A Summer's Reading

One of the interesting and pleasantly-challenging aspects of our work in libraries is to match a library user with the texts that he or she will most want to read, be it for research or entertainment.

If you intend to read for fun this summer, chat with us, check out our campus libraries’ Pinterest Board to "Summer Reads", revisit the 2014 "Book Madness" selection or try some of the tools, below. Each one of these additional resources enables you to explore a genre or factor a recommendation based upon authors, books or themes you already enjoy.

• Fiction Connection (and nonfiction connection)
• Novelry 
• Which Book?

Locate available copies of books on campus or within the UW-System by using the library catalog and its UW System search feature. The Madison Public Library, as part of the South Central Library System, is also an amazing resource for satisfying popular reading interests--search its catalog to locate items of interest.  (Subscribe to its MadReads Daily for book recommendations).

And, if you haven’t yet discovered it, Steenbock Library hosts its very own "Little Free Library" in which you can also freely exchange popular reading materials.

Pinned by Steenbock

Browse Steenbock collections with Pinterest.  Our newest boards will take you from garden to table.

• Compost it!
• Gardening with the Wild
• Garden to Table
• The Potted Garden
• Take Root!

Speak with your librarians for assistance in retrieving these titles and more.  If borrowing from UW-Madison Libraries is not an option for you, be sure to look for available library copies using WorldCat (catalog).

The Buzz in Digital Collections

Steenbock Library, in cooperation with UW Digital Collections, is pleased to announce its sweet release of "Historical Bee and Bee-Keeping Literature" from the Charles C. Miller Memorial Apicultural Library.  Newly-digitized as part of this project are 11 serial titles in bee-keeping from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   

The initial collection of this bee-keeping literature was donated to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1922, with a stipend for its continued support, by enthusiastic admirers of Charles C. Miller who had mentored many a bee-keeper through example and scholarship.  Once housed in Agriculture Hall and then Steenbock Library upon its completion in 1969, many of its texts have since been transferred to the Department of Special Collections where there are descriptive finding aids to the collection.  A list of publications that were documented by WPA workers as part of this collection in 1936 can be found via links from the library catalog. The collection was also featured in an article for the Friends of the Libraries Magazine in 2004.