UWSP Libraries

The University Library is pleased to announce the installation of Prof. Susan Morrison’s student art work on the 5 th  floor based on the game of chess. Beginning drawing students from ART 103 sections worked with acrylics, paint, charcoal and ink to design 40 chess-like boards that  cover the wall.  Congrats to all of the students for their creative work!  Come check it out on your next visit to the Library.

Wave By Sonali Deraniyagala Call Number:  CT 1528 .D47 A3 2013 Named one of the 10 best books of 2013 by the New York Times Book Reveiw Publisher's Description:  On the morning of December 26, 2004, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami she miraculously survived. In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since. She has written an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account: as she struggles through the first months following the tragedy, furiously clenched against a reality that she cannot face and cannot deny; and then, over the ensuing years, as she emerges reluctantly, slowly allowing her memory to take her back through the rich and joyous life she’s mourning, from her family’s home in London, to the birth of her children, to the year she met her English husband at Cambridge, to her childhood in Colombo; all th

Old Gateway to Databases - Quick Search The Library’s subscription to our current database gateway will be ending December 31, 2013. This will mean the pathway (or gateway) to our databases will be changing, but the content still remains.  Functions such as “Article Quicksearch” and custom searches will no longer be available, but you may perform the same search in the Search@UW interface or by combining Ebsco databases, through the “Choose” databases function.  New Gateway to Databases - Search@UW We will also have a new pathway guide that  will provide access to all of our databases by subject, alphabetically by name, and provide a search box to find a specific database.   This guide will be available from our Library Homepage by the beginning of the Winterim session.    If you have any questions, please contact Terri Muraski at tmuraski@uwsp.edu or ext. 3349.

The Men Who United the States : America's explorers, inventors, eccentrics, and mavericks, and the creation of one nation, indivisible By Simon Winchester Call Number:  E 178 .W8 2013 Review from the New York Times  and an Author interview from NPR Publisher's Description:  Simon Winchester, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman , delivers his first book about America: a fascinating popular history that illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings. For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum —"Out of many, one"—has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But how did America become "one nation, indivisible"? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses these questions, bringing together the breathtaking achievements of those American pion

It's that time of the semester again for our internationally known EXAM CRAM!!!!!!  Monday, December 16th from 7 p.m. - midnight.   Free Coffee, Free Cookies, Free Fortunes, Quiet Study Areas, Not So Quiet Study Areas, Group Study Areas, Reference Help, Tutoring Help, Staplers, Paper Clips, Citation Help, Copier Help.  We will help you CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!

P Key Concepts in Leisure Studies By David Harris Access this e-book from our Credo Reference Collection Publisher's Description:   This book confirms David Harris' status as a leading theorist in contemporary culture and leisure in the UK. He offers a distinctive, coherent and authoritative guide to the major concepts and debates that should engage leisure scholars and scholarship' - Dr Peter Bramham, Senior Lecturer in Leisure Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University Written with the needs of today's student in mind, the SAGE Key Concepts series provides accessible, authoritative and reliable coverage of the essential issues in a range of disciplines. Written in each case by experienced and respected experts in the subject area, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages understanding without sacrificing the level of detail and critical evaluation essential to convey the complexity

The Library offers access to thousands of e-books. Discover how to find, download, print, and read e-books on your computer, e-reader, or tablet.   The eBooks@UWSP workshop will run from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, in room 318 of the library. You can bring a mobile device to try e-books for yourself. The workshop is free. Cookies and refreshments will be served. Please register at tinyurl.com/kcldh89

The Library is pleased to announce the addition of the Wiley Online Library e-book Collection with over 13,000 titles available via Search@UW from the Library Homepage. This e-book collection includes an extensive list of titles from the areas of business, life, health, physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. It features a clean and easy-to-use interface and allows for more personalization and expanded functions. It is also compatible with the following browsers: Internet Explorer (v. 6 and higher); Firefox (v. 2 and higher); Safari (v. 3 and higher); Opera (v. 9 and higher); and Google Chrome (all version). Questions? AskUS at the Reference Desk .

Lawrence in Arabia : war, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern Middle East By Scott Anderson Call number:  D 568.4 .L45 A66 2013 Review from the New York Times Book Review Author interview from NPR Publisher's description :  A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th century history – the Arab Revolt and the secret “great game” to control the Middle East.      The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, “a sideshow of a sideshow.” Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle Eastern theater. As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power. Curt Prüfer was an effete academic attached to the German embassy in Cairo, whose clandestine role was to foment Islamic jihad against British rule. Aaron Aa

Have you used the new search tool for the Library?  Want to know more about it and its features for more seamless searching? Join us as we host a Search@UW workshop from n oon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in Room 316.   Search@UW is newer technology called a “discovery system.” It is no longer just a catalog of materials owned and licensed by UWSP, but a discovery tool that searches multiple resources from our campus and the UW System in one simultaneous search.   Participants are welcome to bring lunches or snacks to the free workshop. Please register at tinyurl.com/kcldh89   Also, please visit the Library Workshops page to view other upcoming workshops or to suggest a topic of interest to you . http://www.uwsp.edu/library/Pages/workshops.aspx

Cached:  Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture By Stephanie Ricker Schulte Call Number:  HM 851 .S34 2013 Publisher's Description :  In the 1980s and 1990s, the internet became a major player in the global economy and a revolutionary component of everyday life for much of the United States and the world. It offered users new ways to relate to one another, to share their lives, and to spend their time—shopping, working, learning, and even taking political or social action. Policymakers and news media attempted—and often struggled—to make sense of the emergence and expansion of this new technology. They imagined the internet in conflicting terms: as a toy for teenagers, a national security threat, a new democratic frontier, an information superhighway, a virtual reality, and a framework for promoting globalization and revolution.   Schulte maintains that contested concepts had material consequences and helped shape not just our sense of the internet, but the deve

The University Library is pleased to announce the completion of a new site specific sculpture, located at the west entrance, created and designed by Prof. Susan Morrison’s students of ART 398 (Sec. 21). “Four Feet Under” is a vertical structure of nine “I” beams spanning 20 feet and weighing 240 pounds. Students describe the work as, “o ur design of line, plane, and space have been combined to create an imposing array of spiral velocity. The powerful vertical structure standing its tallest at 16ft is also inviting with its open construction between the spiraling beams. The spacious proximity of the spiraling beams for viewers to visually explore drives their eyes to the radial balance as the composition’s negative space is connected at the center of the tightest wound beam. The repetition of increasing beam heights creates rhythm and the multiple perspectives the structure can be viewed at accentuate the design. ” Congratulations to the following students, and to many others

The Joy of Pain : Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature By Richard H. Smith Call Number:  BF 575 .E65 S65 2013 Review from the Wall Street Journal Publisher's Description :  Few people will easily admit to taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. But who doesn't enjoy it when an arrogant but untalented contestant is humiliated on American Idol, or when the embarrassing vice of a self-righteous politician is exposed, or even when an envied friend suffers a small setback? The truth is that joy in someone else's pain-known by the German word schadenfreude --permeates our society. In The Joy of Pain, psychologist Richard Smith, one of the world's foremost authorities on envy and shame, sheds much light on a feeling we dare not admit. Smith argues that schadenfreude is a natural human emotion, one worth taking a closer look at, as it reveals much about who we are as human beings. We have a passion for justice. Sometimes, schadenfreude can feel

This week is the  6th International Open Access Week , dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness of open access to scholarly information.  What is open access? Open access is the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need. The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center is an example of a digital repository that provides open access to resources that support the teaching and research needs of the UW community. It is also unique in the sense that it provides access to rare of fragile items that have broad research value.  In the spring, the Library plans to hold an event on open-access, predatory journals, and vanity presses. Stay tuned for more info....

  The Cancer Chronicles: unlocking medicine's deepest mystery By George Johnson Call Number:  RC 268.48 J64 2013 New York Times Review Publisher's Description :  When the woman he loved was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, science writer George Johnson embarked on a journey to learn everything he could about the disease and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding and combating it. What he discovered is a revolution under way—an explosion of new ideas about what cancer really is and where it comes from. In a provocative and intellectually vibrant exploration, he takes us on an adventure through the history and recent advances of cancer research that will challenge everything you thought you knew about the disease. Deftly excavating and illuminating decades of investigation and analysis, he reveals what we know and don’t know about cancer, showing why a cure remains such a slippery concept. We follow him as he combs through the realms of epidemiology, c

EndNote for iPad Workshop:  OCT. 11 (Fri) noon - 1:00 pm (Room 316) OCT. 17 (Thu) 4:00-5:00  pm (Room 316) EndNote for Desktop: OCT. 14 (Mon) noon - 1:00 pm (Room 316) The Library is offering three EndNote workshops. EndNote can help you organize citations, create bibliographies, and store PDFs.  Workshops are FREE and we offer two choices for the iPad or Desktop. Bring your lunch or snacks!

Purpose:  An Immigrant's Story By Wyclef Jean Call Number:  ML 420 .J299 .A3 2012 (You can currently find it on the new book shelf) New York Times Review Publisher's Description :  Multiplatinum musician, producer, and actor Wyclef Jean's revelation-filled memoir recounts his path to fame...from his impoverished childhood in Haiti to the bright lights of the world stage. Son of a pastor and grandson of a Vodou priest, Wyclef Jean was nine years old when his family left the Haiti slums for New York. He lived first in Brooklyn's projects and then Newark, where his father converted a burnt-out funeral home into a house for his family and a church for his congregation. Struggling to fit in, Wyclef made his way by competing in "freestyle" rap battles at school, while singing in his father's choir and learning multiple instruments.   Within a few years, Wyclef catapulted to international renown with the Fugees. Here he details for the first time

Read all about it in the latest Pointer issue, September 19, 2013 (v. 58, iss. 2)!

  The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got that Way By Amanda Ripley Call Number:  LB 43 .R625 2013 Review from the New York Times Publisher's Description :  In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they’ve never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy. What is it like to be a child in these new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time Magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year. Kim, 15, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, 18, exchanges a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, 17, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for a gritty city in Poland. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformatio

Good news from Naxos Music Library! They have teamed up with   Sony Classical to make their entire catalog available for streaming! Naxos Music Library (NML) is the most comprehensive collection of classical music online, and is available through the Library's databases. This collection includes the complete Naxos, Marco Polo, and Dacapo cataloges of more than 85,000 tracks, including classiscal, jazz, world, folk, and Chinese music. Users can also read notes of works being played as well as information on composers and artists. Go here to access the Naxos Music Library collection and choose the music subject category (access is for UWSP faculty, staff and students use only). Need more help? Contact the Reference Desk: By Phone:  715-346-2836 By Email:  librefd@uwsp.edu In Person:  University Library , Reference Desk on Main Floor By Chat: Librarians are available.

Wetland Environments:  a global perspective By James Sandusky Aber, Firooza Pavri & Susan Ward Aber Call Number:  QH 87.3 .A24 2012 Publisher's Description:  Wetlands - swamp, marsh, bayou, tundra and bog - are places that are rarely visited and often misunderstood but they have, in fact, conspicuous roles in the physical, biological and cultural geography of the world. They are intrinsically beautiful environments where one may see the natural and essential values in the interaction of water, soil, vegetation, wildlife, and humans. Wetlands occur at the confluence of unique terrestrial, hydrological and climatic conditions that give rise to some of the most biodiverse regions of the world. They also play vital roles in the cycling and storage of key nutrients, materials and energy through the Earth s system A complete study of wetland environments requires the assessment of their physical and biological attributes, properties and functions of these ecosystems, and t

Getting Physical:  The Rise of Fitness Culture in America By Shelly McKenzie   Call Number:  GV 510.U5 M45 2013 Publisher's Description :  From Charles Atlas to Jane Fonda, the fitness movement has been a driving force in American culture for more than half a century. What started as a means of Cold War preparedness now sees 45 million Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on gym memberships, running shoes, and other fitness-related products. In this first book on the modern history of exercise in America, Shelly McKenzie chronicles the governmental, scientific, commercial, and cultural forces that united—sometimes unintentionally—to make exercise an all-American habit. She tracks the development of a new industry that gentrified exercise and made the pursuit of fitness the hallmark of a middle-class lifestyle. Along the way she scrutinizes a number of widely held beliefs about Americans and their exercise routines, such as the link between diet and exercise and the i

The University Library is pleased to announce that Troy Espe is the new Instructional Materials Center (IMC) assistant. Troy will coordinate the daily operations of the IMC as well as assist patrons using this area.  He will provide support for various library projects, including streaming videos, ebooks, digitization, and graphic creation. Troy was previously the building manager at Steenbock Library at UW-Madison. He attended college at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a degree in journalism, and he recently graduated from UW-Madison with a Master of Arts degree in Library and Information Studies. He and his wife, Megan, enjoy the outdoors. Troy can be reached at his office, Room 319, ext. 4246, or tespe@uwsp.edu.

The Library has upgraded to Ebsco's Academic Search Complete . Complete is a multi-disciplinary database, with full-text for more than 9,000 periodicals, including more than 7,500 peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing for more than 13,000 journals.  Dates of Coverage: 1887-present Updated : Daily Coverage of Subjects : archaeology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, ethnic and multicultural studies, food science, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, music, physics, psychology, religion and theology, women's studies, and other fields. Access : Available through the Library's Homepage   (click on Search@UW tab, or click on "Databases by Subject" link) How do I access through my mobile device or add it as an app? EBSCOhost Databases -- Mobile Default search is  Academic Search Complete  or select "Choose Databases" to search other EBSCO products. Supported devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Bla

Check out our new look and the new books recently added to the Library's Leisure Reading collection in the Main Lobby! An Invisible Thread:   the true story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny By Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski Review from Publisher's Weekly Publisher's Description :  Stopping was never part of the plan . . . She was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan. He was a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler on the street. He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But then something stopped her in her tracks, and she went back. And she continued to go back, again and again. They met up nearly every week for years and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades. Whatever made me notice him on that street corner so many years ago is clearly something that cannot be extinguished, no matter how relentless the forces aligned against it. Some may call it

The last train to Zona Verde : my ultimate African safari By Paul Theroux Call Number:  DT 1536 .T54 2013 Review in the Sunday New York Times Publisher's Description: Following the success of the acclaimed Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and The Great Railway Bazaar, The Last Train to Zona Verde is an ode to the last African journey of the world's most celebrated travel writer. “Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a twenty-two-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself. His odyssey takes him northward from Cape Town, through South Africa and Namibia, then on into Angola, wishing to head farther still until he reaches the end of the

Looking for a unique way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg? Battle Hymns:  The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War By Christian McWhirter Call Number:  ML 3551.4 .M39 2012 Review from the Civil War Monitor Publisher's Description :  Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies, and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed. Drawing on an array of published and archival sources, Christian McWhirter analyzes the myriad ways music influenced popular culture in the years surrounding the war and discusses its deep resonance for both whites and blacks, South and North. Though published songs of the time have long been catalogued and appreciated, McWhirter is the first to explore what Ameri

Big Data:  A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think By Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier   Call Number:  QA 76.9 .D343 M396 2013 Read a review from the New York Times   or learn more on YouTube Publisher's Description:  A revelatory exploration of the hottest trend in technology and the dramatic impact it will have on the economy, science, and society at large. Which paint color is most likely to tell you that a used car is in good shape? How can officials identify the most dangerous New York City manholes before they explode? And how did Google searches predict the spread of the H1N1 flu outbreak? The key to answering these questions, and many more, is big data. “Big data” refers to our burgeoning ability to crunch vast collections of information, analyze it instantly, and draw sometimes profoundly surprising conclusions from it. This emerging science can translate myriad phenomena—from the price of airline tickets to the text o

The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream By Thomas Dyja Call Number:  F 548.52 D95 2013 Review from the Chicago Tribune Publisher's Description :  Though today it can seem as if all American culture comes out of New York and Los Angeles, much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to coast journey included a stop there, and this flow of people and commodities made it America's central clearinghouse, laboratory, and factory. Between the end of World War II and 1960, Mies van der Rohe's glass and steel architecture became the face of corporate America, Ray Kroc's McDonald's changed how we eat, Hugh Hefner unveiled Playboy, and the Chess brothers supercharged rock and roll with Chuck Berry. At the University of Chicago, the atom was split and Western civilization was packaged into the Great Books. Yet even as Chicago led the way in creating mas

Contagious:  Why Things Catch On By Jonah Berger Call Number:  HF 5415.153 .B463 2013 Review from the New York Times Publisher's Description :  If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workpla

It's that time of the semester again for our internationally known EXAM CRAM!!!!!! Monday, May 13th from 7 p.m. - midnight. Prizes, World-Famous-Andy-Announcements, Free Coffee, Free Cookies, Free Fortunes, Quiet Study Areas, Not So Quiet Study Areas, Group Study Areas, Reference Help, Tutoring Help, Staplers, Paper Clips, Citation Help, Copier Help. We will help you CRAM!!!!!!!!!!!

The Kingdom of Rarities By Eric Dinerstein   Call Number:  QL 82 .D56 2013 Review from Science News Publisher's Description :  When you look out your window, why are you so much more likely to see a robin or a sparrow than a Kirtland’s warbler or a California condor? In other words, why are some plants and animals rare and others common?  Dinerstein , Lead Scientist and Vice President of Conservation Science at World Wildlife Fund-US, has spent three decades studying and working to protect rare species around the globe, particularly tigers, rhinoceroses, and elephants. In this book, he offers an ode to some of the rarest species on the planet. As he shares the stories of various species and his treks to the ends of the earth to catch a glimpse of them, he gives readers a deep appreciation for these animals, their ecological importance, and the urgent need for their conservation. While it’s easy to be carried away by Dinerstein ’s adventures and his beautiful prose, The K

Another sleepless weekend of Trivia 44 is about to happen for at least two members of our library staff. 430 questions in 54 hours, and they are gearing up for the challenge. We asked them a few questions to see how they’ve done in the past, and if their library skills or resources have ever come in handy. Can you guess who they are?   What is the name of your team?  Bongwater Cretins from Hell; Shipoopi on Rice How long have you been playing?  About 10 years; 4 years under Shipoopi name and 3 under another name. How many people are on your team? About 30; 20   Where has your team ranked?  Best so far, 19 th place; 72 nd place in 2010 was our best year.   Do you ever use any library resources to answer questions?  Not as often as I’d like; No.   What food or drink keeps you going?  Jaeger Bombs & lots of coffee; Cheetos, pizza and soda.    Do you take shifts with people?  We don’t have a formal system, but it usually just works out; We always have ni