Taiwanese Grandmothers: Strengths and Learning Needs as Perceived by Grandmothers,Mothers, and Granddaughters

The purposes of this study were to (a) determine how three generations of females from the same families perceived the grandmothers, (b) identify strengths and learning needs of the grandmothers, and (c) recommend guidelines and curriculum themes to assist the grandmothers in adjusting to change. The 348 Taiwanese subjects included grandmothers (n = 116), mothers (n = 116), and teenage granddaughters (n = 116). Subjects completed a Mandarin version of the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory. Each generation reported favorable ratings for grandmothers on the frustration, difficulty, information needs, and satisfaction scales. Unfavorable ratings were given for the teaching and success scales.     

Maternal schooling and children’s relative inequalities in developmental outcomes: evidence from the 1947 school leaving age reform in Britain

This paper investigates whether mothers’ participation in post‐compulsory education impacts on children’s relative inequalities across four developmental outcomes. The empirical analysis uses information from children born in 1958 in Britain. Mothers of the 1958 British cohort were affected by the 1947 school leaving age reform, which increased the age of compulsory schooling from 14 to 15 years. We selected the first‐born cohort members whose mothers were born in 1933 and 1934 and whose mothers completed compulsory schooling only. We found that the additional year of maternal schooling was significantly associated with relative improvements in mathematics attainment for their children, but no significant differences for reading or behavioural outcomes. The impact on mathematics was mainly for boys. These results suggest wider dispersion in mathematics attainment between sons whose mothers benefited from the additional year of schooling in 1947 and those whose mothers did not.     

The accuracy of students’ predictions of their GCSE grades

The paper reports a study that investigated the relationship between students’ self-predicted and actual General Certificate of Secondary Education results in order to establish the extent of over- and under-prediction and whether this varies by subject and across genders and socio-economic groupings. It also considered the relationship between actual and predicted attainment and attitudes towards going to university. The sample consisted of 109 young people in two schools being followed up from an earlier study. Just over 50% of predictions were accurate and students were much more likely to over-predict than to under-predict. Most errors of prediction were only one grade out and may reflect examination unreliability as well as student misperceptions. Girls were slightly less likely than boys to over-predict but there were no differences associated with social background. Higher levels of attainment, both actual and predicted, were strongly associated with positive attitudes to university. Differences between predictions and results are likely to reflect examination errors as well as pupil errors. There is no evidence that students from more advantaged social backgrounds over-estimate themselves compared with other students, although boys over-estimate themselves compared with girls.     

Engaging the scholar: Three types of academic consulting and their impact on universities and industry

We present a conceptual framework of academic consulting and explore its impacts on universities and the benefits to innovating firms. We distinguish between three types of academic consulting: opportunity-driven, commercialization-driven and research-driven. Exploring the implications of these different types, first, we postulate that consulting has limited impact on biasing academic research towards more ‘applied’ themes. Secondly, while we expect research-driven consulting activities to be positively associated with research productivity, opportunity-driven consulting will have a negative impact. Thirdly, we differentiate between different functions of academic consulting for different types of firms.     

Reviews,Letters and Listings

The Internet: A Writer's Guide by Jane Dorner. London: A. & C. Black, 2000. Pp. x + 196, Hardback, £9.99. ISBN 0‐7136‐5192‐X     

Play, Language, and Maternal Responsiveness: A Longitudinal Study of Deaf and Hearing Infants

Language, maternal responsiveness, and developmental play levels were investigated in 43 middle-class dyads at 9, 12, and 18 months: hearing child/hearing mother (hH), deaf child/deaf mother (dD), deaf child/hearing mother (dH). Group dH provides information about play when language is delayed and maternal responsiveness decreased. Group dD provides information on developmental effects of diminished audition. There were no 9-month group play differences. At 12 months, hH infants displayed more representational play than infants in either deaf group ( p < .001). At 18 months, hH and dD children displayed more preplanned play than dH children ( p = .01). At 12 and 18 months, language was associated only marginally with play levels. Maternal responsiveness was significantly associated with 18-month-olds' preplanned play ( p = .01).     

Balancing Significance and Maintaining ‘Sense of Place’ in the Sustainable Display of Tudor Tapestries in the Great Hall,Hampton Court Palace

ABSTRACT

Hampton Court Palace’s Great Hall located in Surrey, UK, is a magnificent late medieval hall. Its large hammer-beam roof is sumptuously decorated while its walls for the past century have been rehung with Henry VIII’s five-hundred-year-old tapestries illustrating The Story of Abraham, and one of the most internationally significant sets of sixteenth-century tapestries, commissioned for the same hall. This paper presents research which began in 2007, exploring conservation solutions based on evidence-based decision-making, through to successful implementation of measures that conserve these invaluable tapestries without damaging the aesthetic or physical integrity of the Great Hall. The impacts of environmental exposure conditions mapped in detail were assessed to evaluate risk for each tapestry. Next, feasibility studies identified the effectiveness of a range of potential mitigating options to address each local risk, now being incrementally implemented over many years. The research has enabled us to develop, test and deliver permanent interventions that have – when considered together as a holistic management regime – allowed the tapestries to remain in situ. These interventions will continue to be monitored and evaluated for at least a further year to confirm their effectiveness.     

Student-Staffed Virtual Reference Services: How to Meet the Training Challenge

Student workers are a well-established component of academic library operations. Recently, their traditional role has expanded to include responsibilities that were previously assigned to librarians, including in-person and virtual reference support. This trend has raised concerns about service quality and highlighted the importance of adequate training and evaluation for student employees. This case study outlines the training and assessment program for student employees working on Ask a Librarian, an academic consortial chat reference service in Ontario, Canada. Evaluations indicate that student assistants are less formal in their communication style, do not consistently perform a thorough reference interview, and deviate from some Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) best practices. However, students are consistently rated very highly by users in exit surveys. With a training program that addresses communication, in-depth reference interview techniques, and consistent follow-up and assessment, students are a viable option for staffing chat and can meet high service quality standards for reference service.     

Wayfinding: Navigating Archival Theory in Times of Technological Change

Are new technologies creating better frameworks for achieving “best practice”? What impact might tools like ArchivesSpace have on the future of the profession? Implementing ArchivesSpace at the Archives and Special Collections Department at the University of Minnesota brought internal practices in closer alignment with archival standards, and in doing so drastically changed the way we intellectually and physically manage our repositories. This article will explore whether or not these changes undermine traditional theoretical frameworks for archivists, or simply represent a realignment of professional principles.     

Access to Online Historical Aerial Photography Collections: Past Practice,Present State,and Future Opportunities

The authors review how access to historical aerial photograph collections has evolved in response to technological developments and addresses areas for further advancement, with a particular emphasis on developing, preserving, and sustaining online collections. The authors focus specifically on the areas of metadata, the Semantic Web and linked data, and sustainability through collaboration. The article includes brief case studies, highlighting various projects involving the aerial photography collections at the University of Minnesota. The conclusion asserts the critical role played by geographic information librarians in effectively carrying out the strategies described in the article as they relate to the long-term sustainability of digital geospatial collections.