Reviews and reports

Annals of Dyslexia -     

AV INFORMATION MATERIALS IN LIBRARIES

The report describes the gradual adaptation by librarians to audio‐visual methods, and courses of training in their use provided at the College of Librarianship, Wales     

The U.S. Government Printing Office's initiatives for the Federal Depository Library Program to set the stage for the 21st century

It is estimated that the majority of federal information is born digital. To that end, the U.S. Government Printing Office is transforming into a 21st century electronic information agency. As part of this effort, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has been investigating new options for the dissemination of Federal information that incorporate digitization, preservation, electronic metadata, and information retrieval. The FDLP's efforts to find new solutions will improve acquisitions, information access, and collection development for depository libraries. This article describes just a few of the initiatives GPO has undertaken to increase access to electronic U.S. Government information.     

Collective bargaining goals of university faculty

This paper examines the collective bargaining goals of 1,800 faculty members at eight Canadian universities. A particular focus of the study was the relationship between bargaining goals and traditional academic governance. The results of the analysis showed that faculty distinguish firmly between academic and nonacademic issues and deliberately choose to restrict the scope of bargaining to a relatively narrow range of issues involving money, job security, and grievance procedures. A major factor influencing this restricted bargaining scope was the confidence with and perceived influence of the traditional system of academic governance. The way in which the governance system functions helps determine whether academic and policy issues reach the bargaining table, suggesting that strong governance structures are not threatened by the advent of collective bargaining.     

A small-scale randomized efficacy trial of Carescapes: Enhancing children’s social development in child care homes

The quality of the child care environment and caregiver practices can potentially have significant, lasting impact on children’s social development. This study involves the development and a small-scale efficacy trial of the Carescapes program, a video-based training program that focuses on promoting positive social development in young children attending family child care. Fifty-seven caregivers who provided child care in their homes were randomly assigned to immediate intervention or waitlist control groups. Random coefficients analyses showed significant increased use of effective behavior management practices and decreased overall children’s problem behavior for the intervention group. A mediation model demonstrated that increases in effective behavior management practices were associated with decreases in problem behavior. A medium intervention effect was found for caregiver’s monitoring and a small effect for use of positive attention. These effects declined 5 months following the intervention. Implications for future efficacy and effectiveness studies in family child care settings that involve strategies to facilitate maintenance are discussed.     

Forms of capital and agency as mediations in negotiating employability of international graduate migrants

This study deployed a qualitative approach to explore an alternative perspective regarding graduate migrants’ employability. Twenty graduate migrants in Australia participated in in-depth interviews. Findings revealed graduate migrants faced various challenges in the target labour market, and to successfully secure employment it was important for them to develop key forms of capital – i.e., excellent technical knowledge, relationships with ‘significant others’, strong career identity and psychological resilience, and exercise agency in interlinking these capitals so that they could make use of their strengths and coat weaknesses. Results from the study imply that managing, teaching, and professional staff members should collaborate closely to develop well-rounded programmes to sufficiently equip international students with multidimensional resources.