:-)

As some of you may have noticed a I published a guide to Open Science Resources last month, that guide is a work in progress but is targeted toward those working and studying science at UNL.  There are a lot of great Open Access resources out there for educators that don’t fit with the way I chose to design my guide.

Educational materials always seem to increase in price, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

In the spirit of promoting Open Access I present to you a multidisciplinary selection of Open Educational Resources that I reviewed but did not include in the Teaching Resources section of my guide to Open Science.

Textbooks, Reference, and Primary Source Materials

CK-12 Flexbooks
http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

Bartleby’s
http://bartleby.com/subjects/

100 Extensive University Libraries Around the World That Anyone Can Access
http://maryandmacdesign.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/100-extensive-university-libraries-from-around-the-world-that-anyone-can-access/

Interactive Resources:

Dynamic Periodic Table
http://www.ptable.com/

How to Write an Effective Essay Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWqMQ26Gqi4&feature=player_embedded

EngVid.com
English Lessons via Video
http://www.engvid.com

Field Trip Earth
http://www.fieldtripearth.org/index.xml

NBC Learn K-12
http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/k-12

PBS Learning Media
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/

Documentary Heaven
http://documentaryheaven.com/

Teaching Resources

50 Ways to Leave Your Term Paper or Book Report and Tell Your Story
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1868CZhAVeeIxlA6AMV0VwiPYnafVosjl0H9CZJgvCJY/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

10 Awesome Free Tools for Creating Infographics
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/awesome-free-tools-infographics/

Free Technology For Teachers
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Please share your favorite Open Education resources in the comments section and I’ll add them to the list!

Molecules by Jeffrey D. Deards Copyright 2011, Used with permission.

It’s Saturday night and you’re writing about molecules, you saw a great picture on someone’s website and you want to use it in your blog, surely that’s okay right?  Maybe, maybe not.  It all depends on the copyright that the person chose to enforce on their image, and if the image was theirs to distribute.

A lot of people get complacent about using things they find on the web.  There are a couple of reasons people use to justify their complacency, “If it’s on the web anyone can find it so why shouldn’t I use it.” And “No one will notice”.  Check out Photos, Flames, and Copyright by Bug Girl, and the comments, if you don’t believe these are serious issues.  There are so many copyright issues we could talk about that if we tried to discuss them all this post would be as long as one of those oversized dictionaries we used to use in school.  In reality every single image, sound file, and multimedia clip online has some sort of copyright applied to it.  If no copyright is explicitly stated you should assume that is it under copyright by the creator of the work and that you can’t use it without asking permission.  There are some exceptions for Fair Use but I’m not going to get into them here but am providing some resources on fair use.

Fair Use:

These are some good resources about Fair Use but, remember if you aren’t sure if Fair Use applies the only person who can answer a question about copyright from a legal standpoint is a lawyer.

Fair Use Evaluator – Michael Brewer & ALA Office for Information Technology Policy

Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center – “This site is sponsored by Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources, Justia, NOLO, LibraryLaw.com & Onecle. Hug the Pug!“

Creative Commons and the Public Domain

Creative Commons and the Public Domain are wonderful things; they allow people the ability to reuse works without necessarily having to pay royalties. It is very important that you always read the terms of the copyright on a work that is licensed under a creative commons or any other type of license.  Not all licenses allow you to adapt the work, many require that you attribute the work to the original creator and some allow only education or non-profit use.  In general I like to avoid thorny questions like, does writing a piece I don’t get paid for but that will count toward promotion and tenure count as for profit?  Because of that my favorite Creative Commons Licenses are those that either place works in the Public Domain (CC0) which is very uncommon, or those which do not restrict commercial use (Non-Commercial licenses do not allow commercial use).

Finding Images and Multimedia Files You Can Legally Use

The information provided below should help you locate items you can use but remember:

1) You must read every license individually and follow the terms of use listed.

2) Only a lawyer can give you a legal opinion if you are uncertain of your interpretation of a license, if you’re unsure talk with a lawyer before use.

CreativeCommons.org provides one stop shopping to search the major images, multi-media, and music sites that host content which you can legally reuse.  You need to check the license of every single item which you wish to use.  Not all licenses are created equally and on Wikimedia Commons, and some of the other sites, there are several different types of licenses being used, not just Creative Commons licenses.

More Music

AudionautiX – All music is by Jason Shaw licensed under CC by 3.0 Attribution, see the site for specifics.

CCMixter – Music and Remixes under Creative Commons licenses with the option to search Free for Commercial Use only items.

Free Music Archive (Beta) – The mix here is very eclectic, and the licenses vary, but there are some real gems.

Free PD – Public Domain Music

SectionZ – Browse by Creative Commons License (Some allow Commercial use some are Non-Commercial only, pay attention!)

More Images (Although many of the images on these websites are in the public domain you must check each images license to see who own the rights,  any restrictions placed on, and how and if attribution is required.)

Images in the Public Domain – Slippery Rock University, David Daily

JSC Image Collection – NASA

National Digital Library – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

NOAA Photo Library – U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Public Health Image Library – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

License Your Works Using Creative Commons

http://creativecommons.org/choose/

Other Copyright Resources

U.S. Copyright Office

10 Big Myths about copyright explained by Brad Templeton

Copyright Advisory Network – “A community of librarians, copyright scholars, policy wonks.”

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States (by the Cornell Copyright Information Center)

Check out TED.com for more great content!

*This post is in response to @wawoodworth TEDucation: 5 TED Talks Librarians Should Watch (and Why)

The keys to innovation in science and in librarianship are to relax, look at things with a new perspective and then: solve a problem, create efficiency, find a new way of looking at things that creates order out of chaos.  Conference budgets may be finite but thanks to the Internet there are plenty of ways to seek inspiration from other professionals without traveling hundreds of miles or spending thousands of dollars.

5 TED talks you don’t want to miss!

TED2003 Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy
There’s a tendency to get very process oriented, we all have goals and our focus narrows to achieving those goals as efficiently as possible.  Yet, if we take a moment to think about the goods and services which we use the ones we stick with are those that amuse, inspire, fill a void in our lives or otherwise cause us to connect emotionally.  Join Don Norman for a delightful look at what good design is and how we can apply those principles to what we create.

TEDWomen 2010 – Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders
It’s the irony of libraries and the life sciences, these areas traditionally have a strong female presence, but the majority of the leadership in these areas are still the stereotypical older white male.  This inspiring talk by Sheryl Sandberg shares several of the things which hold women back (some of these things also hold male introverts back).   Even if you don’t think this topic is relevant I challenge you to listen to this talk and think about the example situations she mentions from her own life.  Many of these situations can be changed just by paying attention to others, acknowledging someone’s good work, or raising your hand.  For men and women who choose to take time out to raise a family she provides advice for how to set yourself up to reenter the workforce when your ready at the level you want to.

TEDGlobal 2010 – Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education
Sugata Mitra reminds us that children are very smart and capable of learning anything if they are motivated and receive positive support.  His educational ideas will not solve all of our problems, or even be appropriate in all circumstances.  But, I think they do have a lot of potential for inspiring educators to allow more self-directed learning and to reach people who otherwise would not have access.  (And it provides more ammunition for those of us who want to see more doing and less lecturing in education!)

TED2011 – Deb Roy: The birth of the word
Most people don’t understand what we do, that’s our fault for not expressing ourselves clearly.  Deb Roy had his entire house wired for video to examine how his infant son learned and began using words.  He analyzed how and why we learn new words and concepts.  Reflecting on how we learn to communicate will, I hope, inspire you to think about how you express yourself to others.  Instead of telling people what we do with lots of jargon, try explaining your job as you would to a child, briefly and accurately, and not a recitation of your position description.

TEDxPuget Sound 2009 – Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
You may think you aren’t a leader, maybe you don’t want to be a leader, but libraries and science are both in desperate need of great leaders.  In addition to recognizing and nurturing talent being a great leader requires good communication skills.  Using Apple as an example Simon Sineak identifies what’s necessary for communicating effectively and ties his theories into biology.  He then challenges us to pursue the things that we are passionate about in order to succeed.

What are your TED talks to watch?

Jeff and Kiyomi Deards Relaxing With Family

As far back as I can remember I’ve always managed to take alternate routes in life.  From friendships and education, to career path, I’ve always marched to my own invisible (and possibly neurotic) drummer.  My path to being a #Scimom is typical of my life, but different from most.

Whatever the reason I’ve never felt the urge to procreate. My oldest friend reminded me recently of a conversation we had about 20 years ago when we were about 12 where I expressed my disinterest in being a birth parent but was willing to adopt if needed to ensure my friends and relatives children always had a home.  I have always been passionate about education and mentoring, and had a reputation for “being good with kids”.

In spite of this lifelong lack of desire to procreate I have found myself in the position of being a #Scimom through marriage.  Fortunately, I enjoy a very positive relationship with my step-children.  Perhaps it is because we’re closer in age than is usual, I’m more like the young hip aunt than a step-mom.  Basically I skipped to the fun part, no diapers, no teen age rebellion, I came on the scene just in time for my step-kids to be in or starting college.  Both of them have successfully graduated from college and been on their own for several years.  The biggest challenge for me is to maintain my slightly older and wiser rep with the kids, and not foist my views of what they should do on them.  I think it’s a little easier for me than for their parents, because while I love them dearly I did not spend years protecting them from life, dreaming about what they might do.  What I see is their potential, all the different and varied careers that I imagine them succeeding in using the skills they are passionate about, and I know that even though I can think of several careers that I think both of them could be successful in there are probably a dozen more that I haven’t thought of that they’d probably love even more.

The major family issue we deal with is that I am the faculty member who drags their “trailing spouse” around with them.  The whole family has been very supportive about my career, but I know it’s hard on everyone that we moved from California to Nebraska.  Thankfully the kids have been really supportive of my career change; being a science librarian is very different from being the quality control manager at an environmental testing laboratory!  And even though they’re starting to spread out geographically themselves, I know they miss having us in the same general location as their mom and step-father.  So how do we (my husband and I) try and mitigate our absence?  It’s less than one year since our move and my husband has gone back to visit family twice.  We have also made a deliberate effort to be extra early with birthday and Christmas cheer so that even though we’re only able to call on the phone instead of meeting up for dinner, at least the presents are there early/on time.  Thanks to the internet and smartphones we are able to keep in touch through Facebook, text messages, and the odd phone call, but it’s really not the same as visiting in person.  Hopefully once things settle down we’ll be able to bring them out to see us periodically or set up a more regular visitation schedule.

Am I good #Scimom?  I don’t know. But location aside, I put my family first because they really are the most important thing.

P.S.  I list our names as Jeff and Kiyomi in that order because that way our names are in alphabetical order, can we say compulsive? There’s a reason I was drawn to physical chemistry and cataloging