Book Review: Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World

The topic of copyright is rarely far from a librarian\u27s mind. Practitioners must navigate creator and user rights within the constraints of complex license and contract agreements in digital environments. Librarians have to understand, explain, educate, and apply copyright law on a regular basis, often without formal training. Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World is a notable work that endeavors to summarize, explain, and comment on many of the complicated copyright-related topics that librarians encounter in the digital realm

SCoer! in the Library

In 2015, University of South Carolina Libraries partnered with Student Government to create a program designed to promote Open Educational Resources on campus. SCoer! has saved USC students over $38,000 since its inception. Learn about program design, implementation, and our successes and failures as we’ve navigated an OER grant program

Intercultural Romantic Couples\u27 Interactive Construction of Relational Culture

This study explores intercultural romantic couples and their interactive construction of relational culture. Qualitative methods of inquiry appeared most useful for identifying the processes involved in the social construction of intimates\u27 shared reality and, so, both Conversation Analysis and Joint Interviews were utilized. Five romantic couples whose partners were socilaized within different cultural communities participated in the study. Findings of this study suggest that intercultural romantic couples import cultural resources from their individual cultures into their joint relational culture. These cultural resources included foods, traditions, language, and values. Findings of ths study also suggest that two types of communicative episodes, intimate play and the negotiation of misunderstandings, were particularly important in the couples\u27 construction of a shared relational culture

Baby Steps to Big Impacts: The Evolution of Library Involvement in the Textbook System

This article will discuss how textbook support and open educational resources (OER) have become critical considerations in the evolving library landscape. For years, textbooks have been the purview of the teaching staff at our colleges and universities, but libraries can no longer ignore the high costs, both societal and financial, of the current textbook environment. Library involvement in the textbook dilemma has come in three phases: chosen ignorance, meeting the immediate need, and striving for sustainable solutions. We will discuss each of these phases and will detail the University of South Carolina Libraries’ involvement in the textbook system. We will provide suggestions for other libraries interested in growing an OER program, focusing on development, implementation, and assessment for schools operating with limited resources. Finally, we will share our predictions for the future of library involvement in responding to the demand for affordable course materials

I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me: Student Perceptions of Library Data Privacy

Data privacy has emerged as a controversial topic in higher education. As librarians, we recognize the importance of privacy and confidentiality for allowing patrons to learn and explore without unnecessary barriers or fear of repercussions. However, there is a growing trend of data collection and analysis in libraries that impacts a patron’s right to privacy. In a presentation given at the 2019 South Carolina Library Association Annual Conference, we explored issues of click-through-consent, data invasion, and awareness of the types of data tracked. We asked for audience engagement as we discussed future directions including a survey on student perceptions of data privacy in libraries

Modeling adverse liver effects of drugs using kNN QSAR method

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) continue to be a major cause of drug withdrawals both in development and post-marketing. Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) models have been used to predict human ADRs in the heart. While liver ADRs are a major concern for drug safety, there are currently no in silico models for predicting human liver ADRs. The FDA has assembled a database of human liver ADR data on 490 approved drugs. In this study, we construct a QSAR model capable of performing binary classification (active/inactive) for liver ADRs based on chemical structure using the k-nearest neighbor (kNN) method and rigorous external model validation protocols. Models with high sensitivity (>73%) and specificity (>94%) for external test sets were built. Three databases were screened using our models and the predictions were analyzed. We conclude that QSAR modeling of liver ADRs may be useful in screening pre-clinical drug candidates for potential human hepatotoxicity

IS AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH STILL A PUBLIC GOOD?

The nature of public agricultural research changed in 1980 when the Bayh-Dole Act allowed universities to retain title to inventions that were created with Federal funds, and the court case Diamond v. Chakrabarty allowed patenting of living tissue and eventually other bio-engineered products. In 1997, over 2,300 new licenses and options were executed on academic life-sciences property. This raises the questions agricultural research still be a public good? This paper is a critical first step in understanding how increasingly private ownership of intellectual property affects the agribusiness environment and the evolving role of public agricultural research institutions. The innovative step in this paper is the development of a formal economic model which represents the role of applied biotech research in the agricultural life sciences. The model is built around neo-Schumpeterian ideas of endogenous innovation and growth. The most salient implications for the role of the public sector are(1)The private sector underinvests in applied R&D activity. (2) Concentration in the large-firm, life-science R&D industry increases over time. (3) The life-science revolution is reducing the number of markets, in the short run. This reduction in the number of niche markets diminishes the role of the public sector. (4) There is a role for the public sector in conducting R&D in niche markets. (5) In the long run, the life-science revolution may also create new niche markets. (6) There is a role for the public sector in the provision of basic research which increases the productivity of applied R&D.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

From the Ground Up: Building a Digital Scholarship Program at the University of South Carolina

In 2019, the University of South Carolina Libraries launched a new department called Digital Research Services to support new and evolving forms of scholarship in the digital age. Departmental librarians will discuss the experience of planning and implementing a digital scholarship program and will provide suggestions for other libraries planning a digital research initiative

CYCLICAL CONCENTRATION AND CONSOLIDATION IN BIOTECH R&D: A NEO-SCHUMPETERIAN MODEL

Over the past fifteen years, the agricultural biotechnology industry has exhibited cyclical behavior in concentration and consolidation. This paper provides a theoretical model of endogenous R&D, in which industry concentration exhibits cyclical behavior. The model also generates additional testable hypotheses, and policy implications.Industrial Organization, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,