Succession Planning for Libraries

ABSTRACT

It is imperative for libraries of all types to be responsive to the forecasted changes in the demographics of the library workforce. Succession planning is a key strategy for ensuring that libraries are prepared to meet changing and emerging organizational needs. Succession planning is broadly defined as a range of activities focused on both internal and external talent development to fill anticipated needs for library leadership and other key personnel. The aim of this article is to offer a number of recommendations relevant for LIS education to help build an awareness of succession planning for future library managers. In particular, practical ideas for course-related activities and assignments that may help to incorporate succession planning more fully into the LIS curriculum are discussed.     

The effects of taste extinction on ingestional potentiation in weanling rats

Four experiments investigated taste potentiation in weanling rats. In Experiment 1, the animals that drank a conditioning compound of denatonium and saccharin consumed significantly less on the test than controls that drank only saccharin during conditioning. This enhanced saccharin aversion was decremented by postconditioning extinction to denatonium in Experiment 2, and no generalization of saccharin aversions to the denatonium was observed in Experiment 3. Extinction of either saccharin or denatonium aversions after compound conditioning was shown in Experiment 4 to result in substantial decrements in aversions to the compound. The relationship of these outcomes to a multiple-association account of potentiation and to the role of discrimination processes in ingestional learning is discussed.     

Paradigms in collision: The far-reaching controversy over the samoan researches of margaret mead and its significance for the human sciences

Derek Freeman has been a member of the Research School of Pacific Studies of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University since 1955. This essay is adapted from a public lecture given at the Australian National University on 23 October 1991; the entire lecture is to be published in pamphlet form by the Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 2601.     

Peer Assessment by Groups of Group Work

Group work can be used to encourage deeper learning, promote student autonomy by transferring some of the responsibility for teaching and learning to students and simultaneously reduce academic time in feedback and marking. While these aims can also be achieved with peer assessment of student output (Williams, 1992; Hughes & Large, 1993; Somervell, 1993), its usage is often limited to assessing the contribution or input of each member to a group project (Goldfinch, 1994). This paper reports the results of a peer assessment experiment with 210 final-year undergraduate business students. Students formed 41 groups or teams, whose membership was constant for the duration of the subject, to complete two of the four assessable tasks. One of the team tasks was an oral class presentation worth 25% of a student's overall grade. Teams of peers rated the quality of the presentation, using a 22-point guide, in terms of content and presentation. Their mark was compared with a staff score also rating the presentation as a team. While there is no significant difference in the student and staff averages, there is a significant difference in the standard deviations which suggests that the two populations are different. However students scores were significantly closer to staff scores in the second half of the semester at least in terms of the presentation component. Although the peer-assessed marks are not significantly different from those assigned by staff, the correlation between them is only moderate.     

A comparison of outcomes of virtual school courses offered in synchronous and asynchronous formats

As part of the formative evaluation of Alabama's pilot of its virtual schooling system (the Alabama ACCESS Distance Learning Program), the Alabama State Department of Education examined outcome data from courses offered in the two distance delivery systems: web-based course management and interactive videoconferencing (IVC). In light of Bernard et al's. [Bernard, R., Abrami, P., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., et al. (2004). How does distance learning compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 379–434] recent meta-analysis finding that asynchronous distance environments generally had more positive outcomes than synchronous ones, a comparison of online (asynchronous) and IVC (synchronous) platforms provided an opportunity to explore and shed more light on outcome comparisons between synchronous and asynchronous platforms. Though there were some outcome differences, the dominant finding was of no differences between platforms.     

A Gifted Programme in Iceland and its Effects

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the NER (Namsefnisradgjofin) gifted enrichment programme in Iceland (1985-96). Of the 200 teacher-selected children (aged 6-16), 138 took part and 62 refused. In 2000, the outcomes for participants ( n = 111) and equally suitable non-participants ( n = 63) were compared by postal questionnaire designed by Freeman, previously used in Britain and Finland (Freeman, 2001; Ojanen & Freeman, 1994). The NER programme was successful in that participants did better than non-participants at school. However, participants were already in a better educational position because of superior home backgrounds and higher motivation to succeed. Unfortunately, teachers did not always pick up on these improved achievements, so beneficial effects too often dissipated. Suggestions are made for close cooperation between schools and both programme and home to obtain the best results for the gifted.     

Innovative Alcohol Education Program for College and University Judicial Sanctions

Violations of alcohol policies constitute most of the judicial referrals on college campuses. Many counseling centers provide alcohol education as the primary sanction for these violations. These classes are often ineffective. This article presents a new alcohol education model that uses group counseling with peer counselors.     

Life and Literature: Continuities and Discontinuities

This essay calls attention, first, to some of the significant discontinuities between life and literature, living and telling. Perhaps foremost among them is the fact that while living takes place now, in the present moment, telling must await the passage of time. This element of delay, it is argued, underscores the potential importance of narrative: in the context of moral life especially, it can serve a kind of rescue function, allowing for a measure of insight often unavailable in the flux of the moment. These discontinuities between life and literature notwithstanding, it is maintained herein that there also exist deep continuities between life and literature, and that literature can illuminate life precisely because it articulates and binds those features of experience that reach for narrative. By spelling out these continuities, we open the way toward deepening our understanding of the narrative fabric of life itself.     

Preservice Interns Implement Service-Learning: Helping Young Children Reach Out to Their Community

Service Learning (S-L) is an integral component of the Early Childhood preservice curriculum at the University of South Carolina. In spite of the fact that our college students had experienced the benefits of S-L first hand during their professional education, they had not become adept at implementing this experiential pedagogy into their own preschool and primary classrooms. This article describes the strategies the authors used to motivate their college students to integrate S-L into the classrooms where they were completing their capstone internship. It recounts these teacher education students' successes in planning and implementing effective S-L projects and identifies the benefits that came to the preservice teachers, their young students, and the schools and communities where they taught.     

Friendships in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Studies of friendships in children with developmental disabilities have evolved primarily from the research on children with typical development. As a result, the theories, definitions, and difficulties in measuring friendship have also been carried over to the research on children with developmental disabilities. Children with developmental disabilities, however, present unique issues that warrant consideration. Special consideration should be given to measurement issues, developmental level, the etiology or type of disability of the child, the experience and context of the child with the disability, and individual characteristics. Given these considerations, we make some suggestions for the study of friendships in atypical children.