Online Environmental Engagement Among Youth: Influence of Parents,Attitudes and Demographics

Although young citizens may not always politically engage in the same fashion as their elders, research suggests they are using Facebook, Twitter, and other newer communication systems to mobilize politically both generally and around environmental issues. Given the declining environmental conditions facing young citizens, a national stratified quota sample of 1,096 U.S. parents and their children between the ages of 12 and 17 was conducted to investigate the factors potentially related to their efforts to persuade members of their online social networks to be more environmental. We believe that online peer persuasion is an important concept to investigate because peer persuasion can create subjective norms that ultimately may influence behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that, although parents influence youth behavior (Adj. R ² = .11), the greatest variance in behavior was explained by the youth's own environmental self-efficacy, environmental news consumption, political interest, time spent online, gender, and environmental consumerism (ΔR ² = .29). Youth political interest and environmental consumerism were especially important variables in the final model. Structural equation modeling reinforced that parental influence is primarily indirect. This study appears to be among the first to link environmental consumerism with youth online peer persuasion.     

Libr-AR-y Tours: Increasing engagement and scalability of library tours using augmented reality

Abstract

Orienting patrons to library spaces, collections, and services is an important, but time-intensive, challenge for many librarians. Library tours are one strategy commonly employed to familiarize patrons with library spaces and services. Augmented reality provides a new opportunity for librarians to develop engaging and interactive unmediated tours. Augmented reality tours provide participants with an opportunity to explore library spaces and service points while affording librarians the chance to share valuable information about those spaces and services. This article details how one library constructed an augmented reality tour and shares assessment-based insights into participant responses to the augmented reality format.     

Ally McBeal as Allegory: Setting the Eating-Disordered Subject in Opposition to Feminism

This essay examines the use of moral allegories to represent eating-disordered individuals in the popular television program Ally McBeal and the subsequent controversy surrounding its star, Calista Flockhart. As both fictional character and actor were coded within the vocabulary of eating disorders and feminism, a discourse of disease, detection, authenticity, and correction emerged that portrayed the eating-disordered individual as a moral contagion that threatened to undermine progressive gender politics. It is further suggested that the process of allegoresis can be productively refigured to combat the stigma that emerged from these destructive cultural distinctions.     

Demonstrating Our Value: Tying Use of Electronic Resources to Academic Success

Dr. Stephanie Havron Rollins, Instruction Coordinator, and Ed Cherry, Systems Librarian at Samford University, presented the results of their research that measured the use of library electronic resources and academic success as defined by a higher grade point average (GPA). They presented statistics on student database log-ins by college, department, and major; student log-ins by level, class, and gender; and student undergraduate GPA by department and class. Research implications were discussed along with future research ideas. Their findings demonstrate to library stakeholders the impact that the library has on student success.     

“I've Never Heard of It Before”: Awareness of Open Access at a Small Liberal Arts University

Small colleges and universities, often late adopters of institutional repositories and open access initiatives, face challenges that have not fully been explored in the professional literature. In an effort to gauge the level of awareness of open access and institutional repositories at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UWEC), the authors of this article surveyed fellow faculty members at this small liberal arts university before the 2011 Open Access Week. The survey results reveal that faculty members at UWEC do not share the same level of awareness concerning open access and institutional repositories that was found in the existing scholarly literature.     

Managing a strategic source of innovation: Online users

The purpose of the paper is to develop a framework of management competences related to the effective management of three types of online innovation tools. The framework highlights the development of three types of management competences and related practices: (a) disclosure competence in order to find, direct and motivate users to contribute, (b) appropriation competence in order to appropriate users’ contributions, and (c) integration competence in order to direct, transfer and integrate user contributions to the relevant parts of the organization. The study provides a managerially relevant view of the complementarities between external sourcing of knowledge and necessary internal competences to reap the benefits of involving users through an online innovation tool.     

A national perspective on teachers' efficacy beliefs in deaf education

Teachers' sense of efficacy, or the belief that teachers have of their capacity to make an impact on students' performance, is an unexplored construct in deaf education research. This study included data from 296 respondents to examine the relationship of teacher and school characteristics with teachers' sense of efficacy in 80 different deaf education settings in the US. Deaf education teachers reported high overall efficacy beliefs but significantly lower efficacy beliefs in the area of student engagement than in instructional strategies and classroom management. Teachers' years of experience showed a significant relationship with efficacy beliefs, yet it was the teachers' perceived collective efficacy of their educational setting that ultimately predicted teachers' sense of efficacy. These findings lend credence to the need for further examination of school processes that influence teacher beliefs and attitudes in deaf education settings.     

Community Engagement at an Emerging Academic Medical Library: A Three-Pronged Outreach Model

The Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine’s (OUWB) service-oriented mission and vision is reflected in all aspects of the school including its culture, curriculum, research, community engagement, and the OUWB Medical Library. Though starting informally, the OUWB Medical Library’s outreach program has matured and now sustains a wide array of activities each year. This outreach program has blossomed into a three-pronged model that is inclusive of activities and endeavors engaging the institution and local community: integrate, partner, and create. Among its successes and challenges, the library’s ongoing outreach efforts have showcased the value of libraries in promoting community health and meaningfully contributing to the institutional mission.     

A Study of Home Emergent Literacy Experiences of Young Latino English Learners

This empirical study explored the home environment literacy practices of young Latino English learners and their families. The participants were 217 incoming Kindergarten Latino EL students and parents. The data collection included a completed HLEQ by the parents. In addition, children were administered the PPVT, the preLAS, the PALS-K screening, the Woodcock Reading Mastery assessment, and the Wide Range Achievement test. All of the literacy assessments given to the children provided the researchers with comprehensive look at their literacy knowledge base. The results of this study indicate that there were two significant paths for students’ achievement: availability of books and child initiated literacy factors that were directly related to the phonological processing efforts of students.