Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Looking for Accurate Health Information?

Published
by
Susan
on April 30, 2009
in around the library, around the world and info.gov
. 1 Comment

There’s a lot of health information online. Unfortunately, it’s not all accurate. If you haven’t checked out the consumer health Web site MedlinePlus sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, you should. It’s terrific. MedlinePlus has up-to-date health information with every topic being reviewed by health professionals at least every 6-months for accuracy. The drug information is very extensive, and new drugs are being added all the time. A quick search in the search box will yield results from pre-evaluated health Web sites. It’s much better than using Google and then taking your chances on accuracy.

Some other great health Web sites for health information include: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), MayoClinic.com, Lab Tests Online, and FamilyDoctor.org.

If you need health information beyond what the consumer health Web sites contain, the library has a list of Medicine Databases. You might also want to search the library catalog for books and government documents on health topics. Because health information changes over time, use the “Quick Limit” to search for materials published since 2005.

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!

Swine Flu, aka H1N1 influenza

Published
by
Barbara
on April 30, 2009
in around the world and info.gov
. 0 Comments

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve been hearing about the swine flu invasion. You can keep updated on it with the Internet, TV, radio, or newspapers. Some helpful web sites are:

Get tips on what to do in “H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) and You. Questions & Answers from the Centers for Disease Control:

What should I do to keep from getting the flu?
First and most important: wash your hands. Try to stay in good general health. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food. Try not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus. Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

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!

About Video Games: New Resources

Published
by
Barbara
on April 29, 2009
in around the library
. 0 Comments

If you are interested in video games (not just playing them, but designing them or learning about their impact), the Library has books for you!

Art of the Video Game coverPlaying Video Games coverSearch the Library Catalog for “video games” and you’ll get a list, including

Check them out!

New Stuff Tuesday – April 28

Published
by
kyle
on April 28, 2009
in new stuff tuesdays
. 0 Comments

Appetite for Self-Destruction

Appetite for Self-Destruction:
The Spectacular Crash of the Record
Industry in the Digital Age
By Steve Knopper
ML3790 .K57 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

I left the selection of this week’s New Stuff Tuesday up to one of our student assistants, Nate. You can be the judge of whether or not he picked a good one (I think that he did – especially since I was the one that ordered it). You better come check it out before he does.

Knopper, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, blames the record industry for its own self-implosion and documents the music biz’s rise through the 1980s and 1990s and the subsequent meltdown. While many would point to Napster as the giant killer, the author names names and the exact mistakes made – eight in all – to create their own fight for survival. In case you’re wondering, the business committed five major mistakes before Shawn Fanning released his infamous file-sharing program. With extensive insider knowledge, Knopper does an excellent job of chronicling the industry, from Video Killed the Radio Star to the boy bands to the iPod.

Human Trafficking Lecture 4/29

Published
by
Barbara
on April 27, 2009
in around the world and campus connection
. 0 Comments

E. Benjamin Skinner will speak about “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery” at 6 pm on Wed., April 29th, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

It’s hard to believe, but some practices you think are merely historical, like piracy, still exist today. The forward to Skinner’s 2008 book, A Crime So Monstrous, states

Of course, we all know what slavery is. We’ve read about it in countless history books, seen it in documentaries and movies. Slavery is awful. Slavery is inhuman. Slavery is dead.

But that last point isn’t true. In fact, slavery is very much alive on every continent. In fact, as Ben Skinner points out, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before…

War on Human Trafficking coverAndersen Library does not own a copy of Skinner’s book, but UW-W students and staff may borrow it from other UW campus libraries using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested items arrive in 2-4 weekdays. A search of the Library Catalog for keywords such as slavery or “human trafficking” will find other titles available locally, such as The war on human trafficking: U.S. policy assessed (3rd-floor Main Collection HQ125.U6 D47 2008).

Health Care Access Lecture 4/27

Published
by
Barbara
on April 24, 2009
in campus connection
. 0 Comments

Meg Gaines, ovarian cancer survivor and national advocate for cancer patients, will deliver this year’s John Kenneth Kyle lecture “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Getting Health Care in America” at 7 pm on Mon., April 27, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had also infected her liver.  Her doctors told her the cancer was inoperable and that she should go home and think about the quality of her remaining days. The mother of two toddlers, Gaines felt that diagnosis was unacceptable and conducted a national search for treatment. She eventually was treated in Texas and remains healthy today.

Gaines’ story reminds me of the affecting TV ad I’ve seen for Cancer Treatment Centers of America by pancreatic cancer survivor Peggy Kessler, in which she says she was basically told by her doctor to go home and prepare to die. But after working with Cancer Treatment Centers of America she was told she had no expiration date.

Health Care Politics coverAndersen Library has resources on topics related to this lecture. For example, if you are interested in reading other cancer survivor’s stories, there are books like It’s not about the bike: my journey back to life by Lance Armstrong (3rd-floor Main Collection GV1051.A76 A3 2000) and Deanna Favre’s Don’t bet against me!: beating the odds against breast cancer and in life (2nd-floor Browsing Books Collection RC280.B8 F38 2007). The web site of the National Cancer Institute also has information about different types of cancer. If you are researching particular kinds of cancers there are books such as Dr. Susan Love’s breast book (3rd-Floor Main Collection RG491 .L68 2005). And if you’re interested in access to health care in the United States, there are books including Critical: what we can do about the health-care crisis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 .D375 2008) and Health care politics, policy, and services: a social justice analysis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 A4795 2007). The Library’s article databases can yield relevant reading also, such as “Awash in information, patients face a lonely, uncertain road” in the New York Times (Aug. 14, 2005, p. 1).

Please ask a librarian for assistance in finding materials.

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!

World Digital Library: Cultural treasures, at your fingertips

Published
by
Ronna
on April 23, 2009
in around the world
. 0 Comments

On April 21, 2009, the World Digital Library debuted. Its mission: “[to make] available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”

Developed by the Library of Congress with the support of UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), and many other partner institutions, the WDL contains books, journals, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures, prints and photographs, and sound recordings. At its launch, the site contained contributions from 25 institutions in 19 countries.

You can browse the site by place, time, topic, type of item, or by institution. The movable timeline at the bottom of the home page starts at 8000 BC, and runs up to the present time. Keyword searching is also available. Both browsing and searching can be done in seven different languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Russian. Many more languages are found in the actual materials, which are shown in their original languages.

Browsing by type of item, I found and listened to a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace, played on bagpipes by a military band from Scotland in 1972 (contributed by the Library of Congress). Browsing by place, I looked at the pages of The Four Books in Chapter and Verse with Collected Commentaries (in Chinese), created in China in 1217 (contributed by the National Library of China). And finally, I browsed by time, and studied a 1775 Latin map of the world (contributed by the National Library of Brazil).

As you can see, there are lots of fascinating cultural treasures in this online library, and it will continue to grow. Take a look, and see what treasures you can find!

Green guidelines help consumers

Published
by
goldsmid
on April 22, 2009
in around the world
. 1 Comment

Good Housekeeping is adding a new seal to help protect consumers from tainted products and false claims. This new green seal will provide a standard criteria for consumers to make an informed decision about their product use based on its energy use, composition, waste, water use, effort to reduce packaging and health impacts.

Interested in finding out more, check out the following:

Or request this book from UB:

What can you do to go green? Let us know what products you see with the Good Housekeeping’s Green Seal of approval or other tips you might have to help preserve the planet we live on. Every little bit helps.

What you do today does make a difference in the future.

2009 Pulitzer Prizes

Published
by
Carol
on April 21, 2009
in around the world
. 0 Comments

The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, letters, drama and music were announced on April 20 at Columbia University. The Library provides access to many of these newspapers through its databases. Any of the Prize winning books that are not available in our Library are available to UWW students, faculty and staff from other UW libraries via Universal Borrowing.

JOURNALISM:

LETTERS, DRAMA and MUSIC:

New Stuff Tuesday – April 21

Published
by
kyle
on April 21, 2009
in new stuff tuesdays
. 0 Comments

Motoring

Motoring:
The Highway Experience in America
By John Jakle & Keith Sculle
GV1021 .J33 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

With spring on the verge of breaking through, our minds instantly begin to think to summer. When you think of summer, what comes to mind? Personally, I think of road trips. In the last two and a half years, I’ve put over 50,000 miles on my car from driving to Virginia (twice), Colorado, Pennsylvania and countless trips over to the wrong side of the Wisconsin-Illinois border. With that in mind, I thought that Motoring would be a perfect title for New Stuff Tuesday.

Jakle, emeritus professor from the University of Illinois, and Sculle, head of research at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, primarily investigate recreational travel from 1900 to 1960, placing particular emphasis on the driver’s experience. The authors cover everything from dealerships and garages, filling stations and roadside attractions, all the way to the rise of the convenience store. The book tackles the subjects of not only American history, but urban planning, business history, technology, psychology and much more.

The authors have written several other books together – the Library has Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (TX945 .J35 1999) and Gas Station in America (TL153 .J27 1994) available in the Main Collection on the third floor.