Tax Forms: Get ’em online

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Barbara

The University Library does not get print copies of tax forms for people to pick up, but the state and federal forms are available online:

1040EZ formThe IRS web site provides federal forms and instructions, along with information about filing electronically.

Wisconsin tax forms and instructions are available from the Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue’s web site, along with information about Wisconsin e-filing.

The Irvin L. Young Memorial Library (Whitewater’s public library) has, or will have, copies of the most commonly-needed federal and Wisconsin forms that may be picked up.

Happy filing!

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 – January 27

Posted on January 27, 2009 by kyle

Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life

Why You Should Read Kafka
Before You Waste Your Life
By James Hawes
PT2621 .A26 Z746214 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

Advice passed down over the generation usually takes the form of “You must do before you die;” whether that is traveling around the world, skydiving or another adrenaline-laced good time. It’s not uncommon – if fact, the phrase probably doesn’t cause much shock or surprise. But to fear that you’ve wasted your life because you didn’t do something, that’s a different story. The week’s featured book has a little tip of its own.

Hawes, a novelist and scholar specializing in German literature and the subject of this book, does not just stop with die, he proclaims that you will have wasted your life by ignoring Kafka. Although Kafka’s Metamorphosis generally qualifies as required reading in many high school/college level English classes, that doesn’t mean you read it (I read it the second time around personally). Either way, the author sets out to dispel the myths surrounding the ‘dark and mysterious’ figure behind the man that gave us nightmares that we’d turn into cockroaches.

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Online links in the catalog

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Barbara

More often than you expect you’ll find online titles in the Library Catalog. How does the catalog let you know if something is online? The link to the title online will be preceded by “Linked Resources.”

Check the location! Sometimes a title’s location is Internet or NetLibrary (NetLibrary books are online books, or “ebooks”). Two examples from the catalog:

Catalog Record for Internet Title

Sometimes the Library has a title in print, but the title is also available online. Here’s an example from the catalog:
 Catalog Record for Internet Title

If you have questions please ask a librarian (email, chat, or call the Reference Desk at 262.472.1032).

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Have You Visited A Library Today?

Posted on January 25, 2009 by kyle

It’s always nice when libraries get positive press. Just in case you missed it, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran an article on Friday about libraries’ increasing popularity given the current economy. The Wall Street Journal also put out a similar, more somber piece about a week ago from the job seeker’s perspective. Both articles do highlight one of our strong points – the fact that our services are free to our users – a huge bonus these days. The moral of the story – make sure to support your libraries!

Libraries’ Many Benefits Rediscovered in Hard Economic Times
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Folks Are Flocking to the Library, a Cozy Place to Look for a Job
(Wall Street Journal)

Thanks to Ronna for the link!

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Economic Report of the President

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Barbara

The 2009 Economic Report of the President has been submitted to Congress and may be read in its entirety online.Economic Report of the President 2009 cover

This annual report, written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, overviews the nation’s economic progress and provides extensive data appendices. Reports back to 1995 are available online at the GPO Access link given above. Older reports are available in print in the Library’s Federal Documents collection or online (back to 1947) at the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER).

The Economic Report of the President includes:

  • Current and foreseeable trends and annual numerical goals concerning topics such as employment, production, real income, and Federal budget outlays;
  • Employment objectives for significant groups of the labor force;
  • Annual numeric goals;
  • A program for carrying out objectives.
  • The annual report of the Council of Economic Advisers, describing its activities during the previous calendar year.

The table of contents shows that the text has information that affects us all:
Chapter 1: The year in Review and the Years Ahead
Chapter 2: Housing and Financial Markets
Chapter 3: Energy and the Environment
Chapter 4: The Benefits of Open Trade and Investment Policies
Chapter 5: Tax Policy
Chapter 6: The Long-Run Challenges of Entitlement Spending
Chapter 7: Balancing Private and Public Roles in Health Care
Chapter 8: Education and Labor
Chapter 9: Economic Regulation

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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Award-winning faculty give their favorite lectures

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Barbara

Most of us remember our favorite teachers, and those times in class when we learned something that really affected us in some way. UWW has a number of faculty that have won awards for their teaching…don’t you wish you could sample their lectures? Well, now you can!

The spring 2009 Fairhaven Lecture Series theme is “My Favorite Lecture.” The series gives you a chance to hear some of UWW’s award-winning instructors deliver their favorite lectures:

  • Jan. 26: What the Heck is Passacaglia? (Christian Ellenwood, Music Dept.)
  • Feb. 2: The Bible of Amiens: The Sculpture of the Great Cathedral (Chris Henige, Art Dept.)
  • Feb. 9: Listen Up! Strategies for Being a Better Listener (Barb Penington, Communication Dept.)
  • Feb. 16: Generations Theory: Looking Across Generations To Create Understanding (Brenda O’Beirne, Counselor Education Dept.)
  • Feb. 23: Advertiser Use of Psychology: Behavioral Conditioning (Lois Smith, Marketing Dept.)
  • Mar. 2: Wisconsin’s New Final Rights Act (Linda Reid, Finance & Business Law Dept.)
  • Mar. 9: Enron: What Really Happened and How Did They Do It? (Robert Gruber, Accounting Dept.)
  • Mar. 16: The Myth of Narcissus and Echo (Rebecca Hogan, Languages & Literatures Dept.)
  • Mar. 30: “Is Seeing Believing?”: The Psychology of Visual Illusions (Greg Cook, Psychology Dept.)
  • Apr. 6: Where Does Knowledge Come From? The Role of Science & Research in Teaching (Greg Valde, Educational Foundations Dept.)
  • Apr. 13: Promoting Peace by Building Schools: The Story of Three Cups of Tea (Marilyn Durham, Languages & Literatures Dept.)
  • Apr. 20: Asian Americans: The Fastest Growing Minority Population in the U.S. (Larry Neuman, Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice Dept.)

Lectures are open to the public and free. All take place on Mondays at 3 p.m. at Fairhaven Retirement Community’s Fellowship Hall (435 West Starin Road, Whitewater, WI). If you can’t attend, podcasts of the lectures will be posted at the series web site.

If you are interested in learning more on the topics of these lectures, the University Library should be able to help you! Searching the Library Catalog would find titles such as High Gothic: the classic cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, Amiens (3rd-floor Main Collection, NA5543 .J3613 1984); Listening in everyday life: a personal and professional approach (3rd-floor Main Collection, P95.46 .L57 1997), and The advertised mind: ground-breaking insights into how our brains respond to advertising (3rd-floor Main Collection, HF5822 .D8 2005). The Library’s article databases could be searched to find newspaper, journal, and magazine articles too.

Please ask a librarian for assistance in finding materials.

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Browsing the Library

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Barbara

New for Spring semester: The Library’s “Browsing” collections on the 2nd (main) floor. When you enter the Library, walk straight ahead into the Browsing collections, which include:

Browsing DVDs: Popular feature films have been separated and are arranged by their titles for easy browsing (some of these are still in process, getting their labels). The rest are still arranged by call numbers.

Browsing VHS tapes: These are arranged by call numbers. We are still in the process of moving them from the 1st-floor Media Center to the 2nd floor, so bear with us. Everything is listed in the library catalog, of course.

Browsing Books: This set includes recent print fiction and non-fiction, audio books, and graphic novels, as well as the New Book Island, which contains books received in the last 2 months.

In the future the Browsing are will include the CDs (also in order by call numbers). Right now they are still in the 1st-floor Media Center.

There is also comfortable seating, and the newest issues of newspapers and several magazines are at hand too. The Food for Thought cafe is available nearby for a snack and beverage.

Coming soon: a large-screen TV that can play DVDs or cable channels like CNN.

You are invited to join us…relax, get the latest news, find something enjoyable to read, listen to, or watch. Let us know how you like it! And if you have any questions about finding anything, please Ask a Librarian for help.

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New Service Hours for Spring Semester

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Barbara

New for Spring Semester:

The Library hours are the same as they were during fall semester, but the service desks have some new hours (The Circulation Desk remains staffed all hours that the Library is open):

The Reference Desk will be open from 9am-10pm Monday-Thursday, 9am-5pm on Friday, 1-5pm on Saturday and 1-5pm & 6-10pm on Sunday. Reference help by live chat remains available 24/7.

The Area Research Center/University Archives will be open from 9am-4:30pm Monday-Friday (other times may be available by appointment).

The Periodical Help Desk will be open until 9pm (except when the Library closes before that, on Fridays and Saturdays).

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President Barack Obama

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Barbara

Today, January 20th 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. If you missed the swearing in, you can see it on YouTube: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j2z8vywY88[/youtube]

You can read the text of his inauguration speech online also.

His team is not wasting time. Check out the White House web site, for example. You can read the blog and sign up for emailed updates about major decisions.  Weekly videos are planned (for Saturday mornings). Under “About the White House” you can select “Presidents” and get to the official brief biography of President Obama.

The University Library has a couple of books by Obama if you’d like to get to know him a bit better: The audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream (2nd-floor Browsing Books E901.1.O23 A3 2006) and Dreams from my father: a story of race and inheritance (2nd-floor Browsing Books E185.97.O23 A3 2004).

Addendum:
You can read the text of Elizabeth Alexander’s reading at the Inauguration, or see the video at YouTube:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFA6-RqQ4jM[/youtube]

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New Stuff Tuesday – January 20

Posted on January 20, 2009 by kyle

Capitol Men

Capitol Men:
The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives
of the First Black Congressmen
By Philip Dray
E668 .D76 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

Yes, today is one historic day. Barack Obama, the first African-American president has taken the oath and now holds the highest office in the nation. To commemorate the occasion, I conveniently stumbled upon this week’s featured title about some other famous first politicians.

Dray, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, resurrects history that is often left out of the textbooks and therefore not common knowledge – the story of the first African-Americans elected to Congress. Though many of you have seen the portrait of the seven of the first sixteen men (featured on the book’s cover), you may not have known it. The author takes the reader back to the period just after the Civil War, where the nation had the task of putting a broken country back together again, a time where black and white didn’t describe the picture on the television screen. These newly-minted lawmakers, hailing from diverse backgrounds themselves, faced outright discrimination and humiliation during their terms as politicians and faded away as the Reconstruction came to a painful close. The book serves to give these men their rightful place in the chronicles of the era.

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