24 Apr 2015

Foster | Open access and research data management seminar slides now available

All presentation slides of the Foster event that took place at UCC on 14/15 April are now available online as per below:

Day 1 (April 14) | Open research in H2020 – how to increase your chances of success
An overview of open science and open data in H2020
Mr. Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer, Digital Curation Centre, UK

Addressing IP challenges in collaborations and making data openly accessible
Mr. Joe Doyle, Intellectual Property Manager, Enterprise Ireland

Successfully using research data management principles (I hope!)
Dr. Jonathan Tedds, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester

Focus on data management plans – policies, requirements, resources, examples
Mr. Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer, Digital Curation Centre, UK

UCC research data management
Mr. Brian Clayton, Research Cloud Service Manager, UCC

Plus ça change: Experiences from a decade of environmental research data management
Dr. Peter Mooney, Environmental Research Scientist, Environmental Protection Agency

UCC clinical data management
Dr. Evelyn Flanagan, Data Manager, UCC Clinical Research Facility

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Day 2 (April 15) | Research data management – institutional needs, targets and training
Research data management (RDM): what do support services need to know… and do?
Mr. Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer, Digital Curation Centre, UK


Looking after your data: RDM @ Edinburgh - an institutional approach
Mr. Stuart Macdonald, Research Data Management Service Co-ordinator, University of Edinburgh


Using your existing institutional repository infrastructure to support RDM
Mr. David McElroy, Research Services Librarian, University of East London


Preparing a Research Data Management response: policy, infrastructure and practice
Dr. Jonathan Greer, Research Information Manager, Queens University Belfast


Library training, support and guidance in RDM
Dr. Gareth Cole, Research Data Manager, Loughborough University


Facilitating effective data management and sharing in University College Dublin: new library services within a campus-wide approach
Ms. Julia Barrett, Research Services Manager, UCD Library


Focus on data management planning – helping researchers develop their plans
Mr. Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer, DCC


PASTEUR4OA (Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research)
Ms. Louise Farragher, Information Specialist, Health Research Board


Lessons learned developing the Digital Repository of Ireland
Mr. Dermot Frost, Manager of the Research IT group, Trinity College Dublin & TCD Principal Investigator for the Digital Repository of Ireland


Many thanks to Breeda Herlihy and colleagues for organising and facilitating this most informative seminar on RDM.

All slides are available under CC-BY.

22 Apr 2015

Academic spam

Guest post by David Hughes, Systems Librarian, DBS Library

Simply because you’re involved in Academia and therefore, perhaps, a wee bit removed from the real world, doesn’t mean you won’t be bothered by spammers. Yes, the ivory towers of Academic Publishing are just as prone to scammers and spammers as everywhere else. This short note will briefly discuss three forms of such spam.

1. The unsolicited call for journal articles.
Produced an assignment or dissertation lately?  Submitted an article to a reputable journal but can’t get published?  Why not publish in Dave’s Journal of Interesting Research?  Dave’s Journal of Interesting Research is an international peer-reviewed and open-access journal with both print and online versions.  The journal is under the indexing process in numerous databases that can enhance the readability and visibility your author’s work.  Once the article has been accepted for publication, you will be required to pay a small processing fee.  You can pay a little extra to have your publication fast-tracked but we do offer a discount for high quality submissions.

2. The unsolicited call for conference papers.
Along the same lines: did you write a paper rejected by the leading conference in your field?  Are you trying to network and get noticed by your peers?  Why not submit your paper to Dave’s 4th International Conference on Applied and Innovative Research? The conference submissions will hopefully be indexed in a variety of prestigious databases, including Google.  For each colleague you can persuade to attend you’ll receive a 5% discount on the conference registration fee!

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The unsolicited calls for articles and papers will come in the form of emails that will probably contain dodgy English, grammatical and typographical errors and an all-round suspect feel.  There’ll be a link to a website that looks like something your neighbour’s enthusiastic teenage offspring put together after having a drink or two for inspiration.  The website will list a lot, and I mean a lot, of journals on a huge variety of subjects (sometimes unexpectedly combined together e.g. the International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology, although very few will have more than one or two issues (in which there’ll be no more than one or two articles).  Oh and conferences will be a sideline business.

That’s the spam. The scam aspect, as you may have guessed, comes from the fees. To publish in any such journal, you’ll need to pay an article processing fee of north of €1000.  If you want to pay this kind of money to publish in a journal that no-one in their right mind gives a second’s notice to, go ahead.  But be warned, people will point and laugh at you.  Similarly, the conferences are as authentic as my pet unicorn.  But you won’t discover that until after you pay the typical registration fee of around €300-€500 (incidentally, that’s the amount of money you’ll need to give me in order to have a look at my pet unicorn, contact me in the library if you want to see it).

3. Academic Vanity Publishers.
One day, you may, as I did once, receive an email from an acquisition editor working for a “top international publishing group” saying that the company is interested in publishing your work (e.g. your last assignment, a dissertation or even a conference presentation) as a book.  This email will be of better quality than those calling for journal or conference submissions and so will appear to be authentic. Sadly it is authentic, but not in a good way. What will happen if you say “YES PLEASE!  I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR AND I KNEW, DESPITE WHAT EVERYONE SAID THAT MY WORK WAS ABSOLUTE GENIUS (even if my idiot supervisor only gave it a D)!”?

• You’ll have sold the rights to work your work for virtually nothing
• The company will keep close to 100% of any sales made of your book
• Buyers will be deceived into thinking your work has been proofed by an editor (it’s not, it’s
   published as is, warts and all.)
• Having such a publication on your CV will reflect badly on you (it makes you vain and or gullible)

This is deception. Your work can be downloaded for free from your institution’s institutional repository: who’s going to buy it (from Amazon or other sites)? Well, you might buy it, as the company will offer to sell you copies of your book, the book that you wrote! Is it just me that thinks this is a scam? Surely not.

Basically the golden rule is: if something looks like it’s too good to be true, then it is. If you receive an email calling for papers or offering to make you a published author, the first thing you should do is Google the company/publisher involved. Actually, the first thing you should do is mark the email as spam and delete it, but if you don’t do this, then at least do a little online research or come into the library and talk to us; we can tell you a little more about the workings of academic publishing.

Further reading:

10 Apr 2015

Open access and research data management: Horizon 2020 and beyond

Guest post by Breeda Herlihy, manager of Cora, The Institutional Repository of UCC 





This week sees the running of a two day training event at UCC Library which will introduce attendees to the concepts of open research and research data management within the context of Horizon 2020. The event has been organised jointly by UCC Library together with UCC Research Support Services, Teagasc and the Repository Network Ireland (RNI). The hosting of the event in UCC Library was made possible through funding from the FP7 funded FOSTER project. FOSTER aims to set in place sustainable mechanisms for EU researchers to foster open science in their daily workflow. 
Both days of the event are aimed at different audiences and bring speakers from across Ireland and the UK to Cork to share their experiences with research data management and all it entails. The second day will be of particular interest to librarians since it is designed for staff who support research data management in research performing institutions. This day has been accredited by the Library Association of Ireland for Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Registration for the event has closed but proceedings can be followed via Twitter using the hashtags #rdmucc and #fosteropenscience. Slides and recorded presentations will be made available after the event on the FOSTER website. 
Day 1. Tuesday 14th April. Open research in H2020:  how to increase your chances of success 

The first day is targeted to researchers and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) interested in developing Horizon 2020 proposals and will provide: 
An overview of open science and open data in Horizon 2020 
Case study from a research project successfully using research data management principles 
Case studies from current Irish services engaged with research data management including the Environmental Protection Agency and the UCC Clinical Research Facility

Day 2. Wednesday 15th April. Research data management – institutional needs, targets and training
The second day is aimed at institutional support staff including library staff, IT services, research support staff and project managers and will provide: 
An introduction to research data management 
Case studies of existing institutional research data management services including University of Edinburgh, University of East London, Loughborough University, Queens University Belfast and University College Dublin. 
Information on how to support researchers at research performing institutions

A detailed programme for both days is available here 
For more information please contact cora@ucc.ie 

Using LibGuides: from simple online guides to complete library websites (ANLTC - UCD 25th March 2015 - Report)

Guest post by Maura Flynn Health Sciences Librarian at UCC Library

As a novice LibGuides user I was very keen to attend the ANLTC training on LibGuides.   The training course had been organised for both regular users and prospective users in mind.  For anyone who is unfamiliar with LibGuides, it is a content management system which enables libraries to develop, reuse and share their content and library resources via an easy-to-use interface.  More information is available here at the Springshare site.

Some academic libraries in Ireland have been using LibGuides for a number of years while others are just embarking on the journey.  The morning session featured a number of case studies from individual libraries about their experiences implementing LibGuides and their future plans.

The afternoon session was divided into two streams to accommodate existing users and new users.  I attended Track B for newcomers.  Because a lot of common themes were explored throughout the day I will provide a brief overview of these, outlining:

  • development and implementation; 
  • experiences of the users (advantages and disadvantages); 
  • possible uses and future directions.

Development and Implementation
Speakers described how long they have been using LibGuides, for example:
Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT): 2010
Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT): 2012
University College Dublin (UCD): 2013
University of Limerick (UL): 2014
Maynooth University: 2014

Accordingly there was an interesting mix of experiences presented by the speakers.  Different processes were used to develop LibGuides within the institutions.  For example, UL employed a co-op student to get the project up and running, while in Maynooth University, one staff member (Celine), was instrumental in developing the project.  Other Universities employed a team approach, such as UCD which developed their LibGuides using a pilot team.
The importance of collaboration among many different members of library staff to make LibGuides a success was also evident. For example, the important contribution provided by Digital and Technical colleagues was highlighted by Anne McMahon from UL.  Josh Clark, UCD, emphasised the importance of ensuring that you are using the correct links for everything and involving your colleagues in the library to do so.   Similarly, most universities engaged with Subject Librarians to develop subject specific guides.
Interestingly Una O’Connor (AIT) pointed out that the Subject Librarians in AIT are responsible for their own creative content but that initially the staff were keen to have a template of sorts to follow when getting started.

Libguide from AIT



Ric Paul from the University of Southampton Library also provided a fascinating presentation about using LibGuides to replace their Library Website. This presentation demonstrated the immense possibilities afforded by LibGuides, particularly version 2.  Some institutions, such as UCD and University of Southampton are currently using the upgraded version of LibGuides, version 2, while other speakers are planning to upgrade.
Anne McMahon (UL) provided an excellent overview of the UL experience of migrating to version 2, which was quite positive with good support provided by the company, Springshare.  Version 2 seems to provide enhanced functionality, such as enhanced mobile appearance and greater flexibility when adding content.
Another perspective is provided in the JMLA by Coombs (2015).

UL Libguides



Experiences of users
 The experiences of using LibGuides shared by the speakers was overwhelmingly positive.  Some frustration was evident that the release of version 2 was delayed, but those who have upgraded seem happy with the process and interface. Some advantages of LibGuides include: 

Prolific usage worldwide, which means that guides exist on a huge number of topics 
LibGuide users, by and large, operate as a community of practitioners who willingly share their content. Sharing, customisation and re-use of content. E.G. Maynooth University developed their Bibliometrics guide with the help of Michael Ladisch from UCD. While the UCD Data Management LibGuide was developed by reusing content from the University of Queensland and elsewhere with acknowledgement.

The vendor, Springshare, provides good online support with speedy response to queries. 
The guides are easy to update.
Significant customisation and enhancement is possible, if desired, by using Java script and cascading style sheets (CSS) coding. 
Useful features of version 2 such as the Asset Manager, which makes sharing and reuse of content such as PDFs, images etc. easier.

Ease of obtaining usage statistics, which can be enhanced with Google Analytics.
Professional and aesthetically pleasing appearance LibGuides provide.
Ease of integrating other SpringShare and non Springshare products into LibGuides.  For example, UCD integrate an RSS feed with UCD Library News, UCD Library Twitter Feed and LibCal (another Springshare product to showcase training activities). LibSurvey is another product that was also mentioned.
James Molloy, UCD emphasised the scope to partner with Academics to embed relevant content for users and the ease of editing LibGuides enhances this.  


Possible disadvantages include:
There is an annual fee for LibGuides and the fee for version 2 is slightly higher than that of version 1.  One must question the likely future costs associated with this product and whether Libraries may feel, having migrated the majority of their Web content onto the platform, that they may have to continue using it even if it no longer serves their purposes in the future or indeed pay more for an improved system.  A couple of speakers raised the issue as to the longevity of LibGuides, which raises the question as to whether it is a sustainable long term platform or a current fad?   
There seems to have been a significant wait time for the release of version 2.

Longer term users of LibGuides, such as Una O’Connor (AIT), expressed a strong desire to migrate to version 2 to explore new possibilities and perhaps being strongly aware of the limitations of version 1. 
Java Script/CSS coding skills are required to make significant customisations and enhancements. Coding skills offer huge potential to transform the content.  While many of the current users felt that coding skills were a desirable skillset for a member of staff to have, others also questioned the benefits of a package which is “easy to use” if coding is essentially required to create an enhanced look and feel.  
Claire Fox, DkIT, questioned how interactive LibGuides really are, even with the possibility of including surveys/quizzes.  It may be a challenge for Libraries to glean meaningful feedback if students aren’t encouraged to communicate with us via LibGuides. 
The impact of LibGuides was also queried.  One pertinent issue is trying to determine if the usage is primarily by people outside of the institution and possibly even other Libraries assessing other offerings from across the globe.  It was also noted that if LibGuides are used in hands-on IL sessions this will immediately cause a spike in usage, but may not be indicative of value or benefit afforded to students.


Possible uses and future directions
The scope to use LibGuides in many different ways is a hugely attractive feature.  Suggestions made include: 
Instructional tool and platform for orientation and IL purposes
Showcase collections, as UCD have done with their Map Collection which is a very popular LibGuide
To promote Library roles in Research Support and Outreach and specialist services

Replace Library intranet, as UCD have done  
Project site (password protected access is possible)
Work with Academics to embed content in Blackboard

Use for short periods to promote campus wide events, as Maynooth University have done
For news, marketing and promotional purposes 
Replacing the entire library website with LibGuides, which Ric Paul explored and which Leeds Beckett University have done


Popular Libguide for UCD Students


The training day was very useful and provided a good introduction to LibGuides for a novice like myself.  As aforementioned the afternoon session was divided into two tracks, so I would be very interested to hear the thoughts of more experienced users who attended the other session.   
My take home messages from the event are: there is a wealth of knowledge amongst colleagues about LibGuides and that many institutions both in Ireland and abroad are happy to provide permission to share content.  LibGuides afford Librarians immense possibilities to shape and customise their web offerings while providing a user friendly interface and scope to embed lots of different kinds of content.  
The annual costs associated with the product are a serious consideration however.  Similarly, if this is something that is invested in we need to develop very meaningful feedback loops to ensure value for money and an excellent user experience.  

Thanks to all of the speakers and other attendees who shared their experiences and expertise so freely, links to their LibGuides are below.  Thanks also to ANLTC and UCD for organising and hosting the event.   

Some examples.
Dundalk Institute of Technology LibGuides:  
Athlone Institute of Technology LibGuides
University of Limerick LibGuides: 
Southampton University Library LibGuides:  
Maynooth University LibGuides: 
Leeds Beckett University LibGuides
UCD LibGuides


References:
Coombs, B. (2015), 'LibGuides 2', Journal Of The Medical Library Association, 103(1), 64-65. 


8 Apr 2015

Using Twitter in the classroom – a Library special


Guest post by Craig Kemp, an Educator from New Zealand. This post, in an earlier version, was published on his site 

As an educator who is addicted to Twitter I have always read about students getting introduced to Twitter and wondered how it would work. After reading and reading I finally decided to give it a go with my students, just over a year ago. This is my personal story of utilizing it with my students. I would encourage educators around the world to do the same. I especially would encourage librarians to do the same with a specific focus on books and authors. It is a great way to connect with parents to encourage them to LOVE books and promote a LOVE of reading in their homes.

Here is my introduction to Twitter in my classroom.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, the day started like any other. Roll call, discussion, introduction to an activity and a bit of a laugh with my Year 7 and 8 Technology class. We had been discussing the importance of being an active online user and being a positive digital citizen (the students were preparing some presentations for Year 2-3 children later in the term). The conversation moved into learning environments and we discussed the small and “un-student friendly” (their words) environment that they were currently sitting in.

“Take the teachable moment and run with it” my inner, energetic teacher yelled from my shoulder. So there we were talking about the “Ultimate Learning Environment“, when one of my students asked me “Why is social media so big?”. Good question I thought, why is it ‘so big’. So we unpacked that question and broke it down. We talked about Social Media and what it was and how it worked, they gave me excellent examples and we tied it back into our discussion about digital citizenship.

From this point, as a class, we decided we would use social media to help us with our learning. The students had no idea how it could work. I suggested twitter and how I use it. We pulled up my profile and saw how it worked (discussion only). The decision was then made –> Let’s ask the twitterverse to help us!!

We decided that tomorrow would be the day, we would ask twitter for their advice on “What makes a GREAT learning environment?”. The students already had some fantastic ideas and a plan of where they wanted to see their environment heading but they needed some depth to their plan and some other opinions outside of their little bubble.

The day of our debut - The students run in with excitement written all over their faces. Up on the interactive whiteboard is my twitter profile with the hashtag #AGSLE up on the stream. Last night I had asked some of my amazing PLN to share their thoughts, ready to inspire the students in live time. The session began and the students led the hour. They decided they would post questions and respond to answers in their own words, using their initials. The discussion continued for an exciting hour and the students were engaged and focused. They saw a new post appear and the next student hopped up to respond. While this was going on the rest of the class were using their 1:1 device to continue researching learning environments. They are now putting together a plan of what it might look like (first draft to present to Head of School) and using links and ideas to engage their imaginations as they were shared by my amazing PLN. They were sent links, images of classroom spaces and ideas that made my mind spin – what an opportunity!

All in all, one of the most engaging and exciting lessons of the year so far. New ideas, new learning and new ways of engaging an audience and gathering information. The students are now (4 hours after our first twitter experience) putting together a proposal to have a class twitter account – so watch this space! Exciting stuff and true learning at it’s VERY best.



You can check out our twitter feed from this session and see what ideas were discussed:

As an educator, Twitter has opened up my world and broken down the 4 walls of my classroom. I can’t recommend this enough – give it a go.


For more information visit my blog or contact me on twitter @mrkempnz.

1 Apr 2015

OA in the Humanities. Three useful librarian webinars in April/May

Below is this year's first round of recommended librarian webinars.

The first webinar considers how liaison librarians can improve their partnerships with faculty. The second suggestion covers young adult literature of 2015 (particularly useful for public libraries). The last one is most interesting as it discusses the barriers and possible solutions around green/gold open access publishing in the Humanities.

Breaking Barriers: How Academic Librarians Can Communicate More Effectively with Faculty
Tuesday, April 7th, 9pm IST
Every aspect of the higher education ecosystem is changing—from libraries, to faculty, to administration, to publishers. Breaking down the barriers between these groups will inform a more collaborative partnership focused on managing change together. Through engagement with both librarians and faculty, some key themes appear to be emerging, such as a need for on-campus task forces, a realignment of the library’s role as resource center, and the increased responsibility of librarians to advise faculty on matters, such as copyright and various publication processes. Understanding these developments will allow librarians and faculty to communicate more effectively with each other and collectively achieve their institution’s mission.

Panelists:
Wayne Bivens Tatum - Philosophy and Religion Librarian, Princeton University
Bonnie Buchanan - Associate Professor of Finance, Seattle University
Kim Leeder Reed - Director of Library Services, College of Western Idaho
Eric Schwartz - Marketing Manager, North America, Emerald Group Publishing, Inc.

Moderator:
Colleen Theisen - Special Collections Outreach and Instruction Librarian, Library Journal

What’s New in Young Adult Literature 2015 Update
Friday, May 1st, 9pm IST
• Are you familiar with the latest trends in young adult literature?
• Are you looking for new authors?
• Do you need a list of the latest “hot” YA books?
• Do you want recommendations for the best adult and New Adult titles for YAs?

The world of young adult literature is a dynamic one that has become one of the most vibrant areas of publishing. Each publishing season brings a plethora of new titles, new forms, and new formats, many of which require new methods of evaluation.

Keeping up with these changes and the 5,000 + new titles flooding the market annually can be a full-time job. This webinar will help you identify new trends and the best new titles for your collections.

At the end of this one-hour webinar, participants will be familiar with:
• Trends in YA literature and publishing
• New YA fiction that comprises “first purchases”
• Nonfiction for both recreational and classroom use
• Graphic novels and comics
• Adult books for young adults and New Adults

This webinar will be of interest to both public and school library staff with young adult collection development responsibility.

Presenter: Michael Cart

Open Access in the Humanities
Friday, May 1st, 6pm IST
The open access (OA) movement has broad support within the library community, and it is increasingly embraced by researchers, granting agencies, and publishers. Why, then, are many graduate students, faculty, and professional associations in the humanities advocating measures such as embargoing access to dissertations in digital repositories? Why are some humanities faculty skeptical of accepting peer review requests from OA journals? In this session, Professor Jonathan Senchyne will explore some of the issues that differentiate OA conversations in the humanities and the sciences. The conversation will explore the pros, cons, and gray areas of OA in the humanities from different stakeholder perspectives while seeking common ground and increased collaboration between students, faculty, publishers, and librarians within the scholarly communication ecosystem.

Presenter: Dr. Jonathan Senchyne
Posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2015 | Categories: