Are Library Science Programs Preparing New Librarians? Creating a Sustainable and Vibrant Librarian Community

Recent studies show a growing sense of frustration for new library and information science (LIS) graduates who struggle to gain employment, as well as for hiring libraries who find the skills of entry-level employee candidates to be lacking. This study endeavors to discover the origins of this troubling juxtaposition by examining the perceptions of recent LIS graduates. The researchers administered a large-scale survey with over 575 respondents, analyzed and coded the data, and compared codes using a Cohen's kappa calculation. The responses indicate that LIS graduates feel that their LIS education would have been more valuable had it given them more opportunities to gain experience, more courses in technology and instruction, more guidance in which courses to take, and more mentoring opportunities with practicing information professionals.     

Are Librarians Equipped to Teach International Students? A Survey of Current Practices and Recommendations for Training

Past studies of international students and academic libraries have often focused on students' own characteristics and experiences. Using an online survey, this study instead investigated librarians' teaching skills for serving this population. The analysis reveals that participants perceived an importance in developing skills specifically for international students. They tried to accommodate students' unique needs and optimize teaching approaches using their own experience working with the students. Although they reported having obtained knowledge of students' backgrounds as well as communication and teaching techniques, they showed strong interest in having further training opportunities to improve their teaching. The survey results thus give insight into recommendations for the provision of training to improve teaching in the context of serving international students.     

Are Reference Desks Dying Out? Librarians Struggle to Redefine–and in Some Cases Eliminate–the Venerable Institution

ABSTRACT

This article describes ways in which reference service is changing, including an evolution away from desk-based service, appointment-based reference, the use of social-networking tools, and physical presence outside of library buildings at alternate service sites; summarizes divergent views toward the future of reference service as expressed at the 2007 ACRL National Conference.     

But is My Resource Included? How to Manage,Develop, and Think about the Content in Your Discovery Tool

Implementing discovery tools and getting them to work with existing library services often leaves very little time for their promotion and for the thoughtful, ongoing evaluation and curation of their content. However, the expectations and experiences that users have about discovery tools are often directly related to the content and the way that content is described. In our efforts to work with vendors to resolve the underlying business issues that prevent us from having all of the metadata for our resources included in our discovery tools, we may have lost sight of our role in curating and evaluating the usefulness of the content that is already included in them.     

Where Is My Issue? The Influence of News Coverage and Personal Issue Importance on Subsequent Information Selection on the Web

Researchers believe that the Web functions to supplement traditional news media. Little is known, however, about how traditional news media consumption influences Web use patterns. This study investigates how prior TV news exposure influences individuals' subsequent Web use by testing 3 theories that may explain individuals' information selection patterns—accessibility, instrumental utility, and personal issue importance. The results of this study reveal the strong effects of personal issue importance when selecting information on the Web, regardless of news coverage in traditional media. The findings also indicate higher levels of information selection when there is no prior exposure to news coverage.     

Assessing Deception Detection Accuracy with Dichotomous Truth–Lie Judgments and Continuous Scaling: Are People Really More Accurate When Honesty Is Scaled?

Deception detection experiments consistently find that people are only slightly better than chance at distinguishing truths from lies. Interpersonal deception theory research, however, claims that people can accurately detect deception when honesty is assessed with continuous scaling. This article reports an experiment (N = 140) directly testing if the type of measurement meaningfully impacts accuracy results and conclusions. The findings suggest that the difference is largely illusory, and that the differences that are observed are attributable to differential variances in the measures. Substantively, both methods yield similar conclusions including slightly better-than-chance accuracy, persistent truth bias, and a robust veracity effect.     

Creativity in science and the link to cited references: Is the creative potential of papers reflected in their cited references?

Several authors have proposed that a large number of unusual combinations of cited references in a paper point to its high creative potential (or novelty). However, it is still not clear whether the number of unusual combinations can really measure the creative potential of papers. The current study addresses this question on the basis of several case studies from the field of scientometrics. We identified some landmark papers in this field. Study subjects were the corresponding authors of these papers. We asked them where the ideas for the papers came from and which role the cited publications played. The results revealed that the creative ideas might not necessarily have been inspired by past publications. The literature seems to be important for the contextualization of the idea in the field of scientometrics. Instead, we found that creative ideas are the result of finding solutions to practical problems, result from discussions with colleagues, and profit from interdisciplinary exchange. The roots of the studied landmark papers are discussed in detail.     

“What Do You Want to Be … When You Grow Up?” Recollections of a Slavic Librarian Part I: The Cold War,Dartmouth, and University of Illinois Years, 1945–1987

In this article, the author describes his experience growing up in Washington, DC, during the Cold War, as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, as a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and as a librarian in the Slavic and East European Library, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.     

Is Coming Out in the Classroom Still an Occupational Hazard? A Replication of Russ,Simonds, and Hunt (2002)

This project represents a replication of Russ, Simonds, and Hunt’s (2002) project that explored the influence of instructor sexual orientation disclosure on perceptions of teacher credibility and learning. Our purpose was to see if the original findings—that students perceive gay teachers as less credible and that they learn less than from a straight teacher—could be replicated in a sample of students from a different location and after more than 15 years from the original study. Employing a quasi-experimental methodology, we did not find the same result as they did: gay instructors were not rated lower in credibility and learning by the students in our sample. We provide some context and discussion around why this might be the case.     

What's So Funny About a Poke in the Eye? The Prevalence of Violence in Comedy Films and Its Relation to Social and Economic Threat in the United States, 1951-2000

We examined the violent content of the top-grossing comedy films from 1951 to 2000. Comedic violence increased sharply around 1970 and has been relatively consistent since then. Aggressors were depicted in somewhat more positive terms than targets, but in general, the message of comedic violence was not one of good triumphing over evil. Top-grossing comedy films featured more violence when unemployment, suicide, homicide, divorce, and the consumer price index were higher.     

Are we a product of our environment? Assessing culturally congruent Green advertising appeals,novelty, and environmental concern in India and the U.S.A.

In response to rising consumption effects on the environment, green advertisers have employed different tactics to advertise their unique products. Limited research has explored the impact of culturally congruent appeals in green advertising. A total of 118 (N) adults participated online to assess the influence of these appeals in a cross-cultural context. Findings indicate that collectivistic appeals worked best among Indian consumers while individualistic appeals were more effective for Americans. Ad novelty and environmental concern were important covariates. Implications for advertisers are discussed.     

Acquisition of multilingual materials; Through a central resource agency or by individual libraries?: Contribution to the panel on finding,selecting, and purchasing materials for multilingual libraries in the 80s,New York, 30 June 1986

Different ways are explored of organizing acquisitions work for multilingual public library collections, on the local, national and international scale. The respective technical pros and cons of three methods—decentralized acquisitions, centralized acquisitions to rotating deposit collections, centralized cooperative acquisitions—are set forth. Mention is also made of some external demographic and social factors which influence the library's choice of an acquisitions method. Flexibility and responsiveness to reader needs are stressed.