Library Faculty Newsletter: Fall 2018

Google Datasets

IBISWorld

New Liaison Librarian to the Schools of Psychology and Counseling

Meet a Librarian

Walden Library Open House Success

Expanded Doctoral Appointments

Doctoral Student Referral Form

Upcoming Library Labs & Webinars

Library Lab Suggestions

For fun ...

Faculty Feedback Corner

Google has launched a new Dataset Search (currently in Beta) that indexes millions of datasets related to the national governments, nonprofit organizations, digital libraries, institutional repositories, publishers’ sites, and author pages around the world. Public data has been increasingly available in recent years, but the databases are scattered throughout many different organizations’ websites and can be difficult to find. This tool brings a new level of searchability for researchers and is particularly useful for finding data located outside of their major field of study.

Dataset contributors must follow Google’s guidelines so that their search engines can understand the content, and the guidelines are based on open-source standards such as schema.org and other established metadata catalogs. Datasets must include information on the creator(s), publishing timeline, collection methodologies, and terms used. Adhering to set standards makes the data more universally discoverable in plain language.

Subject areas indexed include life sciences, social sciences, computer science, civic and government data, and machine learning algorithms. Google is also adding links to research publications based on, describing, or discussing the dataset and its different versions. Content items included in the dataset search include images capturing data, collections of tables, files relating to algorithm parameters and network structure definitions. Output file formats include CSV (imports to Excel/SQL), JSON, Avro, and BigQuery Table.

Google Dataset Search works in multiple languages with additional languages planned. This initiative may be a game-changer for researchers working with existing data, and is a welcome addition to Walden Library’s Statistics & Data guide.

I am happy to announce that The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has a new Liaison Librarian as of October 1, 2018. Andrea Lemieux will be the new liaison for students and faculty in the School of Psychology and the School of Counseling.

After two years with the Walden Library as a Reference Librarian supporting students at all levels, Andrea comes to this new role ready to meet the needs of our students. If you have used the Library’s Ask a Librarian email or chat service, you may have already worked with Andrea.

Andrea received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Boise State University and her master’s degree in Information Literacy and Library Science from the University of Arizona. She is currently working towards getting a Certificate in Library Instruction to expand her knowledge on integrating information literacy into the curriculum. Her previous experience includes positions in both public and academic libraries.

When she isn’t helping students with research, Andrea enjoys biking and spending time with her hound dog, Ginger. She lives in Ocala, Florida where there are more pine than palm trees. Her personal interests in addition to biking include solving puzzles and yoga.

Please welcome Andrea to her new role in the Walden Library. We especially invite our CSBS faculty and those within the schools of psychology and counseling to reach out and say hello: andrea.lemieux@mail.waldenu.edu. Welcome, Andrea!

The Walden Library hosted its first open house for students, faculty, and staff the week of September 10-14. During the open house we hosted a variety of asynchronous and live events with the goal of encouraging people to visit the Library and meet our librarians.

During the five-day event the open house webpage was viewed 1,035 times. The Library hosted a total of 6 live events that featured games with our librarians, such as library trivia and stump the librarian. We also hosted two events that ran throughout open house week, a scavenger hunt and treasures hidden throughout the library website. Both events qualified people to enter into a grand prize drawing for an Amazon Kindle, and the first 12 participants to find a hidden treasure won a prize.

We are already planning on how to make next year’s open house even better! If you have suggestions for what you would like included, submit feedback via the Faculty Feedback Corner at the bottom of this page.

Congratulations to Qualin Campbell who won the Kindle and to our 12 prize winners:

• Erin Conner
• Alicia Triplett
• Amy Thomas
• Sarah Steinbacher
• Paulina Mindermann
• Lauren Stewart
• Thomas Hegblom
• Sandy Wiese
• Nichole Hutchinson
• Alyssa Vesey
• Gayla Cragg
• Maria Victoria Macintire

If you have a doctoral student who is struggling with research, information literacy, or any other library related skill, please fill out the Student Referral Form. We will reach out to the student and do our best to assist them. 

Is there a research topic you feel your students are struggling with? Or an assignment that requires intense and in depth research? Perhaps there's a resource that students are struggling to navigate? Please provide us with some suggestions for library lab topics you'd like to see us cover and we'd be happy work with you to create it.

The 2018 “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest is now open. Deadline for submissions is January, 14th 2019. For more information, including the official rules and links to prior winners, visit the AAAS’ website here:

2018 Dance Your Ph.D. contest

You can see the 2017 winning dance about braid groups at the link below, and all of the 2017 entries here: 2017 Dance your Ph.D. Entries. 

Locating a free or inexpensive marketing report can be very tricky! To make it easier, the library recently gained a subscription to IBISWorld. While the name might sound zoological, I assure you it’s not a database discussing birds.

I shamelessly borrowed some of IBISWorld’s product plugs for their content. Sometimes it’s best to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. IBISWorld’s collection of research reports provides a wealth of information covering 97% of the US economy. Their core offering includes comprehensive yet easy to digest reports on each of the 700 NAICS industries, with up-to-date content on every major American industry. Each report is 30 to 40 pages and contains key statistics and deep analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and historical performance, major industry players and more. 

IBISWorld’s Risk Ratings Reports look at over 700 industries and determine how much risk they will face over the next 18 months by assessing the operating conditions for companies in the industry. Risk Ratings Reports stand out from others because unlike traditional risk models that use historical information, IBISWorld analysts use a sophisticated, mathematical process to look forward. 

Come to the library and check IBISWorld out to see what else you can find in their collections. You can locate the IBISWorld database in the library’s Databases A-Z page.

Get to know the Walden Library Librarians. A new Librarian will be featured in every newsletter!

Meet Miki Scholl!

1. What is your job at the library?
   I'm the Collections Manager and work behind the scenes. My primary responsibility is to acquire and manage the library resources.
2. What do you like the most about working at the Walden Library?
   I work with innovative, thoughtful, and supportive colleagues.
3. What book or series are you reading now?
   I'm reading a self-help book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by Marie Kondo. I wanted to get ideas of how to de-clutter my house.
4. What do you like to do in your free time?
   I am not a foodie, but enjoy trying out different eating establishments.
5. Anything else we should know about you?
   I'm Japanese and love Olympics. I recently applied to volunteer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Library is pleased to offer expanded options for making doctoral appointments with Walden librarians!  Appointments are offered to doctoral or dissertation students by our Subject Liaison Librarians to develop search strategies for the literature review and other research elements. We have listened to your feedback asking for more availability in scheduling consultations, and we now offer additional time slots with our Doctoral Research Librarians. Look above the calendar for the link to schedule an appointment.

Once you click on Doctoral Research Librarians you will be taken to a new scheduling screen with options to schedule an appointment with one of two additional librarians!  If you are a doctoral or dissertation student who hasn’t yet talked with one of our librarians, we encourage you to check out our Library Appointments page for more information.

Please feel free to share these Library labs with your students!

Please provide us with any suggestions about the newsletter or any other ideas you may have!