Polk Library News
March 2006 - Issue 32

Get Answers at Ask?Away Sarah Neises, neises@uwosh.edu

Since 2002, Polk librarians have been answering chat questions for people from UW Oshkosh and from around the state. In September 2005, we began answering questions from people all over the nation and the world. We staff the virtual reference service for 4 hours per week, and librarians from Wisconsin and around the nation staff the service during the other times, giving our users the opportunity to get answers 24/7! We have seen an upswing in the number of questions asked since we joined the nationwide service, and Polk librarians enjoy providing this service. The consortium of Wisconsin libraries providing chat reference service has expanded in recent months. Academic libraries participating in this project include Edgewood College, St. Norbert, UW Milwaukee, UW Whitewater and more. There are also technical college libraries and a large number of public libraries participating.

In Spring 2006, there will be a "re-branding" of the service. In the past, this service was called AskWisconsin. AskWisconsin was a small consortium of libraries. Ask?Away was a small consortium in the southern part of the state with a well established public relations campaign. It was decided that AskWisconsin would merge into Ask?Away and we would all use the same marketing tools and publicity materials.

We receive all kinds of questions, such as "Do you have any books on celiac disease that are up to date?" or "How much does it cost the government to pass a bill on average?". We get questions from users who don't know that we are not librarians at THEIR libraries in Pennsylvania, California, etc. In those cases, libraries have posted websites that are designed to assist remote librarians in understanding the ins-and-outs of their specific library. If we cannot answer specific questions about an individual library, we can refer the question via email to their librarian who will follow-up with the user.

We consider chat reference a supplement to the other ways we try to assist users, such as library instruction, live reference desk, phone service and email. To use the chat reference service, visit: http://www.uwosh.edu/library/askalibrarian.html

Where Did That Reference Book Go? Cynthia Huebschen, huebschc@uwosh.edu

Last year Reference and Technical Services staff and students completed a project involving the review of the Reference books in the “Z” (bibliographic and library science) call number range. With faculty agreement, a large number of titles were chosen to be withdrawn. This not only streamlined the "Z" call number range by removing out-of-date or duplicate titles, but it also created some much-needed shelf space in the Reference area. Over the past few months the collection has been shifted into this space, allowing us to give expansion room to call numbers in the late H's through the T's.

For library users, this means that the titles you're used to finding in Reference, from the late HG section through Z, are no longer where you were used to finding them! The titles are still in call number order but have all been shifted further toward the end of the Reference shelving. We have updated the “stack guides” (signs on the end of the shelves), but if you walk to the spot where you expected to find, say, desktop dictionaries and find something different… just keep walking. The dictionaries are now located further down that aisle.

The reference review project is continuing, and library staff are now considering titles in the early call numbers which have been identified by Reference librarians as being outdated, inappropriate for the collection, or in poor condition. So over the next year or two, Reference titles will continue to be moved out of that collection, permitting us to shift the remaining books to allow room to add new titles.

The overall goals of the project are: 1) To gain space so that new Reference books can be easily shelved; and 2) To make the overall Reference collection more attractive and useful to students. When the outdated and unproductive books are removed, the titles students will find upon browsing the collection will be generally newer and more relevant to their needs, as well as easier to spot on the shelf.

We appreciate your patience during this time of revising the collection and your input as we make lists of titles available for your review.

Bert the Turtle Ducks and Covers at Prelinger Archive Mike Watkins, watkins@uwosh.edu

Bert the Turtle, a cartoon character developed to provide Civil Defense instruction in public service announcements, can be seen in the film “Duck and Cover”, a 1951 film that is available for download from the Prelinger Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger. The Prelinger Archive is a repository of ephemeral films from advertising, education, industry, or of amateur origin. The archive can be searched by keyword or browsed by title or subject. Currently 1,975 films from this collection are available for download at the site, and permission is not required to download or reuse the films in the Prelinger collection.

The Prelinger Archive is just one of the collections available from the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/. In addition to the Prelinger Archive, the Internet Archive provides access to 26,774 movies from other sources, 29,833 concerts in its “live Music Archives”, 69,280 audio recordings, and 26,023 texts. The Internet Archive also provides access to the “WayBackMachine”, which archives now defunct web sites or previous iterations of current web sites.

Second Annual Book Sale at Polk Library Ron Hardy, hardyr@uwosh.edu

Last April Polk Library held their first book sale in over 30 years! Over 2000 books were sold, and almost $1,000 was raised for future collection projects. The book sale was a great way to bring the community into the library and to help promote a culture of books and reading on campus.

This April during National Library Week we will do it again! Our Second Annual Book Sale will be Wednesday April 5th and Thursday April 6th . There will be thousands of books and other materials for sale, most items for fifty cents or three for a dollar. Subjects include children's books, criminal justice, education, government, history, law, nursing, philosophy, popular fiction, public administration, reference books, and more! There will also be a number of videocassettes, large sets, older magazines, bound journals, and the ‘picture collection' – hundreds of mounted and laminated pictures on card stock.

Items being sold consist primarily of unwanted donations, discarded library materials, and donations from the personal collections of the library staff. Money raised will go towards future library collection projects or future special needs.

We look forward to seeing you at Polk Library during National Library Week!

Create Your Own Search Engine With Rollyo Renée Büker, bukerr@uwosh.edu

Wish you had one quick search box that only searched your favorite news websites? Want to make a quick search box for your students that will only search websites you've pre-selected? An interesting new tool called Rollyo (http://www.rollyo.com/) will let you do just that. You indicate the websites you'd like to include in your search collection, or “searchroll”, and Rollyo will create a search box that only searches those sites.

Check out a couple of searchroll examples to get a better idea of how this works. I've created a Free E-Books searchroll for sites that offer the text of entire books for free, such as Project Gutenberg and the National Academies Press (try a search for Mark Twain, for example); and an Oshkosh Area News searchroll, which searches local newspaper, blog, and television news sites (try a search for "school board" election, for example). You can also visit the “Explore” section of the Rollyo site to browse searchrolls that others have created.

Creating your own searchroll is free and very simple. To create your own customized collection of websites to search, click on the “Create Searchroll” link. Enter a name for your searchroll, then list up to 25 URLs for the searchroll to search. Note that Rollyo will search whole sites, but not particular pages or sections – so you can search http://www.uwosh.edu/ as a whole, but you can't limit to only http://www.uwosh.edu/library/. Once you've entered the sites you want to search and click “Create Searchroll”, it will ask you to create a username and password, so you can go in and modify your searchrolls later. Then when you've created a searchroll and logged in, clicking on the “Tools” link gives you the ability to easily place your searchroll search box on a webpage of your choice, find the direct URL for your searchroll's homepage, or email your searchroll to another person. An interesting tool for customizing your own web searches!

Spring Break Library Hours

Building Hours
(includes Government Documents area):

Reference Service:

Wisconsin Area Research Center and University Archives

Let the Browsing Room Help You Plan a Wisconsin Adventure! Karen Reiter, reiter@uwosh.edu

Wisconsin is a nature lover's paradise, with lakes, rivers, forests, prairies, and beaches. Wisconsin has had a long commitment to preserving its natural resources. Virtually anything you're looking for in outdoor recreation can be found in Wisconsin. Listed below are some books in the Browsing Room that can help you start your adventure.

Wisconsin state parks : a complete outdoor recreation guide for campers, hikers, anglers, boaters and nature lovers, by Bill Bailey

Walking trails of eastern and central Wisconsin, by Bob Crawford

Wisconsin's outdoor treasures : a guide to 150 natural destinations, by Tim Bewer

The best in tent camping, Wisconsin : a guide for car campers who hate RVs, concrete slabs, and loud portable stereos, by Johnny Molloy

50 hikes in Wisconsin : walks, hikes, and backpacks in the Badger State, by John & Ellen Morgan

Spotlight on Reference Cynthia Huebschen, huebschc@uwosh.edu

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Ref. B 51 .E53 2006

The original multi-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy has been in Reference since the 1960s and was useful to many classes. Now a new edition has been published, “compiled under the close guidance of a 21-member board of scholars, headed by Donald Borchert.” The new edition runs 10 volumes and contains more than 21,000 entries, “including more than 450 new articles.”

Among the topics covered are African, Islamic, Jewish, and Buddhist philosophies; bioethics and biomedical ethics; epistemiology; metaphysics; peace and war; the Holocaust; feminist thought; and many biographical entries. Most entries run about 2 pages, though the larger topics run much longer. Some of the biographical entries are arranged by first name, such as “Thomas Aquinas, St. ”, and “William of Ockham.”

Invasive Plants of the Upper Midwest
Ref. SB 612 .M54 C93 2005

This profusely-illustrated paperback includes plants of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. It was published posthumously, after the author died of ovarian cancer. Most of the color photos were taken by the author. The introduction notes that “it would be impossible for this book to discuss in detail every plant that is potentially invasive in the upper Midwest. In order to include information about a wider selection of plants, an invasive plant list, along with general plant characteristics, can be found in Appendix E.”

The chapters include “Invasive Plant Control Techniques,” “Invasive Plants of Major Concern,” “Invasive Plants of Lesser Concern,” “Potential Problem Species,” and “Native Plants That Sometimes Need Control.” Typical entries include descriptions of the plant's height, leaves, flowers, fruit or seeds, stems or trunks, roots, habitat, when the plant sheds its leaves or develops seeds, changes over time if notable, odor if distinctive, why the plant is hazardous to native plants or wildlife, and methods of control.

The plants discussed here include: Canada Thistle, Common Buckthorn, Reed Canary Grass, Eurasian Water-Milfoil, Orange Daylily, Crown Vetch, Common Burdock, Hawkweed, Norway Maple, Willows, and Wild Grapes.

Staff Highlights

• Walter Kempf, Acquisitions, received the March 2006 Star Award, recognizing "performance above and beyond the expectations of their position and responsibilities for classified staff" on the UW Oshkosh campus. Walter was nominated in recognition of the many hours he contributed to the massive government documents shifting project during Summer 2005.
  
  
• Renée Büker, Outreach Services Librarian, has been appointed to the Council of UW Libraries "Learn@UW-Library Integration Task Force". This group will examine how libraries across the UW System are currently integrating their services into Desire2Learn, what unmet student and faculty needs exist, and what solutions could be implemented to better integrate library resources into the D2L environment.