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Author Archives: NYU Shanghai Library
Upcoming workshop: Extracting geospatial data with the OverPass API (10/20)
Extracting geospatial data with the OverPass API (Online Workshop)
Tuesday, 20 October 12 PM – 1 PM (China Standard Time)
Upcoming workshop: Introduction to R (10/15)
Introduction to R (Online Workshop)
Thursday, 15 October 8 AM – 10 AM (China Standard Time)
Workshops (10/5-10/11)
Next week (10/5-10/11) offers four workshops. Two of them are onsite and two of them are online.
NYU Shanghai workshops
- Introduction to R
This workshop gets you started with using R. The session introduces the RStudio interface and key constructs of R, how to read files of various formats, when and how to work with different data types, and essentials of visualizing data.
There are two sessions of this workshop both held at Academic Building 4F Room 400A Curiosity Lab.
Citation Clinic Workshops
Have you ever wondered:
“How do I cite a Youtube Video?”
“Can I cite myself as a translator?”
“Are the citations provided by a database really reliable?”
Whatever your citation questions might be, librarians are here to help. Drop by the Academic Building library on 4F Curiosity Lab for our one-on-one citation clinics, and we’ll help you answer your trickiest citation questions:
Library Essentials 101 Workshops this week
Do you have library questions? How to find and download an ebook? How to cite in your paper so you don’t get accused of plagiarism? Come to this workshop, where you get to pick what you want to learn!
This DIY workshop will cover the essentials for using the library, such as how to:
- Access and retrieve course reserves for their classes
- Recognize and use interlibrary loan in different circumstances
- Identify relevant information sources for current and historical news
- Choose appropriate databases in order to search for scholarly articles on their topics
- Construct a search strategy in order to find relevant information
- Identify tools to cite and manage your information sources
Library Essentials 101
Tuesday, 22 September 11 AM – 12 AM (China Standard Time)
Location: Shinmay Building, Library space, on the 33rd Floor
Please register in advance at https://engage.shanghai.nyu.edu/event/6382292
Library Essentials 101
Tuesday, 22 September 2 PM – 3 PM (China Standard Time)
Location: Academic Building, 400 A Curiosity Lab in the library on the 4F floor
Please register in advance at https://engage.shanghai.nyu.edu/event/6382293.
Library Essentials 101
Wednesday, 23 September 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM (China Standard Time)
Location: Academic Building, 400A Curiosity Lab in the library on the 4F floor
Please register in advance at https://engage.shanghai.nyu.edu/event/6382294
Three Online Workshops This Week
This week, you’re welcome to join us for three online workshop. Each will be held via Zoom, so you can attend from the comfort of your dorm or apartment. Please register ASAP!
Event poster
Data Visualization with Tableau Wednesday, 16 September 9 AM – 11 AM (China)
In this workshop, you will learn how to:
- Understanding of basic principles of data visualization
- Tableau interface
- Importing data into Tableau
- Exploring data and types of data
- Creating tables, charts, scatter plots, histograms, etc.
- Creating interactive dashboards and stories
- Mapping data with Tableau
This workshop will be held via Zoom, so you can attend from the comfort of your dorm or apartment.
Please register in advance through the NYU Libcal page ( https://nyu.libcal.com/event/7040118). I hope you’ll be able to join us!
What’s the big deal about sources and references?
Twenty years ago, a scholarly source was clearly different from everything else. Very little was online yet, but many voices were unjustly ignored.
If you look at newspapers, magazines, or pulp novels, these are meant for daily consumption by anyone. Others, like scholarly journals or books (from novels to dictionaries), take years (decades!) and dozens (hundreds!) of hands. You can feel the effort of editors, authors, and artists.
Huazi Ribao Newspaper Issue
The amount of time, wisdom, and energy invested establishes some of the credibility in dictionaries, encyclopedia, or university press books. This is harder to see today when dictionaries or encyclopedia (whether Wikipedia or Britannica) all look pretty much the same as blogs on your phone or laptop.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography volumes
Take the time to learn about the author and publisher. It is a necessary step. Is this subject their specialty? That way you don’t cite someone who has been discredited in the field. Or perhaps you find an authentic voice who merits greater respect.
Samuel P Massie academic gown
Three quarter length portrait of Miss Kate Violet Edgerley in academic cap and gown standing
You may not have to do this every time. You will start to recognize names in your discipline from your assignments and readings.
How to access full text articles, streaming films, and ebooks
You may feel frustrated searching Google after finding paywalls or questionable statements. The library has purchased many subscriptions to research, books, and film which may reveal this locked content. Unfortunately, you have to start from inside the library pages, logged in with you NYU NetID, for the subscriptions to recognize you are connected to our subscriptions. Let’s see how to do that.
Whenever you have any difficulties with these steps, check Ask-A-Librarian. You can chat with us across the globe, check if the connections are working, or share screens to see what is happening.
Step 1: Open NYU Shanghai Library Website: https://shanghai.nyu.edu/academics/library Step 2: Click the “Articles & Databases” tab
Articles and Databases tab on library’s homepage
Step 3: Locate “Content-Specific” databases
Highlight the location of Content-specific links
Step 4: Access “Ebook Collections”, “Video Collections” and more
Location for Ebook, Newspapers, and Video collections
Step 5: Explore our content-specific collections based on your own research needs
- Ebooks
Ebook collection webpage
- Video
Video Collections webpage
- News & Newspapers
Newspaper collections webpage
People’s Republic of Desire
The documentary, People’s Republic of Desire by Hao Wu, prompts many venues for discussion. What does this film make you think about? From celebrity to aesthetics, ethics to marketing, finance to gender, the library can help you find research to build an argument for a paper or project. Read on for several books (electronic or in print on 4F) as well as a series of guides from librarians on how to start researching any one of these topics:
Global and Transcultural Communication.
Celebrity in China
Louise P Edwards; Elaine Jeffreys
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press ©2010
HKU Press digital editions.
DS779.43 .C39 2010
Continue reading
Library Closed During National Holiday
Dear faculty, staff, and students
The NYU Shanghai Library’s collections and services will be closed from Sept. 28th to Oct. 6th for the National Holiday. The electronic resources and Academic Commons are accessible 24/7.
Hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday!
NYUSH Library
Waiting for Paradise
If you missed the event Friday, or want to watch 
again with classmates, the DVD, Shanghai Waiting for Paradise, is available to check out on 4F. We have a viewing room if you don’t have a DVD player or disc drive. You may check out a DVD player from IT. Unfortunately, we don’t allow popcorn or more than two viewers together in the library.
If your mind is churning with questions, harness that interest to research this semester for an assignment. I suggest starting with a general introduction, such as Shanghai in transition: changing perspectives and social contours of a Chinese metropolis, which explored Shanghai at the same time as the film, about 2003. It is also an ebook, where you can skim the table of contents for ideas about what angle your research might try. Remember, education and research are about trying things out, from your interest in a topic to different methods for exploring and reporting, to different theories for organizing and understanding the information. University is the best time to take a risk, try a new topic or subject. Now is the time to find out what you don’t like doing as much as what you do like. It’s also a great time to realize the skills you need (logically thinking, calculus and statistics, coding) and learn with a classmate on a group project. Continue reading