The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary evidence over a three‐year period on the efficacy of a curriculum designed to foster information literacy skills in graduate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary evidence over a three‐year period on the efficacy of a curriculum designed to foster information literacy skills in graduate students in a chemistry bibliography course.
Design/methodology/approach
Specifically, the researchers examined the application and results of an assessment tool and its connectivity to instructional strategies for improving literacy outcomes. ACRL's “Information literacy competency standards for higher education” provided the basis for the construction of the assessment tool. The instrument was given to chemistry graduate students enrolled in the course at the beginning and at the end of the semester.
Findings
The assessment results from all three years indicated marked improvements in the average student score from the pre‐ to the post‐test. The assessment provided evidence of skill development over the course of the semester for specified outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The research would have been strengthened by the use of a valid control group of graduate students in related chemistry majors who were not enrolled in the class. The extended study would have supplied rates of improvement in the control group over a given period of time compared with rates of improvement of students enrolled in the class.
Practical implications
The paper provides methods for approaching the assessment of information literacy skills by focusing on tool development based on desired learning outcomes.
Originality/value
The study developed, refined and applied a methodology to assess student information literacy skills based on learning outcomes over a three‐year period. The literature lacks reports of studies looking at the assessment of information literacy development of graduate students in the sciences as well as the use of “backward design” in creating evaluative tools.
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Holly Mercer, Brian Rosenblum and Ada Emmett
The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of KU ScholarWorks, the University of Kansas' institutional repository, and the various strategies used to promote and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of KU ScholarWorks, the University of Kansas' institutional repository, and the various strategies used to promote and populate it.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes how KU ScholarWorks came into being, and discusses the variety of activities employed to publicize the repository and encourage faculty to deposit their work. In addition, the paper discusses some of the concerns expressed by faculty members, and some of the obstacles encountered in getting them to use the repository. The paper concludes with some observations about KU's efforts, an assessment of the success of the program to date, and suggests some next steps the program may take.
Findings
The paper found that KU ScholarWorks has relied on a “self‐archiving” model, which requires regular communication with faculty and long‐term community building. Repository content continues to grow at a steady pace, but uptake among faculty has been slow. In the absence of mandates requiring faculty to deposit work, organizations running institutional repositories must continue to aggressively pursue a variety of strategies to promote repositories to faculty and encourage them to deposit their scholarship.
Originality/value
KU's experience will help other institutions develop institutional repositories by providing examples of marketing strategies, and by promoting a greater understanding of faculty behavior and concerns with regard to institutional repositories.
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David Pettinicchio and Michelle Maroto
This chapter assesses how gender and disability status intersect to shape employment and earnings outcomes for working-age adults in the United States.
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter assesses how gender and disability status intersect to shape employment and earnings outcomes for working-age adults in the United States.
Methodology/approach
The research pools five years of data from the 2010–2015 Current Population Survey to compare employment and earnings outcomes for men and women with different types of physical and cognitive disabilities to those who specifically report work-limiting disabilities.
Findings
The findings show that people with different types of limitations, including those not specific to work, experienced large disparities in employment and earnings and these outcomes also varied for men and women. The multiplicative effects of gender and disability on labor market outcomes led to a hierarchy of disadvantage where women with cognitive or multiple disabilities experienced the lowest employment rates and earnings levels. However, within groups, disability presented the strongest negative effects for men, which created a smaller gender wage gap among people with disabilities.
Originality/value
This chapter provides quantitative evidence for the multiplicative effects of gender and disability status on employment and earnings. It further extends an intersectional framework by highlighting the gendered aspects of the ways in which different disabilities shape labor market inequalities. Considering multiple intersecting statuses demonstrates how the interaction between disability type and gender produce distinct labor market outcomes.
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Paul L. Govekar and Michele A. Govekar
To compare and contrast the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the 1991 Hamlet, North Carolina, chicken processing plant fire to determine what lessons were learned and…
Abstract
Purpose
To compare and contrast the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the 1991 Hamlet, North Carolina, chicken processing plant fire to determine what lessons were learned and what lessons remain to be learned from the worst and second‐worst industrial accidents in the US.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses contemporaneous and modern sources to explore the parallels between the two fires and find some lessons for management in these two tragic events.
Findings
A number of parallels were found between the two incidents. Lessons for practicing managers, domestic and international, are presented along with avenues for possible future research.
Originality/value
This paper develops parallels between two tragic industrial accidents separated by 80 years in time and hundreds of miles in distance. Lessons learned from these accidents as well as lessons still to be learned are suggested.
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Richard E. Bopp and Judyth Lessee
[1981 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Disabled Persons. With the theme “Full Participation and Equality,” the IYDP sought both to promote total…
Abstract
[1981 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Disabled Persons. With the theme “Full Participation and Equality,” the IYDP sought both to promote total participation of disabled persons in all aspects of life and to encourage society to help them function as integrated members of their communities. One purpose of proclaiming such a year, and one means of achieving its goals, is to inform and sensitize the public. The following bibliographies are presented with those purposes in mind.
This article examines the early post-World War II civil rights organizing of black women radicals affiliated with the organized left. It details the work of these women in such…
Abstract
This article examines the early post-World War II civil rights organizing of black women radicals affiliated with the organized left. It details the work of these women in such organizations as the Civil Rights Congress and Freedom newspaper as they fought to challenge the unjust conviction and sentencing of black defendants caught in the racial machinations of U.S. local and state criminal justice systems. These campaigns against what was provocatively called “legal lynching” formed a cornerstone of African American civil rights activism in the early postwar years. In centering the civil rights politics and organizing of these black women radicals, a more detailed picture emerges of the Communist Party-supported anti-legal lynching campaigns. Such a perspective moves beyond a view of civil rights legal activism as solely the work of lawyers, to examining the ways committed activists within the U.S. left, helped to build this legal activism and sustain an important left base in the U.S. during the Cold War.
For individuals and organizations who seek grant money, this guide details major information resources useful to identifying sources of financial sponsorship. It covers grants…
Abstract
For individuals and organizations who seek grant money, this guide details major information resources useful to identifying sources of financial sponsorship. It covers grants made by government agencies, by private foundations, and by business and industrial concerns, and should be of interest to persons seeking financial support for organizational or community projects, or individual scholarly endeavors. Excluded from this guide are general materials that review the history of charitable giving, or the role of philanthropy in society, as well as information sources devoted exclusively to scholarships and loans for undergraduate education.