Interlibrary Loan Meets Six Sigma: The University of Arizona Library's Success Applying Process Improvement

In 2004, the University of Arizona Library Document Delivery Team embarked on a strategic project to assess the service quality and cost of filling interlibrary loan journal article borrowing requests. The Document Delivery Team utilized a Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control process improvement method. Improvements that were implemented as a result of this study led to increased satisfaction, decreased turnaround time, and lower cost per delivered article. Customer satisfaction surveys were utilized to discover customer expectations and requirements and to evaluate the effect of improvements on the customer experience. Measurement of internal business processes and cost analysis tools were used to determine cost savings.     

Urban Youth's Perspectives on Flash Mobs

Flash mobs are new, emerging, and evolving social phenomena that have recently been associated with youth violence in the US cities. The current study explores how youth understand flash mobs through focus groups conducted in Kansas City, Missouri (a site of violent youth flash mobs). Results indicate that youth have varying familiarity with flash mobs and define them in different ways; that youth perceive youth boredom to be the most frequent cause of problems with flash mobs; that youth connect ongoing social disorder with the violence associated with flash mobs; and that while social media are facilitators of flash mobs, flash mobs have their roots in youth activities that have been going on for generations (e.g., hanging out in groups and cruising). Results illustrate the importance of conducting formative research with youth, particularly about emergent phenomena, when developing interventions and communication campaigns aimed at reducing youth violence.     

Creating atmosphere for radio drama

PRACTICAL REASONING IN HUMAN AFFAIRS: STUDIES IN HONOR OF CHAIM PERELMAN. Edited by James L. Golden and Joseph J. Pilotta. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987; pp. x + 404. $79.00.

INVENTING THE PEOPLE: THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. By Edmund S. Morgan. New York: W. W. Norton &; Company, 1988; pp. 318. $18.95.

AMERICAN SILHOUETTES: RHETORICAL IDENTITIES OF THE FOUNDERS. By Albert Furtwangler. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987; pp. vii + 168. $17.50; paper $10.95.

ORATORICAL ENCOUNTERS: SELECTED STUDIES AND SOURCES OF TWENTIETH‐CENTURY POLITICAL ACCUSATIONS AND APOLOGIES. Edited by Halford Ross Ryan. Forward by Edward P.J. Corbett. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988; pp. xxv + 329. $39.95.

CONSTRUCTING THE POLITICAL SPECTACLE. By Murray Edelman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988; pp. vi + 137. paper $7.95.

HANDBOOK OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, VOLUME 1: DISCIPLINES OF DISCOURSE. Edited by Teun A. van Dijk. London: Academic Press, 1985, pp. xvii + 302. $58.00.

HANDBOOK OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, VOLUME 2: DIMENSIONS OF DISCOURSE. Edited by Teun A. van Dijk. London: Academic Press, 1985, pp. xvii + 279. $58.00.

HANDBOOK OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, VOLUME 3: DISCOURSE AND DIALOGUE. Edited by Teun A. van Dijk. London: Academic Press, 1985, pp. xix + 251. $58.00.

HANDBOOK OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, VOLUME 4: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN SOCIETY. Edited by Teun A. van Dijk. London: Academic Press, 1985, pp. xvii + 228. $58.00.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR DOCTOR: RX FOR GOOD MEDICAL CARE. By J. Alfred Jones, M.D. and Gerald M. Phillips. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988; pp. viii + 184. $19.95.

GROUP PROCESSES. Edited by Clyde Hendrick. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1987; pp. 294. Paper $14.95.

GROUP PROCESSES AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS. Edited by Clyde Hendrick. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1987; pp. 256. Paper $14.95.

A.J. GREIMAS AND THE NATURE OF MEANING: LINGUISTICS, SEMIOTICS, AND DISCOURSE THEORY. By Ronald Schleifer. Forward by Christopher Norris. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987; pp. xxvi and 223. $28.95; paper $10.95.

THE ABUSE OF CASUISTRY: A HISTORY OF MORAL REASONING. By Albert R. Jonsen and Stephen Toulmin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988; pp. ix + 420. $45.00.

KENNETH BURKE AND MARTIN HEIDEGGER: WITH A NOTE AGAINST DECON‐STRUCTIONISM. By Samuel B. Southwell. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1987; pp. ix+ 156. $15.00.

TIME AND NARRATIVE, Vol. 3. By Paul Ricoeur. Translated by Kathleen Blarney and David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988; pp. 355. $29.95.

RHETORIC AND HISTORY IN REVOLUTIONARY NEW ENGLAND. By Donald Weber. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988; pp. xii + 207. $22.50.

THE PAPERS OF DANIEL WEBSTER: SPEECHES AND FORMAL WRITINGS, Two Volumes. Edited by Charles M. Wiltse and Alan R. Berolzheimer, Associate Editor. Hanover: University Press of New England. Volume 1 (1987), pp. xx + 641. $70.00; Volume 2 (1988), pp. xvii + 700. $75.00.

HERMOGENES’ ON TYPES OF STYLE. Translated by Cecil W. Wooten. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987; pp. xviii + 159. $19.95.

TRIALS OF CHARACTER: THE ELOQUENCE OF CICERONIAN ETHOS. By James M. May. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988; pp. viii + 215. $27.50.

THE SOPHISTS. By Harold Barrett. Novato, CA: Chandler &; Sharp, 1987; pp. v + 85. Paper $6.95.

POLITICAL ETHICS AND PUBLIC OFFICE. By Dennis F. Thompson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987; pp. viii + 263. $25.00.

TELEDEMOCRACY: CAN TECHNOLOGY PROTECT DEMOCRACY? By F. Christopher Arterton. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1987; pp. 224. $29.95; paper $14.95.

SELLING SCIENCE: HOW THE PRESS COVERS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. By Dorothy Nelkin. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1987; pp. 224. $16.95.

THE SOCIAL MEANING OF CIVIC SPACE: STUDYING POLITICAL AUTHORITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE. By Charles T. Goodsell. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1988; pp. xv + 229. $25.00.     

From Public Education to Educational Publics

Students tend to comprehend little and lose focus of classroom instruction when their teachers fail to use instructional strategies that match students’ learning styles. Differentiated instruction can alleviate or eliminate this disengagement. This article describes a case involving a child having difficulty learning and shows how differentiated instruction was used to help this student learn. The author describes the theories on which differentiated instruction is based and provides practical strategies teachers can use to implement this method of teaching.     

Understanding Interdisciplinarity: Curricular and Organizational Features of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs

Though the number of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs has increased rapidly over the past several decades, little empirical research has characterized such programs. In this article we report on our investigation of the characteristics of interdisciplinary programs and develop typologies to describe the multiple ways in which such programs are structured with respect to curricular and organizational features. Using cluster analysis, we show differences in both curricular structures and organizational features across programs, irrespective of the program’s content focus. This typology will guide future research to explore differences in student learning outcomes across the interdisciplinary program types.     

Complexity and Curriculum: A process approach to curriculum-making

It is argued that the complex learning with which higher education institutions are concerned is best promoted by coherent curricula. However, curriculum coherence is not widespread. Outcomes-led rational curriculum planning offers one way of creating coherent curricula, but it is argued that, despite its appeal, it is a poor approach to adopt. An alternative, process model of curriculum creation is described and claims are made about the advantages it can have as an approach to planning coherent learning programmes.     

Curriculum Continuity and Transfer from Primary to Secondary School: the case of history

The transfer of children from primary school to secondary school has long been seen as a problematic area. The National Curriculum was depicted as offering a solution to some of the transfer problems by providing for curriculum continuity across the primary-secondary divide. This paper reports the results of a study of curriculum continuity in one subject, history, now that a National Curriculum has been in place for several years. It reports that teachers continue to see problems with the transfer and that secondary school teachers still incline to a ‘fresh start’ approach to year 7 pupils. There is also some evidence of a lack of curriculum consistency within the secondary schools involved in the research, there are differences between primary and secondary schools in the range of teaching and learning methods employed, there is some decline in pupils’ ratings of their experience of secondary education across year 7 and there are signs of some gender differences in these ratings. The conclusion is that there is a case for saying that the new arrangements have not alleviated the problems associated with the transfer.