African e-Science Commons - ZENODO

This community is for researchers, developers and research support teams to store their work in the Open Access, e-Science, e-Infrastructure and scholarly discoverability domain in Africa. 

(thanks to Hilton Green from Stellenbosch Univ)

This Guy Drew a Cat. You Won’t Believe What Happened 4 Centuries Later

"....The argument that Twitter can bear only lightweight engagement ...........ignores an important point: Scholars and journalists live on the Internet like everybody else, and sometimes a small spark can ignite larger fires...."


Read more!

Altmetrics could enable scholarship from developing countries to receive due recognition.

Altmetrics could enable scholarship from developing countries to receive due recognition.

"....The scholarly community is abuzz with altmetrics and the related (but different) term Article Level Metrics......   altmetrics may not remain alternative for long. Whether they supplant or complement the JIF, they bring with them a promise, but no guarantees, for developing regions....."

Academic librarians are encourage to engage with this concept in the interests of promoting the scholarly research of their institutions

What Matters to Academic-Library Directors?

Whether they work at a big research university, a small four-year college, or something in between, academic-library directors share a “resounding dedication” to teaching information literacy to undergraduates. Beyond that, the priorities they set for their libraries depend on the size and nature of their institutions and how many (or few) resources they have to work with.

Chronicle of HE article

6 Terms that Instantly Reveal You as a Librarian

Ellyssa Kroski — January 29, 2014

Few professions are as steeped in tradition and esoteric knowledge as librarianship. We have our own dialect packed with specialized jargon that only others in our vocation would understand. To decipher all of this we even have our own dictionary! And although we do our best to avoid most of these terms in casual conversation, there are times that we just can’t help but use them, and they unequivocally identify us as librarians. What terms and phrase have earned you confused looks?

Book quiz: can you recognize these classic last lines?

A quiz to try for fun in your spare time!!

Walking the talk - interesting blog post from Kevin Smith of Duke University

Walking the talk:
"All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career...."   

 (Thanks to Hilton Green for the alert to this blog post)

Duke University’s first Scholarly Communications Officer - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpufKev

(Kevin Smith is Duke's first Scholarly Communications officer - Debbie, Ujala, Roelien and I met him at the Berlin 12 OA conference in Stellenbosh)

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

All of the presentations at the SPARC Open Access meeting this week were excellent.  But there was one that was really special; an early career researcher named Erin McKiernan who brought everyone in the room to their feet to applaud her commitment to open access.  We are sometimes told that only established scholars who enjoy the security of tenure can “afford” to embrace more open ways to disseminate their work.  But Dr. McKiernan explained to us both the “why” and the “how” of a deep commitment to OA on the part of a younger scholar who is not willing to embrace traditional, toll-access publishing or to surrender her goals of advancing scholarship and having an academic career. - See more at: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2014/03/07/walking-the-talk/#sthash.qfzGZTwW.dpuf

Circulation patterns show books in STEM and social sciences are accessed just as much as humanities books.

Circulation patterns show books in STEM and social sciences are accessed just as much as humanities books.
Drawing from comprehensive circulation data showing how monographs are accessed across disciplines at the University of Notre Dame library, Parker Ladwig and Thurston Miller challenge the assumption that STEM and social science books are accessed less frequently over time than monographs in the humanities. This data and similar studies can help to improve library services by providing a more informed understanding of collection supply and demand.

Open Access in Africa

Integration of open access agenda in research and civic literacy and some ethical dimensions
from Innovation : journal of appropriate librarianship and information work in Southern Africa : Information Ethics - article by Dennis Ocholla

Since the day of the first printing press, i.e. the famous Gutenberg Press in 1440, which lay the foundation for mass publication, publications have continued to proliferate and have surpassed the wildest dreams of Gutenberg with the internet, arguably the greatest revolution (in the infosphere) of all time, and Google taking the lead in Open Access (OA). As a result of the internet, the publishing industry is increasingly taking on a new shape where Open Access plays a crucial role for increased information access to some of the remotest parts of the world that exist in Africa, and elsewhere, that would not have had access to information - freely - as they do today. Thus, the publishing industry is swiftly moving away from print/traditional publishing to electronic publishing and from the control of large, traditional publishing firms to small, private or personal publishing initiatives and activities, introducing new, but pleasant challenges such as those originating from social media. In this paper, we examine Open Access (OA) within the context of civic literacy as a whole and, in particular, in Africa. Our work is based on personal knowledge and experiences, observations and desk research. 

Universities can improve academic services through wider recognition of altmetrics and alt-products.

Interesting piece from LSE blog
As altmetrics gain traction across the scholarly community, publishers and academic institutions are seeking to develop standards to encourage wider adoption. Carly Strasser provides an overview of why altmetrics are here to stay and how universities might begin to incorporate altmetrics into their own services. While this process might take some time, institutions can begin by encouraging their researchers to recognize the importance of all of their scholarly work (datasets, software, etc)...........

1st year undergraduate library-use and success at university? What about Rhodes?

A recent article in the J of Academic Librarianship:

Stacks, Serials, Search Engines, and Students' Success: First-Year Undergraduate Students' Library Use, Academic Achievement, and Retention.

 Maybe our user services librarians would be interested in a similar study at RU?

 

"Conclusion

The results of this study suggest that students who utilize academic libraries within their first year have higher cumulative grade point averages and retention, on average, than their peers. Additionally, students' use of libraries in particular areas was positively associated with their cumulative GPAs and retention. While the overall effect of library use was small in all library use areas, the results of this study point toward the potential importance of academic libraries that, alongside other programs within the greater institutional context, can help to promote college students' success."

Educational technology and mobile learning (resource for)

Just discovered this great site - thanks to Hilton Gibson from Stellenbosch Univ.

EBSCO buys Plum™ Analytics

Very interesting development!
 
IPSWICH, Mass. — January 14, 2014 — In a deal that brings together the leading subscription services, database, e-book and discovery provider with the leading provider of alternative research metrics, EBSCO Information Services has acquired Plum^™Analytics. Plum Analytics is the first altmetrics provider to move beyond metrics about articles and track all research output in any form, providing a powerful tool that augments traditional metrics.

Academics’ online presence - should the Library be involved?

Academics’ online presence: A four-step guide to taking control of your visibility 

I was extremely please to discover (via Twitter!)  this excellent guide written by Laura Czerniewisz (a faculty member of UCT's Centre for Higher Education Development) and Sarah Goodier - both from the OpenUCT Initiative. I feel that the Rhodes Library will in future become more involved in assisting academics and senior postgrads to raise their research profiles - this Guide gives an excellent introduction to the topic.  

As some of you know I have been experimenting with tweeting research publications from Rhodes on @RhodesResearch since June last year.  You may like to have a look (the idea is that the Principal Faculty Librarians tweet articles - from the publisher's website - information is gleaned from affiliation alerts which we have set up on various databases). I also provide a monthly blog publication of research from the Science and Pharmacy Faculties (which I have found to be very popular with academics).

 It is early days yet but it will be interesting to see what the future holds in this area.  With the rise of organisations such as Altmetric and Impact Story which facilitate the collection of article level metrics we might well find that this will become an accepted part of our job responsibilities.  On that topic you might like to read the article by Amberyn Thomas  (Manager, Scholarly Publications, University of Queensland Library) which appears in Elsevier's latest LibraryConnect issue

From the introduction to Laura's Guide:
"In today’s digital world, if you use the web, you have an online presence. Online content is exploding; there were 1.8 trillion gigabytes of online information in 2011 and academics are part of that content.  Universities have web pages profiling their stats. Academic networks such as LinkedIn andAcademia.eduare used by researchers around the globe to keep in contact with colleagues and collaborators. In addition, social media are increasingly being used for purposes in addition to ‘social’. It is fair to say that academics want to make a difference;having an influence is almost a job requirement. Research and other outputs need to be found and read, and nowadays that means online. A searcher browsing a topic is likely to use what they find online rather than forage for more in the analogue world. Moreover someone looking for you personally is likely to accept what they find as the full story. This means that academics need to know what is already out there about them, whether they like what they see, and whether their work is actually ‘findable’at all....."

What stand-up comedians teach us about library instruction

From the latest C&R L issue
Some useful suggestions here for our IL workshops - know the audience, relate, variety, feecback

What do our library users want?

Just been browing thought this article  Library Space Assessment: User Learning Behaviors in the Library in the J of academic librarianship
 

Perhaps we should investigate what our users want for the new computer-space we are developing in the Level 3?

 One of the results of this study at Olin Library that struck me was ---  "We did not anticipate users seeking individual studying space in a social learning environment"

Also - "the availability of food and drink makes it conducive for social learning in the library"- Library cafe??

2014 Tech trends

What 5 tech experts expect in 2014

Relevance to RU Library?

Openness: 

 Open Access -   RU Digital Commons?

Analytics:  

 Performance measurements (support researchers -  altmetrics? Impact Story? 

                    Google citations? h-index? Incites? Web of Science, Scopus)

Cloud:   

                              

Google Calendar?    RUL change to this?

Connected learning pathways:  

Online learning - for information literacy?

Can we use Pinterest in the RU Library?

I signed up for Pinterest some time ago so this article caught my eye - it considers:

1.	What are possible uses of Pinterest in instruction and information literacy?
2.	How do we create social value within library information services?

Anyone else in the Library interested in investigating if we could use this???

Abstract: "... investigates social curating activities on the website Pinterest and relates them to the librarian's traditional role of curating information. Pinterest is a social curation site that combines features of gathering, creating, and sharing with the information management characteristics of successful data curation. Libraries have begun to think about pushing services into social networking sites and adding social networking features to their own services. This study evaluates the webpages of Association of Research Libraries member libraries for presence and use of Pinterest, and suggests ways research and academic libraries can use Pinterest to support their patrons."