subscribe Coles Science Center Blog

• Upcoming event for Open Access Week!

  Thinking about academic publishing, the promotion/tenure process, or how to negotiate author agreements and copyright? Or even just how to share your research most effectively?

  
  
  

  Open Access Week is rapidly approaching, occurring during the week of Oct 22-26. This year, NYU Libraries, the Information Futures Initiative, and the Coles Science Salon are co-sponsoring a special event and reception to recognize and speak with people at NYU who signed the Cost of Knowledge petition about why they signed, and how their awareness of changes in publishing practices, scholarly communication, and access to research informs their scholarship. The reception will be held on Thursday, October 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Graduate Student Exchange on the 10th floor in Bobst. Full details are below, you can RSVP via this link:
  
  http://nyu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_004ZzsQgzLpOdZH

  
  
  

  Where: Bobst Library, Graduate Student Exchange (10th Floor)

  
  
  

  When: Thursday, October 25th, 5:30-7:30pm

  
  
  

  What: Welcome and Introduction from Dr. Michael Stoller, Director of Collections & Research Services, NYU Libraries, followed by brief remarks from NYU signatories of the Cost of Knowledge petition and discussion.

  
  
  

  Sponsored by: NYU Libraries, the Information Futures Initiative, and the Coles Science Salon

  
  
  

  Format: Following Dr. Stoller's introduction, several faculty members who signed the petition will be speaking to us about why they signed and how their awareness of changes in publishing practices, scholarly communication, and access to research informs their scholarship. Following their brief remarks, we will shift to an open dialogue with Q&A and we are hoping you will join us for what promises to be a rich conversation.

  
  
  

  Thanks and we very much hope to see you on the 25th.
  
  

• Congratulations to Professor Diana Van Lancker Sidtis

  Congratulations to Diana Van Lancker Sidtis, NYU Professor of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, winner of a PROSE Award in Language & Linguistics for Foundations of Voice Studies by Jody Kreiman, Diana Van Lancker Sidtis (Wiley-Blackwell Hardcover; May 2011)!
  
  
  
  The PROSE Awards (American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence) recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals and electronic content, published annually in subject areas ranging from economics to biomedicine.

  
  
  

  Foundations of Voice Studies is available electronically @ NYU: https://getit.library.nyu.edu/go/3847010

  
  
  

  More about PROSE awards here: http://www.proseawards.com/

  
  
  

  More about Dr. Sidtis here: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Diana_Van_Lancker_Sidtis

• Talk and Book Signing on 10/5 by Author James Gleick

  The Coles Science Center and the NYU Libraries Information Futures Group present:

  
  
  

  "THE INFORMATION: A History, A Theory, A Flood"

  
  
  

  A talk and book signing by author James Gleick

  
  
  

  
  
  DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 2011
  
  TIME: 5:30-7:00PM
  
  LOCATION: Bobst Library*, 3rd floor, Fales Reading Room
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  James Gleick, author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, will discuss his bestselling new book, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood.
  
  
  
  From the invention of scripts and alphabets to the long-misunderstood talking drums of Africa, Gleick tells the story of information technologies that changed the very nature of human consciousness. His compelling characters include Charles Babbage, the idiosyncratic inventor of the first great mechanical computer; Ada Byron, the brilliant and doomed daughter of the poet, who became the first true programmer; pivotal figures like Samuel Morse and Alan Turing; and Claude Shannon, the creator of information theory itself. And bringing us up to date in a time when we often feel we are drowning in a deluge of information, Gleick tells us how we got here and where we’re heading.

  
  
  

  The Information will be available for sale on site by the NYU Bookstore, and the author will be signing copies.

  
  
  

  
  
  RSVP required: http://tinyurl.com/GleickRSVP

  
  
  

  
  
  Seating for this event is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, please contact Jill Conte at jill.conte@nyu.edu.

  
  
  

  
  
  *Entrance to the library requires a valid NYU or affiliated institution ID. More info on access to Bobst here.

• Talk on 9/19: "Doing Science in the Open"

  The Coles Science Center and the NYU Libraries Information Futures Group present:

  
  
  

  "Doing Science in the Open"

  
  
  

  A talk by Michael Nielsen, Ph.D.

  
  
  

  
  
  DATE: Monday, September 19, 2011
  
  TIME: 6:30-7:30PM
  
  LOCATION: Bobst Library*, 2nd floor, AFC Avery Room

  
  
  

  
  
  In this talk, Dr. Nielsen will describe some leading-edge projects to show how online tools can radically change and improve science (using projects in Mathematics and Citizen Science as examples). He will talk about why these tools haven’t spread to all corners of science, and how we can change that.

  
  
  

  Michael Nielsen is an internationally known scientist who helped pioneer the field of quantum computation. His book about open science, Reinventing Discovery, will be published by Princeton University Press in October 2011.

  
  
  

  Refreshments will be served.

  
  
  

  
  
  RSVP required: http://tinyurl.com/scienceRSVP

  
  
  

  
  
  For more information, please contact Margaret Smith at margaret.smith@nyu.edu.

  
  
  

  
  
  *Entrance to the library requires a valid NYU or affiliated institution ID. More info on access to Bobst here.
  
  

• Urban Infrastructure and the Politics of Public Urination

  The Coles Science Center at Bobst Library Presents the Coles Science Salon Series

  
  
  

  Urban Infrastructure and the Politics of Public Urination

  
  
  

  by Laura Noren, PhD candidate
  
  Department of Sociology, NYU

  
  
  

  
  
  Dogs are free to pee everywhere but indoors. People, on the other hand, are fined for peeing on the street, the subway, buildings, cars, and just about any place out-of-doors. Where New York used to have thousands more public restrooms, the city now offers only a few truly public restrooms that accept all comers, free of charge. What's more, summonses and fines for street peeing raise the bar for transgression. What happens when cities decide to prohibit behavior rather than providing for it? In New York, certain populations like cab drivers and street cart vendors bear the brunt of the administrative policies in ways that shape the gender profile of the occupation. As well, the contours of the urban toilet infrastructure unwittingly position these workers at the edge of a symbolic boundary between civility and incivility. Please join Laura Noren for a talk drawing on her research from the recently published book she co-edited, Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing.

  
  
  

  
  
  DATE: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
  
  TIME: 5:30-6:30pm
  
  PLACE: 5th floor, Southwest wing, Bobst Library*

  
  
  

  Please join us for the talk, followed by a discussion. Refreshments will be served.

  
  
  

  ***RSVP Required***
  
  Go here: http://tinyurl.com/science-rsvp

  
  
  

  
  
  *Entrance to the library requires a valid NYU or affiliated institution ID.
  
  More info on access to Bobst here.