LIBRARY NEWS

~ Geology Library closed, some services still available- awaiting email for more info
~ OCLC recognizes Live Help as one of the "Best Practices" for virtual reference
~ IASSIST conference manages Madison
~ Women's studies office helps break barriers at annual conference- possible feature depending on timing

NOTABLES

~ Solomon bids Verbal Assessment Project goodbye
~ Bike-to-Work Week give-a-way winner
~ Whitmire wins fellowship to study at UCLA
~ SLIS names alumnus of the year
~ Trace joins faculty at SLIS

FEATURES AND EVENTS

IN THE NEWS

~ Center for Theater and Film Research mentioned in The Capital Times
~ STORY 2 HERE
~ STORY 3 HERE

SNAPSHOTS

PUBLISHED

~ Library & Information Literacy Instruction Program update- condense info and write
~ STORY 2 HERE

IN PASSING

25 YEARS AGO IN THE LIBRARIES

LIBRARY NEWS

• The Geology and Geophysics Library is closed for renovation through August. Services will still be available during normal library hours, through a temporary home at 470 Weeks Hall. Members of the staff will be able to answer questions and provide access to some frequently used portions of the collection, however most print materials will be inaccessible during the renovation. Electronic resources will continue to be available.
  
  
• The Online Computer Library Center has named Live Help as one of the "Best Practices" in the nation for virtual reference. In their post online, OCLC cited John Wanserski's case study of Wendt Library that was published in Internet Reference Service's Quarterly in the spring of 2003. They determined that, as a Best Practice, UW-Madison Libraries are an example of libraries "doing it right." According to Wanserski, UW-Madison Libraries is one of two library systems with this distinction, the other being North Carolina State University Libraries.
  
  
• The 2004 International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology conference was held in Madison this year, using the UW-Madison campus and Pyle center for the various workshops and programs during the week of May 24. The conference, titled Data Futures: Building on 30 Years of Advocacy, allowed various scholars, librarians and activists to discuss how information is stored, distributed and processed in the digital age along with new issues and trends in managing and preserving information. Cindy Severt of the Data and Program Library Service chaired the local committee that helped make the conference possible with the help of Lu Chou and Joanne Juhnke, both from DPLS, who were also on the committee. Students, faculty and staff of the UW Social Science and library departments were able to attend a few sessions free of charge by showing their UW-Madison ID.
  
  
• The annual conference for the National Women's Studies Association will be hosted June 17-20 by UW-Milwaukee with members of the UW System's Women's Studies Librarian's Office helping out. The conference, titled Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers and Intersections is meant to reflect "the many ways that women may find themselves caught in the middle-between generations, between demands of family and work, or aging parents and children, between various aspects of their own identity, between groups in which they are active -- but also highlights ways in which women have used their position creatively," according to the NWSA Web Site. Phyllis Holman Weisbard, women's studies librarian, will be co-chairing the video series and JoAnne Lehman, editor in the office, is in charge of the magazine display. Stephanie Rytilahti, previously the women's studies intern and now a student assistant in the office, helped with both the magazine and video projects.

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NOTABLES

Denise Solomon resigned her position as the Verbal Assessment Project coordinator, according to the May issue of the Verbal Assessment Bulliten. She has been the chair of the committee since 1996, which assesses activities and ideas for enhancing instruction in classes that aim to meet general education requirements. Solomon is also a professor in the Communication Arts department. She will be joining the faculty of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.


• Library Communications Editing Intern Gabriel Miller won the commuter bike contest held for Bike-to-Work Week. Miller detailed his love for commuting and need for a new bike in a one page essay. He explained, "My place is out-of-car, strenuously biking the hills of Madison, gaily swooping down them and happily pedaling the straits between." Graphics guru Dan Joe donated his old commuter bike for the contest and Ann Pollock of the Memorial Library Reference Department helped him select the winner. "Gabriel is the perfect recipient of Dan's bike, a truly committed bike commuter, someone who uses a bicycle for all of his transportation needs," Pollock said. "Dan must be please that his bike has found such a deserving new home."
  
  
• Assistant Professor for the School of Library & Information Studies Ethelene Whitmire won a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral fellowship to study at the University of California-Los Angeles for one year. Whitmire will be studying the use of the libraries by undergraduates of color to determine if the library is more of a gathering place outside of class and living quarters while they attend school.
  
  
• The School of Library & Information Studies named Michael J. Fox as alumnus of the year during the May 15 graduation ceremony at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Fox is currently the assistant director of the Minnesota Historical Society and was a featured speaker at the graduation ceremony. Fox earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree from UW-Madison, graduating from SLIS with his masters in 1973. He went on to work at the Wisconsin Historical Society in various positions including cataloger, public records archivist and chief public records section before taking a position in Minnesota.
  
  
• Ciaran Trace will be an assistant professor in the School of Library & Information Studies this coming fall. Trace just completed the doctoral program at UCLA and previously studied in her native Ireland at University College in Dublin. Trace will educate SLIS students on archival administration, a program that has been without an teacher for the past five years due to the growing complexity and extensiveness of what must be known and taught.

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FEATURES AND EVENTS

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IN THE NEWS

• In a May 19 article about UW Communication Arts Professor David Bordwell's retirement, The Capital Times noted that when film scholars were beginning to surface in academic areas, the UW had a huge resource in the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Started in 1960, the WCFTR helped spark film studies at UW-Madison, which began around 1973 when Bordwell joined the faculty. The article added that the WCFTR is the third largest archive of its kind in the Unites States, featuring entire studio catalogs ranging from the Warner Brothers to RKO.

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SNAPSHOTS

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PUBLISHED

• The May issue of the Verbal Assessment Bulletin focused on the campus overall and revealed faculty testimony of the benefits of the Verbal Assessment Project, assessments of the project and a farewell from the project coordinator. The bulletin mentions results from the latest survey which indicate that Internet search engines have become the way most students begin to conduct research. Also included in this issue are statistics from previous research as well as evidence from faculty members that indicate the program's success in improving students' research methods. Every year, the Library & Information Literacy Instruction Program serves nearly 27,000 library users and teaches more than 2,300 instructional sessions. For more information about the program visit www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Instruction/infores.html.
  

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IN PASSING

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25 YEARS AGO IN THE LIBRARIES

• The April 15, 1979, issue of Added Entries revealed personal information for a professor while he was indexing a Serbian newspaper for the libraries. "Robert Gakovich, Assistant Professor and the Head of the Slavic Cataloging Team, and Milan Radovich, Slavic Acquisition Librarian, are researching and selectively indexing the 1906 to 1976 issues of the American Srbobran newspaper. It is the oldest continuously published daily Serbian-American paper in the United States. ... Bob Gakovich's father, an Orthodox Serbian priest who was killed in Yugoslavia in 1941 by the Ustashi (Croatian extremist nationalists), lived for a time in the United States. In addition to creating a bibliographic tool for students of American ethnic minorities, project research has brought to light information about Bob's father, and even a photograph."

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Quotation

"I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries."

—Stephen King (1947-), American author

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