The acceptability of nontraditional degrees: Illinois' Board of Governors Program as a case study

The development of external, nontraditional degree programs has stimulated discussion as to the usefulness of the diplomas received through such programs. Questionnaires completed by 686 graduates of Illinois' statewide Board of Governors Bachelor of Arts Degree Program measure the extent to which the degree is acceptable to graduates and their employers, the degree to which student goals were met upon graduation, the quality of program services, and the success rate of students applying to graduate schools. The results are overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that non-traditional degrees are gaining general acceptance among a wide variety of groups.For assistance in collecting, tabulating and analyzing data for this article, the authors are grateful to C. Edward Gilpatric, Judith Hofstrand, Elizabeth Stanley, and Donald Tedder.     

Exploring the benefits of user education: a review of three case studies

This paper builds on Leslie Morton's vision of enabling users through education and training. It describes three different approaches to mediated training for medical students and clinicians provided by peers, juniors (i.e. medical students) and information specialists (i.e. clinical librarians) and considers the benefits to the participants. The training was provided either on a one-to-one basis or within teams in their work environments (e.g. offices, wards, team meetings). The first two projects (peer tutoring and reverse mentoring) suggest that contextualized training, using intermediaries, provides the direct benefit of cost-effective IT skill development and the indirect benefits deriving from the interactions between the trainers and the target groups. The third project, the outreach librarian study, provides evidence of both direct benefits (i.e. time saved, quality of service, skills acquired, financial savings and improved evidence-based medicine implementation) and indirect, long-term benefits relating to more social issues (e.g. perceptions of the library, clinical teams, job satisfaction and patient interactions). The general conclusion to emerge from this review of case studies is that the concept of educational benefits is very broad and that empirical studies need to look at both obvious and less obvious benefits.     

Fifteen hundred guidelines and growing: the UK database of clinical guidelines

BACKGROUND: The National Library for Health offers a comprehensive searchable database of nationally approved clinical guidelines, called the Guidelines Finder. This resource, commissioned in 2002, is managed and developed by the University of Sheffield Health Sciences Library. METHODS: The authors introduce the historical and political dimension of guidelines and the nature of guidelines as a mechanism to ensure clinical effectiveness in practice. The article then outlines the maintenance and organisation of the Guidelines Finder database itself, the criteria for selection, who publishes guidelines and guideline formats, usage of the Guidelines Finder service and finally looks at some lessons learnt from a local library offering a national service. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical guidelines are central to effective clinical practice at the national, organisational and individual level. The Guidelines Finder is one of the most visited resources within the National Library for Health and is successful in answering information needs related to specific patient care, clinical research, guideline development and education.