by Melissa Rothfus, Scholarly Communications Librarian

“Open research” or “open scholarship” includes a broad range of practices throughout the process of conducting research. These include, but are by no means limited to, deposit of publications, abstracts, posters or presentations in repositories, open sharing of data and open access of formal publications. These practices come with a range of benefits, including greater dissemination and impact of research, reduced redundancy and greater value from research investment, and more equitable opportunities to benefit from and contribute to research. At the same time, a range of possible challenges can hamper or prevent researchers from engaging in open practices.

While academic librarians and others are often eager to support and promote open practices in order to further the advancement of research, they are not always on the same page as the researchers they want to assist. Understanding the practices, concerns and barriers to open scholarship practices can help librarians develop useful programming, but also drive positive changes in practice and policy in the dynamic world of scholarly communications to address current problems.

With that in mind, researchers from Dalhousie Libraries invite all graduate students, post-docs, staff, and faculty who do research to participate in a survey on open scholarship until February 25. Participation is voluntary and responses are anonymous. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. This project has received Research Ethics Board approval: REB file # 2021-5866 and is supported by a CARL (Canadian Association of Research Libraries) Research in Librarianship grant.

If you have any questions please reach out to me at melissa.rothfus@dal.ca. Please click here to participate.

During the current labour disruption at Acadia, shifts normally covered by Acadia personnel will not be covered.

Live Help will be unavailable at these times:
Tuesdays: 12–2 p.m.
Fridays: 12–2 p.m.

We hope for a swift resolution.

Congratulations to two of our current interns from the School of Information Management, Vinson Li and McKenzie Young for winning the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Fund!

by Kim Humes (originally published on INFORM, NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT blog)

The School of Information Management is pleased to announce that Master of Information (MI) students Vinson Li and McKenzie Young have been selected as the ninth and tenth recipients (respectively) of the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Fund.

This Fund was established in 2007 to honour Dr. Norman Horrocks, OC, PhD, FCLIP (1927-2010) for his outstanding leadership in the field of librarianship in North America, Australia, and Europe. Over several decades Dr. Horrocks, former Director of the School of Information Management and Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University, pursued a distinguished career of very active involvement in professional associations in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, the United States, and Canada. His many contributions, for which he received local, national and international recognition, have advanced the field and the careers of countless individuals. The fund supports a scholarship and an associated lecture series through an endowment donated by the many former students, colleagues, friends and admirers of Norman Horrocks.

Vinson Li is originally from Toronto, ON and moved to Halifax in fall of 2020. Vinson began a Bachelor of Science degree with a specialty in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Toronto. They then transitioned into and graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy, also at the University of Toronto. Their career working in libraries began working with Hart House Library at the University of Toronto. In 2020, they started their MI degree at Dalhousie University. Currently, Vinson is a reference intern at the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library. They are involved with a scoping review that looks into how undergraduate medical education programs around the world handled the shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also work with Dr. Philippe Mongeon on several projects involving bibliometrics and scholarly communications. One project led to the publication of a conference proceeding about mapping the Canadian library and information science research landscape. Vinson considers helping others to be their top priority. During the summer working at the Kellogg, they remember helping a student refine a search for a review paper over the course of a few weeks. When they are not working or studying, Vinson likes to try out new recipes, garden, or take on a new sewing project despite having three others ongoing. They hope to graduate in summer of 2022 and while they aspire to be an academic librarian, Vinson is willing to keep his mind open to opportunities of all sorts.

McKenzie Young is a full time MI student currently in her last year of study. Originally from Vancouver, BC, McKenzie graduated from University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and History. In her undergrad, McKenzie worked for a variety of GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) institutions including the PoCo Museum and Archives and as a researcher for UBC with many of the local archival repositories. After graduating from UBC, McKenzie worked at the Gathering Place Community Library as well as in federal government records management. In 2020, she moved to Halifax and started at Dalhousie University. Since moving to Halifax, McKenzie has prioritized opportunities to serve the Dalhousie community, both in and out of the MI program. In the MI program, McKenzie joined the School of Information Management Student Association, working to improve the experience of SIM students. In the past year, she has worked at Dalhousie’s Sexton Design & Technology Library as the Reference Intern, helping students with research inquiries. Outside of work and school, McKenzie predictably enjoys reading, but also camping, cooking, and trying to keep her six plants alive. Following graduation, she aspires to continue her work supporting communities at either academic or public libraries.

This award will be presented at the Dalhousie-Horrocks National Leadership Lecture in January 2022

The Council of Atlantic University Libraries (CAUL) is pleased to announce that the AtlanticOER Development Grants 2022 cycle is now open for applications. AtlanticOER Development Grants are intended to encourage and support educators in the Atlantic Region in the adaptation, adoption, creation, and curation of open educational resources (OER), and to increase access to course materials for students.  Each grant is for up to $2,000 and is awarded to individuals, departments, groups, or institutions in the Atlantic Provinces to help achieve the following objectives:

• Support the creation or adaptation of open textbooks and ancillary materials, such as lab manuals, PowerPoint slides, quiz banks, images, and other digital study or interactive aids;
• Create a variety of OERs developed for use by educators and students in credit-bearing courses;
• Establish supportive events for the development of content for OERs, such as sprints (a collaborative in-person or virtual event to create or adapt an open textbook or ancillary resources); or
• Distribute funds to maximize direct benefit to a wide range of student learners and inquiry across a diversity of disciplines

Please note that for this funding cycle, grants will be awarded solely for textbooks and ancillary materials hosted on a Pressbooks Network. Preference will be given to textbooks or ancillary materials for undergraduate courses, for larger classes, in faculties with generally higher course costs, and in faculties underserviced by OERs.