Public Libraries and the Opioid Crisis,Part 2: Community-Centered Responses

This article functions as a research critique of a short, recent IMLS report that tied early childhood success to library card holding. The authors invite a more comprehensive and evidence-based examination of the ties between library card holding, the successes of poor children in school, and the significance of sustained library services to keep kids interested in their own educational success. The article also suggests how youth use of libraries is tied to the realities of local politics, gangs, and crime.     

Traditional governance structures ‐ current policy pressures: The academic senate and Canadian universities

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to identify current policy pressures in Canadian higher education and explore their implications for academic decision‐making bodies based on data we obtained in our national study on university senates. We describe two inter‐related sets of public policy pressures that have emerged in recent years in Canada including on‐going financial restraint and a renewed interest in university research. We conclude by reviewing a number of important implications for Canadian university governance in the context of contemporary policy pressures.     

Through Student Eyes: Perceptions and Aspirations of Students from the Armenian State Agrarian University and Selected European Universities

Abstract

This research compared attributes of students enrolled in the Armenian State Agrarian University (ASAU) with university students from 30 European countries (EFMD) about graduate study policy issues. A cross-national comparative design used a survey questionnaire to explore contextual, social and cultural phenomena. Samples included 801 ASAU and 3,265 EFMD students. Demographics of samples were similar. Students were largely unaware of the Bologna reforms and the impact on study abroad. Slightly more than half of EFMD participants were in a bachelor's programme compared to 96% of ASAU students. ASAU students held a more pragmatic rationale for foreign study, ranking ‘advancing professional careers’ as the top reason, while EFMD students chose ‘overall experience’. Obstacles included bureaucracy, funding and accommodations. Although groups had similar geographical preferences for foreign study, Eastern Europe was more preferred by ASAU students. Half of the EFMD students planned graduate enrollment ‘immediately following the degree’ compared to one-quarter of ASAU students. Half of the EFMD students were aware of mobility scholarships compared to three-quarters of ASAU students. One in two EFMD students reported university media rankings important compared to one in seven ASAU students.

The Bologna Declaration accelerated horizontal collaboration among European universities. Students have a larger collective voice in curriculum change. The findings of this research provide a better understanding of student aspirations, motivations, expectations and barriers. These findings can contribute to guiding policies and procedures for recruitment, admission, retention and mobility.     

Impression Management in Chat Rooms: A Grounded Theory Model

This paper investigates impression management and misrepresentation in chat rooms (a form of computer‐mediated communication, or CMC) from the vantage point of 10 chat room participants. The grounded theory approach was employed to derive a model firmly rooted in participants’ accounts. The resultant model reveals the motivations for engaging in impression management, the strategies used while in the chat rooms, as well as the goals achieved during this process. To illustrate the model, the experience of 1 chat room user is detailed. By producing a set of relationships among concepts, this study represents chat room participants’ experiences in a meaningful and coherent way. Findings are linked to extant theory and the value of this study is explored.     

The horizontal and vertical fragmentation of academic work and the challenge for academic governance and leadership

Academic work has become increasingly fragmented. The horizontal fragmentation of the profession into disciplinary tribes has been accompanied by the increasing participation of student affairs and educational development professionals located outside the academic units but are actively engaged in academic work, such as supporting teaching and student learning. An increasing vertical fragmentation of academic work has recently occurred within academic units with the increasing employment of contract university teachers and research assistants. In Canada, horizontal and vertical fragmentations have occurred while universities and strong faculty unions have protected the “traditional” tenure-stream professoriate. Drawing on recent research, the author argues that these Canadian full-time faculties have high levels of job satisfaction and are well-remunerated, productive scholars. Maintaining the status and the supportive working conditions of the full-time, tenure-stream professoriate has largely been accomplished through labor cost efficiencies created by the increasing use of part-time, contractual university teachers, now frequently represented by labor unions that are distinct from their full-time peers. This article discusses the challenges for academic governance and leadership associated with this increasing fragmentation of academic work in the context of the “global” university.     

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Program

The statistics of the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program indicate improvements in the accuracy of classification and the speed of cataloging in libraries and databases around the world.     

Research and Teacher Education: An Australian Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the ways in which educational research has contributed to or illuminated the processes of teacher education in Australia. It is concerned with the continuous spectrum of teacher development from pre-service courses to in-service education both formal and on-the-job.