Open Access Week 2020

October 16, 2020 Marlo MacKay

Open Access Week header by Nick Shockey licensed under CC 4.0.

International Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of open access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to inspire wider participation to make open access the norm in scholarship and research. The Dalhousie Libraries celebrates OA Week annually with a variety of initiatives in support of open access.

Atlantic Canada Research Data Management (RDM) Day
The day will consist of a series of webinars ideal for librarians, decision makers, data managers and researchers. Topics covered will include research data management plans, a general overview of research data management, and local initiatives. Speakers will also provide updates on federal infrastructure initiatives and ethics in research data management. Sponsored by CAUL-CBUA (Council of Atlantic University Libraries/ Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Atlantique) a collaborative partnership of 18 post-secondary libraries in Atlantic Canada.
Wednesday, October 21, 9 a.m.–4:15 p.m.
Agenda & RSVP

Open Access at Dalhousie
The following stories highlight faculty members, faculties, and departments who are doing open
access work at Dal.

Open Books, Open Education: conditions are perfect for open educational resources to become the next big thing in post-secondary education

Improving Access: These psychology instructors created a free textbook that has saved students thousands of dollars

Saving the World with Open Access: Starting a global conversation with the Schulich School of Law’s Lucie Guibault

Evening Hours for GIS Help

October 15, 2020 Marlo MacKay

The GIS Centre is offering a pilot service this term to extend the GIS Centre’s online hours for help. Starting this week, we are offering extended hours from 7–10 p.m. Atlantic time, on Mondays and Thursdays, ending on Monday, December 7.

Caitlin Cunningham, an experienced PhD student, will be handling the requests during these extended hours. Caitlin has worked in the GIS Centre and taught students how to use GIS, particularly in the School of Resource Environmental Management, during the past few years. She can be reached through email or Microsoft Teams at GIS@dal.ca.

Caitlin can answer all of your GIS questions, including but not limited to, “I’m having problems with a GIS Tool,” “I need help planning my project,” “I need suggestions on where to find data,” and of course, the ever-favourite, “Can you help me make a map?”

If you are not familiar with Teams (where to chat, have voice conversations, or do screen sharing) then please check out our remote access instructions: https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/library/gis/RemoteAccessToTroubleshootArcGISatDAL_UsingTeams.pdf

We are doing our best to support students learning how to use geospatial data and ArcGIS software. We hope and anticipate that these extended hours will help support online learning activities in current courses, particularly for those students living outside the Atlantic region where time zones have been an issue.

If you have any feedback, please let us know.

Cheers from the GIS Team!
Jen Strang, James Boxall and Gwen MacNairn

Virtual Brightspace support for Dalhousie instructors CLOSED Thanksgiving Day (Oct 12)

October 10, 2020 Marlo MacKay

On Monday, October 12, the virtual drop-in space for Brightspace support will be closed. This will allow the members of our support team to rest and spend time with their families.

The Help Desk will have limited hours from 1–9 p.m. that day to help with general support. support@dal.ca | 902-494-HELP (4357) | toll free at 1-800-869-3931.

The virtual drop-ins and the Help Desk will be open regular hours on Saturday and Sunday and will return to normal hours on Tuesday, October 13.

Records Management Sessions (Virtual): How Long Do I Keep This Stuff? and Email Management

October 7, 2020 Marlo MacKay

Records Manager Courtney Bayne is offering several virtual sessions this fall on the topics of retaining records and email management. If you are overwhelmed with multiple versions and drafts of documents or if your email is bursting at the seams with old messages, these sessions are for you. You have two chances to catch each session.

How long do I keep this stuff? DalCLASS can help with that!
Are you over whelmed with documents and have multiple versions, drafts, or duplicates of stuff? And are not sure what to keep and what can be gotten rid of? Then this session is for you!

Using DalCLASS and other records management tools can help you figure out what information has institutional value and what can be securely shredded or deleted.

This session will help you figure out what information is a record that has to be retained (in accordance with the Records Management Policy), and what can be securely shredded or deleted. You will be shown;

Records management resources,
How to navigate DalCLASS to figure out what to keep,
When to get rid of what & why.

What is DalCLASS?

DalCLASS is the main records management tool that supports the Dalhousie Records Management Policy. It is the authority for organizing, retaining and disposing of Dalhousie University Administrative Records. It describes records series by noting its purpose and the scope and contents of the records generated in the course of the related business activities. The description also notes the primary office(s) responsible for the records. It also contains a retention rule and disposition instructions that have been approved by the University Records Committee

Email Management Best Practices

In this session, we will be reviewing email management best practices regarding the creation and management of emails, and how best to manage shared email accounts.

GIS Centre’s Lunchless Learn (Virtual): Cartography – Maps – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

October 7, 2020 Marlo MacKay

What is a Lunchless Learn? It’s a hands-on tutorial, held around lunchtime, but without the food!

A GIS, or Geographic Information System, is “a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data relating to positions on earth’s surface” In other words, it’s an easy and fun way to look at the world differently.

To register, for Cartography – Maps, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on Tuesday, October 13, from 12–1:30 p.m., visit: https://dal.libcal.com/event/3578220

For more information about Lunchless Learns, as well as considerations before you start, tips and tricks watch this video!

J.A. Wainwright Virtual Book Launch: This Cleaving and This Burning

October 7, 2020 Marlo MacKay

Please join us for J.A. Wainwright’s virtual book launch for This Cleaving and This Burning
Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 p.m.
Join via Microsoft Teams

Inspired by the lives and work of American literary giants Ernest Hemingway and Hart Crane, This Cleaving and This Burning is a story of creative passions stoked by unspoken desires within the mind and heart. Two unrelated, aspiring writers, born on the same day in the same year to parents with the same first names, grow up together and eventually gain national prominence as authors. But their complex sexual identities undermine their intense private relationship as the years pass, inflicting damage that cannot be undone by their public reputations or the excellence of their fiction
and poetry.

J.A. Wainwright is McCulloch Emeritus Professor in English at Dalhousie University. He is the author of five books of poetry and five novels.

Presented by the Dalhousie Libraries Literary Events Committee. Books will be available for purchase at the Bookmark on Spring Garden Road.

Launch of the Nova Scotia LGBT Seniors Archive

October 7, 2020 Marlo MacKay

You are invited to join us for the launch of the Nova Scotia LGBT Seniors Archive, a project the Dalhousie Libraries has been supporting through the Dal Archives.

We are proud to provide a home for these materials, which tell the history of the LGBT community in this province. Learn more about this important collection and hear from some of the people who have been working on it since the beginning. This will be a virtual event, so please join us by clicking on the link below.

Thursday, October 15, 4–5 p.m.
Join via Microsoft Teams

Document Delivery Is Filling Your Requests for Physical Materials Again!

September 23, 2020 Marlo MacKay

We will endeavor to fill all requests, but please note that many libraries across the country and around the world are still not lending from their print collections. Many of the libraries that are loaning materials will be operating at reduced staffing levels (as are we) so it may be more challenging to locate certain materials and it may take longer to get requested items.

Thanks for your patience. We look forward to filling your requests! Questions about Doc Del? Get in touch.

Halifax-based Dal Libraries Locations Delay Opening Today (Sept 23)

September 23, 2020 Marlo MacKay

The Halifax Dalhousie Libraries spaces will have a delayed opening at 2 p.m. today due to the current weather conditions. The MacRae Library will open at 9 a.m. Stay safe and see you later!