New Stuff Tuesday – December 21

Posted on December 21, 2010 by kyle

Play

Play:
How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the
Imagination and Invigorates the Soul
by Stuart Brown
BF717 .B76 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

OK, now that finals are (almost) finished, let’s talk about what you’re going to do with the next four weeks of your life. I have a feeling that there will be some sleep in there, some catching up with friends, some family time. I would also guess that there would be some playtime in there as well, and that would be the subject of this week’s featured title.

Brown, doctor and founder of the National Institute for Play (can I work there?), takes a serious approach with a not-so-serious topic: play. He contends that the ability to laugh, joke around, compete and have fun has a huge impact on our lives. The author brings in cutting-edge scientific research about the mind-altering effects of play to support the notion that the brain benefits from these types of interactions. He also shares his knowledge and expertise in the matter gained from six thousand interviews that he has conducted over the course of his career.

And with that, you’ve got the last New Stuff Tuesday of the year. I’ll be too busy playing until 4 January. =)

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Way to go, Warhawks!

Posted on December 19, 2010 by kyle

Congratulations to the football team for winning their third championship in four years against Mount Union yesterday! Maybe next year it’ll be Mount Union with the #2 seed for the playoffs, eh?

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous championships, we have the book compiled after their 2007 triumphant campaign, Warhawks 2007 National Championship Season. And of course, you can also head downstairs to the first floor in Special Collections to view the archive of the Royal Purple.

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New Stuff Tuesday – December 14

Posted on December 14, 2010 by kyle

Sugar

Sugar:
A Bittersweet History
by Elizabeth Abbott
TX560 .S9 A23 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

As everyone is gearing up for finals, we have our go-tos when it comes to getting the most out of our time and productivity. Regardless of the form, it’s probably pretty certain that there’s a little bit of sugar (or a lot of it) to help you along your way. This week’s featured title details how the addictive additive came to take over the world.

As the subtitle indicates, Abbott, formerly of the University of Toronto, doesn’t sugarcoat the history of sugar [sorry – couldn’t resist]. The author takes a look at the rise of the powerful sugarcane, from its origins in the East to its subsequent domination of Western civilization and its effects on economy, trade and environment. Furthermore, she details how the little granule’s infiltration at the World’s Fair contributed to the popularity and expansion of the fast food industry in its infancy stages. Sprinkled with photos and sources that document the impact of sugar all over the world, Abbott’s work demonstrates that the sweetness may come with a bitter aftertaste.

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Need a break from studying? Free group fitness classes this week!

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Rebecca

FREE Week for ALL Group Fitness Classes is Dec. 13-17th!  These classes are FREE to all UWW Students, Faculty & Staff.  Remember your Hawk Card!  Click for the Schedule of Classes.

Interested in getting in shape?  Learn more by checking out resources we have available to help you get healthy!  Check out DVDs such as Yoga Conditioning for Athletes, Books such as The doctor is in : a 7-step prescription for optimal wellness, or even video games such as My Fitness Coach.

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Nobel Prizes

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Barbara

On Dec. 10, 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded to honor exceptional achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. In 1969 a Prize for economic sciences was added. Alfred Nobel, a scientist and pacifist, established the awards with funding from his estate. You can read biographical information about Nobel and the text of his will from the Nobel Prize web site.

The web site lists the 2010 and previous years’ Nobel Prizes and Laureates (“840 between 1901 and 2010”), and provides some interesting trivia, such as the youngest and oldest recipients, people who declined the Prize or received it more than once, and how many women have been honored. You can take a quiz to see how much you know about “the 2010 Nobel Prizes and the awarded discoveries” or send congratulatory messages to the 2010 winners.

Champions for Peace coverAndersen Library has resources if you’d like to learn more. Search HALCAT, Harold Andersen Library’s catalog, to find books such as Champions for peace: Women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize (3rd-floor Main Collection, JZ5540 .S74 2006), The Nobel Prize in literature: A study of the criteria behind the choices (3rd-floor Main Collection, PN171 .P75 L5413 1991), Genius talk: Conversations with Nobel scientists and other luminaries (3rd-floor Main Collection, Q141 .B817 1995), and The Nobel laureates: How the world’s greatest economic minds shaped modern thought (3rd-floor Main Collection, HB87 .M337 2001).

You can search for particular Prize winners also, using HALCAT for books and article databases for articles. For example, if you’d like to learn more about Robert G. Edwards work on the development of in vitro fertilization, you could articles such as “The bumpy road to human in vitro fertilization” (Nature Medicine, Oct. 2001, vol.7:no.10, pp.1091- ). Lives of Animals coverOr if you’d like to read the works of those who have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, you can find their titles in Andersen Library, e.g., Andersen Library has 15 titles by John M. Coetzee (2003 winner) including The lives of animals (3rd-floor Main Collection, HV4708 .L57 1999).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

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“Be Bold” report for WI’s future

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Barbara

Be Bold coverThe report “Be Bold: The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy” is the culmination of many meetings of the Wisconsin Economic Summit, which included members from government, education, and business. Governor-elect Scott Walker met with group.

Among the report’s recommendations is that higher education in the state work more closely with business. Specifically:

  • University R&D to provide about 100 of 500 high-growth start-ups by 2020,
  • Academic R&D to rise to $1.5 billion per year,
  • Increase baccalaureate percentage to 30 percent from current 25 percent by 2020, and
  • Develop metric for degree of alignment of post-secondary graduates with state’s economic strategy.

You can read the full report online, using the link above.

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New Stuff Tuesday – December 7

Posted on December 7, 2010 by kyle

Shock of Gray

Shock of Gray:
The Aging of the World’s Population and
How It Pits Young Against Old, Child Against
Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against
Rival and Nation Against Nation
by Ted Fishman
HQ1061 .F55 2010
New Book Island, 2nd floor

The first professional meeting that I attended, in which I was a young librarian-in-training, focused on the topic of generational issues in the workplace. Being the ONLY Generation Y/Millennial in the audience, I got my first taste of the discord that can arise from the separation of life experience. [Fortunately, I have wonderful colleagues here, regardless of generation.] I bring up this story because this week’s featured title centers around just what a longer life expectancy means for the world.

Fishman, journalist and best-selling author, tackles the issue of people living longer lives. While it may sound like a huge health and developmental breakthrough, there are societal ramifications for an older population that must be considered. The author addresses the impacts a ‘seasoned’ workforce has on a nation’s economy, from the inability to find young workers to the burden on the health care system. He utilizes interviews with business professionals to economists to gerontologists to provide of a view of the future that looks a whole lot grayer than now.

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Global Café Dec. 8

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Barbara

The Center for Global Education’s monthly Global Café series on Wed., Dec. 8th, from 5-6pm will focus on Germany, Vietnam and Peru (location: Andersen Library’s big-screen TV area , near the Food for Thought café). It’s the last fall session!

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 Germany: [A quick guide to customs and etiquette] (3rd-floor Main Collection, DD61 .T643 2008 ), Culture smart! Vietnam (3rd-floor Main Collection, DS556.42 .M87 2006), and The global etiquette guide to Mexico and Latin America: Everything you need to know for business and travel success (3rd-floor Main Collection BJ1838 .F673 2002 or online NetLibrary book). 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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The U.S. Gov’t in the news

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Barbara

The U.S. Government has been in the news lately for quite a few reasons, including these:

Government Printing Office logo

UWW’s Andersen Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and online. Come check out your government at Andersen Library!

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Collisions on the Extragalactic Superhighway

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Barbara

Dr. Paul Rybski, UWW Dept. of Physics, will talk about “Collisions on the Extragalactic Superhighway: What happens to their stars, gas, and dust when galaxies collide” on Fri., Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. (Upham Hall 140), followed by a public viewing session at the Whitewater Observatory at 9:15 p.m. (weather permitting). This is the last fall 2010 Observatory Lecture, all of which are free and open to the public! An abstract of the lecture is at the bottom of this blog entry.

Harold Andersen Library has relevant resources if you’d like to learn more. NASA image of colliding galaxiesSearch article databases for articles such as “Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies” (Nature, 2/10/2005, vol.433:no.7026, pp.604-607) and “Galactic mergers offer a lovely show” (Astronomy, Feb. 2010, vol.38:no.2, p.24), and “Numerical simulations of hot halo gas in galaxy mergers” (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Jul. 2009, vol.397:no.1, pp.190-207). You can find many images of colliding galaxies from NASAGoogle image search and limit results to the government domain (add site:.gov to the search). (such as the one at right), e.g., do a

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

LECTURE ABSTRACT
“Everything in the Universe is in motion. The cosmologically driven expansion of the space between galaxies causes isolated galaxies to appear to be rushing away from one another. However, those galaxies that are close enough to each other to be gravitationally bound are locked in a usually inescapable orbital embrace that frequently results in collisions lasting many millions of years. Since galaxies consist of stars, dust and gas, each of these components responds differently to a collision. As in the high-speed collisions of cars strange remnants of the collision are left behind, galaxies colliding in rich galaxy clusters leave behind a totally new variety of galaxy, called a giant elliptical. Because our own Milky Way galaxy will collide with the large spiral galaxy M31 in Andromeda in about 5 billion years, I will show what happens during such a collision, using as examples recent computer models of collisions of several nearby galaxies. The lecture will conclude with present-day examples of galaxy collision remnants and speculations as to whether a giant elliptical galaxy will form from the collisions of our own Local Group of galaxies.”

Government Printing Office logo

UWW’s Andersen Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and online. Come check out your government at Andersen Library!

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