The value and impact of information provided through library services for patient care: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: An updated systematic review was carried out of research studies looking at the value and impact of library services on health outcomes for patients and time saved by health professionals. METHODS: A comprehensive systematic search was undertaken of the published literature to September 2003 in ERIC, LISA, MEDLINE, PREMEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and Google. Some handsearching was carried out, reference lists were scanned and experts in the field were contacted. Twenty-eight research studies of professionally led libraries for health-care staff, including clinical librarian projects, met the inclusion criterion of at least one health or 'time saved' outcome. Papers were critically appraised using internationally accepted criteria. Data were extracted and results were summarised using a narrative format as the studies were heterogeneous and precluded a statistical analysis. RESULTS: There is evidence of impact from both traditional and clinical librarian services. The higher quality studies of traditional services measured impacts of 37-97% on general patient care, 10-31% on diagnosis, 20-51% on choice of tests, 27-45% on choice of therapy and 10-19% on reduced length of stay. Four studies of clinical librarian projects suggested that professionals saved time as a result of clinical librarian input, and two of these studies showed evidence of cost-effectiveness. However, the clinical librarian studies were generally smaller, with poorer quality standards. CONCLUSIONS: Research studies suggest that professionally led library services have an impact on health outcomes for patients and may lead to time savings for health-care professionals. The available studies vary greatly in quality but the better quality studies also suggest positive impacts. Good practice can be gathered from these studies to guide the development of a pragmatic survey for library services that includes the direct effects for patients among the outcome measures.     

A collaborative network for first responders: Lessons from the CapWIN case

It is increasingly important for government agencies to collaborate across jurisdictional and functional boundaries. Interorganizational systems supporting interagency collaboration must accommodate a wide range of factors from the external environment and participating organizations as part of their design and operation. This paper presents the findings from a case study of CapWIN, a collaborative network created to enable first responders to share information across jurisdictional and functional boundaries as they work together during emergencies and other critical events. The study examines how aspects of the external environment and the agency context impeded or facilitated the CapWIN collaborative network and the interorganizational system (IOS) that supports it. We identify factors affecting information sharing and collaborative processes, and describe how these factors interact to enable and constrain an IOS. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research on the interplay of environmental, organizational, and technical aspects of interagency collaboration networks as they evolve over time.     

Categorising computer science education research

The interdisciplinary nature of Computer Science Education as a field of study is a complicating factor when authors are choosing appropriate journals and conferences for publishing research results. This paper reports a survey of 42 such publications in order to identify the types of paper frequently accepted for publication in each. We review existing taxonomies developed for the general fields of Computer Science and Education, and from this starting point, we develop a novel faceted taxonomy, specifically aimed to help new researchers in the field understand what types of papers are published and where they appear. Our results confirm previous studies indicating the predominance of practice-based, technology-driven reports. We also observe certain differences in educational themes between those found in publications grounded in the Computer Science Education corpus and those emerging from more general Higher Education literature.     

How Adolescents Come to See Themselves as More Responsible Through Participation in Youth Programs

This qualitative study was aimed at developing theory about the process underlying the development of responsibility grounded in accounts of youth who reported experiencing this change. A total of 108 high-school-aged ( M = 16.5) youth from 11 programs were interviewed about their experiences within the program, and 24 reported becoming more responsible through their participation. The youth's accounts suggested that this process was driven largely by successfully fulfilling program expectations. This process was driven by youth's adherence to their commitments and their consideration of the consequences of their actions on others. Youth mentioned changes in responsibility most frequently in three programs, which appeared to differ from the remaining programs in having more structure and placing greater ownership and accountability on youth.     

A tale of two women leaders: Diversity policies and practices in enterprise universities

This paper explores the ways in which senior female academics’ leadership practices are informed and negotiated in relation to a multiplicity of fields. As part of the shift in the logics of practice underpinning the Australian academic terrain, there has been a movement from the implementation of equity policies to that of diversity in relation to the employment of academic staff, characterised by neoliberal discourses of new public management which favour the production of the individualistic, entrepreneurial academic identity as opposed to notions of collectivity and the public good. However, diversity policies are not the sole texts that inform the ways in which many women leaders operate, nor the most important in guiding the practices they produce. Drawing on a larger study of representations of women’s leadership in the media and academia, this paper examines how two leading female academics drew upon a range of logics of practices within the different fields of academia, feminism and Indigenous rights to inform their leadership practices. In so doing, the women contested the emergent logic of practice underpinning the contemporary Australian academic field. Such contestation can be considered one of the “subaltern” consequences of policy regimes and forms an integral part of policy fields.     

Postgraduate study and managers’ subsequent work experience: an exploratory evaluation

Drawing on an exploratory qualitative study, this article considers the link between business school teaching at graduate level and subsequent work behaviour and experiences of former students. It evaluates the student experience some time after graduation. The findings of the retrospective evaluation point to the value of classroom peer discussion, the testing of ideas against prior work experience and the opportunity to make sense of organisational issues by setting them into broader context. The importance of andragogical approaches to teaching is discussed as well as the implications of the study findings for teaching quality enhancement.     

Researching primary engineering education: UK perspectives,an exploratory study

This paper draws attention to the findings of an exploratory study that critically identified and analysed relevant perceptions of elementary level engineering education within the UK. Utilising an approach based upon grounded theory methodology, 30 participants including teachers, representatives of government bodies and non-profit providers of primary level engineering initiatives were interviewed. Three main concepts were identified during the analysis of findings, each relevant to primary engineering education. These were pedagogic issues, exposure to engineering within the curriculum and children's interest. The paper concludes that the opportunity to make a real difference to children's education by stimulating their engineering imagination suggests this subject area is of particular value.     

Thinking in a ‘worldly’ way: mobility,knowledge, power and geography

In order to enhance understandings of the international mobility of researchers and the implications of their mobility for knowledge production and circulation, we need to develop more sophisticated conceptual resources. Here we draw on and seek to develop ideas generated from literary theory and geography in order to highlight the links between internationally mobile researchers, knowledge, geography and power. In particular, we develop three interrelated concepts: ‘geographies of power/knowledge’, ‘empires of knowledge’, and ‘edges of empires’. We also turn to Edward Said's notion of the ‘exilic intellectual’ because it speaks to the manner in which some mobile individuals navigate this terrain, as well as to issues of their links to place, positionality and the academy. The paper puts these concepts to work as we ask ‘What do they look like through the lens of an individual's intellectual biography?’ and ‘How can a biography add nuance to the concepts?’ Overall we adopt what Said calls a ‘worldly’ perspective that involves considering the time and place of ideas.     

Swedish PE teachers struggle with assessment in a criterion-referenced grading system

In the field of education, the international trend is to turn to criterion-referenced grading in the hope of achieving accountable and consistent grades. Despite a national criterion-referenced grading system emphasising knowledge as the only base for grading, Swedish physical education (PE) grades have been shown to value non-knowledge factors, such as students’ characteristics and behaviour. In 2011, a new national curriculum was implemented which attempts to deal with the problem by prescribing specific knowledge requirements with a clear progression as the only basis for different grades. The aim of the present study is to explore the impact of the new knowledge requirements on what teachers consider important when assigning grades. It is also to discuss what non-knowledge-related aspects (if any) teachers continue to look for and why these seem to remain resilient to the reform. The Repertory Grid technique was employed to interview the teachers before (2009) and after the implementation (2013). During the interviews, the grading of 45 students was discussed, which generated 125 constructs. After the implementation, there was a near doubling of knowledge constructs, half as many motivation constructs and an almost total elimination of constructs based on confidence and social skills. While motivational factors were still considered valuable for the award of a higher grade, clear criteria seemed to be important, but too limited for the teachers’ needs. In order to understand the persistence of motivational factors, we discuss the results in relation to Bernstein’s interrelated message systems of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We emphasise the need to discuss how valid grades can be achieved and, at the same time, give value to the regulative discourse in order to realise the overarching national goals of values and norms in education and PE.