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Though the Census Bureau ultimately dropped this title, citing budgetary reasons, students, researchers, journalists and lovers of trivia can rest easy: commercial publisher ProQuest has taken up the challenge of continuing this venerable work.  In the process, ProQuest has created a more versatile online product than the Census Bureau was able to provide.  (Bernan Press has also published a print version based on the ProQuest product.)

In creating this new edition, ProQuest updated nearly all the tables in the 2012 edition (a few tables couldn’t be updated because new data had not been published), and plans to update selected tables throughout the year.  ProQuest used the same sources that the Census Bureau did to create tables.  These sources include national and international governmental agencies, as well as many private associations.  As in the Census Bureau’s version, the ProQuest version points users to these sources, so users can see if more detailed data is available from those original sources.

In recent years, the Census Bureau had maintained electronic versions of the Abstract, but users had to decide whether to search a PDF version OR an Excel spreadsheet one.  ProQuest’s interface allows users to search the entire publication, then choose whether to view a table in PDF or Excel format.  Users can also break down results by time period covered, source of data, geographic level the data is presented at, or whether the tables break down data by such factors as age, race, or gender.  Every table includes a citation in APA and MLA formats.

And what content will you find in this Statistical Abstract?  The same eclectic mix as in the preceding versions:  over 1,400 tables on 30 broad topics, from health and nutrition, to arts, travel, and recreation; education to transportation.  A sampling of tables available:

• Percent Of Adults Who Own Electronic Devices By Age
• Persons With And Without Health Insurance Coverage By State
• Households And Persons Having Problems With Access To Food
• Top States And Cities Visited By Overseas Travelers
• U.S. Firms–Ownership By Gender, Ethnicity, Race, And Veteran Status
• Vote Cast For U.S. Representatives By Major Political Party–Congressional Districts
• Sales And Household Participation In Lawn And Garden Activities

Many thanks to Government Documents and Reference Librarian Beth Harper for providing this write-up! 

If you have library news, press releases, event announcements, or resource profiles to share, please send an e-mail to news@library.wisc.edu.

In January, the Library launched a new service called Uborrow, which offers rapid access to books from 13 major research libraries, with combined collections of more than 90 million volumes. Books requested through Uborrow will typically arrive on campus within a week and can be checked out for 12 weeks with an optional 4-week renewal. In most cases, Uborrow  is faster than traditional interlibrary loan.

Uborrow is a service of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC).  The CIC is is comprised of universities of the Big Ten Conference plus the Center for Research Libraries; Uborrow books may be borrowed from any of these institutions:

• Indiana University
• Michigan State University
• Northwestern University
• Ohio State University
• Penn State University
• Purdue University
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Iowa
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota
• University of Nebraska
• Center for Research Libraries

Go to http://library.wisc.edu/delivery/uborrow.html#howto for more details on how to use Uborrow to your advantage!

DesignLab is located on the second floor of College Library, in Helen C. White Hall. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

DesignLab is hosting an Open House tomorrow, February 8th from 2:30-5pm.  Librarians, faculty, staff and students are invited to stop in any time between 2:30 and 5:00pm for tours of the spaces, opportunities to ask questions and talk with instructors and consultants, and to enjoy conversation (and treats).

Last November, we shared an in-depth overview of DesignLab,  new, renovated educational service area on the second floor of College Library.  The DesignLab & Media Studio’s mission is to help “democratize digitality,” and the DesignLab website draws parallels between these efforts and the way public education revolutionized and democratized literacy in the 19th century.

The services offered focus on one-on-one and small group consultations with design consultants trained to help students hone the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical skills they need to complete digital projects and ultimately work effectively in digital media.  If this sounds familiar, it should; DesignLab’s services are likened to the Writing Center’s writing assistance services, a highly successful model that was developed here at UW.  DesignLab’s consultations are meant to compliment Writing Center consultations and DoIT’s STS workshops to offer students a broad range of personalized educational support opportunities.

At a Glance:

• What: DesignLab Open House
• Where: DesignLab & Media Studios, 2nd Floor, College Library, Helen C. White Hall.
• When” Friday February 8, 2:30-5 PM

Further Reading:

• DesignLab supports students’ work in digital, new media
• Media Studio in College Library
• Visit the DesignLab website

Return your books at libraries all over campus with Open Return Book Drops.

Winter weather is coming – why cross campus to return a book to Memorial Library when you could just drop it off for return at Steenbock? When you check out books from campus libraries, or even get books through interlibrary loan, you can return them from multiple campus libraries.

Open Return Book Drops on campus: visit the Find Library by Feature page and highlight “Open Return” to get the list of participating libraries (there’s a lot).

Learn more about Open Return Book Drops, including what you can/can’t return through these drop-off locations.

Need research help in these final days? Ask a Librarian.

Have a question about how to organize or research for an upcoming final paper or new media project? There are special services on campus ready to help you plan out and craft your assignments.

• The Writing Center has peer tutors available who can work with you one-on-one to craft and develop your written assignments. They also have a nifty Ask-a-Writing Consultant service for quick questions about your writing process. Just need some pointers/tips on writing mechanics, like grammar and punctuation, how to create a bibliography or Works Cited list, etc.? Check out the fabulous Writer’s Handbook, developed by the Writing Center.

• DesignLab, a (relatively) new service that opened to UW-Madison students this fall, is located very conveniently on the second floor of College Library. DesignLab is a service very similar to the Writing Center, but is specially geared toward students who are working on new or digital media course projects. Please note that DesignLab is not open for appointments after 5 p.m. on Monday, December 17. DesignLab reopens the first week of classes in January.

• Research and reference help is available through the Ask-a-Librarian service from the Libraries.

Just need a place to study or chill out during finals week? Check out the list of extended hours and end-of-term activities happening at the Libraries.

Print stations, like this one in Memorial Library, are available at libraries all over campus.

At this busy time of year, the last thing you want to worry about is how to print your final papers and projects – where to go, how to pay, who to ask for help, etc.

The Libraries created a page dedicated to the ins and outs of Printing and DebitCard use (for printing or copying) at the libraries on campus. Included on this page is information on using your WiscCard Print Account or Campus Cash to print, as well as how to add money to those separate accounts.

Still have questions?

• Check out the campus printing page for more information about printing anywhere on campus.
• Have a question about a DebitCard specifically? Contact Sherry Kanetzke in Memorial Library.

DesignLab is located on the second floor of College Library, in Helen C. White Hall. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

Students seeking help with digital or new media assignments have a new service available to them this year. Located on the second floor of College Library, DesignLab is in the heart of where many students already spend their time researching, drafting, and revising class assignments.

At first glance, DesignLab doesn’t look vastly different from the library space around it. The renovated area on the second floor boasts beautiful lake views, rows of iMac computers, and two highly flexible Media Studio classrooms with projectors and tables for collaborative work. Nestled just in front of the Media Studio are six cubicles, each with chairs clustered around iMacs. A colorful sign alerts visitors that they’ve just entered DesignLab.

DesignLab Teaching Assistants provide consultations to help students with new, digital, and smart media projects. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

DesignLab: a new service for students

DesignLab Associate Director Rosemary Bodolay and College Library Director Carrie Kruse describe it as a service similar to the campus Writing Center, but for digital or new media projects instead of essays or research papers. Students can sign up for thirty-minute consultations with DesignLab Teaching Assistants and talk about project management goals, media project ideas, and to discuss assignment drafts.

“It’s not software training,” Bodolay clarifies. “You don’t go to the Writing Center to learn how to use Word.”

There are other places on campus, like DoIT’s Software Training for Students (STS), that host software workshops for students, and DesignLab does not duplicate these efforts. DesignLab’s website spells it out: “Through one-on-one and small group consultations, our design consultants help students hone the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical skills they need to work effectively in digital media.” This is a complementary service to the Writing Center and DoIT’s STS workshops.

DesignLab Teaching Assistants themselves, while given an overview of the different software during their training, are not necessarily expert software users. Instead, the service aims to fill a support need as digital and new media assignments start to be assigned with greater frequency, particularly in undergraduate classes.

DesignLab in College Library

DesignLab is one of several projects that came out of the Digital Humanities Initiative (others include Digital Studies certificate program, the Media Studios learning spaces, and the Digital Salon exhibition).  DesignLab is funded by the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, which supports efforts to improve undergraduate education. The service is available to all UW-Madison students, regardless of major or “home” school or department; including graduate students.

“[Project developers like Digital Humanities Coordinator Jon McKenzie] wanted the service to be in neutral territory,” Bodolay says, rather than confined to a certain school or department.

College Library ended up being the ideal setting for the service. DesignLab integrates well not just from a spatial standpoint, but a service and resource standpoint as well. In the same area of the library there is the InfoLab, a traditional computer lab with 85 machines; a service desk where students can get help with technical questions, and where they can check out equipment and use the high-quality poster printer; and shelves of technical manuals so that they can beef up their knowledge of Photoshop or iMovie.

The Media Studio classrooms, adjacent to DesignLab, are highly flexible teaching and learning spaces. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

Also close by are the Media Studios – two classrooms that support courses that integrate collaborative work and digital media projects into the curriculum.

With the Media Studios and a software training classroom used by STS in the same space, their adjacency offers a variety of ways students can learn about and get assistance with digital media projects.

“DesignLab fits nicely into College’s operational structure,” library director Carrie Kruse says. “We can build on the technical support provided by the library’s Computer & Media Center, plus take advantage of other library supports, such as 24-hour staffing and security.”

Kruse notes that DesignLab suits the library’s access philosophy, too. “We continue to make sure that as much as possible, our equipment and space is able to be used by students 24 hours a day.” Much like College’s student services area on the ground floor, the DesignLab cubicles and machines are open for walk-in use during times they are unscheduled for DesignLab consultations.

Use DesignLab

Students who are interested in making an appointment or checking out DesignLab during drop-in hours should see the DesignLab Consults page for more information.

DesignLab is intended to be not only a service for students, but also (much like the Writing Center) a place for instructors to get support and ideas for ways to integrate new media assignments into their courses – and how to evaluate those projects once they’ve been incorporated into the curriculum.

Instructors who are interested in learning more about how to utilize DesignLab in course planning should see the DesignLab’s Instructor Support page for more information.

The service is administered through the General Library System, while faculty members and staff from nine different campus departments serve on a rotating advisory board. The Teaching Assistants who staff DesignLab represent each of the advising/partner departments, making the service truly interdisciplinary and cooperative.

DesignLab is part of an exciting shift in the way that academic libraries operate, as skill sharing, idea development, and project management become more formally integrated into the services that libraries can offer students.

For more information, visit DesignLab online, or send an email to info@designlab.wisc.edu.

What is open access anyway?

“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.” (from the Open Access Week website)

Sounds great – so what’s the hiccup? Implementing Open Access takes a long time because it requires an overhaul of the scholarly publishing process, which affects hot topics like faculty promotion and tenure.

To institute real change takes time and involvement from many, many people. Open Access Week provides ideas and opportunities for everyone, not just librarians, to get involved at the local level and to carry the momentum year-round.

Learn more about Open Access Week.

Why it’s important to libraries

Open Access is especially important to libraries at research institutions because it facilitates access to scholarly research and data at a time when the subscription costs of serial publications (scholarly journals) is increasing at an unsustainable rate for library budgets. Exclusivity means that huge publishers can charge astronomical subscription prices to libraries, and libraries, to keep their collections relevant and useful to their users, must pay them. Even research libraries with large endowments cannot keep up the pace, and the problem is more severe for small institutions and those in the developing world.

International advocacy campaigns and initiatives like Open Access Week are vital when it comes to increasing awareness about the issues surrounding scholarly publishing and information access. To create real change, everyone in the research community from students to faculty and researchers to librarians to research funders must be aware of the issues and know how to effectively address them.

Learn more about libraries and open access.

Here on campus – SLIS-ALSO

The Academic Librarianship Student Organization, a group run by students in the School of Library & Information Studies here at UW–Madison, helps host the conversation about Open Access here on campus. To celebrate Open Access Week 2012, the group brings us a panel of academic librarians who will speak on topics like Open and Closed Access Journals, Institutional Compliance with open access policies, and Open Access textbooks.

Learn more about SLIS-ALSO.

Special thanks to Carrie Nelson, academic librarian at College Library, for her assistance with this post.

Library workshops are offered at libraries all over campus.

We’re well into the fall semester (if you can believe it!)…get ready for final projects and papers well in advance with a library workshop!

Upcoming workshop topics include:

• Strategies and tools for managing your citations
• How to make the most of Google for your academic research
• Finding grants and other funding for your education or special projects

Find out more:

To see a full list of workshops by topic and date, visit the Library Workshop webpage.

You can also subscribe to the full workshop schedule in the UW campus calendar.

Need help starting or polishing up your research project or paper? Check out the UW-Madison Writing Center for individual assistance and writing workshops.

Also:

• If you go: Details on the visit of the president (University News)
• Building access information for the visit of the president (University News)