WVU Libraries News » 2010 » October

Brazilian Professor to Share ETD Expertise Nov. 4

momaxwell@wvu-ad.wvu.edu — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:30:32 +0000

Ana Pavani, an electrical engineering professor at Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will give a presentation about Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) developments in Brazil and Latin America at 2 p.m. Nov. 4 in the Room 104 of the Downtown Campus Library. A reception will follow in the Robinson Reading Room, Wise Library.

Pavani serves on the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations Board of Directors and has been instrumental in implementing the national Brazilian ETD program as well as in development of the Latin American ETD Consortium. At PUC, Pavani has designed and managed the implementation of an institutional repository. The current collection contains ETDs, senior projects, journals, books, articles, and courseware.

Pavani is interested in evolving the Brazilian national ETD program. During her visit, she will seek advice from WVU Libraries faculty and staff regarding implementation of multimedia applications in ETDs as well as preservation methodologies.

Enter to win a $100.00 gift card!

btoren@wvu-ad.wvu.edu — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:34:30 +0000

Take the WVU Libraries website user survey and enter to win a $100.00 gift card! The WVU Libraries Web Team invites survey responses from all library website users. Participants will need to take about 15 minutes to answer sixteen multiple choice questions and five fill in a response questions to complete the survey. Then they will have an opportunity to register for the prize drawing. WVU Libraries employees are welcome to take the survey but are not eligible for the drawing. The survey is available at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/wvulibraries_survey. The drawing will take place after the November break.

Award-Winning Science Fiction Author James Gunn to Speak at WVU

momaxwell@wvu-ad.wvu.edu — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:50:24 +0000

WVU Today

Whether writing about immortality, space, dreams, death, demons, magic or the end of the world, award-winning science fiction author James Gunn has covered it all.

On Oct. 26, Gunn will visit West Virginia University speak about the contributions of another renowned science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. His presentation, “Isaac Asimov: Science Fiction to Science Fact,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair ballrooms. The talk is part of the 2010 David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas.

Gunn has covered a variety of genres with his writing. He has written plays, screenplays, radio scripts, articles, verse and criticism – the majority of which have been in science fiction.

His works include “Human Voices,” “The Immortals,” “Gift from the Stars,” “The Dreamers,” “The Magicians,” “Breaking Point,” “The Witching Hour” and “Isaac Asimov: The Foundation of Science Fiction.” In total, Gunn has published more than 100 stories in magazines and books, written 28 books and edited 13 books.

Gunn currently serves as the director for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction and professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas.

He has won numerous awards, including the Byron Caldwell Smith Award in recognition of literary achievement and the Edward Grier Award for excellence in teaching. He has lectured all over the world, including Denmark, China, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan and Yugoslavia.

A reception and book signing will be held following the presentation.

In conjunction with Gunn’s presentation, WVU Libraries is holding a celebration of the Isaac Asimov collection. Tours of the collection will be given by Associate Curator Harold Forbes at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. To register for a tour, visit http://universityevents.wvu.edu/asimovexperience2010 .

The Asimov collection will also be part of an upcoming symposium, to be held in April 2011.

The David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas is named after WVU’s former president who created the lecture series. Each year, the festival brings key figures from the fields of sports, politics, business, entertainment, research, scholarship and culture to Morgantown.

The series is supported in part by the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas Endowment.

Other festival speakers will be announced in the coming months.

For more information on the 2010-11 Festival of Ideas, visit http://festivalofideas.wvu.edu/ .

Talk to Focus on Open Access and Scholarly Publishing

momaxwell@wvu-ad.wvu.edu — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:36:13 +0000

The WVU Libraries will host a discussion on Open Access and its impact on scholarly publishing from noon-1 p.m. Oct. 19 in Health Sciences Library Computer Classroom, LC-1.

Open-access journals are peer-reviewed and provide free online access to full-text scientific and scholarly material. The articles are available to anyone to download, copy, and distribute for research purposes.

The speakers will be Dr. Harold Varmus, Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Cameron Neylon, Senior Scientist, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. Their presentations will be pre-recorded.

Dr. Varmus has been an unparalleled Open Access advocate – from introducing the topic of wider access and launching PubMed Central to increase public access to the literature as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, to helping to found the Public Library of Science, a leader in open-access publishing. Dr. Neylon will highlight the kinds of scientific advances Open Access can facilitate, and discuss current examples along with future opportunities.

Following their talks, there will be a short discussion about current publishing practices, mandates for open scholarship, and copyright.

For more info, contact Molly Dolan, Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication: molly.dolan@mail.wvu.edu