It’s getting to be time to return the library materials you have checked out. Here are the options which are available as of now.
Returning Materials
While details are still being finalized, we are offering several opportunities to help our patrons return materials. We are partnering with the Big Ten, ILA/ACRL, and a few public libraries in the area on this initiative and will also receive materials from their patrons.
To help our library patrons, especially graduating students, return library items, we are offering these options during the month of May:
Scheduled drop off by emailing lib-engineering@uiowa.edu. If have equipment, such as laptops or tools to return, we highly recommend scheduling a drop off to ensure the security and safety of the item.
Request a UPS shipping label, for those who do not have access to a library drop box and live 30 miles or more outside of Iowa City.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact us! You may email us at: lib-engineering@uiowa.edu. We have online chat available Mon-Fri from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. You may access this by going to our homepage and clicking on the link “Chat with a Librarian.” During those same hours you may text us at 319.250.2176.
It’s the end of the semester and we are all feeling it. STRESS.
But, have no fear – we are here for you!
We’re here and you are there, so what can we do to help you feel less stress and anxiety? Have a DeStress Fest, of course!
Starting Wednesday, May 6th through Tuesday, May 12th, we will be hosting a virtual DeStress Fest! We have activities you can do while maintaining physical distancing but still connecting with others online. The event will feature a LIVE pet show and “tail,” LIVE Guided Meditation Sessions, plus daily dad jokes, mug recipes and inspirational quotes.
On Friday, the 8th, at 2 PM, we’ll be having a “Show and Tail” zoom session!! Be sure to register HEREahead of time so that you receive the Zoom link an hour before the session. Then, come and share your pets and a tell a story (tale/tail) about your pet! Remember – birds, lizards, turtles, bunnies, etc., all have tails, too! So get registered to participate in “Show and Tail!” If your pet is shy and doesn’t want to appear live (or you aren’t able to be join us during the LIVE portion of Show and Tail) there will be a space on our virtual bulletin board where you can share a picture and a brief story about your pet!
Posted EACH DAY on our social media pages (@UIEngLIB) and on our DeStress Fest webpage:
9:00 AM: There will be a new “Dad Joke” posted! Groaning and eye rolling is encouraged!
11:00 AM: Guided Meditation Session! Student Wellness is providing a live meditation at 11 AM each weekday during DeStress Fest! Each session will include a brief intro about meditation, a 10 minute practice, and then a brief overview of the Student Wellness mindfulness Program. More information on the mindfulness program can be found here.
You may register for the individual sessions at the links below. An hour before each session for which you have registered you will receive an email with the Zoom link.
May 6: Register here.
May 7: Register here.
May 8: Register here.
May 11: Register here.
May 12: Register here.
1:00 PM: A new Mug Cake recipe every day! Make it and share your photos on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages(@UIEngLib) and the DeStress Fest webpage– we want to see those tasty cakes – and the crazy mugs you might have!
4:00 PM: An Inspiration Quote will be posted. You’ll be able to share quotes that have helped you through online learning! We will have a virtual wall on our webpage where you’ll be able to share those quotes that have helped you with the challenges of the end of this semester.
Did you miss something during the day? Don’t worry – check our blog each day and find out what your friends have shared throughout the day!
Most of us know about Earth Day/Earth Month, and many are concerned about the impact society has on our planet Earth. The Earth Day Network wants to”build the world’s largest environmental movement.” Their webpage says:
Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 75,000 partners in over 190 countries to drive positive action for our planet.
Dr. Hanna Reid is currently working with the Climate Change Group and the Biodiversity Team at the International Institute for Management. In the first chapter of her book, Climate Change and Human Development, she talks about what global impact we can expect from climate change over the coming years. Among other warnings, she says we should expect warming over land areas and at high northern latitudes, and less warming over the Southern Ocean and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. She warns of increases in the depths of thaw experienced over most permafrost regions and decreases in sea ice but also increases in heat waves and heavy precipitation. Reid also says we should expect changes in tropical cyclones. This book moves through theories, evidence, and effects on everything from oceans, fresh water, forests, and jungles. This title is also available online.
It is sometimes easy to forget that “Society can change climate, and climate can change society.” That is the first sentence in the 3rd chapter of The Future Is Not What It Used to Be : Climate Change and Energy Scarcity by Jörg Friedrichs (available online). Humans need food, drink, and shelter. Humans depend on fresh, clean water. Food depends on agriculture which relies on fresh water and fertile land. Shelters also rely on stable ground. Climate change has consequences for our fresh water, agriculture and fertile land, not to mention our oceans and the fish many rely on to survive. Rising sea levels affect lands and washing away shorelines and islands. In the final chapter, Friedrichs concludes that we tend to focus on mitigating damage caused by global warming caused by industrial society. We often don’t think our industrial society might be unsustainable. He goes on to discuss “resilience thinking” and “ontological securitization” as different ways to look at mitigating climate change.
There are so many ways we can help help make/keep the Earth green. Green technology includes innovations such as power supplies, solar power, wind power, and waste management. Living green includes using LED light bulbs, cutting down or eliminating plastic use, and energy-efficient and sustainable housing. Growing your own food – or buying from Farmer’s Market, reducing the use of pesticides, using bicycles or energy efficient cars are also ways to help the earth stay green.
Check out InfoHawk+, and see how many resources we have available! You can narrow your search to the Engineering Library if you wish. Additionally, you can choose to display only online results.
And remember we are here for you! We are available to Live Chat (link on our website) from 8:30 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. You may text us at 319.250.2176, during those same hours. We are available by email us at lib-engineering@uiowa.edu. If your question is more involved, our librarians are available to schedule a zoom session with you.
Explore the library resources! As we all take time to do spring-cleaning, we can add “spring-greening” to our list!
Happy 50th Planet Earth!
Resources:
Wong, Kaufui Vincent. 2016. Climate change. New York, New York : Momentum Press. Engineering Library QC903 .W653 2016. Full text also available online.
Friedrichs, Jörg. 2013. The future is not what it used to be : climate change and energy scarcity. Cambridge, Mass : MIT Press. Engineering Library QF903 .F74 2013. Full text also available online.
Earth Day. 2020. The Earth Needs Us Now More Than Ever. EARTHDAY.ORG
Other Resources:
Smil, Vaclav. 2008. Energy in nature and society : general energetics of complex systems. Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press. Engineering Library QH510 .S63 2008 Full text also available online.
Looking for a relaxing, creative activity while social distancing? Does anyone in your household like to color? We have some of the best coloring pages around – and they are all FREE!!!
If you go to InfoHawk+ – the University of Iowa Libraries search engine – and search for coloring books, you’ll find you get over 400 results. But, on the left is a tab where you can sort your results by relevance and “full text online” – and voilà – you have a manageable list! The online resource link will take you to coloring book which you may then save and print!
We’re pretty much all working from home and wishing we had better office chairs. It’s no surprise that office chairs have patents – but did you know there are patent coloring books? Print a copy of your office chair and color it to be exactly the way you’d like it to be! Use your imagination! Fluorescent colors, smiley faces, cartoon characters – well, you get the idea! Go to “Selected Works of Paulina Borrego” where there is a drop down – “jump to category.” Click on that and select “Patent Coloring Books.” Have fun scrolling through the many collections of patents and get coloring!
Europeana’s Coloring Book for Grown-Ups
You’ll also want to check out the Open Culture website. They have “free coloring books from world-class libraries & museums.” Their list includes coloring books from The Met, New York Public Library, Smithsonian, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Royal College of Physicians, and SO many more!!
Maybe you and/or your kids are into the outdoors – there are coloring books for you, too!
The US Fish & Wildlife service has coloring books, too. Head to their website, search “coloring books” and you’ll come up with a whole list of available, downloadable pdfs.
More into agriculture? You an access Biosecurity for Birds Coloring Book through InfoHawk+ – find the link to full text and you’ll be ready to download!
Resources:
University of Iowa Libraries InfoHawk+. Limit search to “library catalogs,” search “coloring books,” narrow search by selecting “full text online” on the left side of the screen.
United States. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Biosecurity for birds coloring book. 2006. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Need a break from all the usual streaming channels? We have access to online music and videos you can explore and enjoy!
Interested in music and the performing arts? Head over to this Alexander Streetwebsite for free access to links for all sorts of music and performing arts! This website has videos of operas, dance (all kinds!), Broadway musicals, jazz music, world music, and, oh, so much more!! If you like music and performing arts of all types – this is an amazing site to get lost in! They also have a section of Smithsonian Global Music for Libraries – this includes books and songs for children. These links are fully searchable by genre, places, artists, film, theater and more!
Are you into silent films? Alexander Street also has a link for silent films – including The Great Train Robbery. The Great Train Robbery from 1903, is an American silent short western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter, a former Edison Studios cameraman. This collection has silent films from Monkey Shines filmed in 1890 to Brandford City v Gainsborough Trinity filmed in 2016.
(Confession time – I may have found some fun steel drum music to listen to while writing this!)
Looking for educational videos and documentaries? Try Kanopy. This site has everything from the Criterion Collection, Political Documentaries, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Italian Studies, the Great Courses, and many more! Check out the many, many videos available to watch for free!
Here’s another great website for movies! There is everything available from thrillers, westerns, sci-fi, romance, musicals, documentaries, and more, more, more! Check out the University of Iowa Academic Film Streaming! Hard to imagine you won’t find something there that you haven’t seen, but have always meant to watch!
Looking for academic video streaming? Swank is another great resource. It includes feature films, documentaries, foreign films, and TV shows!
We want you to stay safe!
So watch our free resources while you are social-distancing and self-isolating!
You have probably heard by now that all University of Iowa Libraries–including the engineering library – closed at 5 pm on Tuesday, March 17 and will be closed through at least April 3.
We may not be physically in the library but we are working to provide you with the resources you need.
We will still have online chat available Mon-Fri from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. You may access this by going to our homepage and clicking on the link “Chat with a Librarian.”
You are also encouraged to contact us through our departmental email. It is being monitored closely. The address is lib-eng@uiowa.edu
We have staff who will be coming in routinely to do book scanning and mailing materials to patrons who need them. During the duration we will be mailing book materials to anywhere in the U.S., including personal homes. We will not be able to mail items from our tool library – including technology.
If you are in the Iowa City area and need materials or equipment, send an email to the department email address and we’ll see what can be worked out!
We have so many resources online – e-books, e-articles, streaming videos, and more! Check our “We Are Here for You” link on our homepage – you’ll find blogs about our e-resources and how to access them from off campus – many vendors are granting free access during this time – take advantage!
We will be posting updates about news and updates as we get them – be sure to check our “We Are Here for Your” link regularly – and feel free to email if you have any questions!
You may be far from the UI campus during the foreseeable future, but we here at the Engineering Library continue to support your study through thousands of online resources! Here are highlights some of our e-resources that you might want to check out!
If you need references and handbooks for mechanical engineering, chemical engineering etc. that help your self-learning, AccessEngineering is the best bet as it has thousands of ebooks, videos and tutorials.
You may know how to access IEEE journals and conference proceedings through the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. But do you know that you can also access thousands of ebooks through the same platform? If you’re studying bioengineering, computing & processing, power, energy & industry, robotics & control systems etc., you may want to check out the IEEE-Wiley ebooks and Foundations and Trends ebooks. If you’re studying internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, wearable technology etc., you may want to check out the IEEE/IET ebooks. When you get to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library (hawkid/password required if you do not use VPN), you may search for a topic or browse Books as below.
If you’re studying other engineering disciplinaries, no worries. We also have thousands of ebooks available through Springer ebook collection and UI Libraries catalog. If you search a subject/topic in SpringerLink or UI Libraries catalog, you would be able to find more e-resources.
Last but not the least, we would like to thank publishers (Wiley, JOVE, Royal Society, Elsevier, etc.) for offering free access to the parts of their collections that are closely relevant to COVID-19 research, and individuals for sharing a crowdsourced list of online instruction/lab simulation resources.
The Royal Society has made special collection that comprises the subject of research findings and data relevant to the coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak.
256 textbooks currently on ScienceDirect (Elsevier) are freely available to all active ScienceDirect customers for a period of 90 days. Users accessing ScienceDirect through IP or remote access are able to use these books.
Did you know there is a Worship of Tools Day?! There is! And have we got the tools to help you celebrate!
Can you imagine a life without tools? We can’t, either! And, you don’t have to! We have a Tool Library with 250+ tools – and we are always adding more!!
We have all kinds of tools! 3D scanners – scan parts for projects – or for fun! Ever thought of scanning your family’s heads and making a chess set using your family? We have cables (how many times have you left a charger at home? Never fear – we’ve got ’em!). Cameras? Got ’em! Want to take a GoPro on Spring Break? Or how about a Sports Camcorder?
We have projectors so you can show off the photos you took on Spring Break! Staying here for break? Working on sprucing up your apartment or dorm room? We have hammers, pliers, hot glue guns, wrenches, angle locators, laser distance measurer, laser level… You need it, we probably have it!
We have AR & VR – Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, VIVE, Moverio . . . Want to learn programming or circuits? We have littleBits, Lilypad for wearables & learning circuits. Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano, and RedBot for programming!
Need a video game screwdriver set? We’ve got that! Wire cutter/stripper? Yup, we’ve got that. Sound level meter? We have that, too! Multimeter? Projector? Heat Gun Kit? Oscilloscope? Yes, yes, yes, and yes! We have those!! And, we have 2 Video Conference Meeting Cameras (Owls) and a vibration meter!
Check our Tool Library to see everything that is available! Happy National Worship of Tools Day!!
We’re celebrating PI DAY on March 12th!
1:00 to 3:00 PM
Seamans Center Student Commons FREE APPLE PIE BITES!
(while supplies last!)
Pi Day is actually celebrated on March 14, typically around 3:14 am or pm.
But since that is the beginning of Spring Break – we are celebrating early!
We will have FREE apple pie bites in the Seamans Center Student Commons! But only while supplies last! And, if you’ve been here in previous years, you’ll know they go fast! So, stop by and grab a bite – got a Pi Day shirt – wear it!! We’d love to take your picture!
Beginning geometry students might remember finding the area of a circle – pi x radius squared…. But, what is Pi (π) and why does it rate its very own day?
Pi is one of the most famous and mysterious of numbers. Defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it’s diameter, Pi seems simple. However, it is an irrational number. An irrational number cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction and the decimal representation therefore never ends, nor does it ever settle into a permanent repeating pattern. Scientists have calculated billions of digits of Pi, starting with 3.14159265358979323…. with no end in sight. It could be calculated to infinity and there would be absolutely no way to know which number would come next.
Pi is not only irrational, it is also transcendental! A transcendental number is a number that is not a root of any algebraic equation having integral coefficients, as π or e. All transcendental numbers are irrational, but not all irrational numbers are transcendental. . .
Pi is used all around us every day – Christian Constanda, the University of Tulsa’s C.S. Oliphant professor of mathematical sciences, says, “Look at a football: when you compute the volume, then Pi gets involved in the formula.” Constanda also said, “If you drive through a puddle, creating a wave with the car, that involves Pi. If you see a tornado, that definitely involves Pi.”
Want to see what 100,00 digits of Pi look like? Go here.
Think you’d like to see how many digits of pi you can learn? Check out this song and sing along!
The number 360 occupies the 360th position in the digits of Pi.
Divide the length of a river – with all the bends and curves – by the length of the river would be “as the crow flies,” the average ration will be approximately Pi. Watch this youtube video for an explanation!
In 2008 a crop circle with Pi embedded in it appeared near Barbury Castle in Wiltshire, England.
Free Apple Pie Bites! It would be irrational to miss free pie bites! So, be here, or be square! Seamans Center Student Commons 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Resources:
Adrian, Y. E. O.. The pleasures of pi,e and other interesting numbers. 2006. Singapore : World Scientific. Engineering Library QA95 .A2 2006
Posamentier, Alfred S. 2004. [Pi] : a biography of the world’s most mysterious number. Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books. Engineering Library QA484 .P67 2004
Maths has never looked so appealing! Oct. 3, 2013. dailymail.com
The Pi Song. Originally sung by Hard ‘N Phirm. Sept. 17, 2006. youtube.com
Mead, Wendy.March 13, 2015. Fascinating Facts About Pi Day & Birthday Boy Albert Einstein. A&E Television Network, LLC. Bio.
