It’s an interesting and telling snapshot of the pressures students face and a resulting prevalence of cheating and plagiarism. Unfortunately, the documentary gives no real [...]]]> Faking the Grade, produced by the CBC’s Doc Zone, is “an examination of what has been described as an epidemic of cheating in North American colleges, universities and high schools.”

It’s an interesting and telling snapshot of the pressures students face and a resulting prevalence of cheating and plagiarism. Unfortunately, the documentary gives no real attention to ways instructors strive to combat these problems… which is something librarians can help with. Take a look at:

• Deterring Plagiarism: A New Role for Librarians
• Detecting Plagiarism (Mount Royal)
• Guide to Plagiarism (University of Alberta)
• Plagiarism at Acadia: A Faculty Member’s Guide (Acadia University)

Some days are dark, drab and draining, especially when sitting at a desk all day long in the dead of winter in Edmonton, Alberta. Then something comes along to spark some interest and excitement. I’ve had many of these moments of late and plan to share them here in the [...]]]> Happy 2013! *dusts off blog*

Some days are dark, drab and draining, especially when sitting at a desk all day long in the dead of winter in Edmonton, Alberta. Then something comes along to spark some interest and excitement. I’ve had many of these moments of late and plan to share them here in the coming weeks and months in an effort to resuscitate my little piece of the Internet.

For now, feast your eyes upon projects created in the…

Library Test Kitchen/Labrary

As described on the site, “LABRARY is an experimental Pop-Up space put together by Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) students from the the Library Test Kitchen, with the help of the Harvard Library and the Library Lab.”

I stumbled upon the Labrary today after a co-worker pointed out a recent Twitter account devoted to documenting students sleeping in our midst. Practical solution idea from the Library Test Kitchen seminar class: A Neo-Carrel Sleeping Chair!

Ken spoke at Red Deer College a few weeks and it was a great opportunity to hear about many “out of the box” initiatives being undertaken by North [...]]]> Click here to subscribe to Academica’s Top 10 and receive regular emails profiling current topics in higher education in Canada from Ken Steele. It’s totally worth it!

Ken spoke at Red Deer College a few weeks and it was a great opportunity to hear about many “out of the box” initiatives being undertaken by North American universities and colleges to benefit student recruitment, retention and learning overall.

Take a look at his presentation slides on “The Future-Ready Campus” here from a recent leadership conference at UWO.

Ottawa is choke-full of librarians right now, with the Canadian Library Association Conference ending tomorrow and the ABC Copyright Conference happening Monday and Tuesday.

It’s a good time for the profession to be congregating in the political/national capital given recent cuts to Library [...]]]>

Click on the image to buy a button from Cafe Press.

Ottawa is choke-full of librarians right now, with the Canadian Library Association Conference ending tomorrow and the ABC Copyright Conference happening Monday and Tuesday.

It’s a good time for the profession to be congregating in the political/national capital given recent cuts to Library and Archives Canada (LAC), along with Access Copyright and Bill C-11 making the news as oppositions to both arise (more than usual). There’s meaningful dialogue and strategizing taking place, I am sure, along with a bit of ruckus (read: Librarians Silenced at CLA Conference).

If you’re not there getting in on the action and feeling left out, however, here are some other ways to ensure some political engagement with the profession for the greater good:

• Visit the Save Library and Archives Canada website, and send a letter to the Hon. James Moore (Canadian Heritage Minister) voicing your concerns about recent cuts.

• Read up on updates (and what Dr. Michael Geist has to say about) Access Copyright.

• Sign this petition! It’s petitioning the Obama government to “require free, timely access over the Internet to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research.” 25 000 signatures are needed by June 19 to bring this debate into political and policy discussions in the US (and you do not need to be an American citizen to sign). For more on this action, visit access2research.org, and take a look at this:

* ETA: 25 000 signatures were reached the evening of June 3, 2012.

Recent links posted to the page include:

A small Canadian conference focused on library instruction has proven its worth once again.

A few highlights from WILU 2012…

Open Cover Letters

It’s an open repository of samples of cover letters for a variety of professions to [...]]]> The other day I was browsing through Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers 2012” (Vol. 137 No. 5). Among the featured information professionals was Emerging Technologies Librarian Stephen X. Flynn who has created a site for job seekers:

Open Cover Letters

It’s an open repository of samples of cover letters for a variety of professions to help inspire those among us who, like myself, get frustrated trying to craft the perfect sentences to grab the attention of hiring committees.

Great idea!

Saturday my co-worker Anne Marie Watson and I are presenting at the Alberta Library Conference in Jasper, Alberta.

The topic of our discussion is affordable ways to integrate mobile technologies into library services, including text reference, QR codes, and mobile-friendly websites and apps.

In other [...]]]>

Scan this code with your phone or visit http://rdc.libguides.com/goingmobile

Saturday my co-worker Anne Marie Watson and I are presenting at the Alberta Library Conference in Jasper, Alberta.

The topic of our discussion is affordable ways to integrate mobile technologies into library services, including text reference, QR codes, and mobile-friendly websites and apps.

In other words, it will be about ways to go where library users are these days… on their cell phones, anywhere, anytime…

Our presentation slides and more information about technologies and resources are available on a Going Mobile LibGuide I created to complement the session.

ETA: Session attendees had lots of interest in scanning QR codes at the conclusion of our session:

Photo by amjwatson via Twitter

APA has this covered as well (explained here).

Of broader interest, “social scholarship” is a really interesting concept that embraces the act of scholars using Web [...]]]> I noticed an interesting post about citation pop up on the RDC Library Facebook wall today. Apparently, MLA has created a standard format for citing tweets. Learn more here.

APA has this covered as well (explained here).

Of broader interest, “social scholarship” is a really interesting concept that embraces the act of scholars using Web 2.0 to both conduct research and share their research findings with others. For more information about this, take a look at Social Scholarship on the Rise, a blog post by Laura Cohen written back in 2007. This post had a big impact on me while I was in library school learning about both information literacy and social software; I even wrote a paper on it that I have saved… somewhere. In any case, back then I thought, “How great would it be to hold a session on this topic for graduate students and faculty researchers?” And I still feel that way. (Makes mental note, and public blog declaration, to make this happen.)