Student Government will have a table next to the Library West Circulation Desk on September 22. They are handing out free study supplies such as pencils, pens, postit notes and highlighters.

The InfoPoint schedule is moving this week. Watch for an email from Michael Dietz about the change and asking for your preferred email address. Let him know your preferred email, and he will send you an invite to join the wiki.

We are moving to PBWiki because it supports multiple levels of permissions, and is easier to edit and navigate. No ads either! --Jana

Just a reminder... when you get someone who would like to reserve a study room for their group, be sure to record the information on the reservation sheet yourself. Those pagers are expensive and we don't want students walking off with them.

The biology lab students in BSC 2011L should start working on their library assignment during these next 2 weeks. Tara created a libguide for them. See http://libguides.uflib.ufl.edu/BSC2011L .

Please contact Tara if you have any problems.

Due to popular demand, I'm sharing instructions for setting the email preferences on the LibraryWestStaff wiki. PBwiki seems to default to hourly updates of changes. With all of the shift trading on Ask A, the InfoPoint and the Reference Assistance Desk, this can result in quite a few emails during the day. Luckily you can reset your wiki preferences to no email, or only a daily email. Here is how:

1. Sign on to the LibraryWestStaff wiki in PBwiki.
2. Navigate to the My PBwiki page. (If you are not at this page, click on your email address at the top right to get to it.)
3. Look for the Preferences pulldown, in the middle of the page. Set your email preferences to "never," or whatever time interval suits you.

Those of us assisting users in Library West have a wonderful new tool to direct people to open computers. As LeiLani Freund and Stephen Williams shared at the recent cross-divisional meeting, "the new interactive computer map for Library West... shows the public workstations on all floors." You can look at the map and see if computers are free in the third floor Info Commons, if the OPACs are in use in the stacks, and whether the computer has a scanner. Locations of the orange and blue printers are also marked.


This map is LIVE! It refreshes every 60 seconds! I have been using the beta for several weeks to direct users to open computers. When I see queuing for computers on the third floor, I take a look at this map and then walk over to direct users to the open spots. It is great!

Please bookmark the West Computer Map (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/computers/) at the computers where you are assisting users, so it is easy to get to! And post your ideas for using the map here!



--Jana

This great list of library conferences was just posted on DIG_REF:


http://homepage.usask.ca/~mad204/CONF.HTM

On this episode of On the Evidence, April Yanyuan Wu, a researcher at Mathematica, discusses a project that used supervised machine learning to estimate prescription opioid use among applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance.

Fewer than half of the nearly 170 million U.S. residents ages 25 to 64 have obtained a postsecondary degree or certificate. The statistics for adult students of color who have attained higher education are even lower.

Kimberlin Butler, director of foundation engagement, offers reflections about a convening that Mathematica hosted with The Denver Foundation. The event explored how cross-sector collaboration and data-informed practices can improve equity and outcomes for Denver metro communities.

Research on chronically low-performing schools suggests that monitoring the implementation and progress of these schools’ improvement efforts can help them use limited resources more effectively.

On this episode of On the Evidence, we talk about a federal experiment using home-delivered boxes packed with fruit, vegetables, and other shelf-stable foods selected by registered dieticians to address food insecurity among children in a rural part of the Chickasaw Nation territory in Oklahoma.

Through my work, I’m often reminded of how alone I felt when I was little. How different I seemed from those around me. So, I’m careful not to make assumptions about the people I collaborate with, the people we’re trying to help, the data we’re collecting and analyzing, and other aspects of my work.

Watch our video to see how Mathematica is supporting foundations to transform communities and catalyze social change.

REL Mid-Atlantic explored whether kindergarten entry assessments can provide states and districts with a useful measure of progress toward proficient reading for cohorts of children.

More than a decade after I arrived at Mathematica, we have a thriving international research division and a portfolio of about 50 international projects for a wide range of clients. It’s been really exciting to see the international practice grow.

In this episode of On the Evidence, Shane Kanady of SourceAmerica and Noelle Denny-Brown of Mathematica discuss findings from an evaluation of the Pathways to Careers program, which provides customized employment services to job seekers with significant disabilities.

We believe the value of program monitoring is in iteration. By combining live program administrative data with vetted measures of socioeconomic status, we help clients and stakeholders understand alternative payment models and make important improvements.

In honor of Black History Month, Kimberlin Butler, director of foundation engagement, provides an account of Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander’s notable career as a Black economist and lawyer and how her legacy is inspiring a new generation of changemakers.

Attending a KIPP school led to a 10-13 percentage point improvement in the likelihood of enrolling in college.

At Mathematica, we work collectively with partners across the country and around the globe to create a gender-equal world where women, girls, communities, and economies can thrive.

To better understand its schools’ contributions to students’ learning in the first four grades, the Maryland State Department of Education partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic to explore constructing a school-level growth measure for kindergarten to grade 3.

In this episode of On the Evidence, we interview attendees of the Second Annual Sadie T.M. Alexander Conference about the status of Black women in economics and what progress has been made to diversify the field since last year.

Last year, Mathematica worked with researchers at Montana State University (MSU) to help assess the policy value of municipal wastewater testing, an innovative approach that can augment existing data by providing more rapid, cost-effective, and unbiased measures of drug use.

Although Mathematica might have limited expertise in infectious diseases like COVID-19, we have vast knowledge and experience with the policies and programs that can help our public health system and our economy recover from the unfolding impact this virus is having around the world.

Schools across the country have closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and states have cancelled their spring assessments. These cancellations mark the first interruption of the annual testing cycle since the No Child Left Behind Act passed nearly 20 years ago.

By showing how local data on social determinants of health compare to data from similar communities, we hope to encourage innovation, foster peer-to-peer learning, and identify promising practices.

Paul Decker talks about the important steps Mathematica is taking to ensure we are fostering a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work and among our staff.

With the closure of school buildings fundamentally disrupting the way students receive services, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the national conversation about education.

For those of us who devote our lives to improving behavioral health care, the critical health care priorities of the COVID-19 pandemic raise concerns about increased unmet mental health and substance use service needs.

In the United States, a range of social issues can negatively impact parenting, which in the worst of circumstances results in children entering the child welfare system.

Behind the scenes, technology has been playing an important role in developing models that are informing how public health officials track COVID-19 cases, respond to potential hot spots, and prepare policymakers for the next stages in our collective response.

Hosting our own hackathon was a chance to contribute to the COVID-19 response, and an opportunity to build new relationships with staff we don’t typically work with, promote the ideas of others, and encourage staff to leverage their creativity to think about problems.

In the United States, 8 out of 10 COVID-19 deaths reported have been among adults ages 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Our team wanted to empower people to make sense of the vast amount of information and to make more informed decisions. 19 and Me helps quantify people’s risk of contracting COVID-19 and visualize how behaviors, such as practicing social distancing, handwashing, and wearing personal protective equipment, can change people’s risk level.

Ask anyone to define “homophone” and chances are they will a) look at you as if you have fallen out of a tree, and, b) be unable to give you an answer. Linguistic terms are generally consigned to the area of the brain housing other nuggets of redundant school knowledge such as the complete noble gases, a conjugation of être and the Fibonacci sequence. We all know that we should remember such facts (if only for vital pub quiz answers) but most of us never do. The homophone is however rather useful and I intend to explain why. Shakespeare would never have arisen to the dizzy heights of fame had he not known how to wield a homophone or two. A virtuoso of the sixteenth century pun, he paved the way for this linguistic conceit to make its way into every corner of modern literature. The oft-ignored part of the Cobbler in Julius Caesar gives us the best example, ‘I am but as you would say a cobbler…a mender of bad soles.’ Little did the Cobbler know how many thousands of students would ponder this very phrase, dutifully recording its dual meaning. Years later, the very same people emblazon on-trend phrases such as “Give peas a chance” on T-Shirts and walls, unsure as to “the exact term” for such hilarity but confident in its linguistic prowess.

Now that we have got our heads around the homophone in English, imagine what happens when you translate into French…poetry. Cynics amongst you may think it cannot be done but in 1967 a little book named Mots d’heures: gousses, rames was published to the glee of dinner party guests across the land. Luis d’Antin van Rooten transformed forty well-known English nursery rhymes into French poetry all thanks to the humble homophone. The trick of the poems was to read phonetically in the manner of Molière, and slowly but surely the English rhyme would emerge. Here’s an example:

Lille beau pipe
Ocelot serre chypre
En douzaine aux verres tuf indemne
Livre de melons un dé huile qu’aux mômes
Eau à guigne d’air telle baie indemne.

Imagine the excitement when Blue Door decided to re-publish this forgotten classic much to the cheer of van Rooten devotees. Published in time for Christmas, this collection of j’aime se will have your sides splitting quicker than you can say ‘Vive les homophones!’

To listen to Publisher Patrick Janson-Smith reading some fine examples from Mots d'heures, log on to The Guardian website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/13/jack-and-jill

With the pesky Icelandic ash cloud threatening to disrupt the start of LIBF next week, volcanic activity has become a rather unlikely talking point with volcanologists thrust into the spotlight like never before (even in the Daily Mail).

So with volcanoes even being a Twitter trending topic, I thought I’d take the chance to write about an engrossing new novel by prize-winning Australian author Andrew McGahan. Wonders of a Godless World, McGahan’s fifth novel, tells the story of a young orphan girl living in a decaying mental institution on a torpid tropical island (complete with ash-spewing volcano). The girl cannot speak or understand the speech of others and lives an isolated existence, until that is, a stranger arrives at the hospital, lost in an inexplicable coma. Although he never speaks, the orphan becomes convinced that she can hear the foreigner speaking in her head: he is cursed, he claims with immortality. And so begins a journey of discovery that will take them right around the world and far beyond it. Questioning ideas of reality and madness, this is a book quite unlike anything I have ever read and will certainly provoke debate amongst readers as to the identity of the mysterious stranger.

The Australian press have heaped praise upon McGahan calling Wonders an “impressively sustained feat of imagination,” rising to “invigorating heights.” Published by Allen & Unwin in 2009, Blue Door are proud to be publishing this tumultuous tale in June. Why not whet your appetite until then with the trailer

Blue Door is proud to announce its very own Super Thursday. Yes, that’s right, today we release not one, not two but three fantastic novels. First up is Rachel Trezise’s wonderful Sixteen Shades of Crazy. Tipped as the Valleys’ answer to Trainspotting, here’s Rachel giving us an insight into why she decided to dissect the morals and mores of life in ex-mining towns:
Already popular on the literary festival circuit you can catch Rachel this summer at Hay, Latitude and Green Man. You can also catch up with all of her news at her website www.racheltrezise.com. Recognised by the Orange Futures list (amongst the likes of Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters) we are very proud to be publishing her first novel.

Next up is something completely different. Meg Gardiner’s thrillers have been praised by Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver and Tess Gerritsen which is a pretty impressive roll call of fans. Her Evan Delaney series of novels was a hit with adults and teens alike and was regularly in the top ten of teen thrillers on Amazon.com. Her new super sleuth, Jo Beckett, is a forensic psychiatrist, investigating a person’s life to discover why they died. The Memory Collector (released early May) tells the story of Ian Kanan, a passenger on board a flight to San Francisco, who has been restrained by crew members for his erratic behaviour. Jo is immediately called in when it is established that Kanan has no memory of who he is or where he has been. Convinced that he holds the key to a potential terrorist plot (and may have been exposed to a deadly biological agent himself), Jo must race against time to unravel a series of clues and save her beloved city. Meg’s next Jo Beckett thriller, The Liar’s Lullaby will be released in June so watch out for some guest blogging on the site soon.

Last but by no means least is Warren Fitzgerald’s The Go-Away Bird. Perfect for fans of Chris Cleave’s The Other Hand, this is a heart-wrenching story of how friendship can develop in the most unlikely of places between the most unlikely of people. Fourteen-year-old Clementine arrives in London from war-torn Rwanda, having witnessed horrendous cruelty and unimaginable loss during the 1994 genocides. Lonely, grieving and displaced in a daunting new city, she flees her abusive uncle and befriends Ashley, a middle-aged, loner for whom teaching singing is the only escape from his London life. The story that unfolds is deeply moving and at times sad but throughout is a positive and uplifting tale of how two utter strangers can collide, bond and ultimately save each other. Here’s Warren telling us about the novel:

Blue Door has been getting all technical with the digital launch of Meg Gardiner's fantastic new thriller, The Liar's Lullaby. The author widget allows readers to connect with Meg through video content whilst at the same time previewing sections of the text before buying. The Liar’s Lullaby widget comprises video clips of Meg introducing some of her favourite passages from the book which can also be read on-screen and recommended to friends. A new video and passage will be released every day for five days with the all content available from the end of June.

The Liar’s Lullaby is the second Jo Beckett novel published by Blue Door and features Tasia McFarland, a washed-up pop star desperate to reach the top of the charts. When a concert stunt goes badly wrong and Tasia falls to her death above thousands of adoring fans, Jo Beckett is called in to determine whether her death was accidental, suicide or murder. The plot thickens when it is discovered that Tasia was the ex-wife of the President of the United States and was the victim of an online hate campaign. A recording of Tasia’s song, “The Liar’s Lullaby,” will also be available on the widget. Already tipped by Stephen King as “the next suspense superstar,” we are predicting a bright future for Meg and the Jo Beckett series.

The Liar’s Lullaby is out now in trade paperback.

Click on Meg Gardiner to see and share the widget!
Meg Gardiner

What springs to mind when I say the word “hog”? With the exception of vegetarians, most people will undoubtedly respond with the word “roast” and why not, they’re ruddy delicious. All that looks set to change this summer however with the publication of D.J. Connell’s rollicking summer read Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar. The novel charts the rise of Julian and his quest for small-town Tassie fame. Not many people have heard of “the Hog”, fewer still have sported it but pretty soon this hair-phenomenon will be up there with “the Rachel,” “the Pob,” and, dare I say it, “the Jedward.” So what does it look like? Think retro prom, think the cast of Hairspray, think Amy Winehouse. Styled. How do you make it? You will need the following:


It sounds a little gross but hair stylist to the stars Sam Howard recommends purchasing fake hair and a hair net. This is going to form the basis of the hog. Start by clipping side sections and the centre top section of hair out of the way (you will need these bits later). Once this hair has been secured, take the remaining centre section of hair (leaving the very underneath sections free) and form a bun on the top of your head. Pin into place and then fix your hair net (full of fake hair) onto the bun. Remember, the higher the better. You will need a lot of hairpins to grip this gravity-defying structure into place.

Then, take sections of remaining hair and back-comb using a lot of hairspray. Tease the sections of hair over the top of the net, smoothing the ends down and working all of the remaining hair into place. Make sure that the entire hair net has been covered with hair.


It really is as easy as that. If you don’t believe me, watch this:



So now that you have seen how it’s done, why not try your own version of the hog and upload to the Julian Corkle Facebook page. Let the pimping commence!

Publisher Northampton, England : Loggerhead Films, [2009]

Location Media Resources Collection

Call No. LB3013.3 .B94 2009

London : Facet Publishing, 2019

London : Facet Publishing, 2020.

Chicago, IL : ALA TechSource, [2019]

Chicago : ALA Editions, 2019.

Chicago : ALA Editions, 2020.

New York, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, [2017]

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.

[Germany] : Deutscher Universit̃ts-Verlag : 2007