The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides free access to the digitized riches of libraries, archives, and museums across the country. Materials that may be browsed or searched include photographs, diaries, letters, maps, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more. Be aware, though, that not all of these materials are in the public domain; check the “Rights” for items you plan to use, or go to the content providers’ sites to determine the rights status of items. Even though access is free to all users, there is a cost to the creation and maintenance of a discovery resource like this. The DPLA is funded by foundations and federal government agencies, and other organizations and interested individuals. There also is a network of partners providing “service hubs” (such as the Minnesota Digital Library) or “content hubs” (such as the Smithsonian Institution).

For example, you can listen to oral histories, including an interview with Clair Dagget, who received a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Education from Whitewater in 1931 and later taught at St. Cloud State University (MN), and an interview with Charles Graham (1929- ), who served at Wisconsin State College at Whitewater as Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and later served as president of St. Cloud State University.

Or, view hand colored lithographed maps showing tracts and block numbers of Elkhorn, Geneva, and Whitewater (WI) from a historical atlas of Wisconsin (1878).

Or, read diaries such as that of Charles E. Ripley, Color Sergeant, 21st Wisconsin. His 1864 diary “covers events like the capture of Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea.”

Enjoy. Please ask a librarian if you’d appreciate some assistance with using this tool.

Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in various formats (print, DVD/CD-ROM, online). Check out your government at Andersen Library!

You can learn more about it from the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, including Memorial Day history. Did you know that it started with local observances decorating graves of the Civil War dead with flowers? Spring, after all, is a good time for flowers to be in bloom.

Search article databases to find articles such as “Honoring Our Heroes” (Saturday Evening Post, 2010, vol.282:no.3, pp.32-34) and “A Time to Honor … A Time to Remember” (Soldiers, 2003, vol.58:no.5, p.24). Chapters of the book, History of Memorial Day (2002), are available to UWW students and staff via the America: History and Life database.

Please ask a librarian if you’d appreciate assistance finding additional materials.

Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in various formats (print, DVD/CD-ROM, online). Check out your government at Andersen Library!

• Motorcyclists’ Handbook
• Motorists’ Handbook

Here are some quiz questions:

1. As you approach your exit on a roundabout, you should turn on your right turn signal. True or False?
2. At night, if an approaching driver does not dim his/her headlights, you may flash your high beams to let them know. True or false?
3. At a FOUR-WAY stop, if two drivers come to the intersection at the same time, who goes first?
4. At a FOUR-WAY stop, if the two drivers do not reach the intersection at the same time, who goes first?
5. At an intersection with no stop signs, if two drivers approach it, who goes first?

Not sure? Or even if you are, please check the manual to see if you are correct! After all, the Wisconsin DOT’s latest Wisconsin Traffic Crash Facts contains a highway safety clock that says there is one traffic crash every 4.7 minutes in Wisconsin. And “Fifty-five percent of all crashes occurred off the state highway and Interstate systems, on county trunk and local roads.”

Please drive safely and responsibly!

Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in various formats (print, DVD/CD-ROM, online). Check out your government at Andersen Library!

Know the difference between a watch and a warning:

A Tornado Watch or Severe Weather Watch means a tornado may develop. Be alert and be prepared to take action if the watch becomes a WARNING. (It is not necessary to seek shelter for a severe weather watch.)

A Tornado Warning means a tornado has been spotted in the area. Immediate action may mean the difference between life and death. (It is not necessary to seek shelter for a thunderstorm warning.)

What does Andersen Library do when there is severe weather?
Our weather radio alerts us when severe weather threatens Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock counties. If there is a tornado warning, and it is heading towards Whitewater, we make an announcement over the public address system directing people to go to the nearest tornado shelter area within the Library (marked with large blue signs, generally restrooms and windowless stairwells & hallways). The elevator should not be used.

Be prepared for severe weather wherever you are! You can search the Library Catalog for tornadoes for additional materials. A basic explanation of what you need to know about tornadoes and tornado safety is available from the NOAA Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, which also has a current watch display. The Milwaukee/Sullivan site also lists current watches and warnings (tornadoes, flash floods, severe thunderstorms, and marine warnings) for Wisconsin. The American Red Cross has an online preparedness checklist. I also recommend that you get a map of the counties around you, so that you know when watches and warnings, or the tracks of severe weather, affect you. There are printable maps for all 50 states at the nationalatlas.gov web site.

Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in various formats (print, DVD/CD-ROM, online). Check out your government at Andersen Library!

Summer Session hours begin Tues., May 28:

*EXCEPTION: Closed Thurs., July 4th

Remember that even when the Library is closed or you are traveling, you can:

• Search article databases …just login when prompted with your campus Net-ID (same as for your campus email or D2L),
• Search the HALCat Library Catalog and use links to the titles that are online, including ereserves for classes,
• Renew your checked-out books, DVDs, etc., online (once) through your Personal Record,
• Consult online guides for assistance, including citation guides for APA, MLA, and Turabian format, and class assignment guides, and
• Ask a librarian for help using email or chat, or phone us at the Reference Desk (262-472-1032) during Reference Desk hours (Mon-Fri 9am-4:30pm, Sun noon-8pm when the Library is open).

Read more about it! Search article databases to find articles such as “Blue Denim by the Bay: The Levi Strauss & Co. Archives” (Costume, 2009, no.43, pp.150-165), or refer to the reference work Patents: Ingenious inventions: How they work and how they came to be (2nd-floor Reference Collection, T47 .I44 2004). There are sections on blue jeans in the books Uniforms: Why we are what we wear (3rd-floor Main Collection, GT1900 .F87 2002) and How things are made: From automobiles to zippers (3rd-floor Main Collection, TS183 .R67 2003). You also can read a timeline of the history of Strauss jeans from the company website.

Please ask a librarian if you would appreciate assistance with finding additional materials.

Now that exams are over, it’s the perfect time to indulge your intellectual curiosity about all sorts of things that aren’t required for a class! Enjoy your summer, everyone.

Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in various formats (print, DVD/CD-ROM, online). Check out your government at Andersen Library!

A few ways to use dictation:

• Comment on student or peer work by inserting text boxes using PDF annotation tools or word processor commenting tools.
• Compose emails.
• Create lists in reminder apps or word processors.
• Keep a research log or a personal journal.
• Draft a blog post.

Tips for using dictation successfully:

• Speak at a slower rate than you normally do.
• Remember to say the punctuation that you want to appear:
  “Hi comma George exclamation point I enjoyed reading this paper period here are a few of my comments” would translate to “Hi, George! I enjoyed reading this paper. Here are a few of my comments.”
• If you briefly pause before and after punctuation or formatting commands, the software will be better able to distinguish the commands from speech you want translated to text.
• Use a headset or other dedicated microphone if you are doing marathon sessions of dictation.
• Practice makes perfect (or, at least, better) but you will still need to edit your finished text

Setting up the dictation functions in Windows and Mac is easy:

• Windows 7
  Click the Start menu and then click on Help and Support. Type “speech recognition” into the search box. Click on Set up Speech Recognition and follow the directions.
• Mac 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
  Click on the Apple Menu and then click on System Preferences. Click on Speech & Dictation under the System category. Click on the Dictation tab and follow the directions.

 
The first and third floors of the Library close at midnight; only 2nd/main floor is open from midnight until 2am. All three floors are open until closing on nights when then Library closes earlier than 2am.

Study hard and remember to get here early! Doors are locked 15 minutes before closing.

Evernote, a multimedia note-taking app, can help you organize and capture information in your studies, work, and daily life. You can set up different notebooks for your courses or projects.  You can put almost anything into a notebook. You can view your notebooks and add notes on our own computer, on campus computers through the Evernote website, and on mobile devices. Everything is synced automatically across your computers to your Evernote account. With Evernote you can:

1. Capture everything (well, almost)
   • Notes you type directly into Evernote
   • Microsoft Word documents
   • Microsoft PowerPoint documents
   • PDFs and scanned files
   • Photos of handwritten notes or documents you take with your smartphone or other mobile device
   • Photos or screenshots
   • Audio recordings (You can record lectures with your smartphone or mobile device from within the Evernote app.)
   • Websites
2. Organize your stuff and find it fast
   • You can separate your notes into different notebooks, but you can also tag notes with labels that you create.
   • Evernote has a powerful search feature, which can even search the text inside a handwritten note you’ve scanned!
   • You can share your notebooks with other Evernote users or email notes to anyone.

It’s Free!
Evernote has both free and Premium accounts. The free account should meet your needs—if you pay for a Premium account, you just get a few more features and more space.

Learn More

• Evernote’s Getting Started Guide
• “10 Evernote Tips for School,” Noteworthy Blog
• “Expand Your Brain with Evernote,” Lifehacker Back to School
• “A Brief Word from an Evernote Convert,” Profhacker

The Art of Procrastination:
A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing
by John Perry
BF637 .P76 P46 2012
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

I went over to the New Arrivals Island with stress on the brain. You know, the end of the semester is upon us, the library’s busier than it usually is, and people are frantically preparing final projects and studying for finals. I nearly missed this skinny book that exemplifies the opposite [or not, depending on your perspective] of what’s going on.

Perry, emeritus professor of philosophy at Stanford University, takes the topic of putting things off very seriously. He ruminates from his decades of experience about the philosophical side of everyone’s favorite pastime and argues that it’s actually not necessarily a bad thing. Using the idea of akrasia, the phenomenon behind going against our best judgment, the author provides strategies to overcome our inner perfectionism / procrastination to produce the right result: crossing items off of the to-do list.