Archive for March, 2008

Earth Month, Environmental Issues, and New Books

Monday, March 31st, 2008

stack of books image courtesy of Dartmouth Univ.

April is Earth Month at Duke. Also, the 8th Annual MBA International Retreat will be held on Energy & the Environment (May 31st-June 1st).

See these new titles at the Ford Library on energy, the environment, and sustainability issues. As always, you can click on any title below to check availability or to place a hold.

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Change to factiva.com home page

Monday, March 31st, 2008

factiva screen clip image

Duke’s factiva.com home page is changing because some content is no longer available.

The Chicago Tribune and the LA Times formerly appeared in the default “factiva news” page Newsstand column. Users who clicked on articles under those papers would get a “not authorized” message.

This message appeared because those papers’, and any other Tribune Company newspapers’ content is no longer available to academic subscribers in factiva.

Consequently, we’ve worked with the factiva support vendor to design a “Group News” page for Duke that no longer offers users this unavailable content. The new “Duke’s factiva News Page” also includes a new quick search box and open web resource links along the page’s left column.

You can connect to factiva HERE and see the new page, or view a comparison of the old and new home pages HERE.

Comments or questions?: reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu.

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More on “Predictably Irrational” …

Friday, March 21st, 2008

amazon book cover image image

Ariely, Dan. Predictably irrational : the hidden forces that shape our decisions.
HarperCollins, 2008.

Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks, currently at #5 for hardcover nonfiction. David Berreby has published an excellent book review of the book in the March 16th Sunday NY Times.

You can also stop by the Ford Library and see our new display on behavioral economics. Check out Dan’s book or the others that are highlighted there.

Comments or questions?: reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu.

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Book Review: 24/7, How Cell Phones and the Internet …

Friday, March 21st, 2008

amazon book cover image imageHanson, Jarice. 24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play. Praeger, 2007.

Media guru Marshall McLuhan had a famous slogan in the 1960’s, “The medium is message”. He meant that communication media had a meaning separate from the content. At the time, he was talking about television and film. But the slogan still applies. Technology changes the culture and the way people relate to each other. Every generation has a particular communication technology that helps to define their worldview and their way of communicating.

Author Jarice Hanson claims that in their short histories, cell phones and the internet have sparked significant changes to traditional attitudes, values and behaviors. Perceptions of time and space are altering. Public and private activities are blurring.

(more…)

Understanding Human Behavior (and how to use that knowledge in business)

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Predictably Irrational book cover

Have you ever wondered why people act the way that they do?

Fuqua’s own Professor Dan Ariely has and he wrote a book about this subject. The Ford Library has a number of copies of this book as well as more great titles on the subject of human behavior (and business). (If you would like more information on Predictably Irrational, please see Dan Ariely’s blog.) As always, you can click on any title below to check availability or to place a hold.

New Database: Global Financial Data

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

GFD small screenshot

UPDATE: This database subscription was canceled in December 2010 due to cost and licensing issues. Contact a reference librarian for help identifying alternative resources.

The Ford Library announces the purchase of a subscription to Global Financial Data™ in collaboration with Duke University Libraries.

The Global Financial Data™ database – “GFDatabase” – provides easily downloadable (.csv and .xls format) time series data on over 40 categories of US and international financial and economic data from more than 200 countries. You can access GFDatabase from our web database list.

Note: some series visible in the Categories list are not part of our current subscription

Please feel free to send any comments or questions about this new database to: reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu.

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