Research Online

Counseling and Therapy in Video Volume 1  from Alexander Street Press (current NU only) is now available.

This valuable resource includes over 400 hours of training videos, reenactments, and real-life therapy sessions. Counseling and Therapy in Video Volume 1 is a great tool for counselors-in-training, as it allows one to observe, in face-to-face sessions, subtleties of body language, facial expressions, behavior, speech patterns and intonation.

Some of the perks: every video includes a synchronized transcript. Users can create, edit, and share playlists or clips. Videos are searchable by keywords and subjects, and arranged by easy-to-browse topical subject areas and therapeutic methods.

For example, you could search for Gestalt, Solution Focused, or Family Therapy sessions. You could search for clips where a client diagnosed with depression uses the word drink.  Or you could compare and contrast how cognitive-behavioral therapists and client-centered therapists treat a similar condition.

You can browse all titles or search by subject or therapy type.

This resource is listed on the A-Z Index (under the FIND menu) and on my psychology subject guide. The subject guide includes my contact information– I am interested to hear your comments and questions about this new acquisition.

See news and images from the height of Victorian culture, a window into how the English viewed the world around them.  The Illustrated London News provides new resources for art, history, costume design, postcolonial studies, and more.

Advanced search features let you limit to just one section of the newspaper, or only image captions, to find:

• May fashions from 1847
• British winter troop uniforms from 1849
• Scenes from the Western Front of World War II
• The Beatles performing for the Royals

We think this will have a lot of applicability across many subjects, so let us know what you think.

[Update] On June 3rd, the petition supporters reached their goal of 25,000 signatures!

This year, the Obama administration has been actively considering the issue of public access to the results of federally funded research. The administration is currently considering which policy actions are priorities that will it will act on before the 2012 presidential election season begins in earnest. Supporters of  open access to research results hope to demonstrate a strong public interest in expanding the NIH Public Access Policy across all U.S. federal science agencies. As a supporter of open access to information, I agree with them.

On Monday, a petition calling for public access to federally funded research was posted on the White House’s “We the People” site.  If the petition garners 25,000 signatures within 30 days, it will be reviewed by White House staff, and considered for action. I’ve signed the petition, and so have over 7,000 other people as of today.

For more information on open access issues and initiatives in the library, see the library’s information page, the subject guide, or this recent 3Qs with Dean Will Wakeling from news@Northeastern.

Here we are, a month into baseball season, and my beloved Red Sox are showing few signs of emerging from their prolonged slump. Yet they still (so far, anyway!) are maintaining the longest sold-out-games streak in history. Want to check their attendance numbers versus those of other MLB teams? SBRnet can do that.

Brave enough to bike around Boston? (Not me, thanks.) That has the potential to be an expensive hobby. How much do US consumers spend annually on their bicycling habits? SBRnet’s got that information as well.

Maybe you want to advertise a product to female TV viewers of sporting events. But which sports do women watch on television the most? SBRnet can link you to TV Viewing Profiles for all televised sports.

SBRnet is a great tool for sport marketing and business information. It includes statistical data, news, research, and reports on topics such as sport participation, fan profiles, sports facilities, sport finance, sporting goods, sponsorship, marketing, and media.

If you are interested in the business of sports, take a moment to poke around in SBRnet. And as always, let us know what you think, either in the comments below or by contacting us here.

On April 17, 2012, Harvard University’s Faculty Advisory Council on the Library issued an open memo to the Harvard community stating that “major periodical subscriptions cannot be sustained” due to high prices and unreasonable publisher practices. If this topic sounds familiar, it’s because it’s already been in the news recently – in January, mathematician Timothy Gowers-Lee blogged about these issues specifically as they relate to publishing giant Elsevier. In February, a website was created where scholars could sign on to a boycott of Elsevier; as of today over 10,000 signatures have been gathered.

The Harvard memo avoids mentioning specific companies, instead  referring to “certain publishers” that receive close to $3.75 million per year from Harvard for its subscriptions to their journals. Harvard’s expenses for online journal content from just two major providers has increased 145% over the past six years. The memo states, “The Faculty Advisory Council to the Library, representing university faculty in all schools and in consultation with the Harvard Library leadership,  reached this conclusion: major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas, already compromised.”

Harvard University is certainly not alone in struggling with rising subscription costs – it’s been discussed in the professional literature since the 1990s, when publishers introduced the “big deal” pricing model of requiring libraries to subscribe to less important journals along with their subscriptions to essential titles. Only recently, though, have the mainstream media begun reporting on publishers’ questionable practices. Although it’s too soon to say whether the Harvard memo will have any direct impact on the industry, it’s definitely increasing public awareness of an issue that  not only affects Harvard but is jeopardizing the financial sustainability of academia as a whole.

Recommended reading:

⇒ Full text of the Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing

⇒ “Harvard Now Spending Nearly $3.75 Million on Academic Journal Bundles,” The Atlantic, April 23, 2012

⇒ “The wealthiest university on Earth can’t afford its academic journal subscriptions,” io9.com, April 24, 2012

⇒ “If Harvard Can’t Afford Academic Journal Subscriptions, Maybe It’s Time for an Open Access Model,” Time, April 26, 2012

⇒ “Harvard panel pushes benefits of free journals,” The Boston Globe, April 28, 2012