jdupuis | April 1, 2012Hi everybody,
It is with great pride and excitement that I'm finally able to announce something that's been in the works for a few months now. I will be accepting the role of inaugural editor-in-chief of an exciting new journal to be published by Elsevier: The Journal of Applied Publishing Experiments.
This amazing opportunity arose a few months ago, initiated by a blog post of mine that congratulated Elsevier on their wise marketing and publishing moves and this one a bit later, where I declare my undying loyalty to the Elsevier brand. The publisher of Elsevier immediately contacted me…
jdupuis | March 30, 2012Undergrads, we all love'em, right? You bet.
Of course...
Undergraduate Research Assistant Finally Sharpens Perfect Pencil
After months of stupefying repetition, undergraduate research assistant Thomas Floyd, 19, emerged from the Nelson Physics Laboratory this afternoon to announce that his faculty supervisor, Dr. Demetri Schulman, had declared his 4,394th sharpened pencil "perfect."
"I'd like the thank the academy," said a humbled Floyd, "for creating an educational experience that let me sit in Dr. Schulman's lab storage room and sharpen pencils day after day until I got it right."
jdupuis | March 30, 2012Every year for the last several years I've collated and extracted the science books from all the various "best books of the year" lists in different media media outlets. I've done the same this year for books published in 2011! I can tell it's been popular among my readers from the hit stats I see for this blog and from the number of keyword searches on "best science books" or whatnot I see in my analytics program.
Back in 2009, I started taking all the lists I could find and tallying up all the "votes" to see which books were mentioned the most times. An interesting exercise, to say the…
jdupuis | March 29, 2012
Philip Pullman: Libraries are not just about books
The Tech Savvy Presidency
Spain's Libranda Grows Up: E-reader, Library Lending Planned
Doing It for Themselves: Libraries and E-books
Visibility is currency in academia but it is scarcity in publishing. The push for open access shows that academic publishers can't serve two masters
Don't build a paywall, create a velvet rope instead
The Ed-Tech MacGuffin
Fish? Check. Barrel? Check.
'Social-Media Blasphemy': Texas researcher adds 'Enemy' feature to Facebook
Reflections on the paywall
The Last Enclosures (More on WaPo article)
Stop Cultural…
jdupuis | March 27, 2012This post has superseded my two previous link collection posts here and here.
The first focused solely on the Research Works Act, the second added posts on the Elsevier boycott and this one also incorporates posts on the reintroduction of The Federal Research Public Access Act. These three stories are all intertwined to the extent that it is difficult to separate them out completely. That being said, I'm not attempting to be as comprehensive in coverage for the boycott or for FRPAA as for the RWA.
Some relevant general resources:
The Cost of Knowledge: Researchers taking a stand against…
Around the Web: Promise & perils of Pinterest, Abundance vs disruption, Beyond the textbook and more
jdupuis | March 24, 2012
Promise & Perils of Pinterest
Abundance vs disruption: dramatically different views of the future
Beyond the Textbook
My Experience With eBooks: Yea or Nay?
Of dead trees, living networks, and encyclopedic ambition
Ask the Administrator: If I Become a Dean, Will My Faculty Colleagues Shun Me?
Killing the Story (Apple & Daisey)
The Prison-House of Data (digital humanities)
Nicholas Carr on the evolution of communication technology and our compulsive consumption of information
Counterintuitive digital media assignments
Making Sense of the Digital Transition: Are Textbooks Dead?
Know…
jdupuis | March 23, 2012I've always been a big comics and graphic novel fan. In particular in my youth I was a huge superhero fan.
So this one was just a natural for me. Especially since one of the heroes that is profiled was one of my youthful favourites: The Incredible Hulk!
6 superheroes who got their powers from being lousy scientists
The Incredible Hulk
His Origin: Bruce Banner runs onto a gamma bomb testing facility to save a trespassing teen. He shoves the teen into a ditch, but gets hit with the full powers of radiation.
Note in the pic above that it says Banner was miles from the detonation of the bomb.…
jdupuis | March 20, 2012Knowledge, science, information, common sense, openness?
A whole bunch of things are under attack by various conservatively-minded levels of government here in Canada.
Those of you thinking of moving north to avoid the insanity might want to have a second thought.
It seems that we normally smug and superior Canadians have recently...
Walked away from statistically valid methods of collecting census data
The head of Statistics Canada has delivered an extraordinary rebuke to the Harper government over its plan to scrap the mandatory long-form census, quitting his post in a highly public letter…
jdupuis | March 20, 2012
Why we need blue-sky research
Internet con men ravage publishing
Why I Pirate - An Open Letter To Content Creators
Open Access Tenure: Put it in the File
Bletchley Park tweet saves Alan Turing computing papers
The little guys stand up to Amazon: Book distributor IPG fights for say in e-book pricing
Are books and the internet about to merge?
Reflective Teaching for Librarians
Comments -- The Weakest Part of Blogs, the Weakest Part of Online Journals
Censorship is inseparable from surveillance
Libraries as Community Publishers: How to Turn the Tables
Fighting HEARSE: Higher Ed Apocalpyse…
jdupuis | March 16, 2012This one is clearly inspired by the recent Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs op-ed in the New York Times by Greg Smith.
But this parody is clearly much funnier.
Although, maybe not?
From the Smith article:
I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making…
jdupuis | March 15, 2012Dear FSM, by all that is unholy, I think this is the last one.
A final bunch of lists 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.
Top Books We Read in 2011, by L.A. Weekly Writers.
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
San Antonio Express-News: Best books of…
jdupuis | March 15, 2012A couple more lists 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.
San Francisco Chronicle 100 recommended books
American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterror Attack by Jeanne Guillemin
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White
Steve Jobs by…
jdupuis | March 14, 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: Powell's Books Staff Top 5s of 2011.
The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Physics of the Future: How Science…
jdupuis | March 13, 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: Year in Reviews: Wall Street Journal: Twelve Months of Reading.
The Quantum Universe: (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does) by Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Stephen Pinker…
jdupuis | March 13, 2012
Read E-Books On Multiple Devices
Another Library Is Possible
Should Libraries Get Out of the eBook Business?
Alternative Uses for the Pesky eBook Budget
In which container is the journal article I need?
The Library in the City: Changing Demands and a Challenging Future
Anarchy and Commercialism (state of journal publishing)
Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education
#alt-LIS OR The Question of the Hybrarian OR What is Digital Humanities and What's It Doing in the Library?
Rigor without rigor mortis
Letter from Scott Turow:…
jdupuis | March 9, 2012I'm kinda hoping my provost isn't reading this (Hi, Patrick!)...
Students Still No Closer to Knowing What the Heck a Provost Is
While a leading Washington think tank maintains that its recent survey of college provosts offered fresh insights into the role of these decision makers in academia today, some students across the country remain puzzled at its implications and, even, just what a provost does anyway.
*snip*
Jody Day of Wilson Community College whipped out her cell phone and hit a few keys. "Aha. I know that the origin of the word means 'keeper of a prison.' Therefore, I'm sure the…
jdupuis | March 9, 2012
The Future of the Book Business: A Classicist's View
Rich Books, Poor Society: Random House's Price Spike
Random House's eBook Price Hikes are GOOD for Libraries. IF...
Electronic Mini-Books That Allow Writers to Stretch Their Legs
How TED Makes Ideas Smaller
Mike Shatzkin: In Five Years, Only 17.5% of Books Bought in Stores
Not So Different After All, Or, Academics and Publics vs. Predatory Pricing
Amazon, the iPad, and the culture of reading in an age of distraction
INTERVIEW: Seth Godin on Libraries, Literary Agents and the Future of Book Publishing as We Know It
The impact of Random…
jdupuis | March 6, 2012
Engineers Crashing Our Gates
From Credibility to Information Quality
Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality
How Bots Seized Control of My Pricing Strategy
Most Smartphone Apps are Spyware
Work for Hire? and Work for Hire update
Letter from the trenches (science PhD embraces HS teaching career possibililty)
The Bookstore in the Library
Web 2.0 -- at Your Own Pace
How to Counter Amazon: Create a One World E-Book Alliance
Analyst: Publishers Seeing Steady Print Declines Should Ready for Steep Drop
Half-Time Jobs, Full-Time Scientists
How the e-book landscape is…
jdupuis | March 2, 2012Personally, I find it inconceivable that any writer could come up with such a wonderful list.
Lines from The Princess Bride that Double as Comments on Freshman Composition Papers.
Here's a few to refresh your memory:
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"At a time like this that's all you can think to say?"
"Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has."
The Princess Bride (memorable quotes) is one of my favourite films and I'm sure it's one of yours. There are no doubt lines from other films that could be re-purposed as essay comments or…
jdupuis | February 28, 2012
Breaking the barriers of time and space: the dawning of the great age of librarians.
The Great Age of Librarians
Achieving the "Golden Age of Librarians" -- An Ambitious Project of Deep Redefinition
Nobody cares about the library: How digital technology makes the library invisible (and visible) to scholars
Snooki, Whale Sperm, and Google: The Unfortunate Extinction Of Librarians When They Are Needed Most
Potential Crisis May Be Brewing in Preservation of E-Journals
Privacy?? Forgetaboutit!!
Notes from the AE's desk (about being an editor at a journal)
Computers in classrooms don't…