Paul R. Pival – Page 7 – The Distant Librarian

Historical COVID-19 R-Values for Alberta

May 21, 2021

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in Data, Miscellaneous, Random Tech Tips, Service

Filed under stuff no citizen should have to do, today I went through pages archived by the Wayback Machine in order to provide a patron with historical R-Value data for COVID-19 for the Province of Alberta. This information is updated weekly (since mid-December, 2020) at https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-alberta-data.aspx, but for some reason the Government has chosen not…

That cool picture from the cover of The Data Journalism Handbook

May 4, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Books, Miscellaneous, Random Tech Tips, Scholarship

The Data Journalism Handbook has been updated from its original 2012 edition, and is available to purchase or for free download from the publisher. When I first tweeted about this a month ago, @Gersart wondered who was responsible for the artwork on the cover. Frustratingly, there was no information about it in the publication, and…

Google Earth timelapse of Fort McMurray

Apr 16, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Ideas, Maps

Google just announced what they're calling Google Earth’s biggest update in years. With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. It's pretty neat! A number of years…

A couple of quick updates – FOIP and Twitter Academic

Mar 3, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Miscellaneous, Scholarship, Social Networks

Just a couple of quick updates. First, in December, I posted about my initial experience with Alberta's new(?) FOIP process. And then I actually submitted that request on January 26. So the fact that I was never notified that my submission was incomplete is a strike, for sure. But on February 16 I did get…

Thoughts on fighting QAnon – How can so many people believe things that are obviously untrue?

Feb 26, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Ideas, Miscellaneous, Scholarship, Social Networks

Well that was a sobering read. A few weeks ago the following post by Barbara Fister was circulated at MPOW: Lizard People in the Library. We were supposed to have a discussion about it, but I wasn't able to make the Zoom time, so I didn't read it then. Yesterday someone pointed out that the…

Queering Zoom: students and educators say online learning must be more inclusive

Feb 25, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Miscellaneous, Social Networks, Web/Tech

Here's a good article from the University of Alberta student newspaper: Queering Zoom: students and educators say online learning must be more inclusive. A couple of points and counterpoints: While professors often include anti-harassment and inclusionary policies in their syllabus, Morris noted that they feel these are hollow statements. “[These professors that have these inclusion…

Twitter Opening Its Tweet Archive to Researchers

Jan 27, 2021

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Paul R. Pival

in Data, Scholarship, Social Networks

Well this seems like good news. One of the biggest annoyances of trying to do research on Twitter, IMHO, is the difficulty in obtaining older tweets. There are workarounds, such as using a previously-captured dataset from Documenting the Now, or collecting via snscrape, but it seems there is now better official access for researchers via…

Initial Thoughts on Alberta’s FOIP Process

Dec 22, 2020

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Paul R. Pival

in Discovery, Ideas, Legal, Service, Tutorials

On December 8, I noticed the Govt. of Alberta had posted a new video to YouTube titled, FOIP Request Service Guided Tour. You know what? I've honestly always wanted to submit a FOIP request! Here are some initial thoughts on how it went, and I'll report back if/when I hear something. So we start at…

Continuing Algorithms of Oppression

Dec 7, 2020

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Paul R. Pival

in Books, Legal, Scholarship

For a meeting last week at MPOW we were asked to read Algorithms of Oppression, by Safiya Umoja Noble. As a cis, white male, I found it a good reminder of a lot of stuff I am vaguely aware of, but don't have to "deal with" in the same way as the majority of the…

How to stop a Zoombombing

Nov 18, 2020

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by

Paul R. Pival

in Electronic Reference, Random Tech Tips, Social Networks, Tutorials, Web/Tech

Thank goodness I haven't personally experienced this while teaching / presenting via Zoom, but I have been a participant in a workshop that was Zoom bombed, and that was traumatic enough. I can't even imagine how nasty that would be for the presenter. Lifehacker reports that Zoom is rolling out some new features aimed to…

Author: Paul R. Pival