Volunteers in Special Libraries

The contributions of volunteers in special libraries have not been well-documented or researched. However, anecdotal evidence shows that volunteers have played a key role in the formation of many special libraries and continue to lend their skills and knowledge to these libraries. This column explores examples from the literature and gives a brief case study on the various ways philatelic libraries use volunteers. The scope of the column includes traditional unpaid volunteers, remote volunteers, crowdsourcing, internships, job training programs, and other voluntary or nontraditional work. Volunteer labor is far from free in terms of cost to the organization, but can provide benefits beyond simply unpaid labor including subject expertise, special skills, and community building. Special libraries looking to begin or expand volunteer programs are advised to study the lessons learned from other types of libraries and organizations with successful volunteer programs. Successfully managing volunteers requires careful planning and coordination just as managing paid staff does.     

Collaboration and Competition in Special Libraries

Librarianship has a long tradition of collaboration and cooperation between libraries, but the literature yields scant evidence of formal partnerships in practice in special libraries. This column explores the barriers to collaboration for special libraries, from organizational culture to legal constraints, as well as the potential benefits and how librarians can overcome the barriers to reap these benefits. Different types of collaboration, including among similar special libraries and between special libraries and other types of libraries and related organizations, as well as informal and formal cooperation, and short-term and long-term partnerships, are discussed. Collaboration and cooperation were part of the impetus to form professional associations. The column provides a brief history of professional library associations and their role in supporting library partnerships in the United States. The conclusion explores how the increasingly digital nature of information and library work affects collaborative library efforts and where the future of these efforts may lie, especially for special libraries.     

A contested profession: employability,performativity and professionalism in Irish further education

Further education typically represents the vocational, technical and practice-based forms of education, but this is now being repositioned in a neo-liberal era that is driving a performance-based and market-orientated vision of education in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere. The implacable drive of neo-liberal economics in everyday practice is evident in the current economic and training discourses of further education, which aim to upgrade the employability of low-skilled and marginalised sectors of the population. The article provides an overview of shifts in educational policy and practices that align Irish further education with what has occurred in the UK and elsewhere through processes of professionalisation and performativity. Analysis of the potential impact on notions of professional identity in the sector helps to articulate the principles, pedagogies and philosophies that will be vital when contesting the performance cultures of New Managerialism that seem likely to ensue. We explore the implications in terms of the policy discourses, organisational structure and professional practices of further education. We contend that changes in these areas have profound impacts on the learning and knowledge base of further education, constraining its social justice and transformative capacity for the learners at the heart of further education.     

Enabling integrated knowledge acquisition and management in health care teams

Basing treatment, policy and planning decisions on the best available research knowledge remains a central principle in modern health care around the world, yet many health professionals find acquiring and managing published research knowledge challenging. In this paper, we report on a Soft Systems Methodology-based collaborative action research initiative with a specialist mental health service from the United Kingdom's National Health Service. Our objective was to design and implement improvements to their knowledge acquisition and management activities in order to facilitate sustained and effective evidence-based practices. We report on both the factors found to impede effective research knowledge acquisition and management and the development of more integrated knowledge management processes designed to improve the situation.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLICLY SUPPORTED 2-YEAR COLLEGES

A comprehensive study of faculty development in community colleges was undertaken to identify the organizational components that nurture good teaching. A review of the literature revealed several variables for assessing the state of faculty development. The most important of these appears to be an institutional climate that encourages faculty development. This article reports the results of a survey of 130 community colleges regarding faculty development efforts. It also profiles those accountable for faculty development and summarizes the extent to which each development activity is available to faculty members. One significant finding is that faculty development in American community colleges lacks leadership and is not well connected to the colleges missions.     

Implementation integrity in peer tutoring of mathematics

A two-year randomised controlled trial of peer tutoring in mathematics using the Duolog Math technique was operated in 80 schools. The aim was to achieve adequate implementation quality with modest pre-intervention training for teachers, who received brief didactic training and no process feedback (but they were to train pupils using modelling, practice and feedback). Implementation integrity was observed in Year 1 in 29 randomly selected schools; in Year 2 in 30 randomly selected schools. In both years some observed variables of class-wide context and individual technique were high; however, some were lower. There were deficits in: teachers introducing the problem, suggesting ways to concretise the problem and holding plenary sessions. Crucially, there was very little summarising or generalising. Thus, implementation was partial in both years, but better in Year 2. The implications for future intensity of training are explored.     

Institutional Repositories, Open Access, and Scholarly Communication: A Study of Conflicting Paradigms

The Open Access movement of the past decade, and institutional repositories developed by universities and academic libraries as a part of that movement, have openly challenged the traditional scholarly communication system. This article examines the growth of repositories around the world, and summarizes a growing body of evidence of the response of academics to institutional repositories. It reports the findings of a national survey of academics which highlights the conflict between the principles and rewards of the traditional scholarly communication system, and the benefits of Open Access. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which academic libraries can alleviate the conflict between these two paradigms.     

Leadership styles and decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context

School leadership has been well researched in developed countries. However, in Asia, particularly in Indonesia, school leadership has not been well explored. Using survey data from a sample of 475 teachers in six Lampung school districts, this paper examines the relationships between school principal leadership styles and school principal decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context. Findings are that most of the relationships between school principal leadership styles and school principal decision-making styles are significant. These findings suggest that teachers perceive that principals should exhibit much more transformational leadership style and rational decision-making style but avoid laissez-faire leadership style and avoidant decision-making style.