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March 31, 2009
Biology Library closure meeting/input
There will be an open meeting this Friday, April 3, at 8:00-9:00AM in the
Grainger Engineering Library Commons (room 235), to discuss changes in the
science libraries, which includes closing the Biology Library. Despite the
late notice and early hour, I encourage you to attend and/or send your
comments to Scott Walter, swalter@illinois.edu, or Paula Kaufman,
ptk@illinois.edu. Please copy me as well, if you send in comments.
As you may remember, back in January the University Library was asked by
Provost Katehi to accelerate its movement towards departmental library
consolidations as part of the “New Services Models” program. In late
January I sent out a message to the department chairs and school heads
informing them of the proposal included in the Provost’s letter to close
the Biology Library and merge its collections and services into the Funk
ACES Library. After lengthy discussions between the librarians who serve
other life sciences libraries we agreed that if the Biology Library was to
be closed, then consolidating it with the Funk ACES library and creating a
life sciences library containing all or parts of the collections and
services pertaining to the Applied Health Sciences, ACES, and Biology
libraries, as well as Veterinary Medicine at a later date, was the best
solution. Under this model, the Biology Library collection would need to
shrink to no more than half its current size. As you will see in the
attached proposal from the University Library administration, this
proposal was not accepted. Instead, they propose that the Biology Library
materials and services would be split between the Chemistry Library, the
Funk ACES Library, and perhaps the Library of the Health Sciences.
I do not support the proposal to split the Biology Library collections and
services. There is no bright line between the collections and services
used by the two schools, but in this proposed split it would roughly be
MCB going to the Chemistry and Health Sciences libraries and IB going to
the ACES library. The Chemistry Library has room for only about 6,000
volumes, which amounts to half of the Biology Library books that have
circulated recently and only a very few journal volumes.
As a separate but related issue, Melody Allison, the Assistant Biology
Librarian, will be moving this summer to the ACES library as Assistant
ACES Librarian due to staffing cuts at the ACES Library. This will leave
only one librarian serving SIB and SMCB.
A final report will be sent to the Provost at the end of April. I
encourage you to provide your input on the proposed library mergers and
consolidations before then.
Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian
Posted by mmalliso at 1:15 PM
March 25, 2009
Biology Library Notes: Lecture announcement "Open Source Biology” (forward)
Information in Society Spring 2009 Speaker Series
"Open Source Biology”: Delivering redistributive justice for a creative biological commons?
Bronwyn Parry
Queen Mary University of London
Tuesday April 7, 2009
Lunch discussion: LISB 341, 12-1 pm
Office hour: LISB 341, 1:30-2:30 pm
Lecture: LISB 126, 3-4:30 pm
LISB is located at 501 E. Daniel, Champaign
Lecture abstract:
Biological information, whether rendered in actual or virtual forms (as embodied DNA or as databased sequences) can be understood not only as a foundational resource but also as an ‘enabling technology’ that provides the basis of many prospective biotechnological inventions. Drawing on the principles of ‘open-source’ access pioneered in other realms of the digital informational economy, recent global initiatives have attempted to support the generation of a creative biological commons by realizing the concept of ‘open source biology’. Focusing on the distinction between DNA as ‘a tool of innovation’ and an ‘end-product’ these initiatives are designed to make widely available in the scientific community, bio-informational technologies and sequences that would otherwise be the subject of restrictive intellectual property rights regimes. Building on her earlier work on the political economy of the collection, use and regulation of bioinformation (Parry, 2004, 2008, this presentation turns to an analysis of the desirability and viability of this uniquely informational mechanism for delivering redistributive justice to the brave new world of 21st century biotechnology.
Speaker biography:
Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer whose primary interests lie in investigating the way human-environment relations are being re-cast by technological, economic and regulatory changes. Her special interests include the rise and operation of the life sciences industry, informationalism, the commodification of life forms, posthumanism, bioethics and systems for knowing, disciplining and governing nature. Her book Trading the Genome was published to wide acclaim by Columbia University Press in 2004. She is currently completing a large Wellcome Trust funded project that investigates how human body parts and derivatives are understood and used as occasional commodities within the contemporary life sciences industry. She has published widely on the ethical social and legal implications of developments in the life sciences, and is a member of the UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics where she has undertaken research into the ethical implications of the forensic use of bio-information and the recent crisis in public health in the UK. She has also undertaken comparative work on the role of international regulatory regimes and indigenous knowledge systems in resource management and use in a consultative capacity for both the UN and the UK government.
Before her lecture, please join Dr. Parry for a lunch discussion from 12-1 pm. Contact Linda Smith (lcsmith@illinois.edu) if you have questions or to let her know you will attend lunch. Lunch will be provided for the first 10 participants. Dr. Parry will also be available to meet during an office hour from 1:30-2:30 pm. The lecture will be recorded and linked from the GSLIS Guest Lectures pages at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/news/lectures.html
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Posted by mmalliso at 1:55 PM