jdupuis

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John Dupuis

I'm a science librarian at the Steacie Science & Engineering Library at York University in Toronto.  My collections and liaison areas include engineering, computer science, earth and space science, information technology, science and technology studies and the Natural Science program.

Posts by this author

December 16, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership by Lewis Hyde The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee The Immortal Life of…
December 16, 2010
Two recent announcements that are worth noting here. The first is for Digital Science, a Macmillan / Nature Publishing Group project involving some of the usual science online suspects like Timo Hannay and Kaitlin Thaney and some others in a really dynamic-looking multi-disciplinary team. The press…
December 15, 2010
Another bunch of shorter lists for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. Salon.com The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootConcurring Opinions (Privacy books) The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors by Hal Niedzviecki…
December 15, 2010
Powerpoint or Blackboard? (for presentations) Sharing Data on the Web The rise of scientific journalism Affirming Science's Place (in anthropology) Introductory Research Course: Replicate a Paper Publishers, don't pave that cow path: Lonely Planet's Gus Balbontin on agility in the digital age…
December 15, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant Packing For Mars by Mary Roach The Legacy by David Suzuki Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild…
December 14, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. I've cobbled this together from the critic-by-critic list I point to above. You Are Not a Gadget: a Manifesto by Jaron Lanier The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the…
December 13, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century by Michael Hiltzik Deep Blue Home:…
December 13, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. This list is the Holiday Reading list from the Toronto Star Public Policy Forum, picked from individual lists in today's print newspaper. Bizarrely, I wasn't able to find the list online. Where Good Ideas Come From:…
December 12, 2010
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
December 11, 2010
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
December 10, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming by Paul Edwards Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril…
December 10, 2010
Er, sorry. Apparently it's one of those weird Internet twitter meme things today that all the kids think are really neet-o and groovy. Anyways, here's a couple from the blastr post: @StuartPownall: Stormtrooper armour to be investigated after recent firefight leaves no survivors. @MaxReboYouKnow:…
December 9, 2010
Yes, it was quiet for a while there, but it seems that change and disruption are inevitable in the world of science blogging. Welcome to Yet Another Science Blogging Community: Occam's Typewriter. Apparently born amidst much controversy and drama, it's a new community formed mostly (all?) from…
December 9, 2010
...Instead of a different Creative Commons license, such as CC-BY? Or just with normal copyright restrictions? (You can get an explanation of CC0 here: it implies relinquishing all rights and essentially means releasing something into the public domain.) A good question, one that I attempted to…
December 8, 2010
Getting Rid of Books: A Heresy Arsenic-associated bacteria (NASA's claims) The Gatekeeper is Dead! Long live the Gatekeeper The Library: Three Jeremiads The Future of Advertising Web Developers Get Real (Time): The massive amount of real-time information available is leading to new programming…
December 7, 2010
Another bunch of shorter lists for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. LaCrosse Tribune Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside by Brad Steiger Becoming a Doctor: From Student to Specialist, Doctor-Writers Share Their Experiences edited by Lee…
December 7, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. This one really annoys me because the list is solely embedded in the text of the article, with no separate listing of the titles or even bolding or italicizing the titles. But that's just me, I guess. Map of a Nation…
December 6, 2010
Another bunch of shorter lists for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery and the Genius of the Royal Society edited by Bill BrysonChamber…
December 6, 2010
Another list for your reading, gift giving and collection development pleasure. The Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by…
December 5, 2010
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
December 5, 2010
Every year the Globe publishes a gift book guide separate from their regular list of notable books. Great for coffee table style books for that special someone. The list has a few non-science items that look particularly cool to me so I'll list those too. (Note that the online version is missing…
December 4, 2010
The mismeasurement of science Beyond the Impact Factor: Building a community for more diverse measurement of research Citizen science Eliminate the Computer Science major Should Profs Leave Unruly Classes? Untouchable Cyberbullies The economic case for open access in academic publishing The Men Who…
December 4, 2010
I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll…
December 3, 2010
One of the more interesting lists every year is Strategy + Business because it gives a good selection of internet technology/innovation and social media books. I drew from various of their lists: Top Shelf, Leadership, China and Innovation. Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of…
December 3, 2010
I generally try and avoid reality TV at all costs, mostly seeing as a sign of the coming apocalypse. But this new one shocks even me and seems to stretch the bounds of sanity. Sometimes I think only a wordsmith like HP Lovecraft could describe the existential horror these shows provoke. Cracked…
December 2, 2010
Another nice list. The Facebook Effect: The Insider Story of the Company that is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee Self Comes to…
December 2, 2010
As usual, lots of terrific articles are included in this issue. More and more, I wonder why a scitech librarian would publish their articles anywhere else, especially in a toll access journal. Old Words, New Meanings: A Study of Trends in Science Librarian Job Ads by Brenna K.H. Bychowski, Carolyn…
December 1, 2010
A couple of really interesting articles in InsideHigherEd the other day: Should Profs Leave Unruly Classes? Now two faculty members at Ryerson University, in Toronto, sparked discussion at their institution with a similar (if somewhat more lenient) policy -- and their university's administrators…
November 30, 2010
This list is from SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle and is drawn from their nonfiction, architecture and nature lists. The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach Atlantic: Great Sea…
November 30, 2010
New Models for University Presses What do we want copyright to do? Price of tap water x 2000 + plastic bottles + manufactured demand = The Story of Bottled Water Thursday Threads: Google Scholar Coverage, Effective Meetings, Librarians as Obstacles, Cable TV Gender Bias, Sexism, and the Science…