Distance No Object: Developing DARE,the Digital Art Resource for Education

This paper outlines the development of DARE, the Digital Art Resource for Education, detailing its specific aims and sketching the broad context in which the resource has been developed. It then examines a case study where the resource was piloted within a North London secondary school, highlighting some of the issues arising from this such as the need for educators and their pupils to engage critically with the Internet as a distance learning tool, and the importance of an equally critical practice in using new technologies to support art and design.     

Education in Foreign Languages at Vilnius Technical University

The paper deals with studies of engineering programmes in foreign languages at Vilnius Technical University (VTU), Lithuania. In order to organize studies in foreign languages, an International Studies Centre was established in 1992. The following aims were pursued: integrating into the systems of university education of European countries and promoting international exchange of students and staff. BSc studies (architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering programmes) are organized in English, French and German. Over 150 undergraduate students from Lithuania and foreign countries are studying at the centre. About 150 students are enrolled for the next academic year.     

Health resources on the Internet: a basic list

With the plethora of health sites on the Internet, it is sometimes hard to know where to start. This is a basic list of health sites that either cover a subject area comprehensively, or are good general sites to lead to more specific information. Most of these sites include both full-text information as well as links to many other sites on the World-Wide Web. Included are medical, nursing, dental, alternative health, consumer health, organization, and government sites.     

Staff development planning in an academic health sciences library.

OBJECTIVE: A staff development committee (SDC) was convened to implement staff development opportunities for an academic health sciences library system comprised of three separate facilities. The charge for the SDC was to: (1) develop programs to enhance workplace skills and personal growth, (2) communicate the availability of existing programs at the university and medical center, and (3) encourage the staff to participate in these opportunities. PROGRAM: The committee created goals and objectives and developed a survey designed to give staff the opportunity to provide input for this initiative. With an 80% response rate, the survey results were used to plan 15 events based on staff needs and preferences. First-year attendance for SDC-sponsored events was 459. Committee members served as liaisons for each event. Two forms were developed to facilitate event planning. A monthly announcement sheet, email reminders, and the library's local area network are used to communicate upcoming SDC events and encourage attendance. CONCLUSION: This approach can serve as a useful model for similar program planning in any organization.     

Automated Classification to Improve the Efficiency of Weeding Library Collections

Previous studies have shown that weeding a library collection benefits patrons and increases circulation rates. However, the time required to review the collection and make weeding decisions presents a formidable obstacle. This study empirically evaluated methods for automatically classifying weeding candidates. A data set containing 80,346 items from a large-scale weeding project running from 2011 to 2014 at Wesleyan University was used to train six machine learning classifiers to predict a weeding decision of either ‘Keep’ or ‘Weed’ for each candidate. The study found statistically significant agreement (p?=?0.001) between classifier predictions and librarian judgments for all classifier types. The naive Bayes and linear support vector machine classifiers had the highest recall (fraction of items weeded by librarians that were identified by the algorithm), while the k-nearest-neighbor classifier had the highest precision (fraction of recommended candidates that librarians had chosen to weed). The variables found to be most relevant were: librarian and faculty votes for retention, item age, and the presence of copies in other libraries.     

Assessing information literacy instruction in interdisciplinary first year project-based courses with STEM students

Broad and discipline-specific information literacy competencies must be mastered by science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students. This study assessed changes in student perceptions of their competency in information literacy after continuous efforts in course curriculum. Data were gathered in 2015–2016 from first year interdisciplinary project-based courses with STEM students to assess changes in information literacy competencies. Analyses suggested there was a significant increase in students' perception of their familiarity with library resources, search strategies, citation use, and ability to evaluate source quality. There was no change in their perception of their ability to evaluate the variety of source and source relevance and a decrease in their perception of the ethical use of information. With faculty-librarian partnership and integrated instruction in a first year course, students showed the largest perceived increases in foundational information literacy skills but struggled with information literacy abilities. This study provides a baseline of information literacy competencies of first year students and provides recommendations for continuing education.     

Factors influencing undergraduate use of e-books: A mixed methods study

Academic libraries invest millions of dollars to make electronic resources such as e-books available to students for free. However, free access might not necessarily result in students' sustained interest in and use of e-books. This interdisciplinary, mixed methods research investigates the factors influencing the intention of 279 undergraduate students to use e-books at a land-grant university in the southern US. Structural equation modeling of the survey responses suggests that organizational environment for information technology, external locus of control, subjective norm, perceived enjoyment (i.e., joyfulness), and information technology features play a significant role in influencing the intention of students to use e-books. Based on a combination of quantitative results and qualitative findings, this study identifies eight activities that libraries need to undertake in order to increase the use of e-books by undergraduate students.     

The effect of scheduling format on long-term retention

This study examines the relationship between course intensity and long-term retention on graduate level counseling students enrolled in a research and statistics course. It confirms earlier findings of time and learning studies, which have primarily dealt with end-of-course outcomes, that there is no effect due to scheduling format. In this study, older students performed significantly higher on a six-month follow-up test than younger students. Students who had previous, related course work scored significantly higher in final course grades than students with no prior course work, however, differences were moderated and no longer significant at the time of follow-up. Implications from these findings are discussed.Rebecca LaFountain is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Shippenburg University of Pennsylvania. She earned an Ed.D in Counseling from the College of William and Mary, an M.S. in Counseling from Iowa State University, and a B.A. in French from Grand Valley State University. She is a Licensed Psychologist and a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor. Her primary professional interests include the teaching of research and statistics so that it is not threatening; Adlerian psychology; and, Solution-Focused counseling.     

Childhood Physical Fitness and Performance as Predictors of High School Sport Participation

ABSTRACT

Participation in youth sport is positively associated with physical fitness and performance. The purpose of the current study was to examine if physical fitness measures during childhood and early adolescence predicted high school sport participation. Participants included youth in the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study. Measures consisted of the endurance shuttle run, Wells sit-and-reach, jump and reach, standing long jump, agility shuttle run and 30-yard dash. Individual, generalized estimating equation models were used to estimate the association between each measure and the odds of participating in high school sport. For both sexes, the endurance shuttle run and agility shuttle run were related to sport participation. For boys only, the long jump and 30-yard dash were also associated with sport participation. Better physical fitness and performance across several dimensions in childhood, including those related to motor skills, enhanced the likelihood of sport participation in high school.