Library Staff Development: How Book Clubs Can Be More Effective (and Less Expensive) than Traditional Trainings

Employee book clubs are simple, inexpensive tools for professional development that may be more effective than traditional training methods. Library staff at Brigham Young University participated in professional development book clubs, and they reported that they found these trainings to be more enjoyable than classroom-style trainings and more effective in helping them understand, retain, and apply the principles learned. This article will discuss the success of these book clubs and suggest ways that other libraries can implement cost-effective book clubs to develop professional and leadership skills.     

Extending validity evidence for multidimensional measures of coaching competency

This study extended validity evidence for multidimensional measures of coaching competency derived from the Coaching Competency Scale (CCS; Myers, Feltz, Maier, Wolfe, & Reckase, 2006) by examining use of the original rating scale structure and testing how measures related to satisfaction with the head coach within teams and between teams. Motivation, game strategy, technique, and character building comprised the dimensions of coaching competency. Data were collected from athletes (N = 585) nested within intercollegiate men's (g = 8) and women's (g = 13) soccer and women's ice hockey (g = 11) teams (G = 32). Validity concerns were observed for the original rating scale structure and the predicted positive relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach between teams. Validity evidence was offered for a condensed post hoc rating scale and the predicted relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach within teams.     

A Detection Scheme for Dependent Noise Processes

In this paper the problem of memoryless discrete time detection of a constant signal in additive φ-mixing noise is considered. The fidelity criterion is taken to be the asymptotic relative efficiency. The optimal detector nonlinearity is approximated by a polynomial, and the statistical knowledge required for the design of the detector is the family of joint moments of the noise, resulting in a very simple design procedure for the detector. It is shown that the performance of this detector can be made arbitrarily close to that of the optimal memoryless detector for a large class of noises.     

Infant approach behavior as related to attachment.

The chief purpose of this study was to identify characteristics that distinguish approach as an attachment behavior from approach serving other behavioral systems. Locomotor approaches of 16 male and 10 female white middle-class infants to an attachment figure (the mother) and to a nonattachment figure (the visitor-observer) were examined under naturalistic conditions at home. Observations were made during 4-hour home visits at 3-week intervals; those from 26 to 54 weeks were used. When approach was examined in a free-choice situation and without regard to behavioral context, infants approached the mother proportionally (though slightly) more often than the visitor (p less than .05). In 2 behavioral contexts, however, spontaneous infant approaches were sharply differential to the mother; approaches accompanied by crying and approaches terminating in a pickup appeal were directed almost exclusively to the mother (p less than .0001 for both). Touching upon completion of the approach was not differential, except in the context of a pickup appeal. Object-oriented approaches were more often directed to the visitor than to the mother (p less than .002) and may be either exploratory or affiliative. It is suggested that neither approach nor touching can be assumed to serve the attachment system without consideration of context- both environmental and behavioral.     

Mirrow reactions of Down's syndrome infants and toddlers: cognitive underpinnings of self-recognition.

To examine the developmental significance of mirrow self-recognition in early childhood, a cross-sectional study with 55 Down's syndrome children was conducted. When their image is altered by rouge on the nose, normal infants by 22 months indicate self-recognition by touching their noses while looking in the mirror. Only a small percentage of Down's syndrome children touched their noses by this age, confirming the expected lag in this development. However, those young Down's syndrome infants with near-normal development quotient did manifest the reaction. In general, when developmental age was equated, the Down's syndrome children showed parallel development to normal children.     

Acoustic sounding of the atmosphere

Measurement of vertical and horizontal wind velocity is of great importance in many contexts, such as investigation of air pollution, weather forecasting, and air-traffic control. In recent years continuously recording acoustic sounders have been developed which give reliable results at reasonable cost: some 200 are now in use in at least 15 countries.