New roles for the medical librarian in an information management environment.

Over the course of the next twenty years libraries will be undergoing significant retooling so that they can move beyond their traditional roles and become the manager of the medical center's information network. As libraries automatic, the role of the medical librarian will change. To manage the change with ease librarians must begin now to equip themselves, their libraries and their clientele to function effectively in the new environment. Developing formalized instructional programs that link individuals to information and to systems that provide those individuals with personal memory extenders and lifelong learning supports will be among the librarian's top priorities.     

Appraising appraisal: Some tensions and some possibilities

Appraisal of academic staff is now a formal part of university procedures. Prior to its introduction there was much exhortation as to the beneficial effects appraisal would bring, and equally forceful arguments about the harmful effects of imposing it as a means of exercising tighter managerial control. The paper presents the findings of an investigation of the academic appraisal programme in the University of Ulster. Consideration of two forms of appraisal, manageralist and developmental, with their associated perspectives on the nature of professional practice, its assessment and improvement, provide the context within which the University of Ulster's programme can be considered. The evidence reveals inconsistency, tension and uncertainty about the programme and its effects: the reader is invited to judge the virtues of the different perspectives and the degree to which the programme's intents and operations meet, or fit, with any of them.     

Toddlers' Attention to the Distress of Peers in a Daycare Setting

The present study examines in toddlers one of the most crucial components of empathy—attention to distress, and, in particular, attention to distress in a daycare setting where others' distress is a frequent occurrence. Characteristics of the child such as age, gender, and frequency of self-distress, and characteristics of the distress incident itself such as type of cry, intensity, cause of distress, and caregiver response were examined in relation to level of responsiveness of the group and level of attending in the individual child. 45 toddlers from 4 daycare centers served as subjects. An ANOVA using 345 distress incidents and level of group responsiveness as the dependent variable revealed that crying and screaming, greater intensity, caregiver responding in general, and “moral” (Turiel, 1983) causes of distress were related to higher levels of attending by the group. An interesting secondary finding was that only 11 of the 345 incidents of distress were responded to with prosocial behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the future of moral education at the preschool level.