Saturday 3/14/15 – Odegaard Library
It’s PI Day!!
Open Discussion Day
Libraries have issues with Wiley.  They have been very devious in negotiating with the Libraries and have not been any nicer to society publishers.  Wiley has outsourced some of the titles such as J Phyc to Aptara.  If you know people in societies that are looking for a publishing platform tell them to avoid Wiley.  It was reported that Wiley is looking to go to a database model where cost is based on use.

Another strategy is to urge researchers to publish elsewhere including Open Access.  We talked up how we would like to be members of such groups as BioMed Central to help defray publication costs and support the OA publishers.  Sadly most budgets are strained trying to pay the bills on our existing subscriptions.

Agree we rely heavily on the Jeffrey Beall list of sketchy OA titles and are appreciative of its existence!!

Discussion on where Cyamus can meet next year.  LaJolla and San Luis Obispo have been offered.  We would like to go to Mexico – say Ensenada – as it’s been years since we’d been south.  Jeanine will submit a proposal.

Debra Losey showed pictures of the lovely new NOAA Southwest Fisheries Lab in LaJolla and told about the perils of planning and implementation.

Talked about citation management systems and what campuses provided and/or supported or teach.  Looked at UW’s comparison page at guides.lib.washington.edu/citation-tools

Library Linked Data
Joan and Eleanor attended a conference where they learned about the Knowledge Card – the info box that pops up on the Google results page when someone googles your institution.  Talked about where Google draws that information and you actually have control of what appears in the card.  It’s fascinating and we should assert that control.
http://www.oclc.org/en-CA/publications/nextspace/articles/issue24/isyourlibraryathing.html

UCD got an IMLS grant to look at linked data.  You can can follow the blog here:  www.carlstahmer.com

Cyamus Public Relations
We need a Cyamus Regional Group Knowledge Card!!!
Talked about the FaceBook page.
Need an elevator blurb.
Rewrote the “About Cyamus” section on the regional group webpage.
Quote of the day: “Cyamus: we are the Walmart of water.”  We decided, when we picked ourselves up off the laughter strewn floor, that wouldn’t be our go-to description.

Box Lunch!

Visit to Bullitt Center.
It’s over!  See ya all next year!

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Cyamus 2015 Atendees

Friday 3/13/15 – UW Odegaard Library

We were welcomed to the Odegaard Library by director John Danneker.  His niece has done research in marine environments and he offered some great insights to the importance of librarians in our field based on his interactions with her.

In the update yesterday I spelled the location of the True North Science Bootcamp incorrectly, should have been Kelowna. I was trying to send you to Pohnpei in the FSM which is truely not in the north…

Library Updates Cont:
Daria Carle from UA – Anchorage gave update from ARLIS which is in its 2nd year of 5 year contract. UAA did a prioritization project last year and ARLIS was part of that. They have some interesting digitization projects they are working on. On the UAA side of the library, the IR is up and running. The State of Alaska has financial issues due to falling oil prices which of course affects the University campuses. The older section of the library needs an HVAC upgrade as the existing system is elderly and dying. On personal note Daria has been approached to write a book on Information Literacy in the Life Sciences. We await the publication in 2016! Sally Taylor will be writing the chapter on aquatic sciences.

Steve Watkins reported that CSUMB library director is looking to retire so they will be looking for a replacement. The Cal State campuses (25 in all) are looking at systemwide LMS. The RFP was based on the Orbis Cascade project. Sympathy was expressed. There are 400 students in the CSUMB marine science programs. The campus has new website that is optimized for hand held devices. Steve has completed docent training at one of his local state parks and is looking forward to full retirement one day!

Maureen Nolan says it’s been a crazy year at Friday Harbor. The Labs are now part of School of the Environment and the programs there are expanding. There is some major updating of the water and sanitation system happening in the building the library is in. Maureen has submitted a giant proposal for library remodel and is waiting to hear what will happen. On main campus the implementation of Alma and Primo continues to drive the staff crazy – has changed every workflow. The good news from Friday Harbor is that there are 3 new orca babies in the local population. The first ones in about 12 years!

Kris Anderson reported that University of Hawaii library currently only has 2 science librarians – a medical specialist and a botany specialist. No idea when job openings might be announced. Kris is now director of the Health Sciences Library at the UH John A Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).

Presentation: Thinking Outside the Box!
Steve Watkins gave an update on the presentation he did in New Caledonia about how to provide content access to remote locations with limited or no internet access. Using the content of the Aquatic Commons and the FAME digital library, Steve utilized a LibraryBox to create a portable library with a wireless router to make it accessible to a small group at any location where it might be deployed – at a cost of about $70. 2 setups were delivered to PIMRIS in Fiji but there has not been any report that they might have been deployed or utilized in any way… Steve is going to build some more and offer to other entities who might be more receptive. We are encouraging him to present this again in Rome.

BIOSIS Previews: When “Core” is Not Enough
Sally Taylor talked about how her library was facing a huge cancellation project. They did an overlap analysis of the title indexed in BIOSIS and other databases subscribed to by UBC. They found only 6% unique titles. And the database use had dropped significantly. When they asked the faculty, no one complained. The exchange rates on Canadian currency have put the library in a precarious position. UBC cancelled BIOSIS.

Ocean Acidification: Ecological Effects and the Future
Dr. Jan Newton of UW, APL, and NANOOS talked to us about CO2 absorbed by the ocean and the increase of acid levels in the world oceans. Approximately 26-28% of the CO2 generated by human activities since 1700’s have been absorbed by the worlds oceans. One of the results is that shellfish find it more difficult to form a shell and another is that it affects the nervous system of some fish. Jan will be working on a project to see if rafts of kelp or sea grass will help take up some of that CO2. “Ocean Acidification: From Knowledge to Action” 2012 publication produced by WA Blue Ribbon Panel on Acidification. See also IOOS Pacific Ocean Acidification website

Box Lunch!

After lunch we had a tour of one of the Active Learning Classrooms in Odegaard. It was pretty cool and the I-school student who did the presentation, Susie Cummings, was pretty awesome so if she applies for a job at your institution you should hire her.

More Library Updates:
Barb Butler let us know what’s happening at OIMB and UO. Remodeling and almost a new head on main campus. At OIMB, whining about Alma/Primo continues. She continues to digitize and cleaning up, such as getting rid of reprint collection.

Brian Voss updated us on the reporting lines of the Seattle NOAA libraries. Brian is very fluent in government acronyms. He told us about publication management and software resources that his colleagues or other related government agencies are offering/evaluating that affect his job. PICES note: there is a new director and Brian will be in touch to verify that IAMSLIC is still interested in working with them.

Kristen LaBonte talked about the aftermath of the shooting in Santa Barbara a year ago. The student housing is at a premium and Kristen will be participating in a pilot project as a librarian in the community that hopes to bring back the aura of safety. With her IAMSLIC membership hat on, she suggested that we should reach out to lapsed Cyamus members.

Joan Parker told us that MLML will no longer keep the RV Point Sur and sold it to U Southern Mississippi. They have some new young faculty! Last semester Joan taught scientific writing, urged the rest of us to do so because there is great need. “Writing Science” by Joshua Schimel. Joan will be retiring end of this year.

Jeanine Scaramozzino reported they are getting some new science faculty at SLO. There is a herbaria on campus whose curator is retiring and new person from UCSC is sending pertinent info to Berkeley. In her library they are creating collaborative spaces faculty and students can used for anything from research to office hours. They are buying more ebook packages and use has skyrocketed. They are part of same review Steve talked about. There is a small group of people looking at collecting all the small data sets on campus.

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Cyamus, the west coast regional group of IAMSLIC, is meeting this week in Seattle.  I am posting my synopsis of the meeting for your reading pleasure.  Sorry, the food editorial is limited.

Thursday 3/12/15 meeting at NOAA:
Business Meeting – after reviewing the treasurers report, discussion ensued on the Cyamus website; Steve and Brian will work on cleaning up and updating the website.  We then progressed to marketing and engaging librarians to participate in IAMSLIC/Cyamus. We are not just a marine organization as our members cover many scientific areas including: aquatic, oceanography, geology, fisheries, meteorology.

Understanding the oceans requires knowledge of physics of fluids, underwater geological processes, chemistry of water, particulates & pollutants; and what lives in the water from the bacterial to the megafaunal.  Add in the challenges of how to measure, observe, and manipulate in an environment that is not readily visible.

Topics covered were the graying of the organization, availability of marketing materials, elevator talking points, generating a new high resolution tif of the Cyamus logo, making all these things available on the website.  Providing information resources in support of marine and ocean sciences means bringing a multi-disciplinary expertise to work every day.

Next up was introduction of a Cyamus Conference Attendance Grant.  In the interest of attracting new librarians to the region or the discipline, we would like to offer a grant to assist the interested to attend our conference.  Conference timing was discussed as an issue in inviting new students.  Decision was made to make part of the value of the award, a one year IAMSLIC membership.  We would like the grant to be flexible in that we can offer to multiple people, vary as registration and/or travel support, but always include that membership.  Yearly decisions can be made by Cyamus board.

Motion moved and carried to set aside $1,000/yr to support the Cyamus Rep to travel to the annual IAMSLIC conference.

Cyamus possibilities for next years conference: San Luis Obispo, La Jolla

Scientific presentation by Robyn Angliss of NOAA, AFSC, and NMML, entitled “The Use of UAVs in Arial Surveys and Beyond.”
UAV – Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles
UAS – Unoccupied Aerial Systems
Ultra cool interesting insights on getting permission and using drones to do population surveys. Lessons learned:
Identify data needs/tolerance: pick platform & payload combination
UAS are more tolerant of some types of weather
Automating the counting of animals will speed data analysis
Small swath width & slow speed of UAS have implications for survey design
Able to get COAs for work
UAS use can become routine

UAS are not always the best tool; manned aircraft and other methods are here to stay

Lunch!  It was a gorgeous day and it was lovely to walk along the lake in the sunshine before retuning to the meeting room for the afternoon session.  Box lunch sandwich, chips, cookie, and beverage.

More great science, this presentation from Vasily Titov of NOAA, PMEL, and NCTR on “Decade of Tsunami Wake-up Calls: Tsunami Science after 2004 Sumatra Disaster.”
There was no model in 2004 but the crude model Titov created after the earthquake showed the need for a robust model to help nations forecast the arrival and impact of a wave.  The challenges are accuracy and speed of forecast.  The NOAA Tsunami Forecast System of DARTs and models was fully implemented in 2013.

Titov was followed by Glen Watabayashi’s talk “Forecast: Cloudy with a Chance of Oil Spills.”  Following the Exxon Valdez disaster, NOAA was charged with the task of forecasting oil spill impact.  Talked about how NOAA has modeled spills from the Deepwater Horizon to train spill into the Delaware River to small boats on every coast.  They seem to get called 3-4 calls per week.  They give a verbal response within 1 hour and written in 3-4 days.

Joan Parker jumped in and gave an update on the Aquatic Commons.  Currently there are about 16,000 items deposited.  The editorial board has kept the quality of the entries closely monitored.  Charged the group to keep eyes open for appropriate materials to include.

NOAA Orcas

Library Updates:

Clara Salazar of NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center is attending for the first time. They are doing some remodeling to her building which is supposedly going to be completed in 6 months.

Debra Losey finally has a new library – which was supposed to have been completed every 6 months for the past three years ( just sayin’ Clara!).  Her collection fit first try.  Building security is based in the library which keeps things interesting.

Sonja Kromann of NOAA National Marine Mammal Laboratory is preparing for a program review at the lab.

Nyle Monday of San Jose State shared they recently hired a new librarian he’s attempting to recruit to IAMSLIC.  The library’s dean started a project to heavily weed the collection, especially of titles held at other Cal State campuses, and implement ebook heavy collecting.  The project was at least temporarily halted by the faculty when departments received lists of thousands of titles for their review – which they received during finals week.

Sally Taylor of UBC spends a lot of time on collections and this past year did a great deal of weeding.  She took about 30 boxes of reports from DFO to complete some of their runs.  They have implemented DataVerse – a Harvard created, DDI based data management system – one instance Sally has been involved with is called Project Seahorse.  She also plugged the True North Science Bootcamp which will be held at UBC’ Kelowna campus.

Joe Wible of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station is retiring September 2015.  He’s already got a draft job description of his replacement submitted.  Joe will return to Palmyra Atoll this summer for the third and final year of the project.  This past year he got all his reprint collection reboxed.

Alissa Cherry is attending Cyamus for the first time. She’s with Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs Resource Center.  She acquired a base collection from a marine scientist and has added environmentally focused materials that will assist the First Nations in decision making regarding environmental impacts to their lands.  She has also recently accepted a position to be archivist and librarian for the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.  We hope she will stick with us, we need archivists!

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