Among my favorite bits: One of the largest words in the cloud – along with find, research, paper, topic, articles, and class – is “wondering.” I hadn’t realized how often students say “I was wondering…”
Are you planning to work on that term paper or project between bites of turkey? Whether you're traveling near or far – or not at all – you can access most Boston College databases and e-journals from off campus. You'll have to sign in with your username and password (unlike on campus), but otherwise they will work exactly the same as when you are here.
How do you narrow down your results when a database search brings up too many hits to browse through? One way – available in more and more databases – is to drill down through the categories of hits listed alongside the results themselves.
The An arrangement between Vanderbilt and NBC earlier this year made it possible to add clips from NBC to those from CNN (1995-Present) already available to BC users of VTNA.
Available programs include the NBC Evening News, as well as extended television coverage of political conventions, elections, speeches, and major events such as the Watergate hearings, the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, the explosion of the shuttle Challenger, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and more.
Use Advanced Search to limit your searches to NBC and/or CNN – news from other networks is indexed but does not include video – or look for the camera icon in the search results to indicate streaming video. (
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Vanderbilt Television News Archive is available online to BC faculty, students, and staff on or off campus. (Off–campus users will have to log in with their BC username and password.) Videos require the downloadable RealPlayer software for viewing.
Care to mix a little academic research with your trick-or-treating tonight? 
Do you sometimes wish you could get instant help when doing research online?
The Here are some of the advantages of searching the Libraries’ catalogs via Holmes:
Holmes also lets you do quick searches of key communication databases (and those in other disciplines) though not as effectively as using the databases themselves.
Give it a try, and let me know if you have any questions, or send feedback to the
Do you have trouble keeping track of journal articles, books, Web sites, and other resources you've found while doing research? Get to know RefWorks, a Web-based personal database provided by the BC Libraries, and be ready when those papers start piling up.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) indexes articles from academic journals as well as professional and trade magazines in the communication field. Complete articles are available in CMMC from approximately 200 of the 500 publications it covers. (FindIt links are available for others.)
These communication databases are by no means the only online resources for communication research. But they should definitely be on your radar as communication students.
Both the O’Neill Library Reserve Reading Room and Gargan Hall in the Bapst Library are open for 24-hour study through the night of Monday, May 12.
Are you putting together a list of works cited for a communication research paper and having trouble with citation formats? There are several places you can turn for help:
* Online guides to APA and MLA from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.You'll find instructions and examples for the most common types of references and in-text citations -- and for some less common types, as well.
* The APA Style Guide to Electronic References (BC login required)
* Style manuals at the O'Neill Reference Desk. Ask for manuals on APA and MLA (as well as Chicago, Turabian, and others) at the desk. These are the official manuals and can help you figure out the right way to cite common and uncommon resources.
* APA Exposed: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About APA Format but Were Afraid to Ask. Online tutorial prepared by a graduate student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
* RefWorks. If you're already using RefWorks, you probably know about the bibliography tool. If not, it might be a little late to learn everything about RefWorks, but get in touch with me and I can give you some tips on how to make the most of it in a short time.
Finally, don't be afraid to ask for help from me (in any of the usual ways) or from any of the librarians at the Reference Desk.
This story touches on so many issues of interest to communication studies -- advertising, intercultural communication, media and politics, crisis communication, and more -- that I just had to post it here.Her post has generated over 1500 comments since Friday. You can view the thread here. (Interestingly, Absolut requires you to fill in a birthdate to access their site.)
The In An Absolut World advertising campaign invites consumers to visualize a world that appeals to them -- one they feel may be more idealized or one that may be a bit "fantastic." As such, the campaign will elicit varying opinions and points of view. We have a variety of executions running in countries worldwide, and each is germane to that country and that population.
This particular ad, which ran in Mexico, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Mexican sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal.
As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market. Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US -- that ad might have been very different.
"It is not news that young politically minded viewers are turning to alternative sources like YouTube, Facebook and late-night comedy shows like “The Daily Show.” But that is only the beginning of how they process information.
According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one."
Read the full article.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has posted its State of the News Media 2008 report online.
As with all records in RefWorks, you can move the Quest items to different folders and use them, along with other bibliographic records you gather, to generate bibliographies in APA, MLA, and other formats.
To learn more about RefWorks, see the RefWorks FAQ.
For instructions on importing records to RefWorks from Communication Abstracts and Communication & Mass Media Complete, see this CommTopics blog post.
1. Communication Processes
2. Interpersonal Communication and Relations
3. Economics and Communication
4. Communication, Culture, and Society
5. Education and Communication
6. Health Communication
7. Political Communication
8. Communication, Regulation, and the Law
9. Organizational Communication
10. Public Relations
11. Advertising, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior
12. Mass Media
13. Journalism and News Media
14. Communication and Information Technology
15. Telecommunications
16. Communication Theory and Research
There was more -- though not necessarily better -- humor than ever before in this year's crop of Super Bowl ads, according to an updated interactive analysis on the New York Times Web site, but it was more likely to be delivered by animals than by celebrities.
Help with research into interpersonal communication is now available in a new online guide. The guide, available at http://libguides.bc.edu/interpersonal, provides strategies and sources for finding articles, books, background information, and tests & measures. Click on the Getting Help tab for additional support, and feel free to use the Comment links in the guide to suggest improvements or enhancements to the guide.
The BC Libraries website was relaunched over the break with a new cleaner and easier-to-use format in line with the look of other BC websites.
"In cubicles across the country, lunchtime has become the new prime time," reports the New York Times, and content producers and advertisers are taking notice.
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Ken Liss
Communication Librarian
Boston College
lissk@bc.edu
617-552-2183
O'Neill 313
