Polk Library News
May 2006 - Issue 33

From the Director: Academia Strikes Back? Pat Wilkinson, wilkinso@uwosh.edu

For the past several years, you have read a good deal about the “crisis in academic publishing” in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Polk Library News. In general, this situation impacts the quantity and quality of scholarly and educational information available to faculty and students. In the library newsletter, I have discussed the cuts that we have been forced to make because of rapidly rising information prices and flat or declining acquisition budgets. I have also stressed the positive steps, such as desktop document delivery and Universal Borrowing, which Polk Library and the other UW System libraries have taken in order to use our resources most effectively for the benefit of scholars and students.

Last fall, two economics professors, Theodore Bergstrom (University of California – Santa Barbara) and R. Preston McAfee (California Institute of Technology), issued a challenge to academia through “An Open Letter to All University Presidents and Provosts Concerning Increasingly Expensive Journals” http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Journal/OpenLetter.pdf. In essence, they encourage higher education to charge the publishers who are extracting “maximum revenue from the academic community” for the valuable editorial input that academia gives away freely to publishers.

In their two and a half page open letter, Bergstrom and McAfee concisely describe how a once mutually beneficial relationship between scholars and scholarly publishing became dysfunctional starting in the 1970s when “. . . some for-profit scholarly publishers discovered that library demands for journals were remarkably unresponsive to price increases and that the publishers could greatly increase their revenues by sharply increasing their prices.” This discovery has led to the current situation where in many disciplines the cost-per-page of for-profit journals are five times higher than journals published by professional societies and associations in the same discipline!

Bergstrom and McAfee have done extensive research on this topic to support their argument. They have created a database (http://www.journalprices.com/) using price and citation information to identify scholarly journals that are good, medium and bad values. You might find it interesting to check journals in your area.

You might ask: How does this impact me, my scholarship and my teaching? How does this impact student learning? UW System libraries have not received a general, system-wide increase in their acquisitions budgets since the 1999–2001 biennium. Faced with information inflation running 6% - 12% a year, some libraries have also had a real dollar reduction to their acquisition budgets. UW System libraries have reacted well to this challenge through shared purchases, increased resource sharing and effective use of technology to deliver needed information to their campuses. UW System libraries are currently working on methods to increase our purchasing power and diminish needless duplication among our libraries.

Yet, UW System libraries are in very real danger of becoming a system of mediocre libraries in terms of their collections. This will adversely impact you, your students, and UW universities. To avoid this, at least two things need to happen. First, the UW System Administration and the State of Wisconsin need to reinvest in UW System libraries for the benefit of higher education in the state. Second, institutions of higher education need to implement effective methods to deal with price gouging by certain, powerful commercial publishers.

If you would like to discuss these issues, Ron Hardy and I would be happy to meet with you individually or with your department.

BadgerCat – Searching for Items in the UW System & Beyond Sarah Neises, neises@uwosh.edu

As of March 2006, users have a new method of searching for books, videos and more in Polk Library, the UW System and worldwide. Polk Library has had a long-standing subscription to WorldCat, a catalog that includes the holdings of libraries worldwide. BadgerCat is a subset of WorldCat. By linking into BadgerCat, you can quickly see what is available in the state.

The advantages of BadgerCat are:

• Faster searching than a Universal Borrowing search
• Easy way to limit to video/DVD searching
• Many more great search limits easily available such as year, fiction/non-fiction, sound recordings and much more.
• Results often include book cover photos and/or excerpts.

Most library users at UW Oshkosh know how to search our library catalog to see if we own something here. But if we don't own something, then it is necessary to repeat your search at the Universal Borrowing screen and initiate a Universal Borrowing request. With BadgerCat, you can do ONE search and instantly see if we own it, or if a UW System or other Wisconsin library has it. Then you can click on a UW System library that owns the item, and do a Universal Borrowing request. If it's not at a UW System library, then you can do an Interlibrary Loan request right from within the record.

If something is owned by a UW System library, you can do a Universal Borrowing request for it:

• Click on "Libraries That Own Item", then click the library's name and then initiate a request from within their catalog.
• You will typically click a button near the top of the screen that says "Request an Item", or "Place Requests" or similar language.
• You'll need to use your TitanCard UW Oshkosh log-in information, and then follow onscreen instructions.

If you find items outside the UW System - at a private school, public library, etc. - there is a link on the screen that says "Place an ILL Request" . Click this and log-in with your TitanCard, and click Submit Request. You'll only want to do ILL requests for things NOT in the UW System. For UW System items, Universal Borrowing is much faster to use.

You can use the "Search In:" drop-down menu to choose where you want to search: UW System, Wisconsin Public Libraries, Libraries Worldwide, etc.

You will be able to find permanent links to BadgerCat on the "Other Libraries" page http://www.uwosh.edu/library/libraries.html and on the drop-down menu on the main page that says "List of Library Search Tools". Just click the drop-down menu and BadgerCat is on the list alphabetically.

Stay Informed With Ingenta Ron Hardy, hardyr@uwosh.edu

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could have the table of contents from the most important journals in your field e-mailed to you as soon as they are published?

You can! Polk Library is offering Current Awareness / Table of Contents service to all staff & faculty through Ingenta Connect. You can select an unlimited number of titles from over 29,000 journals and have the table of contents of new issues delivered directly to your e-mail inbox.

Here's how you can set up your own Table of Contents service with Ingenta:

• Go to Ingenta (You can also find a link to Ingenta from the library's website "Especially for Faculty" page -- use this link instead of going directly to the Ingenta website so that you are recognized as a UW Oshkosh user)
• On the right it should say you are signed in as University of Wisconsin Oshkosh .
• To get your own account, look for the words "Need to Register? Sign Up Here” and click that link.
• Fill out the required fields (those with an * next to them)
• Click Register
• Look for a section on the right hand side that says "manage my ingenta"
• Click the link that says "new issue alerts"
• This is where you can view alerts you have set up, and set up new alerts. To add an alert, click the tab that says Add .
• Now you should be able to search for journals and have them added to your Table of Contents delivery. Just click the box next to the title, then click Add. You should then get email delivery from the journals selected. You probably won't know if it's working until a new Table of Contents is entered into the database. For example, if it's a quarterly journal, you might not get one for awhile. It doesn't send you one right off the bat.
• You can now log out of Ingenta by clicking on Sign Out in the middle right side of the screen.
• Write down your username and password so you don't forget them! If you forget your password, you will have to email Ingenta, not Polk Library, as we have no access to the usernames and passwords created at Ingenta.

New Online Catalog of Government Documents Mike Watkins, watkins@uwosh.edu

The Government Printing Office (GPO) released the beta version of the new online Catalog of Government Documents on March 9. The catalog is available through GPO Access at http://catalog.gpo.gov/F . The new catalog will act as a portal for GPO's Integrated Library System for government publications. It uses an Ex Libris Aleph 500 platform, which is a widely used electronic catalog platform among libraries of all types.

GPO will also use SFX/Metalib technology to expand the scope of the Integrated Library System in the future. The vision behind the Integrated Library System is of a crawler technology to harvest documents from the myriad of federal government agency websites, catalog them, and make them available through the Catalog of Government Publications. GPO intends to create a national bibliography of government publications through the creation of this Integrated Library System.

The contents of the initial release of the catalog include records for over 500,000 federal government documents from 1976 to current. This replaces an earlier version of the online catalog made available through GPO Access. The GPO plans to increase the holdings of the online Catalog of Government Publications to include all publications cataloged back to the late 1800's. Currently, The Monthly Catalog of Government Publications is the only access that has been provided by the GPO for documents published by the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the federal government prior to 1976.

The new version of the catalog provides basic, advanced, and expert search options, as well as a browse feature. Direct links are provided to electronic documents from the cataloging record. In addition, cataloging records indicate which library in the Federal Depository Library system owns a print version of the document. (Polk Library's Government Documents Division is a Federal Depository Library.) Searches can also be limited by format and search results can be emailed.

The Catalog of Government Publications and the Integrated Library System are being implemented as a step towards an all-electronic Federal Depository Library Program - a process that was mandated by the U.S. Congress in 1996.

A Pronunciation Guide for Everything Wisconsin Deb Duncan, duncan@uwosh.edu

Do you have trouble pronouncing Lake Butte des Morts?  How about Oconomowoc?  Or Lac Courte Oreilles?  You can use a new website to hear the correct pronunciation for the cities, counties, and villages in our state, as well as legislators, state officials, and famous people from Wisconsin.  There are also lots of interesting facts about Wisconsin, with new information added regularly. 

Check out Miss Pronouncer.com: http://www.misspronouncer.com/

Exam Week and Spring Interim Library Hours

During the last week of classes (exam week), starting Sunday May 7th, First Floor will be open 24 hours a day. Other areas of the library will be open during regularly scheduled hours for Spring Semester. Friday, May 12 the library will close at 6 pm.

Polk Library will be closed May 13, 14, 28, and 29, 2006.

May Interim (May 15-June 2) Building Hours
(includes Government Documents area):

Reference Service:

Wisconsin Area Research Center and University Archives

Beach Books and Beyond in the Browsing Room Karen Reiter, reiter@uwosh.edu

Don't know where you're headed this summer? Could be to the beach, the mountains, or your own backyard? Don't know how long you'll be staying -- a day, a week or more? Whatever your plans for this summer, you're going to want to have a good book around.

With that in mind, here is a list of reading suggestions to keep you turning pages from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

• Beach House, by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge
• Summer Breeze, by Catherine Anderson
• Sea Glass, by Anita Shreve
• Blue Water, by A. Manette Ansay
• Don't Look Down, by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer

Enjoy your summer reading!

Student Art at Polk Library Pat Wilkinson, wilkinso@uwosh.edu

There is a new exhibit of recent Chancellor's and Polk Library's Purchase Award Winners from the Art Department's Student Honors Exhibition.   It is located on First Floor North of the library.  Please stop in and see the fine work of the University's art majors.

West Wall – heading north

1)    “Cat's Cradle” by Mandy Mabbott  (Chancellor's Award)
2)    “Her Soul Escaped and Painted Her Life” by Ginny Freeman (Polk Award)
3)    “Self-Portrait with Laundry” by Laura Pahlas (Chancellor's Award)
4)    “Newbury Street, Boston MA” by Amanda Lancour (Polk Award)

East Wall – heading north

1)    “Chicago On State Street” by Steve Hoover (Chancellor's Award)
2)    “Kitchen Series” by Kristian Andersen (Polk Award)
3)    “Last Cigarette – A Tribute to Hunter S. Thompson” by Rob Meincke (Polk Award)


Also, in the Library Office on 2nd Floor, there is a striking sculpture, "Osteogenesis Imperfecta," by Jon Wos (Polk Award).

Spotlight on Reference Renée Büker, bukerr@uwosh.edu

Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport
Ref. GV 567 .B48 2005 v.1-4

From salary caps to cricket, and athletic training to Special Olympics, this four-volume set provides a wealth of background information for a wide variety of topics dealing with sports and fitness. Articles in this encyclopedia include entries for sport in specific countries (India, Germany), entries for specific sports (curling, tai chi), entries for various fields in the world of sports (kinesiology, adapted physical education, coaching), and entries on numerous social issues in sports (AIDS and HIV in sports, performance enhancement, commercialization of sports, sports as "religion"). Each entry also includes references to further books and articles on the topic. An interesting set to browse, and a good starting point for research on sports topics.

Staff Highlights

• Mike Watkins, Head of Government Documents, was recently elected to serve on the planning committee for the Government Information Roundtable of the Wisconsin Library Association.
• Mike Watkins has also accepted an invitation to be the "guest blogger" for the month of June on Free Government Information. This blog "promotes free government information through collaboration, education, advocacy and research".
• Renée Büker, Outreach Services Librarian, was a member of a panel discussion about the "Millennial Generation" at the 2006 Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians conference in March. Renée discussed characteristics of the Millennials and how instruction librarians can teach these students more effectively.