Profiles in Resource Sharing: Tom Bruno

Abstract

Health sciences libraries are expanding services that use online technologies to support teaching, research, and clinical care needs. Saint Louis University's Health Sciences Center (SLU HSC) Library has developed strong, user-centered, online services in interlibrary loan, bibliographic instruction, and electronic reserves. The authors present their successful experiences in using electronic technologies to improve library services.

Journal articles are provided, often the same day as requested through interlibrary loan, and delivered in electronic format using OCLC's ILLiad program. First-year SLU medical students now complete a self-paced, all online, Health Information Resources course that targets the most relevant biomedical resources, reduces student study time, and is viewed as a model for the entire curriculum. ERes, the electronic reserves program, allows faculty to provide course materials that are accessible at the convenience of students 24 hours a day. These online programs are examples of using electronic technologies to better support user needs for excellent library services.     

General Communication

Virgina P. White's Grants for the Arts (New York: Plenum Press, 1980---$19.50)

Phillip W. Burton and William Ryan's Advertising Fundamentals (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Inc., 1980---$20.95)

Donald Jugenheimer and Peter Turk's Advertising Media (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing, 1980---$24.95)

Paul A. Kolers, et al, eds. Processing of Visible Language: Volume I (New York: Plenum, 1980---$39.95)

Jerry McWilliams' The Preservation and Restoration of Sound Recordings (American Association for State and Local History, 1400 8th Ave. S., Nashville, Tenn. 37203---$7.95, paper)

Robert G. Meadow's Politics as Communication (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing, 1980---$24.95)

Laurell E. Schuerman, et al. Native American Media Needs: An Assessment (Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium, P.O. Box 83111, Lincol-i, Neb. 68501---no price given, paper)     

Differentiated Effects of Levels of Questioning on Student Achievement

An N of 104 fifth and sixth grade Ss from one suburban school was randomly assigned to one of three groups: High Questioning (HQ), Low Questioning (LQ), and Control (C) . The two questioning groups (HQ, LQ) were exposed to the same geographical content and set of materials for nine instructional days. However, the majority of questions posed to HQ Ss was high level (i.e., above recall), whereas the majority of questions posed to LQ Ss was low level. The C group studied a social studies unit that was topically different from HQ and LQ. Posttest and retention results indicated a superiority of HQ and LQ over C on low level understandings (p<.05) and a superiority of HQ over C on high level understandings (p<.05) . Discussion centered on the possibility of differentiated response modes for HQ and LQ students.     

Practice in planning and planning in practice: re‐assessing and clarifying action research in a multi‐national context

This paper responds to a call seeking presenters for an action‐research event for elementary‐school science teachers in Venezuela. The authors planned on the assumption that the participants would wish to leave with plans for introducing action‐research approaches into their practice. In previous writing on action research, the various protocols for action‐research planning and practice emphasize norms and regularities rather more than their opposites. This paper shows, however, that planning is transformed by multiple views of teaching and learning to create a multi‐level, multi‐faceted event within a particular context. The activity of planning parallels the pedagogy enacted in the event. The interactions of presenters and participants, of their purposes and actions, create the complex reality that is action research, where the learning and the events are often asynchronous.     

Sex Differences in Science and Technology Among 11‐year‐old Schoolchildren: II‐‐affective

Two thousand and sixty‐five 11‐year‐olds in their first term at secondary school were given a variety of attitude and achievement tests. Overall both girls and boys had positive attitudes to science but there were substantial sex differences‐‐boys were much keener than girls to learn about physical science, and girls were keener than boys to learn about nature study and human biology. Boys had much greater experience than girls of tinkering activities, but girls had more experience of biological science activities. Boys were much more likely than girls to see science as a masculine preserve. At this age attitudes to science were virtually unrelated to achievement in science‐ and technology‐related areas. One important exception to this is that girls who saw science as masculine tended to perform worse on the cognitive tests.     

The high cost of ‘efficiency and effectiveness’ in Australia

In its recent review, the Australian Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission made a series of recommendations regarding the rationalisation of the provision of external studies. Here, Mavis Kelly, of the School of External Studies and Continuing Education at the University of Queensland, argues that these recommendations will serve to maintain the distinctions between distance and face‐to‐face education, while greater convergence in practice and further development of integrated modes of provision are what is really needed.     

Selecting a Key Skills Delivery Mode: Thinking about efficiency and effectiveness

This research-based paper attempts to describe a continuum of delivery choices available to school and college managers by which Key Skills can be introduced as part of Curriculum 2000. It describes the pressure to integrate, the illusion of contextualisation and the consequent pre-eminence of staff competence as a determining influence on the effectiveness of the delivery structure. It describes some problems associated with integration and the relative efficiency and effectiveness of discrete and integrated delivery. The paper goes on to define a continuous array of mixed modes of delivery, the levels of support required to underpin them, the external influences that impinge on the process of their selection and the effectiveness of monitoring and tracking systems.     

Teacher development and educational change: empowerment through structured reflection

Reflection and change are pivotal themes in this paper, which outlines the rationale, methodology and principal findings of a research undertaking on teacher development in Ireland. The study was based on the premise that teachers’ practices are guided in large measure by a ‘tacit knowledge’ of education, formed in response to personal and contextual factors. It was held that sustained teacher and school development relate primarily to acquiring an awareness of and engaging in ongoing reflection on this implicit theory. Participants were facilitated in structuring such reflection through images—as subjective knowledge structures which capture their latent understandings of teaching and learning processes. It was an enlightening and empowering experience for the teachers involved, who, as a consequence, could both envision and initiate necessary improvements in their educational practices. The findings have notable implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education.     

TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS THAT SERVE OLDER PEOPLE: HIGH TECH MEETS HIGH TOUCH

Appropriate implementation of information technology (IT) can help create a more efficient, less costly, and higher-quality service-delivery environment for community-based organizations that serve older people. Relevant studies and reports on technology in healthcare can be compared and applied to these organizations. This study is the result of an assessment and analysis of the technological needs of 17 community-based organizations that serve older people in Orange County, California. Preliminary results suggest that appropriate implementation of technology, along with complementary workflow processes and positive attitudes toward technology usage, might lead to improvements in the level and quality of service in these agencies.     

SURVIVING YOUR GRADUATE GERONTOLOGY EDUCATION AND ENTERING THE JOB MARKET

A comprehensive graduate education in gerontology requires the transmission of information that may or may not occur in a formalized setting such as a classroom. This article presents information on a full spectrum of issues related to educational and professional success, including managing graduate school, paths to careers in gerontology, securing a job, and socialization into the university as a professional. Information on these topics will help prepare future gerontologists to meet the challenges of the 21st century and the accompanying changing demographic landscape.