Library News – Page 41

Thank you to all our OA authors.

As the cost of journal subscriptions continues to rise, we need more authors like you to publish their scholarly work in open access journals. We hope that you’ll encourage your colleagues to do the same. If you have other questions about open access publishing, please feel free to talk with the library liaison in your department.

Since it’s International Open Access Week (Oct 18-22), and we wanted to send a small token of our appreciation (a t-shirt from PLoS) to some lucky UI authors (we drew names) who have recently published in an open access journal in the Public Library of Science.

Congratulations to our winners!

Botond Banfi, associate professor in Anatomy and Cell Biology
Kevin Bugge, staff member in Pediatrics
Karla Daniels, associate research scientist in Biology
Pamela Geyer, professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology
Adam Hedberg-Buenz, graduate research assistant in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Shihao Shen, graduate research assistant in Biostatistics
Diane Slusarski, professor in Biological Sciences
Anne Tye, undergraduate research assistant in Internal Medicine

Are you wondering who else among your peers is publishing in Open Access Journals?

Faculty across The University of Iowa are already publishing in Open Access journals. This is just the beginning; there is more you can do to become part of the solution.

International Writers to read in Main Library, Oct 29

The International Writing Program will bring their Friday evening reading to the UI Main Library on Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. Ms. Yong Mee Cho from South Korea and Ms. Lai Chu Hon from Hong Kong will read from their work. Ms. Cho is the author of four poetry collections and the recipient of the 2005 Kim Dal Jin Literary Prize. Ms. Hon is the award-winning novelists and her most recent work, “Grey Flower,” was selected as Top 10 Chinese Novels World-wide for the year 2009. More detailed biography of the authors are available at: http://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/index.html.

Friday, October 29th
5:00 to 6:00 PM
Main Library, Second Floor North Study Lounge (rm 2001)
Library floorplan (pdf)

Refreshments will be served.

The “City of Literature: Literary Life in Iowa City” exhibit will be on display in the North Exhibition Hall through the Mid-November.

Technology mines ever-expanding body of OA resources

The Open Access Week website offers resources explaining how research funders, researchers, administrators, students, publishers, and librarians can advocate for better OA practices. This year, the focus is on a challenge from Philip E. Bourne, focusing on sharing new ways technology can help us mine the ever-expanding body of OA resources:

Technology Mines OA Resources (video on the Chronicle of Higher Education)

Read Jason B. Jones article “What Are You Doing for Open Access?”

Iowa Women’s Archives Tour, Nov. 4

The University of Iowa Alumni Association’s Lifelong Learning Program is hosting a behind-the-scenes tour of the Iowa Women’s Archives in the UI Main Library starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4. Registration is required.

Archives curator Kären Mason will give the tour, where participants will examine photos, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and other items. Mason will discuss the archives’ founders and its development over the past 18 years.
The Iowa Women’s Archives holds more than 1,100 manuscript collections that chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. These personal papers and organizational records date from the 19th Century to the present. Together with oral histories, they document the activities of Iowa women throughout the state and beyond its borders.

This program, co-hosted by the UI Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, begins at 5 p.m. in Room 2032 (on the second floor, south side) of the Main Library and move up to the third floor at 6 p.m. for the tour.

Cost for the event is $5 and is open to UI Alumni Association and Osher Institute members and their guests. RSVP by Thursday, Oct. 28 at www.iowalum.com/lifelonglearning/. For more information, email alumni-learning@uiowa.edu or call 1-800-IOWALUM.

Scientists are the ultimate remixers

Making the Web Work for Science

Science Commons designs strategies and tools for faster, more efficient web-enabled scientific research. We identify unnecessary barriers to research, craft policy guidelines and legal agreements to lower those barriers, and develop technology to make research, data and materials easier to find and use.

Our goal is to speed the translation of data into discovery — unlocking the value of research so more people can benefit from the work scientists are doing.

Open Access Video from SPARC

SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and research libraries (of which The University of Iowa Libraries is a member) working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change. Its pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly communication models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research and reduce financial pressures on libraries. Action by SPARC in collaboration with stakeholders – including authors, publishers, and libraries – builds on the unprecedented opportunities created by the networked digital environment to advance the conduct of scholarship. Leading academic organizations have endorsed SPARC.

Julie’s brilliant paper is available…

… to everyone because she published it in an open access journal. So now she can use it anyway she would like.

Orange for Open Access

The University of Iowa Libraries joins thousands of other academic research libraries worldwide in celebration of Open Access Week, which is now in its fourth year. To draw attention to this important issue facing faculty, students and librarians, we’re turning our website orange in recognition of Open Access.

We see this as 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 help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Open Access (OA) has the potential to maximize research investments, increase the exposure and use of published research, facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature, and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship. Research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting a move towards Open Access in increasing numbers every year. Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to take action to keep this momentum moving forward.

Frost recognized by Guild of Book Workers

Gary Frost, Conservator, University of Iowa Libraries, has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010 by the Guild of Book Workers. The Guild, founded in 1906, is focused on service to the hand bookbinding community. Frost joins other Awards recipients Bernard Middleton, Hedi Kyle, Don Etherington and Michael Wilcox. He is cited for contributions to conservation education and bookbinding studies. The Award will be presented this week during the “Standards of Excellence Seminar” in Tucson, Arizona, October 14-16.

The GBW article citing his achievements notes that Gary was a “key player during the pivotal period in the ’70s when the bookbinding field turned its attention from the traditional focus on the decoration of the book to the new fascination with the structure of the book.” The article talks about Gary’s fine drawings detailing book structures and his thought-provoking website http://futureofthebook.com/. The article concludes that “Gary is a rare bird who over four decades has become a monumental personality in the book world.” For entire article see http://guildofbookworkers.org/about/awards.php

Congratulations, Gary, it’s an honor to work with you.

Persson and Forys recognized with Benton Award, Oct 5

Earlier this spring, Dottie Persson, Psychology/Education Liaison, and John Forys, Head, Engineering Library, were named as the 2010 recipients of the Arthur Benton Excellence in Reference Services Professional Development Award.

Please join us at a reception honoring Dottie and John:

Tuesday, October 5^th, 2010
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
North Exhibition Hall, Main Library

The Benton Award is awarded biennially to a professional staff member from the University of Iowa Libraries who has demonstrated outstanding commitment in providing reference services for the UI community. The $1,000 award will support the winner’s professional development activities related to the advancement of reference services and may be used to pay for attendance at conferences or workshops in that field. Faculty members from the College of Engineering nominated John; and Dottie was nominated by faculty from the College of Education.

A brief program beginning around 3:45 will include the presentation of plaques. Light refreshments will be served.