Beyond Walter Cronkite’s “And That’s The Way It Is”

Television anchors are key public figures in the American news media, vital for the ratings success of their outlets. This study uses content analysis and framing theory to examine US network news anchors’ role at a pivotal career moment—the last minutes in the all-powerful anchor chair—their swan songs. These final words are examined for messages as anchors express gratitude, sum up careers, provide journalism insights, and pronounce final words of wisdom. The textual analysis revealed several dominant frames—becoming one with the audience, expressions of gratitude to staff and viewers, the anchors’ perception of their historical role noting predecessors and successors, and insightful wisdom about journalism’s role in society. The visual analysis showed a style reinforcing a professional presence, signaling authority, and objectivity. Each American lodestar anchor was different, yet they were similar in how they said goodbye and how they wanted to be remembered.     

Multicultural children’s books: An American fairy tale

Most analyses of multicultural children's books concentrate on published works by white authors and the implications of their depictions of non-white characters. This article explores the production process of multicultural children's literature. The differences between multicultural and culturally conscious literature are discussed. The production and distribution processes of children's books are described. Interview data is used to highlight areas of these systems which constrain the production of books by non-white authors.     

What’s in a Word: Coming to Terms With Reference

Information literacy has gained ascendency in the reference world to the detriment of the practice of reference librarianship itself. Libraries seem more interested in having librarians teach with technology than in having them engage in thoughtful reference work. Major library associations seem more interested in touting the benefits of information literacy than in supporting traditional reference work, and they define reference in overly simplistic, tautological terms as the practice of answering reference questions rather than attributing to it the subtlety and expertise that make it so valuable. These associations need to rethink the hierarchy and give reference its due.     

An international children’s literature network: a position paper

This study investigates how Chinese students make credibility assessments of web-based information for their research, and what evaluation criteria they employ. Our findings indicate that presumed credibility, reputed credibility, and surface credibility have a stronger impact on undergraduate students than on graduate students in credibility assessment. Graduate students tend to value experienced credibility more than undergraduate students. Undergraduate students predominantly rely on author's name/reputation/affiliation as well as website reputation for their credibility evaluation. In contrast, graduate students focus more than undergraduate students on information accuracy/quality. Similarities and differences in credibility assessment between American students and Chinese students are also discussed.     

An Optometry Librarian’s Vision: Improved Student Scholarly Communication

Health profession students benefit academically, clinically, and professionally when they acquire the writing skills necessary for scholarly communication. The purpose of this article is to discuss how a solo, embedded health science librarian spearheaded collaborative efforts and contributed to the creation of a scaffolded writing program within the existing optometry curriculum. The article includes a discussion of the opportunities, challenges, and outcomes of this writing endeavor.     

“Riding Two Horses”: Radio at Television's Creation. An Interview With Dr. Frank N. Stanton

This study investigates both the internal competition for advertising revenues among radio stations and the external competition with other media. The study of the advertising revenues of the Greek radio market from 1988 to 2007 shows that there is a low concentration in the sector, allowing low barriers to entry. However, the radio market is inferior to other media regarding advertising revenues. A key reason is the constant decrease of the advertising cost, something that in the future may affect the intensity of competition and the quality of radio station content.     

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.     

Visiting Libraries in Central Asia: An Academic Librarian’s Research Experience

ABSTRACT

In May 2017, I had the opportunity to spend three weeks visiting several libraries in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan as part of my research project on international student services and information literacy. I visited these countries to conduct fieldwork research on American University of Central Asia’s information literacy program, library services for international and first year students, and more broadly to build exchanges and partnerships with Fresno State and these universities. In this travel report, I briefly cover my experiences conducting research and training at the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan and my shorter trips to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.     

Google Scholar’s Coverage of the Engineering Literature: An Empirical Study

Google Scholar’s coverage of the engineering literature is analyzed by comparing its contents with those of Compendex, the premier engineering database. Records retrieved from Compendex were searched in Google Scholar, and a decade by decade comparison was done from the 1950s through 2007. The results show that the percentage of records appearing in Google Scholar increased over time, approaching a 90 percent matching rate for materials published after 1990.     

An Overview of Taiwan’s Book Publishing Industry

Taiwan’s book publishing industry has undergone a sea change: martial law, economic rise, fluctuating sales, on-line and bricks-and-mortar bookseller competition, and digital publishing. The author examines these various eras, developments and offers future insight.     

Spanish Language Children’s Books Focusing on Health Literacy: An Annotated Bibliography

An efficient and economical health care system requires that patients and providers understand each other. For Latino patients, the challenges to effective communication include limited Spanish language ability of providers, limited English language ability of patients, lack of knowledge of the health system, and a generally low educational attainment resulting in general low literacy and numeracy abilities. Both literacy and public health research suggests that focusing on family systems and children is a good path to helping the entire Latino community to navigate better healthcare. This poster provides a selection of titles of readily available Spanish and bilingual (Spanish/English) children’s books that focus on health literacy as well as a series that addresses children’s health issues written for low literacy Spanish-speaking parents. The bibliography is organized into the following categories: Exercise, Healthy Habits, The Human Body, Hygiene, Nutrition, Parenting, and Understanding Difference. It is incumbent upon those in public service, including public libraries, the educational system, and literacy experts, as well as those in the medical professions to try and remedy this situation. Ideally, the titles for children should be read with parents or teachers. This bibliography should be useful for public librarians, school librarians, academic librarians collecting for education departments, literacy experts, and medical and health sciences librarians.