Library News

The UI Libraries will hold its annual used book sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, on the fifth floor of the Main Library, with proceeds going to the Libraries’ acquisitions fund. Shoppers are asked to use the north entrance and follow the signs to the fifth floor.

Book prices will vary through the day. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., most books will sell for $1 to $2 each. From 2 to 4 p.m., customers will pay $5 for all of the books that will fit into a grocery paper bag. The bags will be provided by Prairie Lights bookstore.

Most books that will be on sale are in the humanities and social sciences, including fiction, history, philosophy and foreign languages, as well as children’s books, primarily upper elementary.

Also, for the first time a silent auction will be featured, consisting of 50 or more Better Books about Books & Fine Printing. Bidding will start at 10:30 a.m. and end at 11:15 a.m. Contact Sid Huttner at 335-5921 or e-mail sid-huttner@uiowa.edu with questions about the silent auction.

There will be no advance sales or previews. Payment must be made in cash or in-state checks only. Call Chris Hunt at 335-5878 or e-mail christine-hunt@uiowa.edu with questions or to arrange special accommodations on the day of the sale.

The Main Library is located at the corner of Burlington and Madison streets in downtown Iowa City.

Two health care-related Web sites operated by University of Iowa Health Care and University of Iowa Libraries earned high marks recently by Medicine on the Net, a publication specializing in online health care information.

The magazine considered the top 25 Web sites that provide health care information to consumers and providers, ranking each on a five-star system in the categories of content, interface and style. Virtual Hospital, developed and maintained by University of Iowa Health Care, received four stars for content and three stars for interface and style. The magazine said Virtual Hospital is “a valuable site” with “a wealth of information” for consumers and health care providers.

The magazine also gave good scores to HardinMD, which is managed by the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. The magazine gave three stars to HardinMD for content, interface and style, pointing out its links to subscription-based medical textbooks and journals. Other unique links include those to sites with information on such subjects as dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health.

HardinMD can be found on the Web at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/, while the Virtual Hospital can be found at http://www.vh.org/.

Other Web sites in the survey include those managed by the American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic, the National Institute of Health and Merck Pharmaceuticals.

The University of Iowa Libraries has announced the winners of its contests to design a graphic identity for its sesquicentennial celebration this year and for writing an essay about the anniversary.

Design contest winners are David Herwaldt, a graduate student in graphic design from Iowa City, and Sally Chai, a senior in graphic design. The essay contest winner was Andrew Stallings, a student in the Writer’s Workshop from Iowa City for his work, “Library: A Collage.” Honorable mention was given to Alison Gowans, a junior journalism and international studies major from Cedar Falls, and Tara Acton, a senior in English and medieval studies from Gladbrook, Iowa.

“Students are our largest group of clients and have been since the creation of the Libraries in 1855,” says Nancy L. Baker, University Librarian. “We wanted to say thank you and have some fun with students during our Sesquicentennial Celebration. Congratulations to all our winners.”