Collaboration Between the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library and the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research

Librarians have traditionally facilitated research development resulting in grants through performing biomedical literature searches for researchers. The librarians at the Taubman Health Sciences Library of the University of Michigan have taken additional steps forward by instituting a proactive approach to assisting investigators. To accomplish this, the librarians have taken part in a collaborative effort with the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research. Through this partnership, both units have created and adopted various techniques intended to facilitate the submission of grants, thus allowing researchers more time to conduct their primary activities.     

The third sector and the governance of education

This article explores the nature, scope and form of third-sector involvement in education in New Zealand as demonstrated through a comparison of its relationship with the state in two distinct periods of state and educational development. It begins with an analysis of the period of state expansion from crown colony to centralised administration in the mid-1870s. It then examines the relationship in the decade following the restructuring of education in 1989, as the neoliberal state negotiated economic changes at the national and supranational levels, and challenges to the existing educational organisation from both the political left and the political right. Although an almost mirror image of nineteenth-century arrangements is identified, the nature of the state/third-sector relationship was vastly different as a smaller, but nonetheless stronger, state retained control over the governance of education and, with it, possibilities and limitations for third-sector involvement.     

Randomised controlled trial of incentives to improve attendance at adult literacy classes

Background: Incentives have been proposed as a method to improve attendance in adult literacy classes. In the UK, several areas have piloted the use of incentives to promote attendance at adult literacy classes. To date no rigorous evaluation of this policy has been undertaken. This paper describes (as far as we are aware) the only UK‐based randomised controlled trial to evaluate the use of financial incentives in order to promote attendance in classes for adult learners.

Methods: We used a cluster‐randomised design. Twenty‐nine adult literacy classes were randomised in two groups using minimisation. Intervention group learners received £5 (US$10) for each class attended. The main outcome was class attendance; the secondary outcome was literacy scores.

Results: After allocation, one class was found to be ineligible for the study. In the 28 remaining classes there was a statistically significant reduction of about 1.5 sessions (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28, 2.79; p = 0.019) attended by the intervention group compared with control, after adjusting for cluster size and baseline scores. The difference in reading scores between the intervention and control group, conditioned on baseline scores, was ?2.38 (with controls scoring higher than the intervention group), but this difference was not statistically significant (95% CI ?7.40 to 2.57, p = 0.33).

Conclusion: Payments to attend adult literacy classes had an adverse effect on attendance. This trial needs urgent replication, ideally with a larger incentive, before this approach is widely used by policy makers.     

Using library programming to integrate self-directed learning into a community

Abstract

Shoreline Community College is near Seattle in Washington state, a growing community that has evolving needs. The library at the college planned and implemented events for National Poetry Month to get the students, faculty, and community engaged through activities such as White Board Poetry, Spoken Word Poetry, a Film Showing, and a Haiku Contest. Promotional planning and follow through focused on campus resources, student engagement, and social media.     

Identification of ICD codes suggestive of child maltreatment

Objective

In order to be reimbursed for the care they provide, hospitals in the United States are required to use a standard system to code all discharge diagnoses: the International Classification of Disease, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9). Although ICD-9 codes specific for child maltreatment exist, they do not identify all maltreatment-related hospital and emergency department discharges. To increase the usefulness of medical data for public health surveillance of child maltreatment, this project sought to identify ICD-9 codes that are suggestive of child maltreatment.

Methods

After review of the literature and discussions with experts, injuries and conditions that should raise suspicion of child maltreatment (physical or sexual abuse or neglect) were identified and a list of corresponding ICD codes was compiled. Using a statewide electronic database of hospital discharges and emergency department (ED) visits for the year 2000, visits by children assigned these ICD codes were identified, a sample of visits was selected, and medical records were reviewed to assess the circumstances of the injury or illness that led to the visit. Based on information in the medical record, the injury or illness was classified as maltreatment-related, or not.

Results

There were 3,684 visits selected for review. Of these, 2,826 records were reviewed and classified; 1,200 (43%) records met the criteria for being maltreatment-related, 1,419 (50%) contained adequate information indicating the injury/condition was not likely maltreatment-related, and 207 (7%) records did not contain enough information to classify. Sixty-eight ICD codes had >66% of visits classified as maltreatment-related, the a priori criteria for a code to be considered suggestive of maltreatment. Codes suggestive of maltreatment include specific fractures, burns, and injuries of undetermined intent, among others.

Conclusion

Several ICD codes were found that, when used with age restrictions and other specific exclusion criteria, are suggestive of maltreatment. This information may increase the usefulness of hospital discharge data for public health surveillance of child maltreatment.

Practice implications

Use of these suggestive codes facilitates identifying conditions and injuries that are likely maltreatment-related in hospital discharge and ED visit data. When used in conjunction with ICD maltreatment-specific codes, these suggestive codes may enhance the use of medical data for monitoring child maltreatment trends.     

Helping out or hanging out: the features of involvement and how it relates to university adjustment

This study examined the nature of students’ out-of-class involvements with a view to identifying the kinds of involvement that are most conducive to positive adjustment to university. Students from five Canadian universities completed questionnaires in November of their first-year at university assessing the quality of their out-of-class involvements and the extent to which such activities were structured (i.e., supervised, performed regularly, had a goal or purpose). Measures of adjustment to university were administered in November and March of their first-year. Results indicated that the amount of structure present in out-of-class activities was positively related to university adjustment. Activity quality was found to mediate the relationship between activity structure and university adjustment; it seems that activities that are highly structured are related to more positive outcomes because they tend to provide participants with a high-quality experience. Results are discussed in terms of the transition to university, and first-year transition intervention programs.