UWSP Libraries

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

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!

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

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

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

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! 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

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!

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)

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

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