deborah | Reading

Posted by dcornwall

The past two weeks have been active ones at the State Agency Databases Project (http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases). For a full listing of activity during the past two weeks, see http://tinyurl.com/statedbs14d. Here are some highlights:

DATABASES ADDED

ALASKA (Daniel Cornwall)

Alaska Geologic Data Index - From the website: “AGDI includes information about industry reports and maps, field notes, drill logs, and other unpublished geology-related data. The archived data are held and controlled by government agencies, institutions, and private companies; the index points to the physical location of the data, provides a basic description, and contains information on accessibility.” Data can be selected by clicking on a map or conducting a search. The "more options" search allows one to search by keyword, author, title, project, year range and location. The search may be limited by data source, data set type, themes or commodity.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (Susan Paterson)

Legislation Information Management System - The Council’s Legislative Information Management System (LIMS) is available for the public to view the status of a Bill or Resolution, Legislation by Council Member, Legislation by Committee, Text of a Bill or Resolution, A Council Member’s Voting Record, Contract Summary, Legislation by Co-Sponsor, A List of Legislation, Text of an Act, Legislative Meeting Agendas. You can search for legislation by keyword.

MARYLAND (Siu Min Yu)

Attorney Listing - Search for attorneys admitted to practice in the State of Maryland by name.

MISSOURI (Annie Moots)

All Contributions & Expenditures Search - Search for campaign contributions, expenditures, and committee to committee contributions multiple ways back to 2002.

WEBINAR USING PROJECT PAGE POSTED

This past week project volunteers were happy to see a presentation on Alaska agency databases and other information resources that relied heavily on our Alaska project page. The webinar is titled Databases By Alaskans and the archived version is viewable at http://library.alaska.gov/is/video/databasesbyalaskans2013.html.

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3935

tufts_dca_feed

Posted by Veronica Martzahl

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/2013/05/17/announcing-release-of-center-for-health-environment-and-justice-finding-aid/

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/?p=2266

The DCA is pleased to announce that the finding aid for the papers of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice is now available.

cover image for Love Canal book by Lois Gibbs

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice was founded in 1981 by Lois Marie Gibbs. The organization began as an information clearinghouse for environmental health issues and developed into an organization that focuses on raising awareness for environmental health concerns and assisting communities, organizations and individuals faced with environmental threats. CHEJ publishes a quarterly newsletter, Everyone’s Backyard, and works on campaigns that raise awareness of significant environmental threats to communities across the country and abroad. CHEJ works by conducting conversations with community leaders about their problems and provides advice, leadership training, education and assistance. Through this approach they are able to address a large number of environmental threats and empower communities to take action on their own.

Ms. Gibbs will be on campus this weekend to receive an honorary doctor of public service degree at Tufts’ commencement on Sunday, May 19, 2013.

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/2013/05/17/announcing-release-of-center-for-health-environment-and-justice-finding-aid/

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/?p=2266

tufts_jumble_feed

Posted by Amelia Cohen

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/17/thanks-guys-i-like-you/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=6012

Laurie Rabin, Zara Fiskin, and Sara Adelsberg met for the first time even before their freshman years at Tufts officially started. Although there were a lot of students at a pre-Tufts meet-up in Central Park in May 2009, the three off them just seemed to hit it off.

After living together for their four years at Tufts, the graduating seniors got together to talk about their adventures and reflect on their friendship over the years. As they get ready for commencement, they realize, “The more we got to know each other, the closer we became.”

Check out their story:

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/17/thanks-guys-i-like-you/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=6012

kirkus_kidlit_feed

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/memoriam-liesel-moak-skorpen-1935-2013/

I have reached the age when I habitually read the obituaries; reading of lives well-lived pleases me, and fortunately there are more of those than the other in my local paper. One name in particular caught my eye this past Sunday: Elizabeth Frackelton Moak Skorpen. When your last name is Smith, just about any other surname is cooler than yours, and this surely was one to conjure with. But it also rang a faint bell.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/memoriam-liesel-moak-skorpen-1935-2013/

tufts_jumble_feed

Posted by Amelia Cohen

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/17/tufts-tails/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5964

When students apply for undergraduate admission, they are asked to write not only the essay for the Common Application, but also three short supplemental essays ranging in topic from “Why Tufts?” to “What Makes You Happy?”

A Tumblr entitled Tufts Tails is a space for Tufts 2017 Jumbos to upload pieces of their essays to share with other interested classmates and prospective students. From rainbows and parakeets to photography and Disney, you’ll see just what these newest Jumbos have to say about their lives, Tufts, and their nerdy sides.

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/17/tufts-tails/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5964

kirkus_kidlit_feed

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/challenge-no-words-wasted/

I’ve always wanted to chat with picture book author Linda Ashman. She’s written a big stack of well-crafted picture books I’ve enjoyed over the years with my own children, as well as the students with which I worked as a school librarian.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/challenge-no-words-wasted/

kirkus_ya_feed

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/there-will-be-bloodand-aliens/

Any notion of friendly alien encounters is chucked to the fire with Rick Yancey’s new young-adult sci-fi thriller, The 5th Wave. A looming spaceship appears in the sky. It sits; it waits. Humans sit; they wait. Nothing much happens—no Others asking to be taken to our leader, just eerie quiet. Then, through four waves of extermination (elimination of electricity; tsunamis; plague; snipers), the Others strategically annihilate their only threat: humans. It becomes clear that these aliens aren’t on a close-encounter tour of goodwill; they mean to claim Earth as their own. As the Others hasten toward victory, a scant population of humans struggles to survive, denying human sensitivities in order to live through the night and, hopefully, the impending fifth wave. Like many optimistic characters in the book, readers might wonder: Why can’t we all just get along?

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/there-will-be-bloodand-aliens/

fanhackers_feed

Posted by fanhackers

http://fanhackers.transformativeworks.org/2013/05/meta-otw-fanvidding-series-what-is-vidding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meta-otw-fanvidding-series-what-is-vidding

http://fanhackers.transformativeworks.org/?p=2211

OTW Fanvidding series: What is Vidding?

Tags: documentary, meta, poster: Francesca, vidding, video

http://fanhackers.transformativeworks.org/2013/05/meta-otw-fanvidding-series-what-is-vidding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meta-otw-fanvidding-series-what-is-vidding

http://fanhackers.transformativeworks.org/?p=2211

scholarlyoa_feed

Posted by Jeffrey Beall

http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/05/16/more-controversy-over-open-access-publisher-mdpi/

http://scholarlyoa.com/?p=1688

Disorder in Switzerland?

Entropy is an open-access journal published by MDPI, the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, based in Basel, Switzerland.

The journals were formerly published by the organization Molecular Diversity Preservation International, until it created the open-access publisher using the same initials, MDPI, as a separate entity. The original MDPI is a .org, and the new one is a .com.

MDPI is not included on my list of predatory publishers. However, I do regularly receive email inquiries about it, an indication that some find its practices suspicious.

I published an article with them once in their journal Future Internet. The article processing charges were waived. I found it strange that the journal asked me to submit names of reviewers for my paper. They didn’t use the editorial board to review it.

The publisher.

Controversy

The article “Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases,” recently published in Entropy, has generated some controversy. The Discover Magazine blog Collide-a-Scape published a post entitled When Media Uncritically Cover Pseudoscience. The blog states,

“The paper is by two authors with dubious credentials and is such a mashup of pseudoscience and gibberish that actual scientists have been unable to make sense of it. As one of them also noted, the paper is published in a “low-tier pay-for-play journal.”

The blog post was written after a Reuters reporter wrote a story based on the paper. The reporter accepted the paper as fact, apparently without doing any original reporting.

The paper claims that the the chemical glyphosate — found in the herbicide Roundup — is linked to multiple common diseases including “inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations.” The controversy is described in the Wikipedia article on the journal. Entropy has an impact factor of 1.183.

Some progressive groups, accepting the article as fact, have used it in their discourse. One example is the website Nation of Change, which covered the article in their news section. Other groups, such as Common Dreams, used the story in a similar fashion. This is an example of how political policymakers can be victims of questionable science.

MDPI is no stranger to controversial articles. See here, here, and here for information on earlier controversies.

One of the definitions for the word entropy given by Wictionary is “The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.” We may be witnessing this process occurring presently with MDPI.

See also:

Is glyphosate poisioning everyone? / by Derek Lowe.

Hat tip: Bruce Toman

http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/05/16/more-controversy-over-open-access-publisher-mdpi/

http://scholarlyoa.com/?p=1688

tufts_dca_feed

Posted by Eliot Wilczek

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/2013/05/16/information-management-trainings-this-summer/

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/?p=2261

Tufts Technology Services and the Digital Collections Archives will be offering the following trainings about managing and protecting institutional data and records at Tufts:

Tufts Technology Services is offering “Information Protection and Management,” a half-hour webinar at 11:00am on the following days:
May 23
June 20
June 28
Click on date you want to register.

The Digital Collections and Archives will be offering two in-person training classes on managing institutional data and records on the Medford and Boston campuses. To sign up for these classes send an RSVP to Eliot Wilczek (eliot.wilczek@tufts.edu). All the classes have an enrollment limit of 20 people.

June 4, 12:00-1:00pm (Bring Your Own Lunch)
Cabot 702, Medford Campus
Institutional Data 101 What’s the Right Thing to Do:
General strategies and recordkeeping rules at Tufts

June 11, 12:00-1:00pm (Bring Your Own Lunch)
Cabot 702, Medford Campus
Institutional Data 102 How to do the Right Thing:
Storing, destroying, or saving records at Tufts

July 23, 12:00-1:00pm (Bring Your Own Lunch)
Sackler 220, Boston Campus
Institutional Data 101 What’s the Right Thing to Do:
General strategies and recordkeeping rules at Tufts

July 30, 12:00-1:00pm (Bring Your Own Lunch)
Sackler 220, Boston Campus
Institutional Data 102 How to do the Right Thing:
Storing, destroying, or saving records at Tufts

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/2013/05/16/information-management-trainings-this-summer/

http://sites.tufts.edu/dca/?p=2261

kirkus_kidlit_feed

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/picture-book-packs-punch/

Some picture books really pack a punch.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/picture-book-packs-punch/

diceytillerman_feed

http://diceytillerman.livejournal.com/57904.html

I'm on page 38 of A.C. Britt's London Reign. It takes place in Boston (at least in the section I've read). London, the protagonist, is a black trans boy, or possibly a very butch lesbian. I'm not sure whether London will choose* one of those identities over the other, or whether London (or the text) will address the distinction between those two identities at all. I'm curious what identity London will have at the book's end -- maybe one of those two, maybe some of each, maybe something genderqueer -- or maybe it will be unclear and never addressed. I'm interested, but I can't keep reading. I'm having too much trouble absorbing the prose because of Britt's choices with italics. I think part (likely all) of my hindrance is my own disability. CFIDS is physical, but it's seriously cognitive as well, and I just can't seem to parse this prose because of the extreme frequency of scattered italics. Given my brain, the italics are blocking my ability to read this book.

Has anyone here read London Reign?

*ETA: choose isn't the right word there. Settle into? I'm having trouble wording it because I'm having trouble understanding London's internal sense of his/her/hir own gender identity at the start. I can't tell if she's a butch cis lesbian or he's a straight trans boy. London's identity could also be in a queer place that resists both of those identity slots, and that would be great in its own way, but I can't assume it, because I've only read the very beginning of his/her/hir arc. This is why I wish I could keep reading, but the italics and my disability won't let me. Secondarily, I hope that someone can tell me more about the book than the bit I was able to read.

http://diceytillerman.livejournal.com/57904.html

aotus_feed

Posted by David Ferriero

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aotus/~3/Qzx_02ygMqU/

http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus/?p=4830

This week the American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) honored the National Archives with its two highest awards. The President’s Award for Distinguished Public Service was awarded to Miriam Nisbet, Director of our Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). And the Director’s Award for Superior Public Service was awarded to the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB). PIDB is an advisory board created by Congress to promote access to national security decisions and activities. Our Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) Director serves as the PIDB Executive Secretary and ISOO staff support the work of the board.

The President’s Award is the highest honor that ASAP grants recognizing distinguished and sustained contributions in the furtherance of the public interest with respect to access, privacy, and fair information laws, policies, and practices. ASAP noted Miriam’s work in FOIA at the Justice Department and then in the National Archives General Counsel’s office during the 1990’s, as legislative counsel for the American Library Association and then UNESCO in Paris. Special recognition was focused on her work to establish and head OGIS, created by the 2007 amendments to the FOIA. In accepting the award, Miriam pointed out that she had grown up along with the FOIA and that OGIS represents the maturity of a law that is one of the hallmarks of open government… [ Read all ]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aotus/~3/Qzx_02ygMqU/

http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus/?p=4830

freegovinfo_feed

Posted by jrjacobs

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3934

Not Your Grandfather's Web Any More, a project briefing from the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) spring 2013 member meeting by David S.H. Rosenthal of LOCKSS and Kris Carpenter Negulescu of the Internet Archive, is now available on CNI's video channels:

YouTube: http://youtu.be/uIqU2Cr2Kjs
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/66175352

What are the practical and theoretical archiving problems posed by the newer parts of the Web, like social media, scientific workflows and Web services? How can the challenges of these latest developments be met, if at all? This presentation reports on the results of a workshop held at the Library of Congress under the auspices of the International Internet Preservation Consortium, where practitioners of Web archiving reviewed these questions. More information about this talk, including presentation slides, is available on the CNI site.

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3934

tufts_jumble_feed

Posted by Kimberly Moniz

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/15/commencement-2013/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5976

Commencement is this Sunday, May 19! Whether you are celebrating on campus or cheering on the graduates from afar, you can keep up with all the Tufts-related news online.

We’d love for you to join the conversation – check out how you can take part:

Twitter: We’ll be live tweeting from @TuftsLive, so follow along from early morning preparation to the procession, the awarding of honorary degrees, and the commencement address. Use the hashtag #Tufts2013 to let us know what you’re up to.
Web: Watch the live streamed ceremony at commencement.tufts.edu, where you will also find the @TuftsLive and #Tufts2013 feeds, so you’ll be sure to not miss a thing.
Instagram: We love photos! If you’re on campus, snap some pictures and tag them #Tufts or #Tufts2013. We’ll be capturing some shots too, so be sure to check them out (username: TuftsUniversity).
Facebook: We’ll have tons of photos to share on our Facebook page just after the ceremony ends.
Foursquare: Check into Tufts University Commencement 2013 on Foursquare, include a shout out about graduation, and you’ll earn the Hats Off Badge.

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/15/commencement-2013/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5976

freegovinfo_feed

Posted by jrjacobs

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3933

The webcast for public comments on Public Access to Federally Supported R&D is happening today and tomorrow (14 – 15 May 2013), starting at 9:00 a.m EST. Here's the agenda and already-submitted written statements. In a few days, the video archives from the webcast will also be available (same URL), and eventually the full transcript of the meeting will also be found on the same page. Check it out. It's heartening to hear so many scholars, academics, policy wonks etc coming out in support of open access to scientific information and data.

This message is just a reminder that the Public Comment meeting on Public Access to Federally Supported R&D: Publications will occur tomorrow and Wednesday (14 – 15 May 2013), starting at 9:00 a.m. The agenda is attached.

The link to the webcast is on the front page of the agenda, but here it is again: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/DBASSE_083052

If you are interested, the written statements that were received as part of the registration process can also be downloaded from a link on that page. In a few days, the video archives from the webcast will also be available (same URL), and eventually the full transcript of the meeting will also be found on the same page.

We look forward to seeing all of you who will attend in person, and hope that those who watch by webcast find it a useful meeting.

Meredith
Meredith A Lane, PhD
Director, Board on Environmental Change and Society
Project Director, Committee on Population
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Research Council
Keck Center, 500 Fifth St NW, Washington, DC 20001

http://freegovinfo.info/node/3933

scholarlyoa_feed

Posted by Jeffrey Beall

http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/05/14/please-add-my-journal-to-your-list/

http://scholarlyoa.com/?p=1676

I’m happy to add this to my list, sure.

I regularly receive emails from new open-access publishers asking me to add their publisher or journal to one of my lists.

My lists include publishers and standalone journals that I have found to be predatory or questionable in their practices, so it’s odd that a publisher would request inclusion.

I assume they do it because they are trying to promote their publications and just go through some list of websites, sending the same boilerplate email to all the email addresses on the list. In their rush to make money, predatory publishers typically pay little attention to important details.

I investigate each journal or publisher, finding that in most cases they merit inclusion on my list. I’m delighted to fulfill their requests, carefully archiving a copy of each email so that in a possible future lawsuit, I can say, “Hey, you ASKED to be placed on my list.”

Here is one such request I received on May 8, 2013:

Hello And Good Evening Mr. Jeffrey Beall,

My name is Samuel Rivero and i am working as a internee for International Journal of Biology, the reason why i am sending you this e-mail is because i was hoping that if you can add our Journal’s name on this page: http://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/

The aim of IJOBIO is to publish peer reviewed research and review articles in rapidly developing field of all biological research areas. This journal is an online journal having full access to the research and review paper. The journal aims to cover the latest outstanding developments in the field of all biological Research Areas specifically in the following branches.

Keep in mind we are a non-profit organization and we mostly provide Journal publication services to 3rd world countries. It’ll be a huge favor if you can add the name of our journal in the “Individual Journals” list.

URL of our journal: http://www.ijobio.com

Best Wishes,

Samuel Rivero

Upon investigating this standalone journal, I discovered deceit.

The journal uses the nickname International Journal of Bio, and most of the claims in the email are false.

The new journal has “published” four issues, but upon closer examination, it really hasn’t. It’s a ruse. Among the four issues, there are only six articles. At least some of them are copied from the former BioMed Central (BMC) journal called the Journal of Biology. In 2010, this journal merged with BMC Biology, and the merged journal is called BMC Biology.

Here’s an example:

Article from bogus journal: Progress so far in genetic kin recognition among vertabrates
Original article from BMC Biology: Making progress in genetic kin recognition among vertebrates

The publisher of the new journal has taken previously-published articles and edited them, changing some of the words, and published them as new original articles in the journal.

What a scam! I can’t figure out where this journal is based, and my reply email to “Samuel Rivero” bounced back. Do not submit to this journal. Be wary of all OA journals.

http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/05/14/please-add-my-journal-to-your-list/

http://scholarlyoa.com/?p=1676

tufts_jumble_feed

Posted by Amelia Cohen

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/14/update-for-tufts-on-jeopardy/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5988

Last week, Tufts senior Jed Silver competed in the Jeopardy! College Tournament. Although Silver did not win his quarterfinal battle, he still was able to move on to the semi-finals due to the wild card system.

The winners from the quarterfinal rounds and the wild card participants (the four highest-scoring non-winners during the quarterfinal) compete in the semi-finals. On Tuesday, May 14, Silver will compete against Kristen Jolley from Georgia Institute of Technology and Cindy Cammarn from Bowdoin College.

Click here to watch a short video about the upcoming semi-finals and be sure to tune in to see Jed!

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/2013/05/14/update-for-tufts-on-jeopardy/

http://sites.tufts.edu/jumble/?p=5988

kirkus_ya_feed

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/forever-ya-rapunzel-rapunzel-let-down-youroh-never/

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Page generated May. 19th, 2013 11:24 pm

Ramblings on Librarianship, Technology, and Academia

The Australasian Journal of Me

Reading

State Agency Databases Activity Report 5/19/2013

[META] OTW Fanvidding series, part 2: Collaboration and Community

Announcing release of Center for Health, Environment and Justice finding aid

“Thanks guys, I like you”

In Memoriam: Liesel Moak Skorpen, 1935-2013

Tufts Tails

The Challenge of No Words Wasted

There Will Be Blood…and Aliens

[META] OTW Fanvidding series, part 1: What is Vidding?

More Controversy Over Open-Access Publisher MDPI

Information management trainings this summer

A Picture Book That Packs a Punch

London Reign, A.C. Britt

Open Government Appreciations

Lunchtime listen: not your grandfather's web anymore

Commencement 2013

Happening now: Webcast on Public Access to Federally-Supported Research and Development Data and Pub

“Please add my journal to your list”

Update for Tufts on Jeopardy!

Forever YA: Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your…Oh, Never Mind

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