September 2000
Issue 9
Table of Contents
Polk Library Reorganization
Periodical Review 2000
Copyright for a Brave New World
New Environmental/Earth Science Database
Oxford English Dictionary On-Line
Personal Library Record
TechnoBag Workshops
Adaptive Technology Update
Could It Be in the EMC?
Finding Government Web Sites
Finding Legal Materials On-Line


Polk Library News
is a publication of
Forrest R. Polk Library
, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Polk Library Photographs

Polk Library News

Polk Library Reorganization
John Berens

Over the summer Polk Library completed an internal reorganization designed to support the delivery of traditional and emerging library services to the campus community. Several library staff members have assumed new responsibilities.

Effective July 1st Patrick Wilkinson serves as Polk Library's Associate Director and Chief Operations Officer, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of all Library services and personnel. Mr. Wilkinson also represents Polk Library on CUWL (the Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries). Since joining Polk Library in 1996 Mr. Wilkinson has taken a leading role in major projects including the Library's space needs planning and implementation of the Endeavor library system.

Following input from Library staff, Polk Library is now organized around three Departments: Access Services, Information & Instructional Services, and Technical Services. Each department is managed by a Department Head:

 
  • Access Services Department -- Jeanne Foley
  • Information & Instructional Services Department -- Sarah Neises
  • Technical Services Department -- Barbara Fahey

Collectively, the Associate Director and the three Department Heads form the Library Coordinating Council (LCC). The LCC's purposes are to coordinate activities between the three Library departments, focus Library activities in regards to major projects and initiatives, identify and deal with emerging issues, and inform the entire Library about important matters happening in and outside the Library.

In addition, two continuing "cross-departmental workgroups" have been formed to coordinate the important functions of collection development and electronic access. The Collection Development Group is co-chaired by Patrick Wilkinson and Cynthia Huebschen (Collection Development Coordinator). Its executive committee will meet frequently to keep track of the Library's collection budgets and provide information to the full group. The Electronic Access Group, chaired by Barbara Fahey, includes Karen Dunn, Paulette Feld, Jeanne Foley, and Sarah Neises. This Group, originally formed in 1997 will continue to plan for the implementation of new or enhanced electronic library services as well as manage future upgrades of Endeavor.

Through this reorganization, Polk Library is well positioned to address the information and access needs of students, faculty, staff, the region, and the state.

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Periodical Review 2000
Patrick Wilkinson

From February through June 2000, Polk Library conducted a formal periodicals review project to better support the university's instructional mission. In cooperation with the Colleges and Departments, Polk Library reviewed its periodicals holdings in light of new UW System funding for library acquisitions, curricular changes and the availability of electronic (full-text) journal articles. Currently, the library provides access to approximately 7,000 periodical titles that give, at least partial, full-text article access.

The library used the following criteria in its review of a publication recommended for addition or deletion through this process:

  • It is indexed in an index owned or licensed by the library.
  • It is expected to be purchased on a continuing basis.
  • It fills an information need not covered by other titles that the library owns.
  • It supports student research.
  • It directly supports the department's curriculum.
  • It is not already available from the library in an online, full-text format.
  • Its price is reasonable and the publication's publisher does not have a history of inordinate annual price increases.

Polk Library received requests to add 122 new periodicals titles and to drop 44 titles. Of the 122 requests for new titles, the library determined that 24 of these titles were either owned by the library already in paper (5) or available in a full-text electronic format from the library (19). After further review using the established criteria and additional communication with the Departments, the library decided to add 79 new print titles to its periodicals collection at an increased cost of $26,163. It also cancelled 35 titles for a savings of $10,093. This resulted in a net increase to the base periodicals budget for 2000-2001 (without figuring in inflationary costs for the existing 1800 periodical titles) of $16,070.

To provide all the periodicals that faculty and students legitimately want is an impossible task for academic libraries, even for large research libraries. According to the Association of Research Libraries, the prices of journals have risen " . . . an average of 9% a year since 1986, while the consumer price index has increased only 3.4% a year," and "Libraries spent 152% more to purchase 7% fewer journal titles in 1998 than in 1986." Thus, in the future, Polk Library will need to review additions to its periodicals collection carefully, identify low use titles for possible cancellation, rely on electronic, full-text access when it is more cost effective and lobby UW System and the State Legislature for strong support of library funding.

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Copyright for a Brave New World
Karen Dunn

Intellectual property rights can be easily obscured in a world burgeoning with electronic information products. In the global ‘marketplace for ideas’ that the World Wide Web affords, we need to remain vigilant to the principles guiding copyright legislation.

Academic libraries have a vested interest in these principles—particularly, the balance struck between protecting the integrity of an individual’s scholarly achievement with the right of fellow citizens, in a democratic society, to share in its understanding and extension.

While copyright legislation in the United States and abroad is adjusted to adequately reflect the digital universe (and in a nutshell, the same legislation does indeed apply to web documents), I invite you to consider the following web sites to increase your understanding of this topical issue.

United States Copyright Office (http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/)

Copyright Management Center (http://www.iupui.edu/~copyinfo)

Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com)

Locating U.S. Copyright Holders (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/hrc/watch.html)

World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int)

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New Environmental/Earth Science Database
Cynthia Huebschen

Would you like to obtain earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey?
View information from NASA’s Digital Earth project? Make maps with ArcData Online?
Read selected articles from Geotimes, Environmental Geology, or Bulletin of Volcanology?
View maps of common environmental problems in the U.S.?
Watch a video presentation on pacific whales or a Philippine volcano?

You may do all of the above in a single database. In July, Polk Library began a subscription to Columbia Earthscape, a database which offers reports, some books and articles, and Web links. Access has been purchased through shared UW System funds, and is available to all UW System students, staff, and faculty.

Columbia Earthscape contains various types of information on topics such as geology, global warming, plate tectonics, volcanoes, acid rain, endangered species, forests, pollution, and oceanography. References found here may take the form of articles (some abstracts, some full text), books or chapters, links to Web sites such as NASA or the National Hurricane Center, or even online videos and lectures. Selected papers are offered from organizations such as the American Chemical Society, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the Canadian Forest Service.

Earthscape can be searched in its entirety or in specific sections, or you may simply browse the various areas. The database is divided into four sections: Research, which offers links to some articles, books or chapters, and publications from organizations; Links and Resources, which contains a variety of links on topics such as geology, astronomy, paleontology, and meteorology; Education, which offers a number of audiovisual presentations and guides to science teaching; and Earth Affairs Magazine, which offers selected articles online.

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Did you know...
You can now view your personal library record.

This is how:

•Start at the Polk Library Home Page
•Click on Online Catalog
•Click on Your Record
•Key in your 16 digit Titan Card number
•Tab down and key in your last name
•Press ‘login’ and see the items you have and any fines/fees.

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Oxford English Dictionary On-Line
Cynthia Huebschen

Faculty and students of all UW System campuses now have access to OED Online. This online version of the Oxford English Dictionary consists of two parts—“the complete Second Edition” (available in print form in Polk Library’s Reference collection), and “the New Edition in progress.” According to the publisher, the “new edition,” or 3rd edition of the dictionary, is expected to be published in print form by 2010. In the meantime, new additions to the Dictionary will be available through our online subscription.

The OED Online can be found at: http://dictionary.oed.com

To begin, click Sign In on the lower left. Type your search in the upper right corner, and click Find Now. Most searches turn up more than one reference to a word; simply click on a reference to view the entry. The information provided, as in the print edition, will include a word’s etymology, common uses, status if not in current use, and dates of sample occurrences. Help is available online; when you are done using Help, simply close that window. When you are finished using the OED Online, please click Sign Off in the lower right corner, to free a connection for the next user.

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TechnoBag IDEA Lab Workshops--Media Services

27 September, 11:30-12:30 --Graphics on the Internet!!
Instructor: Brian Ledwell
Uses, techniques, and benefits to designing web graphics and preparing images for the web using PhotoShop 5.5 and ImageReady.

25 October, 12:00-1:00 --About Type Instructor: Nick Dvoracek
Contemporary word processors and printers put sophisticated typographic tools at our fingertips, yet most of our knowledge comes from typing class, and much of that is inappropriate. This session will cover both stylistic and legibility issues for both screen and the printed page.

29 November, 12:00-1:00 --Surfing the Web with a Different Board--Issues in Web Accessibility
Instructor: Sean Ruppert

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Adaptive Technology Update
Julie Weyenberg

This year, there are some new adaptive technologies available for students on campus. Disability Services recently purchased some new software, computers, and peripherals that will help increase the productivity of students with disabilities.

The software programs that have been purchased are: Kurzweil, Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred, and Zoomtext Level II. Kurzweil is software specifically for students with various learning disabilities. It allows you to scan in text and display it on a computer screen. Once it is on the screen, the program can read the text back to you at whatever speed you would like, or do many other things to the text such as make it larger, or highlight it. Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 4.0 is a voice recognition program. Instead of typing your papers, you can speak what you have written into a microphone, and it will appear on the computer screen. With this software the keyboard and mouse are not necessary. Zoomtext Level II is a screen magnification program. This program will magnify anything on the computer screen.

Four computers have also been purchased--three Compaq Deskpros, and a Mac Power G4. The Compaq’s have Pentium III processors. Trackballs are also connected to these computers instead of a standard mouse. All four of the computers have a large amount of memory, and hard drive space so the adaptive software can run efficiently.

You can access Zoomtext and Kurzweil in the ‘Students with Disabilities’ Study Lounge in Dempsey 120, and in Polk Library room 111. Dragon Naturally Speaking will be available on the computer in Polk 111. Students will need to set-up a training session on this software before they can use it. For information on training or gaining access to the computers and software contact Disability Services located in the Dean of Students Office, Dempsey 125.

**Polk Library provides several devices for accessing library-related resources. The Reference Room has a wheelchair-accessible work-station equipped with large-print keyboard, trackball mouse, head-phones, and touch-screen. ZoomText has been installed at this work-station. The Voyager XL CCD Visualizer, located in Polk 111, is available to enlarge printed materials for large-screen viewing. A Visual Tek Visualizer is available in the EMC to similarly magnify microfiche.

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Could It Be in the EMC?
Susan Kiedrowski

The lazy days of summer meant extra time for projects in the EMC. First off, many new video series were acquired. Some of these cutting-edge educational videos include: Saving Our Schools and The Teen Files, educating against hate and violence; The Mind and The Brain, presenting the latest findings in cognitive research; Professional Development Workshops and Case Studies in Science Education, helping to teach science more effectively; Ten Great Writers of the World, Fooling With Words and Sounds of Poetry, introducing us to famous authors. Other important video acquisitions include the ten volume set, Death: A Personal Understanding, and the 13 volume set BBC TV Production Training Course which explains in detail the many steps involved in producing a television show.

Secondly, we gained many new pieces of educational software. In the realm of language, we have Language Workshop Interactive Multimedia for grades 6-8, which is designed to improve the student’s grammar, usage, and mechanics. For teachers of language and communication, Normal Communication Acquisition explains the process of language acquisition by children. Also, Writer’s Workshop 1 leads the user through the writing process to create compositions. As part of the “American Journey” series, our new Women in America software provides historical information and primary source documents at the click of a mouse. For those in the nursing field, the following four new pieces in the “Delmar Nursing Skills” series are available: Critical Care/Surgical Care, Special Procedures, Basic Care, and Intermediate Nursing Skills.

Finally, summer changes included rearranging two sections of the EMC due to a general shortage of shelving space. In order to maximize use of the existing space, our non-fiction and audiovisual shelves were re-adjusted to better fit the materials, and all of the materials were redistributed more effectively on the shelves. These areas are now more appealing to the eye, as well as more easily accessed by patrons.

Coming Attractions: The Century’s Best Feature Films!

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Finding Government Web Sites Using Conventional Domain Names
Mike Watkins

Table of Contents
•Federal web sites
•United States Military web sites
•International Organization web sites
•State government web sites
•County government web sites
•City government web sites
•Educational Institutions

Federal Web Sites
Oftentimes the easiest way to locate a government web sites is to use intuition to construct the domain name.
1.Most federal government sites have a prefix of www.

2. The middle portion of the domain name is the name of the agency, which is usually an acronym, or a shortened version of the name of the executive agency.
EX. —www.fbi. Federal Bureau of Investigation
EX. —-www.gao. General Accounting Office
EX. —-www.bls Bureau of Labor Statistics
EX. —-www.census. Census Bureau
EX. —-www.state. State Department
EX. —-www.nih. National Institutes of Health
EX. —-www.ed. Department of Education

Some atypical examples:
EX. —-www.uspto. United States patent Office
EX. —-www.nih.nlm. National Library of Medicine
EX. —-www.usdoj. Department of Justice

3. The suffix of the domain name for federal sites is almost always .gov
EX. —www.fbi.gov EX. —-www.state.gov
EX. —www.census.gov

In some rare cases a quasi-official government will have a suffix of .org which is usually reserved for independent not-for-profit organizations.
EX. —-www.ncjrs.org National Criminal Justice Resource Center (affiliated with the United States Department of Justice)
EX. —-www.frbchi.org Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

To review, federal agency domain names usually use the following naming convention: www.fbi.gov

United States Military Web Sites
Military web sites use the same naming convention for the prefix of the domain name (www) and for the middle of the name (army). However, the suffix for military sites including the Department of Defense is .mil.
EX. —www.defenselink.mil Department of Defense
EX.—-www.army.mil United States Army
EX. —-www.navy.mil United States Navy

International Organizations
The naming convention for international organizations is similar to government agencies. The prefix is usually .www while the middle portion of the name is an acronym or nickname for the organization and the suffix is .org. There is a generic domain for international organizations (.int), however for some reason most international organizations use the .org suffix. EX. —www.un.org United Nations EX. —-www.imf.org International Monetary Fund EX. —-www.greenpeace.org Greenpeace EX. —-www.worldbank.org The World Bank EX. —-www.redcross.org The Red Cross

The .org suffix is also used for most not for profit organizations that would not use one of the other available suffixes such as .gov, .mil, .com, .edu, .net, .int, etc.

State Government Web Sites
The naming convention for United States State Government web sites is as follows: www.state.wi.us
County government web sites: co.winnebago.wi.us
City government web sites: ci.madison.wi.us

Note: At present, many cities and counties in the United States are not following the guidelines when establishing domain names for their official sites.

Educational Institutions
Educational institutions generally use the prefix www. The middle part of the name is usually an acronym for the name of the university www.uwosh. The suffix for most educational institutions is edu.
EX: —www.uwosh.edu (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh)
EX: —www.uwm.edu (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee)
EX: — www.wisc.edu (University of Wisconsin Madison)

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Finding Legal Materials On-Line
Cynthia Huebschen

Polk Library offers several ways of accessing legal materials, including court cases and law reviews, online. Since Summer 1999, the library has offered access to a major provider of legal information, Academic Universe, published by Lexis-Nexis.

The following may be found in Academic Universe:
•Legal news (articles from legal newspapers, magazines, and newsletters)
•Law reviews (articles from titles such as Harvard Law Review and Wisconsin Law Review)
•Federal case law (decisions from all federal court levels, including full-text opinions of all U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1790)
•Cases from the U.S. District Courts, Court of International Trade, Bankruptcy Courts, U.S. Tax Courts, and Military courts.
•State case law (state high court and appellate decisions, for all states including WI)
•Federal Code, Federal Regulations, U.S. Attorney General Opinions, & the U.S. Constitution
•Statutory laws, court rules, and Attorneys General opinions from all states
•European Union law
•Tax law, including all available federal tax caselaw, selected documents from the IRS Bulletin, IRS Actions & Memoranda, the Internal Revenue Code, and Tax analysts’ news & journals
•Patent law, including all U.S. patents from 1971 to the present
•Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory listings, and directories of law schools

Recently, Polk Library has added online access to replace some print and CD-ROM legal publications (U.S. Citations, Federal Case Names, and Wisconsin Citations). This new access comes from Lexis Publishing, and is a part of the full Lexis-Nexis legal database. The main advantage of this means of access is that users can “shepardize” a case, tracing cases which have cited another specific case. Polk Library is calling this database Shepard’s Online from Lexis.com. Our Shepard’s subscription allows access to the above publications, and full-text access to court cases from all Wisconsin courts.

Using Shepard’s Online from Lexis.com. researchers can:
•Find Wisconsin Supreme Court cases from 1936 to the present.
•“Shepardize” Wisconsin and other court cases.
•Search Wisconsin Administrative Code and Wisconsin Attorney General opinions from 1977 to the present.

Some of the above, as well as additional sites for legal information, can be found at Polk Library’s Government Documents site http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/llr/depts/docs/gov.html

Using the Law and Tax Sites link found here, the legal researcher can find:
•U. S. Supreme Court decisions from 1991 to the present
•Information on federal laws relating to copyright, patents, trademarks, and commerce
•United States Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations
•State constitutions, including Wisconsin’s
•Wisconsin Statutes, the Wisconsin court system, and Wisconsin Administrative Code
•Municipal codes, from communities in Wisconsin and around the U.S.
•Summaries of cases, including civil cases, tried in municipal court in WI, since 1990
•Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s home page, and that of the IRS.

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