Having booked onto the Library and Information Science Research Coalition’s inaugural conference at the British Library and then realising that I had already booked a weekend in Dublin I needed careful planning to get from Dublin to London on the morning of Monday June 28th in time for the 10:30 conference start. This involved exquisite timing all enhanced by realtime information on my iphone! The Aircoach trip across a waking Dublin to the newly built Airport; the chaos of a full security check – belt, shoes – “switch on your laptop please sir”. “Switch off your phone – please sir” All surrounded by sleepy holiday makers. Then to the debacle of the RyanAir non-queue then onto the aircraft and the relentless up-selling of products ranging from a full breakfast through to smokeless cigarettes. Our landing in Luton Airport amid some minor turbulence was greeted by spontaneous applause from some less weary passengers. Monitoring our speed using my iPhone’s GPS I noted we hit the tarmac at about 120mph! The shuttle bus from the airport to Luton Parkway rail station is a bendy bus – nothing against such vehicles except there are 4 mini-roundabouts which we negotiated at snails pace (sort that out please people of Luton) thus upon leaving the bus required me to dash to catch the Brighton bound train – packed and overheated – to St Pancras reaching an impressive yet shaky top speed of 111mph near St Albans. A purposeful walk through crowds clinging to their coffee-cups took me to the British Library where, on entering the auditorium the facilitator was asking the audience to switch-off their mobile phones. Now that’s timing. Phew.
(1) Greene, Graham (1969) Travels with my Aunt and Isherwood, Christopher (1935) Mr Norris Changes Trains
On Thursday 27th May I travelled to York St. Johns for a conference organised by the CILIP Y&H University College and Research (UC&R) Group entitled “The Librarian as Researcher: getting your voice heard.” Essentially a library/practitioner guide to research it was well attended and well organised.
I met Hazel Hall of the LIS Research Coalition who invited me to the coalition’s inaugral conference. I also met Miggie Picton who is on the LIRG committee with me and who presented in the afternoon. I heard Professor Jean McNiff present for the first time and I was very impressed with her style which was very engaging using a flip-chart and her drawing skills to clearly outline the theory of action research. I caught up with Sheila Corrall from University of Sheffield who gave a presentation on the research activity being undertaken by students. Sheila also mentioned an award to encourage library and information practitioners in the university, college and research sector who are at the start of their professional careers or who have not previously published a substantial contribution to the professional literature to write an article for publication. see here
A ‘key takeaway’ for me from this event was the level of involvement the York St John’s library staff have in supporting research and in undetaking their own research – something I shall be pursuing at Bradford College.
Filed Under (Events, General) by ronan on 12-07-2010
I travelled to the JISC YH Regional Support Centre’s Summer Conference at the Rose Bowl – Leeds Metropolitan University – a wonderful venue. The conference was well attended and the programme engaging and informative. The debate at the close was interesting. Expertly chaired by Ali-Marie Ladwa e-Learning Advisor (HE), (pictured centre in full-flow), the topic was based on the controversial use of mobile (phone) technology in the classroom and it generated a lot of good discussion. I also attended a session on i-Tunes U led by Luke Fieldhouse from Apple, which has given me some ideas about generating learning content that I plan to develop further in the coming months. I had been on a MoleNet training event some weeks back at Burnley College on how to use the i-Phone for teaching and learning and Luke had presented there too – its good that Apple are having a presence at such events. Further information on the JISC Summer Conference is available from here
On Friday 21st May 2010 I attended the above ‘unconference’ run by
Aberystwyth University – but held for convenience at the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (Ceebl) at Manchester University.
The conferecne was one of the outputs of a project that was archive society focused. Cloud computing was seen as a hot-topic but one that was not very well understood, certainly in the UK. Unconferencing is something that we were unfamiliar with – the idea being that because of the sense of the unknown associated with the topic there were no fixed presumptions about the structure of our input. But it was almost more difficult to manage an unconference so we ended up with a bit of a hybrid of conference and unconference. During the round table introductions it was apparent that a wide range of interests and different agencies were represented
The first speaker was Dai Davis Solicitor and Chartered Engineer Partner, Brooke North LLP Security and legal issues of the Cloud. This led as all discussions of legal matters invariably do, to lots of what if questions. One aspect that came out of this was the nature of the agreements that are being put in place by the likes of Google and Microsoft with regard to their cloud applications for the educational sectors. Another was the discussion about the G cloud – government cloud.
Dai left his audience with the key point that the Data Protection Act was a critical part of the legal jigsaw. Specifically the principles of: not keeping data for longer than is necessary; taking appropriate measures to ensure it is kept safe; and ‘thou shalt not export data’. The final one of course being of critical importance if you are using Google Apps or Microsoft Edu@Live to store student data in their cloud, which, of course, may be in Cowdenbeath or may be in California.
Steve Bailey Senior Adviser JISC InfoNet spoke about how cloud services in his view are seen as a ‘game changer’. Examples he gave included workflow management systems and document management systems in the cloud used to facilitate globalised markets and collaboration. Graduates want to use their own set of tools and as these users come to the workforce their preferences will need to be taken into consideration. Again he illustrated with the example of an unnamed company in London who on a Monday sent a global e-mail saying that Facebook would be banned and so big was the outcry that by Friday the decision was reversed.
Paul Miller
Paul Miller, (it was good to catch up with him after our metadata days and the MEG (metadata education group) back in the 2001), gave a presentation on the security issues associated with cloud computing. This was centred on; software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service and storage as a service. Not surprisingly many of the issues were common sense and there were a very many steps that one could take to ensure secure systems. Having said that 100% security was something most delegates, in discussion, accepted was elusive.
My general impression of the conference was positive and I took some highly practical action points away, the most important one being to check the contract we were about to sign with Microsoft Edu@Live for our student email!
Further details of the conference and the project, including a literature review of cloud computing are recorded here.
“The summer evening had begun to fold the world in its mysterious embrace. Far away in the west the sun was setting and the last glow of all too fleeting day lingered lovingly on sea and strand, on the proud promontory of dear old Howth guarding as ever the waters of the bay, on the weedgrown rocks along Sandymount shore and, last but not least, on the quiet church whence there streamed forth at times upon the stillness the voice of prayer to her who is in her pure radiance a beacon ever to the storm-tossed heart of man, Mary, star of the sea.” Joyce, J Ulysses pp329 Bodley Head 1941 or in later editions e.g. Penguin, the opening paragraph of Chapter 13.
Portrait of the Writer
Today, if you stand in the same spot as Bloom did on Sandymount strand I think you might not only see the spire of the Star of the Sea church but also perhaps the top of the newly built Aviva stadium which replaces the Lansdowne Road rugby ground. Joyce although attending two great Jesuit rugby playing schools; Glongowes College just outside Dublin and Belvedere College in the heart of the city, was himself not a player. His schooldays are well documented by Fr. Bruce Bradley SJ who incidently was my (very patient) Latin teacher and also my rugby trainer while I was at Belevedere.
The paragraph I quote above begins one of my favourite chapters. It also reminds me of the final parts of the short story in Dubliners entitled ‘The Dead’. It also raises a question for the many Joycean scholars as to how many churches are named in the works of JJ. Not an easy one, for example “riverrun past Eve and Adams from swerve of shore to bend of bay…” the opening (or is it the closing?) line of Finnegans Wake refers to the church of St Francis of Assisi known to locals as Adam and Eves on the Liffey.
Today is known as Bloomsday; the 16th June 1904 is the day on which all the action in Ulysses takes place – Leopold Bloom – the wandering Jew – embarks on an odyssey through the streets of Dublin his inner thoughts and encounters form the basis of this wonderfully evocative depiction of Edwardian Dublin.
In 1988 I took part in the ‘Bloomsday tour’ and the celebrations in Dublin – this coincided with the Millennium celebrations of the city it having been founded in 988. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was interviewed by a US TV station as I sat in Davy Byrne’s pub drinking a large brandy and port a medicinal necessity to sustain my body and mind for the 18 hours of daylight. It being pre-web days I never saw the broadcast. I often wonder what a similar adventure might be like now. I did have a vague idea that to design an iPhone app that provided rich media content (for example there is a lot of music in Ulysses), might be popular but an even better project would be to consider how the characters would behave and interact were they to have had todays technologies! What would Molly’s txt msgs to Blazes Boylan have contained? Would Bloom ditch his interior monologue in favour of Twitter? What wonders would we find on Buck Mulligan’s blog?
Filed Under (General) by elearning4bradford on 02-06-2010
Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh 1904 -1967 who's estate had been subject to copyright issues.
On my recent visit to Dublin I was interested to read in the Irish Times on Monday 24th May, about what appears to be a highly-significant ruling by the Irish High Court and one which could set a precendent across Europe for curtailing online music theft and intellectual property right infringment. The Irish internet service provider Eircom Ireland (defendent) reached an agreement with plaintiffs; EMI Records Ireland Limited, SonyMusic Ireland, Universal Music and Warner Music, whereby copyright infringers are identified and after a warning letter their connection to the internet will cease. Eircom (not the only internet service provider in Ireland) has undertaken to clamp down on a percentage of offenders as part of the settlement. The implications are potentially far reaching and many are watching closely to see how workable the arrangement might be. If it proves to be a deterrent then it is likely that other ISPs across the EU may come under pressure to put similar systems in place.
The Irish Times paper reported the court ruling here.
The full ruling from the Irish High Court can be found here
Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Timothy J. Dickey, from OCLC Research have authored a paper for JISC on information seeking behaviours in academic libraries titled: The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behaviour Projects available here
The now sadly typical, yet nonetheless critical, issue of information literacy is of course evident in this report but of equal interest is what seems like a list of issues emerging for academic libraries, which are repeated below.
Library systems must do better at providing seamless access to resources such as full-text e-journals, online foreign-language materials, e-books, a variety of electronic publishers’ platforms and virtual reference desk services
Library catalogues need to include more direct links to resources and more online content
Libraries should provide more digital resources of all kinds, from e-journals to curated data sets, as well as emerging services such as virtual research environments (VREs), open source materials, non-text-based and multimedia objects, and blogs
Library systems must be prepared for changing user behaviours, which include advanced search options, demands for immediate access and quick perusal of resources
Library systems need to look and function more like search engines (eg Google) and popular web services (eg Amazon.com), as these are familiar to users who are comfortable and confident in using them
High-quality metadata is becoming more important for discovery of appropriate resources
Librarians must now consider the implications of power browsing behaviours
Students need more guidance and clarity on how to find content and how to assess its worth as well as its relevance
The library must advertise its brand and its resources better to academics, researchers and students, demonstrating its value clearly and unambiguously
Filed Under (General) by elearning4bradford on 15-04-2010
• Collaboration is vital for the survival of universities
• Existing funding arrangements stifle universities’ potential for creativity and innovation
• The US model of higher education is an example of how cooperation and competition can breed excellence
• The most competitive institutions are the most collaborative
Just some of the discussion points from a recent symposium on the future of Higher Educaiton facilitated by Education Guardian and JISC see here for the Guardian’s report.
‘The context for discussion was set by the recent Demos pamphlet by Peter Bradwell, The Edgeless University, which argues that the current financial crisis in higher education presents an opportunity for the “rebirth” of universities if they are willing to collaborate, embrace technology and offer more flexible provision.’
The Edgeless University – is well worth a read and while it only begins to scratch the surface (presumably it had to be in the ‘quick reads’ category for important people to find the time to read it) it does make a good start. The Guardian debate itself seems to have taken it further even if the timing is not good with UK Higher (and Further) Education, sandwiched bewteen economic gloom and a general election. The danger is that what should be seen as a great opportunity may instead be seen as a threat.
Note: The original article in the Education Guardian listed the participants and these can be found by following this link to the “At the table” article
AR – Augmented Reality part of Mediated Reality is the big new thing I thought this video on the use of augmented reality in book production and in learning development was worth sharing. It does give an insight to the way these technologies will become important over the coming decade.
The frontcover of the latest edition of the journal Modern Painters (April 2010), shelved face-on in the serials section of the Art Library, 6th Floor Grove Library, caught my eye as it carries a photograph of our most distinguished alumnus – David Hockney. Marina Cashdan’s feature article on the 72 year-old Bradford painter and digital technology enthusiast is based on a recent interview at the artist’s home in Bridlington.
While the piece carries some interesting aspects of Hockney’s character (where perhaps his Englishness is accentuated by/for this New York-centric journal) what is of real interest to me are the techniques he uses to construct his paintings. The image above is compiled of 50 smaller canvases (36×48 inches).
As the article explains “He transports the canvases to the woods and paints en plein air, mounting one or more at a time onto easels. Returning to his studio at the end of the day, he combines them to form giant multicanvas pictures. Bigger Trees Near Warter, 2007, which debuted in the Royal Academy’s 2007 summer show, is composed of 50 canvases measuring a combined 15 by 40 feet and controversially took up an entire wall in the main gallery (“I didn’t want any other works to go up next to it,” Hockney says mischievously).”
The current issue of Modern Painters is available in the College Grove Library along with a number of other art journals and an excellent collection of art books. To access the journal online visit the ArtInfo website.
Having booked onto the Library and Information Science Research Coalition’s inaugural conference at the British Library and then realising that I had already booked a weekend in Dublin I needed careful planning to get from Dublin to London on the morning of Monday June 28th in time for the 10:30 conference start. This involved exquisite timing all enhanced by realtime information on my iphone! The Aircoach trip across a waking Dublin to the newly built Airport; the chaos of a full security check – belt, shoes – “switch on your laptop please sir”. “Switch off your phone – please sir” All surrounded by sleepy holiday makers. Then to the debacle of the RyanAir non-queue then onto the aircraft and the relentless up-selling of products ranging from a full breakfast through to smokeless cigarettes. Our landing in Luton Airport amid some minor turbulence was greeted by spontaneous applause from some less weary passengers. Monitoring our speed using my iPhone’s GPS I noted we hit the tarmac at about 120mph! The shuttle bus from the airport to Luton Parkway rail station is a bendy bus – nothing against such vehicles except there are 4 mini-roundabouts which we negotiated at snails pace (sort that out please people of Luton) thus upon leaving the bus required me to dash to catch the Brighton bound train – packed and overheated – to St Pancras reaching an impressive yet shaky top speed of 111mph near St Albans. A purposeful walk through crowds clinging to their coffee-cups took me to the British Library where, on entering the auditorium the facilitator was asking the audience to switch-off their mobile phones. Now that’s timing. Phew.
Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Timothy J. Dickey, from OCLC Research have authored a paper for JISC on information seeking behaviours in academic libraries titled: The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behaviour Projects 
