Goodbye Blog Squad

Having been in Blog Squad for a year, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun :)

Thanks to Chanitra, I became an "expert" in searching for resources in various databases, especially business ones. And more importantly, I know which database to go to based on different information I need. It helps me a lot for my class projects and papers.

Also, I explored a lot of the libraries on campus and learned about the history of IU, where to ask for help in the library, how to find books, etc. And I realized that there're many places we can make use of but I didn't know. Some people may think that library is a boring place but the truth is that you can still do fun things in the library and there are a lot of interesting things going on in the libraries on campus.

Now it's time to say goodbye and I will miss Chanitra, Carrie, Eric, and my fun journey in the library.

PS: wish everyone good luck on the finals and a happy summer vacation! ^_^

Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library

Monday Chanitra and I went to explore the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library (NMBCCL).

Then we searched for the plays, musicals and stage programs that are available on campus. Here is a Department of Theatre and Drama website that is very useful to find this information: http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/ especially the Brown County Playhouse: http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/bcplay.html Also, you can go to the IU Auditorium website: http://www.iuauditorium.com/site/index.html

Little 5 week is over and now the final is around the corner. So let's 加油!!! ^_^

Indiana University Archives

Today Chanitra showed me a Chinese calendar and asked me to translate the Chinese on it. Then I realized how hard it was to translate the idioms in China into English and to make sense hehe~ and then we went to the Indiana University Archives on the 4th floor of the east tower.

And at the lobby of the main library, there's an interesting Electronic Waste Art Competition.

Plan

Today I talked to Carrie about "plan."

To be honest, I don't have plans. Sometimes, even I do, I don't know if I would follow it. Some people will criticize because they think most successful people make plans. But for me, I'd rather enjoy the "uncertainty," not knowing what's gonna happen. My dream is to do different jobs in different countries for several years of my life. But that's not all realistic so that is just my "dream." In my dictionary, "dream" and "goal" are different. Goal is more like something realistic and achievable. For example, my short-term goal is to find an internship and get admitted by the MSIS program at Kelley. (They are realistic hopefully lol). And dream for me is something ideal like to travel around the world, eat all kinds of food from different countries, and live in different cultures. Anyway, back to "plan." I like surprise and not want my life to be set. So that's why I am studying abroad here at IUB to experience different things.

Things change so I would rather enjoy the little surprises that are waiting for me.

Business databases

Today I met two librarians who are experts in searching for business resources such as 10-K, 10-Q, and other financial information about corporations.

I went to ask them about how to find 10-K and the executive summary for Starbucks, and they immediately opened up several databases--Standard & Poor's RatingsDirect, Thomson Research, MarketLine, Mergent Online, Investext Plus, Hoover's Online, Business & Company Resource Center, and so on. These databases can be found under the "Company and Industry" on the link: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1336 (And these are all very good databases for company information.) Then, they clicked the 10-K link and emailed the file to me. After that, I asked about how to write the executive summary and one of the librarians said, "Oh there's an e-book about that." I was shocked because that was so fast it's like all of the information's stored in his head! What an expert!

So the take-away from today's experience is that if you don't know where to start a research, ask a librarian. They are experts!

Congratulations!!!

The Association of College and Research Libraries named IU Bloomington Libraries the No.1 university library in the country!!! We are so lucky to be here :) Here are the pics (and Eric is so hard-working~!)

There was a celebration this afternoon at the main library lobby (and the mini-cakes were amazing lol). Also, near the door to the parking lot there's a very interesting exhibition going on--International Edible Book Festival! Those "books" are just cute and tempting hehe~

After that, Wen-ling Liu, the librarian of the East Asian Collection on the 8th floor of the East Tower, gave me a tour of the materials we have in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean studies. (And I was so surprised to find the Chinese books I love!) What's more, you can easily find the books you need or the resources you are looking for regarding East Asian Studies on the home page: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=328 There are many helpful databases.

Fine Arts Library

Today Chanitra and I went to explore the Fine Arts Library. Tony White, the Head of Fine Arts Library gave us an interesting tour and I learned a lot things about art collections.

Here are some pics I took today (I LOVE the weather today :)--

And there are some decorations inside which I adore:

And there's a exhibition about business women's dress back to 1970s and 1980s:

To build a website

My roommate and I are starting a new student group for Kelley international students, so we need to make a new website for our group. Today Chanitra introduced a website to me: http://ittraining.iu.edu/ an IT Training & Education website for IU students. There are many options available: Instructor-led training (class education in the library), Self-study training (online sources and software), and so on.
For online training, there's a great software free for IU students-Lynda.com. It is just on the home page of the website. I logged in as a student and found the things I need to learn for building the new web page-Dreamweaver and XHTML. There are a lot of PPT and videos available that teach you how to use the software and how to apply it to real examples. Also, the other option is to sign up for an instructor-led session for the software that you are interested in. But I found that the class Tue 3/23/2010 1:30-4:30 for Dreamweaver CS4 the basics workshop's full. However, Chanitra told me that there would be some empty seats for extra people so I could still go.

In addition, Chanitra showed me how the EndNote Web worked together with EndNote Desktop. And I found it's very convenient to use the EndNote Web to insert citation into Word document. Then it occurred to me that I felt people are relying more and more on computers or Internet. When I am on a trip or in a place with no Internet for several days, I always feel that something's missing and I really need to check my email and facebook! So sometimes I wonder what would happen if the Internet breaks down. lol

Anyway, I wish everyone a happy spring break :)

Spring is here :)

The weather is so nice today-we finally get to see the sun :) which makes me happy. Also, the mid-terms are over, so early March is like the "pre-Spring Break" with the end of first eight week classes, I am really enjoying the break from all of my classes.

Today Chanitra and me searched for some Kelley graduate programs that I might be interested in and we found that if you were a Kelley student, you wouldn't have to take GRE or GMAT in order to apply for the graduate programs of Kelley, which is a huge advantage for Kelley students. And we found all of the general information of these programs. But I am still thinking about whether I should apply for MSIS or MSA. And I also want to do my graduate in Britain, which will take more time since I have to take GRE or GMAT and all the application procedures and documents. So I am still thinking about it.

For my general education classes, I still need to take one more N&M course in order to meet the requirement. And I want to do it online. The online course website is: http://scs.indiana.edu/ It is very convenient: basically, you have one year length to finish the course online but normally it takes 12-18 weeks if you finish the assignments on time; and you can start whenever you want. You just need to pay additional fees regarding the credits of the course. So I am planning on taking M212 online.

Since I have time this week, I decided to search for some on-going activities on campus. So I went to iub.edu, scrolled down to EVENTS, and clicked "More Events," then it showed all of the activities going on today. I changed the date to Thursday, March 04, and decided to go to the Beauty and the Beast show. Then I clicked the link, it showed the event information and most importantly the URL.

Nest week, Chanitra and I will go and explore the Fine Arts Library and Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library.

EndNote-citation management

Every time when I write a research paper or a report about a project, the most tedious part is "works cited" and sometimes there are high standards about the format of these citations so some online tools like "KnightCite" may not work. Also, sometimes after I found a great resource from a database, I forgot which database it was and couldn't do the citation correctly. This Monday Chanitra introduced me a useful tool that I can use to manage citations for bibliographies--EndNote.
First of all, we need to get the software. As a student of IUB, I can download it freely from IUware: http://iuware.iu.edu/list.aspx?id=54 And EndNote X3 is the latest version. Then we add the articles to EndNote, and it will generate the "work cited" for you which is very convenient. Also, after downloading EndNote, there will be an add-in for Microsoft Word that manages citations in Word. And EndNote will save the articles you add every time, so you won't be stressed out about losing articles or the databases it came from.
There is also an online EndNote that is more convenient to use, and Chanitra will introduce it to me next time we meet.
And my roommate and I are thinking about starting a new student group for international students in Kelley, so we did some research about how to start a student group. We found that there's a place on campus that helps this--Office of Student Organizations & Leadership Development: http://sao.indiana.edu/list_student_orgs.html It is a great place to start consulting.
At last, it is the midterm week so I hope you all get what you want from your classes!

Great databases for u

Today Chanitra showed me some really helpful databases, especially for business research.
The first one is "Fast Facts": http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=5457 It has all kinds of useful links, such as Acronyms and Abbreviations (for people like me who are not good at initials), Exchange Rates, Flight Stats, World Factbook and so on. Although the Business/SPEA Library is closed right now, we can still use its online resources.
The second one is Hoover's Online: http://premium.hoovers.com/subscribe/ It provides the most influential companies' information, especially their financial data. So it is a great database for business research regarding specific companies. (I believe Hoover's Online would be useful for X204 class's Target case and I just wish I could have known this database earlier when I was taking that class!)
The last one is Accounting Research Manager: http://www.accountingresearchmanager.com/wk/rm.nsf/vwNavigator/Home?Open&login&rnm=586397 This database is excellent for accounting students. I can tell because I am taking A311, A325 and A329 right now and I can find all the links regarding the key institutions and standards such as FASB, SEC, AICPA, Sarbanes-Oxley and so on. And I am so glad that finally I found a perfect database for my major!

After using databases for about two semesters, I realized that it's a lot more reliable than Google or Wikipedia. So I strongly recommand you to start using it and the library research page is the first step.

^_^

Happy Chinese New Year!

And also Happy Valentine's Day!

Save hundreds of $$$

Today when I asked Chanitra about how to convert WORD document to PDF, she showed me a website that has tons of software you can download for FREE as a student of IU, and some of them are REALLY expensive in market. So it will save you a lot of money if you know this and get softwares from this website--IUware: http://iuware.iu.edu/
And on the left of this website, you can see categories. When we click Adobe, the first one is Acrobat Pro 9.0 which is perfect for converting WORD or EXCEL document to PDF and has other functions. Also, you can use this website to find some good deals and student discounts for hardware and computers: http://uits.indiana.edu/page/antj

And last week Chanitra did a very sweet thing which I really appreciated: she sent me a link to the news about "Indiana University brings Zipcar to campus," the first car-sharing program in the state offering Hoosiers a convenient, economical and green alternative to owning a car. (But what she didn't know is that I don't know how to drive lol) And here is the link to more details: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13303.html I think it would be useful for those students who don't own a car on campus.

The Secret of "Ask a Librarian"

Do you know that the person you see from the picture near the "Ask a Librarian" on the Libraries page is not the actual person who you talk to through the Instant Message a Librarian window??? I didn't know this "secret" until Chanitra told me today. And there were times when someone saw a friend they know appear on the page after refreshing it and then they clicked it and said hi, but it turned out it's not the person they knew... How tricky is that! lol

With Valentine around the corner, the Lilly Library is having an online exhibition on Victorian Valentines Cards and you can also send a unique Valentine e-card to your lover ^_^: http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/valentines/valentine.html These cards are so exquisite and some of them are really funny. What's more, there are 3-D cards too!

As a junior student, I am looking for internships but given the fact that I am an international students, the choices are so limited and the competition is intense. Today Chanitra showed me two websites that are for students to look for jobs, and I found them helpful so here I am sharing it with you. (And Chanitra told me that she's gonna quiz me on that the next meeting so I better write them down! lol) The first one is Monster.com and the other one is CareerBuilder.com. And remember to upload some competitive resumes! (If you need help with your resume, you can go to the UCSO website or office for help: https://ucso.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/Students/) Good luck on everyone's job seeking!

Chanitra, HOHO~~~

I am so glad that I have Chanitra :)
Yesterday, Chanitra helped me find the course descriptions of some PHIL and EALC classes which I desperately needed for my transfer courses and struggled a lot to search for. Thank you sooooooooooo much!!! And then she showed me some really cool puzzle animations on the Indiana University Digital Library Program web page: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/slocum/ which might be helpful for some presentations when you need puzzle clips.
I had a really busy week, you can tell from my schedule--
Monday 12:30-12:55 UCSO lunchroom round table prep
Tuesday 10:00 Office hour about transfer classes
Wednesday 5:30-7:30 UCSO Spring Internship Accounting Networking
7:45-9:00 Beta Alpha Psi call-out meeting
(Btw, the Beta Alpha Psi National Accounting Society seems very cool and helpful for accounting major students.)
Besides, I have 7 classes and X201 peer tutor. So, busy week! But I really enjoyed the "rush" and I believe that it is what I want before I graduate next year.

PS: After a long week, I am going skiing this Saturday HOHO! Looking forward to it :)

Books for GMAT prep

A raining day, I met Chanitra in the main library for this week's meeting. First of all, we went to the reserved book section located on the ground floor of the main library near the cafe, in order to find the textbook my professor reserved for my G202 class. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it because it was under reserved of the Business/SPEA Library and now it's closed. Hope next time I may be able to get it.

Then Chanitra helped me look for the persons to contact of every department that I am trying to talk to about my transfer classes, which I REALLY appreciate because it is kinda urgent for me to get all my classes transferred.

After that, we went to search for GMAT prep books, but we didn't find many and most of them were GRE books. So we checked the IUCAT, then we found that the latest version of GMAT prep book in the library was 2008, which is kinda old. So I decided to request a purchase of the 2010 edition GMAT prep book for our library. After sending the purchase suggestion through the library web page, I felt happy because I made a small contribution to our Kelley School and the students who are planning to take GMAT.

New semester :)

After a really fun break in Hawaii and the east coast, here I am, back to IU. ^_^

This semester is going to be kinda crazy, because I am taking A311, A325 and A329 three accounting classes together with other classes 17 credits in total. So today I went to the Business/SPEA Library to print something (because the computer lab on the first floor of Kelley was fullllll of people), but I found that the SPEA library's closed. (No wonder there were so many people in the computer lab!) Detail: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=77

Today I found that there are A LOT of libraries on campus: (Check which you have been to!)
Archives of African American Music & Culture
Archives of Traditional Music
Black Film Center/Archive
Business/SPEA Information Commons
Chemistry Library
Education Library
Fine Arts Library
Geography and Map Library
Geosciences Library
GLBT Library
Herman B Wells Library
HPER Library (Health, Physical Education and Recreation)
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Center for Disability Information and Referral (CeDIR)
Indiana Prevention Resource Center Library
Kinsey Institute Library
Law Library
Life Sciences Library
Lilly Library (Rare books and manuscripts)
Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library
Office of University Archives and Records Management
Optometry Library
RPS Libraries
Swain Hall Library
Weil Journalism Library
William & Gayle Cook Music Library
Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
Wylie House Museum

How many libraries have you been to? I have only been to a few of them. (Less than five :P) So I thought maybe I should go on a "journey" of all the libraries on campus! (Then it occurred to me that it would be a huge project so I thought that maybe I should do it step by step.)

Also, today I learned some tips of doing research from Chanitra (the most important one is to find the most appropriate database before doing research), and found that libraries should purchase more business case studies for Kelley students. Anyway, since the Business/SPEA Library is closed now, Kelley students would need more help with their research in the main library and it would be helpful to add more online resources for them. Oh, forgot to mention that now there is an Indiana University Digital Library Program (DLP) which is very convenient for online research: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/.

All in all, I am back and looking forward to another colorful semester! :)