Monday, October 31, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Reminder: Call for proposals: IFLA 2012: CPDWL-section Satellite Meeting

Dear Colleagues,

 

The registration fee for the Satellite meeting will be 200 Euros, which covers one copy of the proceedings, conference bags, coffee and refreshments, lunches on Thursday and Friday, a guided sight-seeing tour, and a city reception.  The cost for the hotels can range from 90 – 130 Euros for a single room.  Local organizers are also looking into the possibility of booking a local hostel.  Finally the train ticket from Tampere to Helsinki is currently priced anywhere from 21-40 Euros depending on the train and purchase date.  Registration for the Satellite meeting will be available starting in early 2012.

 

Regards

 

Annamarie Goosen

CiCD Project Co-ordinator

A LIASA-Carnegie Project

Tel: 012 324 6096

Fax: 086 694 7272

E-mail: cicd@liasa.org.za

 

http://www.liasa.org.za
Facebook: LIASANews

Twitter: LIASANews

Dynamic Leadership for LIS

 

 

 

[Lib-helig-l] Open Access Success Stories

In celebration of OA Week.

 
 

Sent to you by IngridThomson via Google Reader:

 
 




Open Access Success Stories
http://www.oastories.org/

From researchers whose work has made waves across the world, to repositories that have given a nation's research a foothold in the international scientific community, all the stories on this site bear testament to the power of open access. They range across Europe, across disciplines and across stakeholders but all share a common core value – that access to freely available research online can change lives and, perhaps, change the world. Explore the stories using the menus above and to the side – dip into any of the stories by clicking on 'success stories' at the top of the page or choose a category from the menu on the right to look at specific countries, types of story or benefits. This site will be updated with new stories until at least the end of 2011 so keep checking back. This has been added to Research Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

[Lib-helig-l] Another Virtual Worldwide Conference - Last Call for 2011 Global Education Conference Proposals!



>>> "Library 2.0" <mail@library20.com> 10/30/2011 8:09 AM >>>
the future of libraries in the digital age

A message to all members of Library 2.0

This notice is for another worldwide virtual conference in November, different from the Library 2.011 conference coming up this week, but organized and held in a very similar fashion (since I am the founder and co-chair of both conferences!). 

 

The 2011 Global Education Conference (GlobalEdCon) focuses on significantly increasing opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe for both educators and students, and is being held November 14 - 18. Proposals for presenting at GlobalEdCon are due by the end of the day this Monday, October 31st. To see submission information click HERE. Proposals should be specific to global connectedness, awareness, competency, and problem-solving.


To register to attend the conference, which like Library 2.011 is online and free, just join the network at http://www.globaledcon.com.  Awesome keynote session for GlobalEdCon are starting to be announced, and the conference schedule is filling with a variety of general sessions (you can see them in your own time zone HERE). And there are badges, a poster, and press releases available on the Press and Promotional page of the network!

 

See you online!


Steve

Steve Hargadon
Founder and Co-Chair, Library 2.011
Founder and Co-Chair, The Global Education Conference
http://www.SteveHargadon.com

Visit Library 2.0 at: http://www.library20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

To control which emails you receive on Library 2.0, click here


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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Research supervisors and information literacy

A Monday Morning read with your coffee!
Regards
Ingrid

 
 

Sent to you by IngridThomson via Google Reader:

 
 

via Library Intelligencer by shirley on 10/30/11

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/researcher-development-and-skills/information-handling-training-researchers/research-superv

The ability of researchers to handle information is of vital importance. Many individuals have become adept at developing approaches and using innovative technologies to make most of the information environment, but others rather less so. Questions about how researchers develop appropriate skills, the support they receive, the training opportunities provided for them, and the take-up of such opportunities are thus highly pertinent.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Fwd: Keeping Up With the Things That Matter for Academic Libraries

Dear Colleagues
For your Friday reading!
regards
Ingrid Thomson

>>> Nthabiseng <nthabiseng.kotsokoane@monash.edu> 10/27/2011 4:23 PM >>>

InfoViews RSS Feed



Interview with Steven Bell — Keeping Up With the Things That Matter for Academic Libraries

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 03:00 AM PDT

I was pleased to catch up with Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University and the Association of College and Research Libraries vice-president/president-elect.  Steven is an expert on academic librarianship, learning technologies, design thinking, user experience and library management.  Steven blogs at Kept-Up Academic Librarian, ACRLog, and Designing Better Libraries, a blog about design thinking and library user experiences. His column "From the Bell Tower" appears weekly in Library Journal's Academic Newswire. 

 

In the first of two segments, Steven shares some of his own strategies for keeping up with the key trends on the library landscape.

Mike:  As you look at the academic landscape, what trends do you see that will have important implications for academic libraries and librarians? 

Steven:  Assessment is a critical focus for academic libraries today.  Libraries make enormous investments in databases, monographs and journals that are needed for teaching and research and yet we continue to face significant resource challenges on a number of fronts.  A range of economic challenges is putting a dampening effect on endowments, grants and gifts.  Constraints on state funding have been a particular challenge for public institutions lately, such as in Pennsylvania where we were hit with a 20% cut in state funding for higher education.  To maximize limited resources, there is pressure for institutions to be more productive, to focus on meeting user needs, and to quantify outcomes in terms of teaching, learning and research. Our institutions, and our libraries, need to demonstrate and provide evidence that students are graduating with the skills we claim they earn here – and that we are improving our graduation rates so that students end up with diplomas and knowledge for the workplace – not just the burden of debt.

There is also a challenge in terms of sustainability.  How can a higher education system with 3,000 to 4,000 institutions continue to scale in this type of environment?  New online, low cost institutions also present a challenge since many people do not care for traditional higher education and are looking to find an easier and more direct way to get their diploma and advance their career.

Technological change is happening at such a rapid pace that libraries need to be looking for disruptive innovations which are on the horizon.  Think for a moment about the new Piazza service which allows students to talk together about the best way to complete a homework assignment.  How could an academic library be part of such a service?  Would the library want to be part of such a service?  We need to be asking these questions.

Mike: In "From the Bell Tower" you have highlighted the importance of newly minted academic librarians making an effort to stay up to date with the changes that are occurring on the academic landscape.  Why do you feel that this is so important?

Steven:  Typically, academic librarians are reading Library Journal and American Libraries and many are following library blogs that they started reading early in their careers.  They are also tracking key developments in the field through more in-depth academic library publications such as College and Research Libraries, College and Research Library News, and The Journal of Academic Librarianship.  These sources are important to stay current on what is happening in libraries and the research domain, but I have long advocated that librarians move beyond core publications to gain an even deeper understanding and appreciation of what is happening in the broader academic environment.

In the larger scheme of things, it is critical for both new and more established academic librarians to develop their own personal e-strategy for keeping up.  We need to cast a wide net to understand opportunities and challenges that are on the landscape.  We must strive to anticipate impacts from challenges to state funding, shifts in technology, or the recent sale of Blackboard.  By keeping up, academic librarians add value in new ways and increase their leadership role on campus. Even though they've recently graduated, new librarians are not exempt from this responsibility, and in that column I urged them to go beyond the literature of librarianship to explore the issues of the day confronting higher education.

I know that the demands on librarians continue to increase and that keeping up is not easy and can be very time consuming. Initially, I would suggest that you start with only 30 minutes per day if that is all the time that you can spare. Keep your commitment manageable and try to expand it over time.

Mike: What tools and technologies do you recommend for doing this successfully?

Steven: More than a decade ago, I created my Keeping Up web site which offers good information on tools and sources for staying up to date.  It has a lot of good ideas to get started.  I recommend beginning with RSS feeds and email alerts from web sources and then experimenting with web page change detection services.

Also, it is important to point out that libraries often overlook their own database services as a source of RSS feeds and email alerts.  As an example, I do saved searches and alerts for "design thinking" and I get table of contents updates from many business and library publications. Alerts and RSS feeds from ProQuest and other information services consolidate updates from many sources and this can result in significant time savings.

Mike: What are the news sources that offer the most current, reliable, and insightful information on key academic library trends?

Steven: I also have created a blog to support librarians in following latest academic trends, The Kept Up Academic Librarian.  In addition to subscribing to this blog, I recommend that librarians subscribe to updates from Inside Higher Education and The Chronicle of Higher Education to follow the latest developments in academia. ACRL and ARL are good sources of special reports relevant to academic libraries, such as the ACRL Environmental Scan and the Top Ten Trends reports. You won't miss these if you subscribe to the ACRL Insider newsletter.

I also recommend The New York Times Education, Business and Technology sections.  Months ago, I learned in The New York Times about the social networking service for students helping students in doing their homework called Piazza. I had not heard of this emerging service anywhere else and it could have important implications for librarians who often play this role.  Other good sources to surface this type of insight include University Business, Library Journal Academic Newswire, MIT InfoTech Updates (some content is fee-only), and Harvard Business Review Blogs.

Mike: What about Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn?  How can academic librarians best use social media to keep up with the latest developments? 

Steven: These sources are great in some ways but the amount of noise within these channels can be problematic.  You need to limit yourself to following a handful of people within these communities. It is critical that they be people who have demonstrated ability to stick to the meaty stuff.  You need to determine the noise level that you are willing to accept in exchange for an occasional timely article or unique insight.   

Of course, these tools can be useful and valuable to achieve a variety of other objectives, beyond your keeping up efforts. Personally I do not use LinkedIn owing to the overload of unsolicited requests for contacts, but I do understand its value for jobseekers and those who want to establish a professional network – although I think there are better ways that academic librarians can make those connections.

Mike: What advice would you give to new librarians who are just entering the profession?

Steven:  It is really important to get out of library and talk to other librarians in order to keep learning. You can just start locally by finding good people to talk to and identifying libraries to visit.  I have been doing this for 30 years and it is an important strategy to keep up and to continue to learn more.   If you stay focused just within in your own library, you can have blinders on and miss some of the most important things that are happening within the library profession and the academic environment.

I would also encourage new LIS graduates to be active in professional organizations.  There is a time commitment involved but organizations are an important vehicle for networking, sharing best practices, and continuing education in the profession. Many organizations offer webinars that are free or no cost. These learning opportunities offer an excellent vehicle to learn new skills and expand your horizons.

Finally, it is important to remember that library science as a discipline is really all about doing research which enhances libraries and their ability to make a difference.  For this reason, I think that a key focus for new graduates should be identifying new research needs and conducting research which identifies answers. It is important for new professionals to contribute their research talents in a way that contributes to the continued development and enhancement of the field.

That said, I know it is a significant challenge to start a research agenda, especially when new to the profession. Those who go into academic librarianship may find themselves on the tenure track, and they must engage as researchers for career success – and their institutions will likely encourage and support it. I've always advocated research, writing and presenting as important professional development activities, regardless of whether one has tenure status or not. Those who need help will be glad to know that ACRL offers several different mentoring programs for those seeking support for research and writing from experienced colleagues.

Tomorrow in the second segment, Steven will focus on Driving Innovation and Managing Change in Academic Libraries.


Filed under: Academia, End User Trends, Library Budgets, Library Trends, Library Value, Social Media, Technology Trends Tagged: Academic, ACRL, End Users, Future, Libraries, Library Value, Technology

Why are Our Library Collections Managing Us?

Posted: 25 Oct 2011 02:45 PM PDT

Jane Burke returns to InfoViews for a new 6-post series – Crushed by the Tsunami: Are Libraries at Sea?  The focus of this series is resource and data management challenges and their implications for demonstrating library impact and value.  In her third post, Jane discusses issues with selection and acquisitions. 

- Mike

 

Last week, I said that lack of interoperability to and from the ILS is one major challenge impacting staff productivity.  Another one is the current "un-integrated" state of selection and acquisitions processes.

In the olden days of print collections, selection was done on a title-by-title basis, with decisions usually recorded on cards.  When it was deemed time to order a title, it was entered into the ILS as a "brief" record, and a purchase order was generated to the supplier chosen at point-of-card.  Once received, the physical item was routed to cataloging, where a full bibliographic record was imported from OCLC.  This workflow preceded the ILS, but the ILS was then designed to support this workflow.  It was also a monographic workflow, since selection of print journal titles typically went through the selected jobber.

Then along came approval plans, journal full text databases and ebooks.  Selection of resources, especially e-resources, became more package-based.  Negotiating a license agreement with the publisher or aggregator became a necessary, added step.  The selection librarian spent more and more time on the suppliers' sites, establishing lists and fund information there.

The unprecedented pace of change in library collections has been hard on library staff.  Subject specialists are forced to "shop" multiple supplier sites, and then to negotiate every price.  (At a recent focus group, a librarian told us that she felt that this was an unsolvable situation, due to the myriad of agreements, buying clubs and discounts.  The data entered on the supplier site must be re-entered into the ILS , since this is where the fund accounting for the library lives.)  And then the invoice comes, the actual pricing gets re-entered into the ILS.  Or maybe not – maybe it's entered into the ERM system, also not integrated.  Or maybe it's entered into both.

PDA (patron-driven acquisition) has further increased the pain associated with collection management.  While users are able to automatically "acquire" items, there are numerous duplicative processes behind the scenes.  Bibliographic records from the e-book supplier need to be loaded – and often modified – to be available to users.  The financial controls exist only in the supplier systems, and not in the ILS.  More duplicative data entry takes place later to reconcile the sources.

Because the library system is made for print collections, it is getting harder and harder to work with it.  Multiple manual data entry steps are necessary to have it be the "system of record" for acquisitions.  In many cases, libraries no longer spend the time, and are thus forced to be looking at and reporting from multiple systems.  

At a time when the library must become more metrics-based, these flaws in our systems are in our way.  It's no wonder that librarians are increasingly "feeling the pain" as their collection continues to evolve.

In Jane's next post, she will discuss challenges related to cataloging processes and workflows.


Filed under: Collection Development, E-books, ILS, Library Management Systems, Library Workflows, OPACs Tagged: Collection Development, Ebooks, Future, Libraries, Library Value, Patron-Driven Acquisition

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Reminder: WCHELIG Colloquium Information Literacy Practices @ your library

WCHELIG invites you to a colloquium:

 

INFORMATION LITERACY PRACTICES @ your library

 

Thursday 03 November 2011, UWC Library Auditorium, 13.00 for 13.30

 

You are cordially invited to the above WCHELIG colloquium on Information Literacy. This colloquium is about sharing current information literacy practices in higher education institutions in the Western Cape. Information literacy is one of the core tasks of academic librarians. The colloquium offers an excellent opportunity for us as academic librarians to share experiences with regard to what we are doing in the different institutions. We need to learn from each other so that we can develop our own community of practice.  As librarians we also need to keep up to date with technological advances and also cater for the X and Y generations when teaching information literacy.

 

Presentations from the following institutions have been invited:-  

 

  • Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
  • University of the Western Cape (UWC)
  • FET Colleges,
  • UNISA,
  • University of Cape Town (UCT)
  • University of Stellenbosch

 

Fees:

R10.00 for LIASA members

R20.00 for non LIASA members

 

Attendees will have an opportunity to join or renew their LIASA membership taking advantage of the Early Bird Special of R375.00 

 

Tea and biscuits will be served. You are welcome to bring your packed lunch. Please RSVP to Timothy Kolo at tkolo@uwc.ac.za 021 9592933 on or before 31 October 2011.

 

 


###

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Fwd: FW: Part time Information Librarian TUT Polokwane

From: Rhandzu Mhinga
Sent: 13 October 2011 09:55 AM
To: 'Naziem.Hardy@capetown.gov.za'; 'Ingrid Thomson'
Subject: Part time Information Librarian TUT Polokwane

 

Dear Colleagues

 

Please find attached for distribution.

 

Thanks

 

Rirhandzu Sharon Mhinga ( Rhandzu)

Tshwane University of Technology

Library and Information Services

Polokwane Campus

015 287 0748 (Tel)

015 287 0746 ( Lib Counter)

086 601 5684 ( fax)

 



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tshwane University of Technology
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email is sent and received in terms of the Electronic
Communications Policy of Tshwane University of Technology.
In line with this policy, this email is private, privileged and
confidential. The full text of the Electronic Mail Disclaimer
can be seen on the TUT web site at
http://www.tut.ac.za/Other/disclaimer/Pages/default.aspx
or obtained by phoning (012) 382-5911

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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[Lib-helig-l] Stellenbosch University 2011 Annual Library Symposium: Third announcement

Transformers: Research Libraries in the 21st Century

Stellenbosch University 2011 Annual Library  Symposium

 

With only three weeks to go and with only a few available places remaining, this is the final reminder for interested parties to register for the Stellenbosch University 2011 Annual Library Symposium.  Registrations for the event will close on Friday, 4 November 2011.

 

The programme has been finalised and is available on the symposium website at http://www.lib.sun.ac.za/Sym2011/Programme.htm.

 

The Symposium has been an important platform for deliberation of library and information service trends and issues, networking and professional development for the last 12 years. Be sure not to miss this presitigious event in 2011 as we turn our attention to the changing research environment in which we as libraries currently find ourselves.

 

 

Date:                17-18 November 2011

 

Cost:                 R1500-00 per person (full symposium), R1000-00 per person (17 November), R500-00 per person (18 November)

 

Venue:              JS Gericke Library, Stellenbosch University

 

Enquiries:          Naomi Visser, tel.: +27 (21) 808-4425, e-mail: nrv@sun.ac.za 

 

Registration:      Closes Friday, 4 November 2011

 

Website:              http://www.lib.sun.ac.za/Sym2011/Index.htm

 

Monday, October 24, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] LIASA supports Open Access Movement

At the recent LIASA Annual Conference held in East London from 3-7 October,  LIASA announced its commitment to the Open Access Movement.

 

The LIASA President, Naomi Haasbroek, signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.   View the signed declaration here.

 

As a signatory, LIASA, commits to:

 

implement a policy of publishing its official publications in an open access forum; and

actively advocate and promote the Open Access Movement.

 

LIASA also announced that the official accredited academic journal "South African Journal for Libraries and Information Science"  (SAJLIS) will be published in an open access platform from 2012.

 

The LIASA magazine,  LIASA-in-Touch,  was made available in full-text on the LIASA website from the September 2010 issue.   LIASA members receive the magazine quarterly and only LIASA members has access to the latest issue.

 

 

Open Access Week, a global event now entering its fifth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they've learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

 

OA Week is an invaluable chance to connect the global momentum toward open sharing with the advancement of policy changes on the local level. Universities, colleges, research institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and think tanks have used Open Access Week as a platform to host faculty votes on campus open-access policies, to issue reports on the societal and economic benefits of Open Access, to commit new funds in support of open-access publication, and more.

 

 

Naomi Haasbroek

President

Library and Information Association of South Africa

president@liasa.org.za

http://www.liasa.org.za

Twitter: www.twitter.com/LIASANews

 

 

Immediate Past Chair:  IFLA Africa Section

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

http://www.ifla.org/en/africa

 

HEAD:  Library and Information Services

iThemba LABS

P O Box 722

Somerset West

7129

 

Tel:  +27 21 843 1000

Tel:  +27 21 843 1259 (Direct)

Fax:  0866116096 or +27 21 843 3525

Mobile:  0828959931

E-Mail:  naomi@tlabs.ac.za

http://www.tlabs.ac.za

 

 

 

[Lib-helig-l] Open Access Week 2011 opens October 24


Apologies for cross posting


A message to all members of Open Access Week

For immediate release 

October 20, 2010

 

For information, contact:

Jennifer McLennan

(202) 296-2296 ext 121

jennifer [at] arl [dot] org

 

Open Access Week 2011 opens October 24

Fifth annual event draws broad global participation, highlights deep community commitment to Open Access

 

Washington, DC – Open Access Week, the annual event celebrating the global movement towards Open Access (OA) to research and scholarship, kicks off for the fifth time on Monday, October 24.  Coordinated by SPARC and organized by more than 2,000 advocates in countries around the world, the event provides an opportunity to learn about the benefits of Open Access, share new ideas and strategies, and inspire wider participation in establishing Open Access as the norm in scholarly communication. 

Every year, research funders, academic institutions, libraries research organizations, non-profits, businesses, and others use Open Access Week as a valuable platform to convene community events as well as to announce significant action on Open Access.  The Week has served as a launching pad for new open-access publication funds, open-access policies, and papers reporting on the societal and economic benefits of OA.

This year, programs highlighting publishing and rights management choices for faculty authors, use of new media, and opportunities created by re-mixing and re-using scholarly materials are on tap. Open Educational Resources are another key topic, as is open-source technology. Campuses will be presenting a sweeping range of events, from the Harvard University-sponsored "Yana," an open-source template for scholarly journals to develop mobile applications to the University of Utah event diving into new media, fair use, and pop culture. 

Students will once again play a major role, hosting panel discussions, workshops, poster campaigns, Web casts and movie screenings to understand Open Access and its relevance to the everyday student. Event's such as "SHOW (Share/OpenAccess/Worldwide)," at the university campus in Rijeka, Croatia, will introduce students to Creative Commons licensing, Open Projects, the Open Content movement, the Open Access movement, and the Right to Research Coalition.

Participation in this highly successful event continues to grow. This year, there are over 2,000 individuals in more than 110 countries registered in the Open Access Week social network at openaccessweek.org. Participation remains strong throughout Europe and North America and will be complemented by new activities in regions as diverse as Algeria, Gambia, Iceland, Iraq, and Sudan. The global nature of this event is captured nicely by the interactive Open Access Week member map, available on the Web site.

To help support local programming, SPARC provides a suite of resources, including a video series featuring leading voices in research and digital technology. This year's feature is Brewster Kahle, founder and Chairman of the Internet Archive. Kahle suggests the time is ripe for Open Access; now that the "plumbing" of the Internet is in place, "We have to move beyond the mainframe model and the subscription or the license model," he says. "It has to be so that things are... shared widely." The video may be viewed and downloaded at http://blip.tv/sparc-north-america/brewster-kahle-5653389.

The full collection of SPARC videos for Open Access Week, including Dr. Harold Varmus, Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, Dr. Cameron Neylon, a biophysicist and open research advocate; Dr. Mona Nemer, professor and vice-president for research at the University of Ottawa; students, librarians, teachers, research funders, and others are available on the openaccessweek.org Web site.

Open Access Week is organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with the generous support of our 2011 sponsors: the Public Library of Science, @mire, and Springer Open. Find activities on your campus, at your institution, or in your region – or join to participate – through the Web site at www.openaccessweek.org.  

 

##

 

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 800 academic and research libraries worldwide. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc

 

 

 

-------------------------------------

Jennifer McLennan

Director of Programs & Operations

SPARC

jennifer@arl.org

(202) 296-2296 x121

Fax: (202) 872-0884

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermclennan

http://www.arl.org/sparc

--------------------------------------

Open Access Week 2011

October 24 - 30

http://www.openaccessweek.org

--------------------------------------

The SPARC Open Access Meeting

March 11 - 13, 2012

Kansas City

http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/11-0726.shtml

Visit Open Access Week at: http://www.openaccessweek.org/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

 
To control which emails you receive on Open Access Week, click here




--
Regards
Fatima Darries

E-LIS SA Editor

http://eprints.rclis.org

www.highedlibrarian.blogspot.com
www.openaccesslibrary.pbwiki.com

Thursday, October 20, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Student Induction, Libraries, Prezi, and Interactive Maps

Dear Colleagues
Brilliant - any of you using Prezi?

I attended some History honours theses presentations yesterday and one of the students used Prezi. It looked so cool! Makes ppt look so boring and web 1.0. thewikiman is awesome, generously sharing with the wider library world!

Regards
Ingrid

 
 

Sent to you by IngridThomson via Google Reader:

 
 

via thewikiman by thewikiman on 10/20/11

This'll probably be my last blog post for a while – I just wanted to share the results from a bit of an experiment to try and increase student engagement with library induction (and market the library at the same time).

All new students go through quite a lengthy induction process in the first three weeks at the University. The library is slotted into that – how much time we get with the students varies between departments – and so it's a good opportunity for us to make contact, promote our services, and try and embed ourselves in the academic culture, but also tricky because the students are overloaded with information as it is.

I wanted to give each of my departments an interactive map with all the library info relevant to them specifically – the idea being that it's easier to navigate an actual map of the library than it is to just search for stuff on the library website. Because each department would have a bespoke map it would mean the students had all the info they needed in one place, and because I created the maps in Prezi they could also be used as a presentation tool (as well as a stand-alone web object, later; I give students the URL of the Prezi itself and tell them not to worry about writing down any of the other URLs it contains).

I created a generic map of the library with all the information which wasn't department specific, then copied that for each of my two departments and doctored it accordingly. I also made it available to my colleagues in Academic Liaison here at York, and a few of them created their own subject-specific versions too.

The upshot of all this is, it really seems to have worked! Both me and my colleagues have reported that students noticeably perk up when the Prezi starts zooming about (I even had some gasps from one of my groups…) and seem more engaged than they had in previous years when PowerPoint was used. I don't have anything to compare it to as it's my first Induction as a subject librarian, but my colleagues seem to think the student response is definitely better. What's also really good is that it's been great PR for the library – the academics all seem really impressed by it. One of my departments have asked me to run a session to teach them, the staff, on how to use Prezi, and it's made the library look innovative and more of an intellectual partner to the academic departments. I'm collecting a quote-book of all the comments we're getting (for example, a lecturer emailed one of my colleagues and said "[the Prezi] went down very well, and generated a much greater response from the students than in previous years – it's a great presentation format, so do pass on that feedback"), and I might submit a proposal for LILAC all about this whole thing as I'd really recommend other libraries using Prezi in this way.

Anyhow, here is the presentation, based on a top-down outline of the library buildings created for my by my colleague Matthew Herring:

Music: Library Induction on Prezi (works best on Full-Screen)

It is designed to either be navigated through in the normal way, or to be a proper 'interactive map' with clickable hotspots. Anything that flashes green when you hover over it can be clicked on and zoomed-in on for more info – this also gives you the option of a student-led session where you ask them where they want to go, rather than leading them around. I'm planning on doing this with the Postgrads (many of whom will already know the library fairly well) but I must admit I chickened out of doing it with the Undergrads… I wanted it to be interactive but I didn't think fresh-out-of-school students would know enough about academic libraries to want to lead the session.

To achieve the hotspots I used a lot of hidden frames, one of the most useful features Prezi has. Here's what the canvas looks like in edit view – check out a new feature of Prezi, along the bottom: a preview screen showing you each stage of your navigation path:

Prezi screengrab

Click to view larger original on Flickr

And here's a closer view without the path showing, so you can better see how the hidden frames sit within the canvas:

prezi screengrab number 2

Click to view larger original on Flickr

Finally, here's an infographic I created about the library, which you get to when you walk in through the 'door' of the library map. The idea is to get across the scale of the library operation in one screen, without having to bore them with lots of stats throughout the presentation.

Big library infographic

Click to view this full-size on Flickr

So overall, this approach worked well for everyone. For my other subject (Theatre, Film and Television) I'm planning to use an expanded Prezi for teaching purposes too. I don't think the scope of this is limited to Academic Libraries, either; you could easily embed a virtual Prezi map on a public library website, to help people use it better, too. If you're wondering about creating your own, here's a link to the Prezi guide.

Incidentally, one other  thing I did was let the students leave early from my 45 minute sessions. At this stage of the student lifecycle they are getting too much thrown at them for the full 45 minutes to be valuable – I wanted to get the key info across and leave it at that, rather than get them so bogged down in detail that they forget all of it or just switch off. When I see them again later in the term they'll hopefully be in a better position to go in-depth into the services and resources the library offers.

- thewikiman

{lang: 'en-GB'}

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] "On Designing Open Access Mandates for Universities and Research Funders" - Stevan Harnad

Colleagues

 

Please extend this invitation to decision makers (such as University management), if you are serious about getting a solid Open Access mandate formulated for your University:

 

On Designing Open Access Mandates for Universities and Research Funders“ – Stevan Harnad

 

Date: Monday 24 October 2011

Time: 15:00 – 15:40 SA Time (Time zone converter)

Virtual space: http://www.sun.ac.za/streaming (simply go to this address and open in any media player, e.g. Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player, and follow from the comfort of your office).

Tweet your questions to: #usscholar

More info: http://oa.sun.ac.za

 

Also share with us if you plan to follow this event. Kindly register at http://oa.sun.ac.za/?page_id=105 (free of charge!)

 

Kind regards

Ina

 

Ina Smith

    

E-Research Repository Manager (SUNScholar) | Library and Information Service | University of Stellenbosch | Private Bag X5036, 7599 | South Africa

http://scholar.sun.ac.za | http://oa.sun.ac.za | E-mail: ismith@sun.ac.za | Tel:  +27 21 808 9139 | Skype: smith.ina | Office hours: Mo-Fr: 08h00-16h30

E-Navorsingsbewaarplekbestuurder (SUNScholar) | Biblioteek- en Inligtingsdiens | Universiteit van Stellenbosch | Privaatsak X5036, 7599 | Suid-Afrika

http://scholar.sun.ac.za  | http://oa.sun.ac.za | E-pos: ismith@sun.ac.za | Tel:  +27 21 808 9139 | Skype: smith.ina | Kantoorure: Mo-Fr: 08h00-16h30

[Lib-helig-l] Seeking some advice about software

Dear Colleagues
Please respond to Cyrill Walters (cyrill.walters@uct.ac.za) or Maureen Chiware (maureen.chiware@uct.ac.za)


Dear Colleagues,
One the academic departments at our university would like to set up a reading room for PG students & staff. The collection will start at around 800+ books increasing in size with time.
 
I would like to hear your thoughts on potential software that could support this type of initiative. Nobody will staff the room, but there will be a standalone PC for users to search the collection. Circulation will in all likelihood be an honesty policy whereby users' will issue the books to themselves.
 
I am looking for insights into software options? Are any of you using Koha or LIBwin? Any other suggestions you may have will be welcomed as well as any practical advice for an initiative of this kind.
 
Regards,
 

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

[Lib-helig-l] Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference

Here is the link to the conference schedule with South African times.     2 - 4 November 2011.
 
Regards
Ingrid Thomson

 
Ingrid Thomson
Librarian: Humanities Information Division
Chancellor Oppenheimer Library
University of Cape Town Libraries
Private Bag
7700 RONDEBOSCH
SOUTH AFRICA
 
Tel: +27 21 650 3703  Fax: +27 21 689 7569
 
 
 
>>> "Library 2.0" <mail@library20.com> 10/17/2011 3:40 PM >>>
the future of libraries in the digital age

A message to all members of Library 2.0

This new weekly blog post / email is replacing the regular email I have sent out for the last couple of years for the now-defunct Host-Your-Own-Webinar program (I still have hopes of resurrecting that near-to-my-heart program, and when that happens we'll wrap it into this weekly missive). There is lots of fun below, and especially don't miss the first weekly recorded podcast with Audrey Watters!

See you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • The Library 2.011 worldwide virtual conference is almost here! November 2 - 4, all online, all free. The conference schedule is now online, with all 160+ sessions, and an individual hour-by-hour schedule calendar for all 36 time zones. No matter where you are in the world you can see the schedule in your own time (OK, to say I'm a little proud of this achievement is something of an understatement, especially given the MANY daylight savings shifts between now and the conference!).  We have attendees signed up from 133 countries! Huge thanks to the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science, the founding sponsor of the conference.
  • The 2011 Global Education Conference is also fast approaching: November 14 - 18. In it's second year, this five-day, 24-hour-a-day event helps educators and students connect with each other and with global education programs all over the world. The call for presentations has been extended until October 31, and the event is highly inclusive so that we have real global participation. Last year we had presentations from 62 countries.
EVENTS
THE NEW WEEKLY ED TECH PODCAST WITH AUDREY WATTERS

Blogger Audrey Watters, whose Hack Education posts and her weekly roundup have become some of my favorite reading, is going to be sitting down with me (virtually) each week to discuss the ed tech news of the week and drill down on stories that have caught her eye (and attracted her writing talent). Audrey is a writer for the NPR education technology blog MindShift, for the data section of O'Reilly Radar, and for the Edutopia blog.

We've actually recorded our first podcast, and if you have half as much fun listening to it as we did recording it, it will be a huge success! Because I'm in a world of hurt with Feedburner and Delicious this week, I don't know how soon this how will be in my podcast feed, but here's a direct link:  http://audio.edtechlive.com/cr20/2011-10-14.mp3. Do listen! Audrey is incredibly knowledgeable, and I think you're going to find listening to her will become a priority each week.

HACK EDUCATION POSTS LAST WEEK
And here, in full, is the Hack Education weekly roundup, also available directly at Hack Education.  

Politics and Policies

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced Connect to Compete, a new non-profit initiative that brings private industry and the non-profit sector together to help expand broadband adoption and promote digital literacy. The initiative aims to help boost education, health and employment in disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and aims to address some of the obstacles to broadband adoption -- in terms of cost, access, relevance, and digital literacy.

California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB547, a piece of legislation that would have changed the way in which the state handled school accountability. Although the bill would have shifted emphasis away from standardized testing, Brown blasted the reform: "SB547 nowhere mentions good character or love of learning. It does allude to student excitement and creativity, but does not take these qualities seriously because they can't be placed in a data stream. Lost in the bill's turgid mandates is any recognition that quality is fundamentally different from quantity."

Governor Brown signed into legislation the California "Dream Act," allowing illegal immigrants who graduated from high school in the state to apply to its public universities as residents and to receive state financial aid for college.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, the head of the Senate's education committee, submitted a bill this week to revise No Child Left Behind. Among the bill's provisions is the return of control to the states over devising their own systems for how to hold schools accountable for student achievement. The bill will be a massive revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. ETAN has already issued an alert that the proposed legislation does not contain language about the "Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act."

Inside Higher Ed reports that the University of California lecturers' union has stated that it will use its collective bargaining power to block the university system's expansion of online course offerings unless the "move to distance education is done in a fair and just way for our members."



Ethics and Legalities

The New York Times continues its investigation of education giant Pearson and ethics concerns surrounding lavish trips that the company's foundation has sponsored for state education officials.

Last year, the National Federation of the Blind filed a complaint against Penn State, charging that the school's adoption of Google Apps for Education was discriminatory. Google has worked to address many of the accessibility issues, and The Chronicle of HIgher Education reports that the issue was resolved "without any admission of wrongdoing."

Launches

Rated JPG reports that beloved toy-maker LEGO is building its own social network. Called CUUSOO, the site allows users to publish and share their designs. And while the site -- which is currently in beta -- lets users follow interesting designers, there's also a Kickstarter element here. If users receive enough interest in their designs, they can earn a small commission on sales of the design.

Responding to President Obama's call to train 100,000 teachers in STEM subjects in the next 10 years, Google and 80 other organizations have founded 100Kin10. Its mission: "to reverse the United States' decades-long decline in STEM subjects, to ensure that all children have the basic STEM literacy to be full participants in our economy and democracy and to enable U.S. students to address the most pressing national and global challenges."

Valve, the company behind the video game hit Portal, is working on an educational game. If you haven't played Portal, you might shrug this off as yet another video game company trying to capitalize on the gaming-in-education craze. If you've played Portal (and you should try it, I promise), you're likely to nod with approval, recognizing the game's potential to teach about physics and critical thinking. For more information on the initiative, visit Learnwithportals.com.

The Association of Educational Publishers and Creative Commons have launched a new website, LMRI.net to provide information about the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative. It's an effort to create a common language for metadata for educational content, which in turn should ease both its publishing and the discovery.

Pearson announced this week that it plans to release a free learning management system aimed at the higher education market. Although the education giant currently only holds about 1% of the LMS market at the higher ed level, it clearly hopes that offering a free service will help woo schools away from some of the incumbent players in the space.

Updates and Upgrades

Apple released its latest iOS this week. iOS 5 contains a number of new features, including better notifications, wireless syncing, and Twitter integration. But the release caused quite a few hiccups: Web traffc made the upgrade difficult for a lot of customers. And apps like Kno and Stanzafailed to work. While Kno has fixed its issues, it appears as though Stanza, a popular e-reader app, will remain in the app graveyard.

In order to help address some of the frustrations teachers and students face with school filters blocking YouTube, Google has launched a pilot program that will allow schools to redirect all educational content to YouTube.com/education. The program will also block all YouTube comments and make sure that any videos that show up as "related" are also educational.

Google also launched YouTube Space Lab this week, a special channel that, in cooperation with Lenovo, Space Adventures, NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will provide space-related video content as well as provide an opportunity for students to design experiments to be conducted in space.

Yale University announced this week that its alumni would gain free access to JSTOR, an online archive of scholarly journals.

The International Digital Publishing Forum announced the approval of the revisions to the EPUB standard. Based on HTML5, EPUB 3 adds support for audio, video and interactivity (via JavaScript), as well as global language support, typing and layout enhancements and MathML, among other features.

Online gradebook LearnBoost added another new feature this week: lesson plan share. As the name suggests, this will allow teachers to share lesson plans with fellow teachers, administrators and students. Lesson plans can be shared via LearnBoost, but also via Twitter or Facebook and can be embedded on websites and/or blogs.

Research and Data

Rey Junco continues to publish interesting research on how Facebook is impacting students' academic performance. Among his latest findings: "Time spent on Facebook was negatively related to overall college GPA. The average time students spent on Facebook was 106 minutes per day. Each increase of 93 minutes beyond the mean decreased GPA by .12 points in the model. Therefore, I conclude that although this was a significant finding, the real-world impact of the relationship between time spent on Facebook and grades is negligible at best."

A study by the NPD Group released this week finds that 91% of kids ages 2 to 17 play games. But this isn't simply kids playing hopscotch or tag, of course. This includes video games, mobile games and the like. According to the report, 38% of kids in this age range are playing mobile games, up from 8% in 2009. And the biggest growth among gamers was in the 2 to 5 age range.

E-book provider Overdrive reports that e-book checkouts from libraries are up over 200% from last year.

Adam Duran, a participant in a two-month long summer program at the Army High-Performance Computing Research Center in Stanford, has developed a touchscreen Braille writer for tablets. Not a reader. A wirter. As the Stanford News describes it, the tool works like such: "They did not create virtual keys that the fingertips must find; they made keys that find the fingertips. The user simply touches eight fingertips to the glass, and the keys orient themselves to the fingers. If the user becomes disoriented, a reset is as easy as lifting all eight fingers off the glass and putting them down again.

Contests, Classes and Conferences

The Digital Media and Learning Competition is extending its deadline for Stage 1 of its "Badges for Lifelong Learning" competition. The new deadline is now November 14.

This weekend is another Startup Weekend EDU in San Francisco. Once again, Grockit is hosting the event.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that James Madison University will begin offering credit to online students who complete a 16-week introductory conversational Spanish course. What makes this newsworthy? That class is produced by language learning software maker Rosetta Stone.

Funding, Hiring, and Acquiring

Despite bad news last week about delays to Pottermore, the new online community for Harry Potter fans and the only place where you'll be able to buy Harry Potter e-books, the site scored a coup this week: Charlie Redmayne, the Chief Digital Officer for HarperCollins, announced that he is leaving the company to join Pottermore as CEO.

Lots of funding news this week: Stickery, a mobile gaming app, announced that it has raised $500,000 in seed funding from Google Ventures and 500Startups. Kiwi Crate, a new subscription service for hands-on kids' activities, announced this week that it has raised $2 million. Online video portal Udemy announced that it has raised $3 million

Adaptive learning company Knewton announced a massive round of fundraising: $33 million. While initially focusing on test prep, Knewton has recently expanded into universities, where its adaptive learning platform is used in some remedial classes, helping tailor coursework for students in math. The company says it plans to expand to the K-12 grades as well and hopes to open up its platform so that educational publishers can take advantage of the platform. Among its investors in this round: Pearson.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Renaissance Learning has rebuffed a takeover offer by Plato Learning, even though that offer is some $41 million higher than the offer it has accepted from the European private-equity firm Permira.

The investment firm NewSchools Venture Fund has released an Ed Tech Map, a "visual representation of ventures currently operating in the education technology market."

Visit Library 2.0 at: http://www.library20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity.

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