CLIO, you have access to the Jewish Theological Seminary Library, which has a separate catalog, ALEPH.

Welcome to the Graduate School of Journalism, and to Columbia University Libraries. Here are some links for exploring the resources that will help you in RWI.

Please see the blog post prior to this one for information on the temporary closure of the Journalism Library. The Journalism Library will reopen once the new student center is built at the J-school (hopefully this Fall).

The Columbia Libraries’ website is your portal to information about the many libraries available at Columbia, as well as your link into thousands of electronic sources of information (newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, photographs, and more) - information which you won’t necessarily find on Google. The Libraries’ catalog, CLIO, helps you to locate both print and online materials at Columbia.

In terms of getting started on your beat reporting, searching for past news stories on your beat can be accomplished using either LexisNexis or Factiva (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates). If you’d like to dig deeper, ProQuest Historical Newspapers (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) contains the full text of the New York Times back to 1851! This means you can find out what was happening in your beat neighborhood back then. Or, you can type in a street address and see what interesting events may have taken place there.

For other info on New York City and its neighborhoods, check out the guide, Scoping Out Your Beat. It includes links to a number of important websites with in-depth coverage of relevant social and cultural issues.

Please be advised that the Journalism Library in its current incarnation in 203 Journalism will close at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 10. The library will reopen within the newly constructed student center this Fall.

Answers to questions you may have:

Q: How can I return books that I have checked out from Journalism?

A: Items that have circulated from our regular collection may be returned to any other campus library (Butler Library being the closest one). Journalism Reserves items will circulate from the Lehman Library and should be returned there.

Q: Where will the library’s contents be housed during construction?

A: The Journalism Library collection will be relocated in its entirety to Lehman Library, which is located on the 3rd floor of the International Affairs (SIPA) building on Amsterdam Ave. and 118th St.

The circulating Journalism collection and books from the reference shelf will be shelved separately from Lehman’s collection, in the Lehman sorting area. Journalism Master’s projects and theses will be kept at Lehman’s reserve desk, as will the Journalism reserves collection, periodicals and newspapers received by the Journalism Library.

Q: I want to request books from Health Sciences or Offsite. Where can I have them sent?

A: You may have them sent to any other library location that is convenient to you. Journalism will not be listed as a delivery option during the construction period.

Q: I have a research question. How can I get help?

A: The Journalism Librarian, Deborah Wassertzug, will be working in a different library during the summer (location TBD). The easiest way to reach her will be via email, dw242@columbia.edu. She will send out shortly an office phone number and a Google Talk screen name for use during the summer months.

Q: Where and when will the library re-open?

A: The new Journalism Library will be part of the new student center, opening this Fall. Please visit the Journalism School’s homepage for construction updates.

Yes, you read that right. FREE. To anyone with a valid .edu email address. More details here: http://www.nytimes.com/gst/ts_university_email_verify.html

Graduating students, sign up now, before your email address expires (though it’s possible that this may still work with your alumni email forwarding).

Sorry for the radio silence of the last few months. We are back online and will be sending more helpful hints your way very soon!

In the meantime, enjoy this exchange from “Overheard in the Office”: http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/archives/004084.html