Three ways of knowing: Agricultural knowledge systems of small-scale farmers in Africa with reference to Kenya

Research carried out in 2011 in Kirinyaga district, Kenya, shows how sense-making theory and methodology can be used to assess the use of local agricultural and external knowledge by small-scale farmers and its effects on small-scale agriculture. Two knowledge systems, the local knowledge system and the external or scientific knowledge system, are considered dominant. The two systems can be synergistic and small-scale farmers have mixed them in their farming activities. Blending systems improve communication, livelihoods, and economies within local communities, and increases their participation in development. Data were collected in focus group discussions with farmers' groups and interviews with individual farmers. Results show that most farmers in Kirinyaga use external agricultural information in their farming practices. A significant number use combined external agricultural information and local knowledge, which forms a third knowledge system. This third system requires the validation of the farmers' innovations and documentation of the knowledge for wider dissemination. Information providers should adopt policies that promote the use of the three knowledge systems by small-scale farmers.     

A non-linear model of information sharing practices in academic communities

A new model of information sharing practices in academic communities is based on Latour's circulatory system of scientific facts, and some elements of Foster's non-linear model of information-seeking behavior. The main proposition of this model is that information-sharing practices and context simultaneously shape each other. The proposed model supports Foster's conceptualization of information practices as non-linear processes, but its emphasis on the interdependence between context and information practices provides a more effective means to capture complex negotiations involved in information-sharing practices. The proposition is that the major reason for nonlinearity in information practices is a continuous shifting of actors' interests, pressures, and concerns. Capturing these dynamic relations becomes possible through this model. The model also offers a way to generate a number of research questions and hypotheses, and as such it could be a useful tool for empirical studies on information sharing in academic communities.     

Evaluating the strategic plans of public libraries: An inspection-based approach

For public libraries, as with most organizations, effective strategic planning is critical to longevity, facilitating cohesive and coordinated responses to ever present and ever changing political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) forces which shape and influence direction. Strategic planning is widely recognized as a challenging activity, however, which can be both time consuming and unproductive, and there exists limited guidance regarding how to evaluate documented and disseminated strategic plans, particularly within the not-for-profit sector. In response, this research proposes and tests an inspection-based approach to the evaluation of strategic plans, based upon a rubric specifying the key attributes of each of the core components of a plan, combined with an appropriate assessment scale. The rubric provides a method to identify and assess completeness of strategic plan, extending to qualitative assessment of communication aspects such as specification and terminology, and synergistic aspects such as cohesion and integration. In the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, the method is successfully trialed across the devolved Scottish public library sector, with the strategic plans of 28 of the 32 regional networks evaluated. Of the 28 plans, 17, or 61%, were found to be incomplete and/or to contain contradictory or uncoordinated components. It is recommended that Scottish public libraries improve not only completeness of plans, but also their precision, specificity, explicitness, coordination, and consistency, and overall mapping to library services. Recommendations are made for further widespread application of the rubric.     

Using collaborative teaching and inquiry project-based learning to help primary school students develop information literacy and information skills

Information literacy and information technology (IT) skills have become increasingly important in today's knowledge society. Many studies have shown that students from primary school to postgraduate lack crucial information literacy and IT skills, hence there is a need for an effective pedagogical approach that will develop these skills. This study investigated the effect of combining a collaborative teaching approach with inquiry project-based learning (PjBL) on the development of primary students' information literacy and IT skills. Students in a Hong Kong primary school completed two inquiry-based group projects. A collaborative teaching approach involving three teachers in different subject areas (general studies, Chinese, and IT) and the school librarian was adopted in guiding students through the two projects. Results indicate that this program had a positive impact of on the development of different dimensions of the students' information literacy and IT skills.     

Examining the antecedents of knowledge sharing in facilitating team innovativeness from a multilevel perspective

This paper examines how transformational leadership (TFL) climate influences employees’ team identity and their intentions to share knowledge and how team knowledge sharing intention subsequently influences team innovativeness. Data was collected from 301 employees comprising 52 R&D teams. Hypotheses were tested with both hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and regression analyses. Results indicated that TFL climate was related to employees’ intention to share knowledge through team identity. At the group level, results supported the relationships between team knowledge sharing intention and team innovativeness. The results also indicated that team knowledge sharing intention mediated the relationship between TFL climate and team innovativeness.     

Automatic building of new Field Association word candidates using search engine

With increasing popularity of the Internet and tremendous amount of on-line text, automatic document classification is important for organizing huge amounts of data. Readers can know the subject of many document fields by reading only some specific Field Association (FA) words. Document fields can be decided efficiently if there are many FA words and if the frequency rate is high. This paper proposes a method for automatically building new FA words. A WWW search engine is used to extract FA word candidates from document corpora. New FA word candidates in each field are automatically compared with previously determined FA words. Then new FA words are appended to an FA word dictionary. From the experiential results, our new system can automatically appended around 44% of new FA words to the existence FA word dictionary. Moreover, the concentration ratio 0.9 is also effective for extracting relevant FA words that needed for the system design to build FA words automatically.     

Museums, plasticity, temporality

Throughout the 28th century, numerous philosophers of history and time have questioned the most ingrained of all our beliefs: does time progress in a linear way and is the future simply the next chapter in this narrative?² This essay proposes to rethink the future of museums outside of this narrative structure, one for which the future is reduced to words such as projection, prediction and prophecy. It asks: in an age of globalisation, can the museum still think of the future as the outcome of a chronological narrative? This essay takes one recent attempt (by the philosopher Catherine Malabou) to destabilise—again—this belief, and proposes to reveal the impact that this attempt could have on the museum's understanding of time and its place within it.     

Neutrinos from the Sun: The 2003 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics presented to John Bahcall, Raymond Davis, Jr., and Masatoshi Koshiba

This award recognizes years of research by the laureates using elusive neutrinos to probe the internal workings of the sun. Bahcall and Davis identified an apparently fundamental problem: the fusion reactions that generate the sun's power deep in its core appeared to generate fewer neutrinos than expected. The number of neutrinos detected by Davis was only about a third the number calculated by Bahcall. Koshiba developed a new type of detector that not only confirmed the deficit but also showed that the neutrinos counted by Davis actually come from the Sun. Together the work of these three scientists prepared the way for the resolution of the puzzle, the discovery of a new property of neutrinos called “neutrino oscillations”. On the way from the sun, some neutrinos change identity and become nearly invisible in the detectors. This insight promises to open up new vistas in the fundamental physics of elementary particles.     

The 2001 Bower Award for business leadership presented to Irwin Mark Jacobs

Irwin Mark Jacobs, Founder and CEO of QUALCOMM, Winner of the 2001 Bower Award for Business Leadership.Irwin Mark Jacobs is that rare individual who combines scientific and technical ingenuity with entrepreneurial spirit, strong business leadership, and philanthropic spirit to become a leader in intersecting arenas. Jacobs has combined these qualities to position his company, QUALCOMM, into the world's leader in cellular telephony.