The flight attendant dilemma: an analysis of communication and sensemaking during in-flight emergencies

Building on past research, this article argues that organizational life can be usefully construed as a series of communicative performances that are embedded and enacted in everyday discursive practices. Specifically, this research explores the sensemaking process individuals undertake when faced with the dilemma of knowing when to invent appropriate ways to respond rather than being automatically constrained by past routines. The research presents case study evidence drawn from participant observation and interviews with flight attendants from a major U.S. airline. Shown to be high in emotional and impression management, flight attendants perform a feminized role that privileges accommodation over authority and reassurance over safety that may influence their performances in emergency situations. The work ends with an evaluation of the dominant air travel performance in relation to safety and offers recommendations for facilitating communication and coordination among flight attendants and pilots.     

Expanding Our Roles: Embedded in Curriculum Design

This article describes how librarians became involved as members of an interdisciplinary curricular team in a problem-based learning course for first- and second-year medical students. The experience illustrates how librarians can become part of a team, collaborating with medical faculty to assist in revising curricula, incorporating innovative teaching techniques, and creating effective simulated patient case scenarios. Working within an interdisciplinary collaborative team on curriculum development allows librarians to move beyond the traditional role of instruction and can lead to additional opportunities, including research and ongoing involvement in curricular changes.     

Capturing Citation Activity in Three Health Sciences Departments: A Comparison Study of Scopus and Web of Science

Scopus and Web of Science are the two major citation databases that collect and disseminate bibliometric statistics about research articles, journals, institutions, and individual authors. Liaison librarians are now regularly called upon to utilize these databases to assist faculty in finding citation activity on their published works for tenure and promotion, grant applications, and more. But questions about the accuracy, scope, and coverage of these tools deserve closer scrutiny. Discrepancies in citation capture led to a systematic study on how Scopus and Web of Science compared in a real-life situation encountered by liaisons: comparing three different disciplines at a medical school and nursing program. How many articles would each database retrieve for each faculty member using the author-searching tools provided? How many cited references for each faculty member would each tool generate? Results demonstrated troubling differences in publication and citation activity capture between Scopus and Web of Science. Implications for librarians are discussed.     

Rethinking Library Service to Distance Education Students: Analyzing the Embedded Librarian Model

Since fall 2009, reference librarians at The George Washington University's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library have been embedded in online classes through Blackboard within the School of Nursing and School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The authors sought to determine the types of questions asked of the librarian, with the goal of informing future interactions with distance education classes to help develop a standard “protocol” for working with this population of students. Eighty-two questions were categorized and qualitatively analyzed. The findings have prompted librarians to explore tools such as Elluminate Live!, a tool that allows librarians to provide synchronous instruction within the Blackboard environment.     

US Urban Elementary Teachers’ Knowledge and Practices in Teaching Science to English Language Learners: Results from the first year of a professional development intervention

The study examined US elementary teachers’ knowledge and practices in four key domains of science instruction with English language learning (ELL) students. The four domains included: (1) teachers’ knowledge of science content, (2) teaching practices to promote scientific understanding, (3) teaching practices to promote scientific inquiry, and (4) teaching practices to support English language development during science instruction. The study was part of a larger five‐year research and development intervention aimed at promoting science and literacy achievement of ELL students in urban elementary schools. It involved 32 third grade, 21 fourth grade, and 17 fifth grade teachers participating in the first‐year implementation of the intervention. Based on teachers’ questionnaire responses and classroom observation ratings, results indicated that (1) teachers’ knowledge and practices were within the bounds of acceptability but short of reform‐oriented practices and (2) grade‐level differences existed, especially between Grades 3 and 5.     

Forgetting ACT UP

The struggle over credit for the discovery of penicillin is a powerful case study of the ability of scientific narrative to establish reputation. This paper examines the ways Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey told the story of the discovery and development of penicillin, each providing provenance for the drug and enhanced claims for personal recognition. Fleming's version incorporated familiar narratives of the intervention of chance and divine favor, heroic scientists, and the need to extract good from evil. This account, echoing themes found in British home front stories of the “Blitz,” the Battle of Britain, and the miracle of Dunkirk, appealed to a public imagination already stimulated by a wartime press. By contrast, Florey used a conventional chronology typical of scientific literature to tell his version of the discovery of penicillin, placing his work at the end of a sequence of investigations on antibiotic substances that started in the 19th century. This view of scientific development as building on the work of predecessors was an account of the penicillin story satisfying to an audience of scientific peers. That Fleming is credited in the public mind as the discoverer of penicillin is partially a result of his construction of a narrative of discovery that invited popular participation and appealed to a beleaguered nation at war.     

The Physical Educator as Researcher

In an attempt to confront society's drug problem, many colleges and universities have implemented drug testing programs for their student-athletes. While more and more institutions continue to initiate drug testing programs, a number of questions concerning the constitutionality of drug testing remain unanswered. constitutional questions such as due protection against self-incrimination, due process guarantees, and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures are at issue. In light of the many unanswered questions surrounding drug testing, administrators should develop not only a philosophical rationale but also a legal rationale for either having or not having drug testing programs for student-athletes.     

Exploring influences on later life learning

Academic debate about education and ageing issues has hitherto been based largely on provider and practitioner concerns. Here, the first stage of a two‐year research project that aimed to move the focus to older learners themselves is discussed. The aim in this initial stage was to construct a conceptual model of life course influences on older people’s learning that could be tested in a subsequent stage of the research. The method used involved ten focus group discussions with very different groups of learners, all of whom were ‘post‐work’ and based in different parts of the UK. The intertwined themes that emerged from the discussions related to discontinuity and change, situational and institutional influences on education and learning and the possible influence of personality factors and values as well as issues of gender, class and race. The efficacy of using focus groups in this context is briefly discussed, together with implications for the next stage of the project and for further research.     

Trends in mobile and outreach services

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on results of a questionnaire distributed to North American public libraries to determine what types of services they are providing to populations experiencing barriers to using bricks-and-mortar branches. The results indicate that many are offering homebound delivery and that bookmobiles remain popular, particularly in libraries serving large geographic areas. Some libraries are exploring kiosk, or vending machine style services. Lastly, new trends are emerging, notably pop-up libraries, vans, and book bikes.