Mission-Focused Collections: Rebirth of the Seminarbibliothek as an Ebook Collection

German universities built over the years highly specialized book collections for use by faculty and graduate students. The German term, seminarbibliothek, is often applied to these types of collections, although examples can be found in universities across Europe. The purpose of this article is to examine a similar type of collection using ebooks in veterinary science and to compare this collection to the standard subject classified ebook collections. Most collection development in college and university libraries focuses on academic subjects. The type of collection being described here focuses on a mission. A mission-focused collection increases the use of library holdings and greatly benefits the stakeholders within the institution. This study looks at how such a collection might be formed and defined and what possible effects this might have on the use of collections of this type.     

Using Cloud-Based Software to Build an Interlibrary Loan Survey Databank

As an assignment for the Reference and User Services Association and as part of the American Library Association Emerging Leaders Program, the authors created a databank to house the results of a large-scale interlibrary loan staffing survey. After examining the pros and cons of several software solutions, the authors decided to use a Web-based database product, Dabble DB. The paper discusses the scope, outcomes, and value of the Reference and User Services Association interlibrary loan survey, the development of the authors’ project plan, and recommendations for the use of cloud-based database products in library operations.     

A Collaborative Workflow for the Digitization of Unique Materials

This paper examines the experience of one institution, the University of Maryland Libraries, as it made organizational efforts to harness existing workflows and to capture digitization done in the course of responding to patron requests. By examining the way this organization adjusted its existing workflows to put in place more systematic methods for digital capture of unique collections, the authors hope to provide insight into the benefits and pitfalls of one model for scaling up digitization.     

The career planning, athletic identity, and student role identity of intercollegiate student athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine the career planning of university student athletes and relationships between their career planning and athletic and student role identities. Two retrospective in-depth interviews were held with four male and four female university student athletes. Participants entered university with vague or nonexistent career objectives and invested heavily in their athletic roles. In the latter years of their college career, the participants discarded their sport career ambitions and allowed the student role to become more prominent in their identity hierarchies. The current findings support Brown and Hartley's (1998) suggestion that student athletes may invest in both the athlete and student role identities simultaneously and that investing in the latter may permit the exploration of nonsport career options.     

Remote access to electronic library services through a campus network

The Health Science Library at University of Tennessee (UT), Memphis has taken advantage of a campuswide network for the purpose of providing enhanced access to library services. With a terminal or microcomputer, members of the UT Memphis community can use an electronic menu system to complete photocopy, interlibrary loan, and computer literature search request forms; leave messages or sign up for library workshops; use electronic mail to receive citations and abstracts from computer literature searches; use an electronic bulletin board to scan the library's new acquisitions lists, library hours, services, and policies; and use bibliographic retrieval software to search the library's locally mounted databases. Remote access to library services and electronic resources, which is available twenty-four hours a day, could potentially save users time and the institution money. Remote access, however, is intended to supplement, not to supplant or discourage, in-house library use.     

Generating Vocabulary Knowledge for At-Risk Middle School Readers: Contrasting Program Effects and Growth Trajectories

We tested whether urban middle-school students from mostly low-income homes had improved academic vocabulary when they participated in a freely available vocabulary program, Word Generation (WG). To understand how this program may support students at risk for long-term reading difficulty, we examined treatment interactions with baseline achievement on a state standardized test and also differential effects for students with (n = 398) and without (n = 1,395) individualized education plans (IEPs). Students in this unmatched quasi-experiment (5 WG and 4 comparison schools) completed pre- and postvocabulary assessments during the intervention year. We also retested student vocabulary knowledge after summer vacation and the following spring on 11 target words to construct a longitudinally consistent scaled score across 4 waves of data. Growth models show that students experienced summer setback. Although there were no average underlying differences in growth or differences in summer setback for students by baseline achievement, better readers improved more from program participation. IEP status did not predict differential benefits of program participation, and students with IEPs maintained gains associated with participation in WG; however, participation in the program did not change underlying growth trajectories favoring students who did not have IEPs.     

Parental perceptions of adverse educational outcomes among children diagnosed and treated for ADHD: A call for improved school/provider collaboration

An Erratum has been published for this article in Psychology in the Schools 42(2) 2005, 227 [ ]. This research utilized parent report to examine the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), related treatment, and associated educational outcomes among elementary school children in southeastern Virginia. In a representative sample of elementary school children, 17% had been diagnosed with ADHD. The majority of diagnosed children had been medicated for ADHD (84%). More than one third of students taking medication had received no other interventions for ADHD. Over half of the diagnosed students received behavioral therapy and almost half received a combination of medical and behavioral interventions. Children diagnosed with ADHD were 3 to 7 times ( p values < 0.001) more likely than other children to receive special education, be expelled or suspended, and repeat a grade. Based on parental opinion, children diagnosed with ADHD are at high risk for school failure. Results are discussed in terms of distinctions between clinical efficacy/effectiveness and schoolwide and public health interventions implemented in the study region. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.