Implementing and Assessing Library Reference Training Programs

Comprehensive assessments have shown that academic library users prefer a welcoming environment that provides the opportunity for self-sufficiency. Libraries need to meet these expectations and improve the quality of library reference by creating a comprehensive training program for librarians, staff, and students. This article will review standards for reference training in academic libraries with a focus on one-desk service points and consider best practices for planning, implementing, and assessing training programs for staff, students, and librarians.     

Reinvention,Revolution and Revitalization: Real Life Tales from Publishing’s Front Lines

Over the past 10 years the publishing industry has undergone major changes with the shift from format driven print publishing to the dynamic delivery of information to users in a variety of digital and printed formats. These changes have affected all aspects of the publishing business including the technology platforms and product development processes. This paper will survey these areas and discuss (1) The principals of the information delivery platforms powering the new generation of products; (2) Strategies for innovation and product development including; (a) Innovation Hubs: enabling new products while maintaining the core; (b) Data driven publishing: the complete picture of your users and markets; (c) Contextual delivery to better deliver information beyond the traditional touch points of publishing and research. These strategies will allow publishing and information provider organizations to reinvent themselves in the continuing digital revolution and are key to bringing new vitality to the ever-changing role of publisher and information provider.     

Database choices in endocrine systematic reviews

Objective

The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialists and systematic review researchers.

Method

We retrieved 144 systematic reviews and meta-analyses from 4 clinical endocrinology journals and extracted all information sources used during the search processes.

Results

Findings indicate that traditional bibliographic databases are most often used, followed by regional databases, clinical trials registries, and gray literature databases.

Conclusions

This study informs information specialists about additional resources that may be considered during the search process.     

The development of a method for identifying penalty kick strategies in association football

Penalty takers in association football adopt either a keeper-independent or a keeper-dependent strategy, with the benefits of the keeper-independent strategy presumed to be greater. Yet, despite its relevance for research and practitioners, thus far no method for identifying penalty kick strategies has been available. To develop a validated and reliable method, Experiment 1 assessed characteristics that observers should use to distinguish the two strategies. We asked participants to rate 12 characteristics of pre-recorded clips of kicks of penalty takers that used either a keeper-independent or keeper-dependent strategy. A logistic regression model identified three variables (attention to the goalkeeper, run-up fluency and kicking technique) that in combination predicted kick strategy in 92% of the penalties. We used the model in Experiment 2 to analyse prevalence and efficacy of both the strategies for penalty kicks in penalty shoot-outs during FIFA World Cups (1986–2010) and UEFA Football Championships (1984–2012). The keeper-independent strategy was used much more frequently (i.e., 78–86%) than the keeper-dependent strategy, but successes did not differ. Penalty takers should use both the strategies to be less predictable. Goalkeepers can use the developed model to improve their chances to succeed by adjusting their behaviour to penalty takers’ preferred penalty kick strategy.     

Meanings within meanings: skilled readers activate irrelevant meanings of radicals in Chinese

Reading and Writing - Many characters in written Chinese incorporate components (radicals) that provide cues to meaning. These cues are often partial, and some are misleading because they are...     

SURVEY OF NATIONALLY CERTIFIED SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS’ ROLES AND TRAINING IN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

A randomly selected group of Nationally Certified School Psychologists (NCSPs; n = 817) were mailed the 42‐item School Psychopharmacology Roles and Training Evaluation (SPRTE) which inquired about their caseloads, practice roles as proposed by DuPaul and Carlson ( 2005 ), and prior training in psychopharmacology. A modified Tailored Design Methodology (TDM; Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2009 ), involving four mail‐based contacts, was used to yield a 74% survey return rate (n = 607). Of the returned surveys, a 72% (n = 548) usable response rate was obtained and used in the present study. Consistent with prior literature, nearly all (99.6%) school psychologists reported serving at least one student taking psychotropic medication. Primary direct service roles included monitoring behavioral response to psychotropic treatment (28%), monitoring treatment side‐effects (23%), and developing psychotropic treatment goals from direct assessment measures (14%). Primary indirect service roles included providing behavior management consultation to teachers of students taking medication (96%), implementing adjunctive psychosocial supports (87%), and providing assessment data to physicians for diagnostic purposes (84%). Despite differences in established psychopharmacological training standards, actual practice roles and training received did not differ between NCSPs from APA‐accredited programs and those from National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)‐approved programs. Implications for school psychopharmacology practice, training and research are addressed.     

Broadening Perspectives on Immigrant Experiences: Secondary Students Study the Absorption Difficulties Faced by Mizrachi Immigrants in Israel

Over the course of the 2015–2016 academic year, 12th-grade students at a Jewish high school in Canada participated in a research study that assessed how they integrated morally complex narratives in Israel’s past into their own relationship with the country. This article presents material based on how students reacted to learning that some Jewish immigrants were mistreated by the government by way of intentional economic disparity, depiction as grotesque caricatures in standard curricula, and denial of access to funds for cultural expression. The majority of students expressed shock and outrage as this narrative contrasted with the Zionist narrative that they had previously learned.     

The impact of referee training: reflections on the reduction of home advantage in association football

The effect of increased development and professionalization in elite Association Football referee training and the relationship with reduced home advantage in the English professional leagues were examined. The central aim was to chart the evolution of referee training, and how these developments in referee training have assisted in reducing home advantage. Interviews were conducted with elite and ex-elite referees, as well as those involved in the management, training and administration of elite referees in order to identify more recent adaptations to elite referee training and further explain the relationship between training and the reduction in home advantage. Findings indicate training and support is pronounced within elite refereeing has developed appreciably over time, and has contributed significantly to an increase in performance, decision-making correctness and subsequent decline in home advantage.