September 26, 2012
Scholars who grew up with the internet are steadily replacing those that grew up without it. Scholars who expect to put everything they write online, who expect to find everything they need online, and who expect unlocked content that they may read, search, link, copy, cut/paste, crawl, print, and…
September 25, 2012
Competing with “Free,” Part One and Part Two
(Re)Defining the Library, Part 1: Why?, Part 2: How?
Smoking Gun on Sexism? (scientists are biased against women)
What Libraries Should Be: A Values Proposition
The matter of credit
Report on the International Workshop on Contribution and Scholarly…
September 21, 2012
One of my favourite events in the science calendar is always the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, which was held last night in Cambridge, MA. For those that don't know, the Ig Nobels celebrate the odd and unusual in scientific research, both genuine and not-quite.
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements…
September 20, 2012
So you got a job with your prof: advice for undergrads
Undergrad Herding
The Great Geek Sexism Debate
New York Public Library Shifts Plan for 5th Ave. Building
New York Public Library Dials Back Plan to Move Books
New York Public Library Board of Trustees Approves Construction of Additional Book…
September 13, 2012
Jenica Rogers is Director of Libraries at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Like so many institutions SUNY Potsdam subscribes to the suite of journals published by the American Chemical Society. Now, that's always a challenge since the ACS prices their products very aggressively as well…
September 12, 2012
Before You Jump on the Bandwagon ... (MOOCs)
It’s not about skills (hiring the right people and letting them do their job)
All is revealed: the real crisis on campus
Crafting an Engaging Lecture
MOOCs' Missing Pieces
MOOCs' Contradictions
Publishers Double Down (GSU copyright case)
Doing DH versus…
September 10, 2012
You know the old saying about the weather -- everybody complains but nobody does anything about it! Well, the same can be said about climate change -- everybody complains but nobody does anything about it. And that's partly because of political gridlock, denial and inaction at the highest levels…
September 7, 2012
One of my all-time most popular posts in the search engine keyword logs is Friday Fun: Historians Admit To Inventing Ancient Greeks. And a good chunk of the commenters seem to think it's true and not devilishly clever satire. A common occurrence with The Onion, apparently.
Well, this one is in the…
September 6, 2012
When did addiction become a good thing?
Getting scientists to take ethics seriously: strategies that are probably doomed to failure.
Why I Pay for Content (And Why That Makes Me Feel Like a Sucker)
On the importance of networking in academic settings
Two things prompted by a new website: space as a…
September 5, 2012
About a month ago The Scientist published an interesting set of interviews with a set of scientists, publishers and LIS faculty on the future of scholarly publishing.
They called it Whither Science Publishing? with the subtitle "As we stand on the brink of a new scientific age, how researchers…
September 1, 2012
Patents Considered Evil
The MOOC debate
Higher Ed 2020: Epic Fail?
The Digital Age and Higher Education
Smart Writing: It’s good to be published, and better to be understood
Writing Books People Want to Read
3 Reasons Why There's No Measuring ROI On Social Media
Getting scientists to take ethics…
August 31, 2012
Yeah, it's frosh orientation here at York U starting today so I thought I'd celebrate that with links to a bunch of posts from my all-time favourite source of higher education satire, The Cronk of Higher Ed!
International Helium Shortage Leads to Massive Orientation Layoffs
“After we realized how…
August 30, 2012
An Academic Ghostwriter, the 'Shadow Scholar,' Comes Clean
The Mechanical MOOC
Rewriting the Journal (what will online do to journal publishing)
The Siege of Academe
The Self-Centered Library: A Paradox (why do we do what we do)
Tweeting By Faith (calculating social media ROI for universities)…
August 28, 2012
Imagine a scenario where suddenly over night all toll access publishing suddenly converts to Open Access. You go to bed and your average academic library spends millions of dollars on serials. You wake up, and the subscription bill is zero.
Now, that doesn't mean that suddenly scholarly publishing…
August 28, 2012
I saw an article in the Quill and Quire announcing the shortlist for the Lane Anderson Award, celebrating the best in Canadian science writing.
The Lane Anderson Award honours the very best science writing in Canada today, both in the adult and young-reader categories. Each award will be determined…
August 25, 2012
Let's Talk about Academic Integrity, Part I: BI (Before the Internet) and Part II AI (After the Internet)
Mining the astronomical literature
26 Internet safety talking points
Save the [Insert Noun Here] (library catastrophism)
Libraries and eBook Publishers: Friend Zone Level 300
An Unexpected Ass…
August 24, 2012
George R.R. Martin is the new J.R.R. Tolkien, right?
Great big, fantasy series with large casts of characters, epic battles between good and evil?
Maybe, maybe not. Tolkien certainly create a more black and white universe compared to Martin's infinite shades of gray. On the other hand, Tolkien…
August 21, 2012
Integrating Integrity (teaching research ethics to grad students)
How to Train Graduate Students in Research Ethics: Lessons From 6 Universities
Connecting With New Faculty, Or, Welcome to Our World
Why Online Education Won't Replace College—Yet
How America learned to love summer reading
Make Us…
August 20, 2012
My colleagues and I are taking our Creative Commons/Panton Principles presentation on the road to another library conference this winter. As a result, I'm still compiling more references on the topic so I thought I share what I've found recently with all of you.
Of course, suggestions for more…
August 17, 2012
Personally, I aspire to being a Social Media Smurf.
Check out this amusing yet pointed post by Eric Stoller: You Are Not a Social Media Jedi, Ninja, Sherpa, or Guru.
A little taste:
They are everywhere. On Twitter profiles, blog bios, and Facebook pages across the social media sphere, inflated…
August 15, 2012
I’m breaking up with eBooks (and you can too)
Ebooks Choices and the Soul of Librarianship
Blogging in the classroom: why your students should write online
The Last Future
Uncovering the world's 'unseen' science (preprint)
HBO Rightly Decides Not to Cater to Cord Cutters
In Virtual Play, Sex…
August 11, 2012
The Naked and the TED
The TED Takedown Everyone’s Talking About
Jonah Lehrer, TED, and the narrative dark arts
The New Republic gets Download-The-Universe-ish!
I Point To TED Talks and I Point to Kim Kardashian. That Is All.
The Trouble with TED
The End of the Twilight of Doom
What’s right and…
August 10, 2012
You all knew I was going to find something on the lighter side of all the Mars Rover/Higgs Boson hype and glory, didn't you?
But I guess you didn't think I would be able to find one that combined both of them! w00t!
Mars Rover Should Not Get So Much Attention, Say Higgs-Boson ScientistsGENEVA (The…
August 10, 2012
This is the third and hopefully final summary post on the controversy at the University of Virginia surrounding the forced resignation of President Teresa Sullivan. The previous two are here and here.
Trouble With Transparency
A Much Higher Education: UVA has its president back. But the fight to…
August 8, 2012
I feel a little weird reviewing this book.
It's a TED book, you see.
What's a TED book, you ask. I'll let TED tell you:
Shorter than a novel, but longer than an magazine article -- a TED Book is a great way to feed your craving for ideas anytime.
TED Books are short original electronic books…
August 3, 2012
This one is a little less on the strictly amusing side and a little more on the useful and thoughtful side for a Friday Fun post, but sometimes it's worth mixing things up a bit.
I've mostly not read these books myself but I am in the middle of the Christensen/Eyring book right now. And they all…
August 3, 2012
This is some vacation catch-up...
Is Algebra Necessary?
Mathematical Illiteracy in the NYT
There Are Many Ways to Improve High School Education: Dumbing It Down Is NOT One of Them
Does mathematics have a place in higher education?
Abandoning Algebra Is Not the Answer
It’s Not the Algebra, It’s the…
August 2, 2012
Horses, motorcars and mergers on the LIS horizon
Mergers, boundaries, and image
St. Kate’s MLIS program is going under the business school
Maker Faire KC 2012 and what it means for libraries
At Libraries, Quiet Makes a Comeback
Blogs as Serialized Scholarship
Why Millennials Don't Want To Buy Stuff…
August 1, 2012
I Never Owned Any Music To Begin With
What Filesharing Studies Really Say – Conclusions and Links
IS STEALING MUSIC REALLY THE PROBLEM?
Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered.
What Happened to Silicon Values?
A call for disruptive innovation in science publishing
what doesn’t kill you…
July 27, 2012
Er, this one is pretty disturbing, perhaps not suitable for summer entertainment.
But still, sacred cows are always a target here in the Friday Fun space: The 5 Most Terrifying Ways Doctors Went Crazy on the Job.
And thankfully, I'm about mid-way between checkups so I'll have plenty of time to…
