Author Archives: Kim Stymest

Bloomberg Quadrupled – No Less than Four Bloomberg Terminals Are Now Available at BBL!

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Sophie Bury, Head & Business Librarian, Peter F. Bronfman Business Library & Xuemei Li, Finance Librarian

Published Friday September 13, 2013

BBL now serves the finance and business research needs of students and faculty better than ever before with vastly improved access to Bloomberg terminals. Not only do we now have four of these available at the library, a 300% increase from our former single terminal, but we’re offering you the swanky kind shown here. All four terminals feature dual-screen flat-panel monitors giving you huge flexibility to expand your view of Bloomberg’s myriad, and, frankly mind-boggling, data sources to suit your needs.

Bloomberg in the Library

All York faculty and registered students can avail of the Bloomberg terminal for academic research needs. For your convenience we have an online booking system (Passport York Login requested) for the terminals which are bookable for up to two hours a day, seven or less days in advance.

And just when you thought the news possibly couldn’t get any better, think again! To assist you with Bloomberg’s many commands and functions, we’ve transitioned our print help manual online to an easy-to-navigate Libguide format. This guide created by June Hill, Reference Assistant, and this post’s co-author, Xuemei Li, the finance librarian, steps you through everything from navigating the Bloomberg keyboard, to doing research on a wide range of topics such as equities, bonds, industries, indices etc., to using Bloomberg’s Excel API, to enrolling for the Bloomberg Essentials qualification.

Reserves – overnight loans due 1 hour after opening

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Beginning Monday, September 9, 2013, during our extended hours period, 2-hr reserve materials that are signed out overnight will be due 1-hour after opening the next day, allowing you a little extra time to sleep study in the morning.

Please note that one should not try to return reserves, or any other library materials, between 1 am and 7 am, as the building is closed.

One can sign 2-hr reserve items out overnight within 2 hours of closing. Here are the details of the hours:

Mondays-Thursdays (library hours: 8 am – 11 pm)

2-hr reserve material signed out after 9 pm are due at 9 am the next day.

Fridays (library hours: 8 am – 6 pm)

2-hr reserve material signed out after 4 pm are due at 10 am the next day.

Saturdays (library hours: 9 am – 6 pm)

2-hr reserve material signed out after 4 pm are due at 12 pm (noon) the next day.

Sundays (library hours: 11 am – 8 pm)

2-hr reserve material signed out after 6 pm are due at 9 am the next day.

Exceptions

Thanksgiving—We are closed on Monday, October 14th, 2013.

2-hr reserve material signed out after 6 pm on Sunday, October 13th, 2013, will be due Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, at 9 am.

Winter Break—We close at 5 pm on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2013.

2-hr reserve material signed out after 3 pm on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2013, will be due Thursday, January 2nd, 2014, at 9 am.

Family Day—We are closed on Monday, February 17thth, 2014.

2-hr reserve material signed out after 6 pm on Sunday, February 16th, 2014, will be due Tuesday, February 18th, 2014, at 9 am.

Good Friday—We are closed on Friday, April 18thth, 2014.

2-hr reserve material signed out after 9 pm on Thursday, April 17th, 2014, will be due Saturday, April 19th, 2014, at 10 am.

For further information on our hours please see our Hours of Operation page.

 

Reading picks: Schulich and Gillies, two pillars of the business and York U community

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Get Smarter Cover ImageJune Hill, Reference Assistant, Bronfman Business Library

Published Thursday September 5, 2013

This summer I read Seymour Schulich’s book “Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons” and, it is just that, a series of personal anecdotes shared by a truly successful and generous man on the two things he knows best; life and business.  We have 7 copies at the Peter F. Bronfman Business Library.

Schulich begins this book by recalling a story that warms the heart of every librarian, his discovery of the public library and a love of reading.

 “ At eight years of age, I went to the closest public library and made a wonderful discovery: I could borrow three books for three weeks. I started to read a book a week. If you read a page a minute, then set aside an hour a day, it’s very easy to read a book a week….”

What is exceptional about his recollection, which at first has casual sense about it, is that Schulich figured out a system for reading consistently each day and that he continued to apply this system for the rest of his life.  Like many successful people he reads broadly on many topics to provide himself with different perspectives and to feed his curiosity.

He tells us this book is aimed at university students and his wish is to impart “lessons on choosing a career path and a mate.  In my experience, the years in age from twenty to thirty are, in many ways the most difficult because of the search for direction in these two areas.”  He does include chapters later in the book for people who are more established in business and in life.  The simple but underlying theme is that there is no separating business and life; they are inextricably bound.

“Get Smarter” would be a good reading choice while on the bus, as each chapter is short with a single defining nugget of wisdom directly and clearly stated.

Another read I would recommend would be Dr. James Gillies (founder of the Faculty of Administrative Studies at York which later became the Schulich School of Business ) “From Vision to Reality:The Founding of The Faculty of Administrative Studies at York University 1965-1972” that chronicles the history of development of a business school at York University but also provides an insider’s view on how business was done in the early days in Toronto.

The Times They Are a Changin’

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(Title Credit: Bob Dylan, Jan. 13 1964, Columbia Studios)

Image of Bob Dylan poster "The times they are a'changin"
Sophie Bury, Business Librarian & Head, Bronfman Business Library
Published Wednesday August 28, 2013

So you talked and we listened! During the most recent academic year the Schulich student body and the Office of the Dean of Schulich communicated a strong interest in longer Bronfman Business Library opening hours to support study needs.

In the short-term we responded by extending our hours in the run-up to exams and during the exam period in Winter term 2013. We extended our hours for four solid weeks from Mar. 25th to Apr. 21st, and offered longer hours on six out of the seven days each week! At the time we both blogged and tweeted about this to spread the happy word. The fact that this was our most popular tweet of the year also made us pay attention!

The final outcome, we hope you’ll agree, is a pretty awesome one! Commencing Sept. 9th 2013 (the first day of Fall classes) we will be offering longer opening hours at the Bronfman Business Library every day of the week (Monday to Sunday) for the length of the Fall term (until the exam period ends).

This marks the breaking of new ground for us. We hope you love our longer opening hours and that our usage statistics (and comments!) will tell a tale of a gap in your study needs unmet to date.

Here’s a summary of the new hours which will apply this Fall term totalling an additional eleven hours of opening time:

Mon.- Thurs.              8 am – 11 pm [we used to open at 9 am and close at 10 pm]

Fri.                              8 am – 6 pm   [we used to open at 9 am]

Sat.                             9 am – 6 pm [we used to open at 10 am and close at 6pm]
Sun.                           11 am – 8 pm [we used to open at 12 pm and close at 8 pm]

Thinkin’ Ahead

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Glenda Lowndes, Reference Assistant, Bronfman Business Library

Published on Tuesday August 27, 2013

If you are a first year student, chances are you are not thinking about a master’s degree yet. You may start thinking about pursuing graduate school sometimes during your third year of undergraduate degree. By then it may be too late to start improving your grades as your reaching graduation.  However, it is very important to do well in university from the beginning; you can always try to strive at any point in your academic studies.

In order to pursue a Graduate program at York, the Faculty of Graduate Studies requires students to graduate from a four-year degree from a recognized university with at least a B average GPA that is based on the last two years of study. However, successful applicants, particularly in the most competitive programs, usually have a B+ or A average. Another important factor to keep in mind is that for many of the graduate programs you require referees. Therefore, students need to start networking early on so professors can remember their work and provide outstanding letters of recommendation.

There are other requirements that are needed for admissions to specific programs; nevertheless you can always follow your dreams and set yourself apart from others as leaders in your particular field. Check out the graduate programs offered at York University and also this great flow chart with timelines.

Remember, York University Libraries can help you with any research projects or assignments throughout the year. We provide lots of great study space areas, computers/laptops, research & writing assistance, workshops and much more to help you on the right path to getting good grades and succeed at York University.

 

So much #BBLlove

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Kim Stymest, Business Librarian, Bronfman Business Library

Published Wednesday July 17th, 2013

Heart drawn on chalkboard

We got some love the other day online (wahoo!), and I think that these two posts bring to light a really important issue about our space here at Bronfman: not only is it beautiful and well suited for study, but it’s open to all students, regardless of the program that you are enrolled in.

The first post on YU Awesome highlights that we are open to all business students, drawing your attention to all of our awesome business-related services: research help, materials, group study rooms, and our silent study room (when not even typing will do! – it’s completely silent in there, no laptops allowed).

The second post on Your Libraries at York blog is actually a student comment made in response to a first blog post by our University Librarian on the coolest place to study at York. In this post, Sobia notes the beautiful space and natural lighting of Bronfman that really help her to get the best out of her studying.

EDIT: I forgot to mention this from @wwoolrich that had us laughing out loud!!!

 

 

 

Leveraging Google Scholar for Research Success

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Sophie Bury, Business Librarian & Head Bronfman Business Library

Published Wednesday, July 10, 2013.

Google Scholar at scholar.google.com is an important search engine to have in your suite of research tools when carrying out business research. We’ve even tweeted about it before; but here’s the nitty gritty. It can help you uncover useful academic sources for business research assignments and projects when used in tandem with the Bronfman Business Library’s wide-ranging suite of subscription sources available from our Business Databases A-Z web page.

Google Scholar facilitates broad searching of scholarly literature across many disciplines and types of information sources including articles, theses, books and more.

Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of Google Scholar:

Tip #1: You can access many York University library resources using the Google Scholar search engine, especially the full-text of scholarly articles, but to make sure this works access Google Scholar through the main search box of the library home page at http://www.library.yorku.ca like this:

searching Google Scholar in the library catalogue

If you access Google Scholar this way then links to York library holdings will appear if available, i.e. you’ll get links labeled “Find it @ York” which allow you to click through and get the full-text of articles and other publications.

Find it @ York buttonTip #2: Google Scholar, when accessed as described above, is a very quick and easy way to find a specific scholarly article you are looking for. This is a handy time saver when professors list scholarly articles on reading lists.

Let’s say you want to find this article:

Arend, R. J. (2013). A Heart-Mind-Opportunity Nexus: Distinguishing Social Entrepreneurship for Entrepreneurs. Academy Of Management Review, 38(2), 313-315.

Use the advanced search option in Google Scholar to find this article (just click on the arrow in the search box to get the advanced search option).

Advanced Search option

Just paste the title of the article in to the search box which facilitates searching “using the exact phrase” and put the last name of the author in the relevant box as shown below:

Advanced Search page

The article title and abstract appears and the “Find it @ York” link will allow you to retrieve the PDF of the article via the library’s e-resources.

Google Scholar Result

Tip # 3: Google Scholar can be used to search the scholarly literature for business topics (by using keyword searching as shown below) but we recommend that you think of it as a way of supplementing what is available in our top recommended sources. This includes Proquest Business and Business Source Premier– specialized business article databases that the library subscribes to.

Search example

Google Scholar allows you to search more broadly than business alone so that can be useful if your topic is interdisciplinary in nature, for example IT governance or health management. It may also help you retrieve conference proceedings or scholarly papers etc. that nicely complement the articles retrieved through searching of Proquest Business and Business Source Premier.

Tip #4: Be a savvy Google searcher and familiarize yourself with search strategies that work best to ensure you get results that are relevant.

For a handy illustrated summary of key search tips check out this really great infographic titled “Get More Out of Google: Tips and Tricks for Students Conducting Online Research”

The more you know…

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For Rent 'Textbooks'

from UTSA

Glenda Lowndes, Reference Assistant, Bronfman Business Library

Published Wednesday June 26th, 2013

Text books can cost BIG Bucks, especially on top of tuition fees – which continue to rise! Some universities are trying to help students cut their costs by offering textbook rentals from there university book store. Average textbook costs about $100 which can put a dent on your bank account when you are taking about 5-10 courses a year. Concordia University was the first to implement this service offering students 60 per cent off the retail price, making a $100 book available to rent for only $40 a semester. Students must take care of the textbooks otherwise they will be charged for the total cost of the textbook. Many other universities have followed suit, but it varies from university to university.1 York U has also adopted the textbook rental service, however prices and loan periods vary. If you cannot find your textbook from the York U bookstore textbook rental, you can also use other methods to locate used books to buy or to borrow for your courses. The libraries at York U may sometimes have your course kits and textbooks on reserve. To find course reserves, all you need to do is type the course code or instructor’s last name in the search box on our library website and pick Course Reserve from the drop-down menu, and see if your course is listed. Please keep in mind that these books are available for short term loans which can be for only 2 hours. At times, your course may not be listed; it doesn’t mean we don’t carry the textbook. You can also type the title of the textbook in the search box to see if you can borrow the book and all you need is your YUcard. You can also check out the York U bookstore website where students sell their books from previous semesters at a reasonable price.

1 Seidman, K. (2012, Mar 10). Rental services help students turn the page on high cost of textbooks. The Gazette. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/927663246?accountid=15182

MorningStar Direct, Thomson Reuters Private Equity and Global Financial Database are now available @ Bronfman Business Library

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Xuemei Li, Business Librarian, Bronfman Business Library

Published Thursday, May 16th 2013

The Bronfman Business Library would like to announce three products now available to all York students, faculty, and staff: Morningstar Direct, Thomson Reuters Private Equity and Global Financial Database.

Morningstar Direct is a multi-currency research platform that provides performance and holdings analysis of investments. It includes data on closed-end funds, equity ownership, exchange traded funds, hedge funds, market indexes, money market funds, offshore funds, open-end mutual funds, pension/life insurance, stocks and 529 plans. Please ask library staff to log you in the product in Bronfman library.

Thomson One Private Equity (Internet Explorer must be used) The database provides data on IRR, residual value etc for various fund types as well as fund performance by vintage year. Individual funds are not identified. (VentureXpert, the old version of the database, is no longer supported within the SDC Plantinum platform.) Please click Logout in the upper right corner to Log Out once you have completed your research to allow others to access the database.

Global Financial Database: Global Financial Database aka Global Financial Data primarily provides finance and economics data with a deep historical backfile and coverage of 200 global markets. Note that individual registration is required. To register, click on the link to the database above, select “New Member”, then “Academic”. Only a first name, last name, and email address are required.

If you have any questions or feedback about these resources, please contact Bronfman Business Library at bgref@yorku.ca

Industry and Market Research Just Got Easier: Introducing IBISWorld’s U.S. Specialized Industry Reports

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Sophie Bury, Business Librarian & Head Bronfman Business Library

Published Wednesday, May 1, 2013.

Having a hard time finding information about a niche or emerging industry? In the past year we’ve had business students ask our librarians to help them find information about everything from the elevator industry, to the smoothies industry, to the sleep clinics industry.

Now thanks to the recent addition of IBISWorld U.S. Specialized Industry Reports, we offer detailed reports about all three of these industries, in addition to many other niche and emerging industries. In fact, this database contains over 400 industry reports.  Moreover, at any given point in time, some 70-80% of the current report titles will have been published within the past 12 months.

IBISWorld Home

The main industry sectors covered by IBISWorld U.S. Specialized Industry Reports are as follows: advisory and financial services, business franchises, consumer goods and services, industrial machinery, gas and chemicals, life sciences, online retail, retail markets, specialist engineering infrastructure and contractors, and technology.

Once again, enjoy! And remember, if you’ve got questions about using IBISWorld, ask us for help.