A Publisher Perspective: How One Publisher is Responding to the Changing World of Scholarly Communication

For this talk, Marks was tasked with summarizing the important trends in scholarly publishing in 45 minutes. The speaker reflected on the rapid changes that have occurred in journal publishing, which followed more than 300 years of relatively slow progress. Marks discussed key technology trends such as data curation, Open Access (OA) mandates, and the changes occurring in the global landscape of scholarly communications and library budgets. Wolters Kluwer Health has been responding to these trends with new publishing experiments including a Platinum OA model in emerging markets. Marks discussed the ways that publishers and libraries need to alter their traditional practices and instill a focus on their customers and communities.     

Setting the Stage and Keeping Sane: Implementing ArchivesSpace at the University of Minnesota

As the University of Minnesota's Archives and Special Collections began the daunting task of migrating into ArchivesSpace over 5,000 finding aids from fifteen different units, a clearly defined workflow provided clarity and success. This article outlines how staff developed an implementation timeline and workflow, harnessed support from partners in IT, provided training, and what the benchmarks to success were. By sharing this well-documented and thought-out implementation workflow, it can provide guidance as others try to navigate the many moving parts of implementing new collection management technology.     

Implementing Cooperative Learning with Mildly Handicapped Students in Regular Classrooms

THE LITERATURE on cooperative learning suggests it can benefit mildly handicapped and nonhandicapped students academically, socially, and emotionally. This article emphasizes the cooperative learning approaches of Johnson and Johnson, Slavin, and other closely related practitioners. It discusses salient research on cooperative learning, shows how it can help meet student needs in heterogeneous classes, addresses how to overcome potential problems, and offers implementation guidelines. It also provides a framework for initiating cooperative learning in ways that reduce or eliminate resistance.     

The Importance of Teaching and Learning Nature of Science in the Early Childhood Years

Though research has shown that students do not have adequate understandings of nature of science (NOS) by the time they exit high school, there is also evidence that they have not received NOS instruction that would enable them to develop such understandings. How early is “too early” to teach and learn NOS? Are students, particularly young students, not capable of learning NOS due to developmental unreadiness? Or would young children be capable of learning about NOS through appropriate instruction? Young children (Kindergarten through third grade) were interviewed and taught about NOS in a variety of contexts (informal, suburban, and urban) using similar teaching strategies that have been found effective at teaching about NOS with older students. These teaching strategies included explicit decontextualized and contextualized NOS instruction, through the use of children’s literature, debriefings of science lessons, embedded written NOS assessments, and guided inquiries. In each context the researchers interviewed students prior to and after instruction, videotaped science instruction and maintained researcher logs and field notes, collected lesson plans, and copies of student work. The researchers found that in each setting young children did improve their understandings of NOS. Across contexts there were similar understandings of NOS aspects prior to instruction, as well as after instruction. There were also several differences evident across contexts, and across grade levels. However, it is clear that students as young as kindergarten are developmentally capable of conceptualizing NOS when it is taught to them. The authors make recommendations for teaching NOS to young children, and for future studies that explore learning progressions of NOS aspects as students proceed through school.     

Using Statistical Control Charts to Analyze Data from Student Evaluations of Teaching

In this paper, a method for analyzing data from student evaluations of teaching is presented. The first step of the process requires development of a regression model for teacher's summary rating as a function of student's expected grade. Then, two‐sigma control charts for individual evaluation scores (section averages) and residuals from the regression model are used to identify both excellent and poor outcomes. The performance of an individual whose scores are out of control on both charts cannot be explained by expected grade and therefore is worthy of note.     

Science and Mathematics Mentees and Mentors: Who Benefits the Most?

The purpose of our study was to determine the extent to which differences in a mentor model for science and mathematics teachers accounted for variances in mentoring effectiveness and persistence rates of teachers. School district designee, mentor, and teacher perceptions of mentoring support were collected through the use of interviews and surveys and analyzed using the grounded theory approach and open coding. Findings revealed that teachers and mentors recommended that future mentor models provide strong support and more face-to-face meetings. The most common change mentors made was that they incorporated new strategies into their teaching. Findings offer insight for structuring mentor models to increase effectiveness and persistence of teachers and build the capacity of mentors.     

Planning for a pandemic influenza outbreak: roles for librarian liaisons in emergency delivery of educational programs

In February 2006, two librarians at the University of Minnesota's Bio-Medical Library were asked to participate in a task force at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health (SPH). The charge from the dean of SPH was to determine how the school could continue to deliver its educational programs in the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak. This paper will outline the work of the task force, discuss its recommendations, and offer ideas on how other librarians can work with their liaison areas to plan for a similar project.     

Do Children's Advocacy Centers improve families' experiences of child sexual abuse investigations?

OBJECTIVE: The Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) model of child abuse investigation is designed to be more child and family-friendly than traditional methods, but there have been no rigorous studies of their effect on children's and caregivers' experience. Data collected as part of the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children's Advocacy Centers were used to examine whether CACs improve caregivers' and children's satisfaction with investigations. METHODS: Nonoffending caregiver and child satisfaction were assessed during research interviews, including the administration of a 14-item Investigation Satisfaction Scale (ISS) for caregivers. Two hundred and twenty-nine sexual abuse cases investigated through a CAC were compared to 55 cases investigated in communities with no CAC. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear regression results indicated that caregivers in CAC cases were more satisfied with the investigation than those from comparison sites, even after controlling for a number of relevant variables. There were few differences between CAC and comparison samples on children's satisfaction. Children described moderate to high satisfaction with the investigation, while a minority expressed concerns about their experience. CONCLUSIONS: The CAC model shows promise for improving families' experiences, but to build upon this promise, agencies will need to systematize procedures for refining and adapting the model as new research becomes available.     

“They Were There for People Who Needed Them”: Student Attitudes Toward the Use of Trigger Warnings in Victimology Classrooms

Over the last five years, vigorous debate has been waged about the purpose, use, and impact of trigger warnings in courses offered at institutions of higher education. This debate has been largely uninformed by research findings. This study fills this gap using quantitative and qualitative data collected via surveys in a large undergraduate victimology course to explore student attitudes toward trigger warnings. Findings revealed considerable, but nuanced support for trigger warning use in victimology courses. Support does not appear to differ between crime victims and non-victims; support is higher among females than males. These findings underscore that universal decisions mandating or advocating for or against the use of trigger warnings are premature. Further study is needed with a diverse range of samples to gain a fuller picture of student attitudes about trigger warnings as well as to assess any impact of trigger warnings use on student behavior and learning.