Developing of methodologic tools for planning and managing library services: 3. Standardized inventories of library services

A standardized procedure was developed for eliciting those details of a library's service policies that are important to its users and for recording the data by checking appropriate categories on a form. This inventory procedure covers the entire spectrum of user services and accommodates a wide range of policies. The inventory was originally designed for use by trained interviewers in largescale surveys of academic medical libraries. However, it is also suitable for other kinds of libraries, and the Interview Guide and Checklist can be used for a self-survey by library staff. In addition to survey use, the inventory has a variety of educational, administrative, managerial, and research applications. A method for weighting the categorical inventory data to reflect the relative desirability of different policies makes it possible to calculate scores indicating how a library's policies compare with those of an "optimal" library. An analogous inventory of the services a library provides to other libraries was developed for surveying major backup resources in the medical library system.     

An Analysis of Four Institutional Strategies for Staff Development

This paper describes four different approaches through which an institution can provide a programme for academic staff training and development. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are analysed with the help of a recently developed theory which seeks to explain why some innovations are successful while others fail. This analysis may contribute towards the development of institutional strategies to ensure the survival—if not the revival—of staff development in universities in the United Kingdom.     

The individual family service plan: Unresolved problems

The federal requirement to develop an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) for all infants and toddlers with special needs has a major conceptual difficulty that has, to date, been inadequately addressed in the literature. That problem stems from the linkage of family service to family assessment. Many authorities, attracted to parental “empowerment” theory, advocate that parents should be the authors rather than (or as well as) the objects of assessment, and that professionals and parents should be partners in assessing needs and planning services. When there is disagreement, professionals should defer to parents, who are in the best position to assess their own needs. We question the wisdom of conducting assessments with, or on, families of targeted children. But, if there are to be assessments, we argue that families are better served, and mutual respect better preserved, by a traditional complementary relationship: The professional controls the evaluation process, determines the problems (with the input of the family), and makes recommendations, which parents are then free to reject.     

Modelling impact of dredging and dumping in ebb-flood channel systems

For a channel-shoal system in a funnel-shaped basin the impact of dredging and dumping is investigated using a complex process-based model. First, the residual flow and sediment transport circulations are analysed for the channel-shoal pattern, which has emerged after a long-term model simulation. Results are compared to the Western Scheldt estuary, which forms the inspiration for this study. Subsequently, different dredge and dump scenarios are modelled, according to a conceptual model, in which ebb-and flood-channels and enclosed shoals form morphodynamic units (cells) with their own sediment circulation. Model results show that dumping sediment in a channel further reduces the channel depth and induces erosion in the opposite channel, which enhances tilting of the cross-section of the cell and eventually can lead to the degeneration of a multiple channel system into a single channel. The impact of different dredging and dumping cases agrees with results from a stability analysis. This means that this type of model applied to a realistic geometry can potentially be used for better prediction of the impact of human interventions.     

UCF Library Express: Planning a Faculty Delivery Service

As it becomes increasingly difficult to demonstrate the worth of the library to the academic community, gate counts and usage statistics are no longer enough. Showing the impact the library has on the community requires planning new services with outcome measurement from the start. This article outlines a project plan for launching a faculty book delivery service at the University of Central Florida's John C. Hitt Library using Rhea Rubin's (2006) Outcome Measurement model. The article reviews the relevant literature, analyzes the current internal and external climate in which the service will be implemented, discusses the logistical aspects of the service such as cost, delivery method, and staffing, and concludes by determining the goals and outcomes of the service based on these factors. This article is the first in a series of three articles that together make up an entire project planning and management document, including planning, marketing, and assessing the service. The plan in its entirety provides an example of how to apply the Outcome Measurement model in an academic library setting.     

Distributed Cognition as a Lens to Understand the Effects of Scaffolds: The Role of Transfer of Responsibility

Problem solving is an important skill in the knowledge economy. Research indicates that the development of problem solving skills works better in the context of instructional approaches centered on real-world problems. But students need scaffolding to be successful in such instruction. In this paper I present a conceptual framework for understanding the effects of scaffolding. First, I discuss the ultimate goal of scaffolding—the transfer of responsibility—and one way that scholars have conceptualized promoting this outcome (fading). Next, I describe an alternative way to conceptualize transfer of responsibility through the lens of distributed cognition and discuss how this lens informs how to promote transfer of responsibility. Then I propose guidelines for the creation of problem solving scaffolds to support transfer of responsibility and discuss them in light of the literature.