The Learning Science in Informal Environments Study in Context

Abstract The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the National Research Council report Learning Science in Informal Environments to synthesize the growing body of diverse research underlying informal science learning. Intended outcomes were to establish a base for future research, to provide evidence‐based guidance for those developing and delivering informal learning experiences, to broaden the definition of “learning” beyond that typically used in formal education, to encourage knowledge sharing across the heterogeneous informal science education field, and to provide a measure of external validation for the value of learning in informal settings. NSF investment in this study is part of a larger ongoing effort by the Informal Science Education program to advance knowledge and practice and build capacity in the field.     

教育学的门户网站——起跑点与教育进行时数字图书馆

起跑点（Starting Point： Teaching Entry Level Geoscience）和教育进行时（Pedagogy in Action）这两个数字图书馆都是由卡尔顿大学（Carleton College）的科学教育中心（SERC）开发的项目。它们作为SERC教育学图书馆的门户,旨在为地球科学教育工作者提供高质量的教学方法和相关的教学经验,同时通过鼓励教学者上传相关的教学案例,反映自己的教学方法和教学活动,并探索新的教学方法,为教育工作者提供教学方面的资源。这两个数字图书馆存在着紧密的联系。文章从该馆建设、馆藏组织、技术特征、界面设计、服务特点等方面分别对这两个数字图书馆进行了评述,并给出了作者的评价与建议。     

Families Are Learning in Science Museums

This report is based on research findings of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study conducted by the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), which consists of four institutions: The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the New Jersey State Aquarium, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. The first year's study addressed the question “How can we identify and measure family learning in science museums?” It documented a relationship between learning levels and observable behaviors. On the basis of coding family conversations and interview data for level of learning, we see that families do learn from exhibits and that the level of learning is related to specific observed behaviors. Grouping these behaviors as performance indicators provides a useful measure of exhibit learning.     

Home on the electronic range: bringing the Journal of Animal Science online

This article describes why the American Society of Animal Science decided to make the Journal of Animal Science available online, some of the issues that were considered before and during the project, and the responses of those who use the electronic journal. The article also contains discussions of new additions to our electronic offerings and the challenge of granting library access to electronic publications. Based on feedback received from American Society of Animal Science members, our online endeavors have been well received, and members perceive these offerings as an important enhancement of membership services.     

The Inside Story of Science City—An Outdoor Public Science Exhibition

Science City is an outdoor exhibition, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and created by the New York Hall of Science (NYHS). It was designed to increase public awareness of, and interest in, the science and technology of daily life by creating a series of exhibits that people would “find” in public places in New York City. Using the streets and structures of the city to present the science and technology of everyday life in order to reach the non-museum-going public, eye-catching exhibits and signs were placed along fences, on streets and buildings and in subway stations and parks. The development and installation of museum exhibits for public urban spaces requires skills and experience that stretch beyond the expertise of a science-technology museum exhibition staff. This article discusses and compares on- and off-site exhibition development.     

The Great Immensity: A Theatrical Approach to Climate Change

In 2010, the Civilians—a New York based investigative theater company—received a three‐year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop The Great Immensity, a play addressing the complexity of climate change. The rigorous research that the Civilians puts into each production, the balance of scientific content and public engagement, the inclusion of scientists within the artistic development process, and the effort to engage a varied audience via a multi‐platform media approach, make the project a relevant case study for curators working with public science communication.     

研究地球系统科学的宝典——地球探测工具书数字图书馆

地球探测工具书（EarthExplorationToolbook,EET）是致力于地球系统科学研究的数字图书馆。作为一部用于教学科研及地球系统科学工具、数据集和资源实例为一体的知识宝典,EET旨在循序渐进地引导用户利用它来从事各类有关地球科学的学习探索和研究。文章从资源组织、技术特征、服务特点等方面对地球探测工具书数字图书馆做了综合性评述,并给出了作者的评价与建议。     

Archival science and changes in the paradigm

The dominant paradigm in Archival Science, thehistorical-technicist paradigm, has its origins with the French Revolution and raised from the social, economic, political, ideological and cultural changes that occur during the 19th and 20th centuries. During this last one and due specially to the technological revolution Archival Science reinforced its technical component and became autonomous in face of History, but the consolidation of the model, based on a custodial, technicist and documentalist perspective, is associated to a knowledge essentially empirical. By effect of the new conditions generated by Information Society, the dominant paradigm entered into a crisis and developed inside itself the factors which, unavoidably, will produce the paradigm shift. The new paradigm — thescientific-informational paradigm — conceives Archival Science as an applied discipline into the scope of Information Science and defines unequivocally its object of study — the archive, understood as aninformation system — and its scientific method of research. The method tends to find consolidation through quadripolar research dynamics, which is operated and continuously repeated within the field of knowledge itself, which implies a permanent interaction on four poles — epistemological, theoretical, technical and morphological.     

Archival science and changes in the paradigm

The dominant paradigm in Archival Science, thehistorical-technicist paradigm, has its origins with the French Revolution and raised from the social, economic, political, ideological and cultural changes that occur during the 19th and 20th centuries. During this last one and due specially to the technological revolution Archival Science reinforced its technical component and became autonomous in face of History, but the consolidation of the model, based on a custodial, technicist and documentalist perspective, is associated to a knowledge essentially empirical. By effect of the new conditions generated by Information Society, the dominant paradigm entered into a crisis and developed inside itself the factors which, unavoidably, will produce the paradigm shift. The new paradigm — thescientific-informational paradigm — conceives Archival Science as an applied discipline into the scope of Information Science and defines unequivocally its object of study — the archive, understood as aninformation system — and its scientific method of research. The method tends to find consolidation through quadripolar research dynamics, which is operated and continuously repeated within the field of knowledge itself, which implies a permanent interaction on four poles — epistemological, theoretical, technical and morphological.     

Deliberation 2.0: Comparing the Deliberative Quality of Online News User Comments Across Platforms

As news organizations look toward social networking sites as a way to expand their audience, the present article explores how this trend might impact discussion among users of political news content. A content analysis of user comments left by readers of the Washington Post suggests that when it comes to discussing political news, there are significant differences in the deliberative quality of those who access the news directly through the news organization's Web site and those who access the same news via Facebook. In short, comments left by Web site users exhibited greater deliberative quality than those left by Facebook users.     

楔形文字数字图书馆——展现西亚两河流域文明的数字化宫殿

作为数字图书馆先导计划项目Ⅱ之一的楔形文字数字图书馆倡议（CDLI,The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative）是由洛杉矶加州大学和德国马克斯·普朗克历史科学研究所于1998年共同发起并得到美国国家科学基金会资助的重要数字图书馆项目,力图将世界范围内的楔形文字藏品集合起来,建立一个集中的平台供用户免费查询研究使用。文章对该数字图书馆的建设、意义及现状进行了综合性的述评,包括项目概述、资源组织、技术特征、服务特征以及作者的评估与建议。     

The Role of Civility and Anonymity on Perceptions of Online Comments

An experiment was conducted (N = 170) to determine the role of civility and anonymity in online comments received for a news story. Dependent variables were (a) interest in the discussion, (b) favorability toward the comments, (c) favorability toward the commenter, and (d) trust in the information. Participants exposed to uncivil comments viewed the commenter less favorably and reported less trust in the information in the comment. Anonymity had no effect on the dependent variables, in contrast to expectations derived from social presence theory. Findings revealed that politeness of comments affected participants’ overall perceptions of the content of the online discussion.     

Reflections on Communicating Science through Art

If science can inspire art, can art inspire interest and learning about science? There is widespread experimentation in using the arts as tools for communicating science in science museums and other settings. When the arts work well in communicating important aspects of science, they can be powerful tools. Three artworks are discussed: Particle Fever, a film in development about particle physicists and the hunt for the mysterious Higgs Boson; The Great Immensity, a National Science Foundation‐supported musical about climate change: and Guardians, a ballet co‐produced by and performed in an aquarium. These three art‐and‐science hybrids have given this writer some understanding of at least one way to sift the successful from the unsuccessful ventures.     

The press and political continuity in China: The case of the World Economic Herald

This paper, utilizing the method of case study, investigates the role of the Shanghai‐based World Economic Herald in China's political democratization in the 1980s, and analyses its relationship with the social changes of that period.

A prominent theme running through this study is that political democratization must be coupled with economic growth in order for the role of the press to change in China.

Results of the study suggest that the World Economic Herald, throughout its ten‐year existence, became more and more politically oriented and outspoken in its coverage of key political issues. The findings also reveal that in early 1989, the Herald waged an unprecedented struggle against the Party's tight control of the news media and for political democratization including press freedom. However, its role in promoting political change was restricted by the nature of China's reform movement, which was characterized by a separation of political reform from economic reform. The development and demise of the Herald provided a window through which it could be clearly seen how the press affected and was affected by the social changes in China in the historical period of the 1980s.     

国家声音展馆——一个记录历史声音的数字图书馆

国家声音展馆（the National Gallery of the Spoken Word,NGSW）,美国国家科学基金（NSF）资助的数字图书馆先导研究计划二期的项目之一,是记录20世纪重要历史声音的数字图书馆,旨在实现20世纪的重要讲演、广播和录音等历史声音的数字化储存、全文检索与在线使用。文章首先介绍该项目的基本情况,然后在资源建设与组织、技术手段和服务特征等三个方面对其进行概要的评述,最后提出评价和建议。     

ChemDL，化学教育数字图书馆评析

化学教育数字图书馆（Chemical Education Digital Library or ChemEd）是一个收藏应用化学和科学教育数字资源的门户网站,该项目由美国化学教育杂志和美国化学学会教育分会发起,是美国国家科学、数学、工程和技术教育数学数字图书馆计划（NSDL）重要工程之一。该数字图书馆具有资源检索、基础研究、科普教育等多种功能。文章从项目背景、资源组织、技术特征、界面设计、服务特点等方面对化学教育数字图书馆做了概要的评析,并包括作者的评价和建议。     

国外科技计划项目数据汇交政策及对我国的启示

科技计划项目数据汇交政策是保证科学数据有序汇交的前提。在调研国外科技计划项目管理机构、学术期 刊机构、相关数据组织等三类机构的现有数据汇交政策,并对比美国自然科学基金会（NSF）与我国科技部国家重点基 础研究发展计划（973 计划）资源环境领域项目数据汇交的政策差异的基础上,指出国外科技计划项目数据汇交在数据 汇交政策制定、数据质量控制、数据产权保护、数据共享服务等6 个方面对我国的启示。     

Understanding Visitor Comments: The Case of Flight Time Barbie

Many museums use comment cards, visitor books, and bulletin boards to capture the reactions of visitors. Whether they are collected, counted, skimmed, read, or simply filed, the utility of these documents is rarely questioned. This paper suggests some pros and cons of comment systems and presents an analysis of the comments on an exhibition, Flight Time Barbie, at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. The responses to this exhibition included judgments about the subject matter of the exhibition, opinions about its presentation, and remarks regarding its appropriateness to the museum. The paper concludes by suggesting a practical approach to the analysis of visitor comments.     

The Development and Current Status of Authority Control at the National Library of China

ABSTRACT

This article gives a thorough introduction to authority control at the National Library of China from several perspectives including bibliographic services, the online cataloging center, acquisitions, and the library's integrated library system. It introduces the objectives, principles, applications, solution to the problem, and concludes with comments and insights on the issues surrounding the proposed NLC authority control system. This article also discusses the importance of authority control for access.     

Beyond plagiarism: Ethical misconduct in scientific and technical publishing

Ethical misconduct among scholars’whether plagiarism, data fabrication, data misrepresentation, or other forms of dishonesty’is on the rise, and increasingly in the public spotlight. Marcel LaFollette describes the context in which misconduct takes place, contrasting the nature of the scientific community before and after World War II. In the 1980s, the federal government facilitates, funds, and scrutinizes scientific research far more extensively than ever before. Increased political concern, LaFollette argues, will have far-reaching implications for scientists and their publishers. Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette is assistant professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and visiting scholar, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. She is the former editor ofScience, Technology & Human Values and is currently writing a book on ethical misconduct in research communication. This article was prepared with support from the National Science Foundation under grant RII-8409904 “The Ethical Problems Raised by Fraud in Science and Engineering Publishing”.