“Alma Guillermoprieto is considered an authority on the cultural and political life of Mexico and South America, especially as they relate to the United States. For the last thirty years, she has traced the history of Latin America incorporating her personal experiences.” She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, won the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting in 2000, and she is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Three of her books are available in Andersen Library:

• Looking for history: Dispatches from Latin America, 2001 (3rd-floor Main Collection, F1414.2 .G773 2002)
• The heart that bleeds: Latin America now, 1994 (3rd-floor Main Collection, F1414.2 .G77 1994), and
• Dancing with Cuba: A memoir of the revolution, 2004 (3rd-floor Main Collection, F1765.3 .G85 2004).

If Andersen Library’s copies are checked out, UWW students and staff may borrow titles from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested titles arrive in 2-4 weekdays.

Alma Guillermoprieto also writes frequently for publications such as the New Yorker and National Geographic. Search article databases such as Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) for au Guillermoprieto to find her articles, including “Days of the dead” (New Yorker, 11/10/2008, pp. 44-51) on the violence of the illegal drug trade in Mexico and its social repercussions.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

UWW’s Andersen Library has some of his books, including Ringlingville USA: The stupendous story of seven siblings and their stunning circus success (3rd-floor Main Collection, GV1821.R5 A66 2005) and Cheese: The making of a Wisconsin tradition (3rd-floor Main Collection, SF274.U6 A66 1998).

UWW students and staff also can get Apps’ titles from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service, which brings requested materials here in 2-4 weekdays. Among the titles available are
Living a country year: Wit and wisdom from the good old days and Every farm tells a story: A tale of family farm values .

Please ask a librarian if you would like assistance with finding and requesting materials.

Anna Balzer is a Jewish-American graduate of Columbia University, a Fulbright scholar, granddaughter of Holocaust refugees and an award-winning lecturer, author and activist for Palestinian rights who has appeared on television and at over 300 universities, schools, churches, mosques and synagogues around the world. She recently traveled through Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Her “Anna’s Eyewitness Reports from Palestine” blog has more info, photos, and sample pages from her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. UWW students and staff may request the book from other UW libraries via the free Universal Borrowing service.

Andersen Library has materials on Palestine. Search the HalCat library catalog to find titles such as The case for Palestine: an international law perspective (3rd-floor Main Collection, DS119.7 .Q7219 2005) and Culture and customs of the Palestinians (3rd-floor Main Collection, GN635.P19 F37 2004).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

If you are interested in reading his work, Andersen Library has his memoirs Angela’s Ashes (3rd-Floor Main Collection, E184.I6 M117 1997) as well as the movie adaptation (2nd-Floor Browsing DVDs, Feature Film, Ang).

The continuation of his memoirs, ‘Tis, is available from other UW campus libraries to UWW students and staff via the free Universal Borrowing service, as well as being available in area public libraries including the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library in Whitewater.

More information about Frank McCourt is available from the Biography Ref Bank Select database (WilsonWeb): his entry in Current Biography 1998 (select the “Biography Ref Bank Select” database and then search for McCourt, Frank).

The gist of the predictions we’ve heard before: “Scientists predict that by 2020, global catastrophes may well begin to accelerate. The human population is expected to explode and animal species may be dying off at a rapid rate.” In addition, climate change will lead to water shortages in some places, while other locations such as New York City will be desperately trying to protect themselves from rising sea levels by building large walls. Populations will shift in response to water stresses and other changes.

The experts interviewed made several thought-provoking statements. I was struck by the notion that Earth has experienced five mass extinctions in which at least half the species on the planet disappeared, all caused by natural disasters such as massive volcanic eruptions and rapid climate changes. Now some scientists say we are in a sixth extinction, this time caused by us.

“Every society that collapsed thought it couldn’t happen to them,” says Joseph Tainter, an expert in anthropology and societal collapse. “The Roman Empire thought it couldn’t happen. The Maya civilization thought it couldn’t happen. Everyone thought it couldn’t happen to them. But it did.”

I hope to track down some of the experts’ publications, including Joseph Tainter’s book, The Collapse of Complex Societies (3rd-Floor Main Collection CB311 .T245 1988). Another interviewed expert was Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us (2nd-floor Reserves/Circulation Desk GF75 .W455 2007), who was a speaker on campus in October 2008.

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…

Andersen 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).

A copy of Driftless is in Andersen Library’s 3rd-floor Main Collection (PS3568.H55 D75 2008). If UWW’s copy is checked out UWW students and staff can request copies available from other UW campus libraries using the free Universal Borrowing service (online video of how to do it).

The impetus for his column was the passing of historian Dr. John Hope Franklin, who wrote many books on the history of African Americans, including From slavery to freedom, which is “regarded as the seminal text in African-American studies.” The Library has copies of From slavery to freedom, including the original 1947 edition and the 6th (1988) edition (3rd-floor Main Collection, E185 .F825 1988).

Pitts goes on to suggest additional reading, all of which are titles available in the Library’s 3rd-floor Main Collection:

• Mirror to America: The autobiography of John Hope Franklin (E175.5.F73 A3 2005)
• Before the Mayflower: A history of black America (E185 .B4 1988)
• Slavery by another name: The re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (E185.2 .B545 2008)
• This was Harlem: A cultural portrait, 1900-1950 (F128.68 .H3 A65 1982)
• Been in the storm so long: The aftermath of slavery (E185.2 .L57 1980)
• Trouble in mind: Black southerners in the age of Jim Crow (E185.6 .L58 1998)

Seven-time National Champion UW-Whitewater is hosting the 2009 National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament March 12-14, with the national championship game at 2 pm on Sat., March 14th (Williams Center).

Some of you may be more familiar with The Witches of Eastwick, which was made into a 2000 stage musical and a 1987 movie (starring Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer as the witches and Jack Nicholson as the devil). Updike published a sequel in fall 2008 called The Widows of Eastwick.

Many Updike titles are available in the University’s Library, including both Eastwick titles. Search the Library Catalog for locations and call numbers.

More information about John Updike is available from the Library database Contemporary Authors, the NPR web site article “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author John Updike Dies At 76.”, or “John Updike’s Mighty Pen” (Charles McGrath’s “Week in Review” published January 31st) on the New York Times web site.