An exceptional film collection valued at $1.7 million will be housed and preserved by the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

Videomatica – a long-loved video rental store that opened in 1983 and specialized in rare and esoteric titles – is donating the bulk of 28,000 DVDs, 4,000 VHS titles and 900 Blu-rays to UBC. The collection will be housed at UBC Library with more than 5,000 duplicates available at UBC’s Dept. of Theatre and Film. SFU receives about 2,800 documentaries from the collection.

For more information please see the press release.

Connecting Kids to History with Museum Exhibitions

“Kids have profound and important relationships to the past, but they don’t experience history in the same way as adults. For museum professionals and everyone involved in informal history education and exhibition design, this book is the essential new guide to creating meaningful and memorable connections to the past for children. This vital museum audience possesses many of the same dynamic qualities as trained historian—curiosity, inquiry, empathy for the human experience—yet traditional history exhibitions tend to focus on passive looking in the galleries, giving priority to relaying information through words.”

- Left Coast Press review – Read more here.

Google Books here.

UBC Library Catalogue here.

Vancouver Sun January 11, 2012

Provincewide tests of reading, writing and math will proceed as planned in B.C. elementary schools next week, with principals and vice-principals reluctantly taking on the work that’s usually performed by teachers.

The B.C. Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association asked government to cancel this year’s Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), which is administered annually in Grades 4 and 7, so as not to increase the workload for administrators who are already exhausted from the effects of the teachers’ job action, president Jameel Aziz said. But the ministry insisted the tests must go ahead.

As part of their job action, which began in September, teachers are refusing to write report cards, attend staff meetings, supervise students outside of instructional hours, complete paperwork, communicate with administrators or administer provincial tests.

That means principals, vice-principals and other excluded staff will also be responsible for delivering and marking provincial exams in Grades 10, 11 and 12, despite the fact they may not have the necessary expertise in the subject being tested, Aziz said.

Read full article here.

By Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun 

jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

The National Film Board’s Education Team is facilitating a workshop that demonstrates how to use NFB.ca in an educational setting. They are currently touring their BETA (a testing prototype) NFB.ca online content offer. Educators will be granted preview access to our BETA site, in order to begin using the benefits and tools of our online content offer in their own classrooms. These workshops will highlight new films, functions, resources for educators, thematic learning modules and hands-on activities that are customized to the meet the needs of students of all ages and abilities.

Please join us on Monday, 23 January from 10:00-11:15 am in Room 155 at the Education Library.

Learn a step-by-step approach to identify databases, primary sources and other research tools and then to perform comprehensive searches and keep track of what you’ve found.

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
1:00PM – 3:30PM
Koerner Library, Room 216
Bring your own laptop
Register online at http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/2832

 

LAW LIBRARY level 3: FC3847.9.E2 K39 2011 Ali Kazimi, Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru: An Illustrated History (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2011). LAW LIBRARY level 3: HJ2054 .C36326 2011 Canada, Dept. of Finance, The Next Phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan: A Low-Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth ([Ottawa: Dept. of Finance], 2011). [...]

The Vancouver Sun  

January 2, 2012. 3:01 pm • Section: Report Card, STAFF

My picks for the top newsmakers in B.C. education 2011:

1. George Abbott. Re-appointed education minister in March, Abbott received a surprisingly warm reception from all stakeholder groups, including the BCTF. But relations with the union have cooled since then as a result of difficult contract talks and discussions at another table to settle thorny issues of class size and composition. His biggest accomplishment in 2011 was winning unanimous support in the legislature (and quiet acceptance everywhere else) for legislation creating a new B.C. Teachers’ Council to replace the dysfunctional B.C. College of Teachers. We should know later this year if he has found a winning formula. Eyes will also be on Abbott as he creates a plan for so-called 21st century learning in public schools. (Add your views: www.bcedplan.ca)

2. Susan Lambert. She was a force to be reckoned with in 2011 as BCTF president, but her real test will be this year  as she continues efforts to win a wage increase for teachers despite the government’s firm commitment to its public-sector wage freeze. The union has been involved in a work-to-rule job action since September but that’s unlikely to be sufficient pressure to win the kind of deal her members are expecting. The question now is, when will the BCTF move to a Phase 2 job action? And will that be a full-scale walkout? Lambert is also facing a showdown with government over Bills 27 and 28, which ended the union’s ability to negotiate class size and composition. The court declared the bills unconstitutional and gave the Liberals until April to resolve the issue. Government and the union do not agree on what sort of action the court ruling requires.

3. Patti Bacchus. While she didn’t have the same profile in 2011 as she did in 2010 when she went head-to-head with former education minister Margaret MacDiarmid, Bacchus continues to be the most recognizable and outspoken trustee in B.C. Whether you like that or not, depends on your politics because she isn’t Liberal friendly. That said, Bacchus topped the polls in Vancouver during trustee elections in November, as she did in 2008, and was once again elected chairwoman. Her challenge this year will be the same as it was last year: leading the board as it cuts millions in spending without closing schools.

Read full article here.

By Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun 

jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2011

Imagine a world where anyone can instantly access all of the world’s scholarly knowledge – as profound a change as the invention of the printing press. Technically, this is within reach. All that is needed is a little imagination, to reconsider the economics of scholarly communications from a poetic viewpoint.

Highlights

There are over 7,000 peer-reviewed fully open access journals as listed in the DOAJ, still growing by 4 titles per day and over 6,000 of these are in English, as listed by Open J-Gate. Electronic Journals Library keeps track of more than 32,000 free journals. There are over 2,000 repositories, linking to more than 30 million items, growing at the rate of 21 thousand items per day, which can be searched through the snazzy new Bielefeld Academic Search Engine search options. PLoS ONE, having become the world’s largest journal last year, outdid themselves by doubling the number of articles published this year. PubMedCentral, arXiv, RePEC, and E-LIS growth was in the 10-15% range for the year. This issue of Dramatic Growth adds a new feature, a first attempt at comparing compliance rates with a few medical funders’ open access policies – so far, Wellcome Trust is looking good!

Read full article here.

By Heather Morrison

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada