Elevating Aggregator Evaluation

Aggregator products available to libraries are both praised and criticized by those that use them. The value of these products depends on perceived attributes and their relevance to the information needs of a library. Disconnects arise when aggregated products are either misunderstood or the structure and design of the products are not appropriately matched to end-user needs. More evaluation of these products is needed to ensure that they are serving end users as intended and are affordable into the future.     

The Business of Serials

The opening column offers an overview of the roles and interrelationships among authors, publishers, intermediaries, libraries, and consortia in the production, selling, and procurement of serial publications and generally traces the evolution of the commerce over the last several decades.     

Left Holding the Bag: A Tale of Two Companies

The bankruptcy of two major serial agents within twelve years calls into question whether academic libraries are appropriately monitoring and overseeing the business partners to whom we entrust very large sums of money. The background events leading to the financial collapse of RoweCom/divine and Swets Information Services are reviewed and compared, along with a discussion of industry mechanisms to judge financial stability. Without adherence to financial best practices libraries risk being “left holding the bag” of problems, blame, and lost serial money.     

Biting the Hand

This column considers a wide range of issues concerning publishers, librarians, and academic authors from a personal perspective. It particularly focuses on the existence of marketing strategies when it comes to journal content, and considers what the role of all parties should be in the climate of publishing change.     

Communication apprehension and cognitive learning: An experimental analysis

This 2×3 factorial design was employed to test the relationship between communication apprehension and cognitive learning. The results of this quasi‐experimental study indicate that highly apprehensive students scored higher on an objective (written) test than they scored on an equivalent oral test. Scores on the objective exam did not differ across levels of communication apprehension. In addition, a small negative correlation between communication apprehension and learning was observed in the oral testing condition. The expected curvilinear relationship between communication apprehension and learning under the oral testing condition was not observed. A negative linear relationship between communication apprehension and learning was observed.     

Crafting an Education Reform Agenda Through Economic Stimulus Policy

The economic stimulus enacted during President Obama's initial weeks included a down payment on his ambitious education reform agenda. By combining short-term policy with reform, the strategy gained his administration three advantages: a discretionary funding source with little Congressional scrutiny; flexibility in pursuing education reform goals without crowding out other policies on his agenda; and the ability to shape the national reform discussion for more than a year, without being constrained by negotiations over a specific piece of legislation. This article details the strategy and discusses whether the Obama administration's political dexterity can be matched by skill in fashioning institutional arrangements to ensure the long-term sustainability of these reforms.     

Primary school websites in Ireland: how are they used to inform and involve parents?

Online sources are increasingly the most likely starting place when seeking information about any topic. Parents of prospective students may access school websites in advance of enrolling their child. Parents of current students are likely to access a school’s website for information about the school’s current activities or to learn more about the teaching and learning taking place in their child’s classroom. With a few notable exceptions, there is limited research on the quality of school websites internationally, particularly at primary level. For this paper, the online presence of 100 Irish primary schools was examined. Of the 90 schools for whom some web presence was established, information provided to parents of current students and parents of prospective students was examined. Findings show that primary school websites do not comprehensively address the information needs of either group of parents and highlight areas of potential improvement.     

Ego Integrity of Older People with Physical Disability and Therapeutic Recreation

Ego integrity, the last developmental task in Erikson's psychological theory, develops naturally among older people. However, the presence of loss–like physical disability–can considerably affect the quality of life, interactions, and well being of older adults. Hence, older people with physical disabilities need more assistance in accomplishing tasks of ego integrity. This study aimed to utilize traditional Filipino art to capture the essence of the lived experiences of a select group of older people with physical disabilities in relation to their ego integrity. Four Filipino elderly with physical disabilities were purposely selected for this study. Picture prompting and doodling sessions were held as pretest and posttest to ascertain the effectiveness of puni-making in facilitating ego integrity of participants. A series of interviews were pursued to elicit experiences and feelings of participants regarding their disability and old age. From the analysis of the triangulated set of data, two findings emerged. First, four activators of ego integrity, namely: work, family, belief in self and belief in God, were identified as essentials in the formation of the participants' ego-integrity. Second, shifts related to the activators were identified indicating ego integrity's source, meaning and connection elements have become more grounded, certain and integrated. The influence of puni-making in understanding the ego integrity of older people with disabilities was found to be a sound and novel recreational therapy. It can stimulate a select group of Filipino elderly for openness to share their subjective and yet illuminating life experiences.     

Intraseason changes in the body composition of collegiate female gymnasts

Body composition measures were collected pre‐, mid‐ and post‐season on a team of eight national‐calibre collegiate women gymnasts to examine intraseason changes. Also analysed were interseason changes using pre‐ and post‐season data on five of the eight subjects during the current and previous year, according to a 2 x 2 (years x tests) analysis of variance repeated‐measures design. Skinfold, circumference and diameter measures were collected with percentage body fat, lean body mass and body density determined by regression equations developed specifically for collegiate female gymnasts.

Intraseason body weight decreased significantly from pre‐ to mid‐season (x = 55.0 and 53.6 kg respectively); but the difference between mid‐ and post‐season (53.9 kg) values was not significant (P>0.05). The majority of the 1.4 kg weight loss occurred during intense pre‐season conditioning and not during the actual season. Percentage body fat, on the other hand, decreased significantly from pre‐to mid‐season and mid‐ to post‐season (x = 21.4%, 17.4% and 13.45% respectively; P<0.0005). Body density increased significantly from pre‐ to mid‐season and mid‐ to post‐season (x = 1.0476, 1.0584 and 1.0681 respectively; P<0.0005). Of the circumference and skinfold values used in calculating percentage body fat and body density, only the skinfold values displayed significant decreases throughout the season.

Interseason analyses revealed no significant changes in any of the dependent measures between seasons, despite consistent trends. There were no significant years x tests interactions and all intraseason changes for two seasons (n = 5) were the same as those found in more detailed analysis of a single season (n = 8) except in the case of weight loss, which was marginally significant (P < 0.046) in the single‐season and not in the dual‐season analysis (P>0.05).

Body composition of these gymnasts changed in many ways within competitive seasons. The most pronounced changes observed were decreases in subcutaneous fat and increases in body density. This study reinforces the need for administrators, coaches and athletes to be concerned with percentage body fat and skinfold measures rather than weight alone when determining if a person is ‘fat’.     

‘They shall grow not old’: An analysis of trends in memorialisation based on information held by the UK national inventory of war memorials

This chapter of Cultural Trends discusses ways in which war memorials demonstrate changing cultural or societal trends in the UK through their various forms and functions, and through the evolution of memorialisation itself.

It introduces the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, an archive which was established in 1989 and which records details of memorials throughout the UK. The chapter is based on data and detailed examples taken from the 47,000 records currently input on the archive's database and it explores those records to examine memorials commemorating the Boer Wars, First and Second World Wars and the Korean War, in particular.

The first section considers general issues regarding war memorials in the UK ‐ the ways in which memorial styles have changed, and how these reflect changing attitudes towards those who served in the armed forces in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The second section is about the pragmatics of memorialisation, and focuses on the significance of where memorials are positioned, whether inside or out and within public or private spaces; the increase in secularisation; the geographical spread of memorials; and issues related to urban and rural memorialisation.

The third section considers the evolution of memorials from being a focus for grief for those whose friends and relations’ bodies were not returned, to manifesting veterans groups’ assertions of their identity many years after a conflict. The physical movement of memorials is also covered, ranging from memorials which have been lost or neglected, through to memorials being moved in order to preserve them so that remembrance services can continue. Peaks and troughs of memorialisation through the 20th century are also considered.

To conclude, the fourth section pulls together various threads drawn throughout the chapter, analysing memorials chronologically, geographically, stylistically and in terms of their relative ‘popularity’.