Medical school graduates' retrospective evaluation of a clinical medical librarian program.

This paper reports on the results of a survey of sixty-six graduates of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine conducted in the spring of 1977. The graduates were questioned about their present library use behavior and their restrospective perceptions of the clinical medical librarian (CML) services which they received as medical students at UMKC. The results show that these young physicians, after regular association with other, more tradional medical library services, hold very positive impressions of the CML program. The graduates also typically credit the CML'S with helping them to learn to use library resources effectively. These retrospective perceptions of the CML match the short-term benefits reported in other studies of similar programs.     

Child care and low-income children's development: direct and moderated effects

A large literature has documented the influence of child care on young children's development, but few studies have examined low-income children in community care arrangements. Using data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (N = 204), this study examined the influence of child care quality and the extent of care on low-income children's (ages 2-4 years) cognitive and socioemotional development over time. Higher levels of child care quality were modestly associated with improvements in children's socioemotional development, and extensive hours in child care were linked to increases in children's quantitative skills and decreases in behavior problems. Analyses suggest that child care quality may be particularly salient for subgroups of children from low-income families.     

Public sea turtle watches serve as effective environmental education

To understand both immediate and longer-term effects of a short duration, interpretive wildlife tourism program, we studied responses from participants in a sea turtle watch program. This program comprised an interpretive presentation followed by an opportunity to view a nesting loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). We conducted 37 programs in 2013 and 2014, for 843 participants, of whom 70.5% were able to see a nesting turtle. We measured participant attitudes, knowledge, intention to act, and long-term behavior change. Initial participant responses indicated prior interest in nature and environmental topics, and a knowledge base focused on biological sea turtle information. After the interpretive presentation, participants chose to provide conservation-related information as opposed to natural history-related information. Intention to engage in conservation behaviors was high following the turtle watch experience, regardless of whether a turtle was seen. The conservation value of our turtle watch program is expressed through conservation-focused knowledge acquisition by participants and their high post-program intention to engage in behaviors benefiting sea turtles, both of which precede long-term behavior change in an interdisciplinary model of behavior change.     

‘My music,my freedom(?): the troubled pursuit of musical and intellectual independence on the Internet in Indonesia’

In Indonesia, the Internet has reshaped music industry praxis, particularly artist marketing and promotion. It is also a primary resource for artistic inspiration, providing musicians and producers with unprecedented access to recording artists worldwide. Finally, for the nation's top musicians, the Internet can lead to national and even international recognition, by means independent of – and even superior to – the production, distribution, or promotional support Indonesia's major record labels can provide. Answering Lysloff's call that examinations of digital media should consider how and why they are meaningful,this qualitative analysis examines the Internet practices consultants believe have radically reshaped Indonesia's national music industry and advanced its global impact. Particularly among the nation's self-described non-mainstream or independent music professionals, the Internet has revolutionized professional and social communication. Furthermore, through online intellectual critique, individual contributors also debate artistic ideals, as well as broader social and political problems. The Internet, thus, circumscribes a network of musically and socially likeminded individuals who engage in thoughtful debate about the arts and society in a presumably safe and egalitarian environment. There are limits to the Internet's equanimity and its users’ abilities to secure artistic and intellectual independence; however, spatial proximity to the music industry's epicenter in Jakarta, rhetorical dexterity in Internet correspondence, and Internet legislation all pose particular challenges to the democratization of Indonesia's independent music industry network and the professional and social relationships that happen through its channels.     

Locating Economic Risks for Adolescent Mental and Behavioral Health: Poverty and Affluence in Families,Neighborhoods, and Schools

Research has identified risks of both poverty and affluence for adolescents. This study sought to clarify associations between income and youth mental and behavioral health by delineating economic risks derived from family, neighborhood, and school contexts within a nationally representative sample of high school students (N = 13,179, average age 16). Attending schools with more affluent schoolmates was associated with heightened likelihoods of intoxication, drug use, and property crime, but youth at poorer schools reported greater depressive and anxiety symptoms, engagement in violence, and for male adolescents, more frequent violence and intoxication. Neighborhood and family income were far less predictive. Results suggest that adolescent health risks derive from both ends of the economic spectrum, and may be largely driven by school contexts.     

Lexical prosody as an aspect of oral reading fluency

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the lexical compounding, suffixation, and part of speech aspects of lexical prosody rendered while reading text aloud are predictive of children’s developing oral reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. Ninety-four third grade children were recorded while reading aloud a grade-level passage targeting lexical prosody contrasts related to suffixation, compounding, and part of speech. Children also completed assessments on reading fluency, word reading efficiency, and reading comprehension skills. Prosodic measurements of pitch and amplitude for each syllable of the targeted words, and spoken head word length in ms for targeted compound words, were carried out. Spectrographic analyses indicated that children generally displayed appropriate prosody for each lexical prosody contrast examined. The extent to which children made these prosodic distinctions between syllables was related to their reading fluency and comprehension skills. The study finds that, in the oral reading of connected texts, children’s use of lexical prosody is an aspect of general reading prosody that is predictive of reading fluency.     

Altruism in death: Attitudes to body and organ donation in Australian students

Health education, research, and training rely on the altruistic act of body donation for the supply of cadavers. Organ transplantation and research rely on donated organs. Supply of both is limited, with further restrictions in Australia due to requirements for a next-of-kin agreement to donation, irrespective of the deceased's pre-death consent. Research suggests health workers are less likely to support the donation of their own bodies and/or organs, despite recognizing the public good of donation, and that exposure to gross anatomy teaching may negatively affect support for donation. Attitudes to body and organ donation were examined in Australian students studying anatomy. Support for self-body donation (26.5%) was much lower than support for self-organ donation (82.5%). Ten percent of participants would not support the election of a family member or member of the public to donate their body, and just over 4% would not support the election of a family member to donate their organs, with one-to-two percent not supporting this election by a member of the public. Exposure to gross anatomy teaching was associated with an increased likelihood of consideration of issues about body and organ donation, whether for self, family, or the public, and registration as an organ donor. Exposure decreased participants' willingness to donate their own body, with those who practiced a religion least likely to support body donation. Gross anatomy courses provide an opportunity to inform future healthcare workers about altruistic donation, albeit with a recognition that religious or cultural beliefs may affect willingness to donate.     

Learning through making in public libraries: theories,practices, and tensions

This article investigates learning and teaching in library makerspace programs. Given the recent trend for libraries and makerspaces to define themselves in terms of learning, the findings of this article are particularly relevant to current initiatives. The article first reviews pedagogical theories which are referenced in literature connected with makerspaces. Second, the article analyzes interview and observational data from a system-wide public library makerspace program. The analysis compares the pedagogical theories with the realities of teaching and learning in public library makerspaces and indicates tensions emerging from these comparisons. The conclusion highlights ways librarians in makerspaces might consider the affordances of these spaces and ways goals, facilitation strategies, and assessments might draw on a range of pedagogical theories. Rather than approaching makerspaces with a ‘one-size-fits’ all model, librarians can design makerspace learning and teaching to align with a range of structures, styles, and content.     

The Temple and the Bazaar: Wikipedia as a Platform for Open Authority in Museums

Museums today grapple with the reconciliation of traditional models of authority with the expectation to incorporate new voices in cultural interpretation. At the same time, society is increasingly empowered by a social Web that provides collaboration, connectivity, and openness. This paper frames the dialogue of authority and openness around parallel theories within the museum and technology communities, offering Wikipedia as a platform for facilitating new perspectives in collaborative knowledge‐sharing between museums and communities. Expanding on the metaphors of the museum as “the Temple and the Forum” and the Web as “the Cathedral and the Bazaar,” this essay argues that issues of democratization, voice, and authority in museums can be addressed through Wikipedia's community, process, and its potential as a model for a new Open Authority in museums.