Justify or die? - using contingent valuation of service provision in a UK public library

The public library service in the UK is currently under pressure to justify its existence. An Audit Commission report suggested that if current borrowing rates for libraries continue into the future, libraries would be effectively issuing no books by 2020. Recently the Coates Report asserted about book loans that, "in simple terms, if a service is without separate charge and the public decides not to use it, then the service is de facto without any value to these individuals". Yet Coates' simplistic notions of the services public libraries provide lies at the heart of the problem. Performance indicators based on book loans are unable to assess 'the totality of library effectiveness'. Conversely, qualitative analysis, interviewing users about service impact, shows that libraries 'promote social cohesion and community confidence'. However qualitative findings are by nature not quantitative and not comparable. To try to produce a measure for service quality, contingent valuation was chosen. It elicits economic value judgements from users on both services they use and services they do not use. A major independent study using contingent valuation was conducted by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde on East Renfrewshire Library Services, near Glasgow, which is recognised as an exemplary public library service. The study revealed the inability of contingent valuation to adequately assess the complex mix of services provided. The study concludes that an urgent rethink is required regarding measures for public library service evaluation

Control Mechanism And Punishment Strategies As Correlates Of Deviant Behaviour Reduction Among Undergraduates In Public University Libraries In South-West, Nigeria

Abstract This study assessed the menace of ICT induced deviant acts among library users most especially, undergraduates in public university libraries in South-west, Nigeria. The study looked beyond other reasons of deviance among undergraduates to see what libraries have in respect of their security mechanisms and punishment strategies to reduce deviant acts among undergraduates. Control theory was used as an anchor theory for the study because it gave a proper insight to the effectiveness of security and punishment measures on deviance reduction in the library. Survey research design was used for the study with a population of 352 library personnel in the 16 public university libraries in South-west, Nigeria. Questionnaire was used for data collection; analysis was done using percentage, frequency, standard deviant and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The results revealed that significant relationship exist between control mechanism and deviant behaviour reduction (N=275, r= -.185,

The effect of e-mental health interventions on academic performance in university and college students:A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background: Mental health symptoms are common among college and university students and these can affect their academic performance. E-mental health interventions have proven effective in addressing mental health complaints but their effect on academic performance has not been synthesized yet. Objectives: To synthesize the evidence from randomized controlled trials for the effectiveness of e-mental health interventions on academic performance in college and university students compared to inactive controls. Data sources and eligibility criteria: We searched six databases (PubMed, Cochrane library, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Web of Science) during the period January 2000 until September 2019 for randomized controlled trials that reported on e-mental health interventions (guided or unguided) for college and university students and measured academic performance (e.g. grade point average). Study appraisal and synthesis methods: Study and participant characteristics and the academic performance measures at post-intervention were extracted. The latter were pooled and Hedges' g was calculated as the effect size. Heterogeneity and publication bias were investigated. Results: Six studies containing 2428 participants were included in the meta-analysis. These focussed on either mood and anxiety or alcohol and tobacco use. The pooling of data resulted in a small but non-significant effect of g = 0.26 (95% CI, −0.00, 0.52; p = .05) on academic performance, favouring e-mental health interventions over inactive controls. Interventions had positive effects on depression (g = −0.24) and anxiety (g = −0.2). Heterogeneity was high. Discussion: Despite the small and non-significant effect, our meta-analysis points to a promising direction for the effectiveness of e-mental health interventions on academic performance. Yet, these results must be interpreted with caution, as heterogeneity was high and few studies on the effectiveness of e-mental health interventions for students reported academic performance measures

Promoting physical activity among university students: a systematic review of controlled trials

Objective: University study is often accompanied by a decline in physical activity (PA) levels but can offer the opportunity to promote a lifelong active lifestyle. This review aims to summarize controlled trials of interventions promoting PA among uni- versity students, describing the quality of the evidence, effective strategies, and deficiencies in the interventions employed, to provide directions for future research and for practical implementations. Data Source: PubMed, PsychINFO, Cochrane Library, Education Source, and SPORTDiscus. Study Inclusion Criteria: Randomized or nonrandomized controlled trial, describing an intervention to promote PA in uni- versity students, where PA was one of the outcomes and results were published in English. Data Extraction: Country, study design, participants\u2019 inclusion criteria, participation rate and characteristics, randomization, blinding, theoretical framework, intervention characteristics, participant retention rate and withdrawal reasons, measures employed, data analysis, PA results, and findings regarding PA correlates. Data Synthesis: Data were synthetized considering study characteristics, strategies used, and outcomes. Results: Two thousand five hundred eighty-five articles were identified. Twenty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen studies reported an increase in PA levels. Conclusion: Physical Activity promotion interventions should address a range of behavioral determinants. Personalized approaches and PA sessions should be considered in future studies. The high risk of bias of many studies (mainly due to attrition and poor reporting) and missing information about intervention components limit the strength of conclusions about the most effective strategies and the evidence of effectiveness, highlighting the need for further high-quality studies

Telephone support and adherence in patients with chronic disease:A qualitative review of reviews

Divya Balasubramanian,1 Joanne Yoong,1–3 Hubertus JM Vrijhoef1,3–6 1Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University Singapore, Singapore; 2Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, California, USA; 3Center for Health Services and Policy Research, National University Health System, Singapore; 4Scientific Center for Care and Welfare, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands; 5Department of Patients & Care, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 6Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium Abstract: Among patients with a chronic disease, low adherence to prescribed treatments is very common, leading to substantial morbidity, mortality, and increase in health care costs. Telephone or mobile phone support is a common form of intervention that can be used to improve their adherence. We reviewed existing systematic and nonsystematic reviews to analyze the effectiveness of telephone interventions to improve treatment adherence in patients with chronic disease. Secondary aims were to evaluate the selected reviews in terms of cost-effectiveness of the intervention and frequency of messages affecting the adherence outcomes. A search for reviews was conducted in three databases, including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and CINAHL, and three reviews that met the inclusion criteria were selected for final analysis. A qualitative review of the selected reviews was conducted, and reviews were evaluated to extract and summarize the characteristics and outcomes. Two of the selected reviews studied mobile phone text messaging, and one review studied telephone or mobile phone consultation. All three reviews reported an overall improvement in adherence, but the reviews varied in the types of research and the outcome measures. However, none of the reviews reported costs as an outcome. The evidence from reviews to characterize the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of telephone support as an intervention to improve adherence among people with chronic diseases is fairly small and weak. Telephone support interventions have to be evaluated more systematically in routine practice against a comprehensive set of criteria, including their relative costs and outcomes. Keywords: literature review, compliance, telemedicine, communicable diseases, cost-effectivenes

Faculty Input for a Subject Library Collection's Development

The consensus among scholars is that collection development in university libraries should be a collaborative effort between librarians and the faculty who patronize the library. This case study investigates the use of a blog to collate faculty feedback on prospective purchases for a departmental library. An interview gauges the librarian's reaction to the blog interface and its effectiveness, while a survey measures faculty impressions of the blog. With some customizations for this particular use case, blogs could provide a viable medium for soliciting feedback for collection development

Investigating The Sustainable Development of Tabriz University Based on Green Management Parameters and Preferences of University Managers

In recent years, the destruction of the environment on the one hand and the increase in awareness of the consequences of this great danger on the other hand, has led to global actions and consequently, local actions to protect the environment and sustainable development. One of these actions is the sustainable development of universities. The reason for the importance of this case is, firstly, the goal of the universities themselves, which as the center of knowledge and training of the country's elites, is also at the top of environmental affairs, and secondly, as a center with a large number of students and staff which can have a great impact with action for environment. In this research, by using library studies, field observations and interviews, we try to identify sustainability measures of Iranian universities in order to achieve sustainable development and finally present the results of these measures to improve the methods of establishing sustainable development in universities and provide a comprehensive and complete model taking into account all aspects of sustainable development in universities with special emphasis on the campus and its green management. A questionnaire-based on international and domestic standards on the effectiveness of green management parameters in the sustainable development of Tabriz University was prepared and sent to university administrators and faculty members, and then the top ten rankings of this questionnaire were used using interviews with Tabriz university administrators to be determined their preferences in this regard

Cooking Stone Soup: Porous Workforce Training at the Czech National Library of Technology as a Supplement to (Impermeable) University Education

As in many other countries around the world, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) libraries in the Czech Republic are facing the difficult challenge of meeting the rapidly-evolving service needs of the communities they support in an environment in which the current university educational system does not provide graduates—neither those from STEM subjects nor those graduating from Czech library/information professional schools—with the appropriate set of skills needed for working in today’s specialized information provision settings. As a result, the Czech National Library of Technology (NTK) has been forced to provide on-the-job workforce training since early 2015 to its reference, instructional, and front-lines services staff simply in order to keep pace with STEM library developments outside the Czech Republic. This weekly workforce training effort, christened NTKu (short for NTKyouniversity), does not resemble traditional university education with its rigid structures and focus on the attainment of a degree. NTKu is, instead, porous: traditional “impermeable,” less flexible university curricula are supplemented with on-demand, ever-changing targeted instruction on specific issues, topics, and skills applied immediately to real-work settings. This manner of instruction, as the authors discuss in the paper, can yield highly effective results; however, unique challenges can emerge in an instructional environment lacking traditional measures of effectiveness (i.e., grades) and requiring voluntary participation by both learners and instructors. Such porous instructional efforts resemble those of open source software (OSS) communities, in which voluntary effort can produce results benefiting a particularly community—but only to the degree of investment provided by contributors. Such initiatives resemble cooking stone soup: the results can be tasty, but everyone involved needs to bring something to the table

Enhancing information research and learning skills through e-learning : the case of Monash University Library

This paper focuses on the use of e-learning technologies for the purposes of enhancing information research and learning skills (IRLS) at Monash University Library. The objective of the research was to establish how Monash University Library integrates its vast resources and services through the medium of e-learning; what role Librarians and Learning Skills Advisers play in teaching and learning through e-learning; what measures were used to assess the effectiveness of e-learning in IRLS; what challenges Librarians and Learning Skills Advisers encountered in creating e-learning content for IRLS; and lastly, what the strengths and limitations of e-learning in the provision of IRLS are. The qualitative method was used as a research design and the population group consisted of Subject Librarians and Learning Skills Advisers from the Australian and South African campuses of Monash University. A questionnaire was used as the method of data collection.http://sajlis.journals.ac.za/pubam2016Information Scienc

Outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD: a systematic review

Introduction: The magnitude of response to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is partially influenced by the selection of outcomes and measures. Overall guidance on such subject is somewhat limited as no comprehensive systematic review has gathered all outcomes and measures used in clinical trials of PR for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We aimed to summarise all previously reported outcomes and measures to further contribute to the development of a core outcome set (COS). Methods: Searches were conducted on Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane Library, EBSCO, Science Direct and PubMed. Studies reporting on PR of stable patients with COPD were included. Data were extracted into a pre-developed standardised table. Frequency of reporting for each outcome and measure was synthesised using Microsoft Excel®. Results: 267 studies were included with 43153 patients with COPD. A broad range of outcomes (n=186) was found. PR was mostly conducted in outpatient setting (n=146) 2- 3 days/week (n=150) during 8-12 weeks (n=124). Exercise capacity (n=214) with the sixminute walk test (n=138), health-related quality of life (n=181) with the Saint George’s respiratory questionnaire (n=84), and symptoms (n=96) with the modified medical research council dyspnoea questionnaire (n=41) were mostly reported. Comorbidities and medication with the number of medication (n=1), sleep with the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (n=1) and self-management with the Flinders university PIh scale (n=1) were less reported. Conclusions: This study reinforced the need for a COS for PR in patients with COPD, as high heterogeneity in reported outcomes was found. Researchers and clinicians may now choose to use the most reported outcomes and measures to facilitate comparisons across studies, and/or use less reported outcomes and measures to investigate the effectiveness of PR.publishe