Polar Libraries Colloquy Blog

Day 3, 13 June

2012-06-13T18:48:00.002-04:00

Another sunny and hot day in Boulder.

The first item on todays agenda was the presentation of the William Mills Prize for Non Fiction Polar Books for 2012. The prize this year went to Jerry Kobalenko for his book Arctic Eden : journeys through the changing high Arctic. The committee will be posting some more information about the winner and the other candidates on the blog shortly.

Today's sessions began with Allaina Wallace from ROCS/NSIDC telling us about the importance of making emergency plans for events like flooding or fire. Their library had experienced a water leak in 2009 and had afterwards made plans of what to do. Covering shelves with plastic, knowing what to save first, who to call, and having the information available in a simple and accesible form were some of the important issues.

Erin Palmer from the NWT Geoscience Office told us about the status of the informations services in northern Canada. She went through the libraries and archives in Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut, and told us about the issues the struggle with, the programmes they are involved with, and the successes they have experienced.

Lisa Adamo from US Geological Survey told us about the Antarctic ressources that have been moved from the US Antarctic Resource Center to the USGS library. The material consist of aerial photographs, satellite images, and technical reports. A lot of it is not indexed, but the plan is to get it recorded, integrated in the library, and make it accessible on a website.

Ross Goodwin informed us of the status of the IPY publications database, which is a project which several polar institutions are involved in. It is estimated that app. 20.000 publications would be the outcome of IPY 2007/08. The database contains publications from all 4 IPYs. So far 5.503 titles has been included, of these 2.890 titles are from the 2007/08 IPY. The reason so few publications have been registered. It is available on www.nisc.com/ipy. The Arctic and Antarctic Regions database does not contain the IPY records created after June 2009. Lack of funding for the CRBP has affected input to the database. It is believed that work will continue on the project for at least the next 10 years.

Liz Schlagel from NSIDC informed us of the DAHLI project which stands for Discovery and Access of Historical Literature from the IPYs. The project collects and catalogues world wide holdings of IPY data from the four IPYs, and the database is hosted in the ROCS library. As archival management system ARCHON has been chosen.

After lunch there was a change in programme as Chris Jenkins from INSTAAR was not able to attend. Instead we watched a film called Good days on the trail from 1938-1942 with the University of Colorado Department of Mountain Recreation.

After that G. Garrett Campbell told us about recovering satellite films from the 1960ies. Data was stored on films at that time. The project is to digitize 100.000 images and attach metadata to them. Once the project is completed they will be made accessible on a website.

The the traditional group photo was taken, and the afternoon ended with another film showing. IGY Station Alpha about the American ice drifting station in the Arctic Sea in 1957-58.

Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen

Day 2 - PLC 24

2012-06-13T18:11:00.000-04:00

Day 2 of the Colloquy featured a panel discussion, a poster session, and a tour rather than regular sessions.

AAR panel: Moving forward

The day began with a panel discussion about the Arctic and Antarctic Regions database. Sharon Tahirkheli (AGI) chaired the discussion with panelists Martha Andrews (INSTAAR retired), Ross Goodwin (AINA), and Craig Brandt (EBSCO Senior Director, Product Management). The discussion focused on how we can get past the stalled process that means new records from contributors like SPRI and ASTIS have not been added to AAR.

Sharon gave an account of funding cuts, personnel changes, and what has happened between EBSCO and AAR participants over the last few years. Martha reviewed the history of AAR: why it was begun within PLC, who was involved, and how the records were handled and became a CD-ROM subscription product from NISC. In 2009 EBSCO bought AAR and converted it to an online database as part of its suite of products.

Craig Brandt expressed a desire for better communication with the PLC user group and came as a product developer (rather than sending a sales representative) to aid direct, useful conversations. He presented some information on how EBSCO's processes work and listed their concerns. The NISC version of AAR was designed to ingest records from 9 different organizations, each with different controlled vocabularies and formats. EBSCO can really only build one ingest tool for each database. They were stymied by how to de-dup records and standardize the controlled vocabularies used by various contributors. They identified a number of journals with polar content, and added cover-to-cover records from those journals. In retrospect that added a large number of records that had nothing to do with polar subjects to the database, diluting the quality of search results.

Discussion revolved around how we can move forward from here, building a smooth pipeline for contributors' records into AAR and increasing the quality of the database. EBSCO was already aware of the problem of irrelevant content and Craig relayed that many of the records about tropical and temperate environments will be removed. Only 3-4 of the organizations that originally contributed records to AAR are still adding to their bibliographies, which reduces the number of players to worry about. PLC members agreed that duplicate records were not a major problem for us or our users, which removes one of EBSCO's concerns. EBSCO will convert records to their own, less specific controlled vocabulary, but can maintain contributors' vocabularies in a different field as well so that they can still be used in search. Overall, we came out with a workable approach to renewing the database. I for one am looking forward to renewing my library's AAR subscription that I let lapse a couple of years ago.

Poster session

After a break, a poster session gave us glimpses into many interesting projects. Sandy Campbell (coauthors Kim Frail, Debbie Feisst, and Robert Desmarais) showed us the Deakin Review of Children's Literature, a quarterly review of quality children's books that The University of Alberta Libraries just took over last year. Kathy Murray's "Health Aspects of Arctic Exploration" portrayed the research materials of Robert Fortuine, donated to the University of Anchorage libraries in 2006. Nancy Gonzales of DRPA Canada talked about her poster "Northwest Territories Geoscience Office Online Business Applications." Hilary Shibata of SPRI presented "The Scott Centenary Bibliography Project: Adapting Old Records to New Standards of Accessibility," that she coauthored with the absent Heather Lane. Ross Goodwin of AINA displayed the various flavors of ASTIS on "The Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS): Canada's National Northern Database." And Heidi McCann (coauthors Chris McNeave, Mark Parsons, Shari Gearheard, Henry Huntington, and Peter Pulsifer, all of National Snow and Ice Data Center) displayed a poster on the project she spoke on during Day 1, "Archiving Local and Traditional Knowledge of the Arctic."

NICL tour

After lunch we piled into a bus and headed down Highway 93 to the National Ice Core Lab, part of the U.S. Geological Survey facility in Denver's Federal Center. Geoff Hargreaves, NICL Curator, showed us a drill and told us how ice is cored and what the cores tell us about the climate and environment of past eras. We peppered him with questions. By the end of the tour we had learned how the cores are transported to the lab, how they are processed in the lab, where the cores come from, where other core facilities are located around the world (lots of help from the crowd on that one), the characteristics of ice from various depths, dealing with pressure and temperature changes, what analyses are run on the cores, where the data goes, what metadata is kept about each core, and many other topics. Geoff used FileMaker 1 to store information about the cores when they first set up the lab, and they are still using it (now in version 11). Thank you Geoff for your gracious indefatigability!

We filed past the windows of the lab, watching an energetic group of scientists and grad students process sections of core in a kind of assembly line (disassembly line?). The work room is kept colder than negative 30 degrees C, so that ice dust created by sawing the cores into pieces doesn't melt into water droplets. People working in the lab wear insulated suits, with latex gloves over their insulated gloves to reduce contamination of the ice. Geoff changes the blades on the saws every day during work sessions.

Then we assembled for the highlight of the tour: Geoff slid back a big insulated door and let us into the storage area of the lab, kept at a cozy negative 40 degrees. We filed into the aisles, where the silver cylinders holding core pieces are stacked on shelves reaching high overhead. We saw cores from sites in Greenland and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, among others. Berit thought the lab felt fairly comfortable, but the rest of us were shivering and exclaiming at the cold.

Back on the bus and to Boulder!

24th Colloquy coming up quickly

2012-06-01T13:42:00.000-04:00

In just over a week, many of us will convene in Boulder, Colorado for the Colloquy June 11-14. A few notes:

First, there is still time to register if you haven't already.

The program is set and features a variety of outstanding sessions on creative approaches to services, library structures and practices, "trials by fire," and new developments in data and databases.

We will address the future of the Arctic and Antarctic Regions database as a community during a panel and open discusssion.

The opening keynote is by Jim White, Director of INSTAAR, ice core expert, and an eminent climatologist playing a major role in our understanding of abrupt climate change. Our closing speaker is Leilani Henry, daughter of the first African-American to set foot on Antarctica and an inveterate storyteller.

For those coming to Boulder, don't forget to pack:

Your auction items!
Sunscreen and a light jacket, just in case.
Any presentation slides - you can email to library@nsidc.org next week.

We can't wait to say hello at the Icebreaker Sunday evening in the Aspen Leaf Room at the conference hotel from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Stop by to meet friends, pick up registration packets, and have some light refreshments.

For those unable to make it, participants will add to this blog each day from the Colloquy. Stay tuned for notes about sessions and takeaway messages.

All the best,
Shelly, Allaina, and Gloria (your Boulder hosts)

Registration now open for PLC 2012 in Boulder

2012-02-27T13:47:00.001-05:00

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 24th Polar Libraries Colloquy in Boulder, Colorado. You will find registration information and a link to register on the conference web site.

On the website, you will also find information on Boulder, lodging, and transportation, as well as the call for papers. As the Colloquy approaches, we will update the web site with other pertinent information.

Finally, the deadline for abstracts is quickly approaching. Be sure to submit your abstract to when you register. We look forward to planning a fun and exciting agenda built around the interesting work everyone has done in the last two years.

See you in June!

The 24th PLC Planning Committee:
Allaina Wallace, NSIDC
Gloria Hicks, NSIDC
Shelly Sommer, INSTAAR
library@nsidc.org

24th Polar Libraries Colloquy, Boulder - cost and accommodations info

2011-12-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

We hope to see you at the 24th Colloquy in Boulder from June 11-14, 2012. The conference theme is Cold Regions: Pivot Points, Focal Points.

We will have a web site up early in 2012, but until then we wanted to provide some information on registration fees and accommodation to help you plan to attend. Please email us with any questions.

Approximate registration fees in U.S. dollars are as follows. There may be slight changes in the amounts as we get closer, but these are in the neighborhood:

Early registration: $300
Regular and on-site registration: $350
Single day - Early registration: $110
Single day - regular and on-site registration $135
Guest lunch: $15 per lunch
Guest banquet attendance: $70

Registration includes attendance at the sessions, breaks and lunches each day, a field trip, and the closing banquet at the beautiful Red Lion Inn near Boulder in the mountains.

We have arranged for a block of discounted rooms at the Boulder Inn, http://boulderinn.com/, which is a 15-minute walk from the conference venue on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus. The Boulder Inn has recently renovated its rooms and public spaces; some have views of the mountains. Rates are $104.00 plus tax per night for a king-sized bed and $114.00 plus tax per night for two queen-sized beds. You can make reservations with Ari Rubin by email (ari@boulderinn.com) or telephone (1-800-233-8469); mention the Colloquy to get the special rate. They are accepting reservations for the discounted rate from November 2011 until May 11, 2012.

We are looking into an optional excursion to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday, June 15.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to plan for a great week in beautiful Colorado.

Conference organizers:
Gloria Hicks    National Snow & Ice Data Center ROCS    gloria.hicks@colorado.edu
Allaina Wallace    National Snow & Ice Data Center ROCS    allaina.wallace@colorado.edu
Shelly Sommer    Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research Library    shelly.sommer@colorado.edu

Call for papers - 24th Polar Libraries Colloquy, June 2012

2011-12-13T18:30:00.000-05:00

24th Polar Libraries Colloquy, June 11-14, 2012:
Cold Regions: Pivot Points, Focal Points

First call for submission of proposals for papers and panel sessions for the 24th Polar Libraries Colloquy (PLC24) to be held the 11th through 14th of June 2012 in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

The conference theme is Cold Regions: Pivot Points, Focal Points. Scientists, economists, and governments are focused on the evolving role of polar regions in world affairs. Polar libraries are evolving as well. What changes have you noticed in your collections, focus, or administration as global attention pivots on the poles? The Colloquy will feature a number of interesting presentations and panels, an experiment with an “unconference” session to address practical problems in polar libraries, and a field trip to one of the coldest labs in the world.

PLC24 welcomes all topics that apply to polar libraries or information. For instance:
    * How has your institution/collection/staff/mission/audience evolved?
    * Preservation of the cultural heritage - collection management of photographs, films and oral recordings
    * Has your research focus changed?
    * Outreach of libraries and archives - use of new technologies for teaching and public interactions
    * New ways of bringing your collections to the masses
    * New ways of bringing the masses to your collections
    * Adapting the library to 21st century needs
    * Data and metadata curation
    * Collaborations and exchanges
Or suggest your own topic for a session!

Submissions are invited for papers, panel discussions, and posters.

Paper presentations should address recently conducted research or projects, or content that advances the field of polar libraries or information. They are typically 20 minutes in length, followed by a 10-minute period for questions.

Panel discussions should focus on current topics; they are ordinarily an hour in length with three to five participants.

Poster presentations should address products or projects such as databases, web sites, or other information tools.

Your paper or panel discussion proposal should include:
- Your name and email address
- Coauthors or presenters (if applicable). Panel proposals should list a chair but do not need a complete list of panelists at this stage.
- Title
- Abstract of 500 words or less

PLEASE NOTE: Conference registration is required in order to present a paper. The PLC Steering Committee may be able to assist with some costs via the Wenger Award.

TIMELINE for paper or panel discussion proposals:

16 March 2012         Submissions deadline
13 April 2012         Acceptance notification
5 June 2012        Powerpoint and other visual presentations to be sent to conveners for loading on conference computers

Please submit all proposals to: library@nsidc.org

Proceedings of the conference will be published online. Paper authors will be expected to submit a final version of their papers for publication within six weeks after the conclusion of the conference.

We look forward to your participation.
- Gloria Hicks
- Allaina Wallace
- Shelly Sommer
PLC24 conveners

2010 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books

2010-07-06T10:29:00.002-04:00

The Polar Libraries Colloquy is pleased to announce the winner of the William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books. Top prize went to Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest Among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade by John R. Bockstoce. The honors were announced at an awards ceremony on Monday June 14, 2010 in Bremerhaven, Germany at the biannual conference. More information about the prize, including the complete list of 2010 nominations, can be found on the PLC website.

Furs and Frontiers in the Far North is a comprehensive history of the native and maritime fur trade in Alaska during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. John Bockstoce is a well-known and respected Arctic historian and
archaeologist who has authored many books on Polar topics, such as the award-winning Whales, Ice and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic.

The Selection Committee would like to thank everyone who made a nomination this year. We had a stunning 12 nominations!

For more information, please contact Deborah Hicks, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

PLC Day 4 June 17

2010-06-18T16:31:00.004-04:00

Well, I was one of Sandy’s colleagues left on the patio at Lloyd's next to the hotel on Day 3, enjoying the wonderful evening sunshine, and the company of our Alaskan and Norwegian PLCers, joined later by several other colloquy participants. Little did I understand when I signed up to blog, that Thursday would be one of the most intense days, followed by the banquet and the outcry auction. I therefore apologize that this report is undoubetedly arriving AFTER the report for Day 5, but it simply couldn’t be helped… I had a lot to cover!

Day 4 (Thursday in Bremerhaven) began with Session 6: Preserving and Distributing Polar Research – Polar Libraries Ahead, moderated by Sandy Campbell of the University of Alberta Library. The first presentation was by Ross Goodwin of the ASTIS Bibliography, Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary, who provided an account of the concept, design, development, current status and ongoing plans for the IPY 2007-2008 database. The database, developed as a consortium model using existing systems, is unique in that it collects social data and gray literature, allows for geographic as well as inter-disciplinary searching, is useful to a broad audience, and that it contributes records to ongoing databases at the same time as it builds the IPY 2007-2008 database. It is now at 4,000 records and counting. Some of the challenges are in capturing the data, but the most pressing issue is the sale of NISC to EBSCO publishing, which means that IPYPD is no longer a subset of AAR, even though it was built to use the infrastructure. The work on IPYPD has really just begun, the records will continue to be collected by CRBP, ASTIS, and SPRI but a long-term solution to the NISC situation must be found. A request was made for us all to add a link to the IPYPD to our websites to inform networks of its existence.

Our second speaker was Gloria Hicks of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Boulder, Colorado, who talked about how e-tools and communciations infrastructures are being used for collaboration in key areas of science. In the same way, libraries are using e-tools to disseminate information and for communciation between librarians and users; websites are adapting e-strategies for distributing information through web streaming, RSS feeds, podcasts; social network fora, blogs, wikis, and chat applications are being used for science-based dialogues; and finally science is finding ways of using mobile applications. Of examples described was the ‘Science on a Sphere’ 3d program of NOAA (see http://sos.noaa.gov/).

Session 7, Giving (Open) Access to Research Data was moderated by Marcel Brannemann of the Alfred Wegener Institute and focused on a culture shift, whereby the scientific community is beginning to embrace open access, having been pushed to share ever more and various forms of materials (such as raw data). First up in this session as Hannes Grobe of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Beremerhaven who provided a overview of the birth and development of the PANGAEA Data Library for the Earth System—a georeferenced data library that offers a brilliant way to handle metadata as supplemental data to publications. From the view of the datacenter, data must be electronic (readable) to be useful and available. Next was a presentation by Jan Brase of the Technische Informationsbibliothek in Hannover,Germany who described DataCite--an international consortium for data citation. He described library catalogues as agents of global cooperation with local representation.

Our morning was rounded out with a Panel Discussion on the possible roles for the future library in digital curation, and how archives, libraries and data centres can interact more efficiently. The panel moderator was David Walton of the British Antarctic Survey and panelists included Heather Lane of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Shelly Sommer of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Jan Brasse of the Technische Informationshbibliotek; and Hans Pfeiffenberger of the Alfred Wagener Institute. Panelists talked about differing views of library directors, library staff and researchers, the role of librarians in data management, how that role has evolved over the last 10-20 years, the challenges to accessing information and training needed for these evolving roles, the need for librarians to be invited to share in the planning stages of designing data management structures and systems and how their work should be called upon to inform the development of sharing policies. A lively open discussion ensued—a good deal of it focussed on whether the title ‘librarian’ should be changed to something more descriptive, or more inclusive of these new roles where they exist. Several conclusions were drawn; amongst them, the need to promote the skills and position of the Librarian to provide competencies and training in areas other than those conventionally attributed to them. Also discussed was the growing concept of ‘embedded librarians’ being a required part of the research process (e.g., in the medical sciences). There is a need to design and develop templates for data management and sharing, and various professionals and users need to be at the table to discuss needs and information required by various stakeholders, and to find a viable way to organize the data to make management as efficient and effective as possible. We need to be able to articulate various rules of access for e.g., the medical sciences (privacy standards) vs. social sciences (ethical standards) vs. biological sciences (data sharing) vs. applied sciences (patents protection) to form cohesive templates that will work across disciplines, institutions, jurisdiction (a monumental task!). Contraints, as always are funding, governance mechanisms, trans-national perspectives and differences, disciplinary restraints, and international rules. The most important conclusion was that the term Librarian is still appropriate--that people know what a librarian is, even if they might not know everything that a librarian does, and so we should… “Keep to the Brand”!

We returned after lunch to Session 8 which dealt with e-publications availability and access. This third session was moderated by Sandy Campbell.

The first talk was given by Sharon Tahirkheli of the American Geological Institute in Alexandria who addressed the impact of changes in the publishing industry on the Cold Regions Bibliography Project (CRBP), exploring whether new technologies and publishing norms such as electronic journals and e-books, digital repositories have made producing bibliographies more efficient or if the cost and effort expended adapting to the changing environments made it at all worthwhile. The bottom line is that while some efficiencies have been realized in some areas (staff time), they have been taken up in others (programming).

Next, new colloquy member Yoriko Hayakawa of the National Institute for Polar Research (NIPR) in Tokyo, Japan introduced us to the journals and reports produced by NIPR since 1957. The institute has moved to open access for all journals since 2003. Yoriko also spoke of the launch of ‘Polar Science; and a new special issue of MERGE, the new library, and the expedition reports collection, and provided a quick demo on how to access these materials.

The last talk in session 8 was dedicated to improving access to gray literature in polar libraries by Daria Carle of the University of Alaska Anchorage. The presentation was based on a comparative study of gray literature collections at the libraries of the Austalian Antarctic Division (AAD) in Tasmania, Australia, and the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge. The duplication expected in the two collections was surprising low (less than 6%). The project also looked at using RefWorks and RefShare to link the bibliographies to increase access. A full report of the study is available at http://www.consortialibrary.org/blogs/dcarle/sabbatical

After coffee was the PLC Business Meeting, the whole which will be reported in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin. Following the usual business of approving the minutes and the treasurer’s report, we took a few minutes to remember Geraldine (Nita) Cooke who passed away on 25 May 2010. As a founding member of the Northern Libraries Colloquy, Nita contributed a great deal to the PLC through the 1970s and 80s, and even into her retirement in the 1990s. She last attended the PLC meeting in Ottawa in 2004.
The business meeting then resumed with the election of officers; a regular member needs to be elected by e-ballot in the coming months. Sandy Campbell was recognized and thanked for her work over this term as Secretary to the Committee.
A good discussion was held on the impact of the sale of NISC to EBSCO (outlined by Ross Goodwin and Sharon Tahirkheli, respectively, in their presentations earlier in the day), and whether there was potential for action that PlC can take in this regard. It was decided that for the time being, the project team of the IPYPD would continue to try to work with EBSCO at finding a suitable solution.
Finally, PLC was presented with a proposal for an EU Arctic Information Centre or AIC network at the Arctic Centre of the Univerity of Lapland in Rovaniemi, with a request for support. The executive committee of PLC has considered the proposal, and advised the membership that, under the current structure and mandate, PLC cannot take part directly in the activities of this proposed EU Network (it cannot, and does not have the means to administer funding or any support or resources that might be provided for involvement in such a proposed), and therefore could not be a part of the bid. A member of the PLC can be funded as a consultant in the project, and so it would be more appropriate that AIC approach individual libraries (they have approached some). The discussion continued on ways the PLC might interact with and/or participate in the work of AIC in the future. Based on the above, a letter of response will be drafted and presented to the initiators of the proposal.
The next PLC 2012 will be in Boulder Colorado! (dates TBA).
Members are asked to send in vignettes, sound bites, re. PLC 2010 and contribute your news and articles for the PLC Bulletin!

The afternoon session closed at 5:30, which gave us a short break before dinner at 7 p.m. in the Captain’s lounge of the Sail City Hotel (sometimes referred to locally as ‘little Dubai’!). As we exited the elevator on the 19th floor, we were provided a glass of sparkling wine to enjoy while checking out the outstanding 360o view of Bremerhaven with the excellent sound of the Carlos Montoya jazz band from Bremen as a backdrop. A wonderful dinner (with a wide choice of salads, fish, pork, vegetable dishes, and desert) was shared and the jazz band resumed.

The outcry auction led by auctioneer par excellence David Walton was once again a highlight of the evening. Eight items reserved for the event were from all regions represented by participants in the 23rd colloquy, and all great prizes indeed: hand-painted hankerchiefs, a map umbrella with a polar projection, a litre of maple syrup, a Sami necklace made of silver, a handpainted silk tie, and an Alaskan ulu, which apparently is much more affordable than a shower curtain — just ask Fred Presteng who contributed the highest price to the purchase of the Ulu. The great news is that the silent raised enough to support 3 participants at the next colloquy!
Day 4 Correspondent,
Elaine Maloney

Friday at the PLC

2010-06-18T05:32:00.003-04:00

The last day of the Colloquy led off win three interesting sessions on collaborative projects.

Bridget Burke, University of Alaska Fairbanks, introduced us to Project Jukebox. This collection of oral history projects captures local knowledge and returns it to the community: "digital repatriation." Materials collected include audio files, transcripts, video clips, polar periodicals, and images. University and library staff travel to communities to give presentations, and elders travel to the library to identify and prioritize materials for digitization. Interactions with local communities are regulated by guidelines that require collaboration. An unintended consequence has been increased collaboration and trust between groups within the University library, who have been forced to work together.

Liisa Hallikainen, from the Arctic Centre library, spoke on a cooperative outreach effort of the library, the Arctic Centre's science center, the Rovaniemi Art Museum, the Provincial Museum of Lapland, and the science center of Metsahallitus (parks and forestry service), which are located around the same square. The organizations are working on a coordinated series of activities for visiting groups of 14-15 year old students around the theme of northern forestry. Students will perform some preliminary work in the classroom; also, all activities conform to the curriculum. The goal for the Arctic Centre Library is to help the students become more capable of using the library as an information source.

PLC Bremerhaven Weds. June 16, 2010

2010-06-16T15:03:00.009-04:00

I've left our colleagues over on the patio at Lloyd's next to the hotel, enjoying the wonderful evening sunshine. This is the same patio where they have the giant screen and are showing the World Cup Games regularly. Germany plays again Friday, and judging by the parties last Monday when they won the preliminary game, Friday will be a wild night.

Today was our Polar History day.
Our day began with Session 4: Polar Research in Historical Context, ably moderated by Elaine Maloney. Our first presentation was by Reinhard Krause of the Alfred Wegener Insitute (our host organization)on the history of the IPY idea. Using many photographs and illustrations of early documents, Dr. Krause first described the polar research landscape as it was in the years that led up to the first IPY and introduced us to the most important personalities. I hope that the slides for this presentation will be on the web-site. It was so rich with illustrations, that anyone viewing it, even without the text, will get a lot out of it.

Our second speaker was Hans Oerter, also from AWI. Dr. Oerter talked about the legacy of Alfred Wegener’s work and the research programs that have been built upon it. Much of the work has been done on the Greenland glaciers. Dr. Oerter pointed out to us that while Greenland is 81% glaciated, the unglaciated area of Greenland is larger than Germany. The other striking fact that we learned is that while the ice is very thick in the central part of Greenland, much of that area receives so little precipitation that it is actually classified as a desert.

Session 5, Polar History – Examples and Methods followed with Sharon Tahirkheli moderating.
Tatiana Fridman, one of our two new members from the Kola Science Centre in Apatity Russia, gave us a history of the Khibinskaya Mountain Station, where the First Polar Conference was held April 9-12, 1932. She also described for us her work on the Special Edition of “Important Milestones in the Development of Science in the Kola North”, an important work which was republished in 2009. It is really good to have our Russian colleagues here and to be able to learn about their information environments, both through formal presentations and informal conversations.

I think I saw Hilary Shibata last at the Rome conference. Hillary has a unique perspective having worked at the Scott Polar Research Institute for many years, and having also spent many years living in Japan. So she is perfectly positioned to bring us the story of Lt. Shirase and the Japanese Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1912. This Expedit Reseach Instituteion has not received much attention in the popular English language press as have other Antarctic Expeditions of the same era. Our Japanese colleague, Yoriko Hayakawa (and it's wonderful to have a Japanese polar colleague here) tells me that Japanese school children are more likely to study later expeditions, as well.

Laura Kissel, of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, rounded out our morning with an interesting presentation on a program for building curriculum packages with high school teachers as a way of increasing use of the Byrd collection. By combining carefully constructed step-by-step lesson plans with carefully-selected primary materials from the Byrd collection, Laura and her team created a learning environment that would give many high school students their first with polar studies.

This ended our formal sessions for Wednesday. We headed over to the German Emigration Center for a group photograph and then lunch. After lunch, we were each given a card with an emigrant’s name and dates on the jacket. The Emigration Centre is designed to tell the story of the millions of people who left Europe through the port of Bremerhaven. At four points, we used our cards to activate an audio file which told us part of our emigrant’s story. My lady had been a Jewish doctor, who, with her husband was stripped of the right to practice and in 1939, was able to get to England, and eventually to New York. (My European colleagues may wish to skip the following babble).The most striking thing to me about this experience is that the story is that of emigration. Those of us who are non-indigenous people from the Americas and Australia know the same stories as immigration stories. We are the product of the people who made that trip and survived. These stories parallel our family histories, but we know them not as “they left”, but as “we arrived”.

From the historical to the modern, we next hopped on a bus for a tour of the harbor. This is a huge container port and cruise ship dock. As one of our colleagues commented, it does look like something out of Star Wars with its multitude of cranes, bridges and mobile container movers that look sort of like four-legged spiders with containers slung under their bellies. Of course they don’t walk, the legs are fixed and on wheels, so they drive around in a bee-hive of activity, collecting containers, driving over the spots or stacks where the containers are to be placed and then precisely lowering the containers so that they stack up like building blocks.

Kudos and thanks to Marcel, who has done a great job of giving us different ways of getting to know and understand Bemerhaven, the work of the Alfred Wegener Institute and the perspectives on things polar from this part of Europe.

Cheers from Bremerhaven. Sandy Campbell

PLC 23 Day 2

2010-06-15T18:12:00.004-04:00

Day two of the Colloquy began with a guided tour of Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8˚ Ost, a new innovative permanent exhibition devoted to climate and climate change. Dr. Susanne Nawrath, Klimahaus Exhibition Manager, gave the group a brief introduction the Centre. This was followed by a guided tour of the main exhibits, which include "Journey", "Elements", "Perspectives" and "Opportunities." The exhibits simulate the climate through a series of interactive displays. As we move throught the exhibits, we experience the climatic differences around the earth and learn about the many factors affecting climate and climate change. Visiting the Klimahaus was truly a unique experience.

Following the tour, we shifted gears from changes in the weather to changes affecting libraries. Lindsay Johnston (University of Alberta) presented a paper entitled "The Melting and Disappearance of Circumpolar Born Digital Grey Literature." She examined important issues related to identifying, capturing and disseminating "born digital" grey literature. Elaine Maloney (Canadian Circumpolar Institute) also spoke of collaborative e-projects between the University and the Circumpolar Institute. Participants broke into groups to discuss issues related to collaboration and the preservation of this type of literature, with a view of a possible e-archiving strategy for Circumpolar literature.

In the afternoon we shifted gears when Jan-Anders Diesen, Film historian (Lillehammer University College, Norway) presented a fascinating look at the very first silent films made of polar expeditions in both the North and South Poles. The presentation examined the earliest silent films made on expeditions led by Fiala, Wellman, Wilkins, Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton, Byrd and others. Professor Diesen brought this rare footage to life and we were delighted to hear the many anecdotes he shared with us about the films and their background.

Our host Marcel Brannemann (AWI, Bremerhaven) then presented two short film clips of relatively recent arctic expeditions. This was followed by the final clip, a humorous entry called the "Quest for the Golden Roll". This five-minute clip was the winning entry of the 48 hr Antarctic film festival submitted by BAS researchers at the Rothera Research Station, Antarctica.

The last two papers of the day shifted gears back to important issues facing polar librarians today, as more and more libraries have to compete with the perception that libraries are no longer as important to research as they once were. Alternate sources of information, such as the Internet (Google, etc.) can make it harder to make the case for the role of the library.

Jo Milton of the British Antartic Survey presented us with the results of a recent user survey she undertook in her organization. The goal of the survey was to understand the patterns of information use by her primary user group, namely polar scientists working at the BAS. As polar research becomes increasingly more collaborative and mulitdisciplinary it is important to understand how scientists in different disciplines use and view the library, as well as in how they percieve the information options available to them. Jo also looked at many of the issues facing her library in the context of reorganization and dwindling resources.

Shelly Sommer (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder) presented a wide-ranging paper on how large-scale trends such as Web 2.0 are affecting libraries and librarians. Shelly surveyed varous Web 2.0 tools suchs as Wikis, RSS feeds, file sharing sites, blogs, sites such as Facebook and Twitter and provided examples of how these tools are changing the way people look at and share information.

Also examined were issues of data decoupling. Research data is treated separately from publications and there are often no clear policies regarding data and data management. Shelly ended her presentation with a look at the changing role of librarians and libraries.

Pierre Beaudreau (Departmental Library, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada)

PLC 23 Day 1

2010-06-14T14:46:00.001-04:00

Greetings from Bremerhaven and PLC 23! Our conference is being held in the Klimahaus, Bremerhaven's newest tourist attraction. But more about that tomorrow – when we get a guided tour of the facility. Today, we were welcomed to Bremerhaven from Dr. Karin Lochte, the director of the AWI, as well as the Mayor of Bremerhaven (can someone help me out with his name?). We got a nice overview of the research conducted by the AWI as well as the interesting details about the history of the city of Bremerhaven. After a brief introduction and welcome from PLC chair Heather Lane, we were treated to two key note speakers. The first was a very interesting talk from Bernhard Diekmann, of AWI, Potsdam. He gave a very informative presentation about permafrost and climate change, including the definition of permafrost and the impacts of the warming in the Arctic on permafrost. Our next keynote speaker was Daniel Steinhage, also of the AWI. Daniel's talk was called, "Airborne research in cool regions," and focused on the research aircraft of the AWI. He went over the details of the various aircraft used by the AWI over time and the purpose and importance of the aircraft in polar research.

After a very generous luncheon, Session I began with a talk by David Walton called, "Antarctic Bibliographies: listing the literature of a continent." David summarized a number of the various bibliographies of Antarctica, with commentary about the good ones, bad ones and those in between. David rightly points out that many young scientists (and other researchers) won't use any materials that they cannot pull up on their computer screens. As librarians, we know that lots of good material exists that is not accessible online! The second talk of Session I was a fascinating overview of the "Breitfuss Polar Archives at SPRI: its acquisition and integration into the SPRI collection," by Isabella Warren. She gave us a good biographical sketch of the life of Breitfuss, as well as the interesting path taken to finally get the collection of materials to SPRI. Consisting of books, pamphlets and maps, Isabella is pulling together a comprehensive list of the collection, as well as working to make decisions about the best way to preserve the materials and make them accessible. Finally, Session I ended with a talk from Fred Presteng and the experience he had in digitizing the publications of the Norwegian Polar Institute. Fred explained that this is a work in progress, with 84 of 400 issues scanned so far. He also described the perils and pitfalls of digital projects. Though the scanning was outsourced to big companies, there have been a number of quality issues. In addition, Fred pointed out the need for the same technical platform to be used by both the vendor and the library. He also gave some very good suggestions and tips to librarians contemplating digital projects, including suggested file sizes for best quality, yet still keeping file sizes manageable, and advising librarians to do a little research about scanning before embarking on an outsourced scanning project, as this will make communications with vendors much easier. Day one's session ended with the announcement of the William Mills Book Prize. Gloria Hicks briefly explained the process by which the book was selected, and then announced the winner: Furs and Frontiers of the Far North: the contest among native and foreign nations for the Bering Strait fur trade, by John Bockstoce. Graciously accepting the award on the author's behalf was David Walton.

-Laura Kissel, Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, OSU

Canada to host Arctic summit in March

2010-03-08T12:08:00.002-05:00

Canada to host Arctic summit in March

Read the article:

http://www2.canada.com/scripts/story.html?id=2516997

Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than 'our most pessimistic models': researcher

2010-03-08T11:58:00.002-05:00

Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than 'our most pessimistic models': researcher

Read the article:

http://www.canada.com/technology/Arctic+vanishing+fast+researcher/2532081/story.html

Arctic warming will cost world billions: Pew study

2010-03-08T11:53:00.003-05:00

Climate warming in the Arctic will cost the global economy billions of dollars in 2010 alone, according to a study by the U.S.-based Pew Environment Group released Friday.

Read more:

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/02/05/pew-arctic-warming-cost.html

Read the full report, Arctic Treasure: Global Assets Melting Away, at:

http://oceansnorth.org/arctic-treasure

2010 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books - call for nominations

2010-01-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

The committee for the William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books is seeking nominations for the 2010 Prize. William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books was established in memory of William Mills, a core member of Polar Libraries Colloquy during its formative years, consummate polar librarian and author. The prize was first awarded in 2006.

The book prize honors the best Arctic or Antarctic nonfiction books published throughout the world (nomination details below). The prize consists of $300 US, certificates for the author and publisher, and the right to use the William Mills Prize logo when advertising the winning book.
Winning titles are announced on pollib-L, the Colloquy web site, the Polar Libraries Bulletin and other appropriate publications.

More information about the award, including past nominees and winners, is available on the Polar Libraries Colloquy web site at http://arcticcentre.ulapland.fi/polarweb/plc/mills.asp.

*The deadline for submission is March 31, 2010.*

Qualifications for Nomination:
1. The book must be nonfiction, about the Arctic or Antarctic.
2. The book may be any type of substantive work of nonfiction, or reference resource. Textbooks, anthologies, edited works, and other small-scale efforts will not be considered unless they are truly outstanding contributions to the polar literature.
3. The book must have been published for the first time between the dates of the last Colloquy and the December 31st before the next Colloquy. Re-releases, translations of older materials, and updated editions will not be eligible. The publication timeframe for the 2010 award is July 2008 to December 2009.
4. The official language of the Colloquy is English. For this reason books must be published in an English language version to be eligible.

*Submissions must include the following information:*
Book title
Author(s)/Corporate author(s)
Place of publication
Publisher
Date of Publication (must be between July 2008 and December 2009)
Name and contact information of person nominating the book

Additional information such as a book summary, statement of the book's impact, book reviews, etc. would be very welcome but are not mandatory. Please send nominations to the attention of Deborah Hicks by March 31st, 2010.

By email:
Deborah.R.Hicks@gmail.com

Or, mail:
P.O. Box 4556
Edmonton, AB
T6E 5G4
Canada

Celebrating Bartlett 2009

2009-07-13T08:40:00.002-04:00

Captain Bob Bartlett

World-renowned Arctic explorer. Icon of North American history. From his success on the famed 1909 Peary Polar expedition to his countless Far North adventures, Bartlett is one of the true heroes of the 20th century. Celebrating Bartlett 2009 is a program of events and projects to bring Bartlett’s story to new generations. It will shine light on the legacy of the man whose perseverance and strength symbolize the spirit of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Join us for Celebrating Bartlett 2009 and travel back to a time of firsts, a time of discovery – the time of Captain Bob Bartlett.

More info.

Posted by: Elise Chodat, Bibliographic Systems Librarian, INAC, Ottawa

1840 Globe

2009-07-13T08:34:00.003-04:00

Globe from 1840 showing Canadian discoveries up for auction
By Randy Boswell , Canwest News ServiceJuly 4, 2009

It was commissioned in 1840 for an Oxford University library, a $75 globe depicting "the present state of the known world" just three years after a young Queen Victoria had taken the throne.

But when the metre-wide, 169-year-old relic is auctioned July 7 in London, it's expected to fetch a whopping $50,000 - largely because of a map-maker's notations along Canada's northern coastline that suggest the globe may be a one-of-a-kind cartographic creation.

More info

Posted by: Elise Chodat, Bibliographic Systems Librarian, INAC, Ottawa

Canada and the U.K. Team Together on Polar Research

2009-02-17T15:18:00.004-05:00

Ottawa, Ontario (February 11, 2009) - The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Canada’s Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, and Right Honourable Lord Paul Drayson, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Science and Innovation, are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to pursue collaboration on polar research activities.
Canada and the UK have increased interest in scientific understanding of the polar regions. This MOU enables both countries to increase scientific cooperation in all aspects of polar research, including scientific exchanges and the sharing of polar infrastructure and logistical support.

For more information see:

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/nr/j-a2009/nr000000183-eng.asp

Posted by:

Pierre Beaudreau
Manager, Public Enquiries Contact Centre
Departmental Library
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

Canada's Arctic ice shelves break apart, drift away

2008-09-04T11:00:00.001-04:00

Wed Sep 3, 1:13 PM

OTTAWA (AFP) - Two ice shelves in Canada's far north have lost massive sections since August while a third ice shelf now is adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said researchers Wednesday who blamed climate change.

The entire 50 square-kilometer (19 square-mile) Markham Ice Shelf off the coast of Ellesmere Island broke away in early August and is now adrift, while two sections of the nearby Serson Ice Shelf detached, reducing its mass by 60 percent or 122 square kilometers (47 square miles).

Read more...

Posted by:

Elise Chodat
Bibliographic Systems Librarian
INAC

Announcement: Pipelines in Permafrost and Freezing Ground, 2nd ed.

2008-09-04T10:14:00.003-04:00

New Release
Pipelines in Permafrost and Freezing Ground, Engineering Resource Library and Database Indexes
The timely release of the fourteen-volume book set provides engineers and geoscientists working in universities, research institutes, corporations, governments and regulatory bodies with an in-depth examination of the interdependence between cold climate infrastructure and the behaviour of freezing soils and permafrost-affected soils.

The Engineering Resource Library provides the user with additional insights into intricate concepts such as
• Soil strain and soil creep
• Hydrological and micromorphological properties
• Frost heave and frost bulb growth
• Thaw consolidation and pipeline relaxation
• Pressure in freezing soils and permafrost affected soils
• Bending stresses in buried pipelines
• Uplift resistance of pipelines in permafrost

The Library may be equipped with a suite of program modules and databases.

For further informationplease contact Dr. White - by email white@permafrost.ca or by phone at 613-746-4422.

Permafrost Environmental Consulting Inc.
27 Lindenlea Road, Suite 103, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1M 1A9

***
Posted by:

Elise Chodat
Bibliographic Systems Librarian
INAC

Contaminants in Permafrost and Freezing Ground - announcement

2008-09-03T14:16:00.002-04:00

Contaminants in Permafrost and Freezing Ground Environmental Resource Library
By Thomas L. White

The timely release of the twelve-volume book set and CD-ROM containing Dr. White’s Contaminated Arctic Soils Database provides engineers and geoscientists working in universities, research institutes, corporations , government and regulatory bodies with the tools necessary to carry out an in-depth examination of the behaviour of contaminants in freezing soils and permafrost-affected soils.

Read more... [PDF, 695 Kb]

Annotated bibliography - Trent University

2008-08-25T14:31:00.002-04:00

An Annotated Bibliography of Material Related to the Polar and
Arctic Regions in the Special Collections of the Trent University Library (by Janice Millard)

"The Trent University Archives holds a wealth of wonderful published
material related to the Polar and Arctic Regions in its Special
Collections. They have been surveyed and an annotated bibliography
of materials in the collection as of 2007 has been created."
...

"Areas of concentration are the nineteenth and early twentieth century explorations to find the Northwest Passege and the North Pole as well as the exploration of Greenland and parts of Russia."

http://www.trentu.ca/admin/library/documents/polarbibliography2007.pdf [513k]

Posted by:

Elise Chodat
Bibliographic Systems Librarian
INAC

On dangerously thin ice

2008-07-31T11:29:00.002-04:00

When environmental biologist and film director Jean Lemire led a film crew to Antarctica, his plan was to document climate change. Instead, he tells Guy Dixon, he and his crew sailed into a potential death trap. Full story...

GUY DIXON, Globe and Mail, July 31, 2008

Posted by

Elise Chodat,

Bibliographic Systems Librarian,

INAC

Energy up North

2008-07-28T10:48:00.000-04:00

OIL AND GAS IN THE ARCTIC: ONE-THIRD OF THE WORLD'S PROVEN RESERVES
The energy up there -
According to the U.S. Geological Service, about 412 billion barrels of oil are trapped beneath the pack ice of the Arctic. Precisely who owns the reserves is another question

From theGlobeandMail.com, ReportonBusiness.com, July 24, 2008

Posted by:

Elise Chodat
Bibliographic Systems Librarian
INAC