An Exploration of Faculty Experiences With Open Access Journal Publishing at Two Canadian Comprehensive Universities

Introduction: This exploratory study was intended to shed light on Canadian academics’ participation in, knowledge of and attitudes towards Open Access (OA) journal publishing. The primary aim of the study was to inform the authors’ schools’ educational and outreach efforts to faculty regarding OA publishing. The survey was conducted at two Canadian comprehensive universities: Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario) and Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario) in 2014. Methods: A web-based survey was distributed to faculty at each university. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Limitations: Despite the excellent response rates, the results are not generalizable beyond these two institutions. Results: The Brock response rate was 38%; the Laurier response rate was 23% from full-time faculty and five percent from part-time faculty. Brock and Laurier faculty members share common characteristics in both their publishing practices and attitudes towards OA. Science/health science researchers were the most positive about OA journal publishing; arts and humanities and social sciences respondents were more mixed in their Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, vol. 11, no. 2 (2016) 2 perceptions; business participants were the least positive. Their concerns focused on OA journal quality and associated costs. Conclusion: While most survey respondents agreed that publicly available research is generally a good thing, this study has clearly identified obstacles that prevent faculty’s positive attitudes towards OA from translating into open publishing practices

Walking the plank: how scholarly piracy affects publishers, libraries and their users

The arrival of technology supporting peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing in scholarly communication has, until recently, had minimal impact on libraries. However, threats posed by pirate sites including Library Genesis Project (LibGen) and Sci-Hub are now impacting both library users and library licensing agreements with publishers. Publishers are nervous as they witness their proprietary content leaking out of paywalled systems—not just hundreds of thousands of articles, but millions. Accordingly, publishers are monitoring activities in licensed products very closely for any behavior that they deem suspicious. When a user’s activities cause a publisher to question whether materials are being pirated, the outcomes can vary. Consequences can range from relatively minor inconvenience for blocked users, who must find workarounds to access scholarly content—to the potential for major disruption of a centuries-old proprietary publishing system. This article uses a case study involving a student at Brock University to highlight significant challenges facing libraries and the rights of their users in the current environment of piracy-wary academic publishers

Are we walking the talk? Tensions between librarians' values, academic freedom and open scholarship

Open access - the practice of freely sharing scholarly outputs online -- is steadily garnering support across the research community. At academic institutions, libraries are usually the standard-bearers for this trend, advancing open scholarship by providing services, infrastructure and funding - for example, employing scholarly communication experts, operating institutional repositories, and funding open access publication costs. This investment in personnel and resources reflects a shared priority of advancing more equitable systems for creating and sharing knowledge. Our professional organizations publicly espouse these values and engage in advocacy to advance open access projects and uptake. At an institutional level, library workers often lead the development of campus open access policies which encourage or commit researchers to publicly share their work. In Canada, nine academic institutions and ten libraries/librarian councils have adopted open access policies. Despite this wealth of activity and public professions of support for open scholarship, it is unclear whether academic librarians in Canada actually practice what we preach. Most of the open access statements/policies adopted by libraries merely encourage workers to make their scholarship freely available. Anecdotal evidence indicates a minority of us are actually archiving our work in institutional repositories or publishing in open access journals. This paper will provide preliminary results from a survey exploring how Canadian academic librarians’ professional, personal and collective values impact our publishing practices. In particular, results from this study will indicate how academic freedom provisions -- articulated in collective agreements, institutional policies and by professional organizations including CAPAL and CAUT -- may affect whether we choose to support open access with our words and actions. Academic freedom is usually appreciated as a protective measure, guarding librarians and faculty against repercussions for work or speech which may be viewed as controversial. Independently choosing how to disseminate research is often a key tenet of academic freedom policies. Accordingly, librarians may experience tension between our personal/professional support for the principle of open access and our will to exert academic freedom and publish where we please – including closed-access venues. This discordance not only affects our own scholarly practices but should also be acknowledged within librarians’ continuing efforts to encourage faculty to embrace open access

"It's a very straight space": gender-diverse students' narratives about the library

Presentation at the Atlantic Provinces Library Association Conference, June 2022How do students with diverse gender identities experience and perceive the academic library? What can we learn from our students to help develop services, spaces and collections that support their safety and well-being? This presentation will highlight results from a qualitative case study at an academic library by exploring themes related to the students’ experiences with library workers, the library’s physical environment and its collections. The study results position the library as both a source of positive, transformational potential and site of harm and oppression. Students reported experiencing great discomfort while using library bathrooms and study spaces and were distressed by encountering library materials containing outdated, inaccurate information about gender identity/sexual diversity. Gender diverse students described affirming experiences with library workers while being confronted with library technology – e.g. computers – which deadnamed them. And they questioned why libraries provide platforms to transphobic speakers in the name of intellectual freedom and highlighted the dangers of espousing neutrality. While themes surfaced by this study reflect the participants’ individual lived experiences, they are broadly reflected in survey results, scholarly literature and other research documenting these concerns. Finally, this presentation will describe students’ suggestions for how academic libraries can bridge the gaps to become safer and more inclusive. Attendees will be invited to reflect on changes they could incorporate in their home libraries

Personal Librarians: can we help with student retention?

A strong body of research shows positive correlations between use of library resources and student success amd retention. Research on retention also shows the importance of students feeling connected to their university community. Personal librarian programs address both of those outcomes by promoting the use of library services and resources and by building positive relationships between students and their librarians. This lightning talk will describe a new personal librarian program aimed at improving student retention rates at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, where the university’s retention rates are below the provincial average and increasing retention is a campus priority

Investigating the seasonal and interannual variability of the poleward undercurrent in the northern Benguela system

Includes bibliographical references.The Benguela Current System is unique as both the equatorward and poleward boundaries are warm water current systems. Between 15° S – 37° S the surface currents are generally equatorwards, with 7 distinct upwelling cells, narrow equatorward shelf-edge jets and a poleward undercurrent along the continental slope. Model data was used to determine the seasonal and interannual variability of the poleward undercurrent (PUC) in the northern Benguela system. The PUC is the southward extension of the Angolan Current that carries low oxygen water (LOW) originating from the Angola Dome. The LOW flows from the Angolan region southwards in the Benguela system. The focus of the study is on the PUC associated with the Sverdrup relation. The model ORCA-025 was used to reproduce zonal transects from 17° S to 30° S to determine the changing characteristics of the PUC with latitude as well as seasonal and interannual variability of this current. The PUC is faster moving in the north (~17° S) and decreases in velocity moving south (~30° S). The PUC is shallower in the north increasing in depth in the south. The model data shows the velocity of the PUC has a seasonal cycle that is faster in the austral summer and autumn and weakens in the winter. The transport of the PUC is amplified during austral winter and spring, which is consistent with the increased negative wind stress curl during those seasons. The wind stress curl in the region exhibits a strong connection with the transport of the PUC via the Sverdrup relation. The PUC exhibits interannual variability when comparing to the Benguela Niño events, but does not show a correlation with El Niño Southern Oscillation

Lysosomal Ca2+ Signalling and Neurodegeneration: A Global View

Dysfunction of the lysosomal Ca2+ channels TRPML1 and TPC2 has been implicated in neurodegenerative disease. However, there is little information about the involvement of these channels in cell-wide global Ca2+ signalling and it is unknown whether their dysfunction contributes to neurodegeneration by disturbing it. First, by using synthetic compounds, I demonstrate that TRPML1 activation causes global Ca2+ signals. In contrast with the predominant lysosomal localisation of the channel these Ca2+ signals comprised a small lysosomal contribution and a large Ca2+ entry component. Examination of TRPML1-mediated Fe2+ entry posed the possibility that divalent cation entry can occur directly through TRPML1 on the plasma membrane. Second, I identified enlarged and clustered lysosomes in fibroblasts derived from people with sporadic Parkinson’s disease (PD). This was appropriately quantified from microscopy images by creating an automated sequence of image processing functions. By inhibiting TPC expression in fibroblasts I demonstrated their involvement in the propagation of physiological global Ca2+ signals evoked by bradykinin. In sporadic and familial PD patient fibroblasts these TPCdependent Ca2+ signals were subtly modulated. Finally, in a neuronal cell line, reduced TPC expression inhibited the propagation of physiological global Ca2+ signals evoked by carbachol. These Ca2+ signals were also blocked by a recently identified TPC blocker and by putative TPC blockers that were screened by collaborators. In cells expressing the PD-associated mutant, LRRK2 G2019S, these TPC-dependent Ca2+ signals were potentiated. In contrast, bradykinin-evoked Ca2+ signals in this neuronal cell line were not inhibited by TPC blockers, nor were they potentiated in the LRRK2 G2019S cells. Therefore, physiological global Ca2+ signalling in PD may be perturbed by TPC dysfunction, and be a compounding factor in neurodegeneration. Collectively this research suggests that lysosomal Ca2+ signalling through TRPML1 and TPCs plays a role in global Ca2+ signalling and that this may be disturbed in neurodegenerative disease

Elizabeth Yates and Matthew Porter in a Joint Junior Voice Recital

This is the program for the joint junior voice recital of soprano Elizabeth Yates and baritone Matthew Porter. Pianist Bradley Permenter accompanied Yates; pianist Jonathan Besanson accompanied Porter. The recital took place on March 23, 1984, in the Mabee Fine Arts Center Recital Hall

The Intersection of Judicial Attitudes and Litigant Selection Theories: Explaining U.S. Supreme Court Decision-Making

This Essay tests an integrated model of decision-making on case outcomes in the United States Supreme Court and employs an interactive specification to assess the influence of judicial ideology on Supreme Court outcomes, simultaneously accounting for litigants’ and justices’ case selection (sorting) behavior

What\u27s in a Name? A Gen Xer and Gen Yer Explore What it Means to be Members of Their Generations in the Workplace

In the NextGen Librarian\u27s Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon, the author cites several reasons this time is different than times before in librarianship. Those that are most relevant to law librarianship include: • Flattening workplace hierarchies and participative management increase the input of newer librarians in workplace decision making • New technologies require changing skills that affect attitudes toward the integration of those technologies into our daily work • Outside pressures, such as the prevalence of the Internet, impose a need for librarians to continually prove our relevance and improve relations with younger patrons • The much talked about graying of the profession makes retention of younger staff more significant • Generational expectations about topics, such as the work-life balance and time spent with a single employer, have changed Whether there is actually something different about this generational change is often written about and, of course, if it\u27s written, then it must be true, right? But could it be that this phenomenon is just as uncertain and difficult to prove as the existence of Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, or the graying of law librarianship? Is it age, the date of one\u27s birth, increased life choices, or the expectations and perceptions of others that predict our work attitudes, managerial potential, and career success or failure? As two newer law librarians-a Gen Xer and a Millennial-stand facing our careers, preconceived notions about our generations staring us head on, we have to wonder: How can we work from the stereotype