Meeting Challenges in the Data World: RDAP 2017

The Global Postcards column is pleased to publish two contributions from Joshua Finnell and his colleagues. The first contribution with Brian Cain documents the themes and conversations of the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit (RDAP) in April 2017. The second contribution from Joshua with Stacy Konkiel documents the creation and sustainment of the Library Pipeline, a grassroots library organization. Finally, coeditor Robin Kear provides a personal synopsis of her attendance at the IFLA World Library & Information Congress (WLIC) in Wroclaw Poland in August 2017.

We always welcome contributions. If you would like to send a submission, please contact either of the column's coeditors: Jacqueline Solis, jsolis@email.unc.edu, and Robin Kear, rlk25@pitt.edu.     

The attribute agenda-setting influence of online community on online newscast: investigating the South Korean Sewol ferry tragedy

The Sewol ferry tragedy was a major event in South Korea in 2014. This study examines the agenda-setting links between a Korean online newscast (Naver) and a Korean online community (Daum). Although each portal initially focused on different crisis attributes and stakeholders regarding the ferry tragedy, their agendas became more alike over time. Notably, the cross-lagged analysis shows significant influence of the online community (Daum) on the online newscast (Naver). This study also expands on Son and Weaver’s [2006, Another look at what moves public opinion: Media agenda setting and polls in the 2000 U.S. election. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 18(2), 174–197] theoretical model for a stratified agenda, providing a more nuanced look at attribute agenda setting.     

Broadening Impact for Library Exhibitions and Speakers

Libraries curate exhibitions and host speakers to promote collections and engage communities. Traditional library exhibit spaces present information gaps for visitors. To bridge these gaps, the University of Florida (UF) created and deployed innovative technologies, the Community Engagement Engine (CEE) for iPads (handheld and kiosks). The CEE facilitates visitor's registration as well as questions and comments sent directly to curators with automated email responses with relevant materials. The CEE allows libraries to aggregate visitor information for targeted outreach and assessment. This article discusses the CEE for innovative community engagement, including considerations for other institutions interested in engaged exhibitions programs.     

The Representation of Altruistic and Egoistic Motivations in Children’s TV Programming

A content analysis of children’s television examined the frequency with which behaviors were (a) driven by altruistic versus egoistic motivations, (b) performed by affable/surly characters, (c) rewarded/punished, and (d) present in content popular among different age groups (2–5, 6–11, and 12–17 years old). We found that portrayal patterns stressed the importance of egoistic motivations (particularly competence, autonomy, and relatedness) for older children. The findings are interpreted in line with logic underlying the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME; Tamborini, 2013), suggesting that media representations can influence the motivations of their viewers.     

A Collaborative Process Model for Promoting Successful Referrals in College Counseling

The need to refer students to off‐campus mental health providers is common in college counseling. Such referrals can be challenging for college counselors who strive to meet students' counseling needs while adhering to ethical and center policy guidelines. In this article, the authors explore the nature and challenges of referral in college counseling settings and introduce a collaborative process model to enhance the likelihood of successful referrals. A case study is provided to illustrate the model.     

Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

The Sensitivity of Value-Added Teacher Effect Estimates to Different Mathematics Achievement Measures

Using longitudinal data from a cohort of middle school students from a large school district, we estimate separate "value-added" teacher effects for two subscales of a mathematics assessment under a variety of statistical models varying in form and degree of control for student background characteristics. We find that the variation in estimated effects resulting from the different mathematics achievement measures is large relative to variation resulting from choices about model specification, and that the variation within teachers across achievement measures is larger than the variation across teachers. These results suggest that conclusions about individual teachers' performance based on value-added models can be sensitive to the ways in which student achievement is measured.     

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN TEACHER EDUCATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DIAGNOSTIC LANGUAGE TEST FOR TRAINEE TEACHERS OF GERMAN

ABSTRACT:  This article describes the development and validation of a diagnostic test of German and its integration in a programme of formative assessment during a one-year initial teacher-training course. The test focuses on linguistic aspects that cause difficulty for trainee teachers of German as a foreign language and assesses implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge as well as students' confidence in this knowledge. Administration of the test to 57 German speakers in four groups (first-year undergraduates, fourth-year undergraduates, postgraduate trainees, and native speakers) provided evidence of its reliability and validity.     

A behaviour‐genetic analysis of orthographic learning,spelling and decoding

As part of a longitudinal twin study of literacy and language, we conducted a behaviour‐genetic analysis of orthographic learning, spelling and decoding in Grade 2 children (225 identical and 214 fraternal twin pairs) in the United States and Australia. Each variable showed significant genetic and unique environment influences. Multivariate analyses revealed very high genetic correlations among the variables, indicating that the same genes are involved in their aetiology. These genes are partly independent of those contributing to intelligence. A further analysis indicated that the covariation between decoding and orthographic learning is mediated by shared genes rather than by a direct causal path. The authors argue that a learning parameter, most directly assessed by orthographic learning in this study, underlies all three literacy variables. The results are also discussed in relation to Share's self‐teaching hypothesis, which may require modification.