Job satisfaction of information technology workers in academic libraries

This study examines the job satisfaction of library information technology (IT) workers in relation to demographic, socioeconomic, and work-related variables, such as a sense of belonging, faith in wanting to belong, a feeling of acceptance, paying dues, job autonomy, the broker's role, and promotion opportunities. A total of 443 mail surveys were sent to a sample of IT workers at 30 university member libraries of Association of Research Libraries in the United States. A total of 202 surveys were returned, resulting in a 45.6% response rate. This study found that salary, an MLS degree, a sense of belonging, faith in wanting to belong, a feeling of acceptance, job autonomy, and promotion opportunities were related to job satisfaction of the library IT workers. This study provides some explanations as to why some IT workers are more satisfied with their jobs than others, thereby contributing to improving the quality of their work lives.     

The building of weak expertise: the work of global university rankers

University rankers are the subject of much criticism, and yet they remain influential in the field of higher education. Drawing from a two-year field study of university ranking organizations, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I introduce the concept of weak expertise. This kind of expertise is the result of a constantly negotiated balance between the relevance, reliability, and robustness of rankers’ data and their relationships with their key readers and audiences. Building this expertise entails collecting robust data, presenting it in ways that are relevant to audiences, and engaging with critics. I show how one ranking organization, the Times Higher Education (THE), sought to maintain its legitimacy in the face of opposition from important stakeholders and how it sought to introduce a new “Innovation and Impact” ranking. The paper analyzes the strategies, methods, and particular practices that university rankers undertake to legitimate their knowledge—and is the first work to do so using insights gathered alongside the operations of one of the ranking agencies as well as from the rankings’ conference circuit. Rather than assuming that all of these trust-building mechanisms have solidified the hold of the THE over its audience, they can be seen as signs of a constant struggle for influence over a skeptical audience.     

Education and Development: Era of Hope and Disillusionment

It seems almost superfluous to have to highlight formal education as a social and moral institution (historically that has been its main role) but for the fact that after the Second World War greater consciousness on the part of rich industrialized countries spawns fresh concepts and notions that education is an economic enterprise. The human capital concept popularized by the Chicago School of economics as reflected in the works of Schultz and the seminal work of Denison catapulted education into the forefront as an engine of economic development for the so-called Third World countries. Heavy physical capital investment, with the exception of Japan and Germany, which is thought to be a sufficient stimulus for economic development in classical economic theory fails to deliver the goods. The frantic search for an efficacious solution to Third World Poverty unearths the forgotten dimension of educated and trained manpower as the missing variable in the economic development equation. Education becomes the new faith for Third Worlds in their attempts to banish poverty and join the rich industrial clubs. Needless to say, the new faith which holds sway for more than a decade ends in disillusionment (reflected in the Belagio Conference of 1974) for trained manpower is a necessary but not sufficient condition for national development. The complementarity and substitutability of physical and human capital have been overlooked. But whilst the human capital formation theory holds sway, formal education becomes predominently an economic enterprise and correspondingly its function as a social and moral enterprise is reduced in importance.     

A componential approach to understanding reading and its difficulties in preadolescent readers

The present study is predicated on the logic of interrelated functional information processing components as an approach to understanding reading and its difficulties in preadolescent readers. The structural equation modelling (and its variants) involved these three latent components: (a) orthographic/phonological component, (b) morphological component, and (c) sentence and paragraph comprehension component. These components were subserved by a total of ten measurable tasks, all administered on-line via the microcomputer under laboratory conditions with reaction time measures as indices of mental representation of word knowledge and sentence/paragraph comprehension. The latent dependent component of reading performance was subserved by standardized vocabulary and reading comprehension tests. The total sample consisted of 298 children in grades, 4, 5, and 6. Maximum likelihood analyses using LISREL show that the data in general do not disconfirm the proposed model for grade 4 readers. The three-component model, with some variables set free, provides a reasonable fit for the grade 5 data but less claim could be made about the goodness of fit for grade 6. The results show the mutually reinforcing and mutually facilitating effects of multilevels and multicomponents of reading. Word structure and word knowledge are particularly predictive of reading. The present Phase 1 work would be validated in a follow-up of another cohort of readers and would also lead to the systematic training of some of the components with poor readers. This study was supported by a grant (No. 410-86-0048) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.     

The influence of water depth on kinematic and spatiotemporal gait parameters during aquatic treadmill walking

The purpose of this study was to investigate kinematic and spatiotemporal variables of aquatic treadmill walking at three different water depths. A total of 15 healthy individuals completed three two-minute walking trials at three different water depths. The aquatic treadmill walking was conducted at waist-depth, chest-depth and neck-depth, while a customised 3-D underwater motion analysis system captured their walking. Each participant’s self-selected walking speed at the waist level was used as a reference speed, which was applied to the remaining two test conditions. A repeated measures ANOVA showed statistically significant differences among the three walking conditions in stride length, cadence, peak hip extension, hip range of motion (ROM), peak ankle plantar flexion and ankle ROM (All p values < 0.05). The participants walked with increased stride length and decreased cadence during neck level as compared to waist and chest level. They also showed increased ankle ROM and decreased hip ROM as the water depth rose from waist and chest to the neck level. However, our study found no significant difference between waist and chest level water in all variables. Hydrodynamics, such as buoyancy and drag force, in response to changes in water depths, can affect gait patterns during aquatic treadmill walking.     

Kicking modality during erratic-dynamic and static condition effects the muscular co-activation of attacker

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of different kicking modality, i.e., erratic-dynamic target (EDT) versus static target (ST) on the performance of the roundhouse kick in two groups of taekwondo athletes of different skill level. Three-dimensional analysis and surface electromyography (SEMG) analysis were performed on 12 (Group A: six sub-elite, Group B: six elite) athletes to investigate muscle co-activation pattern under two conditions, i.e., EDT versus ST. In the results, the muscle recruitment ratio of the agonistic muscles was higher for Group A, whereas Group B had higher recruitment ratio for antagonist muscles. Overall, the co-activation index (CI) of hip joints appeared higher in the extensors for Group A, whereas higher CI was observed in flexor muscles for Group B with comparatively higher CI during EDT condition than ST condition. Higher value of CI was observed in flexor muscles of the knee joints among Group A during EDT conditions, in contrast, higher CI in the extensor muscles was observed among Group B during ST conditions. In conclusion, the study confirmed that erratic-dynamic movements of target could change the movement coordination pattern to maintain the joint stability of participants.     

The History of Modern Organized Badminton and the Men’s Team Thomas Cup Tournaments, 1948–1979

Modern organized international badminton began with the founding of the International Badminton Federation (IBF) in 1934, consisting of nine founding member associations. The inaugural men’s Thomas Cup tournament began in 1948 when 10 countries took part. Malaya won the Cup four times in 1949, 1952, 1955, and 1967. When Indonesia took part in the tournament for the first time in 1957, there were 19 competing teams. Indonesia won the triannual tournament seven times from 1957 to 1979. Throughout the 11 Thomas Cup tournaments, only two Asian countries have won the Cup. The only European country, Denmark, qualified to play in the finals five times without a single win. Malaya (later known as Malaysia), Indonesia, and Denmark became leading Thomas Cup teams because they produced singles and doubles players that won many All-England Badminton Championship titles. The winners of these titles were generally considered the world champions. The key sources of information for this research consisted of the IBF annual statutes for listing of participating nations, tournament programmes, and rare specialized books on badminton and the Thomas Cup competition. English language newspapers such as the Singapore Free Press and the Straits Times published historical match results for checking the secondary data collected.