Not just for celebrities: collaborating with a PR representative to market library education services

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences offers an education service called Hardin House Calls. In collaboration with the University of Iowa libraries' public relations coordinator, the education team developed a marketing campaign for Hardin House Calls. Marketing strategies included designing a new logo, meeting with external relations representatives and faculty, distributing a user survey, and producing and distributing posters and advertisements. These marketing strategies greatly increased the visibility and use of Hardin House Calls. The campaign also led to a series of faculty development sessions, education collaborations with smaller health sciences departments, and collection development opportunities. Promoting an instructional service through a public relations frameworkwas found to be a highly successful strategy.     

Connecting 24/5 to Millennials: Providing Academic Support Services from a Learning Commons

This study investigates user preferences for reference and technical support, services, and facilities featured in an academic library and Learning Commons through a 23-item questionnaire distributed to building entrants during one 24-hour period on March 14, 2006. Results revealed a strong preference for face-to-face assistance (including roving), suggested enhancements, and documented user demographics.     

What can be learned from writing about early field experiences?

This paper describes the evolution of assignments in a course for students preparing to teach secondary science, mathematics, and agriculture science. We describe and analyze work done by preservice students in two different years to look for developing teacher knowledge, explicate how we have come to understand teacher knowledge as it was enacted in this particular context, and discuss how our self-study contributed to the growth of our knowledge as teacher educators.     

Examining Effects of Poverty,Maternal Depression,and Children’s Self-Regulation Abilities on the Development of Language and Cognition in Early Childhood: An Early Head Start Perspective

Early childhood poverty is a prevalent social issue, both in the United States and in the wider international community. It has been well established that factors associated with poverty, including familial income and parental education level, can negatively affect children’s language and cognitive development, which can result in academic achievement deficits that compound across the lifespan. Additional environmental factors, specifically maternal and children’s own social–emotional development, have also been shown to impact these sensitive early childhood developmental processes. Although individual components that relate to language and cognitive development in young children have been identified, additional examination of potential associative relationships between these components is warranted. Therefore, this study explored socio-economical, health, and developmental relationships between 122 caregiver–child dyads enrolled in an Early Head Start Program where children were 1–36 months old. Results indicated strong bidirectional correlations between children’s cognitive and language development. Multiple linear regression path analysis indicated that children’s cognition and social–emotional wellbeing have a significant direct effect on their language development. Additionally, language and fine motor development were found to have a significant direct effect and social–emotional wellbeing mediated an indirect effect through language on children’s cognitive development. In light of socioeconomic and sociocultural challenges, the importance of nurturing children’s social–emotional development in relation to language and cognitive development is discussed.     

Voluntary use of online study questions as a function of previous minimal use requirements and learner aptitude

This study investigates voluntary use of online study questions, the relationship of study question use to examination performance, and the relationship of aptitude to study question use following an initial phase during which students either received course points for passing mastery quizzes or for completing a designated number of study questions. The results indicate a) students who first received points for completing study questions later made greater voluntary use of study questions, b) less able readers made less voluntary use of study questions than more able readers, and c) less able readers performed better on course examinations when awarded course points for completing a required number of study questions rather than quizzes.     

What Are They Thinking? Dental Assisting Students' Feelings About E-Books

Electronic textbook usage is increasing within higher education while use of traditional textbooks is declining. While some research concerning student preference for textbook type provides insight into student choices, there is a gap in the literature regarding use of electronic textbooks within dental assisting programs. The purpose of this study was to explore dental assisting students’ preferences regarding electronic textbook usage during their professional education. Two questionnaires were administered to a group of dental assisting students to ascertain their preferences. One questionnaire was given during the Dental Assisting Program orientation at the beginning of the academic year. The second questionnaire was administered at the conclusion of a nine-month dental assisting curriculum in which students were required to use electronic textbooks for approximately half of their courses. Results from the questionnaires indicated that while students were open to the idea of electronic textbooks and willing to use them prior to beginning in the Dental Assisting Program, at the conclusion of the Program they overwhelmingly preferred to use traditional print textbooks.     

Database choices in endocrine systematic reviews

Objective

The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialists and systematic review researchers.

Method

We retrieved 144 systematic reviews and meta-analyses from 4 clinical endocrinology journals and extracted all information sources used during the search processes.

Results

Findings indicate that traditional bibliographic databases are most often used, followed by regional databases, clinical trials registries, and gray literature databases.

Conclusions

This study informs information specialists about additional resources that may be considered during the search process.