Weekly blog round up

• Dani Rodrik, Clive Crook’s very astute observation, Dani Rodrik's weblog
• David Jacobson, About Australia: 2006 census data released, David Jacobson's External Insights
• Steve Rubel, The Future of PR is Participation, Not Pitching, Micro Persuasion
• Becky McCray, The Dip, The Purple Cow, The Blue Ocean Strategy, and The Long Tail, Small Biz Survival

Library newsletter

Before franklly was a blog, it was the name of the Library's newsletter. There's a new issue of the newsletter available right now (pdf file). This issue is mainly about doing industry research. Using the Australian wine industry as an example, the newsletter has useful information about using Australian Bureau of Statistics data and subscription library databases (Business Source Premier, Factiva and Global Market Information Database) and other web resources to find industry information. Previous issues of the newsletter are available on the Library's website.

Thursday blog round up

• Richard Posner, Intelligence and Leadership—Posner, The Becker-Posner blog
• Gary Becker, Intelligence and Leadership-BECKER, The Becker-Posner blog
• Marc Andreessen, The truth about venture capitalists, Part 1, blog.pmarca.com
• David Jacobson, What if you googled a job applicant and found out something?, David Jacobson's External Insights
• Lessons from Apple, Economist.com
• Pamela Slim, Book to read for generations from any letter of the alphabet: Brazen Careerist, Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Martha Lagace, Becoming an Ethical Negotiator: Q&A with Michael Wheeler, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
  

Printed serials @ The Frank Lowy Library

The Frank Lowy Library subscribes to a multitude of databases and online material, providing users with access to literally hundreds of full text serial titles from the comfort of their desktops.

What may be news to some e-Library users is that the Library also subscribes to around 250 titles in print, housed in the AGSM building at UNSW.

AGSM Alumni, those taking a break from study who no longer have access to our electronic resources, or new Library patrons from other areas of the University will get the most value from our printed collection.

For those particularly concerned about the unfortunate new Fairfax Business Media electronic access limitations, we hold the Australian Financial Review (AFR) newspaper in print going back 5 full calendar months (and back to the 1970's in other non-electronic formats) -- as well as other “via AFR.com only” publications, such as CFO, AFR BOSS magazine, BRW (Business Review Weekly), AFR Smart Investor, and MIS (Managing Information Strategies).

Why not just search our catalogue for your favourite journal titles? Feel free to take a seat and get up to date with the latest research and news next time you're in the Library.

What's happening to the Library when the Australian School of Business moves to the Heffron building?

Starting on June 28 and continuing until late August, Australian School of Business faculty will be moving from the AGSM building to the Heffron building in the lower campus. A number of people have been asking us if the Library will also be moving and if it will continue to be able to serve faculty and students after the move to Heffron.

Here's what's going on:
1. The Library is not moving to the Heffron building
We are staying right where we are in the AGSM building. The Library is not alone in staying in the AGSM building: Awards Programs, Residential Programs, IT and Research Centres will also be staying in the AGSM building. There are no plans to move classes from the AGSM building - this means that the Library will still be conveniently located for students attending classes and for faculty who are teaching classes. For complete details about the moving process, read the Faculty of Business Moving Newsletter [pdf file].

2. The Frank Lowy Library will continue to support teaching and learning and research for AGSM programmes
The Frank Lowy Library is focused on just one thing - providing premium library services to postgraduate business students and faculty. The UNSW Library serves a broader body of students and a wider range of subject areas. Now that the Frank Lowy Library is a part of the UNSW Library system, there is an integration process underway. Changes are happening as part of the integration process, but the process is complicated - and so it's not possible to say right now what will happen and when it will take place.
In the mean time, the Frank Lowy Library is not moving. The Library will continue to serve the AGSM community by keeping its print collection up to date and relevant and by providing library staff who are uniquely experienced with the needs of business researchers. At the same time, the Library is developing new ways of serving users in the Australian School of Business.

Natalie McDonald Manager, Client Services Frank Lowy Library

Subscribe to the Library's calendar

This information has been around for some time on our website, but because there are lots of exceptions - such as the various university holidays and reduced hours for break and IP weeks - the table is quite complicated. The purpose of this Google calendar version of the Library opening hours is to make it easier for people to know if the Library is open on any particular day.

It's possible to just view the calendar, without subscribing to it.

If you already use for the Google calendar, you can subscribe to it by selecting this button -


Other links for the calendar: XML format and iCal format

Thursday blog roundup

I'm thinking of a different name to call this Thursday link dump. I don't have anything else shortlisted so suggestions are welcome.

• Marc Andreessen, Bubbles on the brain, blog.pmarca.com
• Heather M. Caruso, Todd Rogers, and Max Bazerman, Leading and Creating Collaboration in Decentralized Organizations, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
• Joshua Gans, Free books with ads?, CoreEcon
• Joshua Gans, Innovation Index in The Age, CoreEcon, linking to this article published by the Age newspaper
• Jim Heskett, How Should Pay Be Linked to Performance?, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
• Hugh MacLeod, the cult of the brand r.i.p., gapingvoid
• Robert May, Everything I Know About Management, I Learned From Pirates, Businesspundit

Finding electronic journals in full-text via the library

Ever tried to find an electronic journal but not known where to start? The library's A to Z e-journals service is a great place to start. It can be found under the e-journals link on the library home page:


The A to Z e-journals service is a list of all the electronic journals the Library has access to. You can find journals by title, keyword or subject as shown below:

We've also brought together a list of our most popular titles from among the hundreds of titles available via the Frank Lowy Library. The complete list of most popular e-journal titles can also be found on the e-journals page.

IBISWorld industry market research reports at the Frank Lowy Library

One of the special resources which the Frank Lowy Library provides to MBA, Executive MBA and PhD students at the Australian School of Business (this is the new name of the AGSM since its merger with the UNSW Faculty and Commerce and Economics) is access to IBISWorld Industry Reports.

IBISWorld Industry reports are popular because they're viewed as authoritative, comprehensive and time-saving. IBISWorld Industry reports are a premium resource (if you were wanting buy one of these reports for yourself or your company, the whole thing would set you back upwards of $A 700), and so the Library has needed to limit access. This is the reason why a librarian needs to approve requests to open IBISWorld reports. It is always difficult for Library staff to say no to students, but we believe our practices to be as fair as possible, ensuring that the greatest number of students have the opportunity to benefit from IBISWorld Industry reports when needed.

1. Only IBISWorld Australian industry market research reports are opened. Yes, IBISWorld offers many products, including US industry market research reports, and company research reports, but the Library has access to other resources which serve these areas at least as well as the IBISWorld reports.
2. There will be instances when alternative resources answer the question better than the IBISWorld industry report. When this happens, the IBISWorld industry report will not be opened, but Library will help you locate these other resources.
3. Generally no more than one IBISWorld industry report can be opened per student in a financial year.

One thing worth noting is that once an IBISWorld report has been opened for one student, it can be viewed an unlimited number of times during that financial year. Because we're approaching the end of the 2006-2007 financial year, there is a large number of reports which are already opened and can be viewed easily by Frank Lowy Library users. But come July 1, all of these opened reports will be closed again - except for the ten most popular reports.

Watch this blog for more hints and tips about using IBISWorld reports effectively.

Targeting “Academic Champions”: A Short-Term Solution for Integrated Information Literacy?

Targeting “Academic Champions”: A Short-Term Solution for Integrated Information Literacy?
Claire McGuinness

In this paper, the author critically reviews the strategies that have been adopted by librarians to secure academic support for curriculum-integrated information literacy (IL) instruction, and questions whether the popular approach of targeting individual academics offers a suitable foundation for the establishment of long-term IL programs. the paper suggests that librarians should instead align their IL objectives with the overall academic mission of their institutions and seek out the means to effect a more wide-ranging change in the academic culture, where IL is recognized as a core educational value. Several strategies are suggested by which this aim may be achieved.