Current Awareness

Category: Current Awareness

Wellness Resources at the Mudd

Did last week’s spring-like days motivate you to get outside and get active?  Even though the ground is once again covered with snow, the Mudd Library can help you maintain your exercise and healthy living motivations.  We have a growing collection of exercise videos available to check out.  Some of our newest titles include, Yoga for Beginners, Step-by-Step Strength Training, and Perfect Hips: Belly Dance Workout.  The Mudd Library staff can tell you that Wii Sports Resort can be a great workout, as well as a lot of fun to play.  If you don’t have your own Nintendo Wii console, the library has one available for loan.

If you’re interested in researching wellness, our reference librarians have put together a Wellness Resources library guide.  This guide includes information about wellness related electronic databases and websites, as well as tips for finding wellness related books in our catalog.

Of course, the library is not the only place on campus for those interested in wellness.  WelLU, Lawrence University’s committee on wellness, has been actively encouraging wellness on campus.  Take a look at their web page, or visit the newly remodeled Buchanan Kiewit Wellness Center.   The student organization, LU Wellness Committee, focuses on wellness related issues of particular interest to students, such as sexual health/body image and stress management.

Google Art Project

If you thought that Google was so busy digitizing every book they can get their hands on that they couldn’t be working on any other major projects you will be surprised to hear that they have been working with some major museums to bring you Google Art Project.

Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.

Convo: Mary Jane Jacob on “The Collective Creative Process”

MJ Jacob
Mary Jane Jacob
Independent curator and executive director of exhibitions, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
“The Collective Creative Process”
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
11:10am

Curator, author, educator, Mary Jane Jacob is known for her work on the national and international art scene. Exploring art outside the museum context, she has spent the past 20 years as an independent curator organizing groundbreaking programs that have tested the boundaries of public space and relationship of contemporary art to audience. Among her most influential programs was “Culture in Action,” a two-year-long project in Chicago that partnered artists with community members to explore the changing nature of public art, its relationship to social issues and an expanded role of audience from spectator to participant.

During the 1980s, as chief curator of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Jacob staged some of the first U.S. retrospectives and one-person shows of American and European artists, as well as organized some of the key surveys of art of the period.

Resources by and about Mary Jane Jacob

It’s BubbleWrap Day!

Bubblewrap!

We get a lot of mail here at the Mudd and so we see a lot of packaging material. Our favorite, of course, is bubblewrap so we were delighted to discover that today, Monday, January 31 is BubbleWrap Appreciation Day!

There’s nothing like popping a pristine sheet of bubblewrap to relieve the stress of, say, a Freshman Studies midterm. So: have at it!

Now — back to work….

Remember to vote!

There’s an important election in Wisconsin on Tuesday November 2, 2010. There will be voting shuttles leaving the Career Center Circle 8am-8pm. Where you vote depends on where on campus you live. Check this handy chart to find out the location of your polling place. Bring photo ID.

It’s your right. It’s your responsibility. Vote.

For more information about the candidates and the election, see WisconsinVote.org

Candidates for office:
(Names in alphabetical order)

U. S. Senate:
Russ Feingold (D)
Ron Johnson (R)
Rob Taylor (C)

U.S. House of Representatives:
Steve Kagen (D)
Reid Ribble (R)

Governor:
Tom Barrett (D)
James James (I)
James Langer (I)
Scott Walker (R)

Lieutenant Governor:
Rebecca Kleefisch (R)
Tom Nelson (D)

Secretary of State:
David King (R)
Doug LaFollette (D)

Attorney General:
Scott Hassett (D)
J. B. VanHollen (R)

Treasurer:
Dawn Sass (D)
Kurt Schuller (R)

State Senate District 1:
Monk Elmer (D)
Frank Lasee (R)

State Assembly District 57:
Chris Hanson (R)
Penny Bernard Schaber (D)

QR Codes in the Mudd

What is that black and white square of gibberish? Why do they keep appearing in the library? These souped-up bar codes are called QR codes and they contain information that could allow your QR-enabled smart phone to do stuff like connect to a web address, download an MP3, dial a telephone number, or prompt your email client with an address.

Want to know more about the QR codes in the Seeley G. Mudd Library? Check out ourinformational page and take a look at the ways we’ve been using these handy codes to help our patrons easily access information when, and where, they need it.

Banned Books Week!

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Check out this list of the 100 books most frequently banned and/or challenged between 2000 and 2009, compiled by the American Library Association.

Here’s an interesting map of book challenges from 2007-2010.

And a list of 15 iconic movies based on banned books from the Huffington Post.

For more information about why books are challenged, see this list of “challenged classics” — some of the top novels of the 20th century and the reasons they were challenged. Every book on this list can be found in the Mudd Library.

How many banned books have you read?

Changing Times…

Newsweek magazine, in its July 20, 2010 issue, asked the age-old question, “Exactly how much are the times a-changin’?”

Here are some of the numbers they reported:

Active Blogs
2000: 12,000
2010: 141 Million

Daily Google Searches
2000: 100 Million
2010: 2 Billion

Reality-TV Shows
2000: 4
2010: 320

Books Published
2000: 282,242
2010: 1,052,803

Daily Letters Mailed
2000: 207.88 Billion
2010: 175.67 Billion

Daily E-Mails
2000: 12 Billion
2010: 247 Billion

Text Messages
2000: 400,000
2010: 4.5 Billion

Time Spent Online
2000: 2.7 Hrs./Wk.
2010: 18 Hrs./Wk.

CD Sales Revenue
2000: $943 Million
2010: $427.9 Million

Itunes Downloads
2000: 0
2010: 10 Billion

Constitution Day!

On Friday, September 17, 2010 (Constitution Day), Lawrence University will once again join in the national commemoration of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States (on September 17, 1787). As part of this celebration, we’ve created a web site with links to information on the Constitution, its content, its creation, and its relevance.

In addition, the Mudd Library is offering a display on the U.S. Constitution from the library’s collections. Items in the exhibit include various facts about the Constitution, a copy of what the Constitution looked like in its handwritten form, a selection of books about the Constitution from the library’s collection, and microfiche with the Constitution in various languages. Don’t miss it!

Be careful out there…

Yield! A recent article in the Post Crescent noted that “the Appleton Police Department is using grant money to concentrate on bike and pedestrian safety in the downtown and Lawrence University areas.” This seems like a very good thing — we want library users to stay safe. The article went on to remind us that not only must vehicles yield to pedestrians who have entered the crosswalk but that state laws say a pedestrian may not enter a crosswalk unless there is enough distance for a vehicle to safely yield.

So — don’t forget to give cars enough time to yield. We want to see you back in the Mudd.