Leddy Library News

The November 2009 issue of Journal of Academic Librarianship features two articles from Leddy Librarians.

“Chinese Graduate Students and the Canadian Academic Library: A User Study at the University of Windsor” by Guoying Liu and Danielle Winn “presents a pilot study that examined the information seeking behaviors of Chinese graduate students at the University of Windsor. Findings on current Chinese students’ perceptions, expectations, and use of library services are highlighted including implications for academic libraries to meet international students’ information needs.”

Selinda Berg, our Clinical Medicine Librarian, collaborated on a paper about Integrating Research into LIS Field Experiences in Academic Libraries.

Also recently published is Leddy’s Heidi Jacobs who wrote “Transforming the One-Shot Library Session into Pedagogical Collaboration: Information Literacy and the English Composition Class” with Dale Jacobs of the University of Windsor’s English Department.

The Leddy Library is recognizing Bookfest Windsor, which begins today, November 4th and ends November 7th.

There are going to be dozens of authors at the many events of the four-day festival.

Leddy Library is also celebrating the work of Nettie Wiebe, the 2009 Distinguished Visitor in Women’s Studies.

A web presence has been established for Rare Books and Special Collections.

The primary mission of Rare Books and Special Collections is to acquire, to preserve, to organise and to make available its valuable holdings.  These important and limited publications have been carefully and selectively housed in this specialized location, because of their rarity, value, information significance, medium, and irreplaceability.

The new site includes a feature article on William Cowper’s 1698 first edition of The Anatomy of Humane Bodies, complete with examples of the detailed, intricate and sometimes disturbing illustrations.  This is intended to be the first in a series of regular features highlighting some of the unique treasures of the collection.

Open Access Week may be over, but the work of the Open Access movement continues. The Leddy Library makes a number of contributions to Open Access. Foremost among these are the journal publications we host on our Open Journal Systems server. Currently, our active open access journals include:

• Applied Multivariate Research
• Journal of Teaching and Learning
• Studies in Social Justice
• Informal Logic
• PhaenEx
• Humanities Research Group Working Papers

We expect to see a number of new journals joining our OJS server over the next little while, so watch this space for announcements.

Another important area in which the Leddy Library supports Open Access is through our winSpace Theses and Dissertations collection, a collection of over 4000 digitized theses and dissertations from the University of Windsor. Each semester, new content is added as Windsor students’ theses and dissertations are approved.

Finally, what do you suppose these fine peer-reviewed journal publications have in common?

Cramer, Kenneth M. and Stewart Page. 2008. Cluster Analysis and Rankings of Canadian Universities: Misadventures with Rank-based Data and Implications for the Welfare of Students. Applied Multivariate Research 12(3).

Cristescu, Melania, et al. 2008. D- and L-lactate dehydrogenases during invertebrate evolution. BMC Evolutionary Biology 8(1).

McCarthy, James D., Phil A. Graniero, and Steven M. Rozic. 2008. An Integrated GIS-Expert System Framework for Live Hazard Monitoring and Detection. Sensors 8(2).

Somayajulu-Nitu, Mallika, et al. 2009. Paraquat induces oxidative stress, neuronal loss in substantia nigra region and Parkinsonism in adult rats. BMC Neuroscience 10(1).

Yan, Reginia H. Y., et al. 2009. Digit Ratio (2D∶4D) Differences between 20 Strains of Inbred Mice. PLoS ONE 4(6).

Of course they are all published in Open Access journals, but they are also all the results of work by faculty at the University of Windsor. Congratulations to these researchers for these OA publications! (and thanks to Mita Williams for compiling these citations here, using the awesome–and open source–citation tool Zotero)

The growing Open Access movement is quickly finding its way into the mainstream of academic publishing. That means Open Access journals are increasingly being included in the key article search tools in every discipline. For example, if you work in philosophy, you might find articles from the journal Informal Logic (hosted by the University of Windsor!) in indexes like the Philosopher’s Index or Canadian Business and Current Affairs.

But if you’re interested in finding out generally what Open Access journals exist in your discipline, probably the best source is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). And for you faculty researchers out there, here’s motivation for thinking about publishing in Open Access journals: “Studies have shown a correlation between openly accessible materials and citation impact. . .” (5). Read the full article for some caveats.

For a deep analysis of the Open Access citation advantage (and other OA topics), take a look Stevan Harnad’s Open Access Archivangilism site, and for a great round-up of Open Access news from the library perspective, check out the OA Librarian.

October 19-23 is Open Access Week, a celebration that hopes to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access.

Most people are familiar with Open Source software, which is not only distributed for free, but distributed in such a way that the underlying code is open to be tinkered with. The idea is to democratize software so that anyone can potentially contribute.

The Open Access movement brings the same approach to content, encouraging researchers and creators to publish in free and open venues that contribute to the democratization of research. SPARC is one key player in the academic world, bringing together partners from the research and publishing worlds to encourage greater openness of research publication.

Examples of some of the more successful, large scale Open Access projects include the Public Library of Science, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and PubMed Central.

But of course, there are numerous smaller projects contributing to the increasing openness of scholarship. Later this week, we’ll look at some contributions we at the Leddy Library are putting forward.

October 19-23 has been designated Open Access Week. This first ever international event “is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public.”

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.

Open Access is the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it.

Please check out the Open Access Week website for more information about open access, and watch this space for Open Access features as the week continues.

Research beyond Google – Presented in Mandarin
10:30 am – 11:30 am
G101A Ground Floor, Main Library Building
Presenter: Grace Liu, Systems Librarian
How many times have you started and completed your research using Google and Wikipedia? Learn ways to develop more sophisticated online research skills and to find rich, relevant information more quickly. (Presented in Mandarin). This workshop is part of Leddy Library’s contribution to UWin Week.

Thursday, October 15
Research beyond Google
10:30 am – 11:30 am
G101A Ground Floor, Main Library Building
Presenter: Danielle Winn, Information Services Librarian

How many times have you started and completed your research using Google and Wikipedia? Learn ways to develop more sophisticated online research skills and to find rich, relevant information more quickly. This workshop is part of Leddy Library’s contribution to UWin Week.