Electronic reserves: copyright and permissions

Electronic reserves present a new service option for libraries to provide needed materials during hours that the library is not open and to user groups located some distance from library collections. Possible changes to current copyright law and publishers permissions policies have delayed the development of electronic reserves in many libraries. This paper reviews the current state of electronic reserves materials in the publishing and library communities and presents the results of a survey of publishers to determine permissions policies for electronic materials. Issues of concern to both libraries and publishers are discussed.     

The initiation of distance learning at Thomas Jefferson University: the library as integral partner

In 1998 Thomas Jefferson University offered its first entirely online course. Librarians and library staff were integral in the development, support, evaluation, and refinement of this course. While staff members may have taken non-traditional roles in this effort, their roles generally fell within the broad guidelines of assisting University faculty with information and knowledge management. The development and support of distance course offerings will continue to be a focus at Scott Memorial Library.     

Stress reactivity after maximal exercise: the effect of manipulated performance feedback in endurance athletes

This study was designed to assess the effect of performance feedback on stress reactivity after recovery from maximal exercise. Forty competitive athletes were recruited to complete a maximal exercise test. Performance feedback was manipulated after the exercise test to give four groups: (1) high performance, (2) low performance, (3) accurate feedback and (4) no exercise control. Cardiovascular reactivity was assessed during psychological stress. The results indicate that accurate feedback participants experienced lower relative reactivity to stress (lower mean arterial pressure) than their no-exercise counterparts. These results demonstrate that the stress-buffering effect of exercise extends to maximal exercise. In addition, high-performance participants experienced lower relative reactivity than low-performance participants. Thus, low-performance feedback was sufficient to remove the buffering effect of exercise. There were no differences between the high-performance and accurate feedback conditions, or between the low-performance and control conditions.     

Leisure time physical activity in Australian women: relationship with well being and symptoms

This paper explores the association between moderate levels of physical activity (PA) and health benefits in well being and symptoms such as tiredness, back pain, and constipation. Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, 14,502 young women (ages 18-23 years), 13,609 middle-age women (45-50 years), and 11,421 older women (ages 70-75 years), answered questions about vigorous and less vigorous exercise (used to determine a physical activity score), well being (SF-36), symptoms, and medical conditions. There were significant associations between the PA score and SF-36 in each cohort. Odds ratios (OR) for a range of symptoms and conditions were lower for women who reported low to moderate activity than for sedentary women, for example, for young women or for constipation = 0.76 (CI, 0.65-0.89), for middle-age women or for tiredness = 0.70 (0.63-0.78). There was no threshold of PA at which health benefits increased significantly. Although cross-sectional, the findings suggest that low-to-moderate levels of exercise are associated with a range of health benefits for women of all ages. These preliminary findings will be followed up during the longitudinal study.     

Student activity levels, lesson context, and teacher behavior during middle school physical education

There is little research on students' engagement in physical activity in middle school physical education (PE). We observed student activity, lesson context, and teacher behavior in 430 PE lessons taught by 126 teachers in 24 schools. Variables were analyzed by mixed-model nested analyses of covariance. Boys were more active than girls overall and during skill drills, game play, and free play. Student activity varied by lesson context, with fitness activities producing the most activity. Class size was negatively associated with student activity. Daily PE contributed a weekly total of 25 min of vigorous activity and 83 min of moderate-to-vigorous activity--much less than national objectives. Results suggest that numerous opportunities exist for increasing student physical activity during middle school PE.     

From novice to no know-how: a longitudinal study of implicit motor learning

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether the performances of implicit and explicit learners would converge over an extended period of learning. Participants practised a complex motor skill--golf putting--for 3000 trials, either with a concurrent secondary, tone-counting task (implicit learning) or without such a task (explicit learning). The cognitive demands of the secondary task were predicted to prevent the accumulation of verbalizable rules about the motor task. The implicit group reported significantly fewer rules than the explicit group on subsequent verbal protocols. The performance of the implicit group remained below that of the explicit group throughout the learning phase. However, no significant differences were found between groups during a delayed retention test. Additionally, for the participants in the explicit group only, a Reinvestment Scale score correlated positively with the number of rules accrued and negatively with overall putting performance during the learning phase. We use the results to argue against the excessive use of verbal instruction during skill acquisition, which might be unnecessary and ultimately might hamper performance under stressful conditions.