Library Startup: Reflections on Building a New Community College Library from Scratch

ABSTRACT

The author describes the challenges and rewards of creating and growing a new community college library from the ground up, sharing details about the new college, the state of the library when she arrived as director, and the process of prioritizing the organization's development. She further describes particular lessons gained through this experience, including maintaining perspective, focusing growth in productive directions, and being willing to experiment even if it means there will be failure as well as success. The article will appeal in particular to librarians who have the rare opportunity to launch a new college library as well as those who are working on reinventing small college libraries.     

Comparison of social media use for the U.S. and the Korean governments

Social media allows for the creation of bottom-up online communities that encourage the government to utilize a two-way participatory media model, rather than a traditional broadcast media model. The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of social media usage in both Korean and U.S. governments, present several issues and suggest future directions.     

Information and culture: Cultural differences in the perception and recall of information

Culture is found to play an important role in the perception and recall of information. Hypotheses based on the two cultural models (individualism and context) were tested using a 2 × 2 factorial between-subject experimental design: individualism/collectivism and high/low-context conditions. The subjects consisted of 82 American students and 82 Korean students. The cultural tests confirm that the American culture represents individualism, whereas the Korean culture represents collectivism. The results indicate that Koreans tend to be more comfortable with a high-context culture that uses indirect and ambiguous messages. The Korean subjects show higher ratings for perceptions of information in a high-context design compared to the American subjects. There was no statistically significant difference in recall of information from high- and low-context conditions between the American and the Korean subjects. The findings of this study may benefit information professionals who are looking for effective ways of conveying information to intended audiences.     

Examining Equivalence of Accommodations on a Statewide Elementary-Level Science Test

This study examined the extent to which the underlying factor structure of the 2005 South Carolina Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT) in science for grades 3, 4, and 5 was equivalent for students who were administered the test in a regular (standard) or accommodated form. Three accommodation groups were of interest: students who received any testing accommodations, students who received any testing accommodations excluding those for whom setting was the only accommodation provided, and students who received the oral administration accommodation. Each accommodation group was compared to a matched sample of the regular group. It was found that the science test for a given grade level is appropriately described by the factor model for regular and accommodation groups. Results indicated that the factor structure, factor loadings, and error variances of the science test were similar across the regular and accommodation groups.     

Opinions on computing education in Korean K-12 system: higher education perspective

The need for computing education in the K-12 curriculum has grown globally. The Republic of Korea is not an exception. In response to the need, the Korean Ministry of Education has announced an outline for software-centric computing education in the K-12 system, which aims at enhancing the current computing education with software emphasis. In this paper, we review the outline from a higher education perspective and provide insights into its constructive improvement based on our experience in computer science education in higher education and a study of global initiatives on computing education. We also consider the social environment for computing education in Korea. In the proposed implementation, we first discuss goals for software-centric computing education and identify areas of focus. The identified areas are discussed in terms of topics to be covered and appropriate exposure of knowledge depth in the three levels in the Korean K-12 system. We then discuss necessary preparations for the success of the plan from academic, governmental and social perspectives.     

Exploring the Relationship between Students' Understanding of Conventional Time and Deep (Geologic) Time

Many geologic processes occur in the context of geologic or deep time. Students of all ages demonstrate difficulty grasping this fundamental concept which impacts their ability to acquire other geoscience concepts. A concept of deep time requires the ability to sequence events on an immense temporal scale (succession) and to judge the durations of geologic processes based on the rates at which they occur. The twin concepts of succession and duration are the same ideas that underlie a concept of conventional time. If deep time is an extension of conventional time and not qualitatively different from it, students should display similar reasoning patterns when dealing with analogous tasks over disparate temporal periods. Thirty-five US students aged 13–24 years participated in individual task-based interviews to ascertain how they thought about succession and duration in conventional and deep time. This is the first attempt to explore this relationship in the same study in over 30 years. Most students successfully completed temporal succession tasks, but there was greater variability in responses on duration tasks. Conventional time concepts appear to impact how students reason about deep time. The application of spatial reasoning to temporal tasks sometimes leads to correct responses but in other instances does not. Implications for future research and teaching strategies are discussed.     

Teach-In: Positive Responses during Divisive Times

In response to the well documented divisiveness throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, faculty members at one university developed a “teach-in” to help students identify and respond to the resulting difficult communications in positive ways. This was accomplished through planned activities implementing micro/macro theories and skills. In March 2017, as part of Social Work Month, 71 BSW and MSW students participated in a Teach-in event. Paired sample t-tests showed significant differences between pre-post test scores on seven measured items. The teach-in appeared to be successful in increasing student preparedness to talk to individuals with differing political opinions through self-reflective participatory exercises related to their own (and conflicting) political perspectives, knowledge related to understanding contemporary political conflicts, and instruction on positively and professionally responding to divisive communications. Social work educators are important catalysts in helping students effectively respond to and advocate for those threatened during these divisive times. Teach-ins may also be an appropriate tool for addressing contemporary issues when curriculum requirements provide limited options for additional elective course offerings.