You’ll want to read: I Shall Not Want

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Ronna

I Shall Not Want

I Shall Not Want
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
MCN Spe
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor

In case you’re wondering if I ever read anything other than series fiction, the answer is yes. In fact, I intended to review a non-series title in this week’s post. But, then I found the latest from Julia Spencer-Fleming, I Shall Not Want, and I just had to find out the latest goings-on in Millers Kill, New York. Did the Reverend Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest, finally get together with Russ Van Alstyne, the town’s chief of police? What kind of crime would they be solving this time? Another murder? How many murders can a small town like Millers Kill have, anyway?

Apparently a lot, because once again someone’s been killed and once again, Russ and Clare are on the case. Illegal immigration, family violence, and a “junkyard dog vicious” gang are all part of I Shall Not Want. It is a thrilling read. And those of you who’ve read the previous book in the series, All Mortal Flesh, know that Russ is now available for romance with Clare. Will their smoldering attraction finally ignite?

I highly recommend starting at the beginning of this series and reading each book in order. But, if you don’t want to do that, at least read All Mortal Flesh first, because the ending of that book plays a huge role in I Shall Not Want. Both books are available in the University Library’s McNaughton Collection under the call number SPE. All other titles in the series are available at the Whitewater Public Library.

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New Stuff Tuesday – July 8

Posted on July 8, 2008 by kyle

Healthcare Tsunami

Healthcare Tsunami:
The Wave of Consumerism That Will Change US Business
by Dean Halverson & Wayne Glowac
RA410.53 .H35 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

The skyrocketing cost of oil isn’t the only concern of the minds of many Americans. Access to adequate and affordable health care for families and individuals is also a hot topic these days and the theme of this week’s featured book.

The healthcare industry is a complex animal, with the many hands in the pot. You’ve got the providers, insurance companies, government regulators, legislators and of course, the consumers. Halverson and Glowac, experts in the areas of market research and residents of Wisconsin, argue that the industry in for a wave of change – and not just any wave, a tsunami. As they explain in the introduction, the term tsunami generally pertains to an ocean wave caused by underwater earthquake or volcano. After seeing the aftereffects of the tsunamis in Asia, apply it to the context of business and it gets messy. They detail the past and present of healthcare and what the future holds. The question is, “Who will survive the tsunami?” (no pun intended) Check out the authors’ website for the book for more information.

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YouTube, Privacy, & Copyright

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Barbara

embedded video imageEver post a video to YouTube? Ever embed a YouTube video in your blog or webpage? Have you ever viewed a YouTube video that may have come from a movie or television show protected under copyright?

Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, has been pursuing a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube and its parent, Google, since March 2007. An issue is whether YouTube is protected by the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

On July 1st 2008, Judge Louis Stanton (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York) ordered Google to release data including copies of all videos that were once available for public viewing on YouTube.com but later removed and the “logging” database that contains information about each instance when a video is watched, either through YouTube or through embedding on another site. The logging database includes data such as usernames of YouTube viewers and users’ computer IP addresses.

UWW students and staff can read this latest decision in the legal research database LexisNexis Academic (search for 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50614).

Further information can be found in magazine, law review, and newspaper articles. For example, search ProQuest Newsstand Complete to find related New York Times articles such as “Google Told To Turn Over User Data Of YouTube” in the (July 4th, p.C1) and “Google Takes Step on Video Copyrights” (Oct 16, 2007, p.C7).

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And the Wisconsin winner is…

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Kate

“Go green!” is the motto for today’s society. In keeping with the trend to keep our environment clean and healthy, parents and educators can teach kids at a young age how to recycle. Keepin’ It in the Loop: a Recycling Activity and Learning Guide For Educators and Students (call number NAT 6/2:R 42/17/2007 and NAT 6/2:R 42/17/2007) recently won the prestigious Wisconsin Distinguished Documents award given out each year to a Wisconsin government document that “contributes significantly to the expansion of knowledge; provides inspiration and pleasure to an identifiable readership; contributes to public understanding of government agencies; and is distinguished by the clarity of its presentation, its typography and design, and its overall appeal.”

The Department of Natural Resources made these documents to teach young kids the importance of recycling and created fun and clever activities to make them think about the impact they have on their environment.

On June 6, 2008, Government Information Day in Madison, those who compiled these documents proudly received their awards from the Government Information Roundtable section of the Wisconsin Library Association for designing and creating these documents. Check out these winners located in the Wisconsin Documents collection, as well as the honorable mentioned documents listed below:

Governor’s Task Force on Campus Safety (GO SAF 2.1: )
Wisconsin Great Lakes Chronicle (COA 1/2:G 766/)
Turning Points (online)

For more information on the yearly winner’s of the Wisconsin Distinguished Documents Award, visit the Wisconsin Library Association Government Information Roundtable website.

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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Celebrate July 4th

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Barbara

July Fourth is Independence Day. See information related to this national holiday online from the Census Bureau, usa.gov, history.com, and the Library of Congress.

Flag and fireworks image

Why do we celebrate? It’s our national birthday! On July 4, 1776 the 13 colonies took a big step toward becoming a sovereign nation when the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.

How do we celebrate? parades, fireworks, barbecues, concerts, etc. Whitewater‘s parade on Friday, July 4th, starts at 10 a.m. See the entire festival schedule (July 3-6) online.

The University Library is closed on Friday-Saturday, but open on Sunday July 6th (4-8 p.m.). Whitewater’s public library (Irvin L. Young Memorial Library) is closed on Friday but open on Saturday July 5th.

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 – July 1

Posted on July 1, 2008 by kyle

Gusher of Lies

Gusher of Lies:
The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence”
by Robert Bryce
TJ163.25 .U6 B79 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

With oil prices nearing $143 a barrel, one has to wonder about this energy independence that has been buzzing around Washington and the rest of the world. This week’s new book has some beef with this notion of a self-sustaining United States.

“All of them are full of methane,” states the book description, in reference to Bush, Obama, Greenpeace and everyone that supports weaning the country off of foreign oil. Bryce, fellow at the Institute for Energy Research and managing editor of the Energy Tribune, takes issue with the idea of energy independence, saying that it’s neither possible nor advantageous. Furthermore, he holds nothing back against its proponents, which are not limited to just the crazy liberals or the staunch conservatives. He examines both the past, current and future alternative energy sources and their viability (or lack thereof). The book includes references and a bibliography for further reading.

The Library also has another book by Bryce, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, available in the Main Collection (HD9502.U54 E573 2002).

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Tracking Online Usage

Posted on June 27, 2008 by Barbara

There is plenty of interest in knowing what we’re doing online–what we’re searching, where we’re surfing–by marketers, researchers, educators, and others. Here are some examples of available resources:

Google Trends allows you to compare up to 5 words or phrases to see how often they’ve been searched relative to each other over time, e.g., cats,dogs. Results can be displayed for geographic areas of interest (below are results for the U.S. and France, both 2004-2008). You also can export the data to a .csv file and open it in a spreadsheet application. More information about Google Trends is online.

Google Trends graph example 1

Google Trends graph example 2

Google Trends for Websites shows where a website’s visitors are. The UWW campus website ‘s visitors come mostly from Wisconsin and Illinois (no surprises there), but the third most frequent state from which our online visitors come is California.

Alexa.com provides lists of the most-visited websites, globally and for specific countries. If you click on “Site info for” a particular “top” website you can get detailed traffic information such as the countries from which the site’s users are coming, where on the site users go, average page views per user, and the percentage of global users who go to the site.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project is constantly surveying people to learn more about who is online and the types of online activities in which they engage (bill paying, blogging, online shopping, email, file downloading, etc.). A special report on The Internet and The 2008 Election is available online. You can even take one of the Pew surveys, e.g., take the typology quiz to see what category (Inexperienced Experimenter, Connector, etc.) fits your use of information and communication technology.

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Art Road Trip, Anyone?

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Rebecca

What’s going on?! Here are links to some museums and art collections (plus a few other things) within a short drive of Whitewater.

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Bad Blood equals an “ok” read

Posted on June 25, 2008 by Ronna

Bad Blood

Bad Blood
by Linda Fairstein
MCN Fai
McNaughton Collection, 2nd floor

Last time I introduced you to Eve Dallas, a feisty police lieutenant from New York City, circa 2058. Now meet Alexandra (aka Alex) Cooper, Assistant District Attorney in charge of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She works closely with New York City detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to solve any murders that come their way. In Bad Blood, Alex is prosecuting Brendan Quillian for the strangulation death of his wife, Amanda. Unfortunately, Alex’s case is not very strong, but an explosion in an underground water tunnel leads to an old unsolved crime of which Quillian was also accused, which might bolster her case. Family skeletons and a courtroom shocker are thrown in for good measure. And of course, a possible new love interest for Alex.

Linda Fairstein, former chief prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Unit, has interesting characters in Alex, Mike, and Mercer, and a neverending source of plotlines in their respective jobs. But, her dialogue is often a bit stilted, and the faint “will they or won’t they” romantic undertone between Alex and Mike doesn’t add much to the series, now nine books long. You might ask why I’ve read all nine, and honestly, I don’t know. Maybe because most of the action where I live shuts down by 6 p.m. and I need something to do.

Come by the University Library and check out Bad Blood. Let me know what you think. In my opinion? A pleasant way to spend an evening, but you won’t have trouble putting it down when it’s time to go to bed.

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New Stuff Tuesday – June 24

Posted on June 24, 2008 by kyle

The Book of Salsa

The Book of Salsa:
A Chronicle of Urban Music from the
Caribbean to New York City
by César Miguel Rondón
translated by Frances Aparicio with Jackie White
ML3475 .R6613 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor

We’re going to spice things up a little here on New Stuff Tuesday with a little salsa – and I’m not referring to the kind that you eat (although that sounds tasty right now… is it snack time yet?).

One of the more popular paper topics for students is music, as it generally has a major impact on their lives and can provide enough inspiration to write ten pages. We just received an excellent book for those students. César Miguel Rondón, a Venezuelan journalist and media personality, has provided the world with a comprehensive history of salsa music, a prominent aspect of Latin American culture. Thanks to translator Frances Aparicio, professor of Latino Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago, this definitive compilation is finally available in English and at your University Library.

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