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Tag: open access

Searching for data on Indigenous and ethnoracial identities

Our goal in developing the guide on Indigenous and ethnoracial data was to contribute to building and designing equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist data communities - Data Librarian Kevin ManuelExposing the complex history of data collection and the Census of Canada

Looking for data to support research on racialized people and Indigenous groups in Canada? It might be worth a long scroll through the history of the Census of Canada–its origins, practices, terminology and evolution as it defines, in part, how we view and explain Canada. 

Data Librarian Kevin Manuel, with co-authors Data Services Coordinator Alexandra Cooper, Queens University Library, and Data Services Librarian Rosa Orlandini, York University Libraries, recently had their 2022 research article “Who is counted? Ethno-racial and indigenous identities in the Census of Canada, 1871-2021” published in the open access journal International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST) Quarterly’s special issue on Systemic Racism in Data Practices.

Outlining obstacles researchers face when looking at datasets, the authors review the Census’s modifications to terminology and the ways in which it has asked entho-racial origin questions, noting that “the collection of racial, ethnic, or Indigenous data has changed throughout the years and from Census to Census.”

Since 1871, the Census has been used to collect socio-demographic data, and as a tool to understand where, how and who lives in Canada. Information collected is used to help direct funding for resources and inform policy. However, who is included and how, has significantly impacted the snapshot(s) of Canada, and has created obstacles for researchers working on understanding Indigenous and racialized groups, and their experiences.

Going back to the beginning, Manuel et al., examine when and how Indigenous and entho-racial identities started to be included, and how. In 1911, the Census began collecting information on new settlers, but excluded racialized and Indigenous groups. As it evolved, data collection expanded to include ethno-racial groups and with it changes to terminology and questions. Terms, at different times, included: place of origin, racial origin, ethnic origin, ethnic or cultural group, but distinctions between these terms has not been clearly defined. While expanding, confusion regarding what that meant, remains.

For researchers looking to the Census for data specifically on Indigenous groups, understanding its history is equally important. It wasn’t until 1986 that questions related to Indigenous identities were asked separately from racial and ethnic origin questions. Previous to 1986, questions regarding Indigenous identity appeared under ‘origin’ as ‘Indian.’ A term in which immigrants from India would have also related.

Further confusing datasets, the Census required Indigenous peoples to follow ancestral lineage, but how varied from year to year. For example, in 1941 and 1951 respondents could mark ‘Indian’ or ‘Eskimo’ based on their father’s origin. Other years, ‘origin’ was based on maternal ancestry. 

It is important to note that today Métis, Inuit and First Nations are recognized as Indigenous peoples. 

As a data librarian, Manuel is all too familiar with the complexities and systemic racism present in collecting, finding, researching and understanding how data is organized, as well as how it varies between sources and from country to country (there are no international standards).

“It is challenging for researchers comparing Census data over time to examine Indigenous and ethno-racial data as the classifications have changed significantly from the colonial era to the present,” says Manuel.

To help address some of the issues in researching historical data, Manuel, Cooper and Orlandini created a ‘Data on Racialized Populations’ guide available publicly on the Scholars Portal.

The guide is “a curated list of datasets that include ethnicity and race variables which can be used to facilitate anti-racism research in Canada,” and is intended as a starting point for researchers.

“Our goal in developing the guide on Indigenous and ethnoracial data was to contribute to building and designing equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist data communities,” says Manuel.

While the guide provides an invaluable resource, there remains much work to be done in identifying and understanding systemic racism in data collection and bringing about change. In addition to this work, Manuel is the program co-chair of this year’s IASSIST 2023 Conference. The theme of the 2023 conference is Diversity in Research: Social Justice from Data. 

In continuing to work towards building more equitable data communities, the conference’s theme intends to address issues in data collection, and shine a light on obstacles faced in searching datasets. “We hope to achieve greater inclusivity of presentations and discussions about data that is collected regarding people that are marginalized, and set a precedent for embedding more diversity in our conferences going forward,” says Manuel. 

 

Data Librarian Kevin Manuel is hosting a presentation and discussion (Feb. 16) during Love Data Week titled: Who is counted? How to use the Census of Canada timeline to search for ethno-racial and Indigenous identities

Learn more and register

 

 

Open Access Week Events Oct. 21-27, 2019

Open Access Week is a global event held annually in October to raise awareness of the benefits of Open Access in the academic community.  Open access materials are academic materials distributed online legally and free of cost. This year’s theme is  Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge – a prompt for the academic community to consider the benefits of open access, which include increased access to knowledge in our own communities and around the world. Ryerson Library is hosting several Open Access Week events in the week Oct. 21-27. We encourage faculty and graduate students to attend open access events and learn more about how open access can benefit your teaching and research.

Open Access Week Keynote and Award

Day: Oct 21, 2019

Time: 12 p.m.- 2 p.m.

Location: Library Collaboratory, 3rd Floor (access via 3rd Floor, LIB/SLC)

Keynote – Open Access and Inclusive Infrastructure in Support of Epistemic Diversity and Knowledge Equity

Keynote Speaker: Leslie Chan, University of Toronto, Scarborough

Leslie’s talk will focus on why we need to think beyond Open Access and the common debates about business models and licensing options. As commercial interests have increasingly been monopolizing the essential infrastructure of knowledge production and distribution, this will have the effect of further narrowing the ways we think about the research processes, dissemination, and evaluation of impact. The implications for the reduction of intellectual diversity and means of knowledge representations will be discussed.

Leslie Chan Biography: 
Leslie Chan is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Critical Development Studies, University of Toronto, Scarborough, where he is crossed appointed to the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media. His teaching and professional practices center on the role of “openness” in the design of inclusive knowledge infrastructure, and the implications for the production and flow of knowledge, and their impact on local and international development. An original signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, Leslie has been active in the experimentation and implementation of scholarly communication initiatives of varying scales around the world. He has served as Director of Bioline International, an international collaborative open access platform since 2000. Leslie was the principal investigator for the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet), funded by IDRC in Canada and DFID in the UK, and the PI of the Knowledge G.A.P project. He serves on the advisory board of the Directory of Open Access Journal, and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Recently he became a member of an international working group on Investing in Open Infrastructure. He has published broadly on open access, open science, and scholarly communications.

Award – 2019 Ryerson Library Open Access Wall of Fame 

Dr. Jennifer L. Lapum

Dr. Jennifer Lapum is a Professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. She is a leader and social justice advocate in the development and curricular integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) in post-secondary education. She has been a lead author and editor in the production of several e-textbooks that have involved creating original content combined with adapting and remixing existing OER. These resources have included topics related to health assessment, vital sign measurement, scholarly writing, nutrition, nurse-client interviewing, and immunizations. In addition to reducing textbook costs for students, Dr. Lapum’s passion is to promote learner engagement and create accessible learning spaces by leveraging the multi-media and interactive elements of book authoring software programs. The collaborative nature of OER production has been a cornerstone of her work in which she has valued the joint efforts of students, educators, instructional designers, librarians, artists, among others.

Publish Open Access without Paying Fees & Distinguish Yourself with an ORCID ID

Date: Oct 21, 2019

Time: 2 p.m.- 3 p.m

Location: Ryerson Library Collaboratory (access via 3rd Floor, LIB/SLC)

Do you want to publish your scholarly work and make it openly discoverable on the Internet, AND also comply with your publisher agreement? The Library will show you how to “publish green” open access versions of your scholarly articles without having to pay extra fees. Using SHERPA/Romeo and the Library Digital Repository you can learn how to make your article available even if you have already signed a publisher agreement. In this workshop you will also learn how to set-up, use and populate an ORCID account. In order for scholarly work to be found in a global network of researchers, it is essential to easily differentiate authors. Many journal publishers and funding agencies now require or encourage authors to apply with an ORCID ID. In fact over 80 publishers now require an ORCID ID to submit papers, including IEEE, Sage, and Wiley.

Register for these Events

 

Film Screening: Paywall – The Business of Scholarship

Date: Oct 22, 2019

Time: 11 a.m.- 12:30 p.m

Location: Ryerson Library Collaboratory (access via 3rd Floor, LIB/SLC)

As part of Open Access Week, the Library will be screening Paywall: The Business of Scholarship. This documentary, which focuses on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers. There will be popcorn! This is a drop in event open to the Ryerson community.

Engage Students with Social Annotation

Date: Oct 22, 2019

Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Location: Ryerson Library Collaboratory (access via 3rd Floor, LIB/SLC)

Join the teams from the Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching and the Ryerson Library for a hands-on workshop on teaching with social annotation, a new way to engage students with their readings. Recent research has shown that social annotation, which allows students to leave comments, questions, and reflections in the virtual margins of digital texts, as well as interact with each other, builds community and improves students’ reading comprehension, motivation, and critical thinking.
You will learn how to use Hypothes.is, an open and free web annotation tool. Hypothes.is allows you and your students to collaboratively annotate websites and course readings. Hypothes.is can also be used for your own scholarly, research, and creative work.
Hypothes.is is one of many open pedagogy tools available for your teaching needs.

Register for these Events

2018/19 Toronto Metropolitan University Library and Archives OER Grants

The Toronto Metropolitan University Library and Archives (RULA) is pleased to announce its 2018/19 RULA Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants to encourage the creation and adoption of open educational resources. OER are learning materials that are openly licensed such that they are freely available to be adapted, copied, and shared. OER can be: courses, modules, textbooks, multimedia, assessments, and supplementary materials.

These grants advance the University’s priorities to foster an innovation ecosystem and ensure excellence in student learning experiences, and build on RULA’s digital initiatives, expertise in Open Access and Open Education Resource publishing and dissemination, and academic priorities of access and openness. The Library and Archives is very pleased to collaborate with the Office of eLearning and the Learning and Teaching Office in the review and adjudication of the grants, and in the support of successful projects. A total of $35,000 is available in two categories of grants:

Category 1 – Creation or Adaptation

  • 3 grants for creation or adaptation of an OER textbook or ancillary materials and its subsequent use in class- $10,000 each.

Category 2 – Review and Adoption

  • 5 grants for peer review and adoption of OER, or creation of small-scale supplementary/ ancillary material for an existing OER – $1,000 each.

Objectives of the Grant Program

  • To support faculty members in the review, revision and adoption of open textbooks and other OER materials
  • To increase the use of open educational content, textbooks and OER at Toronto Metropolitan University resulting in pedagogical innovation, enhanced access for students, and reduced textbook and class material costs.

Eligibility

All TFA and CUPE Faculty members, Librarians and Post-Doctoral fellows, may apply for these grants.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Curation and customization of OER that will be freely and openly shared within Toronto Metropolitan University and beyond
  • Impact on student experience, including high-quality materials, maximum access, open and innovative pedagogy, and cost savings to students
  • Active engagement of students with Faculty in the adaptation/adoption of OER
  • Improve discipline/subject OER coverage
  • Complete and viable budget and project outcomes, consistent with project objectives and appropriate administrative approval from your Chair or supervisor as necessary
  • Foster commitment to building equity, community and inclusion, advance the TRC Calls to Action, and alignment with Ryerson’s Academic Plan and priorities

 Guidelines for Applicants

  • Complete the Application Form by 4:00 pm on September 28, 2018. Proposals must be submitted via this link prior to the deadline.
  • Selection Process: Proposals will be evaluated according to an established assessment rubric based on the criteria noted above. A RULA OER Grant Review Committee comprising representation from the Library and Archives (chair), the eLearning Office, and the Learning and Teaching Office will consider all applications. The results of this process will be communicated to each applicant in late October, and announced during Open Access Week 2018.
  • Funds will be available once a detailed budget is approved by the RULA OER Grant Review Committee.
    • Funds may be used to be used to pay students; editors; graphic designers; videographers, with preference given to projects that employ Ryerson students. Funds cannot be used to purchase equipment or used for travel costs.
    • This is not an equipment fund, however, if the substance of the project requires equipment, that component may be considered if it is demonstrated that such equipment is unavailable on campus and is instrumental to the project on a case-by-case approved basis.
    • Faculty teaching release is not funded by this grant.
    • Funds will be made available no later than November 30th, 2018 after recipients attend an introductory 2-hour on-boarding session. Category 1 funds must be expended no later than August 31st, 2019, and Category 2 funds must be expended no later than April 15th, 2019.
    • Brief final reports at project completion and/or close of the granting period are required, including an outline of fund expenditures. Any unspent funds will be returned to the Library and Archives.

Reporting and Deliverables

 For Category 1 – Creation and Adaptation grants:
A mid-term report is due April 15, 2019, and final reports and links to materials created must be submitted to the Library OER Grant Committee by August 31, 2019. Upon completion of the project, a presentation must be made during Open Access Week (October 2019).

For Category 2 – Review and Adoption grants:

Final two-page report and links to materials created must be submitted to the Library OER Grant Committee by April 15, 2019. Upon completion of the project, a short presentation must be made during Open Access Week (October 2019).

Acknowledgment and Licensing

Grant recipients are required to credit the RULA Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants in any publications, conference proceedings, or media appearances resulting from the funded project.

All materials created via these funds must be licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, or a CC-BY-NC license and indicate that they were funded by a RULA Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants.

Assessment

Groups will be interviewed at end of project for feedback and a follow-up interview will be done after in-classroom pilots.

Application Process

To apply for a grant, please submit a completed application form to RULA by 4 pm September 28, 2018. Grant recipients will be announced October 22nd, 2018.   If you have questions, please feel free to contact either Ann Ludbrook aludbrook@torontomu.ca ext. 6910, or Sally Wilson swilson@torontomu.ca ext. 556898, or email librarygrants@torontomu.ca.

Open Access Week Events at the Library

OAEvents_web_ready

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/rip_a_remix_manifesto/

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.

 

Celebrating Open Access Week in the Library

open access banner

October 24-28 is Open Access Week. The Open Access movement is impacting scholarly communication and post-secondary education in the digital age and the library will be hosting some events this week to promote awareness of open access.

Today, Tuesday October 25, from 12:00-1:30 p.m., take a study break and join us for a film screening on the fourth floor. We will be showing RIP: A Remix Manifesto, an award-winning documentary.

On Wednesday, October 26 from 1-3 p.m., join us in the Learning Commons on the second floor of the library for the Open House. We will highlight services provided there, which will include an Open Access Zone. Come by and learn more. Refreshments will be provided and you can enter a draw to win an iPad2!

Join Digital Initiatives Librarian Brian Cameron on Thursday, October 27 from 2-3 p.m. in LIB489B for a discussion entitled Author Rights in a Digital World. This session will examine copyright transfer agreements, author addenda, and discuss open access publishing and Creative Commons Licenses.

Open Access Week – RiP: A Remix Manifesto Screening

Tuesday October 25th; 12:00-1:30 p.m. 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.

Webcast in support of Open Access Week

In celebration of International Open Access Week  2010 (October 18 – 24), the Library invites you to join us for the following webcast on open access.

A Critical Theory of the Open: A Dialogue Between John Willinsky and
Andrew Feenberg
, is a free webcast sponsored by the Simon Fraser
University Library and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries
(CARL).  This webcast will explore, in dialogue, issues surrounding the concept of open access.

The webcast will be shown on Thursday October 21, 2010, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 pm (11:00 am – 12:30 pm Pacific Time) in LIB489, on the 4th floor of the Library.  If you are not able to join us, you can view it at: 
http://tlcentre.sfu.ca/broadcast/.