Cast Your Vote for White House Farmer

“The United States has a White House chef…and now is the time for a White House Farmer.”

A movement is afoot to promote local, sustainable and healthy food options and production with a presence at the White House. The White House farmer will be charged with transforming five acres of White House lawn to an organic fruit and vegetable garden—capable of supplying fresh produce to the White House and to area food banks.

Exciting in this development is the nomination of Claire Strader from Madison’s own Troy Community Farm/Gardens. Visit the White House Farmer site, read about the project and the nominees, then cast your vote, today, and until January 31 for the farmer(s) of your choice.

Look Who's Talkin'!

See who may be talking, so to speak, about topics of interest to you by exploring the Who’s Talkin social media search engine. This search engine pulls in content from more than 60 social media gateways (including Facebook, Myspace, Ning)—where people are blogging and twittering about any number of issues. As you run a search, your retrieval can be filtered or browsed via these gateways—blogs, news, forums, (etc.)—as selected from the left column.

A Fairyland of Fabrics, SOHE Design Gallery

A fascination with fairyland inspired crazy-quilt makers to incorporate this whimsy into stunning, colorful, and finely-embroidered quilts—examples of which are currently on display in the SOHE Design Gallery. Professor Beverly Gordon of the Department of Design Studies has curated this exhibit and will speak to its theme during a reception on Sunday, January 25 (1:00-4:00 PM).

The SOHE Design Gallery is located in Room 70, ground floor of the Human Ecology Building, 1300 Linden Drive. During scheduled exhibitions, the Gallery is free and open to the public, Wednesday - Friday (10:00 am - 5:30 pm) and Saturday and Sunday (12:00 -5:00 pm).

A Fairyland of Fabrics runs from January 21 – March 8, 2009.

Choosing a Citation Manager

Citation Managers are software products that can help you to perform the following tasks:

• Create and organize a personal research database of references gathered from databases.

• Format manuscripts and reference lists instantly in a variety of styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.).

• Share your databases with colleagues.

• Transfer references, as need be, to similar products--RefWorks, EndNote, EndNote Web, and Zotero.

In order to decide which product will work the best for you (and you may even find it useful to use more than one), visit the online chart to compare features.

Additionally, the libraries will be offering workshops to introduce students and staff to these various products. Visit the online schedule and choose a date that will work for you:

EndNote & EndNote Web Workshops

RefWorks Workshops

Zotero Workshop

Get Your ASM Bus Pass!

ASM bus passes for the spring and summer semesters can be picked up at Steenbock Library. The library location replaces the west campus distribution site formerly at Union South.

Collect your pass, Tuesday through Friday (January 20-30), 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM in Room 240 (across the room from the main entrance).

While most UW students qualify for an ASM Bus Pass, there are some conditions. See the ASM FAQ page to learn more.

Watch the Inauguration, Today in the Libraries

See history in the making! Campus libraries are hosting viewing salons, today, for the events of the Inauguration in DC.

Here, at Steenbock, you can visit Room 340 between the hours of 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM to watch and to listen to President-Elect, Barack Obama take the Oath of Office and address the nation.

Other campus viewing locations include Memorial Union and the Multicultural Student Center.

Interface Changes to Popular Databases

CAB Abstracts, FSTA, Agricola and other databases have a new look! For many years, campus libraries have supplied access to these databases via Silver Platter (aka WebSPIRS). As the SP platform will soon be discontinued, the libraries have moved these databases to new vendors. While this will change how you search (and export records to EndNote or RefWorks), you can still access the same research content from each of these database products.

Details:

Databases that have moved to ISI (Web of Knowledge):

CAB Abstracts

Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA)

• Moving references to EndNote

• Moving references to RefWorks

• QuickGuide (searching tips)

(Other ISI databases include: Web of Science, Biological Abstracts and Zoological Record)

Note: Biological Abstracts/Reports, Reviews, Meetings (BA/RRM) remains on Silver Platter but will soon move to ISI.

Database(s) that have moved to Ebsco:

Agricola

• Moving references to EndNote

• Moving references to RefWorks

• QuickGuide (searching tips)

(Other Ebsco databases include: Academic Search, GreenFILE and SocINDEX)

Database(s) that have moved to a free website:

Agris

Databases that have been canceled:

Analytical Abstracts

Tropag & Rural

Spring Semester Workshops

Plan to attend a library workshop during the spring semester. Steenbock drop-in workshops are free and do not require advance notification in order to attend.

The schedule is posted online and is also available as a printable flyer.

Forthcoming opportunities include:

UW-Madison Libraries: What You Really Need to Know (Friday, January 16, 11:00am – noon)

Managing Your Citations with RefWorks (Wednesday, January 28, 3:00 – 4:30pm)

Managing Your Citations with EndNote/EndNote Web (Thursday, January 29, 3:00 - 4:30pm)

If you are not able to attend a scheduled workshop, you may contact Steenbock staff to arrange for an individual or small group consultation, class or tour.

Student Bus Pass available at Steenbock

ASM bus passes for the spring and summer semesters will be available beginning Monday, January 12, 2009 at Steenbock Library. The library location replaces the west campus distribution site formerly at Union South.

Collect your pass, Monday through Friday (January 12-16), from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM; and, Monday through Friday (January 20-30) from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM.

The east campus distribution site will be the Annex Room of Memorial Union (Monday-Friday, January 12-January 30, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM).

Associated Students of Madison (ASM) supports the bus pass program given how expensive and inconvenient it can be to bring and/or keep a car on campus.

While most UW students qualify for an ASM Bus Pass, there are some conditions. See the ASM FAQ page to learn more.

Madison Metro WebWatch

If you are a bus commuter, it is nice to know when you can expect your bus to arrive—particularly as the temperature dips (and with recess changes to campus routes). While you can view route schedules at the City of Madison Metro Transit site, real time arrivals can be tracked using its WebWatch monitor. Despite disclaimers regarding its potential accuracy when route deviations may occur and its “testing” status, I have found it to be quite useful for estimating my wait at any one stop.

43 Things, Online Goal Setting

I generally like to start the New Year by revisiting my to-do lists. While many of mine take the form of assorted, recycled slips of paper attached to the office monitor or slipped into the portable calendar, there is a nifty (and free) online application suitable for making those to-dos a bit more social—that is, to record and to share them in a venue where you can draw inspiration from and cheer on others as you and they tick off the items from your respective lists. If you are similarly given to this reflection and would like to incorporate this process into your online work-flow, check out the 43 Things site.

Wishing you a happy and productive New Year!