News

Spring 2013 Newsletter

Ranger, Joshua P — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:07:49 -0500

The Spring 2013 Polk Library Newsletter is now available with stories on:

· The Gamification of Quest Information Literacy Training
· A new Gruenhagen Exhibit
· Our Computer Availability Web App
· Staff news and more...

New nursing tutorial - finding articles written by a nurse

Mischak, Erin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:45:00 -0500

Students in our nursing programs are often required to use articles written by nurses for their evidence-based practice research papers. We have created a brief tutorial with tips for finding articles written by nurses in 3 popular nursing databases -- CINAHL, Medline, and Nursing Full Text Plus (Ovid Nursing Journals). Click here to view the tutorial on Polk Library's YouTube channel! (Of course, you can also always ask a librarian if you need help!)

U.S. Supreme Court Copyright decision affects Libraries

Watkins, Michael P — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:15:00 -0500

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the “first sale” doctrine related to library lending in the United States. Under the “first sale” doctrine of U.S. Copyright law libraries are allowed to lend out materials if they were lawfully purchased. The doctrine in essence ends the distribution rights of the publisher once an item has been purchased. If this case had been ruled differently, libraries might not have been able to lend out any materials purchased outside of the United States which for some libraries includes a substantial part of their collections.

The ruling in the case-- Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, INC. was made on March 19, 2013 and has international copyright implications. The case involved an individual who was a student in the United States and was selling textbooks (published in English) obtained from relatives in Thailand. The Thai relatives purchased the items from a foreign subsidiary of the Wiley Company at a significant discount from the U.S. price. The Wiley company claimed that this was a violation of copyright as only they held the right to sell the textbooks from their wholly owned foreign subsidiary.

The court ruled that under the "first sale" doctrine--the fact that the textbooks had been lawfully purchased gave Mr. Kirtsaeng the right to resell them. Apparently textbook publishers have differential pricing arrangements according to what those in a particular geographic area can afford. To access the slip opinion of the United States Supreme Court for this case click on to this link:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-697_d1o2.pdf

Computer Availabilty App!

Ranger, Joshua P — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:55:00 -0500

The Polk Library “labs” are at it again.

Polk’s new computer availability app (http://www.uwosh.edu/library/ca) is like having X-ray vision glasses. Developed by STEP intern, Brian Gallops, the application lets you “see” into the library and discover how many computers are available in Polk library at any given time. Complete with a color coded map, the application will even show you where in the library AND Polk computer lab free computers are located. No desktops free? Don’t fear! It also will let you know how many laptops are available for check out. Amaze your friends and confound your enemies by nabbing a Polk computer in record time!

Available from both our standard AND mobile websites.

Check it out at: http://www.uwosh.edu/library/ca

Polk Library Books Sale Coming Soon

Ranger, Joshua P — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:25:00 -0500

The Polk Library Annual Book Sale will be held April 16 & 17. The annual event attracts book-hungry shoppers from around the area. Polk Library deaccessions and books donated especially for the sale will cost a dollar each. Additional specially-priced items will be on sale as well. Be sure to make room for a 2013 Polk Library book bag. These are hot collectors’ items (not really) but will make hauling your take a little easier.

The feeding frenzy will begin at 7:00AM on Tuesday, April 16!

Full hours:

April 16 7AM – 10PM

April 17 7AM – 1 PM

1st Floor, North Wing, Polk Library

Kindergarten article highlights archives, university history

Ranger, Joshua P — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:41:45 -0500

Polk Library congratulates Dr. Wendy Strauch-Nelson, associate professor of art education, for her article in the Spring 2013 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. The article details a fascinating chapter in the history of UW Oshkosh: the creation of the first kindergarten at an American normal school. For its part, Polk’s University Archives provided Dr. Strauch-Nelson with important records that documented the curriculum of this pioneering program.

The Wisconsin Magazine of History is the journal of the Wisconsin Historical Society. The spring issue is in the current journal section of Polk 101.

New Psych Lit Trials

Ranger, Joshua P — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:59:09 -0600

This week, Polk Library activated two new databases as trials that go beyond typical psychology literature.

PsycCRITIQUES® is a full-text database with of book and film reviews from 1956 to present written from a psychological perspective.

PsycEXTRA® is a unique database of professional and lay-audience grey literature including legal testimony and amicus briefs, reports, conference materials, factsheets, grants, and web materials. The product does double duty documenting cutting edge trends and practice in the field along with providing historical perspectives on psychology's development.

Both products can now be accessed from our Polk’s comprehensive list of electronic resources and from the Psychology Subject Guide. Look for Polk's trial icon: . These trials will be available until the end of May. Please contact Ron Hardy at hardyr@uwosh.edu with comments regarding these unique collections of psychology-related literature.

Assembly Bill 40--Wisconsin Budget Bill

Watkins, Michael P — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:20:00 -0600

Governor Walker introduced the 2013-2015 budget bill, Assembly bill 40, on February 20. Here is the link to the budget bill information from the Wisconsin Legislature website, including a .pdf of the bill itself.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/proposals/ab40

2013 Caldecott Awards

Katz, Stephen — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:16:48 -0600

Creepy Carrots! , illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds.

Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett.

Green, illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.

One Cool Friend, illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo.

Sleep Like a Tiger, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue.

(The above image taken from the ALA website. sk)

Newbery Awards Announced

Katz, Stephen — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:10:00 -0600

The information about the Newbery winners comes from the American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal

White House releases Gun Violence Prevention Plan

Watkins, Michael P — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:45:00 -0600

The Obama administration posted the outline of the president's recent gun control proposals on the White House webpage focused on gun violence issues: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/preventing-gun-violence.

The direct link to the proposal, entitled "Now is the Time," is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf.

The president's plan was developed in response to the shootings that took place at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. It includes a combination of proposed legislation and executive orders.

Kent State Gives Old Photographs

Ranger, Joshua P — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:55:39 -0600

The University Archives recently received a small, but wonderful, gift from Kent State University: three board mounted photographs of Oshkosh Normal School basketball and football teams from 1910 and 1911.

While the Kent State Archives did not have records on the provenance of the historical photographs, UW Oshkosh Archivist, Joshua Ranger, believes they were the property of instructor and coach (and ONS alumnus) Raymond E. Manchester. After leaving Oshkosh, Manchester later became the Dean of Students at the Kent, Ohio University. While not coaching, Manchester continued his interest in football at Kent State. In the mid-1940s, he was responsible for converting an antique wagon wheel with ties to the University of Akron’s founding into a coveted traveling trophy given to the winners of the annual Kent State and Akron football game.

RefWorks is Here

Ranger, Joshua P — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:50:50 -0600

Never the favorite part of any student’s research project, creating accurate and correctly formatted citations is still a critical part of scholarly communications and ethics. Fortunately, to make the process less painful, Polk Library, with funds from the Student Technology Fee program, purchased a new online citation management system for students and staff. RefWorks, a cloud-based application, is your new tool to create, save and organize citations. It generates in-text citations and bibliographies on the fly and even uses NetID for access. Polk Library selected this application to replace KnightCite as THE recommended citation tool.

RefWorks is unique in that users log in to access their bibliographic information, making it portable and convenient. Setting up an account is quick and easy. Users simply navigate to UW Oshkosh’s RefWorks page to log in with NetID and password. After filling in a simple form to create an account, the RefWorks interface is available and ready to use.

There are several unique methods for creating citations in RefWorks. First, similar to KnightCite, users can manually create citations by clicking the “New Reference” button and plugging in the corresponding information.

A second method allows users to export a citation from databases like Academic Search Complete, JSTOR and others. When viewing a record for an article, these databases allow users to “Export” the dictation directly to RefWorks.

Another method, called RefGrab-It, captures bibliographic information from web pages and imports the citation data into your RefWorks account. RefGrab-It is a browser plug-in, so it needs to be installed in Firefox or Internet Explorer. Installation instructions are listed on Polk Library’s “RefWorks Help” web page. After the “bookmarklet” is installed, it will appear in your browser’s toolbar.

To use the plug-in, simply click the RefGrab-It button in the toolbar. The plugin will create a citation information for the website itself and stores it in your RefWorks account. RefGrab-It can also identify other resources listed on that site and create citations for them. This is particularly helpful to capture another bibliography for future reference.

Recording citations is just the beginning. The RefWorks interface offers users a place to organize citations into labeled folders. Once entered, all sources are saved and accessible by logging in to RefWorks from any web-based computer. Creating a bibliography is just as easy as generating citations. The “Create Bibliography” button allows users to choose their preferred format (there are thousands to choose from!), file type and the folder of corresponding citations.

The mobility, efficiency and versatility of this new tool transforms a once-complicated process into a smooth ride for students and faculty alike. Check out RefWorks over winter break so you can start the spring semester with another critical academic tool at your disposal.

For more information on RefWorks, visit the links below.

http://www.uwosh.edu/library/help/faq/refworks-help

http://www.uwosh.edu/library/research/citing-sources

Winter 2012 Newsletter

Ranger, Joshua P — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:00:10 -0600

The latest edition of the Polk Library newsletter is here.

An introduction to Search@UW, Polk Library's new "discovery layer"
The Area Research Center turns 50 years old
RefWorks Citation Tool is Here
Polk's Golden Birthday Party Photos or more...

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All Night Study - December 2012

Ranger, Joshua P — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:15:00 -0600