New Stuff Tuesday – May 5

Posted on May 5, 2009 by kyle

Politics at the Airport

Politics at the Airport:
Edited by Mark Salter
HE9797.4 .S4 P65 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

The semester ends in fifteen days – not that anyone is counting. For many, that means it’s travel time. For some lucky individuals, that also means spending some quality time at the airport. Travelers enjoy having all of the amenities of modern-day travel, with restaurants and shops galore. On the other hand, they may dread going through the TSA circus and worrying whether or not they’ve correctly followed the 3-1-1 rule for their liquids, all in the name of national security. This week’s featured title addresses the dark side, the controversies, facing today’s high-flying society.

“Few sites are more iconographic of both the opportunities and the vulnerabilities of contemporary globalization than the international airport.”
Salter, political science professor at the University of Ottawa, begins his introduction with the previous statement, which sets the tone for the rest of the volume. As editor, he has compiled chapters from leading scholars on topics ranging from no-fly lists to closed-circuit TV surveillance by airport police. This scholarly work includes tons of references for further research and provides an excellent beginning for researching airport security issues.

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Presidential campaign TV commercials, 1952-2008

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Ronna

I know, I know, after the recent presidential election, we’ve probably all had our fill of campaign commercials. But this web site is worth a few minutes of your time, I promise. The Museum of the Moving Image put together The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008. You can watch campaign commercials starting with the Dwight D. Eisenhower v Adlai Stevenson contest of 1952, all the way up to Barack Obama v John McCain in 2008.

The site is easy to browse. Just choose the year for the campaign you are interested in and at the bottom of the screen, thumbnails of the commercials appear, divided into Democrat and Republican. Click the one you want to view, and voila, you’re watching the commercial. You can even watch the “Peace Little Girl (Daisy)” commercial from Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign, called by this web site: “the most celebrated and perhaps most notorious of all political commercials.” It aired only once, and was so controversial it even made the cover of Time.

Besides the pure entertainment value, what I really liked is the additional information provided by the site. The credits and a transcript for each commercial chosen are easily accessible, and tabs to the right of the commercial provide information on the campaign, each candidate, and the results of the election (including the number of popular votes, states, and electoral votes won by each candidate).

So take a moment and check out this site. It’s cool, it’s funny–and who knows what you might learn along the way?

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Free Comic Book Day: Saturday, May 2

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Ronna

I’m not a big comic book reader, but I do like free books. So I am excited about Saturday, May 2. It’s Free Comic Book Day! Just walk into any participating comic book store and pick yourself up a free comic! Seriously! It’s free!

Free Comic Book Day is an annual event that takes place the first Saturday in May. Shops around the world take part. But does that mean that every store that sells comics will hand you a free one on Saturday? No. Only stores participating in the event will do so. Luckily, there is a handy dandy shop locator service where you can look up these stores in your area.

You’re probably now wondering, “What comic book can I get?” A list of the available comics is also posted on the Free Comic Book Day web site. For more information about the event, check out the FAQ section of the site.

So if you’ve got a little free time this Saturday, May 2, drop by a participating comic book store in your area and pick up your free comic!

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Word of the Day: contextomy

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Barbara

Are you writing a research paper? Please avoid contextomy, which is distorting meaning by quoting of context. You can read more about it in the 2005 article “Contextomy: the art of quoting out of context” (Media, Culture & Society, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 511-522).

Avoiding unintended contextomy may be as simple as making sure you understand the original text of the sources you’re using for your paper. When you encounter words you don’t understand, look them up using:

  • your favorite print dictionary (We have several in the Library!),
  • Google (search for define:<your word here>, e.g., define:contextomy), or
  • your favorite online dictionary (We link to several at http://libguides.uww.edu/dictionaries).

And if you are interested in growing your vocabulary one word a day, the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) online has a Word of the Day RSS feed for you, or you can click to get a random word every time you visit the site!

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Looking for Accurate Health Information?

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Susan

There’s a lot of health information online. Unfortunately, it’s not all accurate. If you haven’t checked out the consumer health Web site MedlinePlus sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, you should. It’s terrific. MedlinePlus has up-to-date health information with every topic being reviewed by health professionals at least every 6-months for accuracy. The drug information is very extensive, and new drugs are being added all the time. A quick search in the search box will yield results from pre-evaluated health Web sites. It’s much better than using Google and then taking your chances on accuracy.

Some other great health Web sites for health information include: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), MayoClinic.com, Lab Tests Online, and FamilyDoctor.org.

If you need health information beyond what the consumer health Web sites contain, the library has a list of Medicine Databases. You might also want to search the library catalog for books and government documents on health topics. Because health information changes over time, use the “Quick Limit” to search for materials published since 2005.

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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Swine Flu, aka H1N1 influenza

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Barbara

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve been hearing about the swine flu invasion. You can keep updated on it with the Internet, TV, radio, or newspapers. Some helpful web sites are:

Get tips on what to do in “H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) and You. Questions & Answers from the Centers for Disease Control:

What should I do to keep from getting the flu?
First and most important: wash your hands. Try to stay in good general health. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food. Try not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus. Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

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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About Video Games: New Resources

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Barbara

If you are interested in video games (not just playing them, but designing them or learning about their impact), the Library has books for you!

Art of the Video Game coverPlaying Video Games coverSearch the Library Catalog for “video games” and you’ll get a list, including

Check them out!

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New Stuff Tuesday – April 28

Posted on April 28, 2009 by kyle

Appetite for Self-Destruction

Appetite for Self-Destruction:
The Spectacular Crash of the Record
Industry in the Digital Age
By Steve Knopper
ML3790 .K57 2009
New Book Island, 2nd floor

I left the selection of this week’s New Stuff Tuesday up to one of our student assistants, Nate. You can be the judge of whether or not he picked a good one (I think that he did – especially since I was the one that ordered it). You better come check it out before he does.

Knopper, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, blames the record industry for its own self-implosion and documents the music biz’s rise through the 1980s and 1990s and the subsequent meltdown. While many would point to Napster as the giant killer, the author names names and the exact mistakes made – eight in all – to create their own fight for survival. In case you’re wondering, the business committed five major mistakes before Shawn Fanning released his infamous file-sharing program. With extensive insider knowledge, Knopper does an excellent job of chronicling the industry, from Video Killed the Radio Star to the boy bands to the iPod.

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Human Trafficking Lecture 4/29

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Barbara

E. Benjamin Skinner will speak about “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery” at 6 pm on Wed., April 29th, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

It’s hard to believe, but some practices you think are merely historical, like piracy, still exist today. The forward to Skinner’s 2008 book, A Crime So Monstrous, states

Of course, we all know what slavery is. We’ve read about it in countless history books, seen it in documentaries and movies. Slavery is awful. Slavery is inhuman. Slavery is dead.

But that last point isn’t true. In fact, slavery is very much alive on every continent. In fact, as Ben Skinner points out, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before…

War on Human Trafficking coverAndersen Library does not own a copy of Skinner’s book, but UW-W students and staff may borrow it from other UW campus libraries using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested items arrive in 2-4 weekdays. A search of the Library Catalog for keywords such as slavery or “human trafficking” will find other titles available locally, such as The war on human trafficking: U.S. policy assessed (3rd-floor Main Collection HQ125.U6 D47 2008).

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Health Care Access Lecture 4/27

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Barbara

Meg Gaines, ovarian cancer survivor and national advocate for cancer patients, will deliver this year’s John Kenneth Kyle lecture “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Getting Health Care in America” at 7 pm on Mon., April 27, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had also infected her liver.  Her doctors told her the cancer was inoperable and that she should go home and think about the quality of her remaining days. The mother of two toddlers, Gaines felt that diagnosis was unacceptable and conducted a national search for treatment. She eventually was treated in Texas and remains healthy today.

Gaines’ story reminds me of the affecting TV ad I’ve seen for Cancer Treatment Centers of America by pancreatic cancer survivor Peggy Kessler, in which she says she was basically told by her doctor to go home and prepare to die. But after working with Cancer Treatment Centers of America she was told she had no expiration date.

Health Care Politics coverAndersen Library has resources on topics related to this lecture. For example, if you are interested in reading other cancer survivor’s stories, there are books like It’s not about the bike: my journey back to life by Lance Armstrong (3rd-floor Main Collection GV1051.A76 A3 2000) and Deanna Favre’s Don’t bet against me!: beating the odds against breast cancer and in life (2nd-floor Browsing Books Collection RC280.B8 F38 2007). The web site of the National Cancer Institute also has information about different types of cancer. If you are researching particular kinds of cancers there are books such as Dr. Susan Love’s breast book (3rd-Floor Main Collection RG491 .L68 2005). And if you’re interested in access to health care in the United States, there are books including Critical: what we can do about the health-care crisis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 .D375 2008) and Health care politics, policy, and services: a social justice analysis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 A4795 2007). The Library’s article databases can yield relevant reading also, such as “Awash in information, patients face a lonely, uncertain road” in the New York Times (Aug. 14, 2005, p. 1).

Please ask a librarian for assistance in 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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