Library Video of the Week, September 26, 2011.

Never Enough: a Documentary  by Kelly Anderson. Distributed through New Day Films.  Library Call Number: RC533 .N48 2010 (36 minutes.)

From the package liner notes: "Do we own our things, or do they own us? [This film] probes our relationship with the material world through three Americans' relationships with their 'stuff.' Michele Gitlin has 700 sweaters. In touch with the pain as well as the pleasure of over-collecting, she calls Ron Alford, the 'Disaster Master,' for help. Ron, a de-cluttering expert who coined the term 'disposophobia' and believes that 'clutter begins in the head, and ends up on the floor,' determines that Michele is indeed a hoarder. We follow Ron as he visits a retired marine (who owns 7,800 Beanie Baby dolls), and a Home Shopping Network addict whose purchases have made his apartment unlivable. [This film] is a meditation on material culture, consumerism, mental illness and the social fabric of our lives".

Browsing Area book of the Week, September 26, 2011.

 Sugar: a Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott. Library Call Number: TX560.S9A23 2009.

          A comprehensive social history of the taste most craved. Abbott’s book takes the reader from the origins of cultivated sugar cane—likely in Indonesia or Polynesia—to the huge agribusiness of beet and cane production today. Supplanting honey in the sweetening of tea, sugar began as a treat for the wealthy and exploded in popularity; in a few hundred years, it went from luxury to unfortunate staple.  Abbott gives the reader a look at the huge enterprises that sprang up in the Caribbean in the 1700’s, plantations that required hundreds of thousands of slaves to do the work and made a handful of Europeans rich beyond dreams and how candy and chocolate became necessities. She describes the American plantations, the sugar beet fields of the north central and western plains and how the historical commodity sugar was once as precious as petroleum today.  During its rise, sugar cultivation caused the near-extinction of native Caribs, resulted in untold ecological devastation and is now responsible for problems that threaten to overwhelm world’s health care systems.



Library Video of the Week, September 19, 2011.

The Narrow Margin, starring Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor and Jacqueline White. Directed by Richard Fleischer. 1952. Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F54N37 2005.             One of the best pictures ever made in the noir  period of Hollywood gangster pictures, Fleischer’s film features plenty of twists and surprises as a pair of detectives are assigned the task of escorting a gang boss’ girlfriend from Chicago to L.A. aboard the Golden West Limited, where she’s going to testify about mob activities to a grand jury.  One of the detectives is knocked off before they even get to the train, and as it rolls through the night, the remaining police escort finds himself facing ever higher odds.  This is one of those movies that has no real scenery, just the claustrophobic sleepers of the train and relies almost solely on plot and character, neither of which disappoint the viewer.  If you like old action movies, you should like this   B-movie classic.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, September 19, 2011.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz.  Library Call Number: PS3561.O55 W48 2011.

     Dean Koontz, one of America’s premier suspense and horror authors, began 2011 with this ghost story of terrifying dimensions.  Homicide detective John Calvino finds a serial killer is stalking and murdering whole families, in a fashion similar to a previous killer twenty years before.  What shakes the detective to his core is that two decades before, when he was 14, his entire family was the last murdered and Calvino had killed the homicidal maniac himself in self defense.  But he has always suspected that some evil refuses to stay buried and now he’s certain that same spirit has turned its attention to his wife and children.  Bookreporter.com call this “…a fast-paced novel of hurt and evil, redemption and love. The first half will have you jumping at every little noise, afraid of things that go bump in the night, and the second half will convince you that danger is often closer than you think.”

The Information Commons

University of Minnesota

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The information commons concept is popular in academic libraries throughout the nation. It involves transforming library spaces to meet the multifaceted needs of learners.  The libraries at UW-Milwaukee, the University of Minnesota, California State Polytechnic University, and Northwestern University have adopted the model.  The three year process to transform the Reference Area (1^st Floor) into an Information Commons was completed this past summer.  Its goal is to support student collaboration and learning with unique and varied study spaces.  Changes include the addition of a new centralized Reference Desk, movable tablet-arm “soft” chair furniture groupings, new study tables providing varied student work spaces allowing for individual and group study, a wireless access upgrade, improved access to power outlets, computers loaded with campus software and located in pod-style arrangements, laptop stations, scanners, printing, all in an open arrangement. In response to learner preference of online reference resources, the Reference collection was reduced to allow for expansion of collaborative learning areas.

Loyola Univesity

John Peace Library

Image Quest – New from Encyclopedia Britannica!

Simplify and improve your search for images with Image Quest. Now you can access two million rights-cleared images for educational use from over 50 of the best collections in the world. Dorling Kindersley Images, Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, the National Geographic Society, Oxford Scientific, and other leading names have joined with Britannica to provide the best and broadest collection of proprietary educational imagery. Instructors can use the images in their lesson plans and classroom activities while students will turn to the site as they work on assignments or course projects. Free of advertising and from trustworthy sources, Image Quest provides safe and fast access to high quality images on all topics and for all ages. Britannica has done the work of finding the best photos—most of which are not freely available on the Web—you can trust the source and be certain that you're using an accurate photo.

Images can be downloaded, printed, or saved in jpeg format. To access the images go to Encyclopedia Britannica on the library’s Database A-Z list (http://tinyurl.com/4y7wzb4), search a subject and then click on an image. A larger version of the image will appear. To print, email or share the image, follow the prompts in the right column.

Questions or comments, please contact Lelah Lugo, lugola@uwstout.edu or phone: 715-232-1552.

August Browsing Books--Business as (Un)usual

Cornered: The new Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction by Barry C. Lynn, Library Call #:HD2757.2.L96 2010.

In his study of American business, Lynn writes, ”Consolidation of power by financiers over the basic institutions of our political economy has resulted in the dreangement not merely of our financial systems but also of our industrial systems and political systems.  Most terrifying of all is that this consolidation of power—and the political actions taken to achieve it—appears to have impaired our ability to comprehend the dangers we face and to react in an organized and coherent manner.” In looking at the unprecedented rise of monopolies over the past 30 years, Lynn finds the causes of much of the economic turmoil of today.

The Next Generation of Women Leaders: What You Need to Lead but won’t Learn in Business school by Selena Rezvani. Library Call #: HD6054.3.R49 2010.

            With information gleaned from interviewing more than 30 female executives, Rezvani gives a pep talk and supplies tools and information for women who want to make it to the top in business.  Identifying areas of strength in the female executive, the author shows why women may have new-found advantages in 21^st century business.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin. Library Call # F2651.F55G72 2009.

            The epic story of Henry Ford’s great social experiment.  In 1927, Ford puchased land in the Amazon twice the size of Delaware, and attempted to grow both rubber and a new American outpost in the jungle.  Ice cream stands, Model T’s bandstands and communities for the workers sprang up and Ford’s assembly-line philosophy was applied to the native plantation workers.  The results were a startling and grave clash of environments, cultures and mind-sets that make for a fascinating history.

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson and James Kwak. Library Call #: HG2491.J646 2010.

 Johnson, former chief economist for the IMF and MIT professor of Entrepreneurship, and Kwak argue that the banks that are “too big to fail” are practicing an economic socialism that lets them profit in good years and allows them to use Federal money to cover their losses in lean.  The authors make a compelling case for regulation and a return to banks that small enough to suffer failure.

Look for these books in the 4th floor Browsing Area of the University Library.