Can You Say "BOO!" in APA Format?

Care to mix a little academic research with your trick-or-treating tonight?

As a Halloween treat -- and a break from the usual research tips -- here's a look at some of the ways scholars have looked at All Hallow's Eve. (All citations have been verified and most are available from the BC Libraries -- if you dare.)

• "Reactions of zoo animals to 'disturbing' Halloween masks" (Master's Thesis, University of South Alabama, 2003)
• "Influence of Valentine's Day and Halloween on birth timing" (Social Science and Medicine, 2011)
• "Unmasking racism: Halloween costuming and engagement of the racial other" (Qualitative Sociology, 2007)
• "Size of Halloween witch drawings prior to, on, and after Halloween" (Perceptual Motor Skills, February 1963)
• "Assembling processes in a periodic gathering: Halloween in Athens, Ohio" (Sociological Focus, May 1992)
• "The pink dragon is female: Halloween costumes and gender markers" (Psychology of Women Quarterly, June 2000)
• "Jack O'Lanterns and integrating spheres: Halloween physics" (American Journal of Physics, June 2006)
• "Dressing in costume and the use of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs by college students" (Adolescence, Spring 1993)
• "The Halloween Effect and Japanese equity prices: myth or exploitable anomaly?" (Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, December 2003)

So have a good time tonight, but be careful: there may be a scholar lurking behind that bush.

Meebo Me! Live Help Online

Do you sometimes wish you could get instant help when doing research online?

On many of my Web pages you’ll see a gray “Meebo” box labeled Ask for Help or Get Live Help. If I’m online, it will say “Ken Liss is online.” Type a message in the lower part of the box and hit enter, and I’ll respond.

It could be a quick question or a more complicated research problem. In either case, both ends of our live chat will appear in the upper box.

I’m not always available, but when I am I can answer many research questions this way. (If we need to meet in person we can arrange it right then and there.)

If the box says I’m offline, you can leave me a message without having to send an e-mail, and I’ll get it when I log back in. Just be sure to tell me who you are, how to reach you, and what you need help with. That way I can get back to you with an answer later.

Of course, you can always contact me the old-fashioned way – via e-mail, phone, or dropping by my office. But, whatever the method, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

TV Series in the Media Center

The O'Neill Library Media Center's collection of TV series, old and new, on DVD and video continues to grow. New additions in the past few months include:

• 30 Days, Seasons 1 & 2
• Degrassi: The Next Generation, Season 1
• Dexter, Season 1
• The Love Boat, Season 1
• Martin, Season 1
• Pokemon Indigo League, Season 1
• Punky Brewster, Season 1
• Tudors, Season 1
  

We've also added new seasons of several series already in the collection, including The Wire and Nip/Tuck.

Click here for a longer, though not comprehensive, list of available series (new and old).

Interpersonal Communication Research: Search Tips & Strategies

Are you starting research for a paper on relational or interpersonal communication? Here are some search tips & strategies from the Interpersonal Communication research guide.

Interpersonal communication takes many forms and occurs in many contexts. In beginning your research, plan out what aspects you are interested in.

For example, think about:

• Context: communication at work, in school, on a sports team, at a party, at home, etc.
• Type of relationship: friendship, family (spouse, sibling, parent-child), romantic relationship, etc.
• Form of communication: speech, nonverbal, writing, phone, IM, etc.
• Purpose of communication: persuasion, conflict resolution, support, information gathering, etc.
• Other influences: race, age, gender, culture, etc.
  

Be as specific as possible in formulating your search terms, covering all aspects you're interested in, but be sure to use alternative/related terms as well.

Sources: Elections & the Media

A selection of recent books in the BC Libraries about elections and the media. Click on a cover for more info or click here for a wider list of books on this topic.

Technical Problems with E-Journals

Technical problems are sporadically blocking our access to electronic journals. If you try to locate an article via FindIt or to look up an electronic journal via the E-Journal page or Quest, it may not work.

Our systems staff is hard at work trying to fix the problem, but if you are trying to find an article or journal and run into error messages, let me know. There may be some workarounds, and I will do my best to find them while the problem persists.

- Ken

Holmes One Search

The BC Libraries have introduced a new way of searching the libraries’ collections of books, videos, DVDs, and other sources. It’s called Holmes One Search and it’s linked to from the Libraries home page. (You can also go there directly at http://www.bc.edu/holmes.)

Here are some of the advantages of searching the Libraries’ catalogs via Holmes:

• Spell-checking your search terms (Did you mean….?)
• Ranking search results by how well they match your search terms (relevance ranking)
• Ability to narrow your results by topic, author, publication date, library, collection, language, and genre
• Ability to save your results in your personal “e-shelf” or export records to RefWorks, your cell phone, or social networking sites. (You’ll have to sign in with your BC username and password to take advantage of these features.)

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 BC Libraries via the Send Feedback link in Holmes.