Category: Library

From the 23-27 October the Library will be hosting free events to coincide with Open Access week. While this event is only one week long we are here to support you with your research whenever you need. We can help you:

Legally make your already published articles openly available

Did you know that most publishers allow the post-print version of an article to be made openly available in your university’s institutional repository? The evidence for making research openly available is clear; for researchers the increased visibility that open access provides means higher impact for their work. For the community the more research is shared the greater its value.  On top of that funders such as the NHMRC and ARC require research to be made openly available.

Sharing a copy of your post-print article is simple, just submit the article through The Sydney eScholarship Repository online.  Find out more info on our website, or get in touch with your Academic Liaison Librarian or the Repository and Digitisation team.

Be at the forefront of the open data movement

Most data* can be published in some form whether it’s made openly available or available through a mediated process. The Library can help you form a data publication strategy by working with you to decide what data can (or can’t) be published, finding the best publishing option and helping to ensure that your data can be understood by others.

Data publication is a growing trend in Australia and is a mandatory requirement for some publishers and funders. Be at the vanguard and take on data publication while it’s fresh. You can find out more info online or contact the Research Data team.

*there are circumstances where data can’t be published due to its sensitive nature. In these circumstances, a description of the dataset is generally made available.

Make the most of your ORCID ID

Researchers at the University have recently been asked to create an ORCID account. But are you making the most of ORCID? Here are five easy steps to increase your visibility and impact:

1. Make ORCID work for you
   Add your publications to your ORCID profile and enable auto-updating from databases such as Scopus and Web of Science. Here’s how to import articles from Scopus.
2. Add extra data
   Add details of grants and other research income you’ve received, peer review activities through Publons, links to presentations, and keywords to describe your research interests. Include your affiliation as well as any variations of your name to help others to find you and your work.
3. Add ORCID to your social accounts and email signature
   Include ORCID in your University of Sydney academic profile, Google Scholar profile, Twitter and other social accounts. Add ORCID to your email signature to give people an immediate picture of your research activities.
4. Use your ORCID
   Keep your information updated and include your ID in manuscript submission systems, grant applications and other research workflows.

Make your work as accessible as possible

Now that your work is more discoverable, see whether you can make your publications themselves available open access. Use SHERPA/RoMEO to see what options are available, and get in touch with your Academic Liaison Librarian if you’d like any assistance.

On 4 October 70 students, staff and alumni packed into Staves Brewery to discover who would win the Rare Books Rare Brews competition. The competition, launched at the start of semester, challenged entrants to pick one of 17 historical beer recipes from the Rare Brews exhibition and brew their own interpretation. The resulting beers would then be judged by a panel of qualified beer judges on aroma, colour, taste, and quality.

Nine entries were dropped off at Staves Brewery ahead of the awards night and the entrants spent an anxious week waiting to hear how their beers performed. Pizzas were delivered, and everyone gathered in front of the stage where Jim Cook (University of Sydney Tech Lab) gave a fascinating talk on the history of beer driven innovation. Finally, Steve Drissell of Staves announced the winning beers.

In first place where Nathan Danckert and Meghann Thai from the Sydney institute of Agriculture and their ale with honey. Jez Fletcher entered an ale with the taste of apricots to clinch second place, and Thomas Botting impressed the judges with his Juniper ale for third place. Nathan and Meghann walked away with a “day as a brewer” experience with Staves along with gift vouchers and merchandise packs.

Afterwards, guests were able to try each of the competition entries as well as the Blackberry Ale brewed by the Library during the Fisher demonstration. It was a wonderful close to a successful night, and the enthusiasm and support from the brewing community helped to make this a memorable competition and event.

 

On 14 September the eight finalists in the Lion’s Den challenge pitched their ideas to a panel of expert judges that included members from the Sydney Innovation Hub, Incubate, ICT, and the Library.

The winner!

The winning pitch was presented by William Beckwith, a 3^rd year psychology student who proposed changes to the ICT computers (both a time out feature and an instructional display) to influence a change in behaviour of how students use and share the computer resources.

The runners-up

The two runner-up students were an engineering undergraduate pitching electronic displays at Library entrances that show computer availability, and a business school undergraduate proposing a safety program to facilitate students meeting to travel to public transport together after the campus shuttle ceases operation in the evening.

And many more ideas…

Other great ideas that were presented on the night were short-term lockers at study desks, standing desks, stationery vending machines; massage chairs and short-term lockers in the Library. All of the students did a wonderful job presenting their ideas, as did the MC Danny Giles in hosting the night. The judges didn’t hold back in their questions and the contestants all did superbly in defending their pitches.

It was a great night, and provided the students with a wonderful opportunity to develop their proposal writing and pitching skills, and also allowed the Library to see some great ideas that we can use to help develop client-centred services.

Well done everyone!