2012 Contributed Posters

Sponsored By: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press


TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012 5:30-7:00pm

All Sciences Poster Session and Reception

The All-Sciences Poster Session & Reception highlights multiples themes representing innovation, creativity, and change. It follows the theme Practicing Agility in an Open World Economy.

Hosted by: Science Technology Division; Biomedical & Life Sciences Division; Engineering Division; Chemistry Division; Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division.

Poster Title: "Open science: Past, present and future."
Andrea Miller-Nesbitt
andrea.miller-nesbitt@mcgill.ca
McGill Library, McGill University

Open Science has been defined as “the idea that scientific knowledge of all kinds should be openly shared as early as is practical in the discovery process.” (Gezelter, 2011).  As more and more scientists become involved in the Open Access movement resistance to traditional publishing practices is growing.  This promises a return to a more open research method where ideas, data, experimental procedures and research papers will someday be freely available to anyone and everyone (Lin, 2012).  
            Open Science tools, such as Open Notebook Science, ResearchGate and NCBIs Entrez, are fundamentally changing research and communication in scientific communities, resulting in more efficient research and ultimately better, faster results.  It is important that, as science librarians, we are not only aware of the changes taking place, but are active participants in the process. We must become comfortable being involved in the research process, from beginning to end, by helping researchers navigate Open Science tools to search for the grey literature and data on which they increasingly rely.  As information experts, librarians should also be involved in the development of such tools, in order to ensure that optimal usability. 
This poster will introduce the concept of Open Science by placing it in an historical context.  The future of Open Science and its implications for academic science librarians will also be discussed. 
Bibliography
Gezelter, D. (2011). An informal definition of OpenScience.  Retrieved from http://www.openscience.org/blog/?p=454
Lin, T. (2012). Cracking open the scientific process. The New York Times. Retrieved from The New York Times website: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/open-science-challenges-journal-tradition-with-web-collaboration.html?pagewanted=all

Poster Title: “Library involvement in a first year experience course.”
Allison Scripa & Ed Lener
Newman Library, Virginia Tech
ajscripa@vt.edu & lener@vt.edu

As part of its Quality Enhancement Plan, Virginia Tech has been implementing First-Year Experience (FYE) programs for all majors. These programs are designed to orient incoming freshmen to the university and give them a skill set which will help them obtain their degrees successfully. Major components of this skill set are inquiry learning skills, which are defined as “the ability to explore issues or topics through the ethical and responsible collection, analysis, and use of information as evidence that results in informed conclusions/judgments.” The Virginia Tech University Libraries have partnered with the Office of First Year Experiences to provide instruction to students to help them develop these skills. Two science librarians work with the College of Science’s FYE program “Zip-line to Success,” which seeks to meet the unique needs of the approximately 160 transfer students who enroll each year in one of the eight departments that make up the college. Overall, the program is designed to help them navigate academic planning, develop teamwork skills, and become more engaged with university life. The librarians offer multiple information literacy sessions to accommodate these students. The hands-on sessions focus on helping students better understand information resources in STEM disciplines and learn how to search for and evaluate scientific literature. As a result of the program, College of Science transfer students are better prepared to meet the challenges they will face when gathering information and conducting research as part of their degree programs.

Poster Title: “Strange bedfellows: How science and the law have addressed the problem of secondary poisoning in the use of anti-coagulant rodenticides.” 
Bobbi Weaver
Law Library, California Western School of Law
baw@cwsl.edu
 
Anticoagulant rodenticides have been effective in eliminating rodents from commercial and residential environments. However, the second-generation forms of these rodenticides are especially toxic and do not kill the target pest immediately. Consequently, predatory animals may consume an animal that has ingested the toxin and, in turn, may also be affected, often with fatal consequences.

Household pets as well as predatory & scavenger wildlife species have fallen victim to secondary poisoning. Birds of prey and large felines are among the animals that become poisoned from eating affected target animals. Some of these large predators are among threatened or endangered species. Because of the potential harm of these substances upon the environment as well as upon the health of children, governments have responded with legal measures to control and limit the use of anticoagulant rodenticides.

This poster will display how the use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) can result in secondary poisoning of wildlife and household pets, and will present references to scientific studies concerning this issue. It will also present and discuss some of the legal and policy measures that have been taken to attempt to mitigate the environmental damage that may result from the use of these rodenticides.

Rev. August 2012