Finally! Twitter gets great (for libraries)

FYI - Polk Library is participating in a trial of WorldCat Local until the end of September 2010. Below is a fun way to try it out.

Exerpted from the WorldCat Blog:

"If you're a Twitter user, take a moment to play with a new tool we've developed called Ask4Stuff...
This trial service allows you to search WorldCat.org by sending a tweet. Just use the hashtag #ask4stuff followed by a few words as your search query and you will receive a tweet back with a PURL or a short URL to the results on WorldCat.org.

Here's an example tweet:
#Ask4Stuff lake erie shipwreck

And the reply:
@[username]We found something on lake erie shipwreck in #Ask4Stuff, get them at http://is.gd/daPWw

To tweet a search query, you just need to post a tweet using #ask4stuff followed by the words you would otherwise enter into the search box: #ask4stuff "search query".

You can limit your search to just titles if you use #ask4stuff ti:search query, such as:
#ask4stuff ti:where the wild things are

Or limit your search to just authors using #ask4stuff au:name query:
#ask4stuff au:daniel pink

For those readers who are patrons of a WorldCat Local library, you can search your local catalog using a hashtag and the URL prefix for your Local at WorldCat.org. For instance, the University of Washington's WorldCat Local URL is: http://uwashington.worldcat.org.  To search their catalog, you would use the following tweet format:
#ask4stuff #uwashington [search query]

Your reply would include a short URL that would direct you to the results page at http://uwashington.worldcat.org.

Take a look at this experiment on Twitter and post any comments you have about this service. Even if you're not a Twitter user, you can view the tweets and replies by searching Twitter using the #ask4stuff hashtag."

Link to the full post: http://worldcat.org/blogs/archives/2010/07/ask4stuff-on-twitter.htm

New log-in in Polk 101!

Good news: The computers (yes, the Macs too) are now upgraded to Windows 7!
Better news: The new log-in procedure on these machines is easy!

Here it is in a nutshell:

After Tuesday August 10th, the first time you log in to a computer in Polk 101 (or in any computer lab on campus) you will have to log in and then immediately change your password. How do you log in? Not with your existing user name and password. 

Username: your Titanmail user name

Password:  it is a new one! You use part of your Campus ID number plus a combination of upper and lower case letters. If you are in Polk 101, ask us at the reference desk and we will tell you exactly what you need to do. Otherwise, you can call Academic Computing @ x-3020 next time you are on campus.

There are a lot of positive things about the new upgrade and this new log-in is just a necessary first step - it will only take a minute and you only have to do it once!

See you in Polk 101!

Universal Borrowing

The Universal Borrowing service offered by Polk Library will be unavailable from today to August 18th, 2010. Universal Borrowing is the service that allows you to borrow books from other UW campus libraries. This service is temporarily unavailable becaue the library catalog (Voyager 7) is being upgraded.

In the meantime, please search for books outside of Polk Library using the WorldCat link located on Polk Library's front page. To request a book, please use the Interlibrary Loan request form. Here is a link to a short video to show you how to request a book using Interlibrary Loan or ILL.

How to use ILL to request a book!

RIP BadgerCat

Polk Library will no longer offer access to BadgerCat.

What was BadgerCat, exactly? According to OCLC site, BadgerCat was Wisconsin's version of  Group Services which is "a package of services for a group of libraries focused on resource sharing. The heart of the package is a Group (union) Catalog created from records already cataloged in WorldCat by members of the Group. Combined with unlimited access to the full range of cataloging and interlibrary loan products and services, Group Services allows users to search locally, regionally, group-wide or worldwide from a single interface that integrates with local library systems." All UW libraries (and some public libraries) participated in BadgerCat and it helped students to identify items held by other UW libraries so that a Universal Borrowing or Interlibrary Loan request for the item could be made.

Access to BadgerCat ended on July 1, 2010.

OCLC offers WorldCat to pick up here BadgerCat left off. WorldCat is a catalog of catalogs, if you will. When you search WorldCat, you can find out which of  the items you've found are near by. For instance, if you are looking for the book  The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains by Nicholas G. Carr, you can search for it in WorldCat by title or author or the keyword Brain. Once you have found the record for this book, click on the title and you will be taken to the item record. Scroll down the page and you will see which libraries closest to your have this book in their collection. They are organized geographically - the closest library to you to those farther and farther away - all over the world. Making a request from another library for this title is easy!

In addition, you can still search through out UW library holdings using Universal Borrowing. So, we've got you covered. Here is a link to WorldCat!

ALA Notable films for Adults

"The American Library Association (ALA) Video Round Table Notable Videos Committee has compiled its 2010 list of Notable Videos for Adults, a list of 15 outstanding programs released on video within the past two years and suitable for all libraries serving adults. Its purpose is to call attention to recent video releases that make a significant contribution to the world of video recordings.

The Notable Videos for Adults committee selected 15 outstanding titles from among 56 nominees for this year’s list of Notable Videos for Adults.

Malls R Us. 78 min. Icarus Films. DVD, 2008: $350.00. A contemplative exploration of malls and their cultural significance; includes commentary from architects, shoppers, friends and foes.

American Outrage.  56 min. First Run Features (Home Video). DVD, 2009: $24.99. Available from most distributors. Bullfrog Films (College and University Libraries , Public Performance). DVD, 2009: $295. www.bullfrogfilms.com. Documents the Shoshone Nation and Dann Sisters 40 year fight against the U.S Bureau of Land Management and mining interests for land rights in Nevada.

Trouble the Water.  96 min.  Zeitgeist Films (Home Video.  DVD, 2008:  $29.99.  www.zeitgeistfilms.com. A harrowing but uplifting perspective of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of a young Ninth Ward New Orleans couple.

At the Death House Door.  98 min. Facets. DVD, 2008: $29.95. Available from most distributors. The case of inmate Carlos De Luna causes longtime death penalty supporter Carroll Pickett, a minister who accompanied De Luna and many others to their executions, to have a change of heart.

I.O.U.S.A.  85 min.  PBS Home Video.  DVD:  $24.99. www.pbs.org. Two concerned citizens explore how the United States got itself into such staggering debt and how to stem the tide of mounting debt.

The World According to Monsanto.  109 min.  National Film Board of Canada.  DVD:  $25.00.  www.nfb.ca.  Monsanto Corporation's domination of the world's agricultural industry.

Waltz with Bashir. 90 min. Sony Classic Video. DVD, 2008: $29.99. Available from most distributors. An Israeli soldier explores his memory of the 1982 Lebanese War using a combination of animation and narrative.
Walk to Beautiful. 86 min. Engel Entertainment. DVD, 2009: $29.99. http://www.walktobeautiful.com. Five Ethiopian women reclaim their lives when they are treated at the Addis Abba Fistula Hospital.

Operation Filmmaker.  92 min. Icarus Films. DVD, 2008: $29.98 (Home Video) www.homevideo.icarusfilms.com.  $298.00 (College and Universities, Public Performance). www.icarusfilms.com. When a Hollywood film production invites an Iraqi film student to the set the documentary filmmaker observing the event becomes personally involved in the students' life.

Sita Sings the Blues. 82 min. Nina Paley. DVD, 2009: $20.00 or free download.  www.questioncopyright.com. A colorfully animated musical tells of the turbulent love life of a Hindu goddess named Sita, whose story shares similarities with that of a modern day American Woman.
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?  236 min. California Newsreel. DVD, 2008: $79.95 (Public Libraries) $295 (Academic Libraries).  www.newsreel.org. Seven-part series exploring the relationship between class, race, and health in the Unites States.

Lake of Fire.  152 min.  Thinkfilm.  DVD, 2008:  $14.98.  www.image-entertainment.com. A probing look at the subject of abortion where equal time is given to all sides of the debate.

In Search of Memory. 95 min. Icarus Films. DVD, 2009: $440.00.  www.icarusfilms.com. A co-biography of Nobel prizewinner Eric Kandel and his study of the science of memory.

Who Does She Think She Is?  82 min. Emerging Pictures. DVD, 2009: $149.00 (public libraries), $175 (community colleges), $249.00 (4-year colleges)  www.emergingpictures.com. A telling portrait of 5 talented women artists who refuse to choose between creativity and family responsibility, self-expression and mothering.

Flow: For the Love of Water. 84 min. Oscilloscope Pictures. DVD, 2008: $23.99. Documentary investigation into the world's water crisis, including the privatization of the fresh water supply."

"Best of" list for Children's Video

CHICAGO − The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected its 2010 list of Notable Children’s Videos.  The list includes videos for children 14 years of age and younger that exhibit especially commendable quality, show respect for children’s intelligence and imagination and reflect and encourage the interests of children in exemplary ways.

The selected videos are:
"Abraham Lincoln Comes Home." Spoken Arts.
"Crazy Hair Day." Weston Woods.
"Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Weston Woods.
"Duck on a Bike." Weston Woods.
"Los Gatos Black on Halloween." Weston Woods.
"Getting to Know Thomas Jefferson." Getting to Know, Inc.
"The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon." Weston Woods.
"Henry’s Freedom Box:  A True Story from the Underground Railroad." Weston Woods.
"Knuffle Bunny Too:  A Case of Mistaken Identity." Weston Woods.
"Teen Truth: An Inside Look at Body Image." Human Relations Media.
"Those Shoes." Nutmeg Media.
"Wipe Out." National Film Board of Canada.

American Library Association Meeting now! Update 1

From the GLBTQ Roundtable:

 This is the 39th anniversary of the Stonewall Book Awards.  For the first time we will be presenting an award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.  That award will go to Nick Burd for his young adult novel "The Vast Fields of Ordinary", published by the Penguin Group. 

Authors of two honor books for that award will also be recognized at this event.  They are Marcus Ewert, who wrote "10,000 Dresses", published by Seven Stories Press, and Linas Alsenas, who wrote "Gay America: Struggle for Equality", published by Amulet Books.

The Barbara Gittings Literature Award will go to David Francis for his novel "Stray Dog Winter", published by MacAdam/Cage. 

The author of the honor book "God Says No", James Hannaham, will also be recognized.  His book was published by McSweeney's Publishing.

The Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award will go to Nathaniel Frank for his work "Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America", published by St. Martin's Press. 

Honor author Stewart Weisberg will also be recognized for his book "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman, published by the University of Massachusetts Press.

More award winners!

Recipients of the Sophie Brody Award - 2010 (and prior winners)

2010
Jonathon Keats, The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six, Random House

Honorable Mentions:
Thomas Buergenthal, Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, Little Brown;
Melvin Konner, The Jewish Body, Schocken;
Clara Kramer and Stephen Gantz, Clara’s War: One Girl’s Story of Survival, Ecco.

2009

Peter Manseau, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter, Free Press.

Honorable Mentions:
Ron Leshem, Beaufort, Delacorte Press;
A.B. Yehoshua, Friendly Fire: A Duet, Harcourt;
Arie Kaplan, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, Jewish Publication Society.

2008
Nathan Englander, The Ministry of Special Classes, Knopf.

Honorable Mentions:
Shalom Auslander, Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir, Riverhead Books;
Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, Norton;
and Joyce Antler, You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother, Oxford University Press.

2007

Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, HarperCollins.

Honorable Mentions:
Dara Horn, The World to Come, Norton;
Sandy Tolan, The LemonTree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, Bloomsbury;
and Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, Knopf.

2006

Avner Mandelman, Talking to the Enemy, Seven Stories Press.

Honorable Mentions:
Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch, St. Martin's;
Michael Lavigne, Not Me, Random House;
and Tom Reiss, The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, Random House.

6th Annual Book sale coming up!

Stop by Polk Library on April 13th and 14th for our book sale. Finally - Polk Library books you can keep! For cheap!

Book Sale 2010

Polk Library 6th Annual Book Sale


Dates: Tuesday, April 13th, 7:00am – 10 pm &


Wednesday, April 14th, 7:00am – 1pm


Location: 801 Elmwood Ave - UWO Campus (Enter on the mall side of the building - the sale takes place across from the check-out desk.)

**THOUSANDS OF BOOKS**


Most books are priced at 50 cents each or three for a dollar! Books from all subject areas, including:

Art

Classic Literature

Contemporary Literature

Education

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Foreign Languages

History

Philosophy

Religion

Social Sciences

And many treasures and surprises, including some videos, sets, etc.

There will also be some specially priced items to choose from. These books are a bargain, and priced to move. See you at the sale!

New Bloomers!

The new Amelia Bloomer list is out for 2010:  http://libr.org/ftf/AmeliaBloomer2010.htm

"In an effort both to alert readers to society's opposition toward women's equality and to highlight progress toward this vital goal, the 2010 Amelia Bloomer Project members selected 54 books notable for feminist content, quality of writing, and appeal to young readers. We applaud all the authors, editors, illustrators, publishers and others who have participated in their publication.  This bibliography is intended to highlight feminist books examining women’s history, those that celebrate women who have blazed trails, and those that describe problems and identify solutions for situations we face today.  We hope that all young readers will have an opportunity to experience the spectrum of feminism that these titles represent."

The Amelia Bloomer Project is part of the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association’s Social Responsibility Round Table.  The committee members are Angela Semifero, Marshall District Library (MI); Barbara Ward, (LA); Beth Olshewsky, Tulare County Office of Education (CA); Christie Gibrich, co-chair, Bowles Life Center Branch Library (TX); Dana Campbell, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library (OR); Jane Cothron, co-chair, Lincoln County Library District (OR); Jennie Law, John Bulow Campbell Library (GA); Laurene Zaporozhetz, Air Force Institute of Technology (OH); Maureen McCoy, Brooklyn Public Library (NY).