Catch up on library news with the latest issue of Nexus, the library newsletter! Highlights include the new RULA service kiosk, an introduction to the new incoming Associate Chief Librarian, and much more.
Laptop Loan Survey Results
With over 65,000 circulations annually, laptop loans account for ¼ of the total circulation transactions at the Library. Staff recently conducted a survey to assess the current program and provide recommendations for future service models. Thank you to over 1,500 students who filled out the survey, and congratulations to the winner of the Chromebook! The following are highlights from the survey results:
- 64% of survey respondents were undergraduate students; half of which had borrowed a library laptop.
- In rating various tablets and Android devices, 88% of students rated laptops as the #1 most important mobile device for their academic success.
- Students borrowed laptops so they didn’t have to bring their own device from home, to study away from the computer areas or outside the library or because the computers in the library were all busy.
- Students borrow laptops primarily for academic work, such as access to class notes and readings via Blackboard, to write assignments or to check emails.
- Students would like to see service improvements in the following areas: length of the loan period (currently 4 hrs), laptops with faster performance and longer battery life, more library laptops, and customized desktops on the laptop with icons for important links such as Blackboard, Copyrite, and wireless printing.
Cover & Spread: Exhibition Featuring Images from Canadian Architect
An upcoming exhibition titled Cover & Spread in the Paul H. Cocker Gallery in Ryerson’s Architecture Building features selected images from Canadian Architect magazine. This collection was donated to Special Collections in 2009, making thousands of negatives, transparencies and photographs taken for publication in Canadian Architect accessible to students, researchers and the public. Special Collections is located on the 4th floor of the Library. The collection is a significant record of Canadian architecture between the years 1955 and 1990. Using photographs from the Canadian Architect collection, students and faculty designed and mounted this exhibition, looking at modern architecture in Canada. The exhibition will be open from October 22nd to November 14th, and is accessible to the general public.For more information, see the article on the Canadian Architect website.
Open Access Week Events at the Library
Open Access Week is a global event held annually in October to raise awareness of the benefits of Open Access in the academic and research community. We encourage faculty and graduate students to attend open access events and learn more about how open access can benefit your teaching and research.
Liberate Your Course Materials: Open Access and Copyright Free Resources For Your Teaching
October 22, 2013 – 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in LIB-489B, Library 4th floor.
In this workshop, facilitated by Ann Ludbrook, Copyright Librarian, and Michelle Schwartz, Research Associate for the Learning and Teaching Office, we will highlight freely available course materials, textbooks, data sets, and multimedia. The new fair dealing exceptions to the Copyright Act, in combination with Creative Commons material, public domain historical material, and open access books and journals, means that there is more content open for the taking than ever before. Learn where you can find free images for your PowerPoints and free textbooks for your classes! We will be providing participants with tips, resources, and information on library services available to reduce the work required to put together course readings.
Please register online through the LTO website before Oct 22.
Open Access Week: Screening of RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Thursday, October 24 – 1:30-3 p.m. in LIB489B, 4th floor of the Library
RiP is an open source documentary that challenges the concept of copyright. While it focuses on music it addresses wider issues such as copyleft, open source, Creative Commons licensing, and file sharing.
“In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers”.
The film features Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow. For more information, visit: http://www.nfb.ca/film/
Libraries, OERs, and Open Access
Webinar: Elaine Fabbro, Colin Elliott, and Rachel Conroy, Athabasca University
Friday, October 25, 2013 – 2:00-3:00 p.m. in LIB489B, 4th floor – register to view the webinar in the Library, or view from off-campus.
Athabasca University (AU) and Athabasca University Library have a long history in supporting and promoting Open Access. AU was the first university in Canada to adopt an Open Access Research Policy and has led many other Open Access initiatives. As the university moves to a model that utilizes Open Educational Resources, the AU Library is being called upon to support more courses with Open Access resources. This entails educating faculty, finding open resources, and creating the necessary infrastructure to support OA. This session will discuss the benefits and challenges of supporting OERs with Open Access. Athabasca University is hosting a series of webinars on Open Access issues relating to education throughout the week, open to the general public.
The Library will also have a contest running on Twitter throughout Open Access Week to help raise awareness. The owners of the first 3 retweets with the hashtag #RyeOA2013 will receive a $10 gift certificate to the Ryerson Bookstore.
In addition to events at Ryerson, both University of Toronto Libraries and York University Libraries are also celebrating open access with a series of events, which are open to the academic community at large.
The Library also has an Open Access Author’s Fund to provide financial support for authors who wish to publish their research in an open access journal.
Winner from the Learning Commons Open House
The 2013 Learning Commons Open House was recently held on Tuesday, September 24 from 12-2p.m. in the Ronald D. Besse Information and Learning Commons, on the Library’s main floor. Participants were able to learn about essential academic support services while entering a draw for fabulous prizes, including an iPad mini!
Congratulations to Daniel Cabral,a 1st year Chemical Engineering student and the lucky winner of the iPad mini! Daniel (left), is pictured here receiving the coveted prize from Diane Granfield (right), Manager of Learning Services and Chair of the Learning Commons Open House Committee. Future Shop gift certificates will also distributed as secondary prizes.
The event was great fun, with an appearance by Eggy. Thank you to everyone who participated, and we look forward to seeing you next year!
The 2nd Annual Jack Layton Lecture
Ed Broadbent, former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), will be the speaker at the 2nd Annual Jack Layton Lecture on September 24, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. in the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, Room ENG-103. The lecture is titled Social Democracy: Dead as a Dodo or the Only Option?
In late 2011, Olivia Chow and the Layton family donated a collection of Jack’s books to Ryerson. For more information on this donation and Jack’s contribution to Ryerson, please see the following website.
Back to school…by the numbers
Did you know that 64.1% of adults aged 25 to 64 in Canada had post-secondary qualifications in 2011? Here are some more interesting statistics about education in Canada.
For more information about data and statistics resources, contact librdata@ryerson.ca or check out the Library’s data pages.
Summer issue of NEXUS is available
Get up to speed with what’s happening at the Library! The latest issue of NEXUS, the Library newsletter, is available online.
Highlights include the Library’s award-winning BookFinder application, the arrival of Dr. Joe MacInnis, the Library’s first Distinguished Visiting Professor, and much more. Enjoy the read!
2011 National Household Survey – more results available
The next results from the voluntary 2011 National Household Survey (formerly the long-form census) were released on June 26, 2013. Topics in this release include education, labour, mobility and migration. For information on response rates to the NHS, click here.
RACER Interlibrary Loan service turns 10!
Wow! The RACER Interlibrary Loan service is now 10 years old! Ryerson was one of the first schools to go live with the service in 2003. Since then, 74 libraries in 20 institutions across the province have handled 2.3 million borrowing and 2.8 million lending requests via RACER, representing an average of half a million requests per year!
Thank you to all who have contributed to the service over the past 10 years.