Tuesday, January 12, 2021

New copyright resource for University instructors and staff

Illustration © Giulia Forsythe, made available under a CC0 1.0 Licence.

A new resource is available to help the University of Waterloo community navigate the complexities of copyright law at a Canadian university.

“Copyright for University Instructors and Staff” is a series of seven self-directed, asynchronous, bilingual modules that each feature a short video and a quiz.

• Module 1, "An introduction to the CARL copyright training modules" provides an overview of the course as a whole. [Video length: 06:25]
• Module 2, "How does copyright law apply at my university?" discusses the foundations of copyright law and how the law interacts with university policies and licenses. [Video length: 03:53]
• Module 3, "When do I need to think about copyright?" discusses the kinds of activities you might engage in while teaching that require thinking about copyright. This section is particularly useful when thinking about which materials you'll use in your courses. [Video length: 03:19]
• Module 4, "The balancing act: What rights do copyright owners have?" explains how the Copyright Act provides rights to copyright owners and what role these rights have over the life of a work. [Video length: 05:39]
• Module 5, "The balancing act: User rights" explains how the Copyright Act provides rights to users of copyright protected works and looks at exceptions with special attention paid to Fair Dealing. [Video length: 06:25]
• Module 6, "What do I need to know about licensing?" discusses how licenses and permissions are obtained and pays special attention to Library licenses and licenses from Copyright collective societies. [Video length: 06:12]
• Module 7, "Openly licensed materials" discusses licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses, that creators use to grant permission for anyone to make use of a work, with certain conditions. [Video length: 04:12]

The videos are accessible (the audio is available as text on the module page). The quizzes at the end of each module are learning tools; results are not monitored or retained.

The modules, developed by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), provide a general overview of copyright. Waterloo-specific resources are available at Copyright at Waterloo (e.g., a guide for instructors, a frequently asked questions page, and guidance on using the fair dealing exception).

If you have questions about copyright, contact copyright@uwaterloo.ca.

Feedback requested for a new Counselling Services Program

A message from Campus Wellness.

Counselling Services would like student feedback on a new program that is in development called the “Rewiring for Happiness” toolkit.

Counselling Services is looking for feedback with a specific focus on cultural sensitivity and an anti-oppressive lens/framework as well as feedback on:

• Usefulness of toolkit
• Relevance to the student population
• Any areas for improvement
• How your own social location (including gender, sexuality, abilities, ethnicity, culture, and race) was reflected (or not) within the material

If you are interested, please consider attending one of our upcoming online student consultation groups on January 27 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or January 28 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Registration links are available on Portal:

• January 27^, 2021
• January 28, 2021

Participants will receive $25 on their WatCard for attending.

WCMS 3 project update: Alpha testing to begin

A message from Greg Smith, director, departmental and campus applications (IST)

Alpha testing begins

I’m pleased to announce the start of testing for the University’s next generation web platform, WCMS 3. Over the next four months, the WCMS 3 project team will lead campus web administrators, who have graciously volunteered their time, in a total of five rounds of Alpha and Beta testing. This testing is critical to identifying bugs and informing refinements that cannot be identified through our automatic testing processes. When released on April 26, 2021, the foundation of WCMS 3 will continue to be built upon, adding new features and functionality with an initial emphasis on all the core and custom functionality required to complete migrations from WCMS 2 to WCMS 3 by November 2022.   

Thank you

I wanted to recognize the many years of work that the WCMS team has invested in the WCMS 3 platform to get us to this point. The team of talented developers and support staff have transitioned their work to the entirely new codebase, platform, and architecture of WCMS 3, all while continuing to maintain and evolve our legacy WCMS 2 platform. I’m grateful to everyone involved with the WCMS 3 project for their dedication and perseverance to get us to this exciting milestone. 

Pantheon and our Journey to the Cloud

A notable change with WCMS 3 is our use of a Platform-as-a-Service Drupal hosting provider, Pantheon. Engaging with Pantheon will yield both technological advantages and time savings, as well as faster worldwide access to Waterloo websites. This move to the Pantheon cloud platform is aligned with IST’s Journey to the Cloud.

I encourage you to visit the Building the next WCMS website to learn more about the Alpha/Beta testing process, review the known changes coming with the next WCMS, and get in touch with any questions or comments you may have about this project.

New term, new year, new ways to connect with the Library

A message from the Library.

The Library is thrilled to announce that the Student Engagement Committee has two exciting initiatives launching this week designed to help students feel connected and engaged.

The pandemic has presented many challenges for everyone, but one that is consistent for every student is a change in how they connect with their peers. In a time of uncertainty, encouragement and shared experiences go a long way in creating a sense of community and ease to face challenges. Enter the Birds of Encouragement.

Birds of Encouragement (created by Mary Lynne Bartlett, Kellie Karim, Karen Pavao, Caitlyn Sageman, and Ariel Stables-Kennedy) is a partnership between the University of Waterloo Library and McMaster University Library, using both mascots as identifiable connection points. Scholar the Goose and Maud the Marauder adorn red cardigans as a symbolic nod to Mr. Rogers and being nice to one’s neighbour. These two fine feathered friends are sharing words of encouragement via a special Instagram account created for this project. Students from each university can submit words or drawings of encouragement for their fellow students to promote encouragement, kindness, and community-building. Each week these sentiments will be posted with the hope of encouraging students.

The idea behind this project came from the concept of pen pals and while student connection will remain its main purpose, there are plans to expand in the future. Students at either university will be able to share their library experiences (helpful tips, resources, ideas) with one another. This will create quite the knowledgeable flock of students.

To celebrate the launch of this special partnership, we are sending out a limited-edition Scholar and Maud skating sticker to any student who submits words of encouragement. We hope Birds of Encouragement will be a high-flying success.

Also, launching this week is the “Scholar(ly) creates with special guest” series. This initiative includes activities orientated towards providing students an opportunity to get creative during the quieter winter months and socialize with one another. 

Every Wednesday during the winter term from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. there will be a themed activity and a special guest. Activities range from a paint night, knitting, planting, a poetry café, learning to create fantasy maps using GIS and how to make green screen pictures. Each event will also include a Student Engagement Committee member to help facilitate conversation and guide students through the creative activity. Time will be allocated for the guest speaker to talk about their position in the library, how they interact with students, their research, and any special projects they are working on. We have also partnered with Waterloo Public Library who will be leading some of the activities during the term. 

Keep an eye out for regular reminders on our social media pages to join in on these exciting new initiatives.