Even at sublethal doses, neonicotinoids, commonly used insecticides can affect neurons involved in learning and memory, cognitive features that play a key role in colony fitness because they facilitate foraging. The commonly used neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, impairs the ability of bees to associate floral odors with a nectar reward. However, no studies, to date, have examined how if imidacloprid impairs negative associative learning. Sit- and-wait predators like spiders can attack foraging bees. Because bees can escape such attacks, learning to avoid dangerous foraging sites should enhance their survival. Negative associative learning classically uses electric shock as the punishing stimulus, although this is not natural. To better mimic predation, we developed a robo- predator so we consistently attack foragers with a pinching bite at a fixed force. Also, all prior aversive learning studies have used single, pure odors to test learning. We challenged bees with a more natural task and used the sting extension reflex (SER=the unconditioned response) to show that they can learn to associate an aversive biting stimulus with the complex odors of different Thymus vulgaris chemotypes. Bees exhibited a two fold higher SER response to the odors of punished as compared to non-punished chemotypes in short- and longer- term learning tests. Finally, we show that chronic exposure over 4 days to a sublethal concentration (25.56 [mu]g/L=20.79 ppb) significantly impairs negative short- term and longer-term learning. Control bees show 8 fold better short-term learning and longer-term learning than imidacloprid-treated bees. The impact of neonicotinoids on aversive learning and how bees avoid danger should therefore be more widely considered

Neonicotinoid insecticides can impair bee learning and memory--cognitive features that play a key role in colony fitness because they facilitate foraging. For example, the commonly used neonicotinoid imidacloprid reduces honey bee olfactory learning. However, no studies have previously determined whether imidacloprid can impair aversive associative learning, although such learning should enhance bee survival by allowing bees to avoid dangerous foraging sites. To mimic attempted predation of foragers, we developed an electro-mechanical predator that consistently attacked foragers with a pinching bite at a fixed force and elicited aversive olfactory learning in a sting extension response (SER) assay. We show that chronic exposure to a sublethal concentration of imidacloprid (25.6 µg l(-1)=20.8 ppb) over 4 days (mean of 1.5 ng per bee day(-1)), significantly impaired aversive short-term learning and memory retention. Imidacloprid treatment reduced short-term learning by 87% and memory retention by 85% in comparison with control bees. Imidacloprid therefore impairs the ability of honey bees to associate a naturalistic predation stimulus--biting--with floral odor compounds. Such learning should enhance bee survival, suggesting that xenobiotics could alter more complex ecological interactions such as predator-prey relationships.

In 2020, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Task Group on Identity Management in NACO sponsored a 14-month PCC Wikidata Pilot, complete with learning objectives, for participants to experiment with Wikidata, an open linked data platform. UCLA Library joined the Pilot to create and edit Wikidata items related to UCLA Library’s collections and UCLA Library entities. With the Pilot’s conclusion, the UCLA Library Pilot team reflected on lessons learned. By assessing UCLA Library’s experience against the Pilot’s learning objectives, the authors hope to contribute on-the-ground insights that may be relevant to PCC’s progress toward identity management, and the role Wikidata may play in this transition.

Since the fall of 2020, the UCLA Library has been participating in the Program for Cooperative Cataloging’s Wikidata Pilot, an initiative to explore contributing linked data to a free and public platform as well as incorporating linked data work and principles into current cataloging practices. This talk will introduce the linked data platform Wikidata and the benefits it provides, including opportunities to share siloed metadata with the public, serving as a hub of identifiers, and supporting multilingualism, among others. We will walk through current projects that the UCLA Pilot team is working on, and the lessons learned thus far. We hope that this talk will inspire our colleagues to think of other Wikidata projects and to spark new ideas and discussion about the potential of Wikidata in not just cataloging, but also broader research and scholarship.

Support by academic libraries for open access (OA) over the past three-plus decades has largely focused on the development of digital infrastructure, promotion of open access publishing, support of policy-driven access mandates, and more recently, adoption of transformative agreements. Libraries have correspondingly created a broad array of scholarly communication roles to support these varied approaches. Surprisingly, one area of open access support that has received less attention from libraries is the facilitation of description and discovery of open access resources through the creation of robust original metadata. Expertise in Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information represents a core competency of librarianship, yet the current academic library landscape shows few positions that specifically apply this expertise towards support for OA resources. Efforts to describe OA resources typically fall below those dedicated to licensed resources and pale in comparison to OA advocacy work, repository, publishing and other services. This case study offers an example of how one large academic library has introduced a metadata librarian position focused on description of open access resources into its activities supporting open access.  For decades, commercially licensed resources have benefitted from metadata enhanced layer by layer by commercial and library professionals alike. With increased focus and funding being devoted to open access driven by governmental, institutional, and private funders, attention is critically needed to ensure that these new resources obtain the description necessary to allow them to be useful. Metadata librarians focused on open access resources can work with array of positions, such as repository managers and other digital asset management professionals, to ensure that open access resources are properly ingested and managed, and that metadata practices are aligned with best practices for preservation and long-term access. OA metadata librarians could be responsible for developing and implementing metadata standards and practices for open access resources like scholarly articles, data sets, and other digital objects. These standards would help ensure that open access resources are accurately described and discoverable alongside purchased resources, making them more accessible to researchers and other users.   In addition to their technical responsibilities, OA metadata librarians can also play key roles in advocating for open access resources and educating library staff and users about the importance of metadata in supporting discoverability and accessibility. Through participation in professional organizations and initiatives focused on open access and metadata, OA metadata librarians can help raise awareness of the importance of metadata in supporting open access resources, their sustainability, and ultimately, their impact.