jdupuis | July 5, 2013Harvard’s First University-wide Library Mission Statement Approved by Library Board
Declaration for the Right to Libraries
Open Review: A Study of Contexts and Practices
The Cooler: PLoS ONE and the Panic Over Impact
NIH sees surge in open-access manuscripts
Academics don't let themselves be free
Guide to Creative Commons
Surge in 'digital dementia'
Library DIY: Unmediated point-of-need support
Ten trends shaping the future of publishing
Risk, responsibility, and public academics
‘Is the BA a ticket to nowhere?’ No. Employers want independent, critical thinking workers
Be employable, study…
jdupuis | June 26, 2013For various reasons, I've been collecting some resources around open access, open data and scientific and technological innovation in Canada. Since they might be more broadly useful that to just me, I thought I'd share them.
Of course, this list is incomplete. I've most likely left out whole swaths of stuff out there, both in terms of organizations and relevant posts and articles as well as institutional OA mandates and author funds I may have missed. Please feel free to suggest items in the comments.
One thing in particular I would like to add in a future iteration is a list of library/…
jdupuis | June 25, 2013After Your Job Is Gone
Disruptions: The Echo Chamber of Silicon Valley
MOOCs as a Lightning Rod
The Stories We Tell about MOOCs
Fixing the Digital Economy
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in the Academic Library
Stop Scaring Students
An Avalanche is Coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead
Role of librarians changes in digital age
Exploring the future of academic libraries: A definitional approach
Why You Should Never Have Taken That Prestigious Internship
Notes From an Academic Nobody
What's a Library?
The End of Ownership
If you live in a surveillance state for long enough, you create a…
jdupuis | June 22, 2013In Praise of Traditional Libraries
How not to be a dick to a librarian
What Librarians Lack: The Importance of the Entrepreneurial Spirit
In Service? A Further Provocation on Digital Humanities Research in Libraries
What I Wish I’d Known in Graduate School
Academics will need both the physical and virtual library for years to come
Throwing the Books at Each Other
ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Bibliography
The Librarian’s Love/Hate/Love Relationship with Books
Life Sciences Library – Consultation News, Next Steps and Cruess-Boyer Report (McGill)
Opportunities and Barriers for Librarians in…
jdupuis | June 19, 2013I have a son who's just finished his first year as 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 interesting or useful as well. Hence, this series of posts here on the blog.
By necessity and circumstance, the items I've chosen will be influenced by my son's choice of major and my own interest in the usefulness of computational approaches to science and of social media for…
jdupuis | June 17, 2013I know I've already posted about the changes at the NRC, but this recent David Suzuki article frames the issue so perfectly that I thought I'd post about it again.
The article is called National Research Council's new focus ignores how science works. The core issue is that recently the Canadian Federal Government's National Research Council announced that it would change it's focus from performing basic, curiosity-driven research to more applied research, preferably sponsored by Canadian industry.
From Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear's speaking points:
Ladies and…
jdupuis | June 12, 2013First Second Books is one of my favourite publishers of graphic novels, in particular because they seem to like to do a lot of science-themed books. Jim Ottaviani's book Feynman was one of my favourite graphic novels of the last few years. Perhaps not surprisingly, First Second published Feynman.
The latest from the science graphic novel dynamic duo is Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas, this time with the art by Maris Wicks. And it is certainly up to the incredibly high standards set by Feynman, if not even a little bit better.
What's it about?…
jdupuis | June 11, 2013Joining a CHORUS, Publishers Offer the OSTP a Proactive, Modern, and Cost-Saving Public Access Solution
Publishers Propose Public-Private Partnership to Support Access to Research
CHORUS: hoping for re-enclosure
CHORUS: It’s actually spelled C-A-B-A-L
Scientific Publishers Aim To Get Ahead Of Agency Repositories
A CHORUS of boos: publishers offer their “solution” to public access
All joined with a single voice to praise CHORUS, thus: “meh.”
Chapter, Verse, and CHORUS: A first pass critique
SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE) Proposed by AAU, APLU, ARL (proposal here)
‘Federated System’…
jdupuis | June 7, 2013*cough*
Anyways, here are a couple. Enjoy.
25 Signs You’re Addicted To Books
"The first step is admitting it. The second step is to keep right on reading."
When you’re reading a good book, you forget to eat or sleep.
Sometimes there is yelling.
You’ve been traumatized by things that “only” happened in books you read.
You think of colors in terms of Penguin classics.
Rainy days > sunny days.
Walking by a closed bookstore is torture. (my favourite...)
You would never shame someone for reading. (my second favourite...)
Go read the whole list -- each item comes with a nice visual to represent…
jdupuis | June 5, 2013Don’t Panic: Why Catastrophism Fails Libraries
Breaking Up with Libraries
Resolved: All LIS students should not take that course
Once a Librarian, Always a Librarian?
Editorial: Libraries see opportunity in changing times
Look to the present of libraries to see the future
Results of the “Global Research Council” in Berlin Announced
Wellcome Trust extends open access policy to include scholarly monographs and book chapters
Open-access initiatives to benefit the academy
Economics of scholarly communication in transition (Is there enough money in library budgets to unleash all of scholarship…
jdupuis | May 31, 2013Challenge, don't worship, the chiefs and high priestesses of science: If we don't recognise the politics of science, we will just get played by those who do
Confronting The Woo-Woos Head-On...
45% Fewer Professional Working Musicians Since 2002
Academics and universities must continue to develop open access alternatives to break the monopoly of large publishers
It’s not about predators, it’s about journal quality
Open Access Advocates Trumpet the Fall of the Paywall
Survivorship bias and electronic publishing: practically no one is making any money
The Challenges of Measuring Social Impact…
jdupuis | May 30, 2013Academic library existence at risk?
The Myth and the Millennialism of "Disruptive Innovation"
Fending off university-attacking zombies
The online threat to the American professor
Educational Hucksterism: Or, MOOCs are not an Educational Technology
Laptop U: Has the future of college moved online?
Libraries into career centres, campus residences into senior homes
Embrace Moocs or face decline, warns v-c
Library holds consultation sessions on proposed closure of the Life Sciences Library (McGill)
Editorial: why academic freedom matters to librarians
The Librarian Doesn’t Exist
Harvard…
jdupuis | May 29, 2013I have a son who's just finished his first year as 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 interesting or useful as well. Hence, this series of posts here on the blog.
By necessity and circumstance, the items I've chosen will be influenced by my son's choice of major and my own interest in the usefulness of computational approaches to science and of social media for…
jdupuis | May 25, 2013The Downside of Being Universally Liked
5 Reasons Libraries Will Fail – Published in 1864 (satire)
What's a Library?
Can Information Professionals Afford Apprenticeships? A Thought Experiment
Faculty Usage of Library Tools in a Learning Management System
The bravery of librarians
We Aim to Misbehave
Librarians need bigger egos
Beyond measure: Valuing libraries
Riding the crest of the altmetrics wave: How librarians can help prepare faculty for the next generation of research impact metrics
New Higher Education Model
Higher Ed in 2018
Four ways open access enhances academic freedom
Open…
jdupuis | May 21, 2013Someone shoot me if I ever use the term NP-complete in a sentence. Or at least if I ever use the term in a conversation with "civilians."
Such is the dilemma of reading and reviewing a wonderful book like Lance Fortnow's The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible. I'll be tempted to start throwing around terms that Fortnow has explained so well and so clearly. A temptation I should resist. Instead I should recommend this book.
Anyways, what's the book about? As the title indicates, the purpose is to explain to a popular audience the computer science concept of P vs. NP, in…
jdupuis | May 20, 2013This is a brief chronology of the current Conservative Canadian government's long campaign to undermine evidence-based scientific, environmental and technical decision-making. It is a government that is beholden to big business, particularly big oil, and that makes every attempt to shape public policy to that end. It is a government that fundamentally doesn't believe in science. It is a government that is more interested in keeping its corporate masters happy than in protecting the environment.
As is occasionally my habit, I have pulled together a chronology of sorts. It is a chronology of…
jdupuis | May 17, 2013I have to admit -- I've always been more of Star Trek fan rather than Star Wars. The Star Trek universe has always seemed more open, more diverse, with a lot more opportunities for telling different stories not just about the rebels versus the empire.
It seems that Neil deGrasse Tyson agrees.
"I'm old-school with the big traditional TV and movie series, so I'm old-school Star Trek. I'm partial to the old crew, Captain Kirk,"
*snip*
"I never got into Star Wars," Tyson said. "Maybe because they made no attempt to portray real physics. At all."
*snip*
"I like the double star sunset scene (on…
jdupuis | May 16, 2013Yes, We Should Talk About the MLS
On Big Name Librarians
The Loon’s job
Why am I getting my MLIS? Because I have to.
So You Think You Want to Be a Librarian?
The Adjunctification of Academic Librarianship
Your candidate pools
Fork the Academy (github as a model for scholarly communcation)
Massive (But Not Open) (new online cs degree program)
[Expletive Deleted] Ed-Tech #Edinnovation (relates ed tech history as it is often told to how Argo treats the Canadian contribution to that story)
Making the peer review process public
Why is Science Behind a Paywall?
The Delete Squad Google, Twitter,…
jdupuis | May 13, 2013It's been a very long time since I did a Music Monday of any variety, never mind of the Five songs I really love variety. So it's fun to check in again and share what I've been obsessing over on my iPod and on Youtube lately. And oddly, some of these are repeats from earlier lists, probably indicating that my music tastes are pretty consistent.
Anyways, these are all on the blues rock spectrum and every one supremely awesome. These are five songs I just never get tired of.
Enjoy!
Midnight in Harlem by The Tedeschi Trucks Band. This is absolutely my favourite song from the last few years. We…
jdupuis | May 7, 2013Now there's a quote for you! Provocative in it's shortsightedness and fairly ignorant of how the interplay between scientific discovery and commercialization/technology transfer works. Commercial products are engineered and developed out of basic scientific discoveries.
So who said that?
Sadly, it was the John McDougall, President of the National Research Council of Canada talking about the restructuring and refocusing of the NRC.
Here's some more from the Sun News article:
The government of Canada believes there is a place for curiosity-driven, fundamental scientific research, but the…