Effect of verbal aggressiveness on the perceived importance of secondary goals in messages

In face‐to‐face interaction, speakers often pursue secondary goals such as not hurting the other's feelings. Two studies investigated the effect of trait verbal aggressiveness (VA) on the importance of such goals. In both studies, persons higher in VA were relatively less likely to judge messages unacceptable for the reason that the message would offend or hurt the hearer. Study 1 also found that high VAs are less likely to consider messages unacceptable because the message conflicts with their principles and less likely to report chronic secondary goals to be supportive or maintain a positive relationship. In Study 2, the effect of VA on the situated importance of a goal to not offend or hurt the other depended on the situation. The implications for the manner in which high VAs anticipate the outcomes of message are considered.     

Obituary: Irwin T. (Toby) Holtzman (August 29, 1927–July 31, 2010)

This article is an obituary for Irwin T. (Toby) Holtzman, friend and donor to many libraries.     

The persuasive effects of statistical evidence in the presence of exemplars

This paper explores the impact of statistical evidence by varying it while pairing it with a constant set of exemplars. The resulting design includes a condition in which the statistical information and the exemplars advocate the same position (consistent condition), one in which statistical information and the exemplars advocate different positions (inconsistent condition), and a third condition in which only exemplars are presented (control condition). The data indicate that statistical evidence has a substantial effect on judgments, and that the impact of statistical evidence on attitudes is indirect. Specifically, it is mediated by judgments.     

The Effects of Targeted Instruction and Other Interventions on the Interlibrary Loan Use Patterns of Historians and Their Students

Prior to this study, the Access Services Librarian systematically improved interlibrary loan (ILL) and related services offered by the R. Barbara Gitenstein Library of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). She and her staff reviewed and revised workflows even as the Humanities Librarian focused on instructional efforts to further drive ILL use. Patrons’ confidence in ILL expanded. Requests for non-returnables, primarily journal articles and book chapters delivered electronically and within twenty-four hours, increased significantly. Returnables now arrive on average within six business days, more than double the speed previously achieved. Despite vastly improved turnaround times for all material types and efforts to boost users’ awareness of those improvements, faculty members affiliated with the History Department whose students rely on printed monographs told us that they remained reluctant to initiate ILL requests. Moving beyond anecdote, the Humanities and Access Services Librarians surveyed TCNJ historians and their capstone students on attitudes toward and use of ILL. Survey results are cross-referenced with ILL use statistics to aggregate reality versus perception among study participants. Changes in target patrons’ use of, confidence in, and feelings about TCNJ ILL over time are described.     

Australian and British Media

Outside Interference: The Politics of Australian Broadcasting (South Melbourne: Macmillan Co. of Australia, 1979—A$6.95, paper)

Susan Kippax and John P. Murray's Small Screen, Big Business: The Great Australian TV Robbe (Angus & Robertson Publishers, P.O. Box 290, North Ryde, N.S.W. 2113—A$1.95, paper)

Comparing Theatre and Film: A Contemporary:View, by Jeff Peck (22 pp., A$2.00, paper)

Newspaper Circulation in Australia, 1932-1977, by Murray Coot (33 pp., A$2.50, paper)

Patricia Edgar and Ursula Callus' The Unknown Audience: A Study of Children's Responses to Television Programmes (Media Centre, School of Education, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3083, Australia—A$4.00 1 paper)

Children's Television Behaviour by Kevin Sharman (Australian Council for Educational Research, Frederick St., Hawthorn 3122—A$5.00)

Cinema Papers No. 20 and 21 (bimonthly from 664 Victoria St., North Melbourne 3051—A$19.80 per year by air)

The Social and Cultural im acts of Transnational Enter rises by Krishna Kumar (Transnational Corporations Project, Department of Economics, Yniversity of Sydney, Sydney 2006—A$10.00)     

Media Regulation/Responsibility

Bernard Rubin, ed. Questioning Media Ethics (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1978---$19.95/6:95)

The Media Law Dictionary, by John Murray (1978, 140 pp, $7.35, paper)

Social Responsibilities of the Mass Media, edited by Allan Casebier and Janet Jenks Casebier (1978, 260 pp., $9.75, paper)

Everette E. Dennis, Donald M. Gillmor, and David L. Grey, eds. Justice Hugo Black and the First Amendment (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1978---$11.50)

Barry Cole and Mal Oettinger's Reluctant Regulators The FCC and the Broadcast Audience (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978---$10.95)

Steven J. Simmons' The Fairness Doctrine and the Media (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978---$14.95)

Thomas E. Will's Telecommunications Structure and Management in the Executive Branch of Government, 1900-1970 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1978---$20.00)     

Noise Management in Twenty-First Century Libraries: Case Studies of Four U.S. Academic Institutions

University libraries have had to provide acceptable noise levels for many years and this pressure has not diminished in the twenty-first century. Library space has to be utilized to ensure noise levels are best managed. A study was undertaken across four university libraries in South Florida to determine how universities utilized their limited space to satisfy both individual and collaborative study needs of their students. Directors and key librarians were surveyed and interviewed, and on-site visits were conducted. Results supported findings from the literature indicating that it is best to observe students’ natural use of library space and designate those areas accordingly. Additionally, it was found that current pedagogical practices place a greater need for group study spaces, which compete against the vital need for quiet study areas. It was also discovered that designated floor levels used to separate sound are compromised by popular open mezzanine designs that allow sound to permeate between floors. Solutions are presented to minimize noise issues that can be applied at any academic library.     

The status of health librarianship and libraries in the Republic of Ireland (SHELLI): a mixed methods review to inform future strategy and sustainability

Background

This paper summarises the main points of a review of the Status of Health Librarianship & Libraries in Ireland (SHELLI). The review was commissioned to gain a broad understanding of what was happening in practice in Ireland; acquire knowledge about international best practice, and to inform strategic plans to develop and sustain health libraries and librarianship in Ireland.

Methods

A Mixed Methods approach was used: a literature review; an online survey distributed to health librarians; Semi structured interviews with key stakeholders; a focus group drawing participants from the survey. All evidence was triangulated.

Results

New roles for health librarians needed development and the changing educational needs of health librarians warranted attention. Increased collaboration across institutional boundaries needed more consideration, especially in relation to access to e‐resources. Marketing of library services was crucial. Irish health library standards, needed to be updated and enforced and a proper evidence base established. The literature provided a number of examples of potentially useful initiatives.

Conclusions

A strategic plan of action was drawn up in three areas: (i) to identify champions and promote visibility of health service libraries, (ii) to establish a body of evidence and (iii) to support service development and staff mentoring.     

New Zealand students' perceptions of parental involvement in learning and schooling

This study investigated the relation between multidimensional aspects of high school students' perceptions of their parental involvement and their achievement. It explored differences in socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, and higher and lower achieving students, and a structural model was developed to further investigate these relations. A parental involvement questionnaire and measures of efficacy, liking and achievement in mathematics and reading were administered to a sample of 1,554 New Zealand high school students from 59 schools. In the view of students, there is support for parents to be talking to their children about learning and schooling and having high expectations of them and their future in learning, especially for lower achieving students. Students who claim that their parents are talking with their teachers or attending school meetings are more likely to have lower achievement. The implications from this study relate to developing student self-regulation for learning in home, providing more surface than deeper learning as homework, and assisting parents to learn the language of learning and schooling.     

Cooperative learning in science: intervention in the secondary school

The use of cooperative learning in secondary school is reported – an area of considerable concern given attempts to make secondary schools more interactive and gain higher recruitment to university science courses. In this study the intervention group was 259 pupils aged 12–14 years in nine secondary schools, taught by 12 self‐selected teachers. Comparison pupils came from both intervention and comparison schools (n = 385). Intervention teachers attended three continuing professional development days, in which they received information, engaged with resource packs and involved themselves in cooperative learning. Measures included both general and specific tests of science, attitudes to science, sociometry, self‐esteem, attitudes to cooperative learning and transferable skills (all for pupils) and observation of implementation fidelity. There were increases during cooperative learning in pupil formulation of propositions, explanations and disagreements. Intervened pupils gained in attainment, but comparison pupils gained even more. Pupils who had experienced cooperative learning in primary school had higher pre‐test scores in secondary education irrespective of being in the intervention or comparison group. On sociometry, comparison pupils showed greater affiliation to science work groups for work, but intervention pupils greater affiliation to these groups at break and out of school. Other measures were not significant. The results are discussed in relation to practice and policy implications.