Do You See What I See?: Third-Person Effects on Public Communication Through Self-Esteem,Social Stigma,and Product Use

In this experiment I examined the effect of self-esteem, negative stigma of product in a message, and product use as a form of ego-involvement on the third-person effect in an effort to understand the variables underlying the third-person effect. The findings broaden 1 belief about the third-person effect in relation to public communication and call into question 2 others. This has ramifications in the area of public opinion regarding socially stigmatized messages, particularly in the realm of tobacco and alcohol advertising, suggesting the perception that a publicly communicated message containing a social stigma can influence the level of the third-person effect, indirectly affecting public communication and opinion formation.     

Do You See the Signs? Evaluating Language,Branding, and Design in a Library Signage Audit

Signage represents more than directions or policies; it is informational, promotional, and sets the tone of the environment. To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language. An efficient assessment of signage should include a complete inventory of existing signage, including an analysis of the types of signs, its location, language, and its design. This article outlines the steps involved in a comprehensive signage audit, which along with a literature review, provides the foundation for creating a signage policy, best practices guidelines, and a branding strategy for future signage.     

Embedding Guides Where Students Learn: Do Design Choices and Librarian Behavior Make a Difference?

This study investigated whether library guides embedded in a university's learning management system fulfill their mission to promote library resources and maintain a librarian presence in the online course environment. Specifically, the study examined whether design elements, promotional practices, or other behaviors influenced guide use. It questioned whether students located the library guides and, if so, did students find the guides helpful. Results confirmed that students who used library guides found the guides helpful. Select faculty and librarian behaviors may also influence student use of library guides. Promotion and marketing practices, however, are not the only factors encouraging students to use library guides.     

Understanding Information Behaviour: How Do Students and Faculty Find Books?

Faculty and students at University College London (UCL) were polled online in November 2006 as part of a wider investigation into the impact of e-books in UK higher education. One of the survey questions probed the strategies that members of the academic community use to identify the conventional printed books that they need for work, study, or leisure. This article reports on a quasi-experimental statistical investigation of the survey findings for this single question. Multivariate data analysis suggests that book discovery is very highly structured, with gender, subject discipline, and academic status offering powerful predictors of certain underlying behavioural strategies. A model of book discovery strategies is developed and this is used to help segment the survey population into those with high or low levels of dependence on formal library systems or nonlibrary-based solutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the practical implications of these findings for librarians, publishers, and booksellers.     

Adolescents and Movie Ratings: Is Psychological Reactance a Theoretical Explanation for the Forbidden Fruit Effect?

Adolescents were recruited to participate in an experiment to assess whether psychological reactance can provide a theoretical explanation for the forbidden fruit effect in the context of movie rating restrictions. In addition to examining if movie ratings served as antecedents to freedom threat perceptions, we investigated the role authoritarian parents had on freedom threat perception and reactance arousal. Results indicated that a movie with an NC-17 rating was perceived as a stronger freedom threat than R and PG-13 rated movies. Interestingly, adolescents who perceived their parents to be authoritarian were less likely to view movie ratings as a freedom threat. As expected, freedom threat perceptions were positively associated with psychological reactance. Reactance, in turn, was positively associated with both first and third person attitudes. The results are discussed with an emphasis on the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.     

Electronic Serials Cataloging: Now That We're Here,What Do We Do?

Summary

Many aspects of electronic serials cataloging have not yet developed standard practice, or are still in transition. This article will explore some problematic issues in electronic serials cataloging first by presenting current CONSER policy in these areas and then by examining the practices of three institutions who are cataloging electronic serials. For brevity, the term “electronic serial” will be used to mean “remote access computer file serial” unless the more specific term is needed for clarity. The five topics covered in this discussion are: Access and Location Information, Multiple Versions, Definition of Electronic Serial, Bibliographic Access Points and Display of Computer File Characteristics.     

Political discourse: Do public libraries serve as a fertile ground?

Libraries in general, and public libraries specifically, are social institutions. It is their role and function to educate, inculcate values and provide recreational opportunities to the community. The success of a democratic political system depends on community involvement in decision making. The role of public libraries in political discourse was assessed with three approaches. Firstly, the geographical characteristics of public library communities were explored using Geographical Information System (GIS) methods. Secondly, the resources, services and activities of public libraries were identified. Thirdly, community perspectives were explored using the five aspects of the “Spectrum of Public Participation” of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). The results from all three approaches indicate that the public libraries of Islamabad do not facilitate opportunities for the community to be consulted, empowered or involved in political discourse. Analysis of GIS characteristics, library services and community perspectives suggests that improvements in planning and commitment (especially infrastructure, budget and human resources) would enable public libraries to increase opportunities for Islamabad communities to engage in political discourse.     

“You're a Grounded Theorist for the Day”: Teaching Students the Grounded Theory Approach

Courses: Research Methods, Communication Theory

Objective: Students will understand and engage in the grounded theory research method     

Bridging the ‘Know‐Do Gap’: a role for health information professionals?

This feature briefly examines the development of knowledge translation, knowledge transfer and the knowledge broker role as constituting the next manifestation of the movement that brought us evidence based medicine and its derivatives. It examines the extent to which health information professionals currently meet the specification for a knowledge broker role. In doing so it assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the profession when ranged alongside the five components of the knowledge transfer process that is, problem identification; knowledge development and selection; analysis of context; knowledge transfer interventions; and knowledge utilization. Current deficiencies also lie in a need for political astuteness and awareness and in a lack of knowledge of the most significant models of behavioural change. The feature concludes by examining the potential for knowledge team approaches arguing that gains from a wider perspective that encompasses the entire knowledge process may be even more significant than the pooling of collective knowledge, skills and expertise.     

For a few dollars more: a future for scholarly books in Australia?

Australia's universities have seen significant growth in government research funding, with more to come, but this is not reflected in the output of research monograph publications; structural barriers stand between creation and dissemination of research. This is especially a problem for those working on Australian topics. The author has proposed a new model for funding scholarly publishing in Australia, which may well be applicable to other countries: just a small proportion of the funds committed by the Australian government to research inputs could ensure the publication of research outputs. This would deliver major gains in impact and productivity for government, universities, and individual academics alike.     

Textbook Affordability: Is There a Role for the Library?

Try searching the library catalog, as many students do each semester for the latest version of the textbook being used in a class at many universities and you will likely come up empty-handed. Many academic libraries—due to high prices, frequently issued new editions, and a tendency to go missing from the collection—have justifiably chosen to play only a marginal role in the provision of textbooks on campus. However, the dynamics of the textbook market are changing rapidly and this presentation explored the question: Should libraries reconsider the roles they play in the provision of course materials on campus? This session focused on the issue of affordability in the context of the rapid evolution and increased availability of e-textbooks (electronic versions of textbooks). Topics covered included: an overview of the e-textbook market, purchasing options and outlets for e-textbooks, new business models for institutional access to e-textbooks, potential savings from e-textbook adoptions, information on negotiating with publishers and platform providers, and why the library is well-positioned to play a prominent role in the provision of e-textbooks.     

Late-Night Learning: Do Entertainment Programs Increase Political Campaign Knowledge for Young Viewers?

The fragmenting media landscape has led many, particularly younger citizens, to identify entertainment-based programs as key sources of political information. This research used national survey data to examine whether exposure to comedy and late-night programs actually informs viewers, focusing on two kinds of political knowledge thought to differ depending on the media used: recall and recognition. Some support was found for the prediction that the consumption of such programs is more associated with recognition of campaign information than with actual recall. Age, however, demonstrated modest interaction effects with viewing.     

A Vendor Perspective: What Do All of These Changes Mean for Vendors?

Vendor keynote speaker Caitlin Trasande addressed the practical and applied implications of how government mandates and regulations drive innovations and research information management technologies, while tying in remarks made by Jane Marks, the publisher keynote speaker, and Scott Plutchak, the librarian keynote speaker. She is uniquely positioned to do this as she has been at Digital Science for 5 years, most recently as Head of Research Policy; holds a PhD in Neurobiology; and was very recently appointed Senior Strategy Editor at Nature. Trasande used products developed by Digital Science as examples to demonstrate how all sectors of the scholarly community are finding solutions to help enable compliance with mandates, such as those on data and Open Access. She also provided a futuristic look at how the UK government has begun to ask funded researchers to document the social impact of their research; how Digital Science worked with the UK government, and how likely this is to also happen in the United States.     

Private Lives in Public Places–Oral Histories of Performing Artists: How Much Do You Really Want to Know?

ABSTRACT

This article is an exploration of oral history practice within the context of a performing arts archive. It addresses the deceptively simple question of what oral historians should actually ask their respondents and, ultimately, how much do we, as researchers, really want to know. The use of oral history material is discussed from a historical point of view in relation to archival collecting and the needs of scholars and researchers. The notion that oral history practice must both respond to and transcend this history is set forward. The article concludes by advocating an expansive approach to oral history as a means to more fully understand and preserve our pasts.