The following class meets in Coe Library Wednesday:

• 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. ENGL 1010 (Elliot)

Did you miss the 2008 Undergraduate Research Day? Or perhaps you want to revisit the more compelling student projects? Good news! Research Day projects are now archived online by the UW Libraries. Visit them and learn more.

Undergraduate Research Day 2008 is our newest digital collection. We are also adding a collection entitled Architecture of Saratov, Russia that was translated from Russian. Eventually we will add content from the Annals of Wyoming, first as digital PDFs (digital microfiche), then as full text readable and searchable content.

Further details can be found at: http://digital.uwyo.edu/

The following class meets in the Coe Library Electronic Classroom Monday:

• 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. ENGL 1010 (Elliot)

I thought I was reading a headline in The Onion when I first learned that Wikipedia was going into print. I checked the dateline, too, but no April Fool’s joke here.

According to The Guardian, encyclopedia publisher Bertelsmann will print a one volume edition of the German Wikipedia in September. The 50,00 entries will be based on popularity. Bertelsmann’s Beate Varnhorn remains optimistic about print resources:

“We think the market for print reference books remains positive,” said Varnhorn. “The book is highly flexible, I can use it on the sofa while watching television, at the desk, in the garden or in bed, without having to turn on the computer.”

Google, it seems, would disagree. The search giant unleashes its own user-generated encyclopedia, Google Knol, this week. The content and structure will differ from Wikipedia:

“The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content,” the company wrote on its blog Wednesday. “It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.”

I get the feeling that the world of encyclopedias is circling in on itself these days, trying to find the best model. Do you prefer to use encyclopedias online or in print? Does Wikipedia meet your needs?

[via LLOTD]

The following classes meet in the Coe Library Electronic Classroom Wednesday:

• 9:40 – 10:40 a.m. COJO 1010 (Hucke)
• 1:20 – 2:35 p.m. COJO 1010 (Hettgar)

We asked faculty and staff all over campus what movies they enjoyed this year. While we may not have all the movies listed here at the libraries, you can request most of them via Prospector and have them delivered to UW at no cost. And please, if we forgot a movie you enjoyed this year, or if you have strong feelings about one of the suggested films, let us know in the comments!

Rick Fisher, English Department:

Lars and the Real Girl was a good, good show. One of the best in recent memory. A show bitter and sweet and sharp and well crafted.

A good quote: “You grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not what’s right for you, what’s right for everybody, even when it hurts. Like, you don’t jerk people around, you know, and you don’t cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, and you admit when you’re wrong, or you try to, anyways. That’s all I can think of, you know – it sounds like it’s easy and for some reason it’s not.”

Abigail Beaver, Coe Library Circulation Supervisor:

Eagle VS Shark

Eagle VS Shark is a amusing film about two socially awkward people who find love in a very strange setting. If you like Flight of the Conchords you might recognize Jemaine Clement who plays one of these wonderful misfits. He attempts fighting a high school bully to regain his honor but can he also win the love of his lady friend in the process?

Hannah Durkee, Coe Library A/V:

Following – Chris Nolan’s (Dark Knight, Memento) first film. Produced in London over weekends for only 6,000 dollars, Following is about a young man who gets caught in his own quest for excitement. Nolan presents his films as riddles to be solved. This film is a suspenseful ride and a look at how one of the biggest directors in Hollywood got his start

Leif Cawley, History Department:

Scarface (1932)
Okay, so I’ll admit that when I first watched Al Pacino shooting up his mansion and uttering all those iconic (or maybe by now cliché) lines, I had no idea that it was a remake. Now I’m not going to be one of those snobs who insist that the original is always better than the remake; all I will say is that this particular original is still a great movie. Watch them both. Make a night of it. Compare the two. If nothing else, watch it simply to think about how a movie that was controversial enough to be widely banned when it premiered now runs with the advisory “The following motion picture is rated PG.”

Le petit soldat (1963)
This was Jean-Luc Godard’s second feature-length movie, and the contrast with his first is in many ways . . . um, breathtaking (sorry). Let’s see . . . a Western occupying power fighting an insurgency in the Middle East, torture (including something that looks a lot like waterboarding), disillusioned soldiers . . . why does this seem so familiar? Let’s just say that the French government was as opposed to the release of this film in 1960 as it was to the idea of entering into another Middle-Eastern adventure 43 years later.

Hukkle (2002)
I know what you’re thinking — “A Hungarian movie with no dialogue? What could be better?!” Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best way to try to get you to watch this film, but you really ought to. It’s actually quite entertaining and tightly crafted. I would suggest not reading the description of the plot — just kick back and watch, and you will likely either want to stop and rewind at some point or just watch it all over again a second time.

The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

It is the middle of winter in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, so what is one to do? Hold an international competition to determine which country can lay claim to having the saddest music in the world, of course! Enough said.

Lisa Muller, Office of Institutional Analysis:

I’m not there – I felt the movie really explored amazing Bob Dylan possible personas without using his name.

From the Nov. 21, 2007 New York Times movie review: “It’s not just that Robert Zimmerman, a Jewish teenager growing up in Eisenhower-era Minnesota, borrowed a name from a Welsh poet and the singing style of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl troubadour and bluffed his way into the New York folk scene. That was chutzpah. What followed was genius — the elaboration of an enigmatic, mercurial personality that seemed entirely of its moment and at the same time connected to a lost agrarian past. From the start, Mr. Dylan has been singularly adept at channeling and recombining various strands of the American musical and literary vernacular, but he has often seemed less like an interpreter of those traditions than like their incarnation. “ from the Movie Review I’m Not There (2007) NYT Critics’ Pick By A. O. SCOTT

Brenna Harkins, Coe Library Circulation Supervisor:

Dial M for Murder

I love suspense films, so naturally Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors. Dial M for Murder is an excellent film noir and represents the quintessential Hitchcock movie.

Cass Kvenild, Distance Learning Librarian:

Eastern Promises

If you enjoyed History of Violence, you’ll love this movie directed by the sick and brilliant mind of David Cronenberg. Viggo Mortensen is a Russian mobster and Naomi Watts a midwife following the trail of a young diarist. Featuring lots of plot twists and one of the best fight scenes in a movie, ever. Wait til the kids go to bed before you start this one.

The following class meets in the Coe Library Electronic Classroom Thursday:

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ENGL 2020 (Galbreath)

The libraries polled UW faculty and staff to find out what books and movies they enjoyed recently. A selection of their favorite books follows. Later this week, we’ll look at favorite movies of 2008. Don’t see your favorite read? Tell us about it in the comments!

Lisa Muller, Office of Institutional Analysis:

Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder: excellent writing about a fascinating doctor.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovski: I suspect our club wants to read more of Nemirovski’s work if there are good translations available – she wrote prior to World War II. This book was hidden for many years before being published ,I think first in French, and then translated beautifully into English.

Phil Holt, Modern & Classical Languages:

My favorite reading last year—and what I’ll be reading this summer too—is Sudoku Challenge. It’s a real page-turner.

Brenna Harkins, Coe Library Circulation Supervisor:

The Concubine by Norah Lofts

If you are interested in historical fiction, then you may have noticed the hot topic to write about these days is Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The infamous Boleyn family has made an appearance in many novels and television programs lately, most notably the Other Boleyn Girl and The Tudors on Showtime. However, this enigmatic woman and her family have peaked the interest of historians and novelists alike for years. The Concubine was written in the 1960s and although it is a less racy (dare I say less trashy?) version of the more popular Tudor histories of the moment, it is certainly more well-rounded and worth the read.

Kaijsa Calkins, English Reference and Instruction Librarian

Flight, by Sherman Alexie

This was an impulse purchase at the airport. I knew Alexie had a new book out, but hadn’t looked into it yet for some reason. I should just make it a point to go back a read everything he’s written, because it’s always awesome. Flight is different from anything else I’ve ever read, really. The main character, Zits, is a half-Indian, half-white foster kid in Seattle. He’s always in trouble and has a bad attitude, but is a really engaging, funny character. If somebody described the story to me, I’d think it sounded hokey and wouldn’t be interested, so I won’t get into much detail. Basically, Zits travels through time, jumping into the bodies of a variety of people in history. It’s all fascinating and surprisingly realistic. Seriously, this is good stuff and a quick read.

Hannah Durkee, Coe Library A/V:

Rice Without Rain by Mingfong Ho
Jinda is a young girl in Thailand working on her family farm. Her
family is faced with drought and her country is faced with political
unrest. Jinda meets a group of students from the city who want to
change the way she and her village have lived for generations. Rice
Without Rain asks the question “is there a right way to change a
society?”

Abigail Beaver, Coe Library Circulation Supervisor:

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

If you like Neil Gaiman you’ll probably like this author as well. He is great at creating dark, grimy and fantastic worlds filled with strange new characters. Perdido Street Station tells the tale of a scientist who is commissioned to find another means of flight and in the process unleashes a terrible creature who feeds on human consciousness. This book in particular brings forth amazing and scary imagery which will stay with you for a long time. You might want to leave the light on.

Rosanne Latimer, UW Libraries Development Office:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Sorry I don’t know if it is fiction or whatever, I just know it has been
the best book I have read in the last 12 months! And I read a lot – at
least 3 books a month sometimes more!

Cass Kvenild, Distance Learning Librarian:

Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All 50 States by Pete Jordan

It’s been a long time since I washed dishes professionally, but I enjoyed reading about Jordan’s adventures in the back rooms of restaurants. His pared-back and unconventional approach to life is inspiring, as are the characters he meets.

Throw Like a Girl: Stories by Jean Thompson

I like short stories in the summer, my attention span seems shorter when it’s warm out. Thompson’s stories will appeal to fans of Miranda July through their dark perspective on relationships and their way of revealing the mysterious inner lives of the characters.