IAIMS development at Harvard Medical School

The long-range goal of this IAIMS development project is to achieve an Integrated Academic Information Management System for the Harvard Medical School, the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, and Harvard's affiliated institutions and their respective libraries. An "opportunistic, incremental" approach to planning has been devised. The projects selected for the initial phase are to implement an increasingly powerful electronic communications network, to encourage the use of a variety of bibliographic and information access techniques, and to begin an ambitious program of faculty and student education in computer science and its applications to medical education, medical care, and research. In addition, we will explore means to promote better collaboration among the separate computer science units in the various schools and hospitals. We believe that our planning approach will have relevance to other educational institutions where lack of strong central organizational control prevents a "top-down" approach to planning.     

Revising the ISSN Standard: The Challenge of Change

ABSTRACT

The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) has been the standard, eight-digit code used to identify newspapers, journals, magazines, and periodicals on all kinds of media—print and electronic—for the past 40 years. Periodically, the standard must be revised to allow it to accommodate new formats, changes in the publishing industry and information supply chain, and other developments in the information field. Regina Romano Reynolds, director of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress, describes the issues that the ISSN International Centre perceives as necessitating a revision of the standard and the likely next steps in the International Organization for Standardization standards revision process.     

Pop-Up Library at the University of Birmingham: Extending the Reach of an Academic Library by Taking “The Library” to the Students

ABSTRACT

Aligning with student engagement and promotional strategies, a Pop-Up Library project was initiated at the University of Birmingham. This involved setting up temporary, staffed stalls in different locations across campus in order to informally communicate with students and effectively take “the Library” to them. This article discusses the planning and implementation of the Pop-Up Library, including the rationale for the initiative. Details are given of the stalls themselves, the wide range of staff involved, the many locations trialed, the promotional materials used, and the ways in which the venture was advertised and subsequently evaluated. Results of a questionnaire used on the stalls are presented. Conclusions are drawn as to the effectiveness of the Pop-Up Library as a communication tool, with particular emphasis on breaking down barriers between students and library staff, and proactively raising students' awareness of the many ways Library Services can enhance their learning.     

Studying for Exams Just Got More Relaxing—Animal-Assisted Activities at the University of Connecticut Library

In recent years, academic libraries have expanded their traditional focus on intellectual and scholarly pursuits, with many libraries now initiating programs that support student growth, development, and wellness. Although providing animal-assisted activities to college students is a fairly new concept, the social and therapeutic benefits of pet ownership or simply interacting with a companion animal are well documented. The University of Connecticut's Homer Babbidge Library on the Storrs campus chose to support the physical and emotional well-being of students during the stress-filled week of finals by providing therapy dogs. Student interaction and feedback were overwhelmingly positive.     

Teenage girls' perceptions of the functions of relationally aggressive behaviors

Adolescent girls reported on their experiences both as perpetrators and as victims of several distinct forms of relational aggression. Details of these incidents were gathered from 114 ethnically diverse ninth and tenth graders via a secure online survey. The frequency with which girls perpetrated or were targeted for particular acts of relational aggression was assessed and, based on the responses, a computer program randomly selected one item (i.e., gossip, ignoring, or exclusion) for which each girl was asked to recall a specific experience and answer follow‐up questions. Perceptions of the goals and functions of specific relationally aggressive acts were assessed, as well as how the perpetrator or victim felt at the time of the incident. Ignoring or “giving the silent treatment” appeared to be a unique form of relational aggression inasmuch as the girls perceived different motives, or functions, for ignoring compared with gossip and exclusion and felt worse at the time of the ignoring incident, both when they were reporting as aggressors and as victims. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.