Serving,learning and mentoring through the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program

This study describes the collaborative partnership between a Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, an elementary school and the College of Education at a public university. The partnership utilized a mentoring system consisting of elementary students, college students, elementary teachers and university faculty. Benefits of the various stakeholders are discussed.     

The lost history of American veterinary medicine: the need for preservation

Objective:

The objective of this study was to survey holdings of ephemeral veterinary literature.

Methods:

WorldCat OCLC catalog, the Library of Congress online catalog, the US National Agricultural Library online catalog, and the Dictionary Catalog of the National Agricultural Library, 1862–1965, were used to determine current library holdings of materials published by veterinary schools that are no longer in existence and veterinary associations that are defunct, veterinary supply catalogs, veterinary house organs, patent medicine publications, and veterinary advertisements. Individual library catalogs were also consulted. In addition, the practice of removing advertisements from bound volumes was examined.

Results:

There are many gaps in the cataloged library holdings of primary source materials relating to the history of the education of veterinarians in the United States.

Conclusions:

A proactive action plan needs to be designed and activated to locate, catalog, and preserve this primary source material of veterinary medicine for posterity.

Highlights

• Veterinary libraries have failed to catalog or retain important primary veterinary source materials.
• Several types of veterinary gray literature, with individual pieces scattered across multiple kinds of libraries, are at high risk for loss from the historical record.

Implications

• Academic, veterinary, medical, and special librarians should be involved in efforts to preserve their institutional, local, and state materials; to identify and locate hidden collections of materials, both in uncataloged collections and in the hands of private collectors; and to mentor new librarians about their role in preserving the history of medicine.
• The results of this survey of primary source materials documenting US veterinary medical education suggest the need for a parallel study of medical education and other health professions education.
• The time is now, not only to digitize important scarce veterinary materials for both preservation and improved access, but also to archive present day institutional output (paper and electronic).

     

Classroom-based science research at the introductory level: changes in career choices and attitude

Our study, focused on classroom-based research at the introductory level and using the Phage Genomics course as the model, shows evidence that first-year students doing research learn the process of science as well as how scientists practice science. A preliminary but notable outcome of our work, which is based on a small sample, is the change in student interest in considering different career choices such as graduate education and science in general. This is particularly notable, as previous research has described research internships as clarifying or confirming rather than changing undergraduates' decisions to pursue graduate education. We hypothesize that our results differ from previous studies of the impact of engaging in research because the students in our study are still in the early stages of their undergraduate careers. Our work builds upon the classroom-based research movement and should be viewed as encouraging to the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education movement advocated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Foundation, and other undergraduate education stakeholders.     

Team processes, team conflict, team outcomes, and gender: An examination of U.S. and Mexican learning teams

Team learning is growing rapidly in popularity in United States (U.S.) and Mexican universities. This instructional approach consists of using learning teams in which participants are required to work together regularly for a semester period of time and produce evaluated team outcomes. These team outcomes, along with their individual performance, have a significant impact on each individual's final assessment. We compare team processes, team conflict, team outcomes, and gender interaction in Mexican and U.S. student teams. U.S. teams report more team-oriented behavior and more cohesiveness, and Mexican teams report more self-oriented behavior and more conflict. Nationality (United States or Mexico) has a moderating effect on the relationship between gender heterogeneity and cohesiveness and conflict. Suggestions are given for applications and future research.     

Equality, Fairness and Rights – The Young Person's Voice

This article presents findings from a one–year research project undertaken by experienced researchers and practitioners from the University of Strathclyde. Eleven comprehensive schools in Scotland were involved and the aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of in–school support systems for young people who display challenging behaviour. Pupil Support Bases (Pupil Referral Units) had been set up in most of the schools aimed at reducing exclusion rates and these were examined from the perspective of all stakeholders – teachers, parents, young people and key inter–agency personnel. The specific focus of this article is the views of the young people who, although often perceived as disruptive, disaffected and troubled, were surprisingly articulate. They had clear messages for all professionals and, in this article, Paul Hamill, Head of the Department of Educational Support and Guidance, and Brian Boyd, a Reader in the Language Education Department, ensure that their voices are heard.     

New interests in old issues: Antiprotection and the end of the manufacturing clause of the U.S. copyright law

The manufacturing clause of the U.S. copyright law, which prohibited the import of most books by U.S. authors that were not printed in the United State or Canada, expired on July 1, 1986. It expired despite initial congressional support and strong efforts by printing industry and union interests to expand its scope and make it permanent. The expiration occurred largely because of the emergence of new interests: industries whose exports were threatened by possible European Community retaliation and those concerned about international property rights issues. Those groups joined forces with top officials of the Reagan administration to gain the expiration of the clause. The analyses and conclusions of this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Department of Commerce or the U.S. Government.