Altmetrics is the study of social media metrics used for analyzing and informing scholarship. “Researchers are integrating various social media tools such as blogs, wikis, Twitter, and social bookmarks into their research processes to save, organize, share, and disseminate various research sources. It is even more difficult for traditional bibliometric indicators to capture the totality of research influence on the web,” Li explains. “Nevertheless, the traces left by researchers and the general public through those social media tools hold big potential for measuring different research influences, and this is what altmetrics aims to measure. Altmetrics can be used to complement traditional citation-based measurements.”

Li’s first study of altmetrics sampled 1613 papers published in Nature and Science in 2007 and compared citations with reader counts. Li found significant statistical correlations between citations from Web of Science and Google Scholar and reader counts from the social media bookmark tools CiteULike and Mendeley. The findings suggest that the type of scholarly influence one’s research has, as measured by these social media tools, is related to traditional citation-based impact.

Li’s second study compared nearly 1400 Faculty of 1000 (F1000) post-publication peer reviews, and Mendeley usage data, with traditional bibliometric indicators. This study suggests that F1000 –a database that stores only the best quality biomedical articles after they’ve been published, as selected by over 10,000 faculty members worldwide – is good at acknowledging the merit of an article from (the F1000) experts’ point of view while Mendeley reader counts are more closely related to citation counts. 

“Faculty are striving to demonstrate the impact of their research in a world where the web has become a critical communications channel,” explains Cynthia Archer, York University librarian. “Li’s ground-breaking research serves to validate the usefulness of social media based altmetrics to monitor and track faculty research impact.”

Li and other researchers are working hard to identify, monitor, and evaluate potential social media tools towards building reliable altmetric indicators.

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The scrapbooks narrate Archambeau’s life through a series of photographs, postcards, and newspaper clippings pertaining to race relations and his employers the Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), and Air Canada. The scrapbooks refer to the collective fight for human rights equality and Archambeau’s quotes written throughout add personal reflections of his own struggle. These scrapbooks, chronicling his life, served as the catalyst for writing the book A Struggle to Walk with Dignity – The True Story of a Jamaican-born Canadian.

Catherine Davidson, associate university librarian of collections, believes that Archambeau’s donation will be a valuable instructional resource for undergraduate humanities programs, specifically courses in Canadian history and race relations. “Archambeau’s memoir and scrapbooks shine a light on the racial segregation and inequality that were prevalent in Canada at the time. Archambeau’s scrapbooks in particular are a fascinating read; they bring the issues to life for the reader.”

About Gerald A. Archambeau

Archambeau was born in Jamaica B.W.I. to a Panamanian father of African, French, and Aboriginal ancestry and mother of Caucasian and African ancestry – although he was raised by his grandmother and three aunts.

As a teenager Archambeau was forced to immigrate to Canada by his mother and stepfather, a Barbadian who fought for the Canadian army in WWII and for that reason was granted Canadian citizenship. Archambeau moved to Canada so the three could qualify for veteran housing in Montreal.

Because of his love for trains Archambeau was employed as a porter for CN and CPR for over 15 years.  He writes next to a newspaper clipping about the porters in one of his scrapbooks, “The true gentlemen of the rails – service with a smile even though we were insulted at times.” Despite racial clauses in some union contracts, Archambeau’s time on the rails was quite happy. “We served Canada’s wealthy who could afford to ride in sleeping cars, club cars, parlour cars, and eat in the dining cars. Porters who provided good service were tipped and always had money in their pockets.  Very few incidences of open racism occurred on the railways and if there were any problems (the porters) could report it to the train conductor who would handle it according to railway rules.”

In the 1960s the railway business started to decline in popularity and in 1967 Archambeau began working for Air Canada as a station attendant, later being promoted to lead ramp foreman. It was at this point that Archambeau had to fight for equality because of improper workplace practices and behaviours.  

When Archambeau retired in 1993 his wife Marion encouraged him to write his autobiography.  A Struggle to Walk with Dignity –The True Story of a Jamaican- born Canadian was published in 2008 by Dr. J. Patrick Boyer, President of Blue Butterfly Publishing. His book can be summed up best by Archambeau himself, “The most important thing to me in life is my integrity as a human being – not as a race or a colour, but as a person. My book is a very humanistic story about interactions between people of the human race.”

For more information about Gerald Archambeau’s donation or how to integrate it into coursework and research, please contact: Anna St.Onge, Archivist of Digital Projects and Outreach, Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Room 305, Scott Library, astonge@yorku.ca.

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Two hundred years after its printing a copy of John Baskerville’s folio edition of the Holy Bible – one of only 1,250 printed in Cambridge, England in 1763 – made its way to Canada. That same rare Bible was transferred by Richard Tottenham to York University Libraries’ (YUL) Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, making it one of only two copies in a Canadian academic library.

 John Baskerville’s folio edition of the Holy Bible was printed by Cambridge University Press in 1763. Baskerville was recognized as a type-setting trailblazer and Random House notes that this edition of the Holy Bible is, “a Baskerville masterpiece, regarded as the finest and most important work from Baskerville’s Cambridge Press.” The Bible was printed in Baskerville’s Great Primer type which is slender and delicate, combining elegance with readability – important traits since the book was intended to be read aloud from church pulpits. T.B. Reed describes the Bible in A History of the Old English Letter Foundries as Baskerville’s “magnum opus… his most magnificent as well as most characteristic specimen.” 

Michael Moir, university archivist and head of Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, notes the scholarly value that this Bible can bring to coursework and research at York. “At first glance one may think a Bible would be an excellent teaching aid for humanities courses, but I think it could seamlessly be integrated into fine arts curriculums and research – specifically book design courses,” says Moir. “John Baskerville is known as a typographic expert and this folio edition of the Holy Bible can be a valuable resource for fine arts undergraduate students studying the evolution of the printing process and typography.”

Speaking to the authenticity and longevity of this 250-year-old Bible are hand-scribed records of birth and baptismal dates within Tottenham’s family, dating back to the year 1810. These recordings trace Tottenham’s lineage and suggest the year in which the Bible was originally purchased by the second Marquess of Ely (Tottenham’s ancestor.) Preserving these familial references was important to Tottenham and part of the reason that he decided to bestow the Bible to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. “My siblings and I wanted the Bible to be housed at York so it could be studied and used to enhance scholarship and research,” Tottenham explains. “But I also knew it would be well preserved which was important to me because the Bible contains references to my ancestry.”

This Bible has been entrusted to the archives due, in large part, to a coincidental conversation between Tottenham and York University LA&PS professor, John Lennox. “Richard (Tottenham) and I have been friends and neighbours for many years and in a recent conversation he serendipitously mentioned that he inherited an 18^th century Bible,” Lennox explains. “I thought it would be of great interest to scholars and researchers and a marvelous addition to our rare books collection. I mentioned to Richard that Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections would be able to conserve the Bible’s historical value while making it accessible to the public. I’m delighted about the whole thing and tremendously grateful to Richard for placing the Bible in York University Libraries’ (YUL) care and to Michael Moir for making it happen.”

For more information about John Baskerville’s edition of the Bible or how to integrate it into coursework and research, please contact:

Anna St.Onge
Archivist, Digital Projects and Outreach

 Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Room 305, Scott Library
astonge@yorku.ca

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Photograph and painting:

1)  (From left to right) Professor John Lennox, with friend Richard Tottenham, present John Baskerville’s 18^th century Holy Bible to university librarian, Cynthia Archer.

2)  A painting of the second Marquess of Ely,  Richard Tottenham’s ancestor and purchaser of the John Baskerville Bible in the year 1810.

Varpu Lindström was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1948 and immigrated to Canada in 1963. She pursued a distinguished career as a professor and scholar at York University, specializing in North American social history, immigration, and women’s studies. Lindström is recognized both nationally and internationally as an expert in Canadian immigration history, particularly that of Finnish-Canadians. Her research has manifested itself into several publications such as Defiant Sisters : A Social History of Finnish Immigrant Women in Canada, 1890-1930 and From Heroes to Enemies : Finns in Canada, 1937-1947. Lindström was also a researcher and historical consultant for the National Film Board’s 2004 critically acclaimed documentary, Letters from Karelia.

Several decades of Finnish-Canadian research has resulted in Lindström creating, acquiring, and now donating to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections over 7.2 metres of textual records. These records include diaries, family correspondences, financial ledgers, war-relief funding and other organizational records, sound recordings of oral histories, folk music, documentary films, and over 1,000 books, almanacs, and plays published by Finnish authors in North America.

“I think it would be great to have Lindström’s collection integrated into undergraduate coursework and research here at York University,” says digital projects and outreach archivist for Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, Anna St. Onge.  “Documents from Lindström’s collection give researchers a sense of the immediacy of history and could certainly add realism to Canadian history coursework that focuses on North American immigration and settlement.”

 In addition to primary source material, Lindström acquired photocopies of rare documents such as two volumes of a Soviet register of Finnish war crimes, a list of persons found in the mass grave at Karhumaki, and Soviet lists of North American Finns who journeyed to Karelia to help build a socialist utopia.

Also a part of Lindström’s donation is the Pertti Kaski photograph collection which has been digitized and uploaded to Yorkspace.

Chronicling the immigration experience from the perspective of a teenage girl, Lindström has given Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections a collection of correspondences between herself and her best friend back in Finland, Kaisa Lindberg, written from 1963 to 1965. Many of these letters were published in the 2012 book, Letters from an Immigrant Teenager. Lindström’s generous donation to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections has helped to position York as a leader in Finnish-Canadian research in North America, advancing new efforts to preserve the records of the Finnish community in collaboration with the archives of Lakehead University and the Finnish Canadian Association.

For more information about Varpu Lindström’s donated documents or how to integrate this special collection into coursework and research, please contact:

St. Onge, Anna
Archivist, Digital Projects and Outreach

Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Scott Library 3^rd Floor
astonge@yorku.ca

 To see the finding aid for this collection, see: 

http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000558.htm

 *Images from the Pertti Kaski collection, showing a group of Finnish family and remnants of a postcard from Helsinki, 25 June 1918. YUL, Clara Thomas Archives, ASC08114

The newly renovated silent study spaces

“The York University Libraries (YUL) realizes the importance of providing additional seating – each year – to address the evolving needs of students who are looking for quality study spaces. We wanted to make it easy for students to find a place on campus to ‘plug-in’ – to their studies,” says associate university librarian, information services, Mark Robertson.

The transformation of Scott Library’s fourth floor means the original 30 silent study spaces in this area have increased to 166.

It contains over 40,000 books from commercial publishers, including material from Springer, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and the Gibson CRKN and Public Policy collection. In addition, there are 200,000 books from the Internet Archive, which include material digitized by a number of schools as well as a collection of Ontario government documents identified by the Ontario Digitization Initiative.

The new EBooks search/browse interface includes:

• faceted browsing,
• related books and journal articles in your results,
• ability to export citations to RefWorks/Endnote,
• and a variety of fulfillment options including Racer, WorldCat and Amazon.

Scholars Portal EBooks also has a new web reader with the following functions:

• full text search of the document,
• PDF creation from a portion of the text,
• copy and paste,
• grid view for navigation (currently generating thumbnails for all the books),
• downloading for out of copyright material.

Over the next couple months Scholars Portal will be continuing to add content and working on a French language interface, as well as an accessibility review and usability testing to enhance the interface/reader.

Round the clock access to study space will be available 5 nights a week (Sunday to Thursday nights) this academic year:

• from October 4th until the end of exams in December
• from January 31st to the end of exams in April.

Hours during this period will be Sunday opening through to Friday closing (currently that is Sunday 12 noon to Friday 8pm).  Check here for updates.

During these periods the 24 hour study space on the 1^st floor Central Square area of the Scott Library will be available 5 nights a week (Sunday to Thursday nights). Please note that Friday and Saturday nights this area will close at 8pm.

The late night study area offers study space, computers, wireless access, network drops, photocopiers, printers (colour and b&w), access to the Scott reserve collection and group study rooms. This section of the Scott library has 155 study seats and 22 desktop computers at your disposal. In addition we’ll be lending laptops to augment computer access.

This late night area is monitored at all times by CCTV cameras for your security.  During late night hours patrons are encouraged to take advantage of the services offered by the goSAFE program, which operates from 6 pm to 2am every day.

Those who rely on public transit should be aware of transit schedules. (Please note the last TTC bus leaving campus is at 1:45 am, and the first bus arriving on campus in the morning is at 5:45 am.)

For more details on Library services and operations, please check the Library website.

At Frost Library an exhibit hosted by Julie Drexler, Glendon Alumni in Print is on public view.

Further information regarding the festival is available at:

http://www.yorku50.ca/festival/

During the festival, library services will not be affected in any way.  If patrons are seeking quiet study space it is recommended they visit the SSH! room (Silent Study Hall) on the second floor of the Scott Library.  Alternatively, the Bronfman Business Library and Steacie Science and Engineering Library can also be used as quiet study areas.

The electrical work is done and everything’s working. Thanks for your patience.

Previously located downtown by Bay and College, the Archives of Ontario’s new modern site will offer incredible research and outreach opportunities to researchers, student and citizen alike. The building’s extensive reading room, meeting spaces and exhibit area will enhance the Archive’s role as the guardian of our shared provincial documentary heritage. The logistics of moving staff and holdings to the new storage and operational facilities were surely a significant challenge, and York salutes the dedication and hard work of the archivists to get things done!

Our provincial colleagues may be pleased to know that York librarians and archivists are freely available for solicited and unsolicited advice on adjusting to the commuter lifestyle, savouring the academic flavour of working on a university campus, savouring the various cuisines at restaurants around the campus, and celebrating the unique character of our student body.