WPSphere Repository (William Paterson University)

Students relax on the William Paterson College campus during summer session. Undated. Date range is approximate

Students relax on the William Paterson College campus during summer session

David and Lorraine Cheng Library

The New ChengFind 
By Kurt Wagner 
 
Last April I reported that over the summer we would implement a new search tool and in this edition of 
ChengChat I’m happy to report that this has been done. Let’s pop the hood and find out three or four 
ways that the new ChengFind will make your search for information better than ever. 
The search box on the Library’s web page previously searched only the Library catalog for books, e-
books and audio/video. At most, you were searching about 500K items and if you wanted articles you 
had to first scan through a list of databases and choose the right one. Things are much easier now. Just 
type your search words in the box to search not only the library catalog but also nearly 500 million other 
resources including a huge amount of full-text content. It’s very easy to get a large number of results in 
ChengFind. The most important thing, though, is sorting and filtering your results to list the resources 
that work best for you. Let’s do it! 
I searched for “genetically modified foods” (the quotation marks keep the phrase together) and got 
189,332 results. 
 Use “Refine your search” in the left-side menu to limit to scholarly & peer-review, or to limit to 
results from the library catalog (books, e-books, and video). 
 Use “Content type” to limit to particular types of materials: journal articles, newspaper articles, 
books/ebooks, or others. 
 Use “Publication date” sliders to limit to materials published after a given date or within a range 
of dates. 
After limiting to scholarly & peer-review, journal article, and published after January 2013 my results list 
decreased to 7,528. That’s still a huge number, but further down the left-side menu I see that the 
“Discipline” filter lets me limit the results to a specific field. I can see results from biology, engineering, 
agriculture, or a long list of others. It’s simple to select “Business” from this list so that I will only see the 
69 results that pertain to the business aspects of genetically modified foods. 
This way of winnowing down giant results lists into more manageable sets should be very familiar to 
anyone who has navigated e-commerce sites like Amazon, Ebay, or other major online shopping sites. 
You will quickly be able to zoom in and get only the most meaningful results. ChengFind will also be 
most useful for interdisciplinary topics such as Africana Studies, Film Studies, Economics, and many 
other topics that previously required repeat searches in multiple databases. 
Is ChengFind right for everyone? No, but it’s a great place to start. A more advanced researcher will still 
want to make use of the specialized tools available in specific databases. Click the “Articles & Databases” 
tab to select a database. 
The new ChengFind is a big change, we know. Please ask us for help. Call 973-720-2116, email at 
refdesk@wpunj.edu or drop by the reference desk! We’re happy to help! 
 


ChengChat

Cheng Chat:  The Problem with Information Glut 
 
By Richard Kearney 
 
 
On the eve of the launching of the first operational web browser 22 years ago, the great public 
intellectual Neil Postman wrote: 
 
"[T]elegraphy created the idea of context-free information - that is, the idea that the value of 
information need not be tied to any function it might serve in social and political decision-
making and action." 
 
Following a century of further technological development, Postman assessed the status of 
information in these terms: 
 
"Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most 
fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of 
even mundane problems....  [In our culture] the tie between information and human purpose has 
been severed, i.e., information appears indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, in 
enormous volume and at high speeds, and disconnected from theory, meaning, or purpose." 
 
Keep in mind that Postman was writing BEFORE the web and all it has wrought. 
 
Today, at some level, almost everyone recognizes that information glut has become a serious 
problem. 
 
Without sufficient context to provide controls, the deluge of information can become mind-
numbing. Confronted with endless messages from all directions and in no particular order, we 
regard much of the glut as trivial, random, and meaningless. And with good reason. 
 
It isn't just the explosion of commercial speech and advertising, or government and corporate 
propaganda, but also the glut in all other forms of information, delivered in countless ways, 
which have driven people to come up with various coping strategies. 
 
For some, the best way to manage information glut is by carving out a customized social media 
world filled with like-minded "friends" who tell us only what we want to hear and little else. 
 
For others, the practical approach is to hope the automated search technologies we use every day 
will reward our confidence in them with useful and meaningful answers to our questions. 
 
But this confidence is often misplaced, in part because these strategies rely on technologies that 
have helped create the problem in the first place. 
 
It makes perfect sense to avoid the fatigue that can come from information overload. But 
students still need to use information. What to do? 
 
Libraries don't claim to have any magic solution to the problem of information glut. Some people 
even think libraries are part of the problem, while others believe libraries have become irrelevant 
in an age when access to information no longer seems to be a problem. 
 
What libraries can offer is a dedication to the critical importance of context, and professional 
expertise in organizing the information we provide. We have as little use for trivial, random, and 
meaningless information as you do. 
 
Libraries are all about making the connections that make information useful to you, in portions 
that will satisfy. So when you're feeling overwhelmed or disoriented by too much information, 
please pay us a visit.  Because the last thing you need going into Thanksgiving is a severe case of 
information indigestion. 


Students at William Paterson College do their laundry in a college laundry facility. Undated. Date range is approximate

Students at William Paterson College do their laundry in a college laundry facility

Prof. Helen Maciorowski (far right) instructing students in the Nursing program at William Paterson University. Undated. Date range is approximate

Prof. Helen Maciorowski instructs students in the Nursing program at William Paterson University

The Power Art Center at William Paterson University. Photograph is undated

The Power Art Center at William Paterson University

William Paterson University's Hobart Manor after a three-story brick wing on the east side expanded the house to 40 rooms. Photograph is undated. Date range is approximate

William Paterson University's Hobart Manor with new three-story brick east wing

Students in Caldwell Plaza at the rear of the Student Center on the campus of William Paterson University during night classes. Photograph is undated

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Students relax on the William Paterson College campus during summer session

ChengChat

ChengChat

Students at William Paterson College do their laundry in a college laundry facility

ChengChat

Prof. Helen Maciorowski instructs students in the Nursing program at William Paterson University

The Power Art Center at William Paterson University

William Paterson University's Hobart Manor with new three-story brick east wing

ChengChat

Students in Caldwell Plaza at the rear of the Student Center on the campus of William Paterson University during night classes

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