Karrmann Library Government Publications Department
Developed as a joint venture of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Data Web is an exciting new tool for data access to a wide variety of demographic, economic, environmental, and health data sets from federal government agencies. Data Web includes aggregate data, time series, longitudinal sets, and microdata (raw data).
Data Web allows the user to browse and access data and extract, manipulate, or cross tabulate information to custom design reports, spread sheets, tables, graphs, and maps.
A step-by-step tutorial to the Data Ferrett (Federated Electronic Research, Review, Extraction, and Tabulation Tool) is provided in the online user's guide.
By Jennifer Snoek-Brown, Karrmann Library Reference Department
On a Family Feud episode over 20 years ago, the top five characteristics of a librarian were listed as: 1) Quiet; 2) Mean/Stern; 3) Single/Unmarried; 4) Stuffy; and 5) Wears Glasses. These stereotypical traits seem to have changed little over the years, especially in film portrayals of librarians. Perhaps the public's views have influenced film, or perhaps film has helped to cement these stereotypical characteristics-but a connection does exist between perceptions and media.
There are hundreds of examples of film librarians, and they have filled particular cinematic functions, from a small town's moral center (Bette Davis in Storm Center) to a futuristic society's keeper of secret knowledge (Soylent Green). The portrayals have also run the gamut, from numerous stereotypical representations of female and male librarians to a handful of atypical characters who lead fully developed and successful lives in and outside the library.
An upcoming feature-length documentary, The Hollywood Librarian, explores these issues, combining film and interview clips of both reel and real librarians. For more information, visit their web site.
The Karrmann Library also has resources on this topic, including the 2005 publication The Image of Librarians in Cinema, 1917-1999 by Ray and Brenda Tevis (call # PN 1995.9 .L49 T48 2005).
Editor's Note: Jennifer Snoek-Brown recently presented a poster session, "Connecting Librarians and Films: Identifying Stereotypes" at the 2006 Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference.
RefWorks, the online citation and research management software which allows users to create bibliographies from a personal database of records, is gaining popularity among students, instructors and university staff.
Supporting many output or citation styles such as APA or MLA, RefWorks is web-based and compliant with both Windows and Macs.
To access RefWorks, visit the library's Web homepage.
Click "Reference Resources" and "Citation Guides and Writer's Resources". There you will see a link to RefWorks, including online help.
Use RefWorks to:
Hands-on training sessions for you or your students may be scheduled through your division librarian.
Artwork from the Ullsvik Center's Nohr Gallery is now on display on the 3rd floor of the library! (During the Ullsvik Center Renovation)
Reviewed by James Hibbard
Archivist
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Shelved on the Third Floor, General Circulating Collection PE1450.T75 2004
Women's movement or womens' movement?
Red, white, and blue or red, white and blue?
You will find answers to these kinds of punctuation questions in Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Few books dedicated to the proper use of punctuation are entertaining to read, but Lynne Truss's book accomplishes it with humour. Yes, the author is English; hence, you quickly learn that a "full stop" is a period, an "Oxford comma" is the comma that follows white (in the above example), and that she prefers calling Starburst fruit chews by their original British name&Opal Fruits.
A self-entitled stickler (a punctuation maven), Truss has written a fast-paced book on punctuation that is hard to put down. She not only gives you the origin of each punctuation mark (did you know that an Alexandrian librarian developed the first punctuation around 200 B.C.?) but she also demonstrates how good punctuation enhances the effectiveness of the written word.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the English language. It won the British Book Awards Book of the Year 2004, and the USA Today Book of the Year. It is no wonder. It's a beautifully written book, filled with language that sings:
"On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune."
Kay Young, Editor
608.342.1134
young@uwplatt.edu