Darwin Day 2008, Evolution Matters, February 9

UW-Madison will celebrate its third annual Darwin Day, with speakers and interactive displays, on Saturday, February 9, 2008. The morning session will be held in the Microbial Sciences building, Ebling Symposium Center, from 9:00 AM until noon. Interactive displays and activities will be hosted by the UW Geology Museum, Weeks Hall, from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.

During the morning session, Professor Sean Carroll will welcome three speakers:

Don Waller (UW-Madison Botany)
“Reshaping the Tree of Life: Human Impacts on the Future of Evolution”

John Yin (UW-Madison Chemical & Biological Engineering)
“A Challenge for the Century---Given a Genome, Predict the Organism”

Neil Shubin (University of Chicago, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology)
“Discovering How Fish Evolved to Walk: The Story of Tiktaalik”

All events are free and open to the public.

Let them eat Cake! UW-Madison Birthday Party

The Wisconsin Alumni Association and University Housing wish UW-Madison a Happy 159th Birthday with free cake for students. UW-Madison held its first day of class on February 5, 1849.

In celebration, on Tuesday, February 5, UW-Madison students can enjoy a slice of birthday cake in the dining halls at Chadbourne, Liz Waters, Gordon Commons and Frank’s Place beginning at noon and continuing while supplies last.

Faculty, staff and students can also join UW alumni for more cake and a free presentation about the history of UW-Madison, with Art Hove, special assistant emeritus, at 2:00 PM, Memorial Union, Tripp Commons.

See the full news release.

Google for Academic Research, Workshop January 31

Power search with Google to remove clutter and quickly locate quality resources!

This workshop will give you hands-on practice using Google, Google Scholar, Google Patents, and Google Book Search. You will also learn how to use Find It and Refworks with Google Scholar and how to evaluate your search results to get the best information from the Web.

Google for Academic Research
Thursday, January 31 (4:00-5:15 PM)

No registration is necessary in order to attend. Check the board near the Steenbock Library entrance for room location.

Libraries in a Nutshell, Workshop January 31

Are you new to campus? Or, do you just want to learn more about what the libraries have to offer?

In either instance, the Libraries in a Nutshell workshop will be your introduction to the many resources and services UW-Madison libraries have to offer.

The workshop will review MadCat (the library catalog), journal databases, other online resources and convenience services such as book retrieval and access to your library account. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions and to discover how to obtain additional assistance in the future.

Libraries in a Nutshell
Thursday, January 31 (11:00 AM – noon)

No registration is necessary in order to attend. Check the board near the Steenbock Library entrance for room location.

Need Tax Forms?

While campus libraries do not distribute pre-printed forms and instructions, the IRS Website supplies most federal forms and guides required.

See IRS Forms and Publications page

Similarly, the state of Wisconsin makes forms and instructions available online.

Federal and Wisconsin state tax forms can be picked up at Madison Public Library branches. Please phone 266-6350 to learn what forms and instructions are available. Branch hours and locations.

For more information about the public library’ tax information and assistance opportunities, see: http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/calendar/tax.html

Coffee Break?!

A question we often hear from our library users during their time in our building is ‘where can I go for some coffee or a meal’?

We are happy to report that we have been able to install a hot beverage machine (coffee drinks and hot chocolate) in our vending area on the first floor.

While we are not currently able to furnish beverages and food beyond what our building’s vending machines can accommodate, we can suggest some additional area options…

Babcock Dairy Store (coffee, deli, ice-cream)

Carson Gulley Commons (carry-out, convenience foods)

Holt Commons, Common Grounds (coffee/snack shop) and Frank’s Place (cafeteria)

And, introducing….the Microcosm Cafe! The café, a Union food service outpost, is now open in the Microbial Sciences building, (across the street from Steenbock on Babcock), and serves coffee, deli items and hot entrees.

Cheers!

RefWorks Workshop, January 24

Have you discovered RefWorks?! Organize a personal database and format bibliographies with ease.

The workshop will cover the basic features of using RefWorks, including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat and journal databases, and preparing bibliographies. Hands-on practice will be included.

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks
Thursday, January 24 (3:00-4:30 PM)

No registration is necessary in order to attend and all workshops are free to students, faculty and staff. Check Steenbock's entrance sign for room location.

This workshop will be offered again at Steenbock:
Wednesday, February 13 (10:00-11:30 AM) and,
Tuesday, March 11 (7:00-8:30 PM)

Check the campus libraries workshops page for information and dates for all library workshops.

Spring Semester Workshops at Steenbock

Drop-in for a free library workshop! Learn about citation managers (EndNote and RefWorks), techniques for staying current with the research literature or job-hunting on the Web, among other topics and resources.

No registration is required in order to attend. Confirm room location with the sign near the library front entrance.

Managing Your Citations with Refworks

Thursday, January 24 (3:00-4:30 PM)

Wednesday, February 13 (10:00-11:30 AM)

Tuesday, March 11 (7:00-8:30 PM)

Managing Your Citations with EndNote and EndNote Web

Wednesday, January 23 (11:00 AM-12:30 PM)

Thursday, February 21 (3:00-4:30 PM)

Tuesday, March 25 (10:00-11:30 AM)

Libraries in a Nutshell

Thursday, January 31 (11:00 AM-12:00 PM)

Keeping Current with the Literature

Wednesday, February 27 (12:30-2:00 PM)

PubMed for the Life Sciences

Thursday, February 7 (3:30-5:00 PM)

Google for Academic Research

Thursday, January 31 (4:00-5:15 PM)

Job Hunting on the Internet

Thursday, March 6 (4:00-5:15 PM)

EndNote/EndNote Web Workshop, January 23

This workshop covers the basic features of using EndNote including organizing, searching and sorting records, importing records from MadCat, journal article databases, and Web pages, and preparing bibliographies using a word processor (CWYW). The workshop will also explore the EndNote Web version (free to campus users courtesy of UW-Madison Libraries). Learn how to set up your EndNote database to avoid later style formatting hassles.

EndNote/EndNote Web: Managing Literature

Wednesday, January 23 (11:00-12:30)

This workshop will be offered again on February 21 (3:00-4:30 pm) and March 25 (10:00-11:30 am).

If you need additional help with problem-solving or customizing beyond what these introductory workshops cover, you are invited to contact any of the EndNote librarians for small group or individual appointments or try the Quick Start guide.

Spring Semester Hours at Steenbock

Spring semester hours begin Tuesday, January 22. The library will observe the following hours during the spring semester (January 22-May9, 2008):

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 1:00 am

Friday: 8:00 am - 10:00 pm

Saturday: 10:00 am - 10:00 pm

Sunday: 10:00 am - 1:00 am

Reference assistance is available from the desk, Monday - Thursday, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm and Friday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. Other hours are available by request, in-house, or by scheduled appointment. Send appointment requests to: Ask Steenbock or phone: 608-262-9635.

The computer Infolab is open all hours that the library is open.

Hours during Spring Break (March 15-23) and final exam week (May 10-17) will be posted separately.

Current semester hours for other libraries can be found at the campus libraries' page.

Interested in Animal Genes?

Try the OMIA Database--Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals--for text and links to relevant records about genes, inherited disorders and traits in animal species (other than human and mouse). Relevant, linked records are drawn from other NCBI databases including OMIM, PubMed, and Gene. If you are accustomed to using PubMed, the OMIA database can be selected from the pull-down search menu so that you may search that database instead.

OMIA is authored by Professor Frank Nicholas of the University of Sydney and other collaborators.

With thanks to librarian, Barbara L, for this blog post.

Paradise Lost? An Art Exhibit

An environmental art exhibit, Paradise Lost: Climate Change in the North Woods is on display at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The exhibit, which features paintings, quilting, sculptures, mixed media, essays, and music, is a joint project of the UW-Madison Center for Biology Education, the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

The scientific information presented explores how Wisconsin’s north woods may be affected by global warming and how the public can take action to minimize its degradation.

Paradise Lost: Climate Change in the North Woods is free and open to the public from January 12 to February 8, (10:00 AM until 4:00 PM).

What we've been reading...

Campus librarians gather annually for a book-sharing event, replete with discussions and recommendations. If you are looking for something to satisfy respite from the local wintry scene or simply need to come up with that 'little something' for a friend or family member, consider this year’s sampling of titles (generated December 2007). Consult with your campus or public libraries or favorite bookseller.

Find book reviews from readers at Amazon.

Handy links:

MadCat

Don’t forget about UW System search and borrowing options!

LinkCat, South Central Library System

WisCat, Wisconsin Libraries

Search PubMed for VetMed and Animal Health Literature

Use PubMed to search for veterinary medicine by adding veterinary[sb] to your search! For example: prion AND veterinary[sb]

You can also navigate to Special Queries (from the left, blue side-bar). Select Veterinary Medicine/Animal Health and click veterinary search (link from explanatory text at top of page). Then, use your search History to combine the veterinary subset of PubMed to your other search terms (e.g. #1 AND #2).

Veterinary[sb] is a comprehensive search strategy of subject terms, title words and veterinary and animal health journal titles. It includes 171 core veterinary journals and currently retrieves over 1.4 million PubMed citations. Its oldest citation is from 1867!

For more information on the Veterinary/Animal Health special query, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj07/mj07_vet.html

With thanks to librarian, Barbara L for this blog post.

LibraryThing

What’s on your bookshelf? With LibraryThing, social networking meets your personal library. LibraryThing is a free (up to 200 titles) cataloguing application that enables you to document the contents of your personal library (drawing bibliographic information from libraries and booksellers) and as a social networking space, to browse the personal libraries of those who may have titles in common or an enthusiasm for particular genres of literature.

You can rate the books in your personal library, write reviews and share book recommendations with other participants in group forums.

Take the tour to learn more.

New MadCat Features

Records from the MadCat catalog will now bear a “Where is this Location” link. This link will take you to a page with information about the holding library. If the location is an electronic one, there will be a help page leading you to follow the “Internet Link.”

If you desire to keep up with what has been recently added to the campus library catalog (mostly records to new items in campus libraries), then subscribing to the new RSS feeds will be your convenient tool for this task.

From the New in MadCat page, you can follow links to subscribe to RSS feeds, either by Subject areas or by campus library locations.

NIH Public Access Mandate Made Law!

Washington, D.C. - December 26, 2007 - President Bush has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research. This is the first time the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a major agency.

(See the full-media release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access and its status and time-line reports in the development of the Federal Research Public Access Act).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) directive will require investigators/NIH grant recipients to deposit their final papers in PubMed Central. Papers will then be available within a year after appearing in a published journal.

More information as it becomes available.

Google Privacy Tips

Would you like to remove your personal phone number from Google results? Or, limit who can view your Blogger postings, Google Documents or Picasa photos?

If so, then Google’s series of Privacy Tips may supply some of that assistance you desire. Each tip is demonstrated by a You Tube video.

With thanks to librarian, Barbara L for this blog post.