The book availability study as an objective measure of performance in a health sciences library

In its search for an objective overall diagnostic evaluation, the University of Illinois Library of the Health Sciences' Program Evaluation Committee selected a book availability measure; it is easy to administer and repeat, results are reproducible, and comparable data exist for other academic and health sciences libraries. The study followed the standard methodology in the literature with minor modifications. Patrons searching for particular books were asked to record item(s) needed and the outcome of the search. Library staff members then determined the reasons for failures in obtaining desired items. The results of the study are five performance scores. The first four represent the percentage probability of a library's operating with ideal effectiveness; the last provides an overall performance score. The scores of the Library of the Health Sciences demonstrated no unusual availability problems. The study was easy to implement and provided meaningful, quantitative, and objective data.     

Early career challenges in secondary school music teaching

The article reports an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study of the early career experiences of secondary school music teachers in England, set within a wider national picture of decreasing age‐related pupil engagement with school music, career perceptions of music teaching, variable patterns of teacher recruitment and possible mismatches between the musical biographies of young people and intending music teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a short‐term longitudinal survey (first questionnaire: n = 74, second questionnaire: n = 29), supplemented by case studies (n = 6) and open‐ended, written questions (n = 20). Analyses suggest that only a half of the newly qualified participants chose to teach full‐time in a mainstream, state‐funded school music classroom. Of these, the majority were faced with a range of early career challenges stemming from curricular, extra‐curricular and non‐curricular school expectations. These included the need to balance their existing musical performer identity with that of being a new teacher.     

Distributed leadership with the aim of ‘reculturing’: a departmental case study

This article considers a secondary science department that has, since 2000, developed distributed leadership as a form of human capacity building. Using a longitudinal ethnographic case study allowed us to consider how distributed leadership can be nurtured and developed in a department. Our analysis centres on two key issues: the nature and pattern of distributed leadership practices and the continuity that provides coherence to those practices. From our analysis, there appear to be two major conclusions. The first of these is the need for administrators to be purposeful in the appointments that they make to formal leadership positions. To enact distributed leadership practices requires leaders who can exercise both formal power and influence. The second conclusion relates to the time required for continuity of leadership practices to give rise to changes that lead to teachers managing the teaching and learning programme.     

A COMPARISON OF FACTORS INFLUENCING ISSUE DIVERSITY IN THE U.S. AND TAIWAN

The study extends agenda-setting research by examining issuediversity as a consequence of media exposure. Results from twosurveys—one conducted in the United States, the otherin Taiwan—illustrate differences in the cultures of thetwo samples. In general, older individuals who find low utilityin advertising information but who read a variety of newspapersand feel a strong civic duty to keep informed believe thereare many important issues facing the United States. Younger,highly educated individuals who have a high interest in politicalnews and who read a variety of newspapers believe there aremany important issues facing Taiwan.