Tag: Summer 2017

ORCID at BC was launched in May, with a strong endorsement from David Quigley, Tom Wall and Michael Bourque. They announced the initiative and invited faculty to use our new application to create an ORCID ID and link it to their BC ID number, which is easy to do at bc.edu/orcid. This option is available to all faculty, staff and students, and is available in the Agora portal under Other Services.

Your ORCID ID can help you ensure that all of your work is properly attributed to you, and help other scholars find all of your scholarly output with a single click. When you register for an ORCID ID (a process that takes about one minute), you will receive a unique identifier. This ID will:

• Serve as a unique, persistent identifier for you throughout your career, even if you change your name.
• Distinguish your work from others’ in the field
• Allow you to create a profile that connects all of your publications, articles, datasets, and other scholarly outputs with your ID
• Streamline submissions to publishers, grant funders, and associations, which increasingly integrate ORCIDs and send data to your profile
• Automate annual reporting in systems that offer ORCID integration, such as Faculty 180 (coming soon!)
• Give you control over what is made public, private, or available only to trusted parties

Once you have registered for an ORCID you can sign in at orcid.org, build your profile and use it to raise the visibility of your work. You can also link your BC single sign-in credentials so that you can use them to log in to ORCID.

Enter your ORCID when submitting publications and grant applications; the publisher or funder will add the ORCID to the publication itself and push information about the article or successful grant to your profile. Import information about your past publications from Scopus, CrossRef and other databases.

Add the link to your ORCID profile to your webpage, faculty profile, email signature, CV, and other publications and presentations. One click will bring researchers and potential collaborators to your list of works. The more you use the ORCID ID, the more it enhances your visibility.

Since its launch, the uptake by full-time faculty has been steady. From May 3 to May 18, approximately 150 of full-time faculty have created an ORCID ID or linked an existing one to their BC ID.

More information about ORCID and the ORCID at BC initiative is available on our ORCID at BC Guide.

This past semester, the Boston College Libraries launched the Answer Wall. Located in a high-traffic area near our main stairs, this wall space is an area for students to post anonymous questions on post-it notes on everything from meaning of life (a recurring question) to how students can access library resources and technology. Though many of the questions are light-hearted or pertain to pop culture topics, the Answer Wall has also attracted a number of substantive reference questions and a number of questions on mental and emotional health topics. A dedicated team of library staff members split up the responsibility of responding to these questions each day in the persona of the Wall and so far they’ve responded to over 350 questions, including several in foreign languages. Wherever possible, answers include suggested library resources on the question’s topic or referrals to relevant on-campus services. Curious readers who don’t visit O’Neill Library regularly can follow along on the Answer Wall’s blog or watch for periodic posts of some questions on the Library’s social media pages.

The Answer Wall has proved popular not just in terms of the number of questions. It has been covered by a number of campus publications, including The Heights and The Gavel. Interest doesn’t seem to be tapering off either. Though the number of questions we receive varies widely by day, at the end of the semester we were seeing as many as 11 questions a day, with one recent weekend generating 19 questions that were answered on Monday. And in addition to all of these questions we’ve gotten plenty of post-its full of praise, suggesting that those who walk by are enjoying this new avenue for getting answers. The Answer Wall also spawned an end-of-semester book display that featured a number of resources that were recommended in Answer Wall responses or related to questions that we received.

So far, the Answer Wall has proven to be a fascinating look into student life and a great way of getting a sense of what our patrons are curious about. It has also been a great new way to connect people with BC resources, both within the library and throughout campus. Hopefully it will remain popular for years to come!

Boston College Libraries proudly awarded prizes for the 8th Annual Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Poster Contest, April 26^th, 2017 in the lobby of the O’Neill Library.

This event highlights the ongoing library initiative to engage students in the use of GIS as an essential tool for research and data visualization. The contest is an opportunity to  meet and encourage  the talented, enthusiastic students as we recognize their research in topics such as environmental changes, food security and health issues.

The first place awards of a $100 Amazon Gift Card went to:

Samantha Dow, Geology/MCAS, graduate prize: “Mapping channel changes in glacial and legacy sediment reaches of the South River”.
Mary Stack, Geology/MCAS, undergraduate prize: “Farmer’s Markets in Massachusetts”.

The second place awards of a $50 Amazon Gift Card, went to:

Shan Shan, Sociology/MCAS, graduate prize: “Inquiring and Visualizing Large-Scale Space: Placing China’s Changing Urban Hierarchy from 1985 to 2010 Into Spatial System”.
Theresa L Rager, Biology/MCAS, undergraduate prize: ”Failing Provisions and Failing Hearts: The association between grocery store access and cardiovascular disease”.

The third place awards of a $25 Amazon Gift Card went to:

Rachel Piccolino, Psychology/MCAS, co-winner undergraduate prize: “Impact of Sexual Education on HPV Vaccination Rates”.
Lesley Lopez, Sociology/MCAS, co-winner undergraduate prize: “Smoking and Stroke Prevalence across the United States”.

Awards were based on map quality, use of GIS as a research tool and originality. Special consideration was given to topics depicting social implications of the research such as environmental issues.

Past winning posters can be found in the university Institutional Repository: eScholarship@BC, under the category Juried Student Work. The entries of our newest winners will join this distinguished group.

We ask faculty to encourage their students to enter next year’s contest. Look for details on GIS Day, which will be November 15th, 2017.

Our thanks go to contest judges: Rudolph Hon, Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Constantin Andronache, Research Associate, Research Services, ITS, Enid Karr, Science Librarian and Barbara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian.