Take EndNote on the road with EndNote Web November 26, 2007
Posted by Emily in : Cool tools, Research Help, Tips for students , add a commentInterested in accessing your EndNote library even when you’re not in front of your personal computer? Take your research on the road by setting up an EndNote Web account, and enjoy the freedom to consult or add citations to your EndNote library from any computer with an internet connection.
EndNote Web is designed to complement the more robust desktop version of the citation management tool, but it’s possible to use it even if you’ve never used EndNote (by the way, EndNote may be downloaded for free by Duke students, staff and faculty).
Simply set up an Endnote Web account, and then add up to 10,000 citations to your Web library. Format bibliographies and in-text citations in over 2300 publishing styles (MLA, APA, etc.), or use the Cite While You Write plug-in and Microsoft Word to format papers and insert references instantly. You may also share citations with others who use the web application and search PubMed, Web of Science and hundreds of libraries for relevant resources, all within the EndNote Web interface.
And if you choose to use the two programs together (as they were intended), it’s easy to transfer citations between EndNote and EndNote Web.
Give it a try, and let us know what you think about EndNote’s latest innovation for researchers who don’t want to be tied to their offices or dorm rooms.
Library Help over Thanksgiving Break November 20, 2007
Posted by Phoebe in : Research Help , add a comment
Thanksgiving falls at a busy time in the semester, and many students take papers or research projects home with them to work on over the break.
You can take the library’s resources home, too. Almost all of our databases are accessible remotely with your NetID and password. For more details see our off-campus access page.
If you have a question for a librarian, Perkins/Bostock Reference will be available by IM, email, or phone on Tuesday until midnight, Wednesday from 9-5, Saturday from 1-5, and Sunday starting at 1pm. If you’re in town, see the full library hours here.
(Photo from http://www.nyctourist.com/macys_history1.htm)
The Sad Saga of Library Staplers November 16, 2007
Posted by Phoebe in : Life in the library, Tips for students , 4commentsMost of the campus libraries provide staplers, hole punches, and other basic office tools for students to use. We also regularly have to replace these items because of theft – accidental due to absentmindedness, or intentional – and breakage.
So, think of the poor librarian (that would be me) who spends all her time buying new staplers and hunting for that magical, heavy-duty stapler that staples up to 60 pages and doesn’t break (our current standby is the Swingline 77701, but it breaks a lot). Please don’t try to force the staplers or hole punches to do jobs they are not made to do. Banging on the stapler never helps, and as for the person who did this:
You are very strong – this is an all-metal handle that has been broken in two. Wow. I am impressed, and also a little afraid.
If any of our readers are stapler afficionadoes (or have just watched Office Space too many times), please leave us a comment suggesting the miraculous stapler that will solve all our problems and never break!
Literary Style by the Numbers November 12, 2007
Posted by Paolo in : Cool tools , add a commentHave you ever noticed the link on Amazon.com’s book record pages called “Text Stats“? (it’s in the “Inside this Book” section – you have to scroll down a bit). Since Amazon has the full text of many books in electronic format, they can tally up some fun (and revealing) statistics about each book. Stuff like the number of characters, words, and sentences in the book, the complexity and readability of the text (using various metrics, like average words per sentence and syllables per word), and even words per dollar and words per ounce!
Author Steven Berlin Johnson (The Ghost Map, Everything Bad is Good For You, etc.) blogged recently about exploring this feature, comparing the statistics on his books with those of other authors, including Duke professor Fredric Jameson, and plotting them on a graph.
Read Johnson’s blog post for his observations on what these statistics reveal about different authors’ literary styles, and the comments below his blog post for other interpretations of this data, as well as how you can get these statistics on your own writing using word processing software.
Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories November 9, 2007
Posted by Jennifer in : Cool tools, Database Tip , add a commentThe Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive is a remarkable database that contains full-length digital videos of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. This resource that Duke Libraries just recently purchased contains over 50,000 video testimonies.
To get to this database, just click on the database tab on the Duke Library homepage and type “Shoah” in the search box. Once at the site, you will be asked to create a free username and password in order to log-in.
Once you are logged in, you can search for interviews by keyword, a specific person, or by an experience group.
What will you find inside, you may ask?
- Extraordinary primary source material to use in your research.
- Full-length video interviews taken in 56 countries, in 32 languages!
- At the end of many interviews, personal photographs, documents, and artifacts from the interviewee’s family are displayed.
Have questions? Save time, Ask a Librarian!
