Saturday, November 21, 2009

Third day of fee protests at California universities

Third day of fee protests at California universities
November 21, 2009 7:43 p.m. EST (CNN)
"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Demonstrators entered their third day of a building takeover at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in protest of a tuition increase, an undertaking that a school spokesman called futile.

The occupation of Kerr Hall is just one of several demonstrations across University of California campuses this week after the regent's board approved a 32 percent increase in tuition Thursday.

University officials said the $505 million to be raised by the tuition increases is needed to prevent even deeper cuts than those already made due to California's persistent financial crisis."

Source URL: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/21/california.student.protest/index.html

iReport videos and photographs

1979-2010 annual undergrad fees to attend a UC campus (LA Times)


Friday, November 19, 2009 Los Angeles Times carried a front page article, "UC ready to raise student fees by 32%," which can be read in full at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucfees19-2009nov19,0,6237361.story





















In case we get reference questions about the trajectory of these fees, which have actually gone down in some years, here's the 1979-2010 chart, but not in constant dollars, and excluding campus-specific fees:

Friday, November 20, 2009

California students occupy buildings to protest fee hike

California students occupy buildings to protest fee hike
By Alan Duke, CNN
November 20, 2009 3:00 p.m. EST
Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Students were occupying buildings Friday on campuses of the University of California system in protest of a 32 percent tuition hike.

Students took over portions of buildings on campuses in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Davis late Thursday, and two remain occupied Friday morning.

Student organizers said they would escalate their protests after the system's regents approved the tuition hike during a meeting Thursday on the UCLA campus.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/20/california.tuition.protests/index.html

Thursday, November 19, 2009

University of California students protest 32 percent tuition increase


University of California students protest 32 percent tuition increase
By Alan Duke, CNN
November 19, 2009 10:35 p.m. EST

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Angry students at the Davis, California, branch of the University of California refused to vacate the school's administration building Thursday evening in a show of defiance and protest over a 32-percent undergraduate tuition hike instituted by the California Board of Regents earlier in the day.

About 50 students remained in the building, which was supposed to close by 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET), UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain told CNN. At one point, as many as 150 students were at the building protesting the tuition increase, she said. She said she hopes campus police can resolve the issue without the need to make arrests.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Terms of Digital Book Deal With Google Revised

The Revised Google Books Settlement Agreement
https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/googlebookssettlement/revised-settlement/SettlementModificationsOverview.pdf

Supplementary Notice ---http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/Supplemental-Notice.pdf

Terms of Digital Book Deal With Google Revised
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/technology/internet/14books.html?_r=1

The amended settlement dropped in the eleventh hour. Here's a redline version and here's the related memorandum with the procedural details. The best news coverage is the New York Times story; the best blog coverage is Danny Sullivan's. I've just completed a first pass through the amended settlement, tweeting all the way.

The biggest change is that the class of affected books has been dramatically reduced, although not at all in the way I was expecting. Books registered in the U.S. are still in, as are books published in Canada, the U.K., and Australia. That change should largely take foreign non-Anglophone books out of the settlement entirely. There are a number of other tweaks to the definitions to deal with specific classes of works (e.g. comic books).
http://laboratorium.net/archive/2009/11/14/gbs_midnight_madness

UC regents approve fee hikes; Nov.18, 2009

UC regents approve fee hikes

Buzz up!By Laurel Rosenhall, Sacramento Bee, Wednesday, November 18, 2009
"A panel of University of California regents has approved a plan to raise student fees 32 percent over the next year, bringing annual cost of a UC education to more than $10,000 - not including room, board and books."

http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2009/11/18/kim.ca.ucla.student.protests.cnn

Added On November 18, 2009 (CNN)
Students at UCLA protest a plan that would boost student fees by 32 percent over two years. KCAL's Rachel Kim reports.

Campus police at UCLA have arrested protesters who repeatedly interrupted a regent board meeting about a rise in student fees.

California university regents approve 32 percent tuition increase
By Alan Duke, CNN
November 19, 2009 4:18 p.m. EST
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/19/california.tuition.protests/index.html

Friday, October 9, 2009

Questions for Mark Yudof: Big Man on Campus (NY TImes article)

UC President Mark Yudof commenting on faculty furloughs.

"Already professors on all 10 U.C. campuses are taking required “furloughs,” to use a buzzword.
Let me tell you why we used it. The faculty said “furlough” sounds more temporary than “salary cut,” and being president of the University of California is like being manager of a cemetery: there are many people under you, but no one is listening. I listen to them."

"The word “furlough,” I recently read, comes from the Dutch word “verlof,” which means permission, as in soldiers’ getting permission to take a few days off. How has it come to be a euphemism for salary cuts?
Look, I’m from West Philadelphia. My dad was an electrician. We didn’t look up stuff like this. It wasn’t part of what we did. When I was growing up we didn’t debate the finer points of what the word “furlough” meant."

Yudof has subsequently said that the report was "zany" so his responses were also "zany." Disappointing for the chief executive of a major university system to be less than earnest.

Questions for Mark Yudof: Big Man on Campus
New York Times Published: September 24, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

President Obamas speech to a joint session of Congress on Healthcare [CNN]


Obama gives health reform speech 55:00
President Obama delivers an address to Congress to present the most detailed description of his idea of health reform.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

President Obama's speech to America's school children [CNN]


Obama urges staying in school 13:57
President Obama delivers a hotly debated back-to-school speech to students across the country.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Librarian roller girl [CNN]


Librarian roller girl 3:38
As a 53-year-old librarian by day and roller derby player by night, Beth Hollis smashes stereotypes and opponents on and off the track.

Source: CNN | Added August 28, 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thursday, July 16, 2009

UC Regents approve systemwide furloughs/salary reductions

President Yudof has just issued a letter to faculty and staff regarding the Regents' approval of systemwide furloughs/salary reductions.

His letter may be viewed at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/

Text of Proposal

Friday, July 10, 2009

Information about President Yudofs furlough/salary reduction proposal

President Yudof (President of the University of California) has just issued a video message and letter to faculty and staff regarding the proposal he is bringing to the Board of Regents next week concerning systemwide furloughs/salary reductions.

His video and letter may be viewed at
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/
Video link from YouTube

"University of California President Mark Yudof today released details of a proposed plan to offset an anticipated $813 million reduction in support from the state general fund. It will be presented July 15 to the Board of Regents, which has final authority on the matter.

Yudof said the proposal was guided by a principle of shared sacrifice. As outlined, students, faculty, staff and administrators all will play a role in filling the gap in the university’s core funding.

“There is no question that the cuts to come will hurt,” said Yudof, who briefed reporters on the plan at UC Office of the President Oakland headquarters. “But we have worked hard to bring fairness to the process. At the same time, it’s imperative that we do the best we can to preserve the university’s ability to deliver high-quality education, research and patient care.”'

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Google Book Settlement website

The website is maintained by Rust Consulting, Inc., the Settlement Administrator, with technical support and hosting provided by Google Inc., the defendant in the lawsuit.

http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Scientific Impact Measures paper by Bollen, Van de Sompel, Hagberg and Chute (PLoS ONE, 2009)

A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures

Bollen J, Van de Sompel H, Hagberg A, Chute R, 2009 A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures. PLoS ONE 4(6): e6022. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006022

Background

The impact of scientific publications has traditionally been expressed in terms of citation counts. However, scientific activity has moved online over the past decade. To better capture scientific impact in the digital era, a variety of new impact measures has been proposed on the basis of social network analysis and usage log data. Here we investigate how these new measures relate to each other, and how accurately and completely they express scientific impact.

Methodology

We performed a principal component analysis of the rankings produced by 39 existing and proposed measures of scholarly impact that were calculated on the basis of both citation and usage log data.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that the notion of scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution.


Next-Gen User Webcast with Joan Lippincott

An archived version of the Library Journal webcast “Understanding the Next-Gen User” is now available. The event was held on June 4, 2009 and featured Joan Lippincott, CNI Associate Executive Director, as a speaker:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcastsDetail/2140374033.html?q=Understanding+the+Next-Gen+User+lippincott

Monday, June 29, 2009

Lunch2.0 session on Managing Your Digital Identity

Lunch2.0 session on Managing Your Digital Identity. For those that couldn't make it or who just want to experience it again, the slidecast (slides plus audio) is now available on Slideshare, you do not need an account to view.

The slides can be accessed through the emerging technologies page on the wiki at:
https://dekiwiki.lib.uci.edu/UCI_Libraries_Public_Services_Wiki/Library_2.0/Emerging_Technologies
or on Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/dakane/digital-identity-1646360.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

OASIS Open Access Source Book Now Online

Open Access Week partner a one-stop shop for Open Access education

Washington, DC – A new portal for educational materials on the “concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving Open Access,” the Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS), is now online. Launched at the recent ELPUB meeting, the new Web resource was featured at an Open Access Week Web cast today.

OASIS aims to provide an authoritative ‘sourcebook’ on Open Access. The site highlights developments and initiatives from around the world, with links to diverse additional resources and case studies. Materials are presented according to specific focus areas, to reflect diverse interest in wider access to research. OASIS focus areas highlight Researchers, Librarians, Publishers, Administrators, the Public, and Students.

About Open Access Week

Open Access Week, October 19 – 23, 2009, is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the
international higher education community and the general public. 120 campuses in 27 countries celebrated Open Access Day in 2008. Open Access Week is being organized by SPARC, the Public Library of Science, Students for FreeCulture, eIFL, OASIS, and the Open Access Directory. Promotional partners include SPARC Europe, SPARC Japan, DOAJ, OASPA, BIREME, OSI, SURF, Open-access.net, and PKP. To register
to participate in Open Access Week, or for more information, visit http://www.openaccessweek.org

Friday, May 15, 2009

Wolfram Alpha "a new kind of research helper"

Wolfram Alpha
http://www.wolframalpha.com/index.html

New York Times article
April 28, 2009, 6:28 pm — Updated: 12:54 am

The Veil Is Lifted From Wolfram Alpha

By Miguel Helft
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/wolfram-alpha-veil-lifted/?em

"Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine.

In a talk at Harvard Law School, Stephen Wolfram, a well-known mathematician, scientist and entrepreneur, gave a demonstration of his soon-to-be released Web service which promises to answer all sorts of questions. The service, called Wolfram Alpha, had technology bloggers abuzz that a rival to Google was about to hit the Web."

YouTube the demo that Stephen Wolfram gave at Harvard in late April 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TIOH80Qg7Q

Print and digital collection preservation

Association of Research Libraries: “Safeguarding Collections at the Dawn of the 21st Century.”
http://www.arl.org/news/pr/preservation-14may09.shtml

"The report is organized into three thematic sections:

  1. Reshaping the preservation functions in research libraries—Libraries must reconceptualize preservation as a core function that extends beyond activities within a preservation department. As preservation is advanced through a range of investments and partnerships, libraries are in the midst of reshaping priorities and reallocating resources to align with new services and conceptions of collections.

  2. The networked digital environment—ARL members need to expand their activities and deepen their practices related to preserving digital content though Web archiving, deployment of digital repositories, and efforts to preserve e-journals and other born digital content (whether purchased, licensed, or digitized by the library).

  3. Library collaborative strategies—Community-level activities are crucial, both to address the challenges presented by digital formats, but also to make traditional preservation activities more effective."

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Google Search advances

May 12, 2009, 4:54 pm (New York Times)
Data, Not Design, Is King in the Age of Google
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: May 9, 2009
(former top visual designer at Google deplores design changes because of user feedback)
"CAN a company blunt its innovation edge if it listens to its customers too closely? Can its products become dull if they are tailored to match exactly what users say they want? These questions surfaced recently when Douglas Bowman, a top visual designer, left Google."
May 12, 2009, 4:54 pm (New York Times)
Google Revs Up Some New Search Features
"Google unveiled a grab bag of enhancements to its Web search engine and new experimental features on Tuesday that aim to keep the company ahead of rivals. The new features include Google’s first significant effort not only to find information on the Web but also to understand some of that information and present it in new ways. Google’s engineers showcased an experimental feature called Google Squared that extracts information from the Web and displays it in a table..." more

Friday, May 8, 2009

Updates on Google Books

A few brief articles about what is happening with Google Books:

Corner Office: Google's Dan Clancy
As the Google Book Search settlement deadline looms, the company's point man talks about pricing, orphan works, and the role of libraries
By Andrew Richard Albanese & Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 5/1/2009
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6652445.html

Snags Hit Google Settlement With Authors and Publishers, and Antitrust Worries Rise
Jennifer Howard - Wired Campus, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2009.
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3739/delays-beset-google-settltment-as-judge-extends-deadlines-and-justice-dept-steps-in

Library Associations Ask Judge to Assert Vigorous Oversight of Proposed Google Book Search Settlement
ARL (Association of Research Libraries) - Press Releases & Announcements, May 4, 2009
http://www.arl.org/news/pr/google-4may09.shtml

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Video on Open Science presentation held at Columbia University

A video of the panel presentation: "Open Science: Good for Research, Good for Researchers?" that took place at Columbia University on February 19, 2009. The video is up on the Scholarly Communication Program site at: http://scholcomm.columbia.edu/open-science-good-research-good-researchers

Panelists: Jean-Claude Bradley, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Coordinator of E-Learning for the School of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University;
Barry Canton, founder of Ginkgo BioWorks and the OpenWetWare wiki
Bora Zivkovic, Online Discussion Expert for the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and author of "A Blog Around the Clock."

Slides and Links:

Bora Zivkovic's links

Jean-Claude Bradley's slides

Barry Canton's slides

Barry Canton's links