“Naked Trends” talk Feb 15

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Barbara

Charles Wheelan will speak about “Naked Trends: What Can Basic Economics Tell Us About The Future” on Mon., Feb. 15 @7pm in the Young Auditorium. This talk is part of the 2009/2010 Contemporary Issues Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Letters and Sciences.

Charles Wheelan is a faculty member at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and a former Midwest correspondent for The Economist. He writes Yahoo! Finance’s “Naked Economics” column, and he also has written for various publications such as the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

His 2003 book, Naked economics: Undressing the dismal science, attempts to make economics more accessible for nonexperts. UWW students and staff may borrow it from other UW libraries via the free Universal Borrowing service. The article “Of pies and men” (Across the Board, Jan/Feb 2004, vol. 41:no.1, pp. 7-8) provides a brief excerpt from the book.

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Earthquakes

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Barbara

Were you awake for the quake on Wednesday morning? Have you been following the news about the ongoing recovery from the January 12th earthquake (and its aftershocks) in Haiti? Are you interested in learning more about earthquakes?

Andersen Library has information, and so does the federal government.

cover of After the earth quakesSearch HALCat, Andersen Library’s online catalog, to find titles such as Apocalypse: Earthquakes, archaeology, and the wrath of God (3rd-floor Main Collection, CC77.N36 N87 2008) and After the Earth quakes: Elastic rebound on an urban planet (3rd-floor Main Collection, QE539.2.E42 H67 2006).

Search Library article databases to find articles such as “Geologists to evaluate future Haiti risks” (Nature, January 21, 2010, vol.463:no.7279, pp. 276-277) and “Effects of recent environmental changes on global seismicity and volcanism” (Earth Interactions, 2008, vol. 13:no.4, pp. 1-14).

The U.S. Geological Survey has materials on earthquakes, such as Earthquake hazard in the heart of the homeland (including a shaking-hazard map for the U.S.), and there’s even a “Did You Feel It?” web site for you to report whether you felt Wednesday’s earthquake.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

Government Printing Office logo

The University 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 electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

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New Stuff Tuesday – February 9

Posted on February 9, 2010 by kyle

On Thin Ice

On Thin Ice:
The Changing World of the Polar Bear
by Richard Ellis
QL737 .C27 E47 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

As the snow comes down and blows around outside, it’s hard not to think of our furry, white friends to the north. This week’s featured title takes a look at the future of the mascot for climate change and the green movement.

Ellis, author of more than a dozen nature books and also an acclaimed marine artist, provides his latest work as a testament to one of the planet’s largest land predators, the polar bear. He covers the history of the mammal from the type of their ‘discovery’ by the Europeans, their importance to the Inuit people, and efforts that are being undertaken to save them (or not). The author explains everything about the incredible creatures, from their mating rituals to their plights for survival in the current environment. If you’re interested in using this as a springboard for research, Ellis helps out by conveniently including nearly thirty pages of references at the end.

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Try a new research aid (bX Recommender)

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Barbara

UW System libraries are testing bX Recommender until Feb. 28. Try it and tell us what you think of it!

bX Recommender is a scholarly article recommender service. It suggests additional relevant articles, similar to “More Like This” or “If You Liked This, You’ll Also Like…” on sites such as Amazon. Recommendations are based on article usage by nearly 2,000 users at research institutions around the world. Learn more about it on our database trials web page.

How do you use it? After doing a search in a database or SuperSearch, just click the Find It button! However, not every article will have recommendations for additional articles, especially newer articles that not many researchers have looked at yet! See a screenshot below.

How do I provide feedback? Complete a survey at https://milwaukee.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_6tfBduAXuyTqroo&SVID=Prod

Thank you!!

screenshot of bX Recommender in a Find It menu

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New Stuff Tuesday – February 2

Posted on February 2, 2010 by kyle

The Big Burn

The Big Burn:
Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire That Saved America
by Timothy Egan
E757 .E325 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

Usually when you hear of a fire, big or small, you think of complete devastation, right? This week’s featured title required a second look because of its claim about a fire that ‘saved’ America.

Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, takes a notable and destructive event from United States history and provides the context for its irrationally positive outcome. He explores the great forest fires just after the turn of the last century, the Big Burn of 1910, in which the national forests of Montana, Idaho and Washington were lost. The author gives voices and life to the rangers and firefighters that valiantly fought to contain the flames, as well as Theodore Roosevelt, known for his staunch support for conservation. Fans of either the great outdoors, Teddy or American history should a take a look at this book.

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Happy Birthday, OED!

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Barbara

On Feb. 1st in 1884, a portion of the first Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was printed. This venerable dictionary is going strong today. UWW students and staff have online access to it, and can even sign up to receive the “Word of the Day” by RSS feed or click on “Lost for words?” to get a random word and its definition.

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Withdrawn books go on sale in library

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Susan

Andersen Library will be selling children’s math and science textbooks that have been withdrawn from the Curriculum Collection as well as withdrawn reference books. Come check out the sale beginning the afternoon of February 5th. All books are $1, and the sale runs through March 4th. Look for the book sale carts located near the library entrance.

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What’s hot, per Wikipedia

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Barbara

Is there a hot topic you want to learn about fast? Or do you want to know what some current hot topics are?

Wikirage tracks the topics in Wikipedia that are being edited the most (during the last hour, 6 hours, day, 3 days, week, and month). The web site refers to it as “monitoring the hive mind through Wikipedia edits.” you can even follow it on Twitter.

Some of it makes absolute sense, if you follow the news. Topics getting a lot of editing earlier this week included “Nancy Kerrigan,” “Conan O’Brien,” “2010 Pro Bowl,” and “Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409.” But “Attachment theory”…hmmmm.

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“Tell me a story” lecture series

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Barbara

The Spring 2010 Fairhaven Lecture Series “Tell Me a Story: The Narrative Tradition in the Arts and Media” will look at our understanding of the world through story. All of these free and informative lectures are on Mondays at 3:00 p.m. in the Fairhaven Community’s Fellowship Hall (435 W. Starin Road, Whitewater).

  • Feb 1: Beer, Guillotines, and Sunrises: Musical Storytelling in the Late Romantic Period (Mike Allsen, Music Dept.)
  • Feb 8: Putting the Bayeux Tapestry in its Place (Chris Henige, Art Dept.)
  • Feb 15: Competitive Speaking Examples from the UW-W Forensics Team (Jeanine Fassl, Communication Dept.)
  • Feb 22: Narrative in Music from Around the World (Alena Holmes, Music Dept.)
  • Mar 1: What Costumes Say to an Audience, Part 1 (Marshall Anderson, Theatre/Dance Dept.)
  • Mar 8: What Costumes Say to an Audience, Part 2: The Collaborative Process between Choreographer and Costumer and the Resulting Costumes (Tracey Lyons, Theatre/Dance Dept.)
  • Mar 15: “Once Upon a Time…”: The Power of Storytelling in Public Speaking (Anne Mancl, Communication Dept.)
  • Mar 29: That’s My Story, But I’m Not Sticking to It: Compositional Conversations (Robert Mertens, College of Arts and Communication)
  • Apr 5: Digital Storytelling: How Journalists Are Adapting to the Internet (James Kates, Communication Dept.)
  • Apr 12: Works on paper: Whitewater to Oaxaca, Mexico–A Cultural Narrative (Art Dept. faculty panel talking about their cultural exchange)

Videos and podcasts of previous lecture series are available:
Fall 2007 “Big Ideas at UW-Whitewater”
Spring 2008 “Our natural Wonders”
Fall 2008 “Election 2008″
Spring 2009 “My Favorite Lecture”

And if you are interested in doing research on these topics, Andersen Library may have materials! Look for books using HALCat (Harold Andersen Library’s catalog) and look for articles in article databases. Please ask a librarian for assistance.

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New Stuff Tuesday – January 26

Posted on January 26, 2010 by kyle

This Time Is Different

This Time Is Different:
Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
by Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff
HB3722 .R45 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

The financial crisis that we are experiencing: it’s unlike every other economic crash that we’ve ever known, right? The chain of events leading up to the current moment had created a situation like we’d never seen before, right? This week’s featured book might have something different to say.

Reinhart and Rogoff, economics professors at University of Maryland and Harvard, respectively, scoured through eight centuries of financial data and found this time isn’t really all that much different. As they state in the preface, “Our basic message is simple: We’ve been here before.” They contend that these sorts of events actually occur pretty consistently over time. The authors cover varying types of fallouts, from sovereign defaults to banking sector crashes. As scholars, Reinhart and Rogoff provide plenty of support for their argument, not only their analysis, but also with data appendices – an excellent source for further research.

If anything, it should give one hope: we’ve recovered from previous crises, so we can do it again.

Side note: the quote from the cover features Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money (New Stuff Tuesday – 24 March 2009).

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