Annotated Bibliography: The Reference Desk: Grand Idea or Gone Down the River?

This bibliography is from a panel presentation at the 2017 ACL Conference. The goal of this panel was to explore different rationales or sets of values that illustrated the continuation of the reference desk and reference service as essential to the success of the academic community. We discovered that “what to do with reference” is far from a settled question. We discovered passionate arguments, diverse models, and an array of data. In this current stage of figuring out the value of academic libraries to the campus as a whole and to students in particular, it seemed that there was limited hard data connecting Reference services to how they met students’ needs. How do we make ourselves valuable, important, essential, and useful? Maybe we need to change our model? If so, how do we examine ourselves and our environment appropriately to make this happen? What factors should we examine? Which ones must we keep? What things can we discard or change? When students come to seek assistance, they generally need the short, instant, and personal help, without having to attend a whole training session or class. Individual and personalized guidance for their immediate need is the most important factor for them. How do libraries provide that

Southwestern University Community Perception on the Implementation of Active Workstations on Campus

Physical inactivity is a leading health concern facing our nation. The implementation of active workstations on college campuses serves to help reduce the amount of sedentary activity and increase physical activity of the campus community. PURPOSE: To see if the Southwestern community not only utilizes active workstations, but also perceives them to have an impact on their physical activity, productivity, and stress levels. METHODS: Forty-three students and twenty faculty members participated in a questionnaire regarding the physical activity level (Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire), sedentary behavior, and perception and use of the active workstations located on campus. Student participants were recruited via flyers through online solicitation as well as at the active workstations while faculty in the Fondren Jones Science Building were emailed the questionnaire link. Data was analyzed using Qualtrics Reports, two-tailed independent t-tests, and Cohen’s d to determine effect size. RESULTS: Ninety percent of students and eighty percent of faculty ranked as “Active” on the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. There was a significant difference (t(36), p= 0.007) between faculty (n=18) and students (n=43) over the belief that their productivity and/or concentration increased while working by using this active workstation compared to a standard desk. There was a significant difference (t(33), p= 0.005) between faculty (n=18) and students (n=43) over the belief that their stress and/or anxiety levels decreased while working by using this active workstation compared to a standard desk. Students were more likely to reduce sedentary activity when spending time with friends or family who would prefer to be seated when compared to faculty (Cohen’s d= 0.53). Students were more likely to believe that their physical activity increased with usage of the active workstation when compared with faculty (Cohen’s d =0.50). CONCLUSION: Overall, students found active workstations to be more beneficial in regards to productivity, physical activity, and lowering stress levels when compared to faculty who use sit-to-stand desks. Positive student perception has led to more initiatives to increase the availability and accessibility of active workstations around the campus community. Specifically in areas in which students tend to spend long hours engaging in sedentary practices (i.e. studying)

Interdisciplinary design of a pervasive fall handling system

C

Raising the Bar on Training at Valparaiso University

We have recently overhauled our IT training program that we offer our students, faculty and staff. In the past, the training program consisted of sessions about changes to campus systems or sessions related to very specific software uses such as mail merge or tables. Users can now expect that training will be more than software use and how-to’s. We have started looking at ways to enhance our clients overall use of campus technology. As we examined ways to better serve our campus community, we engaged in qualitative observations in many areas. We examined how our graduate students were using technology to collaborate. The faculty were observed by our training staff to see how they were employing campus technology in courses and integrating technology into their assignments given to students. We interviewed our Help Desk Student Consultants to see what they observed as major training goals throughout the campus based on their interactions with clients. Upon completion of our observations, we outline our course development plans for increasing technology integration and full use of our campus technology offerings to further our mission of enhancing learning, teaching and job function through technology. Our goal is to reach beyond the software functionality and take our clients to the apex of relevance and application

Evaluation of exercises designed to increase children's use of descriptive words.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Aiming for service excellence: Implementing a plan for customer service quality at a blended service desk

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success

Site investigation for the effects of vegetation on ground stability

The procedure for geotechnical site investigation is well established but little attention is currently given to investigating the potential of vegetation to assist with ground stability. This paper describes how routine investigation procedures may be adapted to consider the effects of the vegetation. It is recommended that the major part of the vegetation investigation is carried out, at relatively low cost, during the preliminary (desk) study phase of the investigation when there is maximum flexibility to take account of findings in the proposed design and construction. The techniques available for investigation of the effects of vegetation are reviewed and references provided for further consideration. As for general geotechnical investigation work, it is important that a balance of effort is maintained in the vegetation investigation between (a) site characterisation (defining and identifying the existing and proposed vegetation to suit the site and ground conditions), (b) testing (in-situ and laboratory testing of the vegetation and root systems to provide design parameters) and (c) modelling (to analyse the vegetation effects)