Monday, December 29, 2008

Extend the life of your bouquet!



Kumar, Srivastava and Dixit report in the Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology (2008, p.749-54) that a sugar/alcohol solution successfully extended the vase-life of cut roses.

Adding a 3% sucrose + 3% ethanol solution to vase water increased water uptake and delayed senescence in several varieties of roses.

This is a simple alternative to treatments such as aminoethoxyvinylglycine, aminooxyacetic acid, or silver thiosulphate, commonly used in the commercial flower market.

[image = Flickr, Creative Commons]

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Student bus pass pickup at Steenbock


Student Bus Pass

Steenbock Library will become a new pick-up location for Spring/Summer 09 student bus passes, since Union South is closing. Students can also still pick them up at Memorial Union.

Free bus passes will be available in these two locations Monday-Friday January 12-16 from 10am - 5pm, and Monday-Friday January 20-30 from 10am - 6pm.

Starting Monday, February 4, both new and replacement passes will be available only at the new StudentPrint location, Monday-Friday from 10am - 6:30pm.


Faculty/Staff Bus Pass

Free bus passes for UW-Madison faculty, academic staff, classified staff, post docs, LTEs and emeriti can be picked up at one of the UW Transportation Services Offices. These passes are good from September 1 - August 31 each year.

Additionally, employees of UW Hospital, WI Alumni Association, UW Foundation, WI Historical Society and WARF are eligible for these passes.

Graduate and undergraduate student employees should instead pick up the free student bus pass (see above).

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Library hours & bus schedule

Steenbock Library Hours
  • 12/12: 8:00 am - 1:00 am
  • 12/13-14: 10:00 am - 1:00 am
  • 12/15-18: 8:00 am - 1:00 am
  • 12/19: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
  • 12/20-21: CLOSED
  • 12/22-23: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • 12/24-28: CLOSED
  • 12/29-30: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • 12/31: CLOSED
  • 1/1: CLOSED
  • 1/2: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • 1/3-4: CLOSED
  • 1/5-9: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • 1/10-11: CLOSED
  • 1/12-16: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • 1/17-19: CLOSED
  • 1/20-31: 8:00 am - 1:00 am (standard schedule)
Bus Route 80
  • 12/12-20: Standard schedule
  • 12/21-23: Recess schedule
  • 12/24-25: No service12/26-31: Recess schedule
  • 1/1: No service
  • 1/2-19: Recess schedule
  • 1/20-31: Standard schedule
Bus Routes 11, 28, 38, 44
  • 12/12-31: Standard schedule
  • 1/1-31: Standard schedule

Monday, December 15, 2008

Wiscard photo ID cards + Library cards



Photo ID cards
Beginning January 5th, students, staff and faculty will visit the Wiscard office’s new location in Rm.4316 Memorial Union for UW-Madison photo ID cards, passport photos and other services. The old Union South office's last open day is December 22nd. Upon completion in summer 2011, the Wiscard office will return to the new Union South.

Library cards
UW-Madison students, staff & faculty use Wiscard as a library card. For MadCat, WorldCat or Library Express book & article delivery requests, use your Wiscard ID number (the 10 digits under your name plus the 11th "issue code" digit. Use your NetID instead for off-campus access to e-books & online journal subscriptions.

Wisconsin residents can get a FREE borrowing card to check out materials at Steenbock Library (agricultural & life sciences) and Ebling Library (health sciences), or Wisconsin's Water Library.

The following are additionally eligible for a FREE courtesy card to borrow materials from ANY UW-Madison library:
  • Spouses, domestic partners, & children of UW-Madison faculty, staff & students
  • Employees of the Wisconsin Historical Society, UW Credit Union, Wisconsin Union, State of Wisconsin, Dane County, & City of Madison
  • Wisconsin social work coordinators and public PK-12 educators
  • Faculty of Wisconsin private colleges, MATC, Edgewood College, Beloit College, CIC & OCLC institutions
  • Students & staff of MATC, Edgewood College, and Beloit College
  • Donors (Friends of the Libraries)

For $30 per year, the following are eligible for an annual fee card to borrow materials from ANY UW-Madison library:

  • Wisconsin residents
  • Corporations registered with the Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Institutions

All other individuals and businesses may use their public library's interlibrary loan services, or one of our fee-based information services on campus.

Anyone can use UW-Madison library resources on site for FREE.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Proquest down 12/13-14


Proquest database maintenance

  • Saturday, Dec. 13 at ~9:00 p.m. to Sunday, Dec.14 at ~9:00 a.m.

Unavailable during this window:

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Links to Google Books added to MadCat library catalog


UW-Madison libraries have added 1000's of links from the MadCat library catalog to online versions in Google Books and the Big 10's shared digital repository, HathiTrust.

If an item we have in MadCat has been digitized by Google, the MadCat record will include the link: View available text online.

If a cover image is available, it will be shown in the MadCat record with the link: More Information At Google Books - whether or not the text is searchable or can be read online.

More E-books!

The libraries buy 1000's more online e-books, and provide access to many free e-books. Most of these are available through MadCat, and/or the following:

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Top Wisconsin vegetable growers


Top Wisconsin vegetable growers
21st Annual American Vegetable Grower Top 100

October 2008


Rank among Northern growers (acreage)
:

#2 Hartung Brothers - snap beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, beets, carrots, peas, lima beans
#3 Paramount Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, beans, peas

#5 Heartland Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, beans, peas

#12 Borzynski Farms - cabbage, sweet corn, peas, peppers

#14 Wysocki Produce Farm - potatoes, beans, peas, sweet corn, pickles

#15 Bula Gieringer Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, peas, beans

#18 Weekly Farms - potatoes, beans, sweet corn, peas

#19 Gary Bula Farms - potatoes, snap beans, peas, sweet corn

#21 Sowinski Farms - potatoes, beans, peas

#23 Worzella & Sons - potatoes, sweet corn, beans


FREE! Bio/chem software




Did you know?
UW faculty, staff & students can download these chemical software tools for free!

ChemBioOffice 2008

  • Includes ChemDraw Std 11.0, ChemDraw ActiveX, and Chem3D ActiveX
  • Draw chemical reactions and structures - MS Office integration, customizable arrow tools, color faded shapes, and terminal carbon labeling
  • Query online databases and view & publish online structures
SciFinder Scholar
  • World's largest collection of organic & inorganic substance information
  • 16 million+ chemical reactions
  • 1 billion+ predicted & experimental properties
  • CAS Registry number database
  • Patent records within 2 days of issue
  • Sequences from CAS and GenBank, linked to the literature
  • Article abstracts from 10,000+ currently published journals
  • Regulatory and supplier information
Beilstein / Gmelin MDL Crossfire Commander
  • Beilstein (organic) & Gmelin (inorganic/organometallic) databases provide preparations, reactions and properties of chemical substances
  • Searchable by chemical structure, formula, physical property parameters, chemical reaction, and literature citation
  • Beilstein also includes pharmacological, ecotoxicological and bioactivity data
More tools