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

September 19, 2014
Yes, I cook. Yes, I use recipe blogs. Yes, I might alter the recipes I see based on what I have on hand or what various personal and familial preferences come into play. In fact, I love recipe blogs, I really really do. Simply Recipes is probably my favourite. The reality, of course, is that a lot…
September 16, 2014
It's been quite a long while since I've done a "books I'd like to read" post, that's for sure. This fall seems to be have a particularly exciting list of books so I thought I'd pull some of them together (as well as some older books) here for all our enjoyment. These are all books I don't own yet,…
September 15, 2014
This one's a bit of a head-scratcher. Richard Evan Schwartz's Really Big Numbers has a great premise. A kids book that takes some fairly advanced mathematical concepts and presents them in a lively, engaging and understandable format. So far, so good. Schwartz does a commendable job of taking the…
September 12, 2014
Music critics. Got to love them. Just the right mixture of disdain, hipster arrogance and snobbery to set the teeth on edge. Ooooh, love that band no one has ever heard of. Hate that band that "sold out" and became famous. They were so much more authentic when they were poor and no one heard and…
September 10, 2014
A Creative Commons Guide to Sharing Your Science Why do some academic publishers think they should charge extra for more liberal licenses (CC BY)? The opportunity cost of my open access was 35 hours + $690 (UPDATED) The future of open access and library publishing Sick of Impact Factors Making a…
September 5, 2014
This amusing book, Kanani K. M. Lee and Adam Wallenta's The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic: The Adventures of Geo, Vol. 1, is brought to us by the same people as the Survive! Inside the Human Body graphic novel series. As a result it has many of the same strengths but it also suffered from some…
September 4, 2014
I have a son who's currently a physics undergrad, just starting in third year. And another son who's starting first year philosophy. As you can imagine, I may occasionally pass along a link or two to them pointing to stuff on the web I think they might find particularly interesting or useful.…
September 4, 2014
Yes, it has become a trilogy. The two Twitter rants I recapped here sparked more angst and anguish in me, prompting me to write a third rant. As it became ready for Twitter publication and approached 800 words, it also became clear that this particular rant was fast outgrowing what I could…
September 2, 2014
One of the highlights of the year for me is the Lane Anderson Award shortlist announcement. From their website here and here: The Lane Anderson designation honours the maiden names of Robert Fitzhenry's mother, Margaret Lane, and his wife, Hilda Anderson Fitzhenry. The Fitzhenry Family Foundation…
August 29, 2014
Twitter is a great place to rant and rave sometimes. You can feel free to let loose and say what you're thinking without necessarily feeling that you need to have completely well-formed ideas. The enforced brevity can sometimes also be a plus, as it forces you to distill what you want to say to the…
August 28, 2014
"Even if a small fraction of the Arctic carbon were released to the atmosphere, we’re fucked...We’re on a trajectory to an unmanageable heating scenario, and we need to get off it. We’re fucked at a certain point, right? It just becomes unmanageable. The climate dragon is being poked, and…
August 26, 2014
7 Things Librarians Are Tired of Hearing Library without books debuts at Florida’s newest college How Streaming Media Could Threaten the Mission of Libraries Books: Important Symbol or Annoying Physical Reality? Ice Ice Baby: Are Librarian Stereotypes Freezing Us out of Instruction? UNBSJ students…
August 18, 2014
To continue the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science theme, I present the text of a recent open letter I signed to the AAAS concerning their new journal Science Advances. Thanks to Jonathan Tennant for spearheading this effort. You can read more about the rationale behind…
August 15, 2014
First Second Books has done it again! They've published another wonderful science-themed graphic novel that belongs on every bookshelf. (Of course, they publish tons of other non-science themed graphic novels too. One of my particular favourite recent ones in the biography of Andre the Giant. The…
August 15, 2014
From the "So Funny it Hurts" file... This one combines the recent spying cases between Canada and China with the equally "humourous" ongoing Canadian War on Science. Chinese cyber spies disappointed by Canada’s complete lack of scientific research BEIJING - Chinese state-sponsored hackers were…
August 13, 2014
Sorry about that, but posts and articles about climate change fiction seem especially prone to bad puns... In any case, climate change fiction (or "cli-fi" to use the rather ugly short form) is fiction -- either speculative or realistic -- that takes as it's basis the fact that the earth's climate…
August 8, 2014
Ah, News Biscuit. You've nailed this one. What's next? Homeopathic dishwasher detergent? In any case, enjoy a taste but make sure you read the whole thing. It's very funny! McAfee unveils first homeopathic antivirus software “Our customers are increasingly demanding Anti-Virus software that has no…
August 8, 2014
Only rarely in my life as a reviewer do I get books that seem to be absolutely perfectly suited for me. This is certainly the case with Charles L. Adler's Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction, a book that combines my love for science and my love for…
August 6, 2014
It seems that the American Association for the Advancement of Science has just announced the new publisher of it's flagship family of Science journals: AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner today announced the appointment of Kent Anderson, a past president of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SPP), to serve…
August 1, 2014
In a recent post on his Whatever blog, science fiction writer John Scalzi makes some very fine points related to the ongoing controversy surrounding the way Amazon treats various publishers and how this affects authors. He makes great points throughout the post and with a little tweaking we can…
July 26, 2014
I have some theories about both children's books and about science-themed graphic works. There are basically two kinds of children's books: those that are designed to please children versus those that are designed to attract the adults that buy most children's books. There are also basically two…
June 30, 2014
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats Facebook's massive psychology experiment likely illegal Facebook and Engineering the Public College graduates earn more, but that doesn't prove college is worth it Mirrortocracy: The next thing Silicon Valley needs to disrupt big time: its own culture…
June 26, 2014
I'm always interested in the present and future of libraries. There's a steady stream of reports from various organizations that are broadly relevant to the (mostly academic) library biz but they can be tough to keep track of. I thought I'd aggregate some of those here. Of course I've very likely…
June 17, 2014
There's been a lot around the intertubes the last few months about journal pricing and who pays what and why and reactions all around. I thought I'd gather a bit of that here for posterity, starting with the Timothy Gowers post on the UK Elsevier Big Deal numbers up to the most recent item in PNAS…
June 4, 2014
There are two very strong competing emotions at work here in this post: delight versus depression. Depression that the government-funded research landscape here in Canada can sink so low that the premier freshwater research facility likely in the world is reduced to putting its hand out and asking…
May 28, 2014
I have a son who's currently a physics undergrad. As you can imagine, I occasionally pass along a link or two to him pointing to stuff on the web I think he might find particularly interesting or useful. Thinking on that fact, I surmised that perhaps other science students might find those links…
May 26, 2014
Faithful readers of this blog may recall that back in March I posted a set of slides I had prepared for a presentation to a class of undergraduate computer science majors, basically outlining what open science is and challenging them to use their talents to make science work better. Usually I don't…
May 21, 2014
Extremophiles are fun! Basically, they're the biggest, smallest, hardiest and definitely the oddest bunch of beasties to be found anywhere on this planet. The Palumbi father and son team -- one scientist and one writer -- bring us this fun little book on the extremophiles of the sea. And literally…
May 2, 2014
Occupy was right: capitalism has failed the world Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? In One Stunning Graphic, NASA Shows Us What Climate Change Will Do to Earth by 2099 Exxon Mobil's response to climate change is consummate arrogance We Should Be in a…
April 28, 2014
Two recentish entries into the growing field of graphic novel scientific biographies, both very good, both suitable for a wide audience: Darwin: A Graphic Biography by Eugene Byrne and Simon Gurr and Mind Afire: The Visions of Tesla by Abigail Samoun and Elizabeth Haidle. If I had to count one of…