Thanksgiving break is here at last, which means Hirsh will be going on a short break next week too! We will close at 5pm on Wednesday, November 21st and will re-open for our regular hours on Sunday, November 25th at 12pm.
Here’s a full breakdown of next week’s schedule:
Monday 11/19: 7:45am-11:00pm (regular hours)
Tuesday 11/20: 7:45am-11:00pm (regular hours)
Wednesday 11/21: 7:45am-5pm
Thursday 11/22: Closed
Friday 11/23: Closed
Saturday 11/24: Closed
Sunday 11/25: 12-10pm (regular hours)
We hope you all have a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
It’s our favorite time of year! Yes, that’s right. It’s turkey time!
Starting at 12pm this Thursday 11/15 and Friday 11/16, you can stop by the Library Service Desk and create your own feathered friend to bring home to Mom (or back to your study carrel). We’ll have a variety of materials out so you can create anything your heart desires, from the simple and majestic hand turkey (our personal favorite) to some 3D pinecone poultry.
This year, in observation of Veterans Day, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will have shortened hours on Monday, November 12. That day we will be open 12 pm – 7 pm.
The Sackler Building will still have card swipe access for its normal daily schedule, so you are welcome to swipe in and come study in the building! Just be aware that the desk on the 4th floor will only be staffed from noon to 7pm.
We hope you have a lovely weekend, and will see you back on Tuesday for our normal operations!
The Hirsh Library is committed to helping you get the training you need to succeed! Please take a moment to tell us how we can better meet your learning needs – and we promise – it’ll be quick!
Learning Opportunities @ Hirsh Library Survey
The Hirsh Fall Open Workshop series may be over – but – that doesn’t mention you can’t request a workshop on demand! We’re re-posting the following regarding our Workshops on Demand option – check it out!
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Workshops On Demand Bring Learning to YOU!
Look, we’ve all been there. You really WANT to attend that HHSL Open Workshop, but we were up SO LATE on Sunday studying/watching the Oscars/binging Netflix, and 9:00 am Tuesday feels so early. So you decide to attend the Wednesday 4:00 pm session of the workshop. But hey, did you notice that it is staying light outside until almost 6:00 and also the world is not currently a Frozen Hellscape and you should really go outside for vitamin D?
Have you squandered your last chance to learn EndNote? Thrown away your shot to master Web of Science? Wasted all opportunities to hone your PubMed skills? Are you doomed?
“On Fire” Gunshow #648 by KC Green. This is a meme all over the internet now, give its creator some love here.
No! Your friends at Hirsh Health Sciences Library would never abandon you! We know how busy you are, and we can’t schedule Open Workshops at times that fit everybody’s schedule. To better meet your needs, we bring you Workshops on Demand– gather a few friends, find some times that work for a group session, and tell the Library what you want to learn about. We will provide the content, and expert librarian instructor, and we’ll even book the room. Choose from the list of topics, or suggest your own- we’re listening! Just fill out the form and we will be in touch to set up your custom workshop. These sessions are a great way to maximize learning and interaction with an instructor and your classroom peers, and ideal for those embarking on group projects. Workshops on Demand can be scheduled M-F between 8:00 am and 5:30 pm, depending on the availability of librarians, and we can conduct them via WebEx as well for those off-campus.
(of course, if you would like a one-on-one instruction session with a librarian, we can set that up too. Just contact us here)
You’ve probably heard the term open access – maybe it’s the reason you were able to get the full text of that article you needed? Maybe it’s the reason so many people read your latest article?
Open access (OA) is about making research literature freely available on the Internet with few copyright or license restrictions. In honor of Open Access Week (happening right now!), here are the top 10 reasons to publish OA…
10. Improve discoverability
Open articles commonly show up more places than just the publisher’s website, for example, in subject repositories or ResearchGate or the Tufts Digital Library, and therefore can more readily be found by search engines and through web surfing, not just through traditional articles databases, like PubMed or Web of Science. In addition, search engines can more readily crawl the entire full text of open articles, beyond just the citation information and abstract.
9. Enlarge readership
Since open access materials can be easier to find and the full text is available to all, more people are likely to read them. You didn’t spend all that time on research and writing to lock away your findings, did you?
8. Diversify readership
Those who have access to paid journal subscriptions represent a limited demographic that does not necessarily correlate to those who will most benefit from and contribute to the research. Removing paywalls removes these misguided filters on readership.
7. Increase citation numbers
Many times, open articles have the opportunity to be cited more by others due to their increased visibility. In addition, since they are often available ahead-of-print, citations can start accumulating earlier in the process.
6. Enhance collaboration
More readers and diversity of readers can lead to more and richer collaboration. Open access can help identify critical colleagues otherwise not reached through traditional publishing communication channels.
5. Drive innovation
What does Google Scholar always say? Stand on the shoulders of giants! Our greatest world achievements are rarely standalone accomplishments. Scholars feed off one another, learn from one another, and grow from one another through sharing and collaboration, which is enhanced by open access.
4. Increase usefulness
Broadening the reach and impact of research makes all those tireless hours of effort that went into creating it all the more worthwhile. I’ll reiterate my early question: You didn’t spend all that time on research and writing to lock away your findings, did you?
3. Shift the economics
Publishers provide added value to a manuscript, through editing, formatting, promotion, and some discoverability services, which incur some cost. For many though, the business model has fallen out of balance. Much research is supported by taxpayers and authors and peer-reviewers are not paid for their publications. Open access realigns the business model so that the research conducted as a public good is available to the public.
2. Join the 21st century
We take advantage of several cutting-edge technologies just to tell our friends how good our lunch was, why would we rely on an antiquated print-based model for communicating important research findings? While many journals are available electronically today, the present system artificially treats them as if they were just as encumbered to obtain and create as their print counterparts when they are clearly not.
1. Save the world!
Yes, this is a bold statement to make, but who knows what accelerated and enhanced collaboration and innovation can lead to? Better addressing climate change? Ending world food insecurity? Curbing pandemic diseases? The only way to know is by opening the communication channels and sharing more.
Have questions? Want to learn more? Read up on Open Access on the Scholarly Communication at Tufts site.
Post contributed by Judy Rabinowitz
This year’s theme for Open Access Week, which we are celebrating from October 22nd – 28th, 2018, is “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge.” It’s a mouthful, so let’s work through what this means and more importantly, what it means for us here in the Tufts community.
As Nick Shockey, founding Director of the Right to Research Coalition, among other things, noted in his blog post about it, “This year’s theme reflects a scholarly system in transition.” There is great opportunity and already great evidence of this transition incorporating open access as the default, not the outlier, in publishing. Nevertheless, we can further leverage the opportunities of transition to intentionally design new systems that are more equitable, more inclusive, and with less bias.
So perhaps you’re thinking that you are not in a position to be designing new scholarly systems. What’s your role? If you are someone who creates scholarly literature, be critical of where you publish your manuscripts. Consider whether you are supporting systems that promote access beyond just to the privileged, affiliated with well-endowed institutions, but also scholars and practitioners, many of whom live internationally, that could benefit from your work, provide diverse perspectives, and innovate in ways beyond your initial scope. You, as the creator of content, can take control of how well that content is disseminated and utilized, and ultimately how impactful it can be.
There are traditional measures that are often used to evaluate journals and guide someone in deciding where to publish. Some are quantitative like Journal Impact Factors, or other research impact metrics. Some are more qualitative, such as recommendations from peers or venerated colleagues. I challenge you to also assess a journal’s value, prestige, and appropriateness based on its equity as a system. Whose voices are prioritized? Who is excluded? How are some scholarship decisions the journal makes perpetuating bias?
Do these questions spark some questions for yourself? Ask Us! And, Happy Open Access Week!
Post contributed by Judy Rabinowitz
We know you’re stressed, so we’re having a second Fun Lab this month! That’s right! You have another chance to take a creative break and feel a bit festive with pumpkin painting. Hirsh Pumpkin Patch will open at the Library Service Desk at 12pm on Thursday and Friday with all the supplies you need to make a gorgeous gourd. See you there!
O’zapft is!
That’s the traditional opening line of Oktoberfest spoken in Munich when the Bavarian Prime Minister taps the first keg of the 2+ week annual festival celebrating beer and Gemütlichkeit (the feeling of coziness and hospitality). An apt opening, as “O’zapft is” means “it is tapped!” Now, Oktoberfest is already over in Germany (since it actually begins in late September, to ensure warmer weather for all that outdoor reveling), but we are just getting started with our own celebration of bad decisions, BLOCKtoberfest!
During BLOCKtoberfest, we welcome DER KLOTZ, the German cousin of THE BLOCK. Now, der Klotz doesn’t visit every year, but this year he’s stopping by auf Urlaub (on vacation) because The Block needs some help getting the message across about the dangers of invoking his wrath. HHSL has seen more blocks in the last month than ever before, and the number of third and fourth blocks is on the rise as well.
Remember, we do not charge fines for overdue materials at HHSL, but late returns of reserve materials and equipment invoke THE BLOCK. Sit back to hear his chilling tale.
Now, some say that if you return a reserve item (like a laptop, phone charger, skull, or reserve book) late once, THE BLOCK will follow you for 24 hours after you return the item, and you will be mysteriously unable to check out items from the Library. If you return an item late a second time, THE BLOCK will haunt your nightmares for 7 days, impeding your ability to study and borrow headphones (and other things).
Now, many have tempted fate and survived the wrath of THE BLOCK once, even twice. But beware, should you return a third reserve item late, the foul beast will cast his sharp, cubic shadow over your life for two fortnights!
(You know, you won’t be able to check anything out for one month after you return the delinquent item)
AND THAT’S NOT ALL. If you summon THE BLOCK three times, he will, like Marley’s Ghost, visit your Dean and share tales of your misdeeds.
And finally, if you are one of the foolish few who learns nothing of your third encounter with this reviled, hideous hexahedron, and you dare invite his wrath again, THE BLOCK will rob you of your borrowing privileges for the rest of the semester, and he will darken the doorstep of your Dean again.
And the most TERRIFYING thing of all? Every time you summon THE BLOCK, you wear his mark for the remainder of the academic year. So remember, a late return in September will follow you all the way to next July.
So please, if you won’t listen to THE BLOCK, listen to DER KLOTZ. He came all the way from Munich to help us out.
So, stay hydrated, get your flu shot, and bring your stuff back on time.
Prost!
You may have noticed our Bridging Differences display on the 4th floor of Sackler. Here is a little info on it in case you haven’t had the opportunity to read about this initiative.
It is an all-campus TUFTS initiative! The goal is to improve understanding and engagement across divergent perspectives at Tufts, through effective communication and programming. A core mission of Tufts is to develop students’ skills…to engage in informed and civil discussion and debate on issues on which they may disagree profoundly.
If you are interested in getting involved, sitting in on a meeting or joining the initiative, you can contact the group via this LINK.
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