Disabled Readers' Performance on Tasks of Phonological Processing,Rapid Naming,and Letter Knowledge Before and After Kindergarten

The importance of early identification of children at risk for reading failure is clearly established in the literature. The purpose of this longitudinal retrospective study was to further define the relationship between the development of prereading skills and later reading outcome in two groups of children; a group of reading‐disabled children and a group of their normally reading peers. Children's alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, and rapid naming skills were explored at the beginning of kindergarten and again prior to first grade as a function of later reading outcomes. Results indicate that differences found between the groups in all measures at prekindergarten age diminish by prefirst grade with the exception of phonological awareness abilities. Findings have direct implications for screening children at risk for reading difficulties and the time‐sensitive nature of these tasks during the preliteracy period.     

Trade books and the social studies curriculum

Historical fiction, fiction about contemporary people of other cultures, and nonfiction trade books can increase children's interest in social studies and enhance their knowledge. Dianne Monson and Kathleen Howe discuss the ways that these books appeal to young readers and lead them to seek further understanding of historical events, foreign cultures, and Americans from different cultural backgrounds. They offer numerous examples of books that serve this purpose for several social studies topics. Kathleen Howe completed her doctorate at the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation dealt with the use of children's literature trade books in the elementary social studies curriculum. Dianne Monson is a past president of the U.S. Board on Books for Young People and has written and lectured on children's literature throughout the curriculum.     

A survey of users and non-users of a UK teaching hospital library and information service

BACKGROUND: The Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was formed in 2002 with the merger of two existing trusts. The library services unified to create a new expanded service with 11 staff. OBJECTIVES: The librarians wanted to test out users' opinions of the service, as a basis for a developmental strategy. They also wanted to find out to what extent they were offering a multi-disciplinary service, available to all staff. Therefore it was decided to include both users and non-users in the survey. METHODS: A twenty-question questionnaire was sent out to a 10% sample of registered users in all staff categories. The same questionnaire was sent out to a 10% sample of non-users, with the help of the Human Resources Department. RESULTS: The library staff and facilities were generally well regarded. The stock needed expansion in various areas, especially allied health and biomedical science. Non-users were in fact often occasional or remote users. Other non-users needed informing that they were entitled to use the service. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is required, especially concerning the information needs of allied health and scientific staff. There is a need for stock expansion. A marketing strategy is required to capture the interest of potential users.     

Cost analysis of a project to digitize classic articles in neurosurgery

In summer 2000, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University began a demonstration project to digitize classic articles in neurosurgery from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The objective of the first phase of the project was to measure the time and costs involved in digitization, and those results are reported here. In the second phase, metadata will be added to the digitized articles, and the project will be publicized. Thirteen articles were scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software, and the resulting text files were carefully proofread. Time for photocopying, scanning, and proofreading were recorded. This project achieved an average cost per item (total pages plus images) of $4.12, a figure at the high end of average costs found in other studies. This project experienced high costs for two reasons. First, the articles contained many images, which required extra processing. Second, the older fonts and the poor condition of many of these articles complicated the OCR process. The average article cost $84.46 to digitize. Although costs were high, the selection of historically important articles maximized the benefit gained from the investment in digitization.