Deja vu all over again

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Carol

It’s summer and that means baseball season is in full swing. If you like baseball, chances are you like Yogi Berra, too. The witty former Yankee player, manager, and Hall of Famer sure has a way with words. He’s coined phrases like it ain’t over till it’s over, ninety percent of this game is half mental, and this is like deja vu all over again.

Enjoy Yogi’s unique sense of humor in his latest book, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching: What I’ve Learned about Teamwork from the Yankees and Life (McNaughton Collection, Ber).

Here are a couple more Yogi books:

  • When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take it!: Inspiration and Wisdom from one of Baseball’s Greatest Heroes  (Main Collection, GV865.B4 A3 2001)
  • Yogi: It Ain’t Over (Main Collection, GV865.B4 A27 1997)

The Library has more than 400 other books and movies about baseball, so you’re sure to find something you like.

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New Stuff Tuesday – August 5

Posted on August 5, 2008 by kyle

Aggression in the Sports World

Aggression in the Sports World:
A Social Psychological Perspective
GV706.4 .R867 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

I think that title happens to have some timely appeal. I mean, how many times do you have a bench-clearing brawl (White Sox-Royals game), a coach admitting to violence as a part of the game (Ozzie Guillen, Chicago White Sox) AND an internal dispute gone wrong in the dugout (your very own Brewers), ALL in the matter of a few days? And that’s just the baseball players. I almost forgot about the rivalry between the Cubs and the Brewers rearing its ugly head last week (two Cubs fans charged in beatdown of Brewers fan).

Dr. Russell, professor emeritus and leading scholar in his field, takes on sports and the supposed predisposition to aggression that comes with the territory. Instead of focusing on the players, the author tackles the fans’ issues of rowdy behavior. He examines not only the acts of hostility themselves, but also social influences like peer pressure and violence in the media as motivation to commits acts of aggression. He then delves into riots and panic situations (think of the those crazy Euro soccer fans). The book has TONS of resources for further research and would make a great source for a paper or just interesting reading.

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Quotes Gone Wrong

Posted on August 1, 2008 by kyle

One of the main reasons of citing original authors is to give credit where credit is due. Here’s another one: If you’re going to use a famous quote in public, make sure that you get it right. Instead of being called out for plagiarism, you’ll be up for public humiliation.

Just ask the vandals in Pittsburgh that decided to deface the Carnegie Library with a quote from what they thought was from J. Alfred Prufrock. In reality, they should have attributed T.S. Eliot and his poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

I think that Suzanne Thinnes, the library spokesperson, has the best comeback – “They should come into the library and use our services.”

source: Graffiti Vandal Tags Carnegie Library, Gets Quote Wrong, WTAE, Pittsburgh

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It’s No One You Know, but read it anyway

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Ronna

No One You Know

No One You Know
by Michelle Richmond
MCN Ric
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor

First, let me say, I liked this book. But, I thought it moved a little slow. And the ending was, well, let’s say it’s not what I expected.

Unlike my last three reviews, this title is not from a series. I thought you might like a break from series fiction, since a colleague told me that thanks to me, she now has a very long list of books to read! Michelle Richmond’s No One You Know is a murder mystery, a family drama, and a tale of growing up, all rolled into one. And it is a standalone title.

Ellie Enderlin’s older sister, Lila, a math genius in the doctoral program at Stanford University, was murdered when Ellie was in college. A best-selling true crime book pointed the finger at one man. There was no real proof, but everyone thought he did it. Ellie’s family struggled to get through the tragedy, and the aftershocks of the murder and the bestseller effect the way Ellie ultimately lives her life.

Ellie finally decides to find out what really happened, and along the way she comes to terms with who she is and why she became the person she did. As an interesting twist, because of who Lila was, all throughout the book are stories of mathematical personas, theorems, and unsolvable problems. Not being a math genius myself, I can’t tell you how much of that is fiction and how much is truth. But I like to think I am a little smarter after reading the book.

Take a look at No One You Know. You might learn something (sorry about that, I know it’s summer), but it’s also a good story. Available in the University Library’s McNaughton Collection under the call number RIC.

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New Stuff Tuesday – July 29

Posted on July 29, 2008 by kyle

Thanking the Monkey

Thanking the Monkey:
Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals
HV4708 .D39 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

The title of this week’s featured stuff sort of jumped out at me while I was browsing the shelves to find the topic for NST. It’s not everyday that you think about thanking the monkey.

But that’s just what animal rights activist Dawn thinks we should do. Jam-packed with information about every aspect of the animal’s impact on society, the book exposes the reader to all forms of animal cruelty without the sermon-like tone. In addition its light-hearted delivery of serious matters, comics from Bizarro and others make you laugh and think at the same time. As if the information weren’t enough, it also features well-known individuals showing their support for animal rights. In the end, the author allows you to draw your own conclusions, although she does make a pretty convincing case for the vegans and the vegetarians.

And for the Wisconsinites, she does tackle the everyone’s favorite topic – California and their ‘happy cows.’ That’s right – she says they’re not happy.

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Universal Borrowing 7/28-8/17

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Barbara

Universal Borrowing will be unavailable July 28-August 17 while UW System libraries undergo a software upgrade.

You can still get materials from other UW libraries:

During this period please use BadgerCat (WI) and limit your search to University of Wisconsin Libraries. Initiate an Interlibrary loan by clicking on the “ILLiad request” link. Materials should arrive within 2-5 days.

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Summer’s a good time to…dance!

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Barbara

Dancing couple imageLearn to dance! Sure, why not? There’s more to summer than school!
The University Library has videos that can help.

Latin dancing for beginners (1st-floor Media Center Video Collection, GV1751 .L44 1997) covers all the good stuff (five basic steps for meringue, paso doble, tango, bolero and mambo with tips on leading and following) in 45 minutes!

If you fall in love with one dance more than the others, search for just that dance in the Library Catalog, e.g., search for “tango dance?” and videorecording and you’ll get a list of videos, most of which are all about tango, including one simply called Tango (1st-floor Media Center Video Collection, GV1796.T3 T3 1997).

There are also videos on YouTube, including the one below (lesson no. 1 of 20):[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE3oJkrsZwk[/youtube]

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Economy Got You Down?

Posted on July 23, 2008 by kyle

I hate to sound like a downer, but with all of the news reports about the lackluster economy, it’s hard not to think about the difficult times upon us. On the other hand, Consumerist shared a reader’s comments about seven ways your public library can help you during a bad economy – and it’s not just about summer reading. As a library of a public university, we serve not only the faculty, staff and students of UW-Whitewater, but also community members from Whitewater and the surrounding area.

Of course, we’re not the only library in town. You can also walk about six blocks east of the University Library to the Irvin L. Young Public Library on Center Street.

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New Stuff Tuesday – July 15

Posted on July 15, 2008 by kyle

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture:
A Love Story For Your Life
QA76.2 .P38 L3 2008 DVD
Center Video Collection, 1st floor

This week’s featured item came highly recommended from Char… almost a month ago. She said that we had just gotten it in and that I should feature it on the blog. Well, now it is now in my possession after being checked out right away. And instead of writing anything, I’ll let the focus of the video, Professor Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University, speak for himself.

For the background to Pausch’s amazing story, check out the ABC News website. In addition to the video, we also have the book by the same title in the McNaugton Collection – 2nd floor (call number MCN Pau).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo[/youtube]

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International Year of the Potato

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Barbara

potatoesDid you know that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato? Yup, thank the United Nations and eat a spud today.

Why?!

The International Year of the Potato (IYP) “will raise awareness of the importance of the potato – and of agriculture in general – in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, poverty and threats to the environment. ”

This seems to be asking a lot of the humble potato, but promoting its production and consumption is a step toward fulfilling the UN’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger), while ensuring environmental stability (MDG7). For an explanation of the potato’s importance to these goals (nutritional benefits & sustainability as a crop), statistics, etc., see Buried treasure (UN Food and Agriculture Organization) and the IYP official web site:

“The potato is already an integral part of the global food system. It is the world’s number one non-grain food commodity, with production reaching a record 320 million tonnes in 2007. Potato consumption is expanding strongly in developing countries, which now account for more than half of the global harvest and where the potato’s ease of cultivation and high energy content have made it a valuable cash crop for millions of farmers.

At the same time, the potato – unlike major cereals – is not a globally traded commodity. Only a fraction of total production enters foreign trade, and potato prices are determined usually by local production costs, not the vagaries of international markets. It is, therefore, a highly recommended food security crop that can help low-income farmers and vulnerable consumers ride out current turmoil in world food supply and demand.“

The University Library has resources for more info, maybe for a research paper.

  • Search the Library Catalog for potato? and find titles such as Seeds for the future: the impact of genetically modified crops on the environment (3rd-floor Main Collection, SB123.57 .T494 2007) that discusses genetic engineering to improve the virus resistance of potatoes. Search for “food supply” to get books and government documents such as World hunger (Main Collection HC79.F3 W65 2007)
  • Search Library databases such as Academic Search Premier to find articles such as “Spud we like” in The Economist (March 1st, 2008 issue), which reports on the economic importance of the potato as a food crop (providing more calories, more quickly, while using less land and in a wider range of climates than any other plant), and “Global food security under climate change” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 12/11/2007, v.104 ,no.50).
  • You can also look for more on the Millennium Development Goals, finding such sources as the December 2007 issue of UN Chronicle (also available in the Library’s 1st-floor current periodicals collection) “The MDGs: Are we on track?”
  • Websites may be helpful also, such as UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Food Summit, 1996, which called for cutting the number of the world’s undernourished people in half by 2015. FAO also has web pages monitoring progress toward this hunger reduction goal as well as the MDGs, and a 2006 report, The state of food insecurity in the world.

potatoes

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