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.
Harvard’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…
For 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…
After 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…
In 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…
I 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…
I 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…
First 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.…
Joining 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…
*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”…
Don’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…
Challenge, 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…
Academic 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?…
I 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…
The 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…
Someone 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…
This 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…
I 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…
Yes, 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…
It'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…
Now 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…
Cults of Librarian Personalities
Let's upgrade undergrads to first-class citizens
Libraries and the informational future: some notes
Librarians Respond to DPLA Launch
Marketing Libraries Is like Marketing Mayonnaise
The Sibyl of Cumae (OA/costs of schol comm)
A matter of emphasis (librarians must…
A note for my Toronto area friends, Blogfather Bora Zivkovic will be giving a talk at York University in Toronto on May 6, 2013 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm.
Here's the info:
Science and the New Media Ecosystem
Bora Zivkovic, Blog Editor at Scientific American
Monday, May 6, 2013, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Paul…
What kind of place has Canada become?
The kind of place that closes world-class research facilities in the arctic and in lake country. (Thanks, Ontario!)
The kind of place where the government actively muzzles it's own scientists and librarians, the scientists for wanting to share their research…
hardly ever does The Globe and Mail books section every Saturday feature more than one, maybe two, books that I'm interested in. They're pretty heavy on the Canlit side, with a heavy helping of the kind of public affairs books that don't really do it for me. The mystery roundup feature is usually…
I have a son who's currently a first year physics student. 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…
I'll admit, I'm a bit of a book snob, a strange thing to say for a lifetime comics/science fiction/fantasy/horror/mystery fan, but there you go. Perhaps more precisely, I'm a snob about books versus other media.
But in my defense I'll maintain that I'm getting better as I get older -- more tolerant…
Dealing with Data: Science Librarians’ Participation in Data Management at Association of Research Libraries Institutions
Unbundling the University
Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS): Search Result : Librarians, Archivists, Conservators And Curators (511)
Open access: four ways it…
After a week like this, I think we all need something a little on the lighter side.
Mobile phone technology set to revolutionise things we already do quite easily
One of the biggest launches at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the I-open; an app which allows you to open your front…
Since I work at York University, I'm going to refrain from commenting on this lawsuit. However, as is my practice I'll be creating and maintaining a list of relevant articles and resources here to help me stay current on the matter.
I am not attempting to create a comprehensive list.
General…
Welcome to the most recent installment in my very occasional series of interviews with people in the publishing/science blogging/computing communities. This latest installment is with Mark Patterson, Executive Director of new OA publisher eLife. I attended an ARL Directors briefing conference call…
