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Showing posts from 2015

Book of the Week: Loon Lore by Bill Sullivan

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Loon Lore: in Poetry and Prose By Bill Sullivan Call Number:  PS3569.U35936 L66 2015  Publisher's Description:  The elusive loon—here one moment, gone the next—shows the limits of what we can grasp, and the temporary nature of what is   In Loon Lore: In Poetry and Prose , Bill Sullivan explores his admiration for and attachment to the common loon, the ancient aquatic bird that migrates from the northern lakes of New England and beyond to wintering sites along the coast of Rhode Island, bringing a taste of wilderness and a sense of wonderment and delight to the dark days of winter. The poems consider the loon’s past, present, and future in New England, recognizing that their future is ours as well. Interspersed prose reflections discuss native oral tales and myth, the ice age, Thoreau and wilderness, oil spills, bird migrations, concepts of time, and loon survival given the ecological challenges of our day. Illustrator Leslie Tryon has rend

Book of the Week: One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds By Raymond Baker

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One Islam, M any Muslim W orlds : S pirituality, I dentity, and R esistance A cross Islamic L ands By Raymond William Baker Call Number:  BP 161.3 B344 2015 Review from the journal Foreign Affairs Publisher's Description:   By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah , particularly its Arab heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet, precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability, Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American, homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and powerful transnational force and what implicat

EXAM CRAM TIME! Join the fun while you study at the Library!

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It's that time of year again.... Need help with citations? A statistic? Help with a paper or final exam?  The Library and Tutoring Learning Center will be here on Tuesday, December 15 from 5:00 pm - midnight to help you! We will also have free coffee, including free fair trade coffee samples from the Students for Sustainability, cookies, fruit, stress release give aways, and other surprises! This year we also have Athena the therapy dog! She will be here for part of exam cram with her owner, Prof. Terese Barta from Biology :-) TUE DEC 15 - Library Lobby & IMC (3rd flr) 5 - MIDNIGHT FREE COFFEE, COOKIES, FRUIT and more! Good luck with studying from all of us at the Learning Resource Center!

Book of the Week: London Fog by Christine L. Corton

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London Fog:  the Biography By Christine L. Corton Call Number:  QC 929 .F7 C57 2015 Review from The Guardian Publisher's Description : In popular imagination, London is a city of fog. The classic London fogs, the thick yellow “pea-soupers,” were born in the industrial age of the early nineteenth century. The first globally notorious instance of air pollution, they remained a constant feature of cold, windless winter days until clean air legislation in the 1960s brought about their demise. Christine L. Corton tells the story of these epic London fogs, their dangers and beauty, and their lasting effects on our culture and imagination. As the city grew, smoke from millions of domestic fires, combined with industrial emissions and naturally occurring mists, seeped into homes, shops, and public buildings in dark yellow clouds of water droplets, soot, and sulphur dioxide. The fogs were sometimes so thick that people could not see their own feet. By the time Lond

Library Labs Workshop - Unmasking the Predatory Journal: What Faculty Need to Know

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Please join us for our next Library Labs workshop! Description:  A hands-on, application based workshop that will teach faculty/instructors what predatory journals are, why they should be avoided, and how to identify one.    Intended Audience:  Faculty/Teaching Staff  Date & Time:  Wednesday , Dec. 2, 2015 at noon - 1:00 p.m. Location:  LRC 107 Presenter:   Nerissa Nelson, Outreach Librarian, and Jennifer Huffman, Serials  Librarian.    The workshop is free, but we would like you to  register here.   We hope to see you there!

Library Labs Workshop: Library Resources in D2L

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Please join us for our next Library Labs workshop! Description: Instructors will learn how to seamlessly incorporate library resources into D2L; streaming videos, ebooks, articles, databases, library instruction tutorials and more! Intended Audience:  Faculty/Teaching Staff  Date & Time:   Thursday, November 19, 2015 at noon - 1:00 p.m. Location:  LRC 107 Presenter:   Terri Muraski, Systems Librarian, and Mindy King, Emerging Technologies Librarian  The workshop is free, but we would like you to  register here.   We hope to see you there!

Honoring our veterans

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25th anniversary of the Vets 550 Club on campus Oct. 18, 1980. UWSP Archives. Today we honor all U.S. military veterans who have served. The transition from military to civilian life can be difficult, and starting college is frequently a big adjustment for many, including veterans. The University Library is a place where we support veterans through our physical and virtual resources. Some of the services and resources we offer include the following: Books of interest The Library has many books about veterans. You can browse our collection by visiting the following call number range areas (by subject) in the Library. UB356 – UB369.5  services provided for veterans in terms of military administration, and  WWII, D811 Korean War: DS921.6 Vietnam War: DS559.5                Iraq War: DS79.757 A recent acquisition of ours is this title, “ For love of country: what our veterans can teach us about citizenship, heroism, and sacrifice,” Call number DS79.766.A1

Film of the Week: Cancer: the Emperor of All Maladies

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Cancer : the Emperor of All Maladies (DVD)  Directed by Barak Goodman .  Ken Burns, executive producer. Call Number:  IMC RC275 .C36 2015 PBS site for Educators Review from the New York Times Description from PBS :    Cancer: the Emperor of all Maladies matches the epic scale of the disease, reshaping the way the public sees cancer and stripping away some of the fear and misunderstanding that has long surrounded it. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, paternalism and misperception.   Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective and a biographer’s passion. The series artfully weaves three different films in one: a riveting history documentary; an engrossing and intimate vérité film; and a scientific and investigative report.  Based on the book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee

Book of the Week: 1944 by Jay Winik

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1944 : FDR and the year that changed history By Jay Winik Call Number:  D769 .W57 2015 Boston Globe Review Publisher's Description :   New York Times bestselling author Jay Winik brings to life in gripping detail the year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put more pressure than any other on an ailing yet determined President Roosevelt. It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler’s waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies—but with a fateful cost. Now, in a superbly told story, Jay Winik, the acclaimed author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval , captures the epic images and extraordinary history as never before. 1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasio

Library Labs Workshop - Ancestry Database

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Description: Did grandma really get married in Las Vegas? When did my ancestors first set foot in the U.S.? When and where did they first settle in Wisconsin? Am I really a distant cousin of crazy Bill? If you are curious about aspects of your family's past and have never before used our Ancestry (Library Edition) database, come to this introductory session. Bring with you the names, dates, places of birth, marriage, and death of some of your ancestors (or older living relatives), and find out whether you can discover anything new about them or track their (and thus your) roots further back.  Intended Audience:  Faculty/Staff and Students  Date & Time:   Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Location:  LRC 316 Presenter:  Axel Schmetzke, Coordinator of Instruction The workshop is free, but we would like you to  register here.   We hope to see you there!

Celebrating Open Access Week - October 19 - 15

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Libraries around the world will be celebrating Open Access Week. Some of you may be asking, what is open access? Below we have some resources that define and highlight what it is.  Check out the Library's subject guide on Scholarly Communication and Open Access  Resources, videos and more from Open Access Week   A good overview of Open Access week and definition from SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) "Open Access Week, a global event now entering its eighth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research. “Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to tr

Book of the Week: Betting the Farm on a Drought by Seamus McGraw

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Betting the farm on a drought : stories from the front lines of climate change By Seamus McGraw Call number:  QC903.2.U6 M34 2015 Read a Review from the Sierra Magazine Publisher's Description :  Climate change has become one of the most polarizing issues of our time. Extremists on the left regularly issue hyperbolic jeremiads about the impending destruction of the environment, while extremists on the right counter with crass, tortured denials. But out in the vast middle are ordinary people dealing with stronger storms and more intense droughts than they’ve ever known. This middle ground is the focus of Betting the Farm on a Drought , a lively, thought-provoking book that lays out the whole story of climate change—the science, the math, and most importantly, the human stories of people fighting both the climate and their own deeply held beliefs to find creative solutions to a host of environmental challenges. Seamus McGraw takes us on a trip along Ameri

Featured student and recent UWSP graduate: Robert Doerr

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We have a special student feature this month - Robert Doerr has been volunteering his time to work on a special project in our Periodicals Department. The Library is grateful for all of the work he has done and we're happy to have him profiled here and talk about the project he has been working on and his future plans since he recently graduated.  As a not so side note, which he did not mention below, Robert has a short film that was selected as one of the "Shorts" and will be screened in November at the Central Wisconsin Film Festival.  Name:  Robert Doerr Hometown:  Eagle River, WI Degree : B.A. in Music with a minor in Communication Highlight of volunteering in the Library:   I’ve been exposed to many fascinating resources in my work at the University Library. I've come across many unusual and unique publications while working on the library’s microfilm collection, and seeing books and magazines that are hundreds of years old has been a real highl

New Trial - Digital Concert Hall

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We are happy to offer a new trial database to the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall. Description: This database offers video streams of classical music concerts to your tablet, smartphone, smartTV, or PC. The sound quality is similar to that of a CD and the picture quality is similar to HD television. The Digital Concert Hall also documents almost in its entirety the artistic work of the Berliner Philharmoniker and its musical partners – from principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle to famous guest conductors and soloists. Access: Access the database here from the Library Homepage , under the “New/Trial Databases” (Digital Concert Hall) on the right hand side. Registration and Use: You will be prompted to register the first time you access a concert, and you must do this from a campus computer. After that, you can access this database off campus, but it will ask that you sign in. Let us know if you have any questions or need help .

October is American Archives Month!

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October is American Archives Month! During the month of October, the Society of American Archivists celebrates and reminds the public that special items, artifacts, historical documents, images, and more are important to you and are being preserved, cataloged, cared for, and made accessible by archivists. The UWSP campus is fortunate to house the Nelis R. Kampenga  University Archives within the University Library. It holds three separate but complementary collections: University records Portage County Historical Society  collections Wisconsin Historical Society -  Area Research Center Network  collections We encourage faculty, staff, students, and the public to visit and use the Archives. Most of the materials in the Archives are accessible to patrons with legitimate research interests without restrictions. The University Archives is the cultural home of our institution. It's a great place to visit and get "lost" in the history of our campus by p

Library Labs - Learn about our new statistical database - DataPlanet

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Description: Learn how to find and evaluate statistical information using the Library's new database, DataPlanet. Intended Audience:  Students and Faculty/Staff (and SBE approved event) Date & Time:   Tuesday,  October 13, 2015 at 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Location:  LRC 316 Presenter:  Mindy King, Emerging Technology Librarian The workshop is free, but we would like you to  register here.   We hope to see you there!

A Tribute to Bethany Rae Kirk

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Bethany R. Kirk, 22, loved working at the University Library in the Periodicals Dept., and did so for almost two years. We sadly learned that she died on Monday, October 5, with family at her side, after a courageous battle with ovarian cancer. Bethany graduated from Mondovi High School in Mondovi, WI in 2011, and she was enrolled at UWSP studying Health Care Administration. Prior to coming to UWSP, she was a transfer student from UW-Baraboo.  She also worked at that library. She leaves the Library with memories of laughter, grace, optimism, empathy, bravery and courage. As one of her supervisors said, “Bethany has a place among an elite top group.” Her mantra and famous saying was always, “She-ra Power!” We were all privileged to work with Bethany and to know her. She will be missed. You may read her obituary here. SHE-RA POWER! (here's to you, Bethany)

Book of the Week: How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt

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How Music Got Free: the End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy By Stephen Witt Call Number:  ML3790 .W59 2015 Review of the book in the New York Times Publisher's Description:  How Music Got Free is a riveting story of obsession, music, crime, and money, featuring visionaries and criminals, moguls and tech-savvy teenagers. It’s about the greatest pirate in history, the most powerful executive in the music business, a revolutionary invention and an illegal website four times the size of the iTunes Music Store. Journalist Stephen Witt traces the secret history of digital music piracy, from the German audio engineers who invented the mp3, to a North Carolina compact-disc manufacturing plant where factory worker Dell Glover leaked nearly two thousand albums over the course of a decade, to the high-rises of midtown Manhattan where music executive Doug Morris cornered the global market on rap, and, finally, into the darkest recesses o

New way to access digital magazines through Flipster - trial database

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University Library has a trial to Flipster ™ A New Way to Access Digital Magazines ~ The One-Stop-Shop for Digital Magazines Allows Library Patrons to Browse the Latest Issues of the Most Sought After Magazines ~ The University Library now has a trial access to digital magazines using Flipster ™ from EBSCO. Flipster is a next-generation digital magazine service that allows people to browse the latest issues of high quality digital versions of popular magazines. To access the 30-day trial, go to our Trials page (right hand side)  Magazines, such as ·            Time ·          Business Week ·          Comsopolitan ·          Forbes ·          AppleMagazine ·          Popular Science ·          Sports Illustrated ·          Popular Mechanics ·          Consumer Reports ·          People   can be downloaded to iPads or iPad Minis via a native app for offline reading anytime anywhere. Flipster offers an easy, browseable reading exper

Celebrating Banned Books - 9/27 - 10/3

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Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read.  The week brings together librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. Support Censored Comics   The ALA's  Office for Intellectual Freedom  (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. We compile lists of challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools.  The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014 include: 1)       The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , by Sherman Alexie Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying” 2)