Preserving Russia's Digital Cultural Heritage: Acquisition of Electronic Documents in Russian Libraries and Information Centers

This article discusses collection development strategies for electronic materials, particularly Web content, by Russian libraries and information centers. The author describes multiple methods, including Web harvesting, licensing, and legal deposit. Although there is a long tradition of legal deposit for printed material in Russia, legal deposit of electronic documents is more complex. Recently proposed amendments in the Duma may facilitate the legal deposit process for electronic materials. Electronic documents should be preserved and made accessible for the further development of science, culture, and education in Russia.     

Library Statistics: The Russian National Standard

Goals for developing the Russian national standard GOST 7.0.20—2014, System of Standards for Information, Librarianship, and Publishing: Library Statistics: Indicators and Units of Calculation, were to create lists of statistical indicators for library and documentation activities and to establish the statistical units for measuring those activities. The regulations included in the new standard will improve Russian library statistics, since its indicators cover all areas of modern library work. Unified indicators and units of calculation will promote uniformity in the primary statistical data submitted. Such uniformity facilitates accurate comparison and analysis for planning, accounting, and forecasting.     

1990 editor's annual report

A variety of viewing measures were constructed to tap the ways people moved through an evening of television viewing, with particular focus on transitions between programs and channels. Based on these behaviors, five different styles of viewing were identified in a sample of adolescents. Of these, only one appeared to correspond to stereotypes of viewers as exercising little choice and just watching what was available. The viewing behaviors of the other four groups all indicate different ways of being active viewers.     

Native Language Self-Concept and Reading Self-Concept: Same or Different?

In assessing verbal academic self-concept with preadolescents, researchers have used scales for students’ self-concepts in reading and in their native language interchangeably. The authors conducted 3 studies with German students to test whether reading and German (i.e., native language) self-concepts can be treated as the same or different constructs. Compared with other facets of academic self-concept, reading self-concept was more highly related to reading test scores (Study 1) and German self-concept to German grades (Study 2). In Study 3, reading and general school self-concepts demonstrated similar relations to German grades. The findings of the 3 studies, albeit indirect, supported the specificity matching principle and caution researchers against applying reading and native language self-concept scales uncritically to infer verbal self-concept.     

New Conceptions of Thinking: From Ontology to Education

The articles in this special issue were analyzed in terms of their stance on the nature of knowledge (i.e., its source and location) and the perspective on conceptual change addressed. The analysis supported the argument that efforts to bridge the cognitive and sociocultural orientations toward conceptual change are either unnecessary or unachievable. Specifically, there are those theorists and researchers who do not give credence to the existence of concepts for the one or the collective, and those who do not see sociocultural influences as needed for concept formation or reformation. Attempts to bridge these two positions seem doomed to failure. Conversely, it is argued that the frameworks and models espoused by many researchers, including those contributing to this issue, cannot exist without recognition of the thoughts and reflection of the mind or without consideration of the sociocultural influences that exist in the world outside the mind.     

BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

Strengthening educational programs requires a coordinated set of supporting activities. This article describes the infrastructure of the Educational Centre for Aging and Health of McMaster University (ECAH). This center seeks through professional education to enhance the quality of life and self‐determination of older persons, by increasing the number of skilled health professionals to care for aging individuals and by developing educational models concerning aging and health. We describe the clinical settings, technical and developmental support, and a system of data collection that provides feedback about health needs and the establishment of educational priorities. This center is attempting to meet the challenge of changing community needs for education for aging and health. Because of ECAH, aging and health has become more salient within this university. This article illustrates an infrastructure that other institutions can adapt to their own purposes in order to enhance gerontology and health education.     

Competency-based models of learning for engineers: a comparison

One of the goals of higher professional education is to develop generic student competencies across a variety of disciplines that play a crucial role in education and that provide wider opportunities for graduates in finding good jobs and more chance of promotion. In this article a list of generic competencies developed in Russian universities is compared with a similar list developed by a consortium of Russian and European universities (project TUNING-RUSSIA). Then there is a second comparison with a list of competencies taken from the CDIO Syllabus. This comparison indicates the degree of similarity among the lists and the possible convergence among universities all over the world. The results are taken from a survey carried out among Russian employers, academics, and graduates. The survey asked to rate each listed competence by its importance and the degree of achieving goals in the process of the education.