EFFECTS OF AGING ON SELECTED ACOUSTIC VOICE PARAMETERS: PRELIMINARY NORMATIVE DATA AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The study reported in this article attempted to obtain normative acoustic data of voice for elderly male and female speakers and to explore the educational implications of the effects of aging on those selected acoustic parameters. Voice samples from 21 male and 23 female elderly speakers aged 70 to 80 years were obtained on measures of 15 selected Multi-Dimensional Voice Program acoustic parameters. These data then were compared with the published norms for young and middle-aged adults. The results showed that, compared with young and middle-aged adults, elderly speakers had significantly different (usually poorer) vocal output on all of the selected acoustic parameters of voice. These findings illustrate the importance of establishing acoustic norms and thresholds for elderly men and women and stress the necessity of using discretion in making dragnostic measurements of elderly speakers' acoustic parameters of voice. This article also highlights the educational implications of such aging voice changes.     

Catholic Schools in Scotland: A rejoinder to Conroy

In a recent article in this journal James Conroy presents a spirited defence of the state funding of Catholic schools in Scotland. In so doing he repeatedly but mistakenly presents me as someone who has called for the ending of such funding. He also imputes to all opponents of Catholic schools a basic hostility to Catholicism. In this response, I clarify my position, question the accuracy of Conroy's account of Scottish responses to Catholic schools, identify a crucial difference between sociology and public polemic and then consider the propriety of the state funding of faith schools.     

The case of EAI in facilitating e-Government services in a Welsh authority

This case focuses on enterprise application integration (EAI) in facilitating integrated electronic Government (e-Government) service delivery in a Welsh local authority. Whilst the development of a heterogeneous information technology (IT) infrastructure in the case organisation caused several integration problems, following a non-EAI approach was regarded as satisfactory by the management. The empirical findings illustrate that although the argument for EAI adoption was initially not seen as cost effective, strategically the decision not to implement EAI caused difficulties in the long term for realising integrated e-Government services.     

Expert Teams in the Academic Library: Going Beyond Subject Expertise to Create Scaffolded Instruction

This article explores the way librarians define, leverage, and amplify expertise in a twenty-first century academic library. An expert team comprised of a nursing librarian, online learning librarian, information-literacy librarian, and assessment librarian sorted the learning outcomes from the Information-Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing created by the Health Sciences Interest Group taskforce of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) by grade-levels. Results found distinguishing experts within a library supports the customization of scaffolded instruction. Additionally, using expert teams in academic libraries supports the larger mission of universities to integrate libraries into teaching and research.