New Stuff Tuesday – May 7

Posted on May 7, 2013 by kyle

The Art of Procrastination

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.

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Relaxathon 2013

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Rebecca

Need to give your mind a rest after all this studying?  Stop in for some fun activities this week!

Monday, May 6  —Make your own Stress Ball  from 1:00-4:00 pm

Tuesday, May 7  —Make your own Stress Ball from 1:00-4:00 pm

Wednesday, May 8

— Comic Book Give Away 1-3pm – The UW-W English Club will be on site handing out free comic books!

—Comic Book Presentation 3:45-4:45pm – Professor Janine Tobeck will compare straight text and a text/image combination and explore how the comic alters the reading experience.

Thursday, May 9

—Make your own Mother’s and Father’s Day Cards!  1-4pm

—Stress Reduction Dogs coming for a visit 10-Noon -Professors Sarah Niles and Jeannine Rowe

Friday, May 10  —Make your own Mother’s and Father’s Day Cards!  1-4pm

 

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T3: Finding Creative Commons Media Resources

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Diana
Need to find an song or image to use in the classroom or for an assignment? Want to alter an image or reuse it in a new format? UW-Whitewater has policies and resources related to copyright and fair use that can help guide your choice of media. One easy way to manage sometimes complicated copyright issues is to limit your searches to digital media that is in the Public Domain or whose creators have used Creative Commons licenses that specifically give others the right to use and/or alter the original work for non-commercial purposes. Here is a list of places to start your search for digital media:
  • Wikimedia Commons is a wiki-style database of images in the Public Domain or with Creative Commons licenses.
  • Flickr is a photo sharing site where many works have Creative Commons licenses (find these using the advanced search). FlickrStorm is another way to easily search for Flickr images without the hassle of signing in or creating an account. You can search for Creative Commons images or images anyone can use non-commercially.
  • Jamendo is a music-sharing site where independent artists have uploaded their songs for anyone to listen to and use through Creative Commons licenses.
  • Google Image Search has an Advanced Search option for limiting the results to images with a Creative Commons license.
  • The Library of Congress’ online catalog provides access to thousands of images. Many images have rights information contained in the catalog record.
  • National Archives has primary source documents, images, and video. Many of the documents and images are in the public domain and can be used with attribution.

FDLP logo 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!

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Parental Units’ Days

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Martha

Sale SignThe venerated parental units’ days are swiftly approaching. Mother’s Day on May 12 and Father’s Day on June 16. What better a gift to give than a book? I can think of few. This May the book sale will include a plethora of subject areas, including a lot of books on psychological and political topics, but little fiction. There are also sets of books such as The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of Family Health: Doctor’s Answers. These are books that we didn’t sell the first time around, and now they’ve been drastically discounted to SUPER LOW PRICES. Just 25 cents each or $1/bag. Not bad. Most of the books were originally out between March 2012 and February 2013, although there are a few from March 2013. Books will be replenished as the shelves get bare, so come back often!

Happy Mother’s and Father’s Days, and all the holidays in between!

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New Stuff Tuesday – April 30

Posted on April 30, 2013 by kyle

The Occupy Handbook

The Occupy Handbook:
Edited by Janet Byrne
HC110 .I5 O24 2012
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

I had the fortune of traveling to New York for the first time in the fall of 2011. As I walked around the Financial District, I got to experience firsthand the craziness [and interesting smells] that was the topic of this week’s featured title.

The Occupy Wall Street movement made headlines all over with its direct attack on the country’s more affluent individuals. The protests sparked an intense debate about income inequality and distribution of wealth. Byrne, the editor, pulls together the pieces on the events leading up to the Occupy movements, the current state of affairs, and what can be done to fix the problem. A veritable “Who’s who” in the area of economics and journalism, the book provides the context needed to understand the gravity and complexity of the situation.

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Stuffed Animal Sleepover at Andersen Library

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ellen Latorraca

Making a name tag for our stuffed animal, with a little help from family

If you happened through Andersen Library this past Friday, Saturday, or Monday, you may have noticed children and librarians with stuffed animals in tow. You were witnessing the Stuffed Animal Sleepover.

Parents and grandparents helped the stuffed animals’ kid-friends create name tags for their animals, after which the children joined in a couple of songs and a story time.

Before heading home, the children tucked in their stuffed animals for an afternoon nap. That ensured plenty of energy for their nighttime adventures. Once the stuffed animals were roused, there was more than a bit of silliness to go around. Although the monkeys rather unsuccessfully tried to teach the other animals to climb, the zebra and okapi were quite impressed by their tutors’ daring do. Madeline was up to her usual antics, teaching her new friends all about photocopy machines, a device for which the stuffed critters heretofore had no imaginable use. All of the nighttime antics were caught on camera and printed in booklets for the children to pick up the following day along with their stuffed animals.   

I think it safe to say that the library staff was pretty tuckered out after chasing various stuffed critters around the stacks throughout the night – but not so much that they’re not looking forward to this event next year!

Trisha used the bulletin board display to talk about places in our town – our nod to the Big Read.

Let me shift to my “academic librarian” writer’s voice for a moment. Given the positive response from the children, their parents and grandparents, the student and staff volunteers, we are looking forward to repeating this event next year. What we hope to do differently is to involve more of our UW-Whitewater students in organizing and carrying out various aspects of the event. If your student group has a passion for working with children, the willingness to share some energy, and a desire to put expertise into practice, please contact Diana Shull or the education librarian, Ellen Latorraca. We’re happy to share the fun!

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T3: Save Time with Text Expansion

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Diana

Do you ever find yourself typing out the same word, phrase, or even a whole email message over and over? Text expansion software saves you time by expanding a snippet of text into the full word or phrase—think of the software as a large clipboard that you access with predefined keystrokes.

Text expansion software ranges from free and simple to paid and complex. All Macs have built-in text expansion (turn on the feature and add your shortcut snippets by going to “Keyboard” and then “Text” within the System Preferences) and PhraseExpress is free for personal use on Windows.  These programs will help you expand frequently-used words, phrases, or even more complicated, formatted text. If you want to add flexibility to your expansions, many software programs, such as aText for Mac ($5) and Breevy ($35) for Windows, allow you to create forms that you can fill out on the fly, insert text from your clipboard into the expanded text, or execute other commands within the program.

Ways to use text expansion software in academia (and life!):

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New Stuff Tuesday – April 23

Posted on April 23, 2013 by kyle

Atomic Comics

The Org:
The Underlying Logic of the Office
by Ray Fisman & Tim Sullivan
HD58.7 .F573 2013
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

As we look towards graduation, all of us for different reasons, many of you are probably starting to prepare for interviews or for the first job. This week’s featured title looks at the jump from the classroom to the cubicle [or corner office, depending on how high you’re aiming].

Fisman and Sullivan, professor at Columbia Business School and editorial director at the Harvard Business Reivew Press, respectively, team up to examine politics in a different setting, the office. The authors tackle the issue of why organizations exist in the first place, and why they are so complicated and inherently flawed. Does that mean that they’re pointless? Nope. They explain the bureaucracy of the organizations, make a case for the reason for the existence of meetings [and why CEOs spend so much time in them, as they should]. Of course, it’s not all theory, as the authors do integrate examples from the public and private sectors. Looking to understand how and why these machines, some well-oiled and some not-so-much, run? This book’s for you.

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Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Barbara

Walk A Mile In Her Shoes®, a men’s march in high-heeled shoes to stop rape, sexual assault, and gender violence, comes to UWW on Wed., April 24, from 5-7pm in the UC Hamilton Room. The event is sponsored by University Health and Counseling Services (UHCS), People Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (PADA), the Inter-Fraternity Council, and DECA. Proceeds from this walk benefit PADA (the registration deadline has passed already).

Schedule: Speakers at 5:30pm, walk around campus starts at 6pm, and the event concludes with various awards, e.g., best team spirit, highest shoes, and best walk.

Events like this are aimed at increasing awareness and empathy toward victims of sexual assault, demonstrating opposition to sexual violence, and fundraising. There are related research resources available. Search article databases to find, for example, “It’s Cool to Care about Sexual Violence: Men’s Experiences with Sexual Assault Prevention” (Men & Masculinities, 2012, vol.15:no.5, pp.507-525) and “Effects of Two Versions of an Empathy-Based Rape Prevention Program on Fraternity Men’s Survivor Empathy, Attitudes, and Behavioral Intent to Commit Rape or Sexual Assault” (Journal of college student development, 2006, vol.47:no.2, pp.133-148). There also are articles in newspapers about walks held in other locations, such as “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes sets record for participants, money raised” about the walk held in Janesville last fall (also see video at YouTube:) [youtube]http://youtu.be/Tyh0HsgzB9Q[/youtube]

If you would appreciate assistance with finding additional materials, please ask a librarian.

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New Stuff Tuesday – April 16

Posted on April 16, 2013 by kyle

Atomic Comics

Atomic Comics:
Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World
PN6714 .S97 2012
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

Last week, we got a comment on the New Stuff Tuesday entry asking whether or not we buy comic books. While we have an entire collection of graphic novels, we also purchase books that talk about comic books. Look what I found this week!

Who says that the funny pages are only meant to entertain? Szasz, a forty-three year veteran professor at the University of New Mexico, studies the impact of comics over time, and in particular during the Cold War era. Cartoonists took advantage of the world events to serve as educators about the complex issues involved with nuclear warfare, and as Szasz seeks to demonstrate, pretty effectively. The author examines all aspects of the graphic representations of the treatment of the pro-atomic energy and later anti-nuclear movements, mainly from a US perspective, and its effects on public opinion. This book serves as an excellent addition to the scholarship on the atomic culture of the mid-twentieth century.

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