Group items tagged

Writing my post about AI and summoning the demon led me to re-read a number of articles on Cathy O'Neil's excellent mathbabe blog. I highlighted a point Cathy has made consistently: if you're not careful, modelling has a nasty way of enshrining prejudice with a veneer of "science" and "math."

On October 17, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a key fair-use ruling in a long-running case over digital course readings on college campuses. But while on the surface the decision is a legal victory for the plaintiff publishers, two major library associations say the ruling is in fact a win for libraries, and for a popular practice known as "e-reserves."

Very relevant for our academic librarians.

Wikipediocracy.com hosts articles examining Wikipedia's editorial failings and the governance flaws that lead to them, as well as a forum dedicated to criticism of Wikipedia's administrative culture.

Wikipediocracy's mission is so negatively stated, that one wonders when someone will have to create a site to examine it: "We exist to shine the light of scrutiny into the dark crevices of Wikipedia and its related projects; to examine the corruption there, along with its structural flaws; and to inoculate the unsuspecting public against the torrent of misinformation, defamation, and general nonsense that issues forth from one of the world's most frequently visited websites, the 'encyclopedia that anyone can edit.'" Oversight of Wikipedia et al is a good thing. A more open minded approach is needed. As I've not yet read any of the articles in depth, I reserve judgment of the site itself. I'm only critiquing the mission statement.

"By leveraging technology, we can open new doors to scholarly inquiry for ourselves and our students. Through new collaborations, we can create exciting shared spaces, both virtual and physical, where that inquiry can take place. The library is a natural home for these technology-rich spaces.

This article is fantastic, and speaks to just about everything I'm passionate about as an aspiring academic librarian. I'm somewhat worried about how smaller universities-my chosen workplace-will adapt to these newer models of scholarly communication and publication, and generally with how the academic conversation is changing. These exciting developments in what the university means have the potential to widen the already extensive divide between smaller and larger schools. I know the challenges section at the end talks a little bit about convincing decision makers to fund these projects, but has anyone read anything about how these changes can be made specifically by smaller or poorly funded universities?

Many of the articles I have read through the course and videos that I have watched are showing big gab. We are living in places that most of the knowledge we are receiving in this course is new or not implemented at wide level. But one thing that you can be sure about in our papers, it is morally driven.

"If you were only reading the popular press you would think that higher education is experiencing a sea change."

Millions of people use research everyday. From students, medical professionals, to curious hobbyists, we all benefit from being able to access, read, and cite reliable, tested information. But getting the research we need can be hard and costly when it's locked up behind expensive paywalls.

The guidelines provides a conceptual template to guide the creation of information literacy (IL) programs in academic and school libraries as well as public libraries. It is meant for the educators, librarians and information facilitators at the international level to help them to frame the IL efforts. In fact it is also of value to anyone who may need to start an IL program and would like a general conceptual framework. The document is divided into ten chapters that comprise the organizational spectrum of information literacy work, including a definition of concepts, a proposal for information literacy standards, a section on obtaining institutional commitment, the management of the learning process, including personnel development, educational theories, among other basic topics on how to implement the program, plus a list of key IL terms with their definitions, and a bibliography for further reading.

Thank you very much for sharing this document that even if not updated is still valid in its fundamental ideas and framework