Change to factiva.com home page

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” …

March 21st, 2008

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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 …

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.

Read more …

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

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

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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Media, Entertainment, and Sports Business Books

February 28th, 2008

stack of books image courtesy of Dartmouth Univ.

Couldn’t make it to the MBA Media and Entertainment Conference in New York?

Well the Ford Library can get you up to date on the subjects of media, entertainment, and sports businesses with these new titles. Click on any of these book links to place holds or check availability:

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New Business E-Book Collection

February 27th, 2008

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Ford Library announces its new Business E-Book Collection! We’ve added over 150 new business e-book titles to Duke University Libraries eContent holdings.

NetLibrary’s online reader allows you to read, search, and annotate these new titles, as well as providing you with access to over 24,000 e-books and over 1800 eAudiobooks.

For first time NetLibrary users, we’ve created a Getting Started page with advice on the best ways to access these new e-books. If you’re already familiar with how the NetLibrary site works, you can browse a list of the new titles and connect right away!

You can also find these e-books in our online catalog in advanced search mode by using the following keyword phrases:

  • ford e-book collection
  • ford electronic books
  • netlibrary ford e-book

Here’s a sample search.

We hope you enjoy the new collection, and please feel free to send any comments or questions to: reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu.

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Book Review: The Black Swan

February 26th, 2008

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Taleb, Nassim. The black swan : the impact of the highly improbable.
Random House, 2007.

The Black Swan is a follow-up to the author’s 2001 best-seller, Fooled by Randomness, about the role chance plays in life. Fooled was controversial when released and continues to be a classic text in the hedge fund industry. Writing a general-interest book about probability is in itself quite an accomplishment. With Black Swan, it looks like the author (Lebanon-born, Wharton MBA, doctorate in mathematical finance, Wall Street hedge trader) has done it again.

This time, Taleb uses the image of a black swan to describe an event that is highly improbable yet causes a huge impact. Plus, after the event occurs, people concoct explanations for its occurrence in an attempt to make it seem predictable. The terrorist attack of 9/11 is a black swan. So is Black Friday in 1987. So is the development of the internet. Black swans can be either positive or negative, but either way, they have a huge influence on history.

The Black Swan considers fundamental questions about the nature of randomness. The central thesis is that the outliers, not part of the bell curve, are too often ignored by social scientists and these outliers have enormous importance for individuals, government, science and society.
Read more …

New Books for February

February 26th, 2008

stack of books image courtesy of Dartmouth Univ.

The Ford Library adds new books every month. Here is just a sample from specific categories. Come check out our New Books section for even more choices on a variety of business and related topics. (Click on any of the titles below to check availability or to place a hold.)

“Introduction to” business texts:

Web Design & Technology:

Psychology and Human Behavior in Business:

Green Business Strategy:

Tourism and Hospitality Industry:

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Book Review: House Lust

February 25th, 2008

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McGinn, Daniel F. House lust : America’s obsession with our homes.
Currency Doubleday, 2008.

A few years ago friends moved to my town from a hotter housing market, thus allowing me to join them on their house hunt. My own home is small, takes me about 90 minutes to clean from baseboards to ceiling, and holds just enough stuff that I don’t have to “weed my collection” more than once a year. It fits my small family of 3 humans, one dog, and one kitten just fine. My friends have several children plus the accoutrement that goes with them, they needed the amenities new houses offer. We met with a Realtor who took us to see homes with mud rooms, jacuzzi tubs, more bathrooms than bedrooms, deluxe game rooms, cathedral ceilings, granite everything, cherry wood this and that. After a certain point, I wondered how I could live without a subzero refrigerator – so changed was my idea of shelter.

House Lust, the new book by Newsweek reporter Daniel McGinn, explores our obsession with our homes in the unique American way of bigger is better. Since the dot.com bust, many people view their homes not only as shelter but as investments, as McGinn points out, it’s easier to show off a barbecue pit than a stock portfolio. From MacMansions, to the renovation craze, to vacation homes, we see that, even following a market bust, we’re still attached to our dream home(s) ideals.

A highly entertaining, sometimes funny, read, House Lust offers a cautionary tale of the next housing boom while at the same time causing me to think about, maybe, pushing out the master bedroom wall a tiny bit to add just the smallest of walk-in, cedar lined, closets.

© Reviewer: Jane Day & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business. All rights reserved.