Do Library Fines Work?: Analysis of the Effectiveness of Fines on Patron's Return Behavior at Two Mid-sized Academic Libraries

Data on library fines imposed at Eastern Illinois University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa was extracted and compared to determine whether fines had an impact on the patron's return behavior. The results indicated that fines as well as patron group status (undergraduate, graduate, faculty) have an impact on the patron's return behavior.     

The committee that worked: Developing an information literacy course by group process

University librarians at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY), in response to a new requirement for an information literacy component in the University's general education program, formed a committee to create a credit course. The committee was able to work collaboratively and cohesively to quickly create a successful and flexible information literacy course. The committee's progress as they worked through this challenge is described, and the benefits resulting from this approach are examined.     

Making Tracs:

The Lega Information Center at the University of Florida's College of Law was the first institution in the country to take delivery of Information Access Company's INFOTRAC/LEGALTRAC system-general and legal bibliographic databases contained entirely on video disk. This article relates, in non-technical terms, the LIC's observations of the system in operation.     

Cox broadcasting corporation: A group‐ownership case study

One of the oldest and largest of the group owners in radio and television is historically traced in this article, taken from the author's dissertation on group ownership in television, written under the direction of past BEA‐President Rod Right‐mire at Ohio University. The author is on the broadcasting faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.     

Virtually the Same: Comparing the Effectiveness of Online Versus In-Person Library Tours

ABSTRACT

The use of virtual or Web-based tours is on the rise in academic libraries, but with the loss of face-to-face contact and direct experience with the library's physical spaces, questions abound about this format's efficacy. Do online tour experiences measure up to those of a guided, face-to-face tour? Do online tours help mold students' perceptions of the library, while imparting important practical knowledge about the library's resources and services? Librarians at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, recently confronted these questions, as they added an option for an online library tour to a large library tour program for freshman that had previously been offered strictly through guided, librarian-led tours. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study comparing the efficacy of learning and affective outcomes between face-to-face library tours and online library tours at Kent State University.     

Stuart Hall at the Open University

ABSTRACT

Accounts of the influence of Stuart Hall's thought on subsequent developments tend to neglect his work at the Open University. This unjustifiable neglect is illustrated by the example of his contribution to the course on Beliefs and Ideology, especially his article on 'Religious ideologies and social movements in Jamaica' [Hall, S. (1985). Religious ideologies and social movements in Jamaica. In R. Bocock & K. Thompson (Eds.), Religion and ideology (pp. 269–297). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press].     

Trades,techniques—and a fable

A generation of broadcasters has grown up without a firsthand knowledge of the now‐out‐of‐print FCC “Blue Book.” Mr. Meyer's personal overview of the content and effects of this document will be followed by a future article on “Reaction to the ’Blue Book’.” It is accepted that any one individual's summary of a controversial document will itself be controversial. Richard J. Meyer is Assistant Professor and Director of Educational TV at the University of Wichita, and wrote the MA thesis on which this article is based under the direction of Professor Stanley Donner at Stanford University. He also has worked in broadcasting at stations KZSU, KSAN‐TV and KQED (TV).     

Analysis of broadcasting literature: Periodical publications of economics

The “real” differences between television and newspaper coverage of a given event may involve much more than considerations of timeliness and length. This report is based on Russell Harney's 1968 master's thesis in journalism at the University of Wisconsin, for which Dr. Stone (assistant professor of journalism at Wisconsin) was advisor. An earlier version was presented to the Radio‐Television Division of the Association for Education in Journalism during its convention at the University of Kansas in 1968. Commander Harney is a U.S. Navy public affairs specialist. The authors wish to thank the many news executives and other personnel of the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks who cooperated in this study.     

Broadcasters’ attitudes toward public responsibility: An Ohio case study

Certainly one key to a licensee's response to community needs is the perception by top station executives of their station's role in the community. The following article is an adaptation of some research findings of a dissertation conducted under the supervision of Professor Walter B. Emery at Ohio State University in 1971. The author, now an assistant professor in the department of speech and dramatic art at the University of Iowa, received a research grant from the National Association of Broadcasters to help conduct the study.     

Strategically Leveraging Learning Space to Create Partnership Opportunities

The Management & Economics Library at Purdue University began a major physical and conceptual renovation four years ago. The conceptual renovation involves a rethinking of library faculty and staff roles and responsibilities based on the library's and university's strategic directives. The LearnLab space is being used as a springboard to create new partnerships, to implement our new roles, and to transform the perspective of an academic library's present capability. This article will highlight the variety of opportunities that have arisen by leveraging the LearnLab space.     

Getting on the Fast Track,or How to Get an MLIS Through Distance Education,with a Specialization in Medical Librarianship

Abstract

The article describes an innovation in MLIS education for medical librarianship, with an introduction to the FastTrack, the distance education program at the University of Pittsburgh's library and information science school, together with an overview of a model program linking the biomedical library at Vanderbilt University with the School of Information Sciences in Pittsburgh. Admissions requirements and specific curriculum for the distance education master's degree are detailed in an FAQ format.     

The University of Texas at Arlington's Virtual Reference Service

Abstract

The University of Texas at Arlington's Library began using an online chat reference in 2002. The service, called Collaborative Digital Reference Service, later became “Ask a Librarian.” Slightly over one year later, the library joined the University of Texas System's “Ask a Librarian” service. Both services are powered by software suite called QuestionPoint. In May 2003 and May 2004, the library's reference staff shared their views towards this new reference tool by completing a questionnaire. Statistics and staff members' responses are analyzed in this study.     

The FCC's disposition of “fairness doctrine” complaints

How the FCC actually handles “Fairness Doctrine”; complaints was the topic of Bradley Canon's 1967 Ph.D. dissertation, completed in the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Canon currently is assistant professor of political science at the University of Kentucky.     

Improving medical education in Kenya: an international collaboration

This paper describes a partnership between the University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences (CHS) Library and the University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL). The libraries are collaborating to develop best practices for the CHS Library as it meets the challenge of changing medical education information needs in a digital environment. The collaboration is part of a Medical Education Partnership Initiative. The library project has several components: an assessment of the CHS Library, learning visits in the United States and Kenya, development of recommendations to enhance the CHS Library, and ongoing evaluation of the program''s progress. Development of new services and expertise at the CHS Library is critical to the project''s success. A productive collaboration between the HS/HSL and CHS Library is ongoing. A successful program to improve the quality of medical education will have a beneficial impact on health outcomes in Kenya.     

Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records

‘It's important that we remember the past is not just dry facts and statistics but also the detailed lives of real people. SAPPHIRE aims to give a voice to these lives.’ The Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records (SAPPHIRE), an initiative with Napier University as lead and Queen Margaret University College as main collaborative partner, is an oral history project which aims to record the social, economic and cultural heritage of the Scottish printing and publishing industry in the 20th century. Undertaken in partnership with a number of Scottish organizations, its results are providing a better understanding of an important and overlooked part of Scotland's heritage. Outcomes of the project include a permanent oral history archive stored at the Edward Clark Collection at Napier University, and exhibitions and publications on the history of the printing and publishing industry. The development and current activities of SAPPHIRE are described and reviewed.     

Motion Pictures

Richard Bunce's Television in the Corporate Interest (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1976—price not given, but about $15.00).

Ralph M. Jennings and Veronica M. Jefferson's Television Station Employment Practices, 1975: The Status of Minorities and Women (New York: Office of Communication, United Church of Christ, 1976—price not given, but about $10.00, paper)

Horace Newcomb's Television: The Critical View (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976—$4.00, paper)

Asa Berger's The TV-Guided American (New York: Walker, 1976—$8.95)

Vincent Mosco's The Regulation of Innovations in the Broadcasting Market (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Program on Information Technologies and Public Policy, 1975—$3.00, paper)

James D. Scott's Cable Television: Strategy for Penetrating Key Urban Markets (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration, 1976—$5.50, paper)

R.W. Chandler's Sparks at Sea: The Experiences of a Ship's Radio Officer (North Pomfret, Vt.: David and Charles, 1973, but only recently released in the U.S.—$9.50)     

The forced choice as a measure of television station image

That intangible attribute of a broadcast station commonly called its “image” isn't quite as hard to measure as that other intangible asset, “good will.” Nevertheless, measurement isn't simple, and the standards for measurement are not yet agreed upon. In the following article, a new technique of indexing a station's image without special training and supervision of the respondents is illustrated. Malachi C. Topping, author of “The Cultural Orientation of Certain ‘Western’ Characters on Television” in the Fall, 1965 issue of the Journal, earned his Ph.D. at Ohio State University and is Assistant Professor of Radio and Television at Oklahoma State University.