New Stuff Tuesday – February 22

Posted on February 22, 2011 by kyle

Incivility

Incivility:
The Rude Stranger in Everday Life
by Philip Smith, Timothy Phillips & Ryan King
HF5389.3 .U6 S65 2010
New Book Island, 2nd floor

I never know what I am going to find on the New Book Island, but I do try to choose something that relates to the happenings of the world. As I scanned the shelf today, this particular title popped out at me as the obvious winner for reasons that I’m sure you can guess, as long as you’ve had your eyes open in the last week.

Smith, Phillips and King, sociology professors at Yale, University of Tasmania and University of Albany, respectively, have taken issue with rude people. So much so that they done a little bit of research on the topic. Taking events that would be considered inconsiderate, the authors looked into how these encounters affect one’s emotions and whether one’s demographic characteristics factor into their judgment of the situation. Furthermore, they investigate ways in which individuals can properly react to such acts of impoliteness and promote civility towards one another. In other words, line jumpers and personal space crowders beware – you might just get put in your place.

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Miss the February L&S Lecture?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by kyle

If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the first Letters & Sciences Lecture of the semester two weeks ago, don’t worry! The College has kindly allowed the Library to hold two copies of the video from the event on reserve. You can come over and check it out to watch at the library. To locate its availability, it is listed under the Course Reserves listing in the catalog under College of Letters & Sciences as the instructor. You can also use the direct link below for quick reference:

Jeff Chang – “Who We Be: The Colorization of America”
February 7, 2011 – College of Letters & Sciences Lecture Series

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask at the Circulation or Reference Desks for assistance.

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Global Cafe Feb 23: Ghana!

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Barbara

The Center for Global Education’s monthly Global Café series on Wed., Feb. 23rd, from 5-6pm will focus on Ghana, Africa (location: Andersen Library’s big-screen TV area , near the Food for Thought café).

graphic from Center for Global Education web page

Know before you go! Andersen Library has resources on cross-cultural communication and travel. Germany book coverSearch HALCat, the online catalog, for books or videos, such as Culture and customs of Ghana (3rd-floor Main Collection, DT510.4 .S25 2002) and The global etiquette guide to Africa and the Middle East: Everything you need to know for business and travel success (2nd-floor Reference Collection, BJ1838 .F669 2002). Or check out the information on these and other countries in Library resources such as the Global Road Warrior! The Ultimate Guide to the World.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

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Citizen Wildlife Observations in WI

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Barbara

During the night before my job interview in Whitewater, Wisconsin, I saw an enormous, mean-looking varmint outside my motel. Yow! Since then I’ve had a couple of woodchucks trapped and relocated, and recently I’ve seen an opposum eating under a bird feeder. I’m not a nature-hater, but I’m much happier just watching birds, believe me.

Do you see any critters around you? Well, you can participate in “citizen science” by reporting your sightings at the Wisconsin NatureMapping web site, which is sponsored by Beaver Creek Reserve’s Citizen Science Center, the Ecological Inventory and Monitoring Section of the Wisconsin DNR, and Applied Data Consultants. You have to create an account (it’s free), even just to view the map of sightings reported by others. To report data there’s online training. Then to report a sighting or view the map, select a category (mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians), and then a specific critter, e.g., “Skink, Common Five-lined.”

Wisconsin NatureMapping screen shot

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New Stuff Tuesday – February 15

Posted on February 15, 2011 by kyle

Made in America

Made in America:
A Social History of American Culture & Character
by Claude Fischer
E169.1 .F538 2010
New Book Island, 2nd floor

Fischer, a sociology professor at UC-Berkeley, takes a look back throughout the history of our country to figure how we have evolved as a society. He investigates oft-quoted presumptions that claim that Americans are more mobile and materialistic, and demonstrates that there may more than just meets the eye. The author finds that through several hundred years have passed, the character of the American people has remained relatively intact. This book is packed with information and a great place to begin as looking at the history our nation’s culture [FYI – there are one hundred pages of works cited].

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PolitiFact Wisconsin’s Truth-O-Meter

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Barbara

“PolitiFact Wisconsin is a partnership of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and PolitiFact.com [the national site], a Pulitzer Prize-winning Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, to help you find the truth in politics.” Reporters and research staff from the newspapers and the publisher Congressional Quarterly research claims made by candidates, elected officials, political parties, interest groups, pundits, & talk show hosts, and then rate their truthfulness. Click the names of the people making claims for more information about them and other claims they’ve made that have been evaluated. You also can browse investigated claims by topic. I strongly suggest that you read the justification for the ratings and make your own judgments, however. A couple of times the research provided actually has convinced me to disagree with the “Truth-O-Meter” rating.

Examples of claims rated:

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Darwin Day!

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Barbara

Celebrate the 13th annual Darwin Day on Thurs., Feb. 10th. First take a bite of the “world’s largest edible tree of life” in the Hyland Hall atrium at 5:30pm, and then feed your minds listening to Jerry Coyne, professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and author of Why Evolution Is True, talk about “Why Evolution is True, but Widely Rejected” at 6:30pm in Hyland Hall’s Timmerman Auditorium.

Want to read some of Jerry Coyne’s publications? UWW students and staff may request his book from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service. An author search of article databases such as ScienceDirect will find some of his articles, including “(Re)Reading The Origin” (Current Biology, vol.19:no.3, 10 February 2009, pp.R96-R104) and “Sympatric speciation” (Current Biology, vol.17:no.18, 18 September 2007, pp.R787-R788).

Tangled Bank coverYou also can search the article databases or HALCAT (Harold Andersen Library’s catalog) for additional materials on evolution, such as the book The tangled bank: An introduction to evolution (3rd-floor Main Collection, QH367 .Z56 2010)

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

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Jeff Chang @UWW Feb 7

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Barbara

Jeff Chang, journalist and music critic, will talk about “Who We Be: The Colonization of America” on Mon., Feb. 7, at 7pm in the Irvin L. Young Auditorium. It’s the first Spring 2011 Contemporary Issues Lecture, sponsored by the College of Letters and Sciences. Mr. Chang has a blog; the “Reader” section provides some background information about him.

Cant Stop coverChang’s forthcoming book (with the same title as his talk) discusses multiculturalism in America over the last 30 years. His previous books are Total chaos: The art and aesthetics of hip-hop and Can’t stop, won’t stop: A history of the hip-hop generation. The latter title is available from Andersen Library’s 3rd-floor Main Collection (call number ML3531 .C5 2005). The other title is available online via the “Music Online: African American Music Reference” database.

You can search the Library’s article databases for articles written by Mr. Chang, such as “The Creativity Stimulus” (Nation, 5/4/2009, vol. 288:no.17, pp.14-16), which discussed the debate over whether U.S. artists should be included in the economic stimulus plan, and “Culture Before Politics” (American Prospect, Jan/Feb2011, vol. 22:no.1, p27-29), which “discusses the importance of cultural change in the success of implementing political change.”

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

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Library hours Wednesday–Feb. 2

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Ronna

Due to the weather, the Andersen Library’s hours for Wednesday, February 2 are 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

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It’s Just A Light Dusting

Posted on February 1, 2011 by kyle

It may be snowing like cats and dogs out there, and night classes for tonight have been canceled, but we’re still open until midnight.

Come in, hang out, study, whatever you want. We’ll be here.

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