The activist reiterates that he won’t be changing his stance on Maratha reservation, warns that leaders opposing him will not get any votes from the community in upcoming Assembly election

Government functions should be simple and solemn, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a two-day conference of District Commissioners

The Indian shakes off the humbling loss in the semifinals, goes through the rigmarole of making the weight before dominating Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz for the 57kg bronze

Since 95% of polished diamonds are exported, global factors always affect the sale of the precious stones, said experts from Surat

In November, the State will launch the Yuva Shakti Mission for youth, the Nari Sashaktikaran Mission for women, the Kisan Kalyan Mission for farmers, and the Gareeb Kalyan Mission for the poor, the Chief Minister said in his Independence Day speech

Students’ organisations and Opposition parties said citizenship to a Bangladesh-born man was a violation of the Assam Accord of 1971

The alleged incident took place inside the private school in Kamla Nagar police station area on September 13 and the girl’s mother reported it to the police the next day

Following up on the article Dan sent around (http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar08/Badke.shtml) I thought this Wikipedia page was interesting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects). It lists universities/courses who have completed a class project using wikipedia and includes a list of suggested exercises for classes.

Amy thought the idea of having students "evaluate and edit Wikipedia articles, using research from other sources as an evaluative tool" would be a great project for our ENC3254 courses. This would be a great way to introduce some information literacy considerations into a course. What do you think? Can you think of any other ways we could us wikipedia in our one shot classes?

Full Schedule
Proceedings

Best quote: Librarians are like Mr. Paperclip from MS Office - we pop up when you least expect it and try to offer to you help...

This conference focused on the science library's role in supporting e-science and integrating into research collaborations and science departments. There was a mixture of speakers: government, library and institute directors, and a few librarians. The presentations were a mixture of big picture descriptions and some concrete examples. I felt like there wasn't as much hard solutions that we could take back to the library and implement, but perhaps just educating the library community on how radically different e-science is changing the research landscape is the necessary first step.

I've included the highlights from my session notes below (let me know if you'd like the see my full notes in gory detail). Check out the proceedings link above for powerpoint and document files for most of the speakers.

As a side note, our poster about GatorScholar was well-received with many people already aware of the project from either Val's USAIN presentations, the SLA poster, or from hearing about Cornell's project. Medha Devare was one of the panel reactors and she mentioned our collaboration in her presentation. Most of the poster visitors seemed very interested in starting their own version and perhaps at some point we'll have a network of databases.

Thursday

E-Science: Trends, Transformations & Responses

Convener and Moderator: Wendy Lougee, University of Minnesota
Speaker: Chris Greer, Director, National Coordination Office

2. A Case Study in E-Science: Building Ecological Informatics Solutions for Multi-Decadal Research

William Michener, Research Professor (Biology) and Associate Director, Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office, University of New Mexico


3. Rick Luce, Vice Provost and Director of University Libraries, Emory University Libraries

"Making a Quantum Leap to eResearch Support: a new world of opportunities and challenges for research libraries"


Wendy Lougee

Pitfalls: not to fall back on traditional roles, currently we don't respond to multi-institutional collaborations, our boundaries stop with the institution

We need to understand scientists' workflows, need to identify strategies for embedding librarians into project teams. We need to think about core expertise of librarians, reimaging roles of librarians

What do we do to build this collaborative action? We need to think outside the box.

Data Curation: Issues and Challenges

Convener and Moderator: James Mullins, Dean of Libraries, Purdue University

• Liz Lyon, Director, UKOLN

Transition or Transform? Repositiioning the Library for the Petabyte Era

How can libraries work with science (in a very general sense)?

1. Transition or Transform? Need to become embedded and integrated into team science. Many different models of engagement

Geosciences pilot where the library worked with the Geological department to curate their datasets (Edinborough):
Found: Time needed is longer than anticipated, inventory doesn't have to be comprehensive, little documentation exists
Outcomes: positive, requirement for researcher and auditor training, need to develop a data policy

2. Lots of opportunities of action: leadership by senior managers, faculty coordination, advocacy & tranining, data documentation best practices

People and Skills: there are not enough specialised data librarians. In UK 5 data librarians. Need to bring diverse communities together - facilitate cooperation between organizations and individuals.

Open science: new range of areas where results are being put onto the web (GalaxyZoo eg.) Librarians need to be aware of implications.

3. Need multidisciplinary teams and people in library, huge skill shortage, need to find core data skills and integrate it into the LIS curriculum. Recruit different people to the LIS team, rebrand the LIS career. Go from librarianship to Informatics.

• Fran Berman, Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, UC San Diego, and Co-chair Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access

"Research and Data"

Researchers are detectives, shows different major questions (SAF, Brown Dwarfs, bridge stress, Income dynamics over 40 years, Disease spread-Protein Data Bank) - key collections all over.

CI Support: all these issues are crucial. researchers want a easy to use set of tools to make the most of their data.

She finds different preservation profiles: timescale, datascale, well-tended to poor, level of policy restrictions, planned vs. ad hoc approach

Researchers focused on new projects, customization of solutions to problems, collaboration

Researchers need help: developing management, preservation and use environments, proper curation and annotation, navigating policy, regulation, IP, sustainability

Questions about preservation: what should we save and who should pay for it? Just saving everything isn't an option. 2007 was the crossover year - digital data exceeded the amount of available storage. What do we want to save? Who is we?
Society: official and historically valuable data, Fed agency or inst normally takes part.
Research community: PDB, NVO.
Me: medical record, financial data, digital photos - real commercial market for preservation solutions.

What do we have to save?
private sector: HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley,
OMB regulations for fed funded research data (3 years, not always easy to do).

Economics: many costs associated with preservation. Maintenance upkeep, software, utilities, space, networking, security, etc.

UCSD forged partnership with library. Trying to create a preservation grid with formal policies, nationwide grid with other institutions.

Panel Responders:

• Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean of University Libraries and Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center, Johns Hopkins University

Data Curation Issues and Challenges:

It makes sense to help scientists deal with public and higher levels of data, not the raw data.

Considerations: need to work within their systems, consider gateways for systems as part of infrastructure development (think about railroad gauge), focus on both human and tech components of infrastructure, human interoperability is more difficult than tech interoperability, trust is key!

Questions: What about the cloud or the crowd? Can Flickr help us with data curation? What are the fundamental differences between data and collections? Human readable vs. machine readable? How do we transfer principles into new practices? What are we trying to sustain? Data? Scholarship? Our organizations?


Supporting Virtual Orgs

• Thomas A. Finholt, Director, Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW) and Research Professor & Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, School of Information, University of Michigan

Changing nature of geographically-distributed collaboration:

history: transition in terms of distributed work. Much of what came before (collaboratory, video conf) had a precedent but new emerging has no precedent (crowdsourcing, VO's), no traditional context leaves us a bit adrift.

Lesson 1: anticipate cultural differences.
Domain scientists: characteristics: power distance (bias toward seniority, hierarchical), individualist(solo PI, individual genius), masculine(adversial and competitive), uncertainty avoidance
CI developers: power distance (bias toward talent, egalitarian), collectivist(project model), masculine, embrace risk

Lesson 2: plan for first contact.

It can be tough to recognize successful innovations: first efforts are often awkward hybrids



Crowdsourcing: idea that we send out challenges and solutions come to us (ex. Innocentive website, Games with a Purpose). We don't know who is going to do the work, effort is contributed voluntarily -> incentives are important to motivate work

Delegation of organizational work: people can count on organizations to do some of the basic policy work. Much attention has focused on technology and processes to support social ties, alternative course is the use of technology to supplant social ties - > think of this as organizing without the work of organizing, questions of who to trust, who pays, permitted to use the resources are managed by middleware.

Group work is an inevitable fact of org life.

• Medha Devare, Life Sciences and Bioinformatics Librarian, Mann Library, Cornell University

Idea of Virtual Organization: boundary crossing, pooling of competencies, participants or activities geographically separated, fluid, flat structure, participant equality

Library contributions: technology choices, tools; tech support/guidance; subject expertise; understanding of research landscape; vision - user needs of the future?

Examples of library support: VIVO, DataStar (supports data-sharing among researchers)

DataStar: Data Staging Repository: supports data sharing, esp during research process, promotes publishing or archiving to discipline specific data centers and/or to Cornell's DR. Nascent stage

Reinventing the library? Librarians as middle-ware to facilitate process of connecting and creating coherence across disciplines - both VIVO and DataStar aid this.

Hope that both tools seamlessly interact with each other.


D. Scott Brandt, Associate Dean for Research, Purdue University Library

Tries to embed librarians in research teams. We have to redefine what we do, collect.

Chopra fell just 2cm short of Jakub Vadlejch’s effort, whose 88.38m in the opening round proved enough for the Czech to take first place

Chopra finished second at the Doha Diamond League as his big final effort of 88.36m fell short by just two centimeters of Jakub Vadlejch's winning effort on May 10

Today’s 2cm victory is a little revenge for the previous year: Jakub

The move by AFI and SAI to send the athletes on a month-long camp helped them acclimatise and bounce back to qualify for the 2024 Olympics

The timing puts India in the 21st place in the Road to Paris list of World Athletics while the aim was to be either in the 15th or 16th spot

Indian mixed 4x400 relay team set a national record while winning the gold medal but missed the target of entering the Paris Olympics qualification bracket.

India got a favourable decision and Herath was disqualified. Rinku, who originally finished third with an effort of 62.77m, was upgraded to second while Ajeet (62.11m) was handed a bronze

Simran Sharma shaved off around one-fifth of a second from her earlier personal best of 25.16 seconds to win the gold.

Baranica secures the gold in women’s event; Vithya Ramraj claims the women’s 400m hurdles title; Abha bags the shot put top spot

Animesh impresses in Spain, Eldhose and Jesse strike gold in France

ATHLETICS | Junior international Jeyavindhiya also figures in NADA’s list; sprinter Neha banned for four years

There are no eye-popping names in the fray, perhaps because the National inter-state championship is scheduled in close proximity (June 27-30 in Panchkula, Haryana).

AFI president Sumariwalla writes to the governing body about the issue

Speaking to 'ESPN', Chopra said he is focussing on training and strengthening his blocking leg

The Athletics Federation of India announced the squad on July 4 with no surprises, including all those who have either achieved the qualifying standard or made the cut through world rankings.

Over the last decade, not-for-profit organisations as well as private academies and training centres have come forward to train Indian athletes, bringing them on a par with global standards

The Indian athletics team will now have 30 members; the track and field competitions will begin on August 1

Post the Paris Olympics, the association has planned to completely restructure its training and competition modules, possibly allowing more freedom and opportunities to athletes in both; this includes doing away with centralised national camps, grading the training centres and academies and increasing regional events for easy access to competitions

The country’s young sprinters are beginning to break records and shift perceptions. One of the facilitators of this change is Reliance Foundation athletics director James Hillier, who has helped create a structured environment that guides athletes to figure things out and take ownership of their progress

Arjun Babuta missed a medal by finishing fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the Paris Olympics. Here is a look at the instances when Indian athletes came close but ended at just that.

Narang said the sports science team, under the leadership of renowned sports injury expert Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, is a never-before support for the Indian athletes.

While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lists him as an Indian, World Athletics (formerly IAAF) credits his Olympic medals to Britain.

Olympic medalist says will seek medical assistance for persistent groin injury next month

Neeraj Chopra will be up against a top-class field in Lausanne, with five of the top-six finishers in the Paris Olympics final competing

Neeraj Chopra saved the best for the last as his sixth and final attempt measured 89.49m.

The season finale will be a two-day affair on September 14 and 15 in Brussels. Chopra accumulated 14 points from his two second-place finishes in the one-day meets held in Doha and Lausanne.

The country has so far won six gold, nine silver and 11 bronze medals to achieve its best-ever haul at a single edition of the Paralympic Games

South Asian Athletics Federation president Bhanot says SAAF plans to conduct the South Asian senior meet in Ranchi in October and a cross country event in Pakistan

The showpiece is spread over two days for the first time and the field features top athletes from all continents, including an unprecedented number of Olympic medal winners, who will be vying for the top honours in 32 disciplines.