Case study: the Health SmartLibrary experiences in web personalization and customization at the Galter Health Sciences Library,Northwestern University

Question:

How can the user''s access to health information, especially full-text articles, be improved? The solution is building and evaluating the Health SmartLibrary (HSL).

Setting:

The setting is the Galter Health Sciences Library, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.

Method:

The HSL was built on web-based personalization and customization tools: My E-Resources, Stay Current, Quick Search, and File Cabinet. Personalization and customization data were tracked to show user activity with these value-added, online services.

Main Results:

Registration data indicated that users were receptive to personalized resource selection and that the automated application of specialty-based, personalized HSLs was more frequently adopted than manual customization by users. Those who did customize customized My E-Resources and Stay Current more often than Quick Search and File Cabinet. Most of those who customized did so only once.

Conclusion:

Users did not always take advantage of the services designed to aid their library research experiences. When personalization is available at registration, users readily accepted it. Customization tools were used less frequently; however, more research is needed to determine why this was the case.     

Social learning in new Caledonian crows

New Caledonian (NC) crows are the most sophisticated tool manufacturers other than humans. The diversification and geographical distribution of their three Pandanus tool designs that differ in complexity, as well as the lack of ecological correlates, suggest that cumulative technological change has taken place. To investigate the possibility that high-fidelity social transmission mediated this putative ratchet-like process, we studied the ontogeny of Pandanus tool manufacture and social organization in free-living NC crows. We found that juvenile crows took more than 1 year to reach adult proficiency in their Pandanus tool skills. Although trial-and-error learning is clearly important, juveniles have ample opportunity to learn about Pandanus tool manufacture by both observing their parents and interacting with artifactual material. The crows’ social system seems likely to promote the faithful social transmission of local tool designs by both favoring the vertical transmission of tool information and minimizing horizontal transmission. We suggest that NC crows develop their Pandanus tool skills in a highly scaffolded learning environment that facilitates the cumulative technological evolution of tool designs.     

An Innovative Approach to Involving Parents in the Education of their Early Years Children

This paper describes and evaluates a project undertaken with parents from an inner city primary school in Hartlepool, UK, devised to help realise children's potential and raise standards. In order to achieve this, it was necessary to create a partnership between parents, school and the child in an environment characterised by the ‘core conditions’ (Rogers, 1957). It was hoped to increase the self‐esteem of the parents and to give them an understanding of the preschool curriculum in order to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence. It was also the intention of the project to involve these, and other parents, in school life and to enable them to take ownership of their own children's education. The multimedia approach involved video, photographs, word processing and press and radio interviews. The process encouraged the fulfilment of the objectives described above. The paper concludes by describing the successful outcomes of the project and indicates some possible developments.     

《野草》主题的佛学解读

《野草》主题隐含着一个与佛学苦、空观相吻合的逻辑层次。在现世苦难的打击下,鲁迅常常觉得唯“黑暗与虚无”乃是“实有”,佛学无常无我价值观促使他走向“绝望之为虚妄,正与希望相同”的空无状态。由空开拓出生命的抗争之路,承担起现世世界扫滞除执、反抗绝望的责任是《野草》哲学的关键。诗文吸收佛教勇猛精进的精神,同时消解了佛教因果轮回的唯心思想。