Community Engagement at an Emerging Academic Medical Library: A Three-Pronged Outreach Model

The Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine’s (OUWB) service-oriented mission and vision is reflected in all aspects of the school including its culture, curriculum, research, community engagement, and the OUWB Medical Library. Though starting informally, the OUWB Medical Library’s outreach program has matured and now sustains a wide array of activities each year. This outreach program has blossomed into a three-pronged model that is inclusive of activities and endeavors engaging the institution and local community: integrate, partner, and create. Among its successes and challenges, the library’s ongoing outreach efforts have showcased the value of libraries in promoting community health and meaningfully contributing to the institutional mission.     

Evaluating e‐book platforms: Lessons from the e‐book accessibility audit

E‐books are a potential assistive technology, offering significant advantages over print books, and accessible materials are now a financial and legal necessity within UK academia. It is often difficult to find supplier information on accessibility, for example, whether files have been tagged for reading order or whether the interface has been tested with assistive technologies. Equally, library staff may lack confidence in identifying accessibility features, making it hard to promote them to students or demand them from suppliers. This article reports on a crowdsourced e‐book audit of 44 e‐book platforms that was undertaken by 33 UK universities during 2016. The research scored different platforms for a range of accessibility issues, and the resulting open data set is presented in a manner that can be interrogated by libraries looking for specific features. A key finding was that the platform can dramatically affect the accessibility of a publisher's content, making it important for publishers to work with suitable vendors to disseminate their publications.     

Framing Wind Energy: Strategic Communication Influences on Journalistic Coverage

The dominance of political communication over an issue like wind energy has the power to overwhelm attempts to frame wind farming as a scientific or environmental issue in the mediated public sphere. Using regulation as the primary newsmaker, politicians instead of scientists or environmental organizations become journalists’ sources in framing the issue. Wind energy is a special issue that is framed in unique ways due to environmental, political, and industry ties. Contest framing ensues between institutional stakeholders to win favorable media coverage. Through a sociological lens, this analysis examines how contemporary political communications continue to influence the media through professional routines and relationships even in a scientifically grounded industry during a surge of public environmentalism. Comparisons of political, energy industry, and environmental advocacy communications show that political and energy industry frames dominate newspaper coverage of energy issues even when environmental and scientific issues are inherent to the story.     

Undergraduate projects in mathematics

Conclusion We have claimed that project work introduces the student to a wide range of mathematical activities: critical reading, selection of material, mathematical exposition, talking about mathematics, formulation of problems, investigation of open problems, and so forth. It also encourages an active personal involvement in mathematics. Our aim in presenting this report has been to focus attention on some of the questions facing university mathematics teachers at this time, in the hope that others may be encouraged to seek their own answers.     

Book reviews

DIGITAL SENSATIONS: SPACE, IDENTITY, AND EMBODIMENT IN VIRTUAL REALITY. By Ken Hillis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999; pp. xi + 271. $47.95 cloth; $18.95 paper.

THOMAS KUHN: A PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY FOR OUR TIMES. By Steve Fuller. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2000; pp. xvii + 472.

PROMETHEUS WIRED: THE HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE AGE OF NETWORK TECHNOLOGY. By Darin Barney. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000; pp. 340. $29.00.

DEWEY ON DEMOCRACY. By William R. Caspary. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000; pp. 256. $39.95.

THE ORGANIZING PROPERTY OF COMMUNICATION. By François Cooren. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2000; pp. 272. $50.00.

CRAFTING SOCIETY: ETHNICITY, CLASS, AND COMMUNICATION THEORY. By Donald G. Ellis. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1999; pp. xvi + 229. $49.95.

PROGAY/ANTIGAY: THE RHETORICAL WAR OVER SEXUALITY. Ralph R. Smith and Russel R. Windes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2000; pp. xxiv + 240.

THEORIES OF CULTURE IN POSTMODERN TIMES. By Marvin Harris. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1999; pp. 224. Cloth $62.00; Paper $22.95.

PRESIDENTIAL CRISIS RHETORIC AND THE PRESS IN THE POST‐COLD WAR WORLD. By Jim A. Kuypers. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997; pp. xi + 242.     

Ecological Validity in Understanding Sport Performance: Some Problems of Definition

One of the most significant aspects of current sport psychology research is the trend toward developing the relationship between theoretical concepts and practical applications. There have been many recent calls for the development of specific experimental paradigms closely linked to critical features of movement control and social interaction within specific frames of reference such as competitive sport (e.g., Lee & Young, 1985; Martens, 1979). The concept of ecological validity has been proposed as a crucial element of this current research thrust, and this paper attempts to identify and define some of the more important criteria underpinning ecologically valid research in sport psychology. Vision and sport performance is used as an exemplary area of investigation in which problematic and specific issues are examined. The basis of this critique has important implications for other areas of interest in the application of the behavioral sciences to sport. It is concluded that much greater debate must be stimulated concerning this important methodological principle, and a preliminary definition is provided for this purpose as well as to aid in the process of research evaluation in sport psychology.     

Exploring Conceptual Integration in Student Thinking: Evidence from a case study

Two reasons are suggested for studying the degree of conceptual integration in student thinking. The linking of new material to existing knowledge is an important aspect of meaningful learning. It is also argued that conceptual coherence is a characteristic of scientific knowledge and a criterion used in evaluating new theories. Appreciating this ‘scientific value’ should be one objective when students learn about the nature of science. These considerations imply that students should not only learn individual scientific models and principles, but should be taught to see how they are linked together. The present paper describes the use of an interview protocol designed to explore conceptual integration across two college‐level subjects (chemistry and physics). The novelty here is that a single interview is used to elicit explanations of a wide range of phenomena. The potential of this approach is demonstrated through an account of one student's scientific thinking, showing both how she applied fundamental ideas widely, and also where conceptual integration was lacking. The value and limitations of using this type of interview as one means for researching conceptual integration in students' thinking are discussed.     

Students’ Conceptions of Ionisation Energy: A Cross‐cultural Study

Previous studies have indicated that A‐level students in the UK and Singapore have difficulty learning the topic of ionisation energy. A two‐tier multiple‐choice instrument developed in Singapore in an earlier study, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument, was administered to A‐level students in the UK, advanced placement high school students in the USA, and first‐year university students in China, New Zealand, and Spain to determine whether the students from different countries and educational systems had similar conceptions and difficulties as the students in Singapore with the concepts assessed in the instrument. The results showed that, in general, the students in all six samples had similar alternative conceptions, which were grouped under the categories of octet rule framework, stable fully‐filled and half‐filled subshell conceptions, and conservation of force thinking. The students also resorted to relation‐based thinking when answering items involving the trend of ionisation energies across Period 3. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.     

Strategies for improving communication between teachers and school students about learning: a university/school collaborative research project

The research reported here is the result of a collaborative project between a group of teachers in a secondary school and two university lecturers. The group has been meeting for several years and the issue of trying to improve communication arose as a result of findings from a previous study in the school. After reviewing the literature, we were able to identify actions for teachers to trial in the school and, following data collection and analysis, we were able to refine those actions for widespread adoption in the school. We were also able to identify issues that required further exploration. The research exemplifies a way in which university and school staff can engage in collaborative, high quality research. It also identifies some of the complexities involved for schools and teachers as they try to improve practice.