scholarly journals Book Review: Students Lead the Library: The Importance of Student Contributions to the Academic Library

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Bartlett

Academic libraries, often said to be the “heart of the university,” owe their existence and importance to the students they serve. Students are at the core of the library mission, driving decisions in collections, services, innovation, outreach, and research support. However, their direct role in institutional planning is minimal, and their primary role is most often that of library user. Given their importance to libraries, how can students actively participate in library success? Students Lead the Library offers several examples of student involvement in action, or, as editors Sara Arnold-Garza and Carissa Tomlinson state, “this book seeks to elevate the act of asking students what they need and want by not simply involving students, but instead putting them into a leadership role, where they will determine what gets improved and how” (vii).

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviana Fernández-Marcial ◽  
Llarina González-Solar

The paradigm shift in university libraries where research support servcies are increasingly relevant is analyze. This situation results from the research role in assessing the quality and excellence of universities, as reflected in the various documents and rankings. The various research support servcies are described both in the university and in the academic library, with special emphasis on the management of digital identity. For this purpose, the concepts of reputation and identity, within and outside the digital environment, are defined, their main resources are analyzed and a brief overview is given on the management of the digital identity of the research community through data from three studies. We define possible scenarios in which the university library can work in support of a better management of the reputation and digital identity of researchers, considering that this will have an impact on those of the university itself.Se analiza el cambio de paradigma en las bibliotecas universitarias donde los servicios orientados a la investigación adquieren cada vez más relevancia. Esta situación es resultado del papel de la investigación en la valoración de la calidad y la excelencia de las universidades tal como queda reflejado en los diversos documentos y rankings. Se describen los diversos servicios orientados en la investigación tanto en la universidad como en la biblioteca universitaria haciendo especial énfasis en la gestión de la identidad digital. A este fin se definen los conceptos de reputación e identidad dentro y fuera del entorno digital, se analizan sus principales recursos y se ofrece una breve panorámica sobre la gestión de la identidad digital de la comunidad investigadora a través de los datos de tres estudios. Se definen los posibles escenarios en los que la biblioteca universitaria puede trabajar en apoyo a una mejor gestión de la reputación e identidad digital de los investigadores considerando que esta tendrá incidencia en las de la propia universidad.Accessible in https://www.sopcom.pt/


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rumi Graham ◽  
Christina Winter

Abstract Objective – The purpose of this study is to understand the practices and approaches followed by Canadian universities in copyright education, permissions clearance, and policy development in light of major changes to Canadian copyright law that occurred in mid-2012. The study also seeks to identify aspects of copyright management perceived by the universities to be challenging. Methods – In 2015, an invitation to complete an online survey on institutional copyright practices was sent to the senior administrator at member libraries of Canada’s four regional academic library consortia. The invitation requested completion of the survey by the person best suited to respond on behalf of the institution. Study methods were largely adapted from those used in a 2008 survey conducted by another researcher who targeted members of same library consortia. Results – While the university library maintained its leadership role in copyright matters across the institution, the majority of responding institutions had delegated responsibility for copyright to a position or office explicitly labeled copyright. In contrast, respondents to the 2008 survey most often held the position of senior library administrator. Blanket licensing was an accepted approach to managing copyright across Canadian universities in 2008, but by 2015 it had become a live issue, with roughly half of the respondents indicating their institutions had terminated or were planning to terminate their blanket license. Conclusion – In just seven years we have witnessed a significant increase in specialized attention paid to copyright on Canadian university campuses and in the breadth of resources dedicated to helping the university community understand, comply with, and exercise various provisions under Canadian copyright law, which include rights for creators and users.


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Moore

The University of Iowa Central Electron Microscopy Research Facility(CEMRF) was established in 1981 to support all faculty, staff and students needing this technology. Initially the CEMRF was operated with one TEM, one SEM, three staff members and supported about 30 projects a year. During the past twelve years, the facility has replaced all instrumentation pre-dating 1981, and now includes 2 TEM's, 2 SEM's, 2 EDS systems, cryo-transfer specimen holders for both TEM and SEM, 2 parafin microtomes, 4 ultamicrotomes including cryoultramicrotomy, a Laser Scanning Confocal microscope, a research grade light microscope, an Ion Mill, film and print processing equipment, a rapid cryo-freezer, freeze substitution apparatus, a freeze-fracture/etching system, vacuum evaporators, sputter coaters, a plasma asher, and is currently evaluating scanning probe microscopes for acquisition. The facility presently consists of 10 staff members and supports over 150 projects annually from 44 departments in 5 Colleges and 10 industrial laboratories. One of the unique strengths of the CEMRF is that both Biomedical and Physical scientists use the facility.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Jared McDonald

Dr Jared McDonald, of the Department of History at the University of the Free State (UFS) in South Africa, reviews As by fire: the end of the South African university, written by former UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen.    How to cite this book review: MCDONALD, Jared. Book review: Jansen, J. 2017. As by Fire: The End of the South African University. Cape Town: Tafelberg.. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, [S.l.], v. 1, n. 1, p. 117-119, Sep. 2017. Available at: <http://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=18>. Date accessed: 12 Sep. 2017.   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 806.1-807
Author(s):  
H. Bonakdari ◽  
G. Tardif ◽  
F. Abram ◽  
J. P. Pelletier ◽  
J. Martel-Pelletier

Background:One of the hurdles in osteoarthritis (OA) drug discovery and the improvement of therapeutic approaches is the early identification of patients who will progress. It is therefore crucial to find efficient and reliable means of screening OA progressors. Although the main risk factors, age, gender and body mass index (BMI), are important, they alone are poor predictors. However, serum factors could be potential biomarkers for early prediction of knee OA progression.Objectives:In a first step toward finding early reliable predictors of OA progressors, this study aimed to determine, in OA individuals, the optimum combination of serum levels of adipokines/related inflammatory factors, their ratios, and the three main OA risk factors for predicting knee OA infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) volume, as this tissue has been associated with knee OA onset and progression.Methods:Serum and magnetic resonance images (MRI) were from the Osteoarthritis Initiative at baseline. Variables (48) comprised the 3 main OA risk factors (age, gender, BMI), 6 adipokines, 3 inflammatory factors, and their 36 ratios. IPFP volume was assessed on MRI with a neural network methodology. The best variables and models were identified in Total cohort (n=678), High-BMI (n=341) and Low-BMI (n=337), using an artificial intelligence selection approach: the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system embedded with fuzzy c-means clustering (ANFIS-FCM). Performance was validated using uncertainty analyses and statistical indices. Reproducibility was done using 80 OA patients from a clinical trial (female, n=57; male, n=23).Results:For the three groups, 8.44E+14 sub-variables were investigated and 48 models were selected. The best model for each group included five variables: the three risk factors and adipsin/C-reactive protein combined for Total cohort, adipsin/chemerin; High-BMI, chemerin/adiponectin high molecular weight; and Low-BMI, interleukin-8. Data also revealed that the main form of the ratio used for the model was justified, as the use of the inverse form slightly decreased the performance of the model in both training and testing stages. Further investigation indicated that gender improved (13-16%) the prediction results compared to the BMI-based models. For each gender, we then generated a pseudocode (an evolutionary computation equation) with the 5 variables for predicting IPFP volume. Reproducibility experiments were excellent (correlation coefficient: female 0.83, male 0.95).Conclusion:This study demonstrates, for the first time, that the combination of the serum levels of adipokines/inflammatory factors and the three main risk factors of OA could predict IPFP volume with high reproducibility, and superior performance with gender separation. By using the models for each gender and the pseudocodes for OA patients provided in this study, the next step will be to develop a predictive model for OA progressors.Acknowledgments:This work was funded by the Chair in Osteoarthritis of the University of Montreal, the Osteoarthritis Research Unit of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre, the Groupe de recherches des maladies rhumatismales du Québec and by ArthroLab Inc., all from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Disclosure of Interests:Hossein Bonakdari: None declared, Ginette Tardif: None declared, François Abram Employee of: ArthroLab Inc., Jean-Pierre Pelletier Shareholder of: ArthroLab Inc., Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica, Speakers bureau: TRB Chemedica and Mylan, Johanne Martel-Pelletier Shareholder of: ArthroLab Inc., Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somaly Kim Wu ◽  
Heather McCullough

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to presents the very recent development of e-journal publishing services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. In 2011, the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte created a new unit in the library, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL), which partners with faculty and graduate students in the use of digital and networked research tools to create, disseminate and store new knowledge. E-journal publishing and hosting are among the suite of services offered by the DSL, and we currently publish three journals (https://journals.uncc.edu/). Design/methodology/approach – This report provides an overview of the context of our library’s decision to begin publishing journals, including a discussion of our university’s becoming more research-intensive, our university system mandating increased efficiencies and sharing research with the state citizens, and the library’s own goals of raising awareness of and supporting open access. Also outlined are the technical and procedural choices made, important activities undertaken to develop, define and publicize the new services, campus response to the service and next steps. Findings – This report provides detailed accounting of how a large academic library implemented an electronic publishing service to support open access scholarship. Important activities such as marketing communication, policies development and technical/procedural activities are defined and results described. The report provides observation and lessons learned for academic libraries in development and support of electronic journals. Originality/value – Library as the publisher is a new concept. This report will be of interest to many libraries who are considering offering publishing services and to libraries that currently offer publishing services.


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