New measures for new roles: defining and measuring the current practices of health sciences librarians

The roles of academic health sciences librarians are continually evolving as librarians initiate new programs and services in response to developments in computer technology and user demands. However, statistics currently collected by libraries do not accurately reflect or measure these new roles. It is essential for librarians to document, measure, and evaluate these new activities to continue to meet the needs of users and to ensure the viability of their professional role. To determine what new measures should be compiled, the authors examined current statistics, user demands, professional literature, and current activities of librarians as reported in abstracts of poster sessions at Medical Library Association annual meetings. Three new categories of services to be measured are proposed. The first, consultation, groups activities such as quality filtering and individual point-of-need instruction. The second, outreach, includes activities such as working as liaisons, participating in grand rounds or morning report, and providing continuing education. The third area, Web authoring, encompasses activities such as designing Web pages, creating online tutorials, and developing new products. Adding these three measures to those already being collected will provide a more accurate and complete depiction of the services offered by academic health sciences librarians.     

Merchant of Mercy, Merchant of Death: How Values Advocacy Messages Influence Jury Deliberations

This exploratory study addresses the ability of values advocacy messages to influence target publics' behavior beyond consumer purchase decisions. In doing so, it fills a gap in the research by extending our understanding of the persuasive premises of values advocacy messages beyond rhetorical (de)construction; consumer behavior; and the establishment of typologies, definitions, and methods of inquiry. Using focus group methodology, target audience members (n=37) of a contemporary values advocacy campaign reflect upon the messages presented in the context of jury deliberations. The findings show that focus group participants would likely reduce punitive damage judgments if exposed to values advocacy messages. The social and cultural implications exposed by participants' comments reflect ongoing concern among critical scholars about the ability of corporations to manipulate public behavior and indicate the ethical conundrum between corporate and community speech.     

CrossRef and the research experience

CrossRef is an independent membership association for building collaborative publishing technologies. Its mission is to provide services that enable the scholar to reach source material easily; it focuses on methods that are best achieved through collective agreement among publishers. The CrossRef network now covers millions of journal articles and other content items from hundreds of publishers. This article looks at CrossRef's significance for the online research experience, four years after the launch of the CrossRef initiative.     

Radio as a Screen Medium in BBC Arts Broadcasting

Today more than half of all radio listening in the UK is occurring through digital platforms. Within this context the BBC’s current arts proposition provides a valuable insight into how public service broadcasters are adapting and responding to this burgeoning digital audience. In particular, attention is drawn to the ways in which digital platforms are used to supplement and enhance the auditory listening experience. In doing so, the present article argues that radio continues to occupy a significant position in furthering public engagement with the arts due to, rather than despite of, advances in digital technology.     

The University Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities

To explore the university experiences of students with learning disabilities (LD), 63,802 responses to the 2014 Student Experience in the Research University Survey were analyzed. Compared to other students, those with self‐reported LD (5.96 percent) had difficulty with assignments and had more obstacles caused by nonacademic responsibilities and imposed by their skill levels. Students with self‐reported LD sensed more bias toward people with disabilities on campus, and they were less satisfied with their overall experience. Interactions between disability status and age suggested even more challenges for older students who self‐reported LD. Approximately one‐third of students who self‐reported LD received accommodations. The rate of accommodations was higher among individuals who were wealthy, who lived alone, and who were out‐of‐state students. Compared to students who self‐reported LD but reported no accommodations, those with accommodations had more contact with faculty and less difficulty with assignments.     

Rediscovering the teacher within Indian child-centred pedagogy: implications for the global Child-Centred Approach

The Child-Centred Approach (CCA) is increasingly promoted within India and internationally as a response to the challenge of delivering quality education. From identifying and examining Indian indigenous and global concepts of CCA within traditional and contemporary child-centred pedagogic discourse, this paper reveals the complexities of underlying agendas within the domestic and international setting and the implications of this for the integration of CCA and the ‘child-centred’ teacher in India. Based on empirical analysis of teachers’ interviews, the findings demonstrate that the role of the teacher continues to be largely overlooked in spite of a willingness from teachers to engage within the child-centred pedagogic discourse. Disempowerment, a lack of autonomy and limited professional status are highlighted. Therefore, this paper calls for the rediscovery of the ‘child-centred’ teacher to advance from within the nation. Without this, it is asserted that the authenticity of the CCA model will continue to be compromised, and with it, any indigenous expressions of a similar epistemology will be fundamentally restricted.     

Efficacy of the TELL language and literacy curriculum for preschoolers with developmental speech and/or language impairment

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the efficacy of a new preschool oral language and early literacy curriculum package (Teaching Early Literacy and Language [TELL]) for children with developmental speech and/or language impairment (DSLI) either as a primary (e.g., specific to speech and/or language) or secondary impairment (e.g., developmental delay that includes DSLI). Participants included 118 children (30 females, 88 males, M age = 53.58 months) with DLSI and their 29 preschool teachers. The design was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with assignment to experimental versus contrast conditions at the classroom level. Teachers in TELL classes received formal training, in-class support, and mentoring to implement the curriculum. Dependent measures for the children included scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool 2nd edition (CELF-P2), the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK), the Renfrew Bus Story (BUS), and a receptive and expressive vocabulary measure developed for this investigation (VOCAB). Results indicated that when compared to the contrast group, children in the TELL condition demonstrated greater gains on the phonological awareness subtest of the CELF-P2, the sentence length score of the BUS, the letter sounds, beginning sound awareness, and rhyme awareness subtests of the PALS-PreK, and VOCAB. Results suggest that the TELL curriculum package has promise for promoting gains in early literacy and oral language skills in preschool children with DLSI.