Student Question Word Cloud

After reading how Obama’s health care policy team created a word cloud indicating the most frequently used words and phrases in comments they received about health care, I decided to do the same with the questions I received from students via e-mail and Meebo chat this semester. The results can be seen at http://www2.bc.edu/~lissk/wordcloudf08.html . It’s more an impressionistic view of my electronic interactions with comm majors than it is anything useful, but I thought it would be fun to share.

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…”

Then there’s this inadvertent but oh so logical progression from good to bad among the alphabetical list of words and phrases:

good .good articles. .good sources. .good thanksgiving. great .great depression. .hard time. .hard time finding.

Crunch Time: Research Help with Your Papers

The end of the semester, with paper and project deadlines approaching, is among the busiest time for students – and for me. I’m here to help with your research. Here are tips on different ways to get help.

1. Set up a time to get together. In person consultations are not always necessary, but 10 or 15 minutes together are often all it takes to jump start your research or get you past a stumbling block. (We can take more time if it’s needed.) E-mail me or contact me via the live help boxes on many of my pages and we’ll find a time that works for both of us. You can also drop in, but I may be out or with another student.
2. Ask a question online. Many questions can be answered without meeting in person. Send me an e-mail or use the live help boxes on my home page, course pages, and research guides. If I’m online, the live help box lets us chat without IM; if I’m not online, you can leave a message. (Just be sure to tell me who you are and how to get back to you.)
3. Check out sources and tips on the pages I created for specific courses or for broad communication subject areas. There are links to all of them, and to key databases, on the Communication Research Help by Subject page on the library’s website.
   

Remember that I have many students coming for help at this time, so be patient if I’m not available at exactly the time that’s best for you. But do let me know if you need help, and I will work with you in whatever way I can.

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:

• American Journalism
• Argumentation & Advocacy
• European Journal of Communication
  
• Journal of Communication Inquiry
• Journalism & Communication Monographs
• Journalism History
• New Media & Society
  
• Public Relations Review
  

Click on a title to access the issue. (Login with your BC username and password is required for off-campus access.)

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.

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)

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.