Helpdesk Data Center on Wednesday 16 January

Due to the reorganization of the Library and the meeting of the Employees Council (Ondernemingsraad) the helpdesk will start and close earlier this Wednesday. This means that the helpdesk will be open on Wednesday from 12:00 to 14:30 pm.

The Data Center Team

New database: REACH

A new database with Dutch Company data has become available starting this week: REACH (Review and Analysis of Companies in Holland). Using REACH a comparison by industry sector can be made or an overview of the historical developement of a specific Dutch company. Data is available for the last 10 years. The database can be searched using company name, personnel size and sector. Specific sections are available with some basic financial information, information on ownership and the board & directors.

The database is supplied online by Bureau Van Dijk. This is the same company that supplies the databases Amadeus, Zephyr and Bankscope. All of these databases look the same and offer similar search and download options. If you already know one of the last three databases, learning to use REACH should not be a problem. The database is supported by the Data Center Team.

The Data Center Team.

SDC Platinum & Helpdesk Changes

1) SDC Platinum
The last few days there have been problems with the two SDC Platinum computers in the library. These problems have now been solved. Everything should now be working as before. If you need to use the database you can make a reservation by calling the library at: 020-598 5160.

2) Data Center Helpdesk
This week the Data Center helpdesk will be open earlier than usual on Friday: between 10:00 and 12:00 am. The opening hours on Wednesday and Thursday remain the same. To summarize:

• Wednesday 9 January: open from 1:00 pm to 16:00 pm
• Thursday 10 January: open from 1:00 pm to 16:00 pm
• Friday 11 January: open from 10:00 am to 12:00 am.

The data Center team.

Changes in opening hours Data Center helpdesk

The Data Center helpdesk is closed on Wednesday 19 December. Instead the helpdesk will be open on Tuesday 18 December from 13:00 - 16:00 pm. The Opening hours on Thursday and Friday remain the same. To summarize:

• Tuesday 18 December: Helpdesk open from 1:00 pm to 16:00 pm
• Wednesday 19 December: Helpdesk closed
• Thursday 20 December: Helpdesk open from 1:00 pm to 16:00 pm
• Friday 21 December: Helpdesk open from 1:00 pm to 15:00 pm.

Changes in the first week of January 2013:

The Data Center helpdesk is closed on Wednesday 2 January and Friday 4 January. On Thursday the opening hours of the helpdesk will be as usual. To summarize:

• Wednesday 2 January: Helpdesk closed
• Thursday 3 January: Helpdesk open from 1:00 pm to 16:00 pm
• Friday 4 January: Helpdesk closed.

We wish you happy holidays and a great New Year!

The data Center team.

News from the library

Indices of Social Development
This new e-Resource has been added and is made available through the website of the VU Library. The ISD database brings together 200 indicators, synthesising them into a usable set of measures to track how different societies perform along six dimensions of social development. 

Zacks trial
WRDS has added the Zacks data to its portal. The trial gives access for one month to a subset of the Zacks database. The Trial Access Period is: December 6, 2012 through January 6, 2013. The trial subset covers: a limited date range for 100 of the largest global companies. Zacks data can be used to empirically analyze analysts’ forecasts and their revisions, price targets and recommendations (e.g., construct popular measures such as consensus forecast, earnings surprises, analyst track records, etc). The geographical coverage is: U.S. and Canada.

Worldscope
There has ben an update of the company data that is available through this database. The Worldscope annual report data can be found using Datastream or LexisNexis (reports). Here you find some specifics on changes by country.

Combining data from SDC & Datastream
A new blog item is available on using both databases for research. A step by step approach is offered.

Information literacy skills & Reference software

In the coming months many students will start working on their paper or Thesis. The library has a few courses that will help you get to a good start:

1) Information search & retrieval courses:

• Check the agenda of the library website for courses presented by library professionals
• Go to the online literacy skills courses which are available 24/7 !

2) Reference software
If you are planning to use much literature it may be a good idea to use special tools to manage your references. The software not only allows you to manage your literature, it also offers automatic export and efficient formatting options to use the references you collected in your paper. Check out the agenda on the library website for courses on: Reference Manager & EndNote.The software should be available on the computers at the university.
You can also try some of the free Reference tools that are available. One of the most popular free reference tools is a plugin called Zotero.

New sources added

A few new sources have been added to the databases that are available through the VU Library website. Most of the information in these sources is Open Access. The new sources are:

• Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS))
  DANS is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The DANS collection includes datasets from the Humanities, e.g. History and Archaeology, Social and Behavioural sciences, and Geospatial sciences. Data and documentation files are available for downloading free of charge for registered users (registration is free of charge). In some cases, permission from the depositor is required before you can download the datafiles.
• CBS websites
  The main website of the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is linked as a specific e-resource. Two links have now been added to specific separate CBS websites. The first of the new links goes to a website on Dutch Census Statistics (Volkstellingen). The second link goes to a website where newly digitized historical datapublications of the CBS become available.