The Distant Librarian

ERIC Restores Online Access to Full Text from 2005-2013

Well here's some good news!

ERIC Restores Online Access to Full Text from 2005-2013

 

Posted with Blogsy

Who does screencasting help the most?

An interesting report on the Casting Out Nines Blog (part of the Chronicle of Higher Education Blog Network): Who does screencasting help the most? The author summarizes the results of a Winter 2011 paper in Advances in Engineering Education (PDF), and concludes that,

I think it suggests that screencasts, when done well and deployed properly, help all students – they certainly don’t hurt – and they help most thise (sic) students who need the most help. The analogies to mathematics courses are clear. In any math course there will be a large contingent of students whose backgrounds aren’t congruous with the course: students whose prior math background is weak to rusty, students from non-STEM disciplines, and so on. For those students, if they use the screencasts, then they may be likely to improve at a surprisingly fast rate. 

Not earth-shattering, but encouraging. Keep on screencasting!

Google drops SMS Search, nudges basic phone users toward smartphones

As reported by Engadget. Oh well, I discovered it in 2007 and never really needed it since...

Call for Submissions: Journal of Library and Information Service in Distance Learning

I received the following via email:

The Journal of Library and Information Service in Distance Learning, a peer-reviewed journal published by Taylor & Francis, welcomes the submission of manuscripts.

The journal is devoted to the issues and concerns of librarians and information specialists involved with distance education and delivering library resources and services to this growing community of students.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

• Faculty/librarian cooperation and collaboration
• Information literacy
• Instructional service techniques
• Information delivery
• Reference services
• Document delivery
• Developing collections

If you are interested in submitting an article, this journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the “Guide for ScholarOne Authors” before making a submission.

Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided at http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=1533-290X.

The Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning receives all manuscript submissions electronically via their ScholarOne Manuscripts website. 

Inquiries and questions are welcome and can be sent directly to the editor, Jodi Poe, at jpoe@jsu.edu.

Please note: We accept manuscript submissions through the year; however, the deadline to have your article appear in our next issue, if accepted, is August 1, 2013. Accepted and approved manuscripts received after this date have no guarantee of being included in the next published issue.

Get Camtasia 2 for Mac for 50% off!

Just a quick heads-up that StackSocial is currently running a $50 Mac software bundle that includes the latest version of Camtasia, which normally sells for $99. In addition to that fine screencasting tool, you also get 8 other pieces of software you may find useful. Regardless, 50% off if you've been thinking about picking up Camtasia... Deal ends May 20th.

Expert panel to look into the state of libraries & archives in Canada

I happened across an interesting article in a recent CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) Bulletin: Expert panel to look into the state of libraries & archives in Canada. "The panel’s final report on libraries and archives is due in the fall of 2014." Don't miss the link at the bottom of the page to http://www.canadaspastmatters.ca/, which has lots of information about the importance of preserving information within Canada.

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Historical letters not wanted at Library and Archives Canada, critics say

Canadian Archivists and Teachers Mourn the Loss of the National Archival Development Program

Clippick: Copy. Paste Anywhere.

Oh wow, this might actually be a real game-changer. Clippick is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) tool / app that does one thing only: you copy something on one device, and then the next time you hit Paste on any of your other devices, whatever you copied on the first device ends up there. In my very limited testing so far, text and URLs are available to paste almost instantly. Haven't tried yet with images. 

I distinctly remember sitting next to a student while helping him work through a search back in, probably 1995 or 1996 - it was when I was working at Nova Southeastern University. We were running the same search on computers next to each other, and I had found something with a long URL that I wanted to share. I thought, "self, wouldn't it be cool if there was some way I could just copy this URL and have it appear on his screen?". THIS is that tool!

As it's currently configured, you couldn't just install this on all the machines in your reference area 'cause people would be pasting other people's peanut butter all over their chocolate. But if this could be configured with multiple accounts, or some sort of trigger that support staff could flip when desired, this tool could come in play as necessary.

Check out the intro video - There's no specific iPad app, but you can install the iPhone app there and it works just fine.

ONE lawsuit dropped by Edwin Mellen Press, but Askey is still being sued personally #FreeDaleAskey

As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education and the CBC, Edwin Mellen Press has dropped ONE lawsuit; the one that names both Dale Askey and McMaster University, but according to an email sent to the ARL board of directors by Vivian Lewis, Acting University Librarian at McMaster, EMP has NOT dropped the original suit against Dale personally! This is mentioned in passing in an update to the Chronicle piece as well, though seems to be glossed over in favour of the good news for McMaster University :-/

Notice that in their press release, EMP says they're dropping one of the lawsuits not because they were in the wrong, but because "The financial pressure of the social media campaign and pressure on authors is severe. EMP is a small company. Therefore must choose to focus its resources on its business and serving its authors. Accordingly, EMP has discontinued the court case against McMaster University and Dale Askey."

Oh, and I find it hilarious that EMP opens their press release by stomping their foot and crossing their arms in a huff, "The Edwin Mellen Press (“EMP”) is a scholarly publisher. This has been confirmed in a recent Open Letter to the Scholarly Community posted on the web by the Association of Canadian University Presses." (emphasis mine).

Keep up the pressure all - Dale's not out of the woods yet!

Related articles

Price of a Bad Lawsuit

Edwin Mellen Press Drops Lawsuit Against McMaster Librarian Dale Askey

Edwin Mellen Press files lawsuit against academic librarian

Minor updates on the Edwin Mellen lawsuit