Through the Looking Glass: The changing experience of books

An exhibit by Posner Center intern and design student Vanessa Koch, CFA 2010. OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, Dec. 4, 5-8 p.m. EXHIBIT (through April):  Monday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. through April. LOCATION: Posner Center, Carnegie Mellon University.

Mergent database news

Carnegie Mellon’s financial business databases received a boost recently with two acquisitions.  One is Mergent WebReports, the web version of the venerable Moody’s (later Mergent) Corporate Manuals: a classic source for corporate information since 1909, available here from those ancient times to the present. It has detailed descriptions of all significant public companies worldwide, past and present: financial statements, histories, properties, mergers and acquisitions, operations, subsidiaries, officers and directors, stocks and bonds for over 35,000 companies in over 100 countries.

The other is a significant upgrade to our Mergent Online database, adding equity and industry reports, private companies, historical stock prices, earnings estimates, executive biographies, and 15 years of financials to an already robust online source for company data.  These two databases are linked, so much of the content is mutually accessible.

Children as designers of technology

WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1-2 p.m. WHERE: Room 501, IS Building, 135 N. Bellefield Avenue, University of Pittsburgh. SPEAKER: Andrew Large, CN-Pratt-Grinstad Professor of Information Studies and Associate Dean, Research & Graduate Students Faculty of Education, McGill University. ABSTRACT: User-centered design now is a well established principle when the users are adults, but has been slower to emerge when they are young people. And this is particularly the case when the intention is to involve children throughout the design process, from initial planning sessions to a completed prototype. I will present the experiences of researchers at McGill University who created a user-centered design technique they have termed “Bonded Design” in order to develop several IR interfaces for children, working closely with elementary school students as co-members of the design team. I will discuss the team’s progression from its early steps to ascertain children’s technology design ideas via interviews, through use of focus groups, to its latest application of Bonded Design to explore information visualization as a means to displaying hierarchical subject directories in children’s web portals. Lecture series is co-sponsored by University of Pittsburgh’s iSchool, Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Global Collaboration for a Global Digital Library

WHEN: Nov. 7-8. WHERE: Newell Simon Hall. WHAT: 5th International Conference on a Universal Digital Library (ICUDL). Selected events are free & open to students and others. Learn about international initiatives from librarians and computer scientists who are building the universal digital library.  Invited speakers and panelists include Jonathan Band, PLLC; Peter Chen (LSU); Les Earnest (Stanford); Susan Gibbons (U of Rochester);  Ge Jianxiong (Fudan University); Christinger Tomer (U of Pittsburgh); and Jaime Carbonell, Carolyn Rose, Steven Rosenberg, Michael Shamos and  Gloriana St. Clair (Carnegie Mellon).

ingentaConnect cancellation

Effective December 1, the University Libraries have cancelled the institutional site license to ingentaConnect, an email table of contents alerting service. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to learn about possible alternatives for current-awareness alerts in your discipline, please contact your liaison librarian, or Joan Stein, joan@andrew.cmu.edu or Gloria Henning, henning@andrew.cmu.edu. MORE

Spring 2010 Internship – Posner Center

Info & application Application deadline is Nov. 30. Enrolled CMU students only. Research and create an exhibit using the  Posner Collection of fine and rare books.

Le Corbusier exhibit & open house, Oct. 30

WHEN: Friday, October 30, 3-5 p.m. WHERE: Fine & Rare Book Room, 4th Floor, Hunt Library. WHAT: Exhibit “Le Corbusier: An Architect of Books” presents early imprints of books written and designed by the famous architect, urban planner, designer, artist, and writer. BONUS FEATURE: Scale models of Le Corbusier’s architectural projects, mostly villas, recently built by first-year students in the School of Architecture, complement the exhibit. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the School of Architecture are particularly encouraged to visit between 4-5 p.m.

Oct. 19-23 is Open Access Week!

Open Access Week is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public. The now-annual event has been expanded from a single day to accommodate widespread global interest in the movement toward open, public access to scholarly research results. more

• Open Access Week blog
• About the OA movement

Medieval Travel Writing

Medieval Travel Writing provides access to medieval manuscripts dating from 13-16th centuries from libraries around the world. The collection focuses on accounts of travelers to the Holy Land, India and China. The database contains original documents and secondary resources in a range of languages, including French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch, and English. You can also find supporting documents, images, maps, bibliographies, and slide shows. The resources shed light on topics relevant to travel, ranging from attitudes and preconceptions, to issues of race, economics, trade, military, politics, literature and science.

The changing nature of news

WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 21, noon-1 pm. WHERE: Roberts Hall of Engineering, Singleton Room. WHAT: A panel of media and education experts will discuss issues facing news media and the changing nature of news, the new tools needed to survive the digital age, and how consumers and large research institutions can help provide answers to this daunting age of media coverage. MODERATOR: David A. Dzombak, Carnegie Mellon. PANELISTS: Chris Moore/WQED Multimedia, Charlotte Wright/Platts Coal Outlook, Cheryl Hogue/Chemical & Engineering News, Anne Linaberger/KDKA TV, Ann Gabriel/Elsevier. Media Roundtable  sponsored by the Steinbrenner Institute.