Text Messaging the Reference Desk: Using Upside Wireless' SMS-to-Email to Extend Reference Service

The author discusses “Text a Librarian,” a short message service-to-email service provided via Upside Wireless, Inc., a Canadian telecommunications provider. Any user of the University of Virginia Library who has a cell phone and text messaging capability can send a text message to a local phone number provided by Upside Wireless. Upside's “virtual SMS channel,” which forwards the message to the Library's reference e-mail account. Librarians then respond to the query with an e-mail message that the user receives as a text message on his or her cell phone. This article describes the process by which a library developed the idea for the service and decided to contract with Upside, as well as staffing for the service and the challenges, successes, and possible new directions. A brief survey of the SMS reference landscape is included.     

THE CRIB CARD EXAMINATION SYSTEM

The crib card examination system has features in common with conventional, open‐book and take home examinations, and appears to combine many of the advantageous features of each of these systems. This paper presents the findings of preliminary studies of some of the characteristics of crib card examinations. The examination results obtained with card use were similar to those in conventional examinations; students’ anxiety about examinations was reduced; and time was not wasted during the examination. However, the claim that card use may enhance learning was not substantiated; in fact the cards may encourage surface rather than deep approaches to learning.     

Going Dutch: The Development of Collaborative Practices Between Higher Education and Museums and Galleries

This study reports on a very successful collaboration between teacher education courses in Manchester and Amsterdam and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The central aim of the initiative was to promote and sustain partnerships between Higher Education (HE) institutions, public galleries and schools with a view to developing, delivering and sharing good practice in art and design within a European context.     

How do Objects become Objects of Reference?A Review of the Literature on Objects of Reference and a Proposed Model for the Use of Objects in Communication

Keith Park, a teacher of children with visual impairments and learning disabilities, provides an analytical review of the literature on objects of reference in order to formulate a model of object use in communication. Peirce's (1932) three categories of sign (index, icon and symbol) are suggested as a method of providing a developmental framework for the use of objects of reference.     

Ninth International Conference on Cultural Economics Boston,Mass., May 8–12, 1996 Call for papers

Ninth International Conference on Cultural Economics Boston, Mass., May 8–12, 1996 Call for papers     

Planning, teaching and assessing the curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties: a response from EQUALS

EQUALS is a national organisation that has a major concern for the development of a curriculum that promotes the inclusion of all pupils. The EQUALS movement has, in the past, published its own materials in support of curriculum development for pupils with learning difficulties. In this article, Keith Humphreys, EQUALS' quality assurance manager, provides a response to the publication of the QCA/DfEE guidelines. He discusses EQUALS' response to these guidelines and proposes a way forward for schools already using EQUALS materials. While acknowledging that the implementation of the QCA/DfEE guidelines will lead to an evolution of good practice, he articulates a concern that staff should continue to appreciate and value their own development work. Keith Humphreys details the ways in which EQUALS intends to support this process of evolution in the future.     

Recent Developments in the Funding of University Research

The UGC norm-based allocation of 1986, the current proposals for the rationalisation of departments, and the proposals of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils (ABRC) for R, X and T class universities are assessed against the actual operations of productive science departments and their patterns of expenditure on research as revealed born a recent sample survey. It is concluded that the UGC's norm-based allocation did not in any systematic way secure increases related to current research activity except for those cases where this came from the student number-based teaching element. Only the creation of larger departments seems likely to increase research output, and often that will best be achieved by increases in student numbers and their associated funding. Institutions similar to T class universities can be achieved by encouraging the recruitment of students at the expense of the public sector, but the distribution between R and X class universities is unsustainable.