Scanning in a flash

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Carol

BookScan Station

The Library has just installed a BookScan Station across from the Reference Desk. By using the handy touch screen monitor, it takes just moments to scan pages from a book. The special book edge scanner bed saves wear and tear on books’ spines and makes better scans. The nifty document feed takes up to 40 sheets at a time and scans them one-sided or two-sided at the touch of a button.

Documents may be scanned as PDFs, Word Documents, tiffs or jpegs. Output options include printing, emailing, saving to a flash drive or saving to Google Docs.

Once you try the new BookScan Station, you’ll never want to go back to traditional scanners. Stop by the Library today to test it out. The scanner is on loan this spring and your feedback will help us determine whether or not to purchase it.

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New Online Federal Document: Learning from Iraq

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Barbara

cover from Learning From IraqLearning From Iraq: A Final Report From the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is available online and it “culminates SIGIR’s nine-year mission overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction.”

“This study provides much more than a recapitulation of what the reconstruction program accomplished and what my office found in the interstices. While examining both of these issues and many more, Learning From Iraq importantly captures the effects of the rebuilding program as derived from 44 interviews with the recipients (the Iraqi leadership), the executors (U.S. senior leaders), and the providers (congressional members). These interviews piece together an instructive picture of what was the largest stabilization and reconstruction operation ever undertaken by the United States (until recently overtaken by Afghanistan).

The body of this report reveals countless details about the use of more than $60 billion in taxpayer dollars to support programs and projects in Iraq. It articulates numerous lessons derived from SIGIR’s 220 audits and 170 inspections, and it lists the varying consequences meted out from the 82 convictions achieved through our investigations. It urges and substantiates necessary reforms that could improve stabilization and reconstruction operations, and it highlights the financial benefits accomplished by SIGIR’s work: more than $1.61 billion from audits and over $191 million from investigations.”

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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T3: Screencasting with the iPad

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Diana

Do you find yourself explaining how to solve a particular equation over and over? Do you need to demonstrate to a class how to use a particular website or database? Screencasting and interactive whiteboard apps on the iPad are good ways to share content and processes with students in a lasting, visual way. Students can also create screencasts to teach others how to accomplish a particular task or explain a concept.

There are several good apps for the iPad:

  • Screenchomp, free (App Store)
    Basic app that allows you to use photos uploaded to Dropbox in your presentation. Finished videos live at Screenchomp.com. You can share the link.
  • Explain Everything, $2.99 (App Store)
    EE allows you to create individual slides using voice/annotation/pointers and add images or other items from your Camera Roll or Dropbox.  You can share the finished presentation via YouTube or save it onto your iPad to email out.
  • Doceri, free (but all photos/docs are watermarked), $4.99 in-app purchase to remove watermarks (App Store)
    Doceri has all the features of Explain Everything. Share your screencasts or other projects via email, iTunes, YouTube, or Facebook.
  • Educreations, free (App Store)
    Educreations is a nice, basic screencast app.  You can only save your creations after recording so you have to create your whole presentation at once.  You can store your finished screencasts on Educreations.com but you cannot save them locally.
  • ShowMe, free (App Store)
    This is a basic drawing and recording tool (no text insert).  You can upload pictures from iPad or the web. Sharing occurs via Showme.com.
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New Stuff Tuesday – April 9

Posted on April 9, 2013 by kyle

Punk Rock

Punk Rock:
An Oral History
ML3534 .R545 2012
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

With springtime on its way, you can now go for a drive on the open road with the windows down and the music way up. This week’s featured title talks about one type of music that is best experienced at full volume.

Robb knows a thing or two about punk rock because he lived it himself. The brain behind the Membranes, an influential band of the genre, Robb shares his knowledge of the music from the early stages of its roots in the 1950s and 1960s to its explosion in the 1970s. The author goes straight to the source and gets viewpoints from all the big names on what it was like to be a part of the punk scene.

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Make a dream catcher! Mon Apr 8

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Barbara

Make a dream catcher and catch those bad dreams before they affect your sleep tonight! NACAA (Native American Cultural Awareness Association) is sponsoring a Native Pride Workshop on Monday, April 8, from 2-4 p.m. in the UC Warhawk Commons Center.

clip art of dream catcherYou can get an idea of what a dream catcher looks like (and a little history) from “Dream catchers,” a web page of Native Languages of the Americas, “a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting endangered Native American languages” or Dream-Catchers.org. The latter site also has a page with instructions. “Legend of the Dreamcatcher” (2010, Phoebe’s Unusual Mysteries… Footprints in Time!, p.84) also provides brief information and an illustration.

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Friday Fun: Armchair travel through the Secret Door!

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Barbara

Journeying via The Secret Door is a bit like slipping down the rabbit hole with Alice at times, especially since the sites you’ll see aren’t always labelled (or may not be labelled in English), but The Secret Door uses Google Maps to offer you glimpses into places near and far, including going underwater at Heron Island (Queensland, Australia/Great Barrier Reef); visiting a classroom in Bunkyo (Tokyo, Japan); staring down Riksveg 890 in Finnmark; attending Calvary Temple Church (Winnipeg, Canada); glimpsing paintings at the Tate Britain (London); admiring the Grand Canyon, and much more.

screenshot of The Secret Door visiting the Grand CanyonWouldn’t you like to visit someplace unexpected today?

Click the lion’s head “door” knocker to visit a new site, and then look around by clicking the arrows or dragging the white shape that appears when you mouse over the image!

Thank you, Anne, for introducing me to this site!

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Bottlemania

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Barbara

Elizabeth Royte, will talk about “Bottlemania: Big business, local springs and the battle over America’s drinking water” at the Irvin L. Young Auditorium on Monday, April 8, at 7 p.m. This is the last Spring 2013 Contemporary Issues Lecture.

You can learn more about Elizabeth Royte, drinking water, and bottled water at Andersen Library!

cover of book BottlemaniaSearch HALCat for Royte’s books, which include Bottlemania: How water went on sale and why we bought it (3rd-floor Main Collection, HD9349.M542 R69 2008) and Garbage land: On the secret trail of trash (3rd-floor Main Collection, HD4484.N7 R68 2005). If Andersen Library’s copies are checked out, UWW students and staff may request them from other UW libraries using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested items arrive in 2-4 weekdays.

There are non-Royte resources in HALCat, too, including a Congressional committee hearing Regulation of bottled water: Hearing, “Drinking to live: The work of ethically branded bottled water,” a chapter in the book Ethical consumption: A critical introduction (3rd-floor Main Collection, HB835 .E84 2011), Bottled and sold: The story behind our obsession with bottled water (3rd-floor Main Collection, TP659 .G54 2010), and the video Flow for love of water (2nd-floor Browsing DVD, Academic, HD1691 .F59 2008).

Search article databases for articles authored by Royte and you’ll see, for example, “The Last Drop” (National Geographic, 2010, vol.217:no.4, pp.172-177), “A tall, cool drink of…sewage?” (New York Times Magazine, 2008, p.30), and “What the frack is in our food?” (Nation, 2012, vol.295:no.25, pp.11-18).

There are many, many additional related articles that are not authored by Royte, including “Tap or Bottled Water: Drinking Preferences Among Urban Minority Children and Adolescents” (Journal of Community Health, 2012, vol.37:no.1, pp.54-58), “What’s Wrong with the Tap? Examining Perceptions of Tap Water and Bottled Water at Purdue University” (Environmental Management, 2011, vol.48:no.3, pp.588-601), and “Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water” (University of Denver Water Law Review, 2009, vol.13:no.1, pp.1-54).

Also check out Royte’s blog, Notes on waste, water, whatever, and her page about Bottlemania, which includes excerpts of reviews and a link to Royte talking about recycled water on a radio show at a National Public Radio affiliate at Santa Monica College, CA.

If you’d like assistance with finding additional materials, please ask a librarian.

FDLP logo Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with many federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in many formats, including online. Check out your government at Andersen Library!

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T3: Creating Infographs

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Diana

Infographics have become a popular way to share data in an eye-catching manner.  While there are many software programs that help users create graphs and basic charts there are very few options that allow those without access to or knowledge of expensive graphic design software to create infographs. Two free websites help users design their own infographs: Piktochart and Infogr.am.

  • Piktochart users create infographs using easy data visualization tools and images from a large graphics library.  Users also have the ability to upload 10 personal images per infograph. A free account gives users a choice of 6 templates and lets them create a final image file to share in presentations, on websites, or through a URL.
  • Infogr.am users have fewer options to customize their infographics using this free tool. Text editing is easier than in Piktochart. Users can share their graphic with an embed code or on Facebook or Twitter.

 

 

 

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New Stuff Tuesday – April 2

Posted on April 2, 2013 by kyle

Family Pride

Family Pride:
What LGBT Families Should Know about Navigating Home, School, and Safety in Their Neighborhoods
HQ75.28 .U6 S54 2013
New Arrivals, 2nd floor

Starting last week, many people’s Facebook newsfeed have been filled with a bunch of red equal signs [or some funny variation]. It turns out that Facebook shared that 2.7 million profile pictures were changed to reflect their support for the LGBT community as the Supreme Court takes up California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. This week’s featured title takes a look the family side of individuals affected by the outcomes of these decisions.

Shelton, a therapist based out of Philadelphia, provides a nice primer on the LGBT family. As the author notes in the beginning chapters, the tides have turned and progress has been made for the LGBT community, but there is a counter-attack on them as well. He outlines the issues and challenges that these families face, many of which people may not even consider when thinking about raising children. From evaluating school systems to just going to the park, this book details the ‘need-to-know’ information for the LGBT family.

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Résumé Doctor Apr 2-4

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Barbara

The Résumé Doctor is in! Drop into Andersen Library between 1 and 4 pm Tues.-Thurs. this week (Apr. 2-4) to have the good doctor give your résumé a check-up!

Quick Resume and Cover Letter bookAndersen Library also has resources about résumés, cover letters, and interviews. Search the Library Catalog for the keyword phrase “resumes employment” and you will get a list of titles that will give you advice on how to write résumés (some titles about cover letters and employment interviews also appear on the list). Some titles may be in print, such as Résumé magic: Trade secrets of a professional résumé writer (3rd-floor Main Collection, HF5383 .W46 2010), while others may be accessible online, such as The quick résumé & cover letter book: Write and use an effective résumé in only one day.

For additional suggestions, please ask a librarian.

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