The Authority File

<p>How much have we learned about COVID-19 since February or March? Chances are, we’re no longer sanitizing our groceries or stockpiling gloves (if we ever were). Chances are, we’re no longer sanitizing our groceries or stockpiling gloves (if we ever were). No matter how much we prepare, as we know more, we adjust. New information calls for recalibration and flexibility. Sarah Copeland of th...

It’s the question routinely posed to artists, writers, and poets: who are your major influences? We expect famous names—Plath, Wallace, Morrison—but what about the people close to the creator who affect their character and, consequently, general oeuvre? Sherrill Grace, author of Timothy Findley’s biography,  Tiff: A Life of Timothy Findley , can certainly name some of Findley’s creative infl...

It’s one thing to plan how to operate an academic library during a global pandemic. It’s a whole other beast to actually put it into action. Sarah Copeland of the University of Tennessee Chattanooga had to contend with an open library. Lauren Magnuson of California State University San Marcos had a fully virtual semester on her hands. How did each execute their plans? Sarah needed to switch from a...

What did you want to be when you were growing up? A doctor? An astronaut? A princess? As it turns out, most of our career ambitions at five, eleven, twenty-years-old don’t end up becoming a reality. The world shifts, as do our interests, talents, and prospects. Timothy Findley, the acclaimed Canadian author and playwright, originally set his sights on acting. Encouraged by a few minor roles at the...

Miraculously, the end of the fall semester fast approaches. But before looking to spring, academic librarians will have to reflect on the past few months. With a full semester amidst a pandemic under their belts, what worked and what didn’t? Sarah Copeland’s library at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga is open to students, albeit with a number of restrictions. Stacks are closed and com...

The best teacher-student relationships are symbiotic. When students prod at an unexplored subject, a good instructor wonders why. They look deeper. They question why that topic pulled at the students to begin with. What stone is still unturned? While teaching the books of Timothy Findley, Sherrill Grace of University of British Columbia found her students resonating with the acclaimed Canadian aut...

Over the past three episodes, this series has explored what free time really is. It has explored how we can differentiate leisure from recreation and why we might want to do so. And it delved into the philosophical arguments about why it might be useful to carve out a subsection of Catholic solidarity that listeners can apply on a smaller, more human scale. The question then is, “So what? Wh...

What is solidarity in Catholic philosophy, and what does it have to do with leisure? How does “everyday solidarity” differ from Catholic solidarity? Can “everyday solidarity” help a lay person make decisions about their free time? These are all questions Conor Kelly, assistant professor at Marquette University, explores in his new book, The Fullness of Free Time: A Theologi...

Basketball players talk about “being in the zone” or “on fire.” Musicians describe losing themselves in the score. Characters “lead” their writers through a story. Gamers can lose hours in their digital worlds. What do all of these disparate practices and descriptions have in common? Well, for someone playing at or near their potential, each of these activities...

With work, family duties, household chores, who has free time? And when we do, should we zone out to Netflix and a quickly-depleting box of Cheez-Its? Or is free time better used on altruistic efforts in our own communities? How do we make our free time not only restorative, but meaningful? Conor Kelly, assistant professor at Marquette University, faces these questions in his new book, The Fullnes...

Some political moderates are forgotten in favor of flashier revolutionaries. Others are admired as compromisers crossing the aisle in the name of the greater good. But Jacques Necker, a moderate political advisor to France, didn’t exactly receive praise for his sharp critique of the French government. Necker’s  On Executive Power in Great States  took on a combative tone, unafraid to criticize the...

How much power is too much? For the executive branch of government, there must be enough restraint to prevent authoritarianism, and enough power to avoid becoming little more than an ornamental symbol. Popular political thought in the 1700s centered on the legislative branch, but Swiss-born French political advisor Jacques Necker believed that the executive branch was the key to a functional gover...

The names that make it into the history books are often known for their courage, intelligence, or ingenuity. They might push society toward a different political, social, or economic system. Big changes go down in the history books. Patience and moderation don’t always. Jacques Necker, the 18th-century Swiss banker turned French economic advisor, was decidedly moderate. “He never ran after systema...

Guillotines. Marie Antoinette. Les Mis. Longstanding pop culture references aside, the French Revolution’s political and social impact on the world is still felt today. Though historians debate its causes, many point to the American Revolution’s influence as a starting point for France’s new republic. But every revolution needs a spark, and a little-known figure today, Jacques Necker, played a sig...

Generative. It’s a word that crops up throughout this week’s conversation on scholarly podcasting. For Hannah McGregor, it’s one of the things she finds most fulfilling about producing Secret Feminist Agenda—the way interactions with listeners and peer reviewers and the podcast’s guests can build something greater than the sum of its parts. Hannah and Siobhan McMenemy talk through what’s next for...

Though it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually end. After months of upheaval, the potential for major changes in our health care, government, and education systems will be left in coronavirus’ wake. But what transformations will be permanent? Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical, Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State, and Kat McGrath of th...

How can academic podcasters earn credit for their work within the academy? What would it take to build a distribution or discovery service for academic podcasts? How would that fit into, compete with or live alongside the existing podcast discovery services? Siobhan McMenemy and Hannah McGregor talk about what’s next for Secret Feminist Agenda now that the peer review process has wrapped up and th...

Being an academic librarian during a global pandemic means rolling with the punches. Whether it be budget cuts or temperature checks, librarians are adjusting in real time to the rapid changes needed to support to virtual learning. Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State found that the sudden reliance on digital content and services helped her staff get into their patrons’ shoes. “I think the one p...

Like gathering storm clouds, the looming fall semester is on every student, teacher, and librarian’s mind. Articles, webinars, and discussion threads have exploded around the singular question: What’s your fall reopening plan? Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical, Sally Gibson of Missouri Western State, and Kat McGrath of the University of British Columbia have adjusted their services and physic...

This episode dives into peer reviewing a podcast, and how a project that challenges the norms of scholarly publishing might just challenge the norms of peer review too. Hannah McGregor of Simon Fraser University and Siobhan McMenemy of Wilfrid Laurier University Press explore why they rethought peer review and how it worked for Secret Feminist Agenda, McGregor’s podcast. Secret Feminist Agenda, se...

Being flexible. Staying fluid. Chasing a moving target. Besides dealing with overused analogies, academic librarians face the challenging task of providing digital resources and assistance to faculty and students in an online learning environment many have never before experienced—nor been equipped to handle. Three librarians, Linda Van Keuren of Georgetown Medical, Sally Gibson of Missouri Wester...

What does it mean to be “scholarly?” Or maybe another way of getting at what we mean here is, “what counts as scholarship? What should?” Those questions kick off Siobhan McMenemy and Hannah McGregor’s conversation about scholarly podcasting. What is it? How does it work? Can you even do that to a podcast? McGregor ‘s show, Secret Feminist Agenda, served as the test case for Wilfrid Laurier Univers...

When COVID-19 entered our lives, one of the underlying anxieties from the looming illness was the uncertainty—when will life go back to normal? But as July comes to a close and the race for a vaccine continues, we face the reality of sitting with this pandemic long-term, and what that means for our education and economy. Dr. Rupert Maclean of RMIT University looks at both the short and long-term e...

When we look back on this year, 10, 20, or 50 years down the line, what will we remember? What will become the official narrative of 2020? What will slip between the cracks of our collective memory? (Murder hornets, hopefully.) In Toni Samek’s co-edited volume  Minds Alive: Libraries and Archives Now , contributors discuss the state’s control over access to archival materials, and how vital archiv...

As wealth disparities grow and the costs of higher education rise, inequities in access to education become starker. The value of education to society depends in part on the number of people it reaches, but lawmakers and educators keep wondering: who’s going to pay for it? Dr. Rupert Maclean of RMIT University realizes the intricacies of this issue: “We have to look at what we can do to have educa...