To Intervene or be Neutral,to Investigate or Entertain?

Through a series of surveys of Nordic journalism students in 2005, 2008 and 2012 (N = 4665 respondents from 30 institutions in five countries), this article investigates the differences in students' role perceptions and their link to national, institutional and personal factors. After discussing some methodological challenges for comparative survey studies of journalists and journalism students, the major differences in students' role perceptions are extracted using multiple correspondence analysis, which revealed: (1) an opposition of participatory versus neutral ideals, and (2) an opposition between investigative and recreational ideals, which in both cases are linked to a range of factors, including type of educational institution, social background, previous journalistic experience and year of study. While marked national differences in role perceptions are found to be present, subsequent analysis of single countries shows that the above oppositions are also found within the national context and linked to similar sociological characteristics, demonstrating the inadequacy of simple nation-type explanations of journalistic role perceptions.     

Young people who cut themselves – a growing challenge for educational settings

There has been an increasing pattern of young people seeking to cope with the stresses of modern life by acts of self-harm. The frequency of this has been estimated by one review as between one in 12 and one in 15 across the UK. In this article, Margaret Dimmock, family therapist, Sue Grieves, community psychiatric nurse, both of whom work for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Hartlepool, and Maurice Place, Professor of Child and Family Psychiatry at Northumbria University, report the results of a survey carried out in a large comprehensive secondary school in the North of England, where the rate of self-destructive behaviour was found to be at least 9.8%. The reasons for this behaviour are explored when the authors look at the differences in coping behaviour that these young people show compared with their peers. The results from this project indicate that, within this sample of young people, there is a tendency to worry far more; to feel rather remote from peers; and to feel less able to cope with setbacks. Drawing on these findings, Margaret Dimmock, Sue Grieves and Maurice Place discuss some approaches that might help young people to avoid self-harming behaviour in future.     

The Dependability of NSSE Scalelets for College- and Department-level Assessment*

College and university administrators, as well as faculty members, are more likely to take responsibility for student learning if they believe that the assessment data represent their students and suggest specific actions for improvement. This study examined whether it is feasible to develop scalelets (i.e., focused measures, usually consisting of four or five items) that provide dependable metrics for assessing student learning at the college or department level. A generalizability analysis of 12 scalelets from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) indicated that the scalelets provided dependable measures of educational effectiveness with 25–50 respondents. *SAIR 2004 Best Paper. Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Institutional Research, Sandiego, CA, March 2005.     

The experiences of disabled pupils and their families

In this article, Ann Lewis, Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham, and Ian Davison, Jean Ellins, Louise Niblett, Sarah Parsons, Christopher Robertson and Jeremy Sharpe from the research team provide a summary of discussions and selected recommendations arising from four linked projects run between 2004 and 2006. The projects were funded by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and looked into the experiences of disabled pupils and their families across England, Scotland and Wales. A central aim of the research was to identify the key concerns and priorities in relation to their experiences of education for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities and their families in the UK. The research encompassed a UK-wide parent survey (N=1776); in-depth case studies of individual children and young people (N=36); group case studies (of, for example, school councils) (N=3); and a series of project advisory groups involving disabled people. Underlying these aspects was an emphasis on the importance and validity of hearing directly from (potentially all) children and young people themselves. Thus the work meshes closely with initiatives worldwide concerning the recognition of children's'voice'in matters that concern them. The authors are not aware of any comparable evidence which focuses in-depth on a wide cross-section of pupils with disabilities or special needs and their families in the UK-wide educational context and which is located alongside concurrent authoritative data concerning the views of parents and carers.     

What type of leader am I?: a training needs analysis of health library and information managers

Background: Leadership is a necessary facet of professional practice for health library and information managers (HLIMs). Several training needs analyses (TNA) in the health library and information services field have been conducted in recent years, all identifying a need for professional development in leadership skills. However, these previous TNAs have not focused on specific elements of leadership skills required by health library and information managers. Objectives: The National Library for Health (NLH) commissioned the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield to conduct a TNA where HLIMs assess their current leadership skills and identify any future development needs in this area. The results would inform a programme of influencing skills workshops. Methods: HLIMs in the UK were invited to complete a self‐assessment online questionnaire. The questionnaire utilised items from Manning and Robertson’s Influencing Skills Style Profile (ISSP). This allowed the results to be characterised by influencing ‘style’. Results: HLIMs considered themselves to have strengths in the leadership areas of influencing, negotiating, managing change and delivering presentations to decision‐makers. They identified significant development needs in communicating with stakeholders, conflict resolution, using body language and being assertive. Most HLIMs demonstrated two collaborative styles identified by the ISSP, namely strategic collaborator and opportunistic collaborator. Conclusions: In difficult times, HLIMs may need to adapt to more of an ‘opportunistic‐battler’ influencing style. It is important that HLIMs not only assess their own leadership skills but also that they take opportunities to employ 360^° feedback, comprising assessment from subordinates, peers and supervisors.     

Assessing the State of Cooperative Collection Development

ABSTRACT

The working group developed its map through a web-based survey distributed internationally via listservs. Eighty-nine preponderantly North American cooperative projects responded. Almost three-quarters of them were born in the 1990s. State-based projects are prevalent, and most projects operate in compact regions. Academic libraries appear to participate much more frequently than other types. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of the projects feature the shared purchase or archiving of electronic resources. One-third engage in selection or management of print materials, most often in area studies. Collaborative electronic purchasing has generated a boom in cooperative collection development, but traditional print-based cooperation remains rare and narrowly focused.     

Building Faculty Support for Remote Storage: A Survey of Collection Behaviors and Preferences

A seismic retrofitting project required the UCSB Library (University of California, Santa Barbara) to permanently reduce its on-site collections by 120,000 volumes. To accomplish this successfully, a strong collaboration with the faculty was essential. This article describes a planning process in which the library worked with a faculty committee to implement a campus-wide survey of faculty and graduate students regarding their behaviors and preferences in accessing and using the collections. The survey outcomes informed a common understanding of which physical materials should remain on-site and which could be moved to storage with the least impact on research and teaching.