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October 29th, 2020
ILS 29500: Truth, Lies, and Trust: Credibility, Authority, and Quality in a Digital Age
Meeting Times: Thurs 2:30-3:20pm
Instructor: John Fritch
This course examines concepts of trust and authority and uses them to promote critical thinking and assessments regarding credibility. Authoritative information sources, evaluative criteria, and technical tools will be enumerated and discussed as students work through a research issue of personal interest. Topics include: what is trust and why is it significant, what types of authority exist and what specifically is cognitive authority, how is in-person trust and authority different from digital trust, when does credibility matter and what are criteria for determining credibility, how and where is quality information found, techniques of the nefarious (cons, scams, spam, phishing, etc.), considerations of a skeptical consumer.
October 28th, 2020
ILS 39500: Digital Cultural Studies
Meeting Times: DIS
Instructor: Matt Hannah
We live in a technologically complex time, a time in which our access to and experience with technology has dramatic effects on our lifeworld. Digital cultural studies is an interdisciplinary and creative approach to understanding, theorizing, building, and critiquing the human experience of technology. In this course, students will encounter the theories, topics, and artifacts that constellate our technological world, including films, books, art, scholarship, media artifacts, games, social media, interfaces, and platforms. Students will think critically about a variety of topics, engage in thoughtful discussions, respond creatively, and build original projects.
Learning Outcomes
October 26th, 2020
More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease.1 A diagnosis of this incurable disease is as disorienting as it is devastating. Purdue University Press has recently published two new books that will serve as essential resources for patients, their loved ones, and caregivers to help make sense of what comes next after such a diagnosis. The Complete Guide for People With Parkinson’s Disease and Their Loved Ones and Everything You Need to Know About Caregiving for Parkinson’s Disease by Lianna Marie are now available in print and e-book formats from all major retailers.
A trained nurse, Lianna Marie served as her mother’s caregiver and advocate for over twenty years through the many stages of Parkinson’s disease. Through and because of this experience, she founded AllAboutParkinsons.com, an online community that has connected and helped thousands of people with the disease, their families, and their caregivers.
“My greatest motivation for writing these books was a conversation I had with my mom in her fifteenth year of living with Parkinson’s.” Marie said in a recent interview with the Press. “She told me back then she wished there was more information available to help her understand and deal with her disease as it was progressing, written in a way that she could understand.”
The Complete Guide for People With Parkinson’s Disease and Their Loved Ones will serve as the go-to book for comprehensive, easy-to-understand information for those affected by Parkinson’s disease. Providing useful tips and advice, the book aims to help patients better understand their role in their treatment so that they may continue to lead happy and hopeful lives.
Everything You Need to Know About Caregiving for Parkinson’s Disease concentrates on those providing care for Parkinson’s patients. The job of caregiving comes with many challenges, and often caregivers will neglect their own health and well-being in the process. This book was inspired by the author’s own journey, using real-life experience to provide caregivers the resources they need to care for themselves and their loved ones.
“The caregiving book resulted from many years of witnessing the toll caring for someone with Parkinson’s can have on a person if they don’t have the right help and tools.” said Marie. “My ultimate goal is to help caregivers feel less alone and give them hope that they can make it through this often-challenging Parkinson’s journey with their loved one.”
The author, a native of Toronto, Canada and now living outside of Seattle, Washington, draws upon over twenty years of education, research, and direct experience to provide advice ranging from nutrition and exercise to alternative and complementary therapies, dissecting hard-to-understand medical information and presenting it in a clear and convenient manner. Both books will prove to be essential resources for those on their Parkinson’s journeys.
Receive 30% off The Complete Guide for People With Parkinson’s Disease and Their Loved Ones and Everything You Need to Know About Caregiving for Parkinson’s Disease by ordering directly from Purdue University Press and entering the code PURDUE30 at checkout.
Writer: Matthew Mudd, marketing and outreach specialist, Purdue University Press, mmudd5@purdue.edu
Source: Lianna Marie, founder of AllAboutParkinsons.com and author.
Citation: 1 Statistic from Parkinson’s Foundation: https://www.parkinson.org/Understanding-Parkinsons/Statistics
Filed under: press_release, PurduePressOctober 22nd, 2020
By: Sandi Caldrone, Data Repository Outreach Specialist
The Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) has published over 1,100 open access datasets from Purdue researchers – no small feat – but we want to do more. How can we make more of Purdue’s cutting-edge research data FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable? We’re starting at the beginning with Findable.
PURR’s published datasets are already very easy to find. They are all freely available on our website, indexed by search engines like Google Dataset Search, and identified with unique and persistent Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). This works great for digital datasets that are small enough to download quickly over the web, but what about other types of datasets? What about datasets big enough to be measured in terabytes, or sensitive datasets that can only be shared upon request? PURR has a plan for them.
PURR is developing new functionality that will expand our repository to also include a data registry. What does that mean? Researchers will be able to register datasets that, for whatever reason, cannot be downloaded through the PURR website – big data, sensitive datasets that require sharing agreements, and even physical specimens. Registered datasets will receive a DOI, and will be indexed by PURR and every other search engine that catalogs PURR’s datasets. Each registered dataset will come with an accessibility statement explaining how to access the data and who to contact with questions.
So much research data is available for reuse if only you knew where to find it. With the new registry, PURR is hoping to bridge the gap between data user and data author – making more freely available datasets truly accessible. Registry functionality should be up and running later this academic year. Stay tuned to Purdue Libraries for more details.
Filed under: general, OAWeek2020, Open_Access, servicesOctober 21st, 2020
Announcing the second episode in the Diversity and Making Podcast and Video Series, a collaboration between Libraries and School of Information Studies and the Purdue University Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center:
In this episode, we talk with Kristina Mok from Makers Making Change. The motto of the organization is ‘empowering people with disabilities through technology’. Kristina discusses the ways in which they achieve this through community based Makers, Occupational Therapists and Volunteers to develop and deliver affordable open source assistive technologies. Check out the episode at https://www.lib.purdue.edu/diversity-and-making, then pick up materials to make your own raindrop switch at WALC on Oct. 26, 5-8 PM!
October 20th, 2020
By: Mark Puente, Associate Dean for Organizational Development, Inclusion and Diversity
The theme for the 2020 Open Access Week is “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.” The theme is timely in light of the structural inequities that have come to light in recent months with the global pandemic as well as the world-wide protests and social unrest that have been a product of the killing of George Floyd in June. Although, at the surface, it might be difficult to see any connection between these phenomena and structures related to scholarly output and dissemination, it serves as a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of things like research output and the commodification and corporatization of higher education.
I think many of us know that our current systems in this realm are not sustainable and that they privilege organizations and institutions that have long benefited from the “usual” ways of doing things to the detriment or disadvantage of other stakeholders. But how does “open” help to address these broader structural inequities? Is it a panacea or simply a cog within a larger mechanism that needs significant overhaul and restructuring in order to run efficiently while accomplishing the function intended? It may be the latter, but with an understanding that no complex mechanism can run if it has a critical, structural piece missing.
Perhaps, in some ways, open access to scholarly content and educational resources can serve as a model for delivering on the promise of equity as we engage in critical analysis of broader educational and societal systems that must be reimagined and rebuilt. Open Access Week provides an excellent opportunity to explore these issues and to imagine what we might be able to accomplish collaboratively if we think boldly about making structural change.
Join us as we explore important questions like these in a special Open Access Week virtual panel event:
October 19th, 2020
Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies is proud to announce the 2020 winner of the Leadership in Open Access Award, Professor Nicholas K. Rauh. Since 2010, the Leadership in Open Access Award has been awarded annually to a member of the Purdue community who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to broadening the reach of scholarship by making publicly-funded research freely accessible online through Purdue e-Pubs. This year, we honor Dr. Rauh, an Open Access champion who has long-partnered with both Purdue e-Pubs and the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR).
Dr. Rauh is a Roman archaeologist, teaching in the classics program in the College of Liberal Arts School of Languages and Cultures. He conducts survey archaeology in Turkey, exploring the ancient lives of Cilician pirates, who flourished in the eastern Mediterranean between 139 and 67 BC. For more than 70 years, these pirates waged economic war with neighboring Hellenistic realms, and most particularly, with the forces of the Roman Republic and its far-flung provincial empire. The material remains they left behind offer a rich, varied look at the ancient civilizations they regularly antagonized.
During his annual summer course, Dr. Rauh engages his students in the scientific process. In addition to collecting potsherds, the researchers collect GIS data for each artifact, bridging the gap between ancient sites and modern technology. Dr. Rauh has been working with Libraries’ data curator, Standa Pejša, for a number of years, curating this data and drafting reports for the Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey, a systematic surface survey of a 60 kilometer strip of Western Rough Cilicia, on the southern coast of Turkey. These reports are openly available in Purdue e-Pubs. The data itself is available in PURR; however, this project goes a step above—integrating the GIS data with the individual artifact data.
“He has been pushing content online since 1996,” Pejša said of Dr. Rauh’s commitment to Open Access. “Public and free, he has been practicing it. If there were more people like him, we would not need all those obfuscating monikers for open access – it would simply be access.”
At 11:00 am (EST) on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, Dr. Rauh will be one of four faculty panelists at a special virtual event in honor of Open Access Week. “Purdue Open Scholarship: Impacts and Implications” will be moderated by Libraries’ Associate Dean for Organizational Development, Inclusion and Diversity, Mark Puente. Registration is free and open until the event concludes at 12:00 pm (EST). All are welcome to attend.
Learn more about Dr. Rauh and his research:
https://purr.purdue.edu/groups/roughciliciasurvey
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/rcas/
Filed under: events, general, GIS, OAWeek2020, Open_Access, press_release
October 19th, 2020
By: Nina Collins, Scholarly Publishing Specialist
As we begin our celebration of Open Access Week 2020, it is important to define what Open Access means and why it matters at Purdue University.
Open Access, in the broadest sense, is free and immediate access to scholarly literature, coupled with re-use permissions. Open Access does not require subscription fees. Anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, or re-use Open Access scholarship, regardless of whether or not they have the ability to pay subscription fees. Open Access content is immediately available to everyone. This immediacy helps to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and creation of new scholarship. In this way, Open Access also helps to encourage innovation and enrich education.
According to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), “Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education form a broad Open Agenda that is critical to accelerating the way we discover knowledge and unlocking our potential to solve big problems and make new discoveries.”
Never has the necessity to accelerate scientific discovery and solve big problems been more important than it is in 2020. “On 30 March 2020, UNESCO hosted an online meeting of representatives of science ministries of 122 countries to exchange views on the role of international cooperation in science and increased investment in the context of COVID-19. During the meeting, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay called on governments to reinforce scientific cooperation and integrate open science in their research programmes to prevent and mitigate global crises”. (reference) On April 7, 2020, the Executive Committee of the German Commission for UNESCO released a statement calling for global open scientific cooperation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The release emphasized that open science is a question of survival and is necessary to overcome the pandemic (reference).
The benefits of Open Access scholarship reach beyond the pressures of discovering solutions to the current pandemic. Open scholarship has numerous advantages for teaching and learning. If an educator cannot access scholarly works, they can’t teach it. If students cannot access it, they cannot learn it. A 2015 report from UNESCO, titled, Rethinking Education: Towards a global common good, stated, “. We must consider not only how knowledge is acquired and validated, but also how access to it is often controlled and, therefore, how access to it can be made commonly available”(79).
At Purdue, Open Access helps fulfill our land-grant mission. Open Access Scholarship can more readily be accessed and taught, it can speed up discovery and innovation, and can help with engagement by ensuring access to all. To support the myriad benefits available to scholars who publish their work openly, Purdue Libraries established Purdue e-Pubs, our institutional repository for scholarly works. Launched in 2005, Purdue e-Pubs currently hosts more than 76,000 Open Access documents. These works have been downloaded more than 22 million times across the world. With the current focus on virtual teaching and learning throughout the world, Purdue e-Pubs downloads have increased more than 25% this year.
Filed under: general, OAWeek2020, Open_AccessOctober 16th, 2020
From a memoir on navigating America’s elder care system to the go-to resources on living with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, Purdue University Press has a timely and useful collection of books on the experience of aging in America.
by Lianna Marie
The Complete Guide serves as the go-to book for comprehensive, easy-to-understand information for all Parkinson’s patients and their loved ones. A trained nurse and primary caregiver for her mother, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, Lianna Marie draws upon over twenty years of education, research, and direct experience.
by Lianna Marie
Caregivers for those with Parkinson’s disease do the utmost for their loved ones, often neglecting their own health in the process. This book is not just about caring for a loved one, but also about taking care of yourself, providing an essential resource for all caregivers of those with Parkinson’s disease.
by Sue Petrovski
Shelved provides readers with a personal account of what it is like to leave a family home and enter a new world where everyone is old and where decisions like where to sit in the dining room fall to low-level corporate managers. Showcasing the benefits of communal living as well as the frustrations of having decisions about meals, public spaces, and governance driven by the bottom line, Petrovski delivers compelling suggestions for the transformation of the elder care system.
by Denise Calhoun
In Changing Seasons, Denise Calhoun provides a language-based, interdisciplinary program to help older adults improve their communication skills. The activities in the book promote meaningful interactions and the creation of a stimulating environment, underscoring the importance of sustaining quality of life as we and those we love age.
by Jolene Brackey
Creating Moments of Joy is filled with practical advice for those impacted my Alzheimer’s disease, and sprinkled with hope, encouragement, new stories, and generous helpings of humor. We are not able to create perfectly wonderful days for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, but we can create perfectly wonderful moments, moments that put a smile on their faces and a twinkle in their eyes. Five minutes later, they will not remember what we did or said, but the feeling that we left them with will linger.
by George Kraus
A straightforward summary of leading advice for understanding and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, written without technical jargon and impractical nuance. With this broad, thoughtful, and grounded approach, family members, clinicians, and caregivers are better able to discover and make wise choices from a wealth of effective interventions in all areas of care. It also allows them to care for themselves and their families in the dynamic and supportive care process.
by Sue Petrovski
A Return Journey draws on journals the author kept as a caregiver during her mother’s eight-year battle with Alzheimer’s, and on her correspondence with other caregivers who were kind enough to share their innermost feelings and emotions. Petrovski clearly and wisely explains that in Alzheimer’s care there are no “right” ways, no “best” decisions, no “perfect” answers.
by Gail Holland and Anne Bashkiroff
Anne Bashkiroff was a pioneer in the fight for Alzheimer’s awareness. The consequences of Alzheimer’s and the extended burden the disease places on families and caregivers was not fully known in the 1970s. Instead of giving up after her husband’s diagnosis with the disease, Bashkiroff moved to make the world aware. Her strength and dedication led her to help establish the Family Survival Project.
You can get 30% off all Purdue University Press titles by entering the code PURDUE30 at checkout on our website.
Filed under: PurduePress, UncategorizedOctober 15th, 2020
Each year, Libraries negotiates with publishers and vendors to provide access to the databases and journals that advance Purdue University’s world-changing research and transformative instruction.
For many years, Purdue has licensed access to most journals published by Elsevier for the West Lafayette, Fort Wayne, and Northwest campuses. Usage for many of these subscriptions is high, but so is the cost, and it has risen significantly over the past decade. When we negotiate with publishers, we seek contracts that are affordable, sustainable, and transparent, but sometimes, publishers insist on significant increases that far exceed available funding. For 2020, Purdue paid a staggering $3.3M for access to Elsevier content, and we are currently in negotiations with Elsevier for journal subscriptions for 2021.
This past June, we alerted Elsevier that we must reduce Purdue’s total spend on publications by $1.5M. This reduction is necessary due to the Libraries’ allocated budget and also reflects the need for more fair and equitable pricing. Purdue pays more for Elsevier subscriptions than many of our peer institutions, and our contracts are based on a complicated and archaic pricing strategy that favors Elsevier while hurting universities like Purdue.
In July, Elsevier proposed three options for 2021 pricing, none of which met our need for a reduced cost. We offered a reasonable counter proposal in August, which Elsevier declined to consider. As of early October, we are waiting to hear back from Elsevier on another proposal, one which we hope will honor our needs. As we move forward with these negotiations, we look to the University Library Committee (ULC), a group that reports to the Senate’s University Resources and Policy Committee, for input and guidance.
If Purdue cannot come to a satisfactory conclusion with Elsevier and reach an agreement which is both affordable and sustainable, we will be forced to significantly reduce the number of journals to which we subscribe. Over the past few years, some universities have terminated their subscription contracts with Elsevier entirely, and others have greatly reduced their subscription offerings, all due to the inability to arrive at a satisfactory cost agreement. (See the University of California and the University of North Carolina for recent examples.) Should a reduction in subscriptions become necessary, rest assured that Libraries will provide campus with alternative means to access the content that our students, staff, researchers and faculty need to meet their information resource needs.
Filed under: collections, general, press_release