Can You Repeat That? Patterns of Media Ownership and the “Repurposing” Trend

The article examines shifting patterns of ownership for cable programming services from 1994 to 2003. In these years, vertical integration in the cable industry declined, as cable's multi-system operators divested equity in programming services. Meanwhile, broadcast network-owning media conglomerates invested heavily in cable, tripling their holdings among the top 20 most fully distributed cable channels, as well as launching and acquiring dozens of additional, less widely distributed channels. In light of the Federal Communications Commissions' recent attempts to revise rules regarding television ownership, the author argues that while vertical integration has declined, the market power of the broadcast networks has grown by means of a new kind of horizontal integration that reaches across broadcast and cable channels. This shift is reshaping cable as a market which, despite growing product differentiation, is trending toward less competitive conditions that are akin to the broadcast oligopoly. This article shows that these broadcast-cable alliances contributed to the development of the new synergistic practice of repurposing.     

Infection control professionals' information‐seeking preferences

Objectives

The aims of this study were to: 1) establish whether infection control professionals (ICPs) who had access to and utilised medical librarian services for evidence‐based medicine (EBM) research perceived this assistance to be useful and 2) to establish whether ICPs who used electronic or hard copy resources for EBM research perceived that those resources had a significant impact on their work.

Methods

Convenience sampling was used to collect quantitative data via a questionnaire. Study participants were members of South‐west and Western chapters of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. There were 264 questionnaires distributed in this study; 179 participants completed the questionnaire. The response rate for eligible respondents was 59.5% (157).

Results

Results indicated 56.7% (51) of the ICPs with librarian access reported requesting assistance from their work facility librarian. In reference to locating infection control information, 77.9% (95), 87.3% (124) and 93.3% (138) of ICPs found textbooks, journals and the Internet ‘very useful’ or ‘useful’, respectively.

Conclusion

Study results indicated ICPs who used the assistance of medical librarians and/or hard copy or electronic resources for EBM research perceived such sources to be valuable for obtaining infection control information.     

Legal Research Boot Camp: One Approach to Meeting the Research Needs of Law Students

This article describes the legal research boot camp offered at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. It is an intensive, one-week course offered the first week of the summer break to prepare students for their summer clerkships. It is also a vehicle to teach law librarianship students how to teach legal research.     

Evaluation of a New Clinical Librarian Service

In order to evaluate a new Clinical Medical Librarian (CML) service at Preston Medical Library in Knoxville, Tennessee, the three departments participating in the service were surveyed and interviewed. Participants in the study shed light on how much impact the attendance of a librarian at rounds and other meetings has had on their patient care decisions as well as their use of the library. Overall, the CML service has been well received by residents and faculty and will continue to serve at least these three departments.     

Reviews

Annals of Dyslexia -