Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Taking Work Home for Thanksgiving?

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.

E-Journals: New Issues This Week

New issues of the following journals are available online this week:
Click on a title to access the issue. (Login with your BC username and password is required for off-campus access.)

Monday, November 10, 2008

Drill, Baby, Drill! Drilling Down in Search Results

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.

These categories (sometimes referred to as facets, clusters, or result groups) can represent different subjects, types of publications, formats, dates, or other aspects of the items that came up when you entered your search terms.

Click on one of them and only those results from your original search that match that category will be shown. The categories can also help you identify other terms to search for, apart from your original terms.

Here are just a few of the databases in which you are able to drill down in this way: Communication & Mass Media Complete; LexisNexis Academic; Holmes One Search; Business Source Complete.



Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Watching Election Returns, 1968-2004

If you can't wait to watch the returns from the presidential election tonight, check out the coverage of past elections from NBC and CNN via the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. (BC login required.)

1968 (NBC)

1972 (NBC)

1976 (NBC)

1980 (NBC)

1984 (NBC)

1988 (CNN)

1992 (NBC)

1996 (CNN)

2000 (NBC)

2004 (CNN)

Monday, November 03, 2008

NBC News TV Broadcasts from 1968–Present Now Available Online

The BC Libraries’ subscription to Vanderbilt Television News Archive (VTNA) now includes streaming video from NBC News from August 5, 1968 to the present.


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. ().


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.