The World Bank Shares Their Data for Free!

Of particular interest to our students of business and international affairs should be the iniative just undertaken by the World Bank to share many of their prime indicators and databases - for free!

The World Bank recently announced that they will offer free access to over 2,000 indicators (including many that go back 50 years) through the new online data portal they launched on April 20th at: http://data.worldbank.org/

This new site contains the full World Development Indicators (WDI), Global Development Finance (GDF), and Africa Development Indicators (ADI), along with other World Bank databases, including Global Economic Monitor (GEM) (up till now these databases were only availabale via subscription). The new site is designed for both novice and advanced users: you can access basic data by country, topic, and region, as well as download datasets in Excel, CSD, XML, and other formats. Users can also access and retrieve data through the DataBank (a platform similar to that of the previous WDI, GDF and ADI platforms). The site links to the World Bank Data API (encouraging developers to create new applications using the data), DataFinder, and World Bank's new iPhone application.

For a full list of available data sets available go to: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog. Most data is available in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Spotlight on Sharon McGee

Even if you visit Paul G. Blazer Library everyday, you may have never met Sharon McGee, Blazer Library’s Records Manager and Head of Special Collections/Archives. Much of Ms. McGee's work is done away from the public eye, whether that work is diligently guiding KYSU employees in managing their records, or preserving KYSU’s permanent records for administrative/historical/fiscal/ legal purposes, or ultimately making those records accessible to KYSU faculty, staff, students, and the public.

Sharon is a KYSU alum, having completed her undergrad B.A. in elementary education with a computer endorsement here before going on to the University of Kentucky to complete dual master’s degrees, the first of which certified her as a Media Specialist and the second of which provided her a Master’s of Science in Library Science.

Before coming to KYSU as an undergrad, Ms. McGee spent several years working in business. After that, she taught elementary school in Anderson County and Franklin County prior to coming to work at Blazer Library. One year she worked as a Media Specialist. 

Sharon is married with 2 daughters, who both attend the University of Kentucky, and feels lucky to have a beautiful granddaughter. She loves working as an academic librarian and is glad that she chose it as her career . When she is not busy working at the job she thoroughly enjoys, Sharon can be found singing karaoke, listening to music, and most importantly of all, spending time with her family.

Thank you for all you do, Sharon!

The Dreaded Bibliography Made Easier

Have you ever found that the hardest part of writing your research paper isn't writing the paper itself but rather crafting the reference or bibliography page at the end? Have you found yourself losing valuable points on your assignments because of tiny errors made on that crucial page of citations? Well, if you have, you are not alone.

Understanding the mechanics of writing the sort of reference page that will earn a 100% is difficult. For example, should you underline or use quotes when noting your source title in APA style, and how does that differ in MLA? Once you decide, where do you place that title - before or after the author's name? It is enough to give a person a headache, but you can stop anguishing over those decisions now because help is here!

The Paul G. Blazer Library has added a link to the KnightCite online citation generator service to its online catalog. Provided by the Hekman Library of Calvin College, this service allows you to create accurate bibliographies. By prompting you to first choose a style (MLA, APA, etc.), then enter the answers to specific questions about the material you are using (such as author's name or book title) within a form, and then requiring you to submit the completed form through an easy click of your mouse, a complete and stylistically accurate citation for the work is generated. The service is provided free of charge by the Calvin College, boasts no distracting advertising on its site, and even provides registered users with the option of saving all of their citations and even multiple bibliographies to their account.

Check it out here and see just how easy writing a bibliography can be!