Libraries: Sparking Wisconsin Ideas

Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Digital Collection

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:28:01 -0500

Whether you’re interested in Wisconsin geology and geography, or just love the beauty of our local landscapes, the treasures in the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey’s digital collections are well worth a look.

The UW Digital Collections Center has been working for several years with students from the School of Library and Information Studies and Carol McCartney at the WGNHS to digitize parts of the vast collection. Over 4,000 black and white photos taken by field geologists between 1910 and 1935 are currently accessible online. These include not only pictures of rock formations and landscapes, but of local workers, as well as the field geologists and their families. WGNHS Bulletins and stunning hydrographic maps are also great for browsing and research alike.

Currently, the project is hard at work digitizing the notebooks of geologist, author, and native son Charles Van Hise.

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EcoNatRes.WGNHS

Alumni & The Library

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:46:00 -0500

Graduated, but not done learning? The Wisconsin Alumni Association can help with that. Membership in WAA gives you access to online library services that will keep you reading and exploring all through life:

ProQuest Reseach Library offers an index of more than 2,000 periodicals, both academic and general interest, and covering nearly all areas of interest, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, health, and education. Over half of these journals are available in full text, so instant gratification can be yours!

Business your thing? ProQuest/ABI Inform may be more your style. It contains information from thousands of journals and magazines that focus on business issues and conditions (examples include Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune).

If you still can’t find exactly what you need or desire, the Ask a Reference Librarian service is the way to go. Association members have access to a real, live UW-Madison librarian via e-mail who can help locate hard-to-find content, and can even copy and e-mail a limited number of print articles from the library’s collection.

More information and resources for alumni are available here: http://www.uwalumni.com/home/waamembers/libraryaccess/libraryaccess.aspx.

Happy Reading!

Hard at Work

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:36:58 -0500

Apologies if we’ve been a little spacey with our postings! Currently, we’re hard at work making final arrangements for and installing our “Libraries: Sparking Wisconsin Ideas” exhibit in the lobby of Memorial Library. There are two display cabinets up with two more on the way this Friday, so come by to check them out and celebrate the Year of the Wisconsin Idea.

Before (a sad empty case).

After (it looks prettier in person, promise!)

Office of the Women's Studies Librarian

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:16:47 -0500

The University of Wisconsin is chocked full of experts, and the halls of Memorial Library here on campus are no exception. Tucked away on the fourth floor is the Office of the UW System Women’s Studies Librarian. Founded in 1977 by librarians and scholars from throughout the UW System, today the office continues to fulfill its mission to assist students, faculty, librarians, and administrators all over the state in navigating a wealth of interdisciplinary resources on women and gender.

The Office is headed by distinguished academic librarian Phyllis Holman Weisbard and staffed by senior editor JoAnne Lehman, editor Linda Fain, office operations associate Heather Shimon, and three student assistants: Beth Hwang, Michelle Preston, and Kelsey Wallner - quite an awesome group of women!

It’s a unique model: an entire office dedicated to the research, collection, and location of materials around a broad and diverse subject, serving the entire university system!

As if that’s not enough, the office also publishes three periodicals that alert students and faculty across Wisconsin to important new books, articles, videos, and web-based material on women and gender studies. The periodicals — reviewing journal Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources, contents publication Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents, and subject-arranged and indexed bibliography New Books on Women, Gender, and Feminism — are distributed free to libraries and gender/women’s studies departments throughout the UW System and by paid subscription to others. WAVE: Women’s Audiovisuals in English, a database of video information, is another office project.

Need help? Phyllis offers library research guidance to individuals and groups in person and via an extensive website at http://womenst.library.wisc.edu/.

Phyllis Holman Weisbard (in pink) with the staff of the American Information Resource Center in Kolkata, during a 2003 trip to India as a visiting speaker (funded by the American Centers, U.S. State Department)

More pictures here: http://womenst.library.wisc.edu/staffpictures.htm

Professor Chinn Talks Money

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:50:49 -0500

Another UW-Madison professor with a resume too long to do justice has a book out recently: Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs.

“Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery” is a clear and readable account of how we got into an economic mess and what we’ll need to do to get out again. Together with Professor Jeffry A. Frieden of Harvard University, Professor Chinn analyzes the causes and consequences of the crisis in terms of both politics and economics, in terms everyone can understand.

For those curious about our ‘Great Recession’ and looking for smart, straightforward explanations of complex causes, this is the book for you. Check it out at UW-Madison and Madison Public Libraries.

Professor Chinn’s savvy can also be found on his blog, Econbrowser: http://www.econbrowser.com/

Happy Reading!

Coming Soon: An Exhibit!!!

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:14:00 -0500

Beginning the first week of April, in celebration of National Library Week (8^th-14^th), Memorial Library will be featuring the “Libraries: Sparking Wisconsin Ideas” exhibit in the lobby! Part of the Year of the Wisconsin Idea, the exhibit will highlight the outreach efforts of libraries across campus with items from their collections. The exhibit is organized by the General Library System administration department with help from campus library staff.

Ready for a sneak peak?

The librarians at the Wisconsin’s Water Library have graciously volunteered books and crafts from their children’s collection that will make you miss story time.

Robinson Map Library will feature pieces from their decades of aerial photographs of the Wisconsin landscape.

The items from Wendt Library’s patent collection highlight a very important aspect of Wisconsin’s college experience and economy.

Parallel Press and Silver Buckle Press in Memorial Library are gathering features from their collections of printed works that will bring out your creative side.

And much more!

A rare collection of the oldest aerial photos of the state of Wisconsin, taken by the USDA from 1937-1941 and now stored at the Arthur H. Robinson Map Library in Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Selections will be featured in the exhibit. (Photo courtesy of University Communications)

Interlibrary Loan: You Get What You Need

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:17:26 -0500

Can’t find what you need in the UW-Madison Library collections? Despair not! Interlibrary Loan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison allows us to share resources with UW System schools and local libraries throughout the state, maximizing the materials available to curious Wisconsinites.

Our strategic partnerships with Wisconsin libraries and institutions help us to meet the different research needs of Wisconsin communities while at the same time acquiring materials for our local researchers. And we’re good at it: UW-Madison Libraries are ranked tops year after year for their ability to meet the needs of their own faculty, students, and staff here on campus and more distant inquiring minds statewide.

So, want something you don’t have? Share! Turns out those lessons from preschool still apply…

Troy Reeves is Listening

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:38:00 -0500

The Wisconsin Idea is a big one, and while it means many things to many people, a core principle is sharing our campus expertise with the larger Wisconsin community. Since taking over as Oral History Program lead in June 2007, Troy Reeves has done just that.

The Oral History Project at UW-Madison got its start in 1971 interviewing emeritus professors about their research. In the past 40 years the goals of the program have expanded considerably: faculty, staff, students, and everyone else on campus have a story to tell. Those stories now amount to over 4,000 hours of recorded interviews, and growing!

Collections within the program include:

The U.S. Forest Products Lab Centennial Collection – documents the experiences of current and former employees to balance healthy forests with forest-based economies

The Arboretum Collection – encompassing interviews related to the Arboretum, including Civilian Conservation Corps members who worked there in the 1930s

Women in Science and Engineering – records the efforts of women working in science, engineering, mathematics, and medical fields beginning in the 1920s

Badger Village – recalls the experiences of those who lived in the Badger Village, where married veterans and their families were housed from 1946 to 1951

UW-Madison Teaching Assistants Association Strike of 1970 – preserves the experiences of participants and onlookers in the contentious political clash on campus

The Supplementary Tape Collection – collects and preserves recordings of all types related to the UW-Madison and individuals within it

In 2010, The Oral History Program marked the 40^th anniversary of the Sterling Hall bombing with a booth in Memorial Library where Wisconsinites could share their memories of the traumatic day and its aftermath. Excerpts of these interviews are available to anyone online: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/UW/UW-idx?type=browse&scope=UW.SterlingBomb

Troy is a multi-tasker: along with the UW Archives Oral History Program, he leads the campus and community LGBT Oral History Project. He also uses his experience and expertise to train folks at oral history workshops held throughout the state as part of history and library conferences, and leads annual Wisconsin Oral History Day colloquiums—held in Madison, Eau Claire, and Milwaukee.

If you’re looking for a living, breathing example of the Wisconsin Idea in action, Troy’s your man!

http://archives.library.wisc.edu/oral-history/

http://lgbt.wisc.edu/academics/ohp.php

Professor Richard Davidson on Changing Your Brain

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:33:01 -0500

That Professor Richard Davidson found time to write a book at all is a feat in itself: his titles at UW-Madison include the William James & Vilas Professor of Psychology, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, and Director of the Laboratory for Effective Neuroscience. But with the help of science journalist Sharon Begley, “The Emotional Life of Your Brain” was published this month by Penguin to rave reviews. In it, Davidson explores the six emotional ‘styles’ that make up each individual’s personality, and explores ways we can change our brains and how they (and we) meet life’s challenges. This concept of neuroplasticity holds hope not only for self-help, but for the treatment of mental illnesses from depression to autism to attention deficit disorder.

Davidson is also an editor of “The Mind’s Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation,” as well as the author of scores of scientific articles.

Check out his website for more about the book and for video of Davidson speaking about his research:

http://richardjdavidson.com/

Technician Michael Anderle (left with eyeglasses) and co-principal investigators Richard J. Davidson (center wearing jacket) and Antoine Lutz (right) prepare Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard for a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) test at the MRI facility in the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (photo by Jeff Miller and courtesy of UW Communications).

UW Digital Collections Center

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 09:49:44 -0600

Want something beautiful? Rare? Fascinating? Chances are the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center has something to delight your aesthetic and intellectual senses.

Founded in 2000, the UWDCC is driven by the principle that the boundaries of the University are the boundaries of the State. Since then, they have created and offered access to digital resources to support the teaching, research, and curiosity of Wisconsinites far and wide.

The UWDCC provides access to rare and fragile materials of broad research value, as well as lesson plans for educators. They also work with individuals throughout the UW System and Wisconsin Public Libraries to preserve unique pieces that document the history of the University of Wisconsin, and Wisconsin as a whole. And it’s not just text. The Digital Collections Center offers thousands of striking images and even sound recordings.

Most importantly, these resources are free and publicly accessible online! The UWDCC strongly encourages Wisconsinites to poke around, explore, share, teach, and of course, enjoy.

http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/

Pat Tuchscherer, coordinator of reformatting for the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center (UWDCC), works in a darkened room in Memorial Library, scanning books from the Kohler Art Library to be made available online. The digital resources include books, journal series and manuscript collections; photographic images; maps; fine art prints; posters; audio; and video. (Photo courtesy of UW Communications)

Deborah Blum...a Dangerous Lady

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:35:00 -0600

Pulitzer Prize winning science writer and UW-Madison journalism professor Deborah Blum could be considered a very dangerous woman. Her latest book, “The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York” is filled with things that can kill you, from the exotic (radium and thallium) to the everyday (carbon monoxide), to three different types of alcohol which are less than suitable for ingestion. But she uses her powers for good rather than evil, weaving these varied lethal substances into the story of how Charles Norris and his colleagues at the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office fought political corruption, pushed the boundaries of medical science, and caught murderers. Not a bad day job.

Blum is also the author of “Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection,” and “Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life after Death,” as well as articles for The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Slate.

Ready to read? Her books are available at Madison Public Libraries and UW-Madison Libraries:

http://madcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=blum%2C%20deborah&SL=None&Search_Code=NAME_&CNT=50&PID=dqsS516ZOVrkMHsl3gBHH6qWFSmcw&BROWSE=2&HC=8&SID=3

Links to her other writing can be found on her website:

http://deborahblum.com/Writing.html

Enjoy (and keep an eye on what goes into your coffee)!

(The Lady herself, courtesy of PLos Blogs)

Lego® League at Steenbock Library

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:00:00 -0600

Steenbock Library hosted a research night for 4-7^th grade students and coaches in the BadgerBOTS FIRST® Lego® League program the evening of October 13^th, 2011. The sixteen students who attended were from nine different Madison area public and private elementary and middle schools. This research night at the library is a demonstrable example of “The Wisconsin Idea,” bringing the educational riches of the University to state residents, who in this case, were K-12 schoolchildren.

FIRST® Lego® League is a program that engages teams of students to work together as robot builders, programmers and problem solvers and is designed to get them excited about science and technology. FIRST® stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Students in this program are challenged to research and develop a solution to a real-world scientific problem. This year’s challenge question is: Can FIRST® LEGO® League teams improve the quality of food by finding ways to prevent food contamination? Student teams will present the solution to the scientific problem they explored at a tournament in November. They will also build and program an autonomous robot for another arm of the tournament.

Steenbock librarian, Barb Hamel, has been involved in this program in the past as a coach and mentor. Because this year’s challenge theme is so closely aligned with Steenbock Library’s collection scope she invited the teams for a research night. Barb Sisolak pulled together some age-appropriate resources, including some from University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension, for a Lego League tab on the library’s Food Safety Research Guide.

Sixteen students from three separate teams visited the library. In addition to simply experiencing what a university science library is like, they learned about a scientist who impacted the world (Harry Steenbock) and then used the library’s resources to work on their own food safety topics.

Research night at Steenbock Library garnered much positive feedback from students and coaches both in person and in email messages like these:

“Spending time in your library and having the 
resources you prepared, as well as your assistance 
made a huge difference for our team. We came in 
with little direction or vision for our research and
 left with a plan and some great info.  
The experience was invaluable!!!!”

“Thanks for making the library available for the teams 
and for all the help you provided.  I feel it was definitely 
a success for our team as we got some great info 
and now have some great leads for more info.”