Deborah R. Hollis and Margaret M. Jobe
With the aid of seed money from a federal grant, librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder) developed an online statistical abstract called Colorado by the…
Abstract
With the aid of seed money from a federal grant, librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder) developed an online statistical abstract called Colorado by the Numbers (CBN). The last print version of the Colorado Statistical Abstract was published in 1987. CBN provides updated socio‐economic data about the state and its counties on the Web. Librarians have gone beyond the acquisition and maintenance of traditional printed information sources to producing tailor made resources that meet the information needs of their local community. The CBN design and management model is discussed.
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Michael Levine‐Clark and Margaret M. Jobe
In order to better understand how collections are used, this study aims to present a large‐scale analysis of usage patterns for non‐core monographs in the collections of fourteen…
Abstract
Purpose
In order to better understand how collections are used, this study aims to present a large‐scale analysis of usage patterns for non‐core monographs in the collections of fourteen general academic libraries of varying sizes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Spectra Dimension, a collection analysis tool, this study compares use data from multiple academic libraries.
Findings
It appears that general academic libraries are overinvesting in legal materials and perhaps underinvesting in medical materials.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests that analysis of use data from multiple libraries may help individual libraries better understand their own collecting needs. Local issues may, however, override the broad patterns identified here.
Practical implications
In lean budgetary times, understanding collection use is key to making informed decisions about resource allocation for collection development. Libraries may be able to use these data to better manage their own materials budgets and collecting practices.
Originality/value
Though there have been a number of large‐scale analyses of collections, most have relied on sampling or have compared small portions of collections, and few have compared use across libraries. This study analyzes collection use across many institutions at a level of detail not possible before the introduction of multi‐library collection analysis tools.
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The impact of electronic publishing (e‐publishing) on library collections, services and administration is complex. There are no simple solutions to the problems of managing the…
Abstract
The impact of electronic publishing (e‐publishing) on library collections, services and administration is complex. There are no simple solutions to the problems of managing the collection, archiving and access to e‐publications as well as including them in library services. There are, however, many good usable solutions that libraries can learn from each other. No one needs to recreate the wheel to cope with e‐publications. Many librarians feel that the technology to solve the problems and take advantage of e‐publishing is either currently available or clearly under development. How the advent and increasing presence of e‐publications will impact the people who will read them may ultimately be of more importance than what we will do with the machines, the storage media or the delivery mechanism. Therefore, emphasis in this special theme issue is more on the human‐interaction aspects of e‐publishing rather than on the technology or delivery mechanisms.
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John Scott, Margaret Sims, Trudi Cooper and Elaine Barclay
On one level, motor vehicles might represent the possibility of unfettered freedom, escape (from government authority) and autonomy through providing work and leisure…
Abstract
On one level, motor vehicles might represent the possibility of unfettered freedom, escape (from government authority) and autonomy through providing work and leisure opportunities. On another level, in remote places, ‘hybridised’ and ‘Indigenised’ vehicles have been appropriated to speak to economic and cultural realities of everyday life. This chapter considers how night patrols may articulate expressions of decoloniality by enhancing Aboriginal social capital or what we refer to here as ‘collective efficacy’. It draws upon a subset of the findings from an evaluation of Indigenous Youth Programs in New South Wales to examine the effectiveness of night patrols operating in nine communities across the state. While the patrols were universally endorsed by the communities they served, some services were functioning at a high level while others had experienced periods of dysfunction and inactivity. The factors that impede effective service provision for night patrols in some communities were compared with other communities where services were functioning well. The chapter argues that night patrols can build and harness collective efficacy providing more than mere community policing functions.
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Deirdre Butler, Margaret Leahy, Michael Hallissy and Mark Brown
The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative model of teacher professional learning that has evolved over a decade (2006 to 2016).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative model of teacher professional learning that has evolved over a decade (2006 to 2016).
Design/methodology/approach
Working in a range of different school contexts, in conjunction with an ongoing engagement with the research literature, has enabled the development over three phases of a robust yet flexible framework that meets teachers’ expressed needs. At the same time, the framework helps to shift teachers’ pedagogical orientations, as the learning design supports school-focused, job-embedded teacher professional learning, which challenges more traditional instructional environments by infusing digital technologies and other elements of twenty-first century skills into teaching and learning.
Findings
Building on the experiences of the first two phases, the paper reports the most recent phase which expands on the emergence of a fourth wave of online learning to design and develop a massive open online course (MOOC) that potentially enables the massive scaling up of access to this already validated model of teacher professional development. The importance of maintaining key elements, threshold concepts and signature pedagogies in the design of MOOCs for teacher professional learning are discussed, and the paper concludes with early lessons from this latest work in progress.
Originality/value
Challenges are identified relating to the design of the social supports within the MOOC structure to sustain the collaboration, dialogue and ongoing reflection observed across Phases 1 and 2 that are necessary for the changes in pedagogical orientation and classroom practices.
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DULLNESS can be the aftermath of conferences, but Scarborough may be an exception. Some of the heat engendered at the Annual Business Meeting has indeed already evaporated, but…
Abstract
DULLNESS can be the aftermath of conferences, but Scarborough may be an exception. Some of the heat engendered at the Annual Business Meeting has indeed already evaporated, but its implications remain. They are these: that, while the examination system of the L.A. is to remain as it is for another two years, some revision is imperative; and the relations of the L.A. with the Association of Assistant Librarians must be so arranged that the latter can continue a distinctive existence. As for the examinations, resentment was felt not so much at the age‐limits, although these were the gravamen of the criticism against them, but against the undue severity of the Intermediate Examination, which, we are told, has delayed and impaired the careers of many quite capable young people. The severity, great as it seems in the two subjects, is increased by the requirement that both must be passed together. Only students exceptionally possessed of the examination faculty can do this, and we have the spectacle of several who have passed in each subject two or more times and yet have never been able to pass them together. The sanity of the requirement that they be passed together lies in the fact that it prevents cramming. Will anyone tell us the remedy?
Accounting’s definition of accountability should include attributes of socioenvironmental degradation manufactured by unsustainable technologies. Beck argues that emergent…
Abstract
Accounting’s definition of accountability should include attributes of socioenvironmental degradation manufactured by unsustainable technologies. Beck argues that emergent accounts should reflect the following primary characteristics of technological degradation: complexity, uncertainty, and diffused responsibility. Financial stewardship accounts and probabilistic assessments of risk, which are traditionally employed to allay the public’s fear of uncontrollable technological hazards, cannot reflect these characteristics because they are constructed to perpetuate the status quo by fabricating certainty and security. The process through which safety thresholds are constructed and contested represents the ultimate form of socialized accountability because these thresholds shape how much risk people consent to be exposed to. Beck’s socialized total accountability is suggested as a way forward: It has two dimensions, extended spatiotemporal responsibility and the psychology of decision-making. These dimensions are teased out from the following constructs of Beck’s Risk Society thesis: manufactured risks and hazards, organized irresponsibility, politics of risk, radical individualization and social learning. These dimensions are then used to critically evaluate the capacity of full cost accounting (FCA), and two emergent socialized risk accounts, to integrate the multiple attributes of sustainability. This critique should inform the journey of constructing more representative accounts of technological degradation.
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Web usage statistics are often used as a tool for assessing a Web site, despite some of their drawbacks. This paper attempts to evaluate a government publications library Web site…
Abstract
Web usage statistics are often used as a tool for assessing a Web site, despite some of their drawbacks. This paper attempts to evaluate a government publications library Web site by studying its usage statistics. It examines organization, including access, searchability, and structure, of electronic government information in subject directory format. This study reveals that a subject directory Web site is an important tool for distributing electronic government information, but it requires continuous development. The usage statistics are useful in monitoring search engine ranking, improving display, structure, and searchability.