UBC Library is proud to be part of Celebrate Research Week at UBC, which takes place March 2-9, 2012 and highlights research excellence across UBC’s faculties, departments, schools and partner institutions. As a #research partner at UBC, the Library connects faculty and students with local and global information resources, and enables new forms of knowledge creation, dissemination and exchange.

In addition to the events listed below, UBC Library will announce the winner of the 3rd Annual Innovative Dissemination of Research Award at the Celebrate Research Week Gala. Established by the Library in 2010, this award focuses on new and innovative ways of communicating and disseminating knowledge. 

We are proud to support this year’s Celebrate Research Week with the following workshops, discussions, open houses and other events at our Vancouver campus:

As UBC transitions to a new copyright environment, we encourage users to visit the University’s copyright site to understand the issues and plan accordingly.

Its content is maintained by the Office of the Provost and VP Academic, UBC Library, UBC Bookstore, the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (Vancouver), the Centre for Teaching and Learning (Okanagan) and the Office of the University Counsel.

Thanks for checking in – we’ll make sure to keep you up to date with new developments. For more assistance, please refer to an extensive list of contacts at UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses here.

 Report on Unconference, Feb 16th, 2012

 Location: Justice Institute of BC, New Westminster

 Time: 6:30 to 8:00pm 1.5 hours structured opening section with Sue Bradley demonstrating PubReMiner

•  Also, 1hr of show and tell among classroom participants

Participants: 15 attendees; 11 arrived to participate in-person; 5 beamed in via WebEx

• one MAS/MLIS student from UBC
• a library technician interested in joining HLABC
• technically, WebEx worked well though some online participants had sound trouble

WebEx worked well for the presenters and without incident

Comments: “That was a lot of fun…. when is the next one?”

• “What a great idea; it was nice to see everyone participate”
• “….some very useful resources were shared….thank you everyone”
• “A special thanks to Daniel Hooker, Website Coordinator, for ensuring our technical success”
• “….thank you to Marjory and her staff at JIBC for providing the space …..”

HLABC President Linda Howard discussed two excellent sites for psychosocial and geriatric QoL scales

• Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing

• Geriatric nursing resources – full-text measures & assessments

These are now on the HLWIKI Canada Finding health questionnaires, scales & tests

Thanks to all. Our next unconference will likely be at UBC in April or later.

In the meantime, mark off March 27th for a special evening (6-8pm at UBC Koerner Library) bringing together LIBR534 Students and HLABC members for an evening of shared innovation. So far, Andrea Freeman, Devon Greyson, Doug Salzwedel, Greg Rowell, Sharon Stevens & Linda Howard have agreed to speak. I will also ask two groups of two students to present their research.

But apart from that new learning investment fund, which will distribute $30 million next year and a total of $165 million over three years, the basic grant for public education is expected to remain relatively flat for three years at an annual $4.7 billion a year. Average spending for K-12 schools will grow at only 0.6 per cent next year, down from 1.1 per cent during the previous two years and 4.8 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09.

The post-secondary sector faces similar restraints.

In delivering his budget today, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon urged the 60 school districts – especially 17 in and around Metro Vancouver – to reduce costs by sharing more head-office functions. Districts now spend about $840 million a year on administration, operations, maintenance and transportation services and could expect savings of three to eight per cent by following the Health Ministry’s approach to shared services, budget documents suggest.

It’s advice school officials have been hearing for years.

In addition, school districts, universities, colleges and others in the public sector are being told to sell surplus properties to raise money for other projects. A recent government review identified more than 100 surplus properties and estimated that disposal of some could produce a net gain of about $700 million. Falcon said 40 per cent of those properties are in the education sector and proceeds could help finance other capital projects.

As expected, the budget offers no money for a pay hike for B.C. teachers, whose union recently proposed a 15 per cent increase in a three-year deal. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association have made little progress during almost 12 months of bargaining, and a government fact finder is expected to report by Thursday on whether a negotiated deal is possible.

“Let me be perfectly clear,” Falcon stated in his budget speech. “We are not prepared to borrow money to pay for public-sector wage increases today and send the bill to our children tomorrow.”

The post-secondary sector also received a tough message, with government calling for reductions in administrative budgets by $20 million in 2013-14 and $50 million in 2014-15. Savings must come from travel, executive overhead and support services, but not classrooms, the minister said.

“The province will work with universities, colleges and other institutions to help ensure that front-line programs are not affected,” he told the legislature. “And we believe (this) one per cent cost reduction is very achievable.”

As in the K-12 sector, the average annual increases for post-secondary are shrinking – to 1.6 per cent a year in the coming three years from 3.4 per cent during the past two years and 6.5 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09. Annual spending for post-secondary is about $5 billion.

Overall, education will consume a smaller percentage of annual government spending at 26.8 per cent in 2012-13 compared to 27.6 per cent two years ago.

Written by: Janet Steffenhagen

Click here to read the entire article. 

An article about the Freedom to Read exhibit at UBC Library appears in the Smithers Interior News.

Join UBC Library as it celebrates the freedom to read with an exhibit of banned and controversial books. The exhibition takes place from February 4-14 on the second-floor foyer of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, and from February 15 to March 3 on the second floor of Koerner Library.

Come check out the show and find out more about the freedom to read.

In support of Celebrate Research Week, the David Lam Library is offering a Current Awareness for Business Researchers workshop on Thursday March 8 from 9.30-11.00am in the Canaccord Learning Commons, Rm 222.

In this workshop, we will cover how to set up e-mail or RSS alerts for:

• Latest business and finance news
• Articles published in your research area
• Latest issues of important journals
• Business books at UBC Library

We will also look at how to use RefWorks as current awareness tool.

This session is for graduate students at the Sauder School of Business.

Register for the session here: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/3008

Photo: Martin Dee

Articles about a petition to open the Irving K. Learning Centre on a 24/7 continual basis have appeared in the Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper, and on the site of News1130.

The Learning Centre is currently open on a 24/7 basis during exam periods.

Link from here and enjoy!

The National Reading Campaign is about creating a reading strategy for Canada. It is about engaging Canadians in exploring what a Canadian reading plan would look like, and what we would expect the key outcomes to be. In short, it is a campaign to incorporate and promote reading as a central feature of 21st century Canadian citizenship.

The National Reading Campaign had its beginnings in 2008, when a coalition of readers, parents, writers, editors, librarians, bookstore owners, teachers, publishers and distributors came together to assess and consider the changing reading habits of Canadians. Learn more about the Reading Coalition here.

The first forum, held in 2008, proposed that a National Reading Campaign be developed over the course of three Reading Summits. The first Summit was held in Toronto in 2009, the second was held in Montreal in 2011 and the third will take place in May 2012 in Vancouver.

Why do we need a National Reading Campaign?

Becoming a reader is at the very heart of responsible citizenship. But as we find ourselves caught in the fierce updrafts of an information hurricane, we often lose sight of what reading — as an intellectual activity — contributes to our sense of self, our cultural awareness, our capacity for self-expression and, ultimately, our notions of engaged citizenship and the collective good. Reading, after all, is about so much more than a technical act that allows us to communicate, consume media and perform the activities of daily life. To be literate is necessary, but it is not enough.

Read more about the Summit here.

~information and links from the National Reading Campaign website