Keep up-to-date with LexisNexis

Have a class assignment asking you to prepare a hot button issue and want to be sure you are pulling from legit sources?  Check out LexisNexis database and the "Hot Topics Links" pulled from front pages of newspapers worldwide each day.  LexisNexis Academic* is one of our best resources for finding current news from a variety of national and international sources, which ensures you are not just looking at an issue from one side. LexisNexis Academic offers users information from over thousands of sources, including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, wire services, broadcast transcripts, and blogs. As with most database results, LexisNexis Academic retrieves full-text articles that can be downloaded, printed, or sent to your email address.

In addition to searching the latest news, you can turn to LexisNexis Academic for your business class concerns as well.  This database holds corporate profiles, SEC Filings, law reviews, court decisions and more. Tabs and specialized search forms including check boxes, pop-down selection menus can help even beginner searches retrieve relevant results quickly.  We all know researching the latest news or finding company profiles can be hard; if you have questions while searching this database, help can be found either from the menu on the left side of the screen, or by asking one of the librarians.

*LexisNexis can be found under our database listing on the Ripon College Lane Library home, under the dropdown list of databases.  If you are looking for a more extensive or historical results from the NY Times, don't forget to sign up for an individual pass at NYTimes.com/pass and follow the instructions.  This will provide the Ripon College community with access to the NYTimes back to 1851.  More information on this can be found here.

Summer studying and reading what you want

As the semester is over and summer is here, I wanted to point out a few new resources that might be of use to you over the summer.  One is for test preparation tools and the other is for recommended leisure reading, as detailed below.

Learning Express*:  A wide variety of web-based test prep tools are available for Graduate School Admissions exams.  This includes the GRE, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT in the College Center of this website.  You can find practice tests available for the Praxis exam for education in the Career Center of this website.  All practice exams will require you to create your own personal login in order to save your progress.

NoveList*:  On the light side of resources, this one allows you to browse genres, find read-alikes, see award lists, or create your own combination of searches to find a work of fiction that will hit the right mood for a summer break.  If Lane Library does not have the fiction book you are seeking, there is a good chance your local public library will.

These two resources can be found in our list of databases on the Lane Library website and can be easily accessed off-campus from wherever life may find you this summer.  If you have any questions on any library resource or how to gain access off-campus, please look over the basic information available and contact the librarians with any specific questions you may have.

Enjoy your summer!

*These resources are provided freely to residents of the state of Wisconsin through Badgerlink (Wisconsin's Online Library).  These resources are set up to recognize your IP address and allow Wisconsin residents access to these resources.  If you are outside of Wisconsin, you will need to access them through Lane Library's website and enter your network ID when prompted for off-campus access.

Seeking the right image

Help is at your fingertips when you are looking for the right illustration to use in your research or presentation. Want to have a closer look at a painting or other image from your studies? Need an illustration that you can easily cite and have permission to use in your paper? Spend some time on ARTstor, and you will not be disappointed.

Images from ARTstor. Left: Joseph Byron, Self Portrait. 1909. Right: Desperate Man (Self Portrait). Gustave Courbet. 1843. 

The ARTstor Digital Library database  available through Lane Library contains over 1.8 million high resolution digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with a variety of tools for study, research, and instruction. These images hail directly from some of the world's leading museums, photo archives, exhibitions, and scholars.

You can search by keyword or use the advanced search for additional filters and limits or you can also browse by collection, classification, or geography. While you need to create a log-in to use the advanced features of ARTstor, it is definitely worthwhile in order to save and organize images into groups and folders, or even to export entire image groups in batches through the "export to PowerPoint" feature.

Want to know more? Simply stop by a librarian's office to find out how to use it effectively for your research.  Or if you are looking for online help, ARTstor has a variety of documentation and videos on everything from searching to downloading images into a PowerPoint presentation.

Films at your fingertips

Direct link through Ripon College Lane Library

Need an academic or documentary style video clip for a presentation or class?  Looking for something interesting and educational to watch on your computer at home or in your dorm room?  We now offer thousands of possibilities to be found in the Films on Demand database.

Ripon College now has access to Films on Demand, the Humanities and Social Sciences collection.  This database provides streaming access to thousands of full length videos, and even more video clips from a wide variety of producers such as American Experience, BBC Films, Ken Burns, Nova and PBS among others.

Any Ripon College student, faculty or staff may access this online video collection on-campus or off-campus through this Films on Demand direct link and by using your MyRipon login and password when off-campus.  (This is the same information that you use to access any computer on campus.)  You can also access Films on Demand through the library's online database list under "databases and journals" at www.ripon.edu/library/

Search by title or browse by subject or collection to find a video of interest for you.  Once you find a film, you may access it by segments or view the film in its entirety.  Searchable transcripts are also available for most films, as well as closed captioning/subtitles.

If you have any question on how to use this database, please ask one of your librarians or view one of the available tutorials or webinars from Films on Demand.

Equal Pay in Wisconsin

In honor of Equal Pay Day, here's a guide to research tools for locating information on the status of equal pay in Wisconsin.

Finding Legislative Information

Two weeks ago, Governor Walker signed a bill to repeal Wisconsin’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which provided a means for awarding compensatory and punitive damages (in addition to back pay) to employment discrimination victims. The full text of both the repeal and the 2009 Act are available in Wisconsin Legislative Documents, along with related information such as fiscal estimates and voting records.

Finding Income Data

The graph below uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey, which is available in American FactFinder, an online tool for browsing data collected by the Census Bureau. Click on the graph for a bigger version.

3 fantastic databases of London crime, poverty, and social policy, 1674-1913

Ever wanted to know what the trial of a pirate would be like? Or exactly what crime do you have to commit to be drawn and quartered as punishment in the 17th century? Wonder no more! Old Bailey Online is, "a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court." An incredible resource that allows you to search by criteria such as: offence, verdict, sex and age of defendant and/or victim, punishment, and more! Gather statistics, read trial notes, and learn about adjudicating London's seedy underbelly!

A sister publication of the Old Bailey is the Ordinary of Newgate's Accounts and contains biographies of people executed at Tyburn. I know, it sounds pretty macabre, but it is "a valuable source of information about both elite attitudes towards criminality and the lives, attitudes, and dying behaviour of executed convicts. "

Need more biographical, primary documents? London Lives provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million names from a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives.

Have fun!

-Kate