Category Archives: E Books

Maximizing UVic Libraries eBooks for Students

eTextbooks for Students (Fall 2023)

We are continuing with UVic Libraries etextbooks for students project, started in fall 2021, to track the use of library licensed electronic books assigned in courses for the fall 2023 academic term. The project provides a list of electronic versions of course textbooks that are available to students through the Library and supports access and affordability efforts that are important to student success. This year, the list has moved to a new location. 

This project complements the Libraries’ advocacy efforts and aligns with its Strategic Directions. With this project we have the opportunity to scan the university landscape to determine the extent to which the Libraries’ licensed resources are being used at all levels of course work. The Libraries’ expanded ebook collection allows instructors to assign quality course materials, while providing affordable solutions for students. 

These savings improve students’ access to affordable, quality education and are closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals #4.

During the 2023 fall term, we believe instructors saved UVic students a total of $436,889.11 by identifying 183 titles used in 160 courses. Please check back here at the beginning of the spring 2024 semester for further savings.

Venn diagram showing the comparison between Fall 2022 -Summer 2023 Savings through the eTextbooks for Students project ($835,413.75) and the Fall 2023 savings ($436,899.11). Additional text to the right of the diagram reads "We identified 183 e-books available across 160 courses for Fall 2023". The UVic logo is in the bottom right, and UVic colours (red, blue and yellow) are used in the image.

CALL TO ACTION:

FACULTY: Let us know if you are using an open textbook or UVic Libraries licensed resources for your course this academic year!

STUDENTS: Let us know if you are accessing an open textbook or library licensed resources for your course!

 

New Title: Learning from our Past

Learning from our Past is a new release published by the University of Victoria Libraries ePublishing Services. It can be downloaded for free on UVicSpace

 


cover for Learning from our Past textbook

This middle school learning resource focuses on the history of livelihoods and lifeways in the Banda District of Ghana, West Africa. Today a rural district in west central Ghana, Banda has long been a crossroads of trade and a place where people from different backgrounds settled and formed communities. The fascinating history of how Banda area people interacted with neighbouring communities, responded to changing climate, and drew on local knowledge and resources to sustain their families comes from studying archaeology, oral histories and textual sources. Among the topics covered in this open-access resource are trade and the effects of global connections on rural life; the science and innovation behind local industries like potting and metallurgy; the role of weaving as a technology that transformed local materials into valued goods; and the range of ways in which people provided for their families through farming, fishing and hunting. The resource combines background information with suggested hands-on activities that support learning. The resource is available in English and in Nafaanra, which is one of several languages spoken in the Banda District.


Authors

Allison Balabuch is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria. She earned her degrees from the University of British Columbia – a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Political Science and a Bachelor of Education – and the University of Victoria – a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction. She has been a French Immersion teacher for 25 years in British Columbia and England. Her teaching and research are centered on project-based learning, arts-based learning, land-based learning, and interdisciplinary studies in the classroom. Her current research is focused on community-based and interdisciplinary collaboration with the goal of improving and decolonizing educational systems and pedagogy.

Dr. Esther Attiogbe is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Professional Studies Accra. She holds a PhD in Adult Education and Human Resource Studies from the University of Ghana. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Administration and Master of Philosophy in Administration from the University of Ghana. Esther did her Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the University of Ghana in collaboration with the University of Victoria, Canada. She teaches at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Her research interests are in the areas of higher education management, adult learning and human resource management. Her teaching philosophy is underpinned by the concept of gameful learning where learners and instructors collaborate and interact to make the learning environment interesting, engaging and personalized. With a passion for educating the youth, she is involved in youth programmes in her community. She is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Human Resource Management, Ghana.

Dr. Ann Stahl is a Professor in the University of Victoria’s Department of Anthropology who earned her M.A. in Archaeology from the University of Calgary (1978) and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley (1985). She is an anthropological archaeologist whose long-term research has focused on how daily life in rural West Africa has been reshaped over centuries by involvement in global exchange networks. Funded by a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant (“Improving African Futures Using Lessons from the Past,” 2018-2022), a recent project involved collaborations with partners in Ghana and the University of Victoria Libraries to develop sustainable and accessible digital heritage resources that help communities to sustain place-based relationships and foster knowledge revitalization (Banda Through Time). Her most recent work, supported by an SSHRC Connection grant, has involved collaborations with educators to enhance the role of heritage-based knowledge in classroom learning. She has held faculty positions at Binghamton University in New York (1988-2008) and University College London’s Institute of Archaeology (1985-1988) and her work has been funded over the years by the British Academy, the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Geographic Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the British Museum’s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. She is editor of a key text on African archaeology (African Archaeology. A Critical Introduction, 2005, Blackwell), co-editor with Andrew P. Roddick of a multidisciplinary collection, Knowledge in Motion. Constellations of Learning across Time and Place (2016, University of Arizona) and author of Making History in Banda. Anthropological Visions of Africa’s Past (2001, Cambridge University Press). Her most recent book, Archaeology. Why It Matters was published by Polity Press (2023). She is the 2020 recipient of the University of Victoria’s REACH Award for Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization and a Faculty of Social Sciences Lansdowne Distinguished Fellow (2020-2023).

Translator – English to Nafaanra

Mr. Sampson Attah is a resident of Banda-Ahenkro, Banda District, Bono Region, Ghana. He is a member of the community-based Banda Heritage Initiative and a long-time contributor to work of the Banda Research Project (1986-2011), which studied the archaeology and history of Banda’s global connections. From the mid 1980s to the early 2000s, Mr. Attah worked as a Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) translator and he is a strong promoter of indigenous language literacy and revitalization of Nafaanra, which is among Ghana’s at-risk minority languages.

Maximizing UVic Libraries eBooks for Students

eTextbooks for Students ( Summer 2023)

In our continuing effort to track the use of library licensed electronic books assigned in courses we identified 81 titles used in 40 courses during the summer semester. We searched the University Bookstore’s textbook catalog to identify titles adopted by instructors. In adopting the Libraries licensed resources for their courses, we believe instructors saved UVic students a total of $40, 944.75 and in doing so created high impact for students’ access and affordability to a quality education. The total savings for the 2022-23 academic year is $835,413.75. These savings improve students’ access to affordable, quality education and is closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals #4.

sdg-4

CALL TO ACTION:

FACULTY: Lets us know if you are using an open textbook or a UVic Libraries licensed resources for you course this academic year.

STUDENTS: Let us know if you are accessing an open textbook or library licensed resources for your course!

New Title: “Tell Them Not to Hate”

“Tell Them Not to Hate”: Words of Witness and Sacred Imperatives by Rabbi Victor Hillel Reinstein, and edited by Richard Kool is a new release published by the University of Victoria Libraries ePublishing Services. It can be downloaded for free on UVicSpace: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/13021


From the Editor, Dr. Richard Kool: For those of us growing up in families profoundly touched by the Holocaust, there seemed to be two situations: either our parents rarely said anything about their experiences, or they often or always spoke of their experiences. In the former situation, we knew something was wrong: grandparents, uncles, and cousins were missing from our lives and we didn’t know why. They weren’t spoken of: we didn’t know what had happened, and knew we weren’t supposed to know. Or, we knew about those grandparents, aunts, cousins: we knew about them and we knew exactly what happened to them; we knew about their murders at the hands of the Nazis and other European anti-Semites. My family’s secrets were hidden until 1994, when, at the Victoria Yom Ha’shoah service, I realized I needed to understand what happened to my mother. Rabbi Reinstein’s influence at that time was an important part of my journey to uncovering her history as a Dutch teenager in hiding. Hearing Victor’s talk in Victoria in January 2020, I realized I still owed a large debt to him. This elaboration of his presentation, featuring images of the people he spoke about, is an offering of gratitude to him for all the gifts he’s given me and my entire family. About this project: Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross,, Department of History, University of Victoria Rabbi Victor Reinstein visited Victoria in 2020 as a guest of the Defying Hatred Project at the University of Victoria. The project collaborated with Congregation Emanu-El to explore the local Jewish community’s responses to acts of hate and expressions of anti-Semitism and racism. Led by myself and fellow-historian Lynne Marks, political scientist Matt James, Germanic and Slavic Studies professor Helga Thorson, and Victoria Shoah Project member Frances Grunberg, the project was dedicated to critically examining the history and current possibilities of defying hatred in Victoria. When I met Rabbi Reinstein in Boston in the summer of 2019, I discovered (as many had before me) the warmth and depth of his reflections on these topics. This story, I felt, had to be told back home, in Victoria. Funds from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada made the visit possible.


Author

Rabbi Reinstein was born near Boston, MA, in 1950. He was the rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria, BC Canada from 1982 to1998. He then returned to the Boston area and, along with his wife Mieke, founded the Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue in Jamaica Plain, MA. Drawing from Torah and Jewish life, the “vision and the way,” he seeks at the core of his work to help fulfill God’s hope for a world of justice and peace. As founding rabbi, he stepped down from his role as the active rabbi of Nehar Shalom in June, 2020.

 

New Title: Toward a Moral Horizon

Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice edited by Rosalie Starzomski, Janet L. Storch, and Patricia Rodney is a new release published by the University of Victoria Libraries ePublishing Services. It can be downloaded for free on UVicSpace: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/13021


This third edition of Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice will assist nurses and all health care providers to take up the challenge of embedding ethics in health care practice, education, research, and policy at all levels—from local to regional to global. In the current, complex health care environment, more nurses are engaging in graduate studies to enhance their knowledge and expertise in providing necessary leadership in all health care settings. As a result, there is a growing need for an advanced nursing ethics text, and so this book is targeted towards graduate-level and upper-level undergraduate nursing students, as well as nurses in leadership roles—providing a much-needed resource for these groups.

This edition was written during a period when the COVID‑19 pandemic caused a health care crisis in Canada and around the world, provoking what the authors of one of the chapters called “a clarion call for change” in health care provision. The pandemic brought the fault lines of the Canadian health care system to the forefront of awareness, and profoundly affected patients, families, communities, as well as nurses and other health care providers. In addition to the influence of the pandemic, society is in the midst of rapid growth in science and technology. Now, more than ever, nurses need to use nursing ethics when developing their moral compasses for leadership. In this book, the writers focus on ethical knowledge for advanced practice nurse leaders to effect change and improve moral climates in nursing research, education, practice, and policy settings. They focus on social justice and equity as essential values of nursing ethics. Several chapter authors describe ways that nurses can press for improvements in the health care of vulnerable people who may be lacking access to quality health care: for example, Indigenous people, older adults, those who are coping with mental illness, substance use challenges, and those who have a disability. Social justice and equity issues are also explored in a chapter on global health.

This book is structured in three sections, comprised of 22 chapters written by Canadian experts in ethics. In the book, authors map the moral climate for health care and nursing ethics and describe theory related to nursing ethics. They illuminate the use of nursing ethics in diverse populations and with people at all stages of life; and apply nursing ethics to new developments in health care issues and technologies. Educators will be able to bring the content of this book alive with Ethics in Practice scenarios and reflective questions for students that are located in each chapter. Many chapters also include figures or appendices showing models and guidelines that can be used to assist with ethical decision making.

This third edition includes several new chapters, including a chapter on nursing ethical theory as distinct from bioethics, as well as chapters related to people with disabilities, Indigenous health ethics, nursing leadership, and digital health technology. Many topics covered in previous editions are revised and updated. For example, the updated chapter about health care at the end of life now includes an in-depth discussion of medical assistance in dying (MAID). Further updates are included in the areas of research ethics in nursing; the development of the Canadian health care system; nurses as moral agents, and the problem of moral distress; the application of nursing ethics in caring for patients at all stages of life; home health care ethics; ethical issues in biotechnology, and the broad areas of public health ethics and global health ethics. Chapter authors model the use of inclusive language in their writing as applied to gender diverse people and people with disabilities. Extensive references and resources are provided for readers at the end of all chapters.

This edition is cutting-edge as the authors recognize the importance of inclusive language, since language affects attitudes towards people and the way they are treated. In particular, chapter authors in this text model the use of inclusive language in their writing as applied to gender diverse people and people with disabilities.

This third edition is an open access, online publication, meaning that the book is accessible to all with no cost to the readers. This online publication also allows for new features, including two videos, with their accompanying transcripts, where listeners will gain a personal understanding of the contributors’ perspectives. In one video, Indigenous nurse scholars form a traditional circle online, as they discuss nursing ethics from their Indigenous perspectives. The other video showcases two nurses with expertise in digital health technologies in conversation with the book’s editors.

It is the hope of the editors that readers of this third edition will step boldly into shaping the future of health care by becoming more engaged in ethical practice, and becoming more confident in their leadership roles in health care. The content of this text can contribute to the knowledge needed for nurses to make ethical choices knowingly and wisely, so they can demonstrate moral imagination and moral courage in the face of challenges that confront them at all levels of the health care system.


Editors

Dr. Rosalie Starzomski is a professor emeritus at the University of Victoria School of Nursing. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Nursing, the University of Calgary with a Master of Nursing, and the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing. Her research, practice, teaching, and publications are focused on health care and nursing ethics, organ donation and transplantation, nephrology, biotechnology, end-of-life care, and advanced nursing practice. She is an advanced practice nurse leader in nephrology and transplantation, and for a number of years, was an ethics consultant at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and committee chair for several ethics committees. Dr. Starzomski is co-editor of three editions of the book Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice.

Dr. Janet (Jan) Storch is a professor emeritus at the University of Victoria School of Nursing. She earned her degrees from the University of Alberta: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Health Services Administration, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Sociology. Dr. Storch has been a scholar in health care ethics and nursing ethics since the mid-1970s. She was a professor in the Health Services Administration program at the University of Alberta and developed and taught courses on the history and values of the Canadian health care system. Dr. Storch is a former dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary, and a former director of the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria. She is co-editor of three editions of the book Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice.

Dr. Patricia (Paddy) Rodney is an associate professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Alberta; a Master of Science in Nursing from UBC; and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing from UBC. Dr. Rodney worked in critical care nursing at St. Paul’s Hospital, where she had the opportunity to learn about—and later teach in—a rapidly evolving area of clinical nursing practice. She came face to face with ethical challenges regarding end-of-life decision making for patients and their families, and witnessed the moral distress experienced by nurses and other health care providers. This fostered her lifelong interest in nursing ethics and health care ethics. She is a co-editor of three editions of the book Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics for Leadership and Practice.

Maximizing UVic Libraries eBooks for Students

eTextbooks for Students (2022-2023)

We are continuing with UVic Libraries pilot project, started in fall 2021, to track the use of library licensed electronic books assigned in courses for the spring 2022-23 academic term. The eTextbooks project supports access and affordability efforts that are important to student success. The website lists the ebooks by title, Course number, term, and Instructors’ last name.

This project complements the Libraries’ advocacy efforts around open education resources (OER) and aligns with its Strategic Directions. Our OER initiative includes an annual offering of OER grants, cross-campus collaborations with Learning Teaching Support & Innovation, the Bookstore, and the Undergraduate Student Union (UVSS). The project gave us the opportunity to scan the university landscape to determine the extent to which the Libraries’ licensed resources were being used at all levels of course work. The Libraries’ expanded ebook collection allows instructors to assign quality course materials, while providing affordable solutions for students.

With the assistance of our Young Canada Works intern, Liam McParland, we identified 280 total titles used in 394 courses during the fall and spring terms. We searched the University Bookstore’s textbook catalog to identify titles adopted by instructors. In adopting the Libraries licensed resources for their courses, we believe instructors saved UVic students a total of $794,469 and in doing so created high impact for students’ access and affordability to a quality education. These savings improve students’ access to affordable, quality education and is closely aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals #4.

sdg-4

CALL TO ACTION:

FACULTY: Lets us know if you are using an open textbook or a UVic Libraries licensed resources for you course this academic year.

STUDENTS: Let us know if you are accessing an open textbook or library licensed resources for your course!

Beyond BPCs – MIT Press: Direct To Open (D2O)

For anyone wishing to publish open access (OA) scholarly monograph, the book processing charges (BPCs) typically raised by publishers can be an obstacle. This blog series will provide an overview of alternative publishing funding models (Subscribe to Open) for open access monographs in which UVic Libraries participate. The range of innovative approaches to sustainable funding of OA books highlighted here all has in common that authors are relieved of paying costly publication fees.

Direct to Open logo

MIT Press is a renowned academic publisher with strong advocacy for publishing Open Access.  Beginning in 2022, all new monographs and edited volumes published by MIT Press will be made freely available through the Direct To Open program.

The D2O funding model focuses on libraries, not authors. Participating libraries collectively raise a certain amount to cover the cost of making the books available in open access. Bundled into themed packages, participating institutions can decide which content they would like to support.

By default, all D2O titles are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, but authors are free to choose another Creative Commons license. All books are listed on MIT Press’ own e-book platform, MIT Press Direct, in major discovery indexes, and in established OA inventories, like the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). Parallel print editions will be available in bookstores. By distributing each D2O title through multiple channels, they receive the widest possible visibility and dissemination. 

UVic Libraries is participating in the program, thanks to which over 30 titles have already been made openly accessible in 2022.

If you have any questions related to the program, please contact the Office of Scholarly Communication.

Maximizing UVic Libraries eBooks for Students

eTextbooks for Students (2021-2022)

Today we’d like to share a story about UVic Libraries pilot project to track the use of library licensed electronic books assigned in courses for fall 2021 and spring 2022 terms. This project was modeled after a similar program developed at Florida State University, Arizona State University, Penn State University, and other libraries. The eTextbooks project supports access and affordability efforts that are important to student success. The new “eTextbooks for Students” website lists the ebooks by title, Course number, term, and Instructors’ last name.

This project complements the Libraries’ advocacy efforts around open education resources (OER) and aligns with its Strategic Directions. Our OER initiative includes an annual offering  of OER grants, cross-campus collaborations with Learning Teaching Support & Innovation, the Bookstore, and the Undergraduate Student Union (UVSS). The project gave us the opportunity to scan the university landscape to determine the extent to which the Libraries’ licensed resources were being used at all levels of course work. The Libraries’ expanded ebook collection allows instructors to assign quality course materials, while providing affordable solutions for students.

A selection of ebook titles by course number, title and instructor

Sample set of required ebooks for courses (by terms, course, and instructor) available through UVic Libraries.

In conducting the project we identified 327 total titles used in 270 courses during the fall and spring terms. We searched the University Bookstore’s textbook catalog and titles adopted through the Libraries Course Reserves service to identify titles adopted by instructors. In adopting the Libraries licensed resources for their courses, we believe instructors saved UVic students a total of $625,521.91 and in doing so created high impact for students’ access and affordability to a quality education.

Challenges

We were not able to gather together all library licensed ebook titles adopted by instructors who may have posted a link through Brightspace, the university’s course management system, in course outlines, or elsewhere. Unfortunately, there is no one place where all this data is gathered. In addition, we were not able to pull together the title list early enough that students could be informed about their availability. The Bookstore informed students, via the textbook catalogue, when ebook alternative were available via the Libraries ebook collection, but they weren’t able to easily provide direct URLs to each title.

Next Steps

For the next phase of the project, we hope to disseminate information about the project and the resulting cost savings for students. We hope to create momentum, through our marketing efforts, to continue to expand the adoption of the Libraries ebook collection in courses. We also plan to strategize ways in which we can collate a title list to expand the program and get the information to students as early as possible.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank our Young Canada Works Intern, Mary Macleod, for her work on this project.