Digital Inclusion in Library Context: A Perspective from Users with Print Disability

Digital inclusion is a strategy pursued to foster social inclusion of those who have been sidelined from the mainstream of information society due to lack of access to digital technologies and the skills to use them. Libraries have been working to close the gap by providing access to computers, the Internet, digital content, and digital literacy programs. However, research reveals a new type of divide where digitally competent people could be digitally excluded. This shows the need for a better conceptualization of access and literacy. This paper commits to exploring the concept of access to digital content from the perspective of people with print disability. It involved in-depth interviews with ten participants with print disability where the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health was used as a framework for data analysis. The overall analysis shows that digital inclusion would be more meaningful if it involved providing content in alternative formats and empowering users to make informed choices. Issues such as flexibility and adaptability in content presentation and design of content discovery tools are among those discussed.     

Teaching PEACE: A plan for effective crisis communication instruction

Courses: This unit activity is intended for public relations (PR), crisis communication, or journalism courses.

Objectives: The purpose is to equip future PR professionals with critical thinking skills and experience to manage crises. Students demonstrate mastery in two ways: by crafting clear crisis response messages and materials in a narrow time frame, and by applying a crisis communication heuristic to manage a simulated crisis event.     

Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

The effect of scheduling format on long-term retention

This study examines the relationship between course intensity and long-term retention on graduate level counseling students enrolled in a research and statistics course. It confirms earlier findings of time and learning studies, which have primarily dealt with end-of-course outcomes, that there is no effect due to scheduling format. In this study, older students performed significantly higher on a six-month follow-up test than younger students. Students who had previous, related course work scored significantly higher in final course grades than students with no prior course work, however, differences were moderated and no longer significant at the time of follow-up. Implications from these findings are discussed.Rebecca LaFountain is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Shippenburg University of Pennsylvania. She earned an Ed.D in Counseling from the College of William and Mary, an M.S. in Counseling from Iowa State University, and a B.A. in French from Grand Valley State University. She is a Licensed Psychologist and a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor. Her primary professional interests include the teaching of research and statistics so that it is not threatening; Adlerian psychology; and, Solution-Focused counseling.     

新浪微博替代计量指标特征分析

通过对新浪微博替代计量指标进行统计分析,探索中文环境下替代计量指标的特征和规律。研究发现:新浪微博替代计量指标覆盖率不足1%,但由于追踪时间和追踪对象的局限,该数字可能被严重低估;新浪微博关注和讨论较多的论文来自"综合""生物化学、遗传学与分子生物学""保健科学""医学"及"生命科学"等学科;新浪微博替代计量指标的期刊分布满足对数曲线规律,除著名的综合性期刊如Nature等,预印本平台arXiv和开放存取期刊PLoS ONE等也获得了较多关注,生物学和医学的"明星期刊"最多;新浪微博主要关注最新论文,正式出版180天内受到关注的论文比例高达68.66%,同时也会关注经典论文;新浪微博发布者倾向宣传、推介和评论贴近生活、趣味性强、实用性高、涉及生命健康的学术论文,传递出引文无法体现的社会价值和学术价值;新浪微博替代计量指标呈现出显著的离散和集中分布特点,5.1%的学术论文获得了50%的新浪微博关注。此外,受新浪微博关注的论文在全球范围内获得远高于平均水平的关注度。