Our Experience with User Experience: Exploring Staffing Configurations to Conduct UX in an Academic Library

ABSTRACT

A research project was undertaken by a university library system to develop a sustainable user experience strategy. A task force was convened to conduct a pilot project with members from both libraries in the system to assess staffing responsibilities, guidelines, processes, and data-gathering procedures. The team tested an electronic resources list common to both libraries. In describing the methods employed by the task force in their research, this article outlines the benefits and drawbacks of staffing configurations to initiate user experience practices in an academic library setting.     

In the Mailbox

Research has grown in the 21st century regarding the physical activity patterns of racial and ethnic minorities. Although more is now known about some groups, disparities in health have not diminished. The purpose of this paper is to further explore the research about physical activity for African American women and suggest ways that future research might be conducted to address social and environmental justice relative to healthy behaviors. More information about race and gender can facilitate the promotion of physical activity and healthy living for all individuals, and can address the environmental as well as policy issues influencing behavior. Research focusing on qualitative data, moving beyond explanations of only racial categorical differences, emphasizing the cultural competence of researchers, acknowledging the importance of intersectionality, and using more theorizing may promote better ways of knowing about groups such as African American women.     

Gaining a future through self‐understanding

Mertens states that teachers should be trained in enrichment education not gifted education, and that the traditional school curriculum could be stretched to serve the needs of the gifted with acceleration and fast‐paced tracks.     

The selection and evaluation of cooperating teachers: A status report

Abstract

In the United States today, reports abound of violent acts committed by children and adolescents. Once considered safe havens, schools can no longer ensure the safety of their students or faculty. This article presents (a) the public health model of prevention as it applies to the problem of youth violence, (b) causal factors known to be associated with violence and aggression, and (c) practical strategies, which can be incorporated into existing teacher education programs, for addressing violence in the school and classroom.     

Parents and Teachers: Partners in Improving Reading Skills

How do we know when students have learned? is an important question. By way of a narrative example of a classroom lesson, the Essentialist philosophy is described. This philosophy is teacher-directed and lacks any inherent requirement for student understanding. Rather, a teacher delivers the required information, and students absorb then give back what was delivered. Five missing characteristics of learning—understanding, thinking, problems, questions, and feedback—from the narrative classroom are briefly discussed, and a student-centered philosophy is presented, which has the ability to support and sustain learning that is rich, substantial, and meaningful.