Is Procrastination Related to Low-Quality Data?

While it is easy to assume that university students who wait until the last minute to complete surveys for their class research requirements provide low-quality data, this issue has not been empirically examined. The goal of the present study was to examine the relation between student research procrastination and two important data quality issues—careless responding and measurement noninvariance. Data gathered from university students across two semesters tentatively indicated that procrastination is related to low-quality survey data. Procrastination was slightly more problematic for certain data quality issues (measurement noninvariance) than others (careless responding). These relations, however, were small and contingent on how procrastination and careless responding were measured. Accordingly, it seems more beneficial for researchers to select a sampling window that supports their research goals and statistical power requirements rather than select a sampling window that attempts to minimize careless survey responding or other measurement issues.     

Trends in mobile and outreach services

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on results of a questionnaire distributed to North American public libraries to determine what types of services they are providing to populations experiencing barriers to using bricks-and-mortar branches. The results indicate that many are offering homebound delivery and that bookmobiles remain popular, particularly in libraries serving large geographic areas. Some libraries are exploring kiosk, or vending machine style services. Lastly, new trends are emerging, notably pop-up libraries, vans, and book bikes.     

Cooperation Between Circulation and Reference Departments in Academic Health Sciences Libraries

User education, public relations, and reference questions are areas of library service which involve both the reference and circulation departments in academic health sciences libraries. In other ways, however, the two departments function independently in the provision of services. For accurate role perceptions to exist among staff members, there is a need to define clearly the functional boundary between the two departments. The key to increasing cooperation and encouraging joint efforts lies in understanding the public service roles of each department.     

Motivation to read in grades K – 2: a cross-cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

We examined early elementary children’s reading motivation in four different countries. Results revealed that reading motivation is a stable construct in countries like Chile, Finland, Greece, and the United States. Motivation to read followed similar patterns across the countries, with increased scores at the end of the school year. This trend differs from what has been reported in the literature for older students. Significant gender differences were observed mainly for Finnish and Greek students. Understanding early reading motivation from a cross-cultural perspective can help identify commonalities in the initial development of reading motivation, and deepen our understanding about how it may differ in different cultural contexts.     

The relationship between student understanding,satisfaction and performance in an Australian engineering programme

It has often been suggested that actual or anticipated final grades may influence the ratings given by students in student experience surveys but few studies have been able to test this using actual grades. A study was carried out involving six courses over all four year levels of an undergraduate engineering programme, where students were asked to identify themselves in an experience survey by providing their student ID on the survey form. The aim of the study was to investigate a number of questions related to the readiness of students to identify themselves, and to examine any correlation between final examination grades, ratings of student satisfaction and the students’ perception of their level of understanding of material in their courses. Students were discovered to have a poor idea of how well they understand the concepts presented in their courses. This lack of an accurate idea of their own understanding is particularly important because ‘student understanding’ correlated to the ratings they gave to the course. Ratings were largely unaffected by final marks but students who gave their ID outperformed those who did not in end‐of‐year examinations. Higher year level students were more inclined to identify themselves and ratings tended to increase with year level.     

Understanding user needs for citation management program support

Abstract

Citation management programs are tools used to organize references and to create citations and bibliographies. Libraries are often the central point for providing training and support in using these tools. To determine how we could improve our support and training services, we surveyed users to determine what software in being used, why they chose that particular program, what features are important, and how they use citation management programs to collaborate. Results indicate that users chose a particular program because it was freely available or recommended to them by others and that they thought that importing references and creating citations were important features. We also found a majority of respondents used citation management programs to collaborate and turned to the library for training and support.     

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介绍联机联合编目的含义和发展趋势,分析现阶段在我国实现联机联合编目的可行性。着重探讨在联机联合编目时代编目工作者面临的机遇与挑战,并就如何提高我国编目工作者队伍的整体素质提出建议。     

Post-GDPR survey of data protection officers in research and non-research institutions in Croatia: a cross-sectional study

IntroductionGeneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) focuses on important elements of data ethics, including protecting people’s privacy, accountability and transparency. According to the GDPR, certain public institutions are obliged to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). However, there is little publicly available data from national EU surveys on DPOs. This study aimed to examine the scope of work, type of work, and education of DPOs in institutions in Croatia.Materials and methodsDuring 2020-2021, this cross-sectional study surveyed DPOs appointed in Croatia. The survey had 35 items. The questions referred to their appointment, work methods, number and type of cases handled by DPOs, the sources of information they use, their experience and education, level of work independence, contacts with ethics committees, problems experienced, knowledge, suggestions for improvement of their work, changes caused by the GDPR, and sociodemographic information.ResultsOut of 5671 invited DPOs, 732 (13%) participated in the study. The majority (91%) indicated that they could perform their job independently; they did not have prior experience in data protection before being appointed as DPOs (54%) and that they need additional education in data protection (82%).ConclusionsMost DPOs indicated that they had none or minimal prior experience in data protection when they were appointed as DPO, that they would benefit from further education on data protection, and exhibited insufficient knowledge on basic concepts of personal data protection. Requirements for DPO appointments should be clarified; mandatory education and certification of DPOs could be introduced and DPOs encouraged to engage in continuous education.     

A Librarian-Centered Study of Perceptions of Subject Terms and Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled vocabulary and subject headings in OPAC records have proven to be useful in improving search results. The authors used a survey to gather information about librarian opinions and professional use of controlled vocabulary. Data from a range of backgrounds and expertise were examined, including academic and public libraries, and technical services as well as public services professionals. Responses overall demonstrated positive opinions of the value of controlled vocabulary, including in reference interactions as well as during bibliographic instruction sessions. Results are also examined based upon factors such as age and type of librarian.