Polk Library News
March 2009 - Issue 44

From the Director: Worldwide Virtual Meeting Pat Wilkinson, wilkinso@uwosh.edu

I had the opportunity recently to help organize a worldwide virtual meeting for the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC) Members Council. OCLC, the world's largest library collaborative, connects people to knowledge through linking the services of 71,000 libraries in 112 countries. Its Members Council, a representative body of these libraries, advises OCLC management and plays a role in the governance of the organization.

A few things stood out to me as I managed the chat window and gave a brief presentation at the meeting:

• Preparation for the virtual meeting made a big difference. The organizing committee went through several dry runs of the meeting and provided numerous opportunities for delegates around the world to check their computers to ensure that they were compatible with the conferencing software.
• Professional help was essential. The organizing committee contracted with Learning Times, “an open community of education and training professionals,” to produce the three-day meeting. Their knowledge regarding the dynamics of virtual communities and their technical expertise were essential to the success of the event.
• Although this was the first virtual meeting of Members Council, generally the council meets face-to-face 2-3 times a year in Dublin, Ohio. Most participants expressed the opinion that the virtual meeting was a great compliment to in-person meetings, but it was not a real substitute for them.
• The opportunity to “chat” allows some people to find their voice. As in many organizations, a limited number of people are willing to express ideas or ask questions publicly. If you regularly attend a certain meeting of, say 100, you know the 15 or so people who will always speak. With the ability to use “chat” in a virtual meeting, many more people expressed opinions on issues and asked questions. It really opened up the dialogue.
• It takes a different set of skills to get the most out of a virtual meeting. The ability to multi-focus was important as there was a speaker in the top left of a computer screen, slides on most of the screen, and a running “chat” conversation taking place in the lower left of the computer. Some people thrived in this environment; some did not. The keynote speaker, Thomas Finholt (Research Professor & Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at the School of Information at the University of Michigan), was so good in this format that he could give his presentation with slides while answering “chat” questions at the same time.

Finally, as a speaker, I learned that people felt free to comment on what you wear! There was a theme in the chat talking about my tie! Fortunately for me, people from South Africa to Germany to Western Canada thought it was tasteful and went nicely with my suit and shirt. I am not sure anything that I said impressed them, but my tie did.

In summer 2008, we remodeled 1st Floor South into the area now known as Polk 101. We added new workstations, furniture, shelving, carpet and seating. Use of the library increased exponentially. With the increased traffic came an increased need for students to be able to access the computer workstations. There were lines of students waiting to get onto computers in fall 2008. In addition, we were seeing a large number of computers occupied for hours at a time by non-UW Oshkosh users.

To respond to this need, Polk Library restricted the majority of the computers in the library to log-in only. To use them, you have to be a UW Oshkosh student, faculty or staff. The login is the person's Novell username & password. Information about account access can be found here: http://www.acs.uwosh.edu/account-access-resources . Switching to log-in computers limited the number of computers available to non-UW Oshkosh users, and increased the number available to UW Oshkosh users. There are four computers on the 2nd floor (two on the north side, two on the south side) that are freely open for anyone to use to check call numbers, email, web surf, etc. - even if they do not have a Novell login/password.

In addition to the computers on the 2nd floor, we have a guest researcher policy and procedure that allows non-university individuals to apply for a log-in/password for finite periods. We designed this to provide access to people from the community with legitimate research needs, visiting scholars, etc. Requests are reviewed by the library director. Inquire at the library director's office, 2nd Floor North, for more information.

UWO Graduate Theses Online in Minds@UW Ciara Healy, healyc@uwosh.edu

Since August 2008, the UW-Oshkosh graduate office has required Master's students to submit one copy of their thesis in .pdf format, readable with free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This digital copy now resides in MINDS@UW, the state wide scholarly repository. Other kinds of scholarship found in MINDS include faculty publications, Oshkosh Scholar articles, newsletters and presentation posters.

A current library project includes retroactively including all 2008 theses in the repository. There are benefits to having a thesis or published article in the repository, the first of which is greater access. MINDS is accessible via the internet and indexed by search engines like Google, so that authors and other researchers can access the full text. The digital copy is assigned a durable URI which makes it easy for citation and inclusion on electronic resumes and personal or professional websites.

Authors interested in having their scholarly work submitted to the digital repository can contact technical services librarian Ciara Healy. For more information about MINDS, please visit the site at: http://minds.wisconsin.edu/

Increased Library Hours for Spring Semester Jeanne Foley, foley@uwosh.edu

Polk Library is open an additional 7-1/2 hours  each week this Spring Semester: Monday - Friday opening earlier, at 7 am, and  Sunday - Thursday closing later, at 1 am. The complete building hours for Spring Semester 2009:

Monday through Thursday - 7:00am to 1:00am

Friday - 7:00am to 6:00pm

Saturday - 10:00am to 6:00pm

Sunday - 10:00am to 1:00am

This year almost everyone will be eligible to file their federal taxes online for free. In the past, only certain taxpayers meeting specific criteria were allowed to file for free using Free File software. Free File is similar to Turbo-Tax where the filer answers a predetermined selection of questions and their tax forms are subsequently automatically filled out. This year, filers not eligible or not choosing to use the Free File software will have the option of actually filling their tax forms online by using Free File's e-forms and submitting them electronically. The IRS web site can be accessed at http://www.irs.gov/.

Polk Library has a limited amount of print Federal and Wisconsin tax forms and instructions available for faculty, staff, students and community members available on Third Floor South, in the lobby outside of the Government Information room.

On January 20, 2009, as Barack Obama was sworn in as our nation's 44th president, the web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov was seamlessly but completely replaced with a site designed by the incoming administration's transition team.

Barack Obamas's successful campaign for the presidency was accomplished in part due to his team's mastery of information technology. As the transition to the new presidential administration takes place, it is expected that Obama's team will continue to use the Internet to communicate with supporters and constituents alike.

The new web site's design has the major links arranged across a bar/ribbon about one fourth of the way from the top of the web page. The major links included horizontally across the bar/ribbon are "the Briefing room," "the Agenda," "the Administration," "About the White House," "Our Government," and "Contact Us." The rest of the web page, which takes up about three fourths of the page, appears designed for dynamic changing content. At the writing of this article this part of the page has a photograph of President Obama celebrating Lincoln's birthday.

What happened to the Bush Administration's web site? The site is now archived at http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/. At the top of the page is the disclaimer “This is historical material, 'frozen in time.' The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.”

This disclaimer accentuates the difficulty in preserving the dynamic content that appears on web sites and has been a concern among archivists and historians for some time. For example, after clicking on a link on the Bush Whitehouse web page called “Social Statistics Briefing Room” the user is informed that that page no longer exists as the Obama administration is redesigning the web site. The ephemeral nature of information on government web sites will continue to be a vexing and challenging problem far into the future.

A banana plant donated to Polk Library several years ago by Pao Chang, Facilities Management, has just flowered and has newborn bananas...stop in for a rare look. The tree is located in the EMC area of the library, on First Floor North.

Closer photo of the tree's brand-new bananas

Remembering Michael Crichton Leah Bruckner - Student Coordinator, Browsing Room

This month the Browsing Room would like to recognize the many significant best-selling novels by author Michael Crichton, who died this past November from cancer. He had numerous accomplishments over his 66 years of life. Many of his enticing books were made into hit movies, and he was also the creator of the television series ER. Some of his books that are available in the Browsing Room collection include:

• State of Fear
• Airframe
• Congo
• Disclosure
• Rising Sun
• Jurassic Park

Enjoy the Read!

Polk Library has recently added a second group study room for student use. Previously the office of former Library Director, Dr. Norma Jones, the newly repainted room on Second Floor South has a table and six chairs for small groups to work together. Possible future plans include activation of a data jack and addition of a computer, printer and dry erase board for the room.

For larger groups, or groups that need access to a computer while working, the original group study room on Second Floor North provides room for up to 15 students and a networked computer.  Students can reserve and check out the key to either room using their Titancards at the circulation desk on First Floor North.  Please pass along this information to your students who are working on group projects!

Spotlight on Reference Cynthia Huebschen, huebschc@uwosh.edu

Two recent additions to Polk Library's reference collection -- you can find these in Polk 101, 1st Floor South:

New Encyclopedia of Africa
Call number: Ref. DT 2 .N48 2008

This five-volume set offers signed articles with bibliographies. The articles are alphabetical, and there is an extensive index in the last volume. Topics include specific countries in Africa; art; colonial policies and practices; literature; individuals; metals and minerals; photography; religion and ritual; slave trades; and education. Maps adorn the end-pages in each volume, showing the continent and other information about Africa.

Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest : A Comprehensive Field Guide for Amateurs and Professionals
Call number: Ref. QK 85.5 .B53 2008

Each semester, students in the course Editing and Publishing (English 349) at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point publish one book via a small-run, campus publishing company called Cornerstone Press. This attractive guide was the class selection for Spring 2008. The book's authors are Merel Black, an honorary fellow in the botany departments at UW-Madison and UW-Stevens Point, and Emmet Judziewicz, an associate professor at UW-Stevens Point.

This small volume offers color photographs of plants and sometimes flower detail, with descriptions of the plant, flowers, and leaves. The plant's typical habitat is noted, and small maps show the counties in which each species has been found. The arrangement is by plant family. Names are given as common names and Latin names, and there is an index at the back to both types of name.

For those who are interested, more information on Cornerstone Press can be found at this Web site: http://www.uwsp.edu/english/cornerstone/index.htm

Staff Highlights

• Roberta Stuemke, Stacks Management, has recently sold two short stories, in the paranormal romance genre, to Absolute X-Press, a division of Hades Publications, Inc., of Canada. The stories, “Galerian's Gift” and “Under the Gryphon's Wing”, are being sold as one publication, with the author listed as R. L. Stuemke. Since January 1, this has been available as an e-book, and as of 2/14/09, it will also be sold as print-on-demand through Amazon. These stories represent Roberta's first professional sale, and the publisher has expressed an interest in buying other stories by her in this genre.