Library Student Newsletter: Winter 2018

Message From the Director

New Library Web Page

Research Methods & Design Resources

Updated Subject Research Homes

New Video Collection

Meet a Librarian

Doctoral Student Appointments

Library Lab Suggestions

Get Published

Upcoming Library Labs & Webinars

The Library of Congress Quits Twitter

Student Feedback Corner

New year’s resolutions are often about personal goals and individual self-improvement. But in a way, the Walden Library also participates in this tradition. The library team maintains a continuous-improvement mindset and each year sets goals for better service for all our library users. Some of our 2018 “new year’s resolutions” include: growing the library collection with new databases, media, and other resources; improving the library website experience; and growing the reach of existing services such as doctoral appointments and library webinars. We hope you keep the library as a partner on your scholarly journey this year. Happy new year from all of the Walden Library staff!

Michelle Hajder Director, Walden University Library

Sage Research Methods Online

Are you looking for research methodology and design information? The library has created a guide outlining all of the resources Sage Research Methods Online has to offer.

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) contains over 800 books, reference works, journal articles, and videos that provide information about research methods and design. SAGE Research Methods can help provide context for writing a research question, conducting a literature review, choosing a research method, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up the findings.

This database includes a range of methods commonly used in social and behavioral sciences, technology, science, medicine, and the humanities. The link to the guide and the database are below.

Library SRMO guide:

Link to Sage Research Methods Online database:

The Library is planning to upgrade the current Alexander Street Video subscription to Academic Video Online (AVON).  Our current subscription includes the collections of Counseling and Therapy in Video and Psychological Experiments Online with a combined total of 628 videos. The upgrade to AVON will include these two collections and many more.

AVON is a multidisciplinary collection of videos that touches on the curriculum needs of many programs here at Walden.  With over 63,000 videos and counting, the collection covers topics such as Business, Counseling and Therapy, Economics, Education, Health, Law and Public Safety, LGBT, Psychology, and Women’s Studies, just to name a few. It also has thousands of Academy, Emmy, Peabody, and other award-winning films, along with frequently used films for classroom instruction.

We hope to share more new databases in 2018.  

If you are a doctoral student who is struggling with research, information literacy, or any other library-related skill,you can make an appointment with a librarian to get assistance. Select Doctoral Research Appointment on our Ask a Librarian page to make an appointment with a librarian in your subject area.

Is there a library topic that has you confused? Or an assignment that requires intense and in-depth research? Perhaps there's a resource that is confusing to navigate? Please provide us with some suggestions for topics you'd like to see us cover.

"In 2010, Twitter bestowed its entire archive of public tweets on the Library of Congress, which the library called “an exciting and groundbreaking acquisition.” The collection began on March 21, 2006, when the company’s co-founder and C.E.O., Jack Dorsey, typed “just setting up my twttr and has been expanding significantly each day since (approximately six thousand public tweets are now posted every second). Private and deleted tweets are not included, and neither are images or embedded videos. Everything else, though, is immediately churned into an ever-thickening text archive, to be preserved by the library for all of eternity."

Read more...

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

Did you know that the Library got an upgrade?  The Walden University Library website homepage and navigation launched a brand-new look on  Friday, January 5.

We’ve been listening to our patrons, and the updated design was driven by your feedback. We’re excited to better serve student and faculty research needs by increasing access to frequently used library databases, guides, help, and more. This new look will also provide a modern online library experience that meets current web and accessibility standards. Internal website pages will not be impacted.

View a helpful explanation of the new Library homepage!

We know change can be difficult. Once you get oriented to the new look, we hope that locating desired resources in the Library will be easier and more intuitive. If you have any questions about our brand-new look, please reach out to us at Ask a Librarian.

Are you familiar with your program area's Subject Resources?

Also called Research Homes, the Subject Resources pages for Nursing and Business & Management have recently been updated!  All of the same resources and databases are there, just re-organized to make the page more efficient to use and easier to navigate.

If you're not already familiar with these pages, they group databases, search help, and other resources for a specific subject area on the same page. Librarians studied user behavior on the old subject research home, and used this information to make sure less-used content could be more easily found on the new research homes.

Some highlights of the updates include:

• a single "Start My Research" search box limited to the subject area to quickly find articles
• more links to find step-by-step help with your Library research
• a convenient drop-down menu to navigate between different subject areas

Look for more Subject Resources pages to get the same update during 2018 as we roll out the same consistent look!

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

Meet Trish Pierson!

1. What is your job at the library?
   
   I am one of the Reference and Instruction Librarians, and have worked for the Walden Library for over 6 years.
    
2. What do you like the most about working at the Walden Library?
   
   Students! I love seeing what sorts of research or assignments Walden students are doing, and helping them find the information they need.
    
3. What book or series are you reading now?
   
   I am reading The Hidden Life of Trees. Written by a German forester and translated into English, this book looks at things like the social life of trees and tree communication.
    
4. What do you like to do in your free time?
   
   I like to hike or snowshoe, depending on the weather. I also like to garden and do crafty things.
    
5. Anything else we should know about you?
   
   My goal is to visit all the U.S. National Parks. My favorite national park trip so far was a trip to Glacier National Park with my mom for her 80^th birthday. She’s still quite the hiker; we hiked 2-6 miles every day for a week.

Interested in sharing your research with the world? Wondering where best to publish that article you're working on? Let the Library help, with our new guide on academic publishing. We have advice for navigating the evolving landscape of scholarly journals, with tips for finding credible journals in your field. You'll find an introduction to journal metrics, and pointers to funding sources to support your research dissemination. This guide is a work in progress, so we will continue to add content over the next several months. Watch for upcoming information on predatory journals, journal l indexing, and open access publishing. Check out the Academic Publishing guide, and be sure to stay in touch with the Library so we can support your publishing efforts.

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