Archive for July, 2007

A Bit of Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Published by kyle on July 27, 2007 in around the world. 0 Comments

You know when it’s pouring cats and dogs and you just want to curl up in bed? Unfortunately, it’s not the weekend and we can’t do that. On the other hand, when you need a little pick-me-up, we here at the Library have just the thing for a break from the harsh reality of the (much needed) rain.

In case you’ve missed out of the lolcat revolution and all things cute, check out Cute Overload and I Can Has Cheezburger?. There’s just something about furry little animals that make the world seem like an OK place to be. Some are even library-related, as seen in the picture from I Can Has Cheezburger? below.

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moar funny pictures

Librarians have also joined in the fun with lolbrarians. Just watch out, there’s some bizarre library humor (and a few swear words here and there) - you may need to be a librarian to understand it.

New Stuff Tuesday - July 24

Published by kyle on July 24, 2007 in new stuff tuesdays. 0 Comments

Literary Essays on Ambivalent US Latino/a Identity

Killing Spanish:
Literary Essays on Ambivalent US Latino/a Identity
by Lyn Di Iorio Sandín
PS153 .H56 S36 2004
New Book Island, 2nd floor

Browsing the New Book Island, this book instantly grabbed my attention, as I studied Spanish language and literature for seven years. Sandín, a professor at the City College at the City University of New York, delves in the question of the US Latino/a identity through the examination of several contemporary authors, such as Edward Rivera, Cristina García and others. She conjectures that the protagonists struggle between their present assimilation to American culture and their past origins. The ties to the homeland take shape in the other characters, with the protagonist embodying the American way of life. The novels in question handle the situation by killing the “Spanish” counterpart, which sheds light on the title. It’s definitely a scholarly work, but an interesting subject nonetheless.

I Know I Don’t Turn Down Free Music

Published by kyle on July 23, 2007 in online @ the library. 0 Comments

Alexander Street Press

Who doesn’t like free stuff? If you’re a fan of classical music, then you’ll love free weekly music downloads from Alexander Street Press. It’s like the Single of the Week on iTunes - they select a work from their Classical Music Library each week that is available to everyone to download for free. You can even sign up for an e-mail alert to remind you to go download the new stuff. Not bad, eh?

Just a heads up - we subscribe to several of ASP’s electronic offerings, such as North American Women’s Letters and Diaries and Black Drama, but not the Classical Music Library - that means you won’t be able to search/browse for other music. But enjoy the free music!

New Stuff Tuesday - July 17

Published by kyle on July 17, 2007 in new stuff tuesdays. 0 Comments

Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball

Juicing the Game
Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball
MCN Bry (Non-Fiction)
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor

We’ll keep the baseball theme for New Stuff Tuesdays going this week with a selection from the McNaughton Collection. Juicing the Game takes the reader through the history of the ‘Juiced Era,’ which began after the 1994 strike and changed the face of baseball forever. Bryant, a sports writer for the Boston Globe, doesn’t just focus on the players that have delved into performance-enhancing drugs, but also looks at the leadership of baseball to find out how was actually known during the time of the abuse. In the end, the author interviews all levels of involved individuals, from commissioners down to the players. Might be interesting to read while watching the possible event of Bonds surpassing Aaron on the all-time home run list.

United State Botanic Garden

Published by davisk on July 16, 2007 in info.gov. 2 Comments

A Botanic Garden for the Nation

Summer is here and the flowers are in full bloom. From your back yard to well-kept neighborhood parks, nature brings life to the world once again with colorful flowers. During this warm and sunny time of the year, flowers remind us to take some time from our busy lives and enjoy nature in all of its glory.

The United States Botanic Garden, located in Washington, D.C., provides a unique opportunity for people to visit and view a wide variety of beautiful and rare flowers and plants. This book provides readers with a thorough history of the national gardens formation and purpose, as well as vivid photographs and detailed descriptions of each plant. Check this book out and you’ll be in awe of the beautiful and colorful plants nature offers us! And perhaps you’ll be inspired to create your own botanical garden in your own back yard (or at least visit the U.S. Botanic Garden the next time you’re on vacation)!

Government Printing Office logo

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

WorldWideScience.org: Global gateway to science information

Published by Barbara on July 12, 2007 in around the world and info.gov. 0 Comments

Several countries (U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands) have cooperated to launch WorldWideScience.org, a global gateway to science information. It will provide searching of national science portals not easily searched using popular commercial search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Included is Science.gov, the United States Government’s “gateway to over 50 million pages of authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies, including research and development results.”

Sometimes full content is available through this new resource, but not always. Citations in search results may give you a link for purchasing articles. UW-Whitewater users: Please check the journals against your University Library’s Journal Holdings List to see if we already provide you with access to the full-text of articles cited! If not, we may be able to obtain a copy of an article through interlibrary loan.

For example, a search on branes will include the citation below:

Article title: Inflating branes inside hyper-spherically symmetric defects
Author: Brihaye, Y. Delsate, T
Bibliographic Details: 2007, VOL 24; NUMB 5, pages 1279-1292
Journal title: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM GRAVITY
Country: (United Kingdom)

Clicking on this title displays a message that the article is available for purchase through the British Library. But checking this journal in our Journal Holdings List would show that UW-Whitewater students and staff have access to this article’s full text online through the Institute of Physics Electronic Journals subscription.

Government Printing Office logo

The University Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

New Stuff Tuesday - July 10

Published by hafermak on July 10, 2007 in new stuff tuesdays. 0 Comments

Attention Brewers Fans!

Harvey's Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers

Harvey’s Wallbangers:
The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers
Center GV 863 .W62 M5 2007 DVD
New Book Island, 2nd floor

With the All-Star break upon us, and Wednesday night void of games, how are you going to cure your need for baseball? You can watch Harvey’s Wallbangers! That’s right – the often-advertised look at the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers is now ready for circulation. If you’re as excited about this season as I am, you’ll want to learn more about the history of baseball in Milwaukee.

A 2-DVD set, Harvey’s Wallbangers, introduces the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers and how these “colorful cast of characters” got to the World Series. See then and now interviews with former players such as Robin Yount, Jim Gantner, and Gorman Thomas. Listen as Bob Uecker narrates a story that starts with the 1978 Brewers and follows the ups and downs of a team that would eventually compete in the World Series. Complete with on-the-field and off-the-field clips, check this item out and travel back in time to the days when everyone kind of looked like Turnbow and Bratwurst was something you ate at a game, not cheered for.

Whatcha reading?

Published by kyle on July 9, 2007 in whatcha reading?. 1 Comment

When I went to Denver for a conference last month, a person that I met there recommended that I read The Time Traveler’s Wife. It just so happened that we were at the Tattered Cover, one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, so I decided to pick up a copy to read.

The title of this book does give a bit away, as it tells the story of Henry, the time traveler, and his wife, Claire. He could disappear at any time for any amount of time and be transported into the past or on rare occasions, the future. At one point, his travels take him to the year 1977, in which he meets a six year-old girl named Claire. The novel develops through time as the lives of Henry and Claire progress at different rates until they crossed paths in 1991. Although Claire knows all about Henry, he has no idea about her, as these events hadn’t yet occurred.

I know it sounds kind of bizarre and borderline science fiction, but it’s actually a great well-written love story between a ‘normal’ woman and a ‘chronologically-impaired’ man. If you’ve read this, share your thoughts. If you’d like to read it, the UW system has several copies available to check out.

Library Games

Published by kyle on July 8, 2007 in online @ the library. 0 Comments

Everyone has seen those online Orbitz ads disguised as games - you know the ones where you have hit a home run or throw a football at a target? I have to say that I do occasionally play them (sometimes longer than I’d like to admit). It’s all in the name of promoting their product or service. Well, database vendors are no exception. Wiley Interscience has developed a few fun games to play that help to get their products out there. First, there’s Ms. Stackman, where as the Librarian, you must move around the library to help patrons get to computers before they get you. Try it, it’s not as easy as it sounds. If you figure it out, let me know how you did it. Then there’s Stack Attack, which is kind of like Tetris, only with the titles like Elements of Information Theory and From Genes to Genomes as your building blocks. My best score is 312. Can you beat it?

Ms. Stackman and Stack Attack from Wiley Interscience

New(er) Stuff Tuesday - July 3

Published by kyle on July 3, 2007 in new stuff tuesdays and online @ the library. 0 Comments

New(er) Stuff Tuesday? Well, yes. The reason that today it’s new(er) instead of new is because I’m featuring Global Market Information Database. Global Market Information Database (GMID), at first glance, is new to the Library’s electronic offerings, but it is really a reincarnation of Market Research Monitor. The newly revamped GMID contains over three million demographic, economic and marketing statistics for over two hundred countries back from 1977. Furthermore, we now have access to country profiles and consumer market sizes for many products across over fifty countries. All of this extra content will very nicely supplement the consumer reports previously available in Market Research Monitor that have been rolled into GMID.

Global Market Information Database from Euromonitor