Category Archives: News

on the Verge writing contest

Co-sponsored by UVic Libraries and the office of Equity and Human Rights (EQHR), and with significant support from other units on campus, the annual on the Verge writing contest deadline is next Wednesday, February 15.

As many of you know, the contest showcases and celebrates emerging UVic student voices with an annual theme under the broad rubric of equity, diversity, and human rights. This year’s theme is DIALOGUE and our guest judge is interdisciplinary spoken word artist Johnny D Trinh.  $1600 in cash prizes are available in the categories of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and spoken word — $250 for first place and $150 for second place in each category.

Please share widely with your faculties, departments, and faculty champions. For more information please visit our contest webpage.

For more information, please contact otvcontest@uvic.ca.

UVic Libraries Publication Launch: in CIRCULATION

We are pleased to announce the library’s new signature publication, in CIRCULATION––a magazine focused on library impact at UVic and abroad.

Featuring stories about podcasting, digital preservation, the Peter and Ana Lowens UVic Libraries Special Collections Student Fellowship, and recent library news, this donor-focused magazine celebrates the committed work of library staff on campus and in the community.

in CIRCULATION will be published annually with a small print run.

Please share widely with your colleagues and friends.

Best,
Lisa A (on behalf of Christine, Samantha, Artie and Shahira)

Love Data Week 2023

For Love Data Week 2023, UVic Libraries is again collaborating with our colleagues at SFU, UBC, and UNBC to deliver an exciting program of seminars and workshops celebrating all things data.

Some program highlights include talks on Reproducible Research from Monique Grenier and Dr. Stephen Lindsay, Accessing Modern and Historical Census Data from folks at StatCan, Community Engagement and Ethical Data Practices from the Provincial Health Services Authority, and many more!

Information about the sessions can be accessed from our workshops calendar libcal.uvic.ca, as well as UBC’s Research Commons.

Many thanks to Daniel Brendle-Moczuk for coordinating on behalf of UVic.

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!

Digital Scholarship Commons – December 2022 workshops

We are happy to release our online workshop schedule for this coming month. Many, but not all of our workshops, are available in-person and via Zoom so that you choose how to participate:

  • Intro to Data Analysis with Excel
    December 7, 9:30am – Register Now
  • Smartphone Photography
    December 8, 2:30pm – Register Now
  • Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo
    December 9, 11:00am – Register Now
  • Intro to Data Analysis with RStudio
    December 13, 2:00pm – Register Now
  • Data Management Plans (DMPs)
    December 15, 10:00am – Register Now
  • Intro to Podcasting
    December 15, 10:30am – Register Now
  • Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis and Coding with NVivo
    December 16, 2:30pm – Register Now
  • Intermediate Research Statistics with RStudio
    December 20, 2:00pm – Register Now

To see all of our upcoming workshops, please check out our website.

If you are a UVic professor and would like us to run a workshop just for your class, please contact Rich McCue, and we’ll do our best to work with your class’s schedule, and customize the instruction to best meet the learning objectives of your class and needs of your learners: rmccue@uvic.ca

UVic Open Education Resource Grant – CFP

The University of Victoria provides grants for the purpose of the adoption, adaptation or development of Open Educational Resources (OERs), with the aim of replacing existing textbooks or other types of educational resources that can be prohibitively expensive. Ideally, the completed OERs will be useable not just at UVic, but other post-secondary institutions.

Open Educational Resource (OER) Grants are offered as a partnership between UVic Libraries (Libraries) and the Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation (LTSI), with invaluable support from the 2020 BCcampus OE Sustainability Grant, as well as the Division of Student Affairs, the University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) and University Systems.

About the Grant

Grant Deadline: January 31, 2023

IFLA Open Access Statement – Call to Action

September 1, 2022 | IFLA

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) recently issued its 2022 statement on open access.

IFLA declares:

Full and immediate free access to research outputs and publications ensures that everyone – including researchers, policy makers, citizens, scientists, and the public – has the data, evidence, and knowledge they need to address societal, environmental, and global challenges. Open access (OA) moves research towards the goal of full access by removing paywalls and broadening global access across disciplines. OA seeks to make research globally available and discoverable for the long-term and not only in times of crisis.

Call to Action for IFLA and its members:

  • Raise awareness about the rights-based dimensions of OA and how it contributes to
    intellectual freedom and freedom of expression through the work of IFLA’s Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression, submissions to UN processes, and national advocacy
  • Advocate at an international level including rights retention in favour of researchers and their institutions, permissive licensing practices, and sustainable business models that reflect OA mandates and laws, the role of public, trusted knowledge in society, bibliodiversity and the need for diverse routes to OA in a highly-constrained budgetary environment so that outcomes are equitable for libraries and their users
  • Build partnerships and coalitions with other organisations and utilise existing advocacy opportunities to advance these positions, reflecting the alignment of OA with other issues including information poverty, media and information literacy, open government, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and copyright reform
  • Collaborate to promote sustainable investment in the infrastructure underpinning OA
  • Lead by example, and complete the transition of IFLA’s publications to OA in 2022

 

“Knight Poet Anarchist” – Herbert Read

“Knight. Poet. Anarchist”: Understanding the Legacies of Herbert Read Through His Archives 

Dr. Ruth Burton  (Interpretation Officer, Special Collections, University of Leeds Library)

Herbert Read was a British First World War poet, publisher, art critic, Knight and professed anarchist who significantly influenced the art and literature of the mid-twentieth century. His diverse archive, which includes correspondence, notebooks and manuscripts, is held by both the University of Victoria and the University of Leeds in the UK. Dr Ruth Burton from the University of Leeds will talk about Read and current projects to identify and map his spheres of influence from archival correspondence, as well as the possibilities for inter-archive collaboration.

Location:             Special Collections and University Archives, Room 025

Date:                     Thursday, September 29th

Time:                    1:00pm