Fantasy,Pragmatism and Journalistic Socialisation: UK Journalism Students’ Aspirations and Motivations

ABSTRACT

Despite the sustained growth in journalism as a choice of degree path for young people, our understanding of students’ aspirations and motivations remains relatively underdeveloped. At the same time, journalism careers appear increasingly uncertain, as the industry responds to digitalisation and convergence. In this mixed-methods study – employing 35 interviews and a survey of 837 UK journalism students – we ask what areas of journalism do students aspire towards, how do they feel about their future career prospects, and what is motivating them to study journalism in the first place? We find that intrinsic motivations (calling and talent, dynamic job) prevail over public service ones, with students drawn to soft news beats over hard news. Aspirations are also strikingly gendered, opening up questions of journalism education in this process. We also find that while students articulate an aspirational career in respected media outlets, they are pragmatic about their immediate career prospects. Here, journalism education appears to play a significant role in socialising students towards careers beyond journalism. Findings are discussed in the light of ongoing debates around journalistic socialisation and the future of journalism.     

Who Will They Think We Were? Public Libraries and Records Retention Practices in Six Midwestern States

ABSTRACT

This research project investigates public records retention policies incorporated into practice in public libraries in the upper Midwest. The authors compared behaviors mandated by state legislation to practices in place based on a survey of public library administrators in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana. The intent was not to determine actual compliance, but to elicit information about practices. While variables such as definitions of terms and standards of policies affect the interpretations of the results, the findings highlight that public librarians have an awareness about retention policies, though they vary from institution to institution. Within this article, the authors discuss these records management practices in relation to their value in the development of institutional and professional history.     

Fake news alerts: Teaching news literacy skills in a meme world

ABSTRACT

Thirty years ago, fake news was resigned to tabloids at the grocery store. Now, fake news is often more convincing than real news. Many library users lack the appropriate skills to discern between what is real and what is not, and many more get their information from social media memes. When memes are more effective than actual news, what can librarians do to teach information literacy? Librarians can use memes to promote information literacy; they can even create their own!     

The effect of humor in dull and interesting informative speeches

Subjects were exposed to an informative speech on “listening”; intended to be either dull or interesting and either humorous or serious. They were tested for recall of information in the speech and asked to rate the speaker they heard on ethos scales and the speech they heard on interestingness and humorousness The addition of humor enhanced the interestingness of the dull speech but did not produce greater information retention. Addition of humor to each speech enhanced ratings of speaker character.     

Reinvention of the Public Library for the 21st Century,edited by William L. Whitesides,Sr.

Abstract

A first-person account of the drama inside the CNN newsroom on the day the Hurricane Katrina rocked the US Gulf Coast. Elliot Masie's document shows how the gathering and reporting of the news has become more eclectic, technical and under the influence of citizen-journalists who shape the news by what they send electronically to news outlets and to each other. In the librarian's job of helping researchers access information about the news has become more complex because the traditional linkage of reporting, editing and publishing has broken down.     

When Instructors Self-Disclose but Misbehave: Conditional Effects on Student Engagement and Interest

This study examined the conditional influence of relevant instructor self-disclosure on student interest (cognitive, emotional) and engagement (silent-in-class, oral-in-class, thinking about course content, out-of-class). College student participants (N = 169) completed a questionnaire on their instructor’s disclosures and misbehaviors in class, and their own interest and engagement in a college course. The positive associations between relevant instructor self-disclosure with student interest and engagement were conditional; they were moderated by perceived instructor misbehaviors (antagonism, lectures). Overall, the positive associations were diminished for cognitive and emotional interest when instructors were antagonistic; these associations became nonsignificant, and then negative at higher levels of antagonism. Similarly, the positive associations were diminished for all four types of student engagement when instructors delivered boring and confusing lectures; these associations became nonsignificant at higher levels of lecture misbehaviors, and the associations for silent in-class and out-of-class engagement became negative at very high levels of lecture misbehaviors.     

Electronic Publishing

SUMMARY

One of the most often heard words in the library environment these days is “open.” This talk provides a review of some of the key open concepts that are changing the information landscape as we speak, at a rate faster than many of us would like.     

Hey,Look Who Took This Out!-Privacy in the Electronic Library

ABSTRACT

No one can predict what document delivery will look like in the future, but librarians must guard patron confidentiality even in an electronic environment. This time it isn't an easily solved problem like finding another way of recording circulation than handwriting patron names onto circulation cards, it is instead the tracking of personal information attached to electronic text supplied by publishers that is a potential violator of patron privacy. Unmonitored in their efforts to protect their intellectual property without considering the rights of their customers, publishers could pose a threat to their customers' privacy, thus limiting their legal right of free access to information. Although encryption technology would appear to provide an answer to the confidentiality problem, it is not a panacea and that must be considered as the National Information Infrastructure is developed. Librarians need to stay alert to the developments in electronic publishing to be sure their concerns for patron privacy continue to be heard.     

LIVING TEXTBOOK on the INTERNET: A Call to Collaborate

ABSTRACT

The urgency to develop a world wide information system, replacing existing books and journals, is demonstrated. Its contents can be changed, commented and updated by everyone, under certain restrictions, and is therefore called a “LIVING TEXTBOOK.” According to the interest of the reader non-relevant information can be screened off. He can immediately find out what has already been done in a particular subject. The refereeing system becomes more democratic: The reader can choose the judgement of the referee of his choice.     

From the Other Side of the River

Summary

Loyal to long-held convictions of what undergraduates need intellectually, academic librarians ignore the critical signs that they may be failing students and faculty. Unless librarians are willing to question assumptions about how students think, what they value, and how external incentives shape their behavior in the information environment, they will find themselves increasingly at the margins of students' academic life. If there are important questions that beg for answers before librarians can redefine the teaching role of libraries, librarians have probably never been in a stronger position as a profession to engage in the research necessary for meaningful solutions.     

Legal Bibliography Presentations Can Be Murder

Abstract

Law librarians are frequently called upon to provide legal bibliography instruction to non-law librarians. The typical, and sometimes tedious, method by which such instruction is given is the lecture. With the application of a little imagination and creativity to the instructional task, one can educate and entertain an audience at the same time. Librarians at Georgia State University' College of Law Library made an imaginative presentation to non-law librarians in Georgia using a play-a murder mystery-which they wrote. The play, which makes extensive use of audience participation, is presented here for the purpose of demonstrating an attention getting, and keeping, alternative to the legal bibliography lecture.     

Getting the Word Out

Abstract

Although the primary constituencies of academic libraries are their faculty, students, and staff, the programs and displays that they and their Friends organizations sponsor may be of interest to the surrounding community. Effectively reaching these groups requires a concerted effort. Information must be written for an external audience, and contact information for all prospective news providers must be ready to use. Libraries may also avail themselves of low-cost or no-cost methods for disseminating information. By reaching out to community members, college and university libraries will encourage local residents to take advantage of the programming and services offered by the library and may influence them to become more closely tied to their institution.     

Digital Discovery and Architectural Interface Design: Prototyping Architectural-Scale Interfaces for Discovery Across Digital and Tangible Collections

Abstract

How do researchers search for knowledge? What are their behaviors and habits, and what technologies do they use? This article proposes that three design shifts – involving more human senses, enabling comparative and simultaneous viewing, and allowing immediate access to full content – will create a more fruitful research process for scholars who conduct a literature review, learn about a new topic in a related discipline, or catch up on advances in their field. The three proposed designed shifts were tested with prototyping. The systematic prototyping procedure is a method that can be employed by others to advance this field.     

An Interview with Daniel O’Donnell,Current President of FORCE11

ABSTRACT

An interview was arranged with the current President of FORCE11 in order to discover how this group arose, what its mission and activities are and how and why it might be of interest to readers of Serials Librarian.     

Do Holdings Have a Future?

Summary

Holdings are multipurpose data which libraries use to acquire and control publications, display information to users, and manage physical and sometimes virtual items. This workshop focused on how the various functions interact, what further services librarians will demand from automation of their holdings, and what they can do in the meantime to make their holdings more useful. The workshop gave special attention to the USMARC Format for Holdings Data (MHFD), its features, advantages and difficulties, and its particular role in conveying serials information. It explored possibilities for adapting the format to solve the special problems associated with multiple versions and title changes.     

You Can Lead Students to Sources,but Can You Make Them Think?

ABSTRACT

In developing and teaching a new first-year psychology course that integrates information literacy skills, a librarian and a psychologist learned the importance of teaching critical thinking skills explicitly, rather than implicitly. Students learned how to use the library resources and learned concepts in psychology, but until critical thinking was taught explicitly, students did not understand the value of what they were learning. In this article, implicit versus explicit learning is defined, and psychological principles are applied to demonstrate how critical thinking can be used to teach library and information skills.