Analysis of Print Purchase on Demand Titles Ordered via Interlibrary Loan: A Collection Development Perspective

This article examines data from five years of titles ordered as part of an academic research library's purchase on demand program (POD-ILL) for print titles originally requested through interlibrary loan. The study evaluates a variety of factors: patron departments, campus location, and status; the subject areas of the books acquired; cost; and publishers. Assessment of POD-ILL data may assist a collection management librarian to determine the value of having patrons contribute to collection development decisions. In addition, subject librarians can use the data to evaluate approval and demand-driven acquisition profiles.     

Archiving of Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) on State Government Web Sites

Rising cost and declining revenues have hampered the financial affairs of state governments, forcing many to curtail services, reduce employee benefits, and trim the workforce, calling into question the fiscal sustainability of many state governments. As a result, stakeholders are demanding greater accountability and increased transparency into state government finances. An important link or communication tool between state governments and stakeholders is the comprehensive annual financial report. The comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR), produced by state governments, provides some insight into how taxpayer dollars are spent and the benefits derived therefrom. This article analyzes the extent to which the states electronically archive the CAFR on their websites and the accessibility of the reports to users searching state government websites.     

“Google Reigns Triumphant”?: Stemming the Tide of Googlitis via Collaborative,Situated Information Literacy Instruction

Googlitis, the overreliance on search engines for research and the resulting development of poor searching skills, is a recognized problem among today's students. Google is not an effective research tool because, in addition to encouraging keyword searching at the expense of more powerful subject searching, it only accesses the Surface Web and is driven by advertising. American higher education unwittingly fosters the use of search engines in research by emphasizing results rather than process. Academic librarians emulate teaching faculty in their reliance on lectures, and their course-related instruction is limited in its effectiveness because it is constrained to one-shot, lecture-driven sessions. A more effective way to teach research is to collaborate with faculty via problem-based and project-oriented learning tasks that incorporate authentic discipline-specific information finding and critical thinking into assignments.     

Receiving as well as giving: mentors' perceptions of their professional development in one teacher induction program

Although many studies examine benefits to the mentees, this study examined the growth and development of the mentors in the context of a particular teacher induction program, the University of Missouri Teaching Fellowship Program. This program is unique in that mentors are released from classroom duties to mentor two fellows, conduct professional development in their schools and work with the university. First, second and third‐year mentors were interviewed in focus groups. Results indicated that mentors believed their professional development included: relearning, seeing a bigger picture, expanding their roles, gaining insights about the process of mentoring and understanding the impact of the program on themselves. Data suggest that having various duties encourages these mentors to better understand the complexity of schooling, which increases their leadership potential and gives them more confidence. Also, mentoring is somewhat developmental; it must be learned by engaging in it and needs to be consistently supported. Implications for existing mentoring programs are discussed.     

Will that be one mentor or two? A cross‐sectional study of women's mentoring during college

Three teacher educators formed a new teacher support group for three novices whom we had prepared, in order to help them deal with challenges and uncertainties of the first year of teaching. Using narrative inquiry, we collected the novice teachers' stories by composing field texts, using audiotaped interview data, classroom observations, bi-monthly journal entries, and participant personal narratives as data sources. Common patterns across the data stories included induction into the isolation of teaching, interest in NOT abandoning university teacher preparation, and the need to learn from mentoring. The implications provide discussion of the educative role of teacher support groups in learning to teach, and university involvement in learning to teach during the induction years.     

Primary School Exclusions

Most of the focus of research and debate about school exclusions in the U.K. has been about secondary age pupils, which is not surprising in that secondary school exclusions are much more numerous than at the primary school stage, accounting for approximately 87 per cent of all permanent exclusions (DfE, 1992). However, the research reported here takes the longer view and thus hopes to inform preventative work with primary age children, who are displaying great difficulties in mainstream schools, and special schools. It is based on the hope that there might be more potential for “success” when children are helped earlier. As primary age exclusions are relatively unusual they may present a different order of concern, in relation to the excluded children themselves. This paper will examine evidence about the incidence and nature of primary school exclusions and debate some of the issues which make these exclusions a particularly serious focus for concern. The data from a national questionnaire, three regional case studies and 265 excluded children within them, is reported here. The research project was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council.     

Teacher preparation for equitable access through the integration of TESOL standards,multiple intelligences and technology

Abstract

Schools need teachers who can provide English language learners with equal access to academic content and to information technologies. The authors propose that the integration of standards in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) and technology can provide an equitable education, support learning differences and develop English language skills across the curriculum. The authors suggest how the integration of TESOL standards, MI theory and technology can become a part of pre-service teacher education and discuss some of the challenges to transferring this integration into the classroom     

How Law Schools Benefit When Librarians Publish,Teach, and Hold Faculty Status

Many nondirector academic law librarians publish and teach legal research classes. Some hold faculty status as well. Law librarians have expertise in the development and delivery of legal research instruction methodologies and are developing a body of literature documenting their efforts to create and share a pedagogy of legal research instruction. Principles of shared faculty governance entitle library faculty to contribute to the development and delivery of a curriculum of legal research instruction. Encouraging law librarian participation in the shared governance of law schools should lead to increasing opportunities for the successful reform of legal education curricula with respect to legal research instruction.