jdupuis | January 31, 2012
What 'Ownership' Means for Digital Media (Hint: Not Much)
The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance
An Introvert's Guide to Networking
Giving introverts permission to be themselves
Consensus Decision-Making and its Possibilities in Libraries
Disruption and Implications
Support good science writing - pay for it
Online tools are 'distraction' for science
You Probably Don't Have a Social Media Expert
From Stacks to the Web: the Transformation of Academic Library Collecting
Ebooks on Fire: Controversies Surrounding Ebooks in Libraries
Our College Education System Serves Its…
jdupuis | January 27, 2012A repost from February 9, 2006 from the old blog. it tells the story of how I became a science librarian. It's my small contribution to the #IAmScience meme on Twitter right now.
Basically it's about unconventional career paths in science. And this is mine.
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Inspired by Adventures in Ethics and Science and Stranger Fruit...
So, how does a person go from being a software developer to being a science librarian?
From a very young age, always read a lot of books, magazines, comic books and whatever else is lying around, mostly science fiction and fantasy but a lot…
jdupuis | January 27, 2012Ah, The Cronk News always turns a dull, freezing rainy, slushy, oh-my-god-climate-change-is-going-to-kill-us-all day into a warm fluffy puppy day.
University Library Enlists Collaborative Cheerleaders
When Sam Spivender, CEO of Temporarium University Library, noticed that no students collaborated in the new ten million dollar Collaborative Learning Center, he did what any rational library CEO would do: hired twenty collaborative cheerleaders, one for each collaborative pod, at a rate of fifteen hundred dollars per cheerleader per day.
*snip*
A few students caught in the cheer circle giggled,…
jdupuis | January 24, 2012Well, I survived.
Science Online 2012 took place this past weekend and it was a blast. There's already been quite a bit of discussion in blogs and on Twitter about how it went.
A very small selection of the them bits are:
Scattered reflections about ScienceOnline 2012 (#scio12)
Science Online North Carolina (a nice Storify)
Scientists have .... (impressions from #scio12)
Sex, Gender, and Controversy, a #scio12 WRAPUP
Science writing, in context
But there's way more that I've missed, I'm sure.
One of the things the stellar organizing committee of Bora Zivkovic, Anton Zuiker and Karyn…
jdupuis | January 20, 2012This seems a little too close to reality if you read a lot of what passes for higher ed reporting these days.
College Prez Scores with "No Huddle" Academics
So Clavell and other businessmen-turned-educational experts are looking at the records of college administrators across the country to see if they can inject a little competition into the sleepy business of handing out credentials to post-adolescent slackers. And one up-and-comer who has caught their eye is Norbert Duncan, President of Vermilion County Junior College here, who has successfully installed a "no-huddle" approach to academic…
jdupuis | January 18, 2012The Stop Online Piracy Act is a piece of legislation in the US whose aims are:
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill…
jdupuis | January 17, 2012Sometimes good things happen to good people and this is certainly the case.
Michael Nielsen has been named a SPARC Innovator for 2012.
I don't usually do awards announcements here but I've made exceptions in the past for friends and I'm doing that again today.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition has a program called the SPARC Innovators that twice a year recognizes innovations in the field.
The SPARC Innovator program is a new initiative that recognizes an individual, institution, or group that exemplifies SPARC principles by working to challenge the status quo in…
jdupuis | January 17, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following: Discovery News: A Little Light Reading: 2011 in Physics Books.
The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe by Frank Close
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the…
jdupuis | January 16, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following: Sci Tech Watch: My Favorite Books of 2011.
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster by Tom Shroder and John…
jdupuis | January 16, 2012A terrific new opportunity at my institution. I'm not in the reporting department or on the search committee, but I'd be happy to answer general questions about York and the environment. My email is jdupuis at yorku dot ca.
The online job posting is here.
Position Rank: Full Time Tenure Stream - Assistant Librarian
Discipline/Field: Digital Assets Librarian
Home Faculty: Libraries
Home Department/Area/Division: Scott Library
Affiliation/Union: YUFA
Position Start Date: June 1, 2012
Digital Assets Librarian - York University Libraries
York University Libraries are seeking an innovative and…
jdupuis | January 13, 2012All I have to say is that I'm really glad this wasn't published 20-something years ago.
5 things you should know before dating a scientist
1. We can figure things out. Understand, we're paid to dig deep, find the secrets and wade through bullshit. We can pick up on subtleties, so what you think you are hiding from us won't be hidden for long. Sure, we'll act surprised when you eventually tell us you failed freshman biology in college -- but we already knew.
We don't take shit from anyone, so don't lie to us or give a load of bullshit. We spend all day separating fact from fiction, listening…
jdupuis | January 13, 2012With the final countdown underway and the conference less than a week away, this post follows my post on library people in attendance at Science Online 2012 from a few weeks ago.
And I'd like to start off with another best-tweet-ever, this time Marieclaire Shanahan retweeting Colin Schutze:
+ they'll be fascinating! RT @_ColinS_: #Scio12 Newbie Tips: You will meet more librarians in one day than you thought existed in the world.
And that's long been one of my goals, to promote the integration of librarians into faculty and researcher conferences and social networks. And Science Online has…
jdupuis | January 9, 2012Note: this post is superseded by: Around the Web: Research Works Act, Elsevier boycott & FRPAA.
Following on my post from yesterday on Scholarly Societies: It's time to abandon the AAP over The Research Works Act, I thought I'd gather together some of the recent posts on the issue.
The Wikipedia article is here, full text of the bill here and status here.
2012.01.04. New US Publisher Anti-OA Legislation by Cable Green
2012.01.04. A Threat to Open Access: the Research Works Act by Lisa Federer
2012.01.05. Update on publishers and SOPA: Time for scholarly publishers to disavow the AAP by…
jdupuis | January 7, 2012Ok, Friday Fun a day late. But better late than never, right?
Anyways, Top Ten Signs You're An Adult. And apparently punctuality and predictability aren't ones I've mastered.
All of a sudden everyone is taking about their "401k".
You have friends who have houses or really nice apartments.
You find your grandparents adorable and your parents hilarious.
You're freaking tired.
Your health is suddenly a big deal.
Christmas is just kind of like, whatever.
You don't care if you are totally uncool. You have no problem telling people that Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' is one of the best pop songs ever written…
jdupuis | January 6, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following:
Russell Blackford
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
Stumbling Virtue
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea…
jdupuis | January 6, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following: Mother Nature Network: Best green and environmental books of 2011.
The Best Science and Nature Writing of 2011 edited by Mary Roach
Once and Future Giants: What Ice Age Extinctions Tell Us About the Fate of Earth's Largest Mammals by…
jdupuis | January 5, 2012So, The Research Works Act, H.R. 3699 is a new piece of legislation that is being introduced in the US.
Not surprisingly it's supported by the American Association of Publishers and its Professional and Scholarly Publishing (AAP/PSP).
The legislation is aimed at preventing regulatory interference with private-sector research publishers in the production, peer review and publication of scientific, medical, technical, humanities, legal and scholarly journal articles. This sector represents tens of thousands of articles which report on, analyze and interpret original research; more than 30,000 U…
jdupuis | January 5, 2012I'm including here a list of all the books I've read in 2011, as well as some commentary on my particular year in reading. I always enjoy when people post these sorts of lists online and actually rather enjoy doing so myself.
I've been doing this for a few years now: 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
If you've posted such a list online somewhere, please post a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!
The list of books I'm posting below includes all the books I started in 2011, with the exception of books that I'm currently reading. In other words, it also includes a few books I've abandoned…
jdupuis | January 4, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following:
Bachelors Degree Online: The 20 Best Books of 2011 You Should Read Over Winter Break
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Devourer of Books
Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder…
jdupuis | January 4, 2012Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following: Booklist Online Editors' Choice.
The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President By Candice Millard
Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon By Alfredo Quiñones-…