InsideOCULA

Freshman hit with 147 academic charges for online study network at Ryerson University

Study groups may be a virtual trademark of the Ivory Tower – but a virtual study group has been slammed as cheating by Ryerson University. First-year student Chris Avenir is fighting charges of academic misconduct for helping run an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where 146 classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their mark. The computer engineering student has been charged with one count of academic misconduct for helping run the group – called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions after the popular Ryerson basement study room engineering students dub The Dungeon – and another 146 counts, one for each classmate who used the site.

from the Toronto Star, March 6, 2008

Laura Banfield started a contract position as Education Liaison Librarian at McMaster’s Health Sciences Library, primarily working with the School of Nursing. Laura has a BSc in Kinesiology from Waterloo and a Masters of Library and Information Science from Western. She has just finished a one year contract at Brock University library, working with Applied Health Sciences and most recently with Physical and Earth Sciences. As part of her masters degree, she spent a co-op term at Health Sciences Library at the University of Saskatchewan in addition to working as a research assistant to Dr. Roma Harris for a couple of Rural Health Information projects. Laura is a member of the Library and Information Services task force for MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org), which is developing a review and categorization schema for online learning resources, and is the resource centre coordinator for Librarians Without Borders (http://www.lwb-online.org).

Deadline for submission: April 4, 2008

Colleagues are invited to submit essays, articles, and pictures for publication in our spring edition.

Submit items to jennifer.peters-lise@senecac.on.ca

InsideOCULA is the official publication of the Ontario College and University Library association.

Thank you all very much for your contribution.

Thursday, April 24th at 5:30pm
University of Toronto’s Faculty Club

Meet and mingle with your colleagues and hear a talk from Dr. Kevin Stolarick:

Kevin Stolarick, PhD, is the Associate Director and Research Associate at The Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He combines a depth of knowledge with an appreciation of the importance of finding and sharing the knowledge or “pearls of wisdom” gained from his comprehensive understanding of the Creative Class and the Creative Economy. Kevin provided quantitative research and analytical support to Richard Florida during the development of his books The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class. He continues in collaboration with Richard and other researchers. Kevin will speak to us about the creative class; what we mean when we say “prosperity”, what the goals are and how we can achieve them.

Registration details coming soon!

Your OCULA Spring Dinner Committee
Julie Hannaford
Sandra Langlands
Don McLeod
Marian Press

HEAD, LIBRARY SYSTEMS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The University of Saskatchewan is one of the leading medical-doctoral universities in Canada. Its Strategic Directions and Integrated Plan outline a vision focused on international standards in all activities, academic pre-eminence, and creating a sense of place in Saskatchewan, Western Canada, the North and beyond.

Reporting to the Assistant Dean, the Head of Library Systems & Information Technology (LS&IT) is responsible for providing leadership in the development and effective delivery of new and existing systems and technology services across the Library, as well as managing the effective implementation of change in the unit.

The ideal candidate will bring a successful record as a leader, manager and mentor during times of technological change. S/he will also bring experience leading high-volume IT operations, programming and project development. This is a tenure-track position and as such requires active engagement in research and scholarly activities. An MLS/MLIS is required.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply, however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. The University of Saskatchewan is committed to Employment Equity. Members of designated groups (women, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities and visible minorities) are encouraged to apply.

To learn more about this exciting opportunity, call Maxine Adam or Maureen Geldart at (604) 926-0005 or forward your application package (current CV, letter of application and reference list) in confidence to info@thegeldartgroup.com

HEAD, MURRAY LIBRARY

The University of Saskatchewan is one of the leading medical-doctoral universities in Canada. Its Strategic Directions and Integrated Plan outline a vision focused on international standards in all activities, academic pre-eminence, and creating a sense of place in Saskatchewan, Western Canada, the North and beyond. The Murray Library, the largest of seven branches, currently has collections primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, the Murray Library houses special collections and government publications.

Reporting to the Associate Dean, the Head of Murray Library provides leadership in managing the Murray Library, and directing its contribution to the teaching, research and outreach programs of the University. The Head will require great vision and will collaborate with diverse groups within and external to the Library.

The ideal candidate will bring a successful record as a leader, manager and mentor and will have a strong commitment to quality client services and relationship building with diverse client and stakeholder groups. This is a tenure-track position and as such requires active engagement in research and scholarly activities. An MLS/MLIS is required.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply, however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. The University of Saskatchewan is committed to Employment Equity. Members of designated groups (women, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities and visible minorities) are encouraged to apply.

To learn more about this exciting opportunity, call Maxine Adam or Maureen Geldart at (604) 926-0005 or forward your application package (current CV, letter of application and reference list) in confidence to info@thegeldartgroup.com

Dave Hudson from the University of Guelph-Humber was the winner of the iPod Nano!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the blog during Super Conference 2008.

Chief Librarian of the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), Mary Ann Mavrinac has years of leadership experience to draw upon, in addition to the training and continuing development she has had in the field of human resource management. Quite the eye-opener, then, to find that one of her key messages entirely concerns ’self-talk’, as psychologists call that unending conversation in our heads that tells us how we think we’re doing relative to our expectations of ourselves and relative to our perceptions of others and of their achievements.

While it may seem simple to just change the tape that keeps us company 24/7, it really isn’t so easily done. Yet, Mavrinac postulates that controlling that inner voice is crucial to our ability to deal with the ubiquitous, frequently unpredictable changes we must learn to expect in our organizations, indeed, in our very lives. Through negative example, she describes the kind of fearful atmosphere and negative fallout that can be created in an organization by negative thinking and fear of change. She identifies three types of people based on how they react to change. In her opinion, we all must learn to fall into the last category, the only one which will lead to adjustment and acceptance of those changes over which we have little or no control and the only one which will prepare us to ‘ride with the waves’ of change. Mavrinac refers to two important sources which may help us to understand the pivital role of ’self-talk’ in successful living, including Mark Leary’s “The curse of the self: self-awareness, egotism, and the quality of human life,” published in 2004 by Oxford University Press.

Thank you, Mary Ann, for an insightful and thought-provoking session. hg
Posted by Heather Glerum, 05.02.2008.

This OCULA session (#1227) was to have been given by Janet Kaufman in cooperation with Melissa Warner, a PhD candidate in organizational psychology at the University of Guelph who was instrumental in doing the research which provided the framework and structure for the presentation. Unfortunately, as with many other non-local delegates, Melissa was unable to be present due to the blizzard which invaded Toronto last Friday. Not surprisingly, Janet very ably covered the entire material of the presentation, giving nary a hint of discomfort with those technical parts which Melissa was to have presented.

All of us –whether worker bees, or queen– have, at one time or another, considered the material of the topic: creating and/or maintaining a balance between work, other activities and family, though not necessarily in that order. What the Library at U of Guelph did was to cooperate with the Centre for Families, Work and Well-being on a research project aimed primarily at assessing the state of awareness among managers at the U of Guelph of the need for employees, including themselves, to have a balance between work and ‘life’, and secondarily at learning to put conditions into play that together can result in this elusive goal.

The researchers looked at various factors that might affect employees’ work, such as societal influences, institutional and personnel policies, current work pressures and personal perceptions of all of the above. The case was made for the potential rewards for both parties –ie. the organization and the individual– if this elusive quality of work-life balance were attained.

Through the use of an online survey which attempted to deal with employees’ perceptions of job control, job overload, workplace support and job satisfaction, the researchers were able to gain insights that then guided subsequent training programs, assembled according to their target participants. Managers and staff received separate and different training, though both programs examined SMART goal-setting, action plans and the clear delineation between management and employee responsibilities. The final phase of their research was guided by the question: are the conditions created by these new skills, new approaches, new awareness, etc, are these conditions sustainable over the long term? The answer to that question will be born out in the work and private lives of managers and staff in the years to come.

From any standpoint, managerial or staff, and whatever the specific results uncovered by the Library and the Centre for Family, Work & Well-being at the U of Guelph, any and all attempts to apply this study to our local situations would be an appropriate response to its tenets and findings. hg

Posted by Heather Glerum. Modified 22.02.2008 / hg

New Liaison Librarian
We are pleased to welcome Ryan Allworth, who will serve as liaison librarian for Business and Economics for the next 12 months. Since receiving his MLIS at McGill, he has worked at UBC’s Management Research Library, Price Waterhouse Coopers’ Tax Research Centre in Toronto, and at Simon Fraser University.