The Borealis Quartet is Vancouver’s only resident string quartet. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
UBC Library Research Guides
Redouane Al Fakir – Sam Sullivan Public Salon Series
Dr. Fakir is the founder of Muhammed Institute of Space Science. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Select Articles and Books from UBC Library
Fakir, R. A. (2008). Gravitational interstellar scintillation. [Link]
Fakir, R. A., & Unruh, W. G. (2008). Direct detection of gravity waves from neutron stars. [Link]
Fakir, R. (2000). General relativistic cosmology with no beginning of time. The Astrophysical Journal, 537(2), 533-536. doi:10.1086/309067 [Link]
UBC Library Guides
IKBLC Live Webcasts in November
The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is pleased to present its webcast schedule for November 2010. Please see below for descriptions and webcast links; all webcasts will also be archived.
All events are hosted by UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.
Wednesday, November 3
Noon – 1 pm, Dodson Room (Room 302, Learning Centre)
Speech Act Theory and Concepts of the Record
Presented by Geoffrey Yeo, Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, University College London and Visiting Professor, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies
The philosophers J.L. Austin and John Searle developed speech act theory in the 20th century. This talk will provide a brief introduction to the theory and explore aspects that seem relevant to concepts in archival science.
Mr. Yeo will focus on connections between speech act theory and a conceptualization of records as persistent representations, ideas about the role of representation in the performance of speech acts, the potential impact of speech act theory on perceptions of the record as a source of information, and/or the importance of societal conventions in understanding the affinities of records to human action. He will argue that records have performative characteristics and that speech act theory can help us comprehend the relations between records, actions and events.
The webcast will be available here.
Friday, November 5
11 am – noon, Lillooet Room (Room 301, Learning Centre)
Supporting the Reading of Digital Books
Presented by Dr. George Buchanan, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for HCI Design, City University, London
Libraries have traditionally stored large volumes of physical documents. In recent years, this has been supplemented by an increasing proportion of digital texts. While there has been extensive research into the reading of relatively short documents, there is a limited knowledge of how longer digital documents are found, chosen and read. With the emergence of Kindles, iPads and other portable digital reading devices, it is timely to re-investigate the use of longer electronic texts, such as digital books.
In this talk, Dr. George Buchanan will report the key findings of a four-year research project that has addressed the selection and reading of digital books. He will also suggest avenues for future investigation.
Dr. Buchanan has researched digital libraries for over 10 years, and has a particular interest in the difficulties that users have in finding information using computer-based systems. In addition to his studies of digital libraries, he has conducted extensive investigations into mobile human-computer interaction. Dr. Buchanan’s research has been recognized by the conferment of six best-paper awards and a life fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts.
The webcast will be available here.
Wednesday, November 17
Noon – 1 pm, Dodson Room (Room 302, Learning Centre)
Project VIEWS: Early Learning Initiatives That Work Successfully (or Do They?)
Presented by Dr. Eliza T. Dresang, Beverly Cleary Professor of Children’s Literature and Services, The Information School, University of Washington
How do we know whether early learning initiatives involving public libraries work? That is, what is the impact on early learners? Dr. Eliza Dresang, the Early Learning Public Library Partnership and the Foundation for Early Learning in Washington State have joined forces to address this challenging topic through Project VIEWS, funded through the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Dr. Dresang will give an overview of early learning assessment research in Washington. She will then speak about the related research in which she is involved, and the potentially radical idea of how she will adapt her research with school‐age children to an early learning audience. There will be time for a discussion.
The webcast will be available here.
Erin Freeland Ballantyne and Glen Coulthard – Education, Community Initiatives & Mainstream Institutions
Glen Coulthard, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and First Nations Studies, UBC and Erin Freeland Ballantyne. This is the third of a series of five special dialogues: Critical Issues in Aboriginal Life and Thought. Critical Issues in Aboriginal Life and Thought is a collaboration of the UBC First Nations Studies Program, the First Nations House of Learning, the Irving. K. Barber Learning Centre and UBC Continuing Studies. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
Coulthard, G. S., & Muse, P. (2014). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/j.ctt9qh3cv [Link]
Coulthard, G. S. (2007). Subjects of empire: Indigenous peoples and the ‘politics of recognition’ in Canada. Contemporary Political Theory, 6(4), 437-460. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300307 [Link]
UBC Library Research Guides
Jasper Wall – Eddington, Ryle & Hoyle: How a major discovery was lost in confusion and noise
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Physics and Astronomy Department. The Steady-State vs Big-Bang controversy of the 1960s, also known as the source-count controversy, was almost unparalleled in bitterness and rancour. The very personal struggle between Ryle and Hoyle changed the course of the lives of both men. It resulted essentially in the loss from the record of a major cosmological discovery which astronomers and cosmologists finally recognized and revisited far too late. Wall was directly involved in the fight and its resolution, and came to know both Ryle and Hoyle as friends. From this perspective he describes what happened, together with the flow of consequences into current astrophysics and cosmology.
Biography of Speaker
Jasper Wall is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. His research topics are focused on origin and evolution of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, unified models, statistics in astronomy.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
De Zotti, G., Massardi, M., Negrello, M., & Wall, J. (2010). Radio and millimeter continuum surveys and their astrophysical implications. The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, 18(1-2), 1-65. [Link]
Gendre, M. A., Wall, J. V., & Best, P. (2009). Evolution of AGN Space Densities and the Fanaroff–Riley Dichotomy. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 5(S267), 109-109. [Link]
Kellermann, K., Orchiston, W., Davies, R., Gurvits, L., Ishiguro, M., Lequeux, J., … & van Woerden, H. (2011). Division X, XII/Commission 40, 41/Working Group Radio Astronomy. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union,7(T28A), 311-313. [Link]
UBC Library Research Guides
Andrew Pask, Baldwin Wong, Daniel Hiebert and Hayne Wai – Citizenship without the Nation – Relevance: The Nation and the City
The Citizenship Without the Nation conference was a two day conference held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues from October 29 – 30, 2010. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. The conference explored how regional and local dialogues intersect with the national discourse on citizenship. There is significant work on citizenship at the national level, but the same issues take on very different meanings in the Vancouver context given the mix of residents in the city, the languages they speak, and the city’s geographic location. Sessions considered how people belong to neighbourhoods, cities, regions and nations. Participants were asked about the possibility of belonging to several communities at once and interrogated what happens when the promise of national citizenship fails to deliver locally. The counterpoint was also addressed: what happens when the local fails to live up to the national ideal?
Chair: Ellen Woodsworth, Vancouver City Councillor
Daniel Hiebert, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia
Baldwin Wong, Social Planner, City of Vancouver
Andrew Pask, Director, Vancouver Public Space Network
Hayne Wai, Past President, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Hiebert, D., & Canadian Public Policy Collection. (2009). Economic integration of immigrants in Metro Vancouver. Metropolis British Columbia. [Link]
Wong, B., & Fong, K. (2012). Dialogues between Fist Nations, urban Aboriginals and immigrant communities in Vancouver. Canadian Issues, 19. [Link]
Wai, H. Y. (1998). Vancouver Chinatown, 1960-1980: A community perspective. Seattle, Washington: Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.
UBC Library Research Guides
Ann Curry – "Silencing by Shouting Down: Acceptable Censorship in 2010?" webcast online
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS). Dr. Curry’s research interests include Censorship and Intellectual Freedom, Information Ethics, Library Architecture, Public Libraries, Collection Management, and Issues in LIS Education. She is currently Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta.
Marie-Françoise André – Drivers of environmental change: the case of the Arctic
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by St. John’s College Drivers of Environmental Change Lecture Series. The circumarctic permafrost region is known as a climate-change hotspot, with special reference to parts of Alaska and Siberia which display a warming trend of 5°C for the last century. Moreover, the contemporary economic development of Arctic regions has brought dramatic expansion of infrastructure (e.g. extraction of fossil fuels and mineral resources). In this context, permafrost thaw appears as the driving force of landscape change, soil disturbance and infrastructure damage, but is not the only expression of the current environmental change. Four main topics will be discussed: (1) The identification of geoindicators of contemporary environmental changes in the Arctic; (2) The interplay of natural and human drivers of these changes; (3) The negative and positive implications of the current environmental changes in circumarctic regions; (4) The geomorphological services to be offered to mitigate or prevent the negative effects.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
Fort, M., André, M., SpringerLink (Online service), & SpringerLINK ebooks – Earth and Environmental Science. (2014; 2013). Landscapes and landforms of France (1; 2014 ed.). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7022-5 [Link]
André, M. (1986). Dating slope deposits and estimating rates of rock wall retreat in northwest spitsbergen by lichenometry. Geografiska Annaler.Series A, Physical Geography, 68(1/2), 65-75. [Link]
André, M. (2002). Rates of postglacial rock weathering on glacially scoured outcrops (abisko-riksgränsen area, 68°N). Geografiska Annaler.Series A.Physical Geography, 150-150. [Link]
UBC Library Research Guides
Henry Yu – Our Future as a Half-Chinese City: Lessons from History
Dr. Henry Yu specializes in the study of trans-Pacific migration and settlement. Yu is involved in the collective effort to reimagine the history of Vancouver and of British Columbia through the concept of “Pacific Canada,” a perspective that focuses on how migrants from Asia, Europe, and other parts of the Americas engaged with each other and with First Nations peoples historically. He is concurrently an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia as well as a faculty member of the Asian American Studies Centre at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Yu received his B.A. in the Honours History program from the University of British Columbia, and went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University where he pursued studies in History. Dr. Yu has held Visiting Professorships at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, and research fellowships at Wesleyan University, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and research grants from the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Yu, Henry. (2011) “The Rhythms of the Trans-Pacific” and “The Intermittent Rhythms of the Cantonese Pacific,” in Donna Gabaccia, Dirk Hoerder, editors, Connecting Seas and Connecting Ocean Rims: Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and China Seas Migrations from the 1830s to the 1930s. (Leiden: Brill, 2011). [Link]
Yu, Henry. (2011). “Nurturing Dialogues between First Nations, Urban Aboriginal, and Immigrant Communities in Vancouver,” in Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar, Mike DeGagné, editors, Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity. (Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2011):300-308. [Link]
Yu, Henry. (2009). “Global Migrants and the New Pacific Canada,” International Journal. (Autumn, 2009):147-162. [Link]
UBC Library Research Guides