tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71627982024-03-07T03:25:23.804-05:00Matthew 2.0The future of librarianship, technology, philosophy, politics and a little of me thrown in for good measure.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.comBlogger614125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-69748696279203631312024-02-29T09:13:00.001-05:002024-02-29T09:13:25.240-05:00"Taylor & Francis empowers Wikipedia editors with access to all journals"In a move aimed at enhancing the quality and reliability of Wikipedia articles, Taylor & Francis, a leading academic publisher, has announced an agreement with The Wikipedia Library. This collaboration grants volunteer editors free access to the entirety of Taylor & Francis and Routledge journals, providing them with a wealth of peer-reviewed research across diverse disciplines.Read more Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-6146341096045016162015-08-21T17:14:00.000-04:002015-08-21T17:14:30.943-04:00No Big Splash after dropping the Big DealJust read "Leaving the 'Big Deal'... Five Years Later" by Jonathan Nabea & David C. Fowler.
Via OpenSIUC: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/morris_articles/63/
Via Taylor and Francis Online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361526X.2015.1048037#
This article describes analysis on cancellation of three Big Deals five years later from two institutions. Here are some of Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-38674309448661766612015-08-19T14:49:00.001-04:002015-08-19T14:49:28.267-04:00Better electronic resource trialsJust read "Community organizing for database trial buy-in by patrons" by JJ Pionke.
Via IDEALS (Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship): https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/79049
Via Taylor and Francis: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1941126X.2015.1059643#
Good article suggesting some tips on running more successful, or rather, more Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-68459950463094410882015-07-13T18:08:00.000-04:002015-07-13T18:08:00.112-04:00Library School: What I'd FixIt's been a while since I graduated from my Master of Librarian and Information Science program (in 2001) but I just read "The future of library education: reflections of a newly educated librarian" from Open Shelf, and it made me think back to my glory days on campus learning to do what I've been doing ever since. Specifically, I was thinking about what I would have preferred in the Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-21716061564951552662014-07-01T16:06:00.000-04:002014-07-01T16:06:51.025-04:00What I think Canada is.Happy Canada Day, everyone! For those of you who don't know, I'm a Canadian and have lived in Canada all my life but for a handful of years living in NJ and working in NYC. As is typical, I'm, by default, proud of my country but I've hardly experienced the rest of the world so I can hardly compare really. And, as all Canadians do, I have experienced a pile o' American culture (Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-79102644590861255302014-05-15T09:54:00.001-04:002014-05-15T09:54:57.881-04:00What I learned at that licensing and collections event I went toI attended "Thinking OCUL-y: A Licensing and Collections Symposium", a full day conference organized by OCUL (Ontario Council of University Libraries) institution members. It was held at the beautiful Robarts Library, University of Toronto's main library on campus, in the heart of Toronto, Ontario.
But what did I learn?
The first thing I learned was that I wish I knew more about contractMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-88741536287821180032014-05-11T10:55:00.000-04:002014-05-11T10:55:39.404-04:00There should be a rating system for information resources
The Idea
Someone or some organization should develop and promote a system of "rating" information resources, possibly including anything from databases and full text collections down to individual books and articles, that describe the "quality" of the resource within some framework. The rating could be applied by different players (and be clearly labelled as such) such as the creator, the Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-29255913052975270322014-03-12T22:41:00.001-04:002014-03-12T22:41:52.318-04:00Top four things I've learned cataloguing my own books
For several weeks now, I've been (somewhat amateurly) cataloguing my personal collection of books with LibraryThing. I love it. Basically I'm just ensuring the proper and well-formatted title, checking it has the right cover, including the main authors and other responsibility holders, tagging them with my own main "categories", putting them in collections of who in my family Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-19662730365321330172014-03-10T22:08:00.002-04:002014-03-10T22:08:52.289-04:00Gender as a variable in resource evaluationIn my recent OLA Super Conference presentation (that I didn't actually present due to illness, but my colleague did), I worked on describing a theory of "Constructivist" evaluation of electronic resources, or really any resources in a library collection. My colleague's counterpoint position was one of Deconstruction and although we had a bit of a disconnect in terms of actual counterpoints,Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-19138954520893960042014-02-18T13:51:00.001-05:002014-02-18T13:51:07.237-05:00My contribution to "Access to Scholarly Output: Academic Libraries in Canada"Along with a few of my colleagues, I presented on the topic of "Access to Scholarly Output: Academic Libraries in Canada" at the "Interrogating Access: Current and Future Directions for Scholarly Research and Communications in Canada" conference on 15 February 2014. The conference included both librarians and publishers from across Canada and although we were put into a "copyright" section,Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-17805630358286223212014-01-17T20:50:00.001-05:002014-01-17T20:51:48.228-05:00Allies in the effort to supply college students with textbooksWhen I read the blurb about Algonquin College's new program to provide electronic books as textbooks for students through January 17th's Academica Top Ten email, I was impressed. Sure, everyone's moving towards ebooks now, but it's always nice to see an academic institution move forward on such a project with this much effort and planning. And speed too! Three years might seem Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-73625705533681343002013-05-21T18:23:00.000-04:002013-05-21T18:23:00.559-04:00The connection between evolution and library science
Is there a connection? I've been thinking about the possibility for probably the past year year now and reading chapter 10, "Life's Own Code" from Glieck's "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" has suggested it to me. (The following chapter -- "Into the Meme Pool" -- would have done it if I had been a little slower.)
In a way, libraries could be thought of as "Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-4207009469654640792013-03-26T18:01:00.000-04:002013-03-26T18:01:00.225-04:00E-Resource licensing and negotiations
Summary of and reactions to "Licensing Electronic Resources and Contract Negotiation" by Ryan O. Weir, chapter four of "Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.
Summary
Licensing is the most important duty of librarians involved in e-resources, due to the license being the document that decides the range of uses possible. The license (i.e. Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-9094493524444403182013-03-13T18:02:00.000-04:002013-03-13T18:02:00.322-04:00Things to remember when acquiring electronic resourcesSummary of and reactions to "Acquiring Electronic Resources" by Denise Pan, chapter three of "Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.
Main points:
"Aquisitions" is no longer always a distinct department in the library, involving more and varied parts of the institution.
The typical hierarchical structure of libraries tend not to be able to handle the dynamic Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-4404009015646281842013-03-05T18:34:00.000-05:002013-03-05T18:34:00.365-05:00How to survive the clash between e-resources and budgetsSummary of and reactions to "Coping with Economic Issues and a Paradign Shift in Collections" by Regina Koury, chapter two of "Managing Electronic Resources: a LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.
Given the drastic shift in library patron expectations from print to electronic resources in the past two decades, the flat-lining or decline of library collections budgets, and the Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-75172999673097728882013-02-26T17:38:00.000-05:002013-02-26T17:38:00.966-05:00ERM basicsRead chapter one of Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide edited by Ryan O. Weir, "Learning the Basics of Electronic Resource Management" also by Ryan O. Weir.
Upon reading this chapter, I've tried to describe the actual life cycle (since, in my opinion, the life cycle(s) described in the chapter are a little out of date or at least impractical) and the key requirements in ERM inMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-87495130414821260832013-02-15T18:36:00.000-05:002013-02-15T18:36:00.572-05:00Law and logicI just heard of a new case of a publisher (actually several) threatening another librarian with a defamation and libel suit. See http://www.yousendit.com/download/UW13SU5OUnF0TW5FdzhUQw
The very first paragraph of meaning (after all the preamble of introductions), they claim:
By placing all four of our client's companies on your "list", you have published facts about these Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-12822180964515191332013-01-21T17:27:00.000-05:002013-01-21T17:27:00.227-05:00Reader survey results and responsesJust read Reader survey results by Joseph Esposito (via a Scholarly Kitchen entry).
This is the summary of the results of a reader survey conducted by the author and Joe Wikert. These are my own professional librarian take-aways:
So there are plenty of readers directly purchasing books from the publisher? Perhaps, as libraries, with our role firmly between the publisher Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-71164130295600185572013-01-19T09:25:00.001-05:002013-01-19T09:25:29.158-05:00Ethics of Vendors Having Direct Communications with PatronsI was sitting in a meeting with a sales rep from a library information resource vendor when he mentioned that his sales visits were quite different in the past. He would spend all day on campus, talking with faculty, handing out brochures, giving demos of his products, etc. He went on to say how he could help us with promoting his products within our institution, with premade emails Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-56129882465539135562012-10-24T09:26:00.000-04:002012-10-24T09:26:05.917-04:00Happy Open Access Week!From "Open Access Week Preview," Information Today, October 15, 2012
Organizations around the world are gearing up to celebrate Open Access Week, officially held Oct. 22–28, 2012. For most institutions, Open Access Week is a way to increase the visibility of open access among scientists, researchers, librarians, university faculty members, and students. At the same time, it also provides Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-43345221087996001882012-08-07T17:33:00.000-04:002012-08-07T17:33:00.349-04:00Are "Big eBook Deals" worth it?
Just read "The 'big deal' approach to acquiring e-books: a usage-based study' by Terry Bucknell, from Serials 23(2), July 2010. This article is an evaluation of a "big ebook deal" based on usage, specifically a Springer collection deal by the University of Liverpool. Here are some of the conclusions in interesting points:
eBook chapter use was comparable and connected to ejournal Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-38521313465092947532012-07-28T11:55:00.000-04:002012-07-28T21:02:51.987-04:00Testing out Bitstrips.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-61587941743479802722012-07-17T12:42:00.000-04:002012-07-17T12:42:00.413-04:00Teach by NOT teaching
According to a relatively recent article in the "Journal of Learning Sciences" (learned of from Time magazine via Lifehacker), we are doing a disservice to our students and workers when we 'making learning easy'. Kapur and Bielaczyc found that, in comparing students with and without direct teacher-involved instruction, those without consistently outperformed those with in post-tests. &Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-20954140854857389882012-05-21T22:12:00.002-04:002012-05-21T22:12:27.867-04:00Ok, so the guy's funny AND interesting...OLA 2012: 1900 "Gala Luncheon: Host, CBC's George Stoumboulopoulos" February 4, 2012, 12:15 PM - 2:30 PM (in the MTCC Bldg, Room 105/106)
Just some brief notes from this keynote:
Arrived early by ten minutes and sat with some teacher-librarians from KW. We were served clam chowder, roast beef, choc cake... /drool
Some kid named "Michael" was presented with an award Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162798.post-60358370656676176842012-05-16T21:30:00.003-04:002012-05-16T21:31:55.711-04:00You need a collection retention policy and you need it now.Here are my notes from the OLA 2012 session #319: "Developing a Collection Evaluation & Retention Policy" (February 2, 2012 from 9:05 AM - 10:20 AM, in the Ontario Room of the ICTC) (handout / info) by Annie Bélanger and Ben Robinson from U of Waterloo.
Think of it as a "retention" not "weeding".
Almost to the extreme of "One book in, one book out".
Need buy-in from all Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11382637543517859063noreply@blogger.com0