Library News

The issue of obscenity is never black and white; shades of gray persist. Its meaning is so vague and variable that it is almost impossible to pin down a definition. One person’s free expression is another person’s obscenity.

The UI Libraries exhibit, “Making No Compromise with the Public Taste,” explores issues of obscenity in relation to two iconic literary works - James Joyce’s Ulysses and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. Both of these books endured suppression in the United States, were the subject of an obscenity trial and eventually noted for their literary merit.

The exhibit also traces the development of the motion picture rating system from the beginning of the association through the mid 1970s - just a few years into our current system.

This exhibit is part of the Obscenity: An Interdisciplinary Discussion humanities symposium on campus this weekend.

Saturday evening’s keynote speaker will be Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU. The talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Shambaugh Auditorium. The exhibit opening and reception will follow in the North Exhibition Hall of the Main Library.

The exhibit will be on display through June 2007. It is open to the public during regular library hours and no admission is charged.

You can find a complete bibliography of the works showcased in the exhibit online.

Tax day is April 16th this year (so you have one extra day), but now that the season is upon us, the UI Libraries offers a tax guide to assist you with annual project. The guide is divided into three parts:

1. Current tax forms, instructions and publications
2. Supplemental information for basic research purposes
3. Significant historic research sources that are shelved in the government publications collection

Accounting students in the Tippie College of Business form part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance VITA program. For more information about our Beta Alpha Psi VITA program, contact Mitch Billups, VP of VITA Programming, or Dr. Joyce Berg, faculty advisor.

Johnson County also coordinates Free Tax Preparation Services. Check their website for frequently asked questions, as well as a schedule of dates, times and locations that this free service is available.

A special section, just released in today’s, Iowa City Press-Citizen profiles dozens of people who are making a difference in the community.

The Libraries’ Khalda Mohieldin was recognized for her work in the Sudanese families in Iowa City/Coralville. Khalda recently celebrated her one year anniversary at the UI Libraries. She is a library assistant who works making new Arabic materials available for faculty, students and staff.

You can read more about Khalda in the Press-Citizen’s Across the Fence.

Human rights issues in Darfur and greater Sudan will be the focus of a lecture and buffet-style dinner featuring homemade regional Sudanese food Monday, Feb. 26, in the International Commons, Room 1117, University Capitol Centre.

The buffet will begin at 6 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 7 p.m. The dinner and lecture are free and open to the public with the following sponsors: University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (UICHR), the UI African Studies Program (ASP), UI Libraries and Sudanese Community Services Inc.

Besides learning about human rights atrocities and the government of Sudan, those in attendance will have a chance to meet individuals from the large Sudanese community living in Iowa City. An estimated 160 families are associated with the local Sudanese community group.

Sharon Hutchinson, a professor in cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, will present her lecture, “Sudan’s Defiance of International Human Rights,” following the dinner. Hutchinson is internationally known for her work on Sudan and human rights issues. She has been working in southern Sudan for 25 years as an academic and activist. After writing the renowned “Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War and the State,” Hutchinson continued her involvement with the Sudan Civilian Protection Monitoring Team, and she opened three schools in the African nation.

The evening will also include a response to Hutchinson’s lecture by Abdalla Mohammed Abdalla, a refugee and member of the Sudanese community in Iowa City. Abdalla was a journalist in Sudan and was active in political movements.

For more information or special accommodations to attend this lecture contact the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights in advance at (319) 335-3900.

Earlier this week, staff from the UI Information Technology Services installed 200 new computers in the Main Library ITC (Instructional Technology Center), located on the east side study area of the 2nd floor.

The computers are Dell GX745 Dual Cores; they each have a 3GB processor, 1GB RAM, with an 80GB hard drive and 17″ monitor, plus they come fully loaded with software.

“The Main Library ITC is the largest and the busiest computer center on campus,” says Marianne Holton, ITC Manager. “When we had the opportunity to upgrade some equipment, we knew this was the ITC we should start with.”

In addition to the desktop machines available, students can also check out laptop computers for up to 3 hours and use them anywhere in the Main Library. Students may also check laptops out overnight and return them the next day.

The ITC is open regular Main Library hours.

February 2007
Issue 1.07

Welcome to the February issue of Transitions.

The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments affecting the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new products and programs, the open access movement and other alternative publishing models. Scholarly communication refers to the full range of formal and informal means by which scholars and researchers communicate, from email discussion lists to peer-reviewed publication. In general authors are seeking to document and share new discoveries with their colleagues, while readers–researchers, students, librarians and others–want access to all the literature relevant to their work.

While the system of scholarly communication exists for the benefit of the world’s research and educational community and the public at large, it faces a multitude of challenges and is undergoing rapid change brought on by technology. To help interested members of the UI community keep up on these challenges and changes we plan to put out 6-8 issues per year of this newsletter.

This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu. Also, read the health sciences counterpart to Transitions: Hardin Scholarly Communication News.

Table of Contents

For Oxford University Press, Online Venture Breathes New Life into the Monograph
Publishers’ Group Reportedly Hires P.R. Firm to Counter Push for Free Access to Research Results
Google’s Moon Shot: The Quest for the Universal Library
University of California Libraries Announce Pursuit of Value-based Journal Prices
U. of Michigan Press, Library, Scholarly Publishing Office Launch Digital Studies Imprint, Web Site
Major Society Publisher Announces Support for Public Access to Scientific Literature
Wiley Completes Acquisition of Blackwell
Scholarpedia Launches
American Mathematical Society Journals to be Preserved in Portico
Open Access to Research Is in the Public Interest - PLoS Biology Editorial
A Lesson in Viral Video
Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
SPARC at Ten: A Decade Later, Organization Still Aims to Be Part of The Solution
BioOne Announces Return of Systematic Botany
Invitation to Sign Petition for Open Access

…and tell us what you think.

As we build the collections of the UI Libraries, subject specialist librarians work with faculty across campus to acquire the best possible scholarly resources available in the discipline. In the case of online indexes, we often can provide access to the resource for a limited time, so UI faculty, staff and students can try it out.

This spring, we are trying a new database Business Source Complete. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database.

Another trial underway is EconLit with Full Text. This database contains all of the content available in EconLit, plus full text for more than 400 publications including titles from the American Economic Association (all with no embargo), such as: American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, and Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Both of these database trials will be active until May 1, 2007. After working with the databases, if you have comments, please send them to Dave Martin, Head of the Pomerantz Business Library.

You can find more information about current and previous Resources Under Evaluation on the Libraries’ website. You may also contact, Ed Shreeves, Associate University Librarian & Director of Collections & Content Development, with questions or comments.

The temperatures may be hovering in the single digits and the snow may be piling up, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be summer inside. All it takes is a trip to Media Services on the first floor of the Main Library. Film subjects range from documentaries to feature-length and foreign language films.

Maybe you’d like to see Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman steam up the screen in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It’s a drama of the problems of a wealthy but decadent family in the South. Members of the family gather to face the impending death of their patriarch, Big Daddy, and battle over the inheritance of his vast estate.

A horror movie is always a good way to get the adrenaline pumping, so why not I Know What You Did Last Summer? Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr. star as four teens who after an accident on a winding road, make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim’s body into the sea. But exactly one year later, the dead man returns from his watery grave, and he’s looking for more than an apology.

There are thousands of feature, documentary, foreign language and art house films in the Media Services collection. We’ve built this remarkable collection to support the teaching and research of students and faculty at the University of Iowa. Faculty in all disciplines across campus use films for their courses.

The secondary benefit to having such a great collection of films is that occasionally you can watch them just for fun while the snow is falling and the temperatures are plummeting. Just a quick check of InfoHawk and a trip to Media Services is all it takes to forget the blizzard outside.

Undergraduate students can check out DVDs for three days; faculty and graduate students can check out materials for seven days. And only four items can be checked out at a time.

Media Services is open Monday - Thursday from 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday from 12:00 p.m. - 5 p.m., and Sunday from 12:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. You can also check the Library Hours.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the University of Iowa Libraries is unlocking the archives to expose love letters, love poems, and other romantic artifacts from the University’s collections of rare books, manuscripts, and ephemeral publications.

Librarians from Special Collections, University Archives, and Iowa Women’s Archives will discuss highlights from their holdings at a lunchtime presentation titled “Love in the Stacks” in room 2032 (pdf) of the Main Library at noon on Wednesday, February, 14th.

A corresponding online exhibit of additional artifacts, including a collection of antique valentines, is currently featured on the UI’s Iowa Digital Library website.

Staff from Special Collections & University Archives will be presenting materials such as editions of the poetry of John Donne, the manuscript notebooks of Iris Murdoch, fine press editions of romantic artwork, film scripts, and the work of romance writer and Iowa author Leigh Michaels.

“Many forms of love are expressed in the materials lurking on the shelves in Special Collections, and sometimes the most ordinary looking objects have remarkable stories behind them,” says Greg Prickman, Special Collections Librarian.

The online exhibit pulls together items from the Libraries’ existing digital collections, which feature such diverse materials as early 20th century scrapbooks of Iowa girls and women, the editorial cartoons of political satirist Ding Darling, and award-winning short fiction from the University of Iowa Press.

“With the Iowa Digital Library, our goal is to increase access to the University’s rare, unique, and locally published materials,” says Jen Wolfe, Metadata Librarian for Digital Library Services. “IDL’s integrated collections, structured descriptions, and full-text search capability allow for resource discovery across disciplines and formats. The Valentine’s Day collection is a fun example of the way a simple query can generate unexpected combinations that could inspire new ideas and new scholarship. Plus it seemed like a good excuse to throw a party.”

Light refreshments will be served, and the event is free and open to the public. The online exhibit can be accessed through Iowa Digital Library at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu .