Main

• GIS Day Buzz

  Tuesday, October 31, 2023 | By sjanzen

  

  Wednesday, November 15th marks a special day in the geography world as we gear up to celebrate GIS! Geographic Information Systems (GIS) combines software, hardware, data and people to create, analyze and disseminate geospatial data and ideas about where and why things happen as they do. Join us this year to learn more about GIS and specifically ArcGIS, the industry standard for mapping technology. The Map, Data & GIS Library is hosting a variety of events including:

  Wednesday, November 15, 2023

  10-11:30 a.m. GIS for Faculty and Staff: A 90 minute workshop introducing attendees to the Esri site license and ArcGIS software options for research, teaching and administrative tasks. Registration recommended.

  12-1:15 p.m. Pizza & Cake in the MDGL: Join the Tourism and Geography Society (TAGS) for lunch in the MDGL where anyone can buy a slice of pizza ($$) and partake of the infamous GIS Day cake (free)!

  1:30-3:30 p.m. GIS for Brock Community: This 120 minute session will introduce students, faculty and staff to GIS with a hands-on component. Attendees should bring their own device to engage fully with the session. Registration recommended.

  Further to the Brock GIS Day festivities, interested parties can take advantage of the FREE online GIS Days Conference hosted by Western University Libraries. The conference runs from Nov. 13-16, 2023. Check out the schedule and register today!

  Brock representations at the GIS Days conference includes:

  Tuesday, Nov. 14, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Introduction to ArcGIS Online by Sharon Janzen

  Thursday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m. HGIS Lightning talk by Rebecca Nickerson

  Questions? Contact maplib@brocku.ca (Map, Data & GIS Library, MC-C306)

  Tags: ArcGIS, MDGL, Training & Development, Workshops
  Categories: Main, MDGL

• GIS Day is coming …

  Monday, October 30, 2023 | By sjanzen

  

  It’s that time of year again when we start planning for GIS Day! November 15th will mark this eventful day for all users of GIS technologies. We will have presentations, contests and displays as well as tutorials, pizza ($$) and CAKE (FREE!). Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, November 15, 2023 and stay tuned for details.

  GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems and broadly represents the technology behind analyzing and creating map products. There are many departments using geospatial technologies for research and teaching at Brock University: Geography & Tourism Studies, Earth Sciences, Health Sciences, Political Sciences, History, Modern Literature & Languages, etc. If you haven’t tried giving a spatial context to your work, perhaps it’s time to explore the options available.

  Follow us on Instagram for up-to-date information.

   

  Tags: Events, GIS Day, MDGL
  Categories: Main, MDGL

• Learn about systematic reviews, scoping reviews and more

  Friday, October 27, 2023 | By Elizabeth Yates

  

  Join the Library’s evidence synthesis team members Elizabeth Yates, Denise Smith and Ian Gordon for an online workshop entitled Introduction to evidence synthesis research – including systematic reviews and scoping reviews – as part of the Building Better Research series on Nov. 2, 12-1 pm.  

  Evidence synthesis projects such as systematic or scoping reviews use rigorous and comprehensive methods to gather, synthesize and analyze data from large sets of primary studies. These reviews are increasingly popular in a variety of academic disciplines. However, these time- and resource-intensive projects are challenging, involve a team of researchers, and are not appropriate for all research objectives. This session will cover the key steps and tools in conducting a systematic or scoping review, present alternative review types, and discuss how to identify the review type most suited to your research question. 

  Register for this workshop via Experience BU 

  Tags: Research, Research methods, Workshops
  Categories: Main

• Library supports for open access publishing

  Wednesday, October 25, 2023 | By Elizabeth Yates

  

  Library supports for open access publishing 

  Global celebrations of International Open Access Week from Oct. 23-29 are a good opportunity to highlight how the Library supports Brock researchers in achieving broad reach and deep impact for their publications. 

  Open Access refers to free, immediate online access to research and brings many benefits, including increased visibility for Brock research, higher citation rates and public access to publicly-funded research. Supporting open access has always been a key priority for the Library, which: 

  • Provides free hosting support for 12 open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals operated by Brock researchers 
  • Disseminates Brock research globally via the open access Brock Digital Repository 
  • Invests in a wide range of open access platforms which benefit researchers and readers around the globe 
  • Participates in a growing number of read-and-publish agreements which allow Brock authors to publish for free, or at a discount, in journals which charge fees for full or hybrid open access publication 
  • Supports researchers in meeting the expectations of Brock University’s Open Access Policy  

  To learn more, please consider participating in Brock’s Open Access Week activities or email Elizabeth Yates, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian ~ eyates@brocku.ca

  Tags: OA Week, Open Access, Scholarly Communication
  Categories: Main

• Open Access Week 2023: Celebrating community over commercialization

  Sunday, October 22, 2023 | By Elizabeth Yates

  

  Community over Commercialization is this year’s theme for International Open Access Week, Oct. 23-29. This is more than a slogan. It is a timely statement for a movement that has seen much growth in open access infrastructure and alternative providers in research years. These alternative publishing options for researchers emphasize and facilitate the building of an open access community of researchers and scholars, a deliberate alternative to commercial publishers, which are for-profit companies that extract profits from the work of scholars.

  The Brock Library continues to invest in several such open access platforms. The overall goal of these platforms is to make research freely available to readers around the world. These open infrastructure initiatives are examples of part of this growing movement that takes the products of publicly funded scholarly research out of the commercial sphere- a space largely controlled by a small number of actors, and moves this into a community-operated system of research sharing. The impact of such developments for open access research is far reaching. In this system, both the writers and readers of scholarship have access to the most current findings without having to navigate a paywall.

  To learn more, join Elizabeth Yates, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian, and Laurie Morrison, Collections Librarian, on Oct. 24, 12-1 pm, for a discussion of the perils of prioritizing profit over the public good and the promise offered by community-controlled publishing platforms. Registration via ExperienceBU.

  This workshop is part of the Library’s Open Access Week activities, which also include an Oct. 26 workshop focusing on planning for open access publishing at little or no cost, a virtual collection of books and ebooks focused on open access and information sharing activities.

  Tags: OA Week, Open Access, Scholarly Communication
  Categories: Main

• Now hiring: Digital Scholarship/ Special Projects Librarian

  Wednesday, September 27, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  Brock University Library invites applications for the full-time, 12-month limited-term position of Digital Scholarship/ Special Projects Librarian from qualified candidates who have demonstrated interest in and understanding of open publishing, digital scholarship, and/or the research lifecycle.

  The successful candidate will:

  • Contribute to the open publishing infrastructure on campus using Brock’s instance of Open Journal Systems;
  • Contribute to the administration of Brock University’s Institutional Repository;
  • In collaboration with the Scholarly Communications Librarian, promote a culture of open scholarship on campus;
  • Provides services to support digital scholarship including consultations, project support, instruction, workshop development and delivery;
  • Collaborate with campus partners and continuously learn about digital scholarship trends, tools and methods currently available on campus and beyond;
  • Provide recommendations about existing digital scholarship initiatives and services, in consultation with the Head, Research Lifecycle;
  • Develops and promotes educational content (tutorials, guides, etc.) that supports digital scholarship on campus;
  • Collaboratively support departmental goals and activities;
  • Engage in ongoing professional development and apply useful developments into practice.

  Learn more about this opportunity, and apply by Thursday, October 26th (12:01 AM).

  Tags: Employment opportunity
  Categories: Main

• Public library memberships available

  Wednesday, September 06, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  We love libraries! All kinds. So we are delighted to announce on-campus visits by staff from the St. Catharines and Thorold Public Libraries.

  Getting a card is easy, and free. Fill in a form, present some ID, and then you’ll be all set to borrow video games, join book clubs, experience adult craft nights, and more. Online resources such as popular magazines, audio books, streaming videos and music are also available, and offer the perfect complement to our more scholarly collections.

  Who: Thorold Public Library
  Where: Matheson Learning Commons (Library main floor)
  When: Wednesday, September 13, 2-4 pm.

  Who: St. Catharines Public Library
  Where: Matheson Learning Commons (Library main floor)
  When: Thursday, September 14, 1-5 pm.

   

  Tags: Community, Events, Services, Students
  Categories: Main

• Fall wellness book club registration now open

  Friday, August 18, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  Registration is now open for the fall 2023 Wellness Book Club.  This term, we will be reading a book all about the promises and the darker side of wellness culture.  Described as “a clear-eyed exploration of what wellness can actually offer us,” The Gospel of Wellness is written by a journalist who has tried nearly every wellness trend: the ‘clean’ eating, the detoxes, the boutique fitness classes, and more.  Rina Raphael argues that, rather than alleviating stress, the wellness industry creates unrealistic and costly burdens on consumers.

  The Book Club is hosted by librarian, Justine Cotton, who is passionate about the positive impact of reading and community.  You can contact her with any questions about the Club at jcotton@brocku.ca.

  Members will receive a copy of the book and a wellness care package.  Meetings will be held virtually during the month of October and participants may choose to participate in a research study on the benefits of reading “for fun” on stress levels in university students.

  Register here: https://bit.ly/fall23wellnessbookclub

  *maximum 10 participants

  Tags: Book Club, Events, Wellness
  Categories: Learning Commons, Main

• Join in the hunt on International Geocaching Day

  Wednesday, August 09, 2023 | By sjanzen

  

  Have you ever wanted to go on a real-life treasure hunt, but never did because you thought it was only real in children’s stories and the movies? Well, get ready for adventure and exploring because geocaching is 21st century treasure hunting! Geocaching is a free outdoor activity that uses GPS technology to find the containers unsurprisingly called a geocache that have small treasures to trade, and a log book to sign.  

  To start, borrow a GPS device from the Map, Data & GIS Library, or download a geocaching app on your smartphone like Geocaching (Android, iPhone, and iPad), Cachly (iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch), or c:geo (Android), and input the coordinates for the geocache you want to find. There are two geocaches on Brock Campus – Welcome to Brock, a micro-cache, and Fin de Siècle, a multi-step cache. 

  Next, find the cache! Stay on the trail if there is one, and once you’re close, use your hands and eyes to finish the hunt. They can be well hidden so be creative while searching and while they are never buried, they are not always on the ground. When you find it, sign the logbook, take a treasure, and always leave another treasure of equal or greater value for the next geocachers. Take your trash out with you and leave the site better than you found it.  

  Join geocachers around the world on August 19, 2023 for the 12th annual celebration of International Geocaching Day! Go to www.geocaching.com for more information on geocaching and events. 

  Tags: MDGL
  Categories: Main, MDGL

• Employment opportunity

  Wednesday, July 12, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  Join our User Services & Engagement team at the James A. Gibson Library as a Library Assistant, Engagement. In this role you will:

  • promote Library services and build awareness of Library services and resources
  • initiate engagement and outreach activities
  • manage the Library’s social media accounts
  • create physical and virtual promotional / informational materials
  • act as first point of contact for users and assist with research and general inquiries
  • provide back-up support, as needed, to departmental teams supporting other key service areas (e.g. Reserves, Interlibrary loan, Stacks maintenance).

  If you are a highly creative and collaborative person with a strong service ethic, please apply on the Career Services website by August 12 at 12:01am.

  Note: Interested applicants are asked to provide a sample of their promotional work along with resume and cover letter.

  Tags: Employment opportunity
  Categories: Main