Ask Them—They’ll Tell You! Eliciting Student Perspectives to Improve Services

Most people avoid doing qualitative research because they think it is not scientifically rigorous and requires time and lots of money. In fact, there is a lot one can do with little overhead that reaps immediate benefits for improving services and gaining unexpected valuable insights. This study uses a web redesign and assessment project to showcase some simple ways to get useful information from students. Library web pages provide the main access point to many of the library’s services and resources, which also continue to change and accrue. Does the web site really serve students\u27 research needs today? Where do you focus energy on needed improvements? How do you integrate new services? What resources do you need to do it? In this essay, discover how to use quick and inexpensive methods to grab student feedback in order to help revise and assess web pages and other services. Learn how to identify common issues for focused improvements. Gain insight on research deficiencies perhaps better addressed through teaching and other services. The researcher presents findings on several methods used to gain students\u27 perspectives before a major web page redesign and after “improvements” some months later

Students Versus the Research Paper: What Can We Learn?

If we are to develop library services that meet the expectations of our patrons in this changing technological environment, we must first understand how they currently interact with our information services and systems. This paper presents preliminary results from a qualitative study that elicits perspectives of undergraduates engaged in writing research papers. Because this study has been in progress since the early nineties, results also reflect ways in which technological advances such as the Internet may have altered strategies. Findings highlight some commonly used information gathering strategies, issues which impact motivation and use of time, and sources of help students consult most often in the process. Implications and recommendations for librarians conclude the paper

Improving Primo Usability and Teachability with Help from the Users

In the aftermath of a consortium migration to a shared cloud-based resource management and discovery system, a small college library implemented a web usability test to uncover the kinds of difficulties students had with the new interface. Lessons learned from this study led to targeted changes, which simplified aspects of searching, but also enhanced the librarians’ ability to teach more effectively. The authors discuss the testing methods, results, and teaching opportunities, both realized and potential, which arose from implementing changes

New Zealand farmers and environmental legislation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in AgriCommerce at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Agriculture is critical to feeding the world’s ever-increasing population but in doing so it uses the planet’s natural resources. Therefore, to remain viable and safeguard our natural resources, agriculture needs to be environmentally sustainable. Governments worldwide have introduced various methods to protect the environment under farming regimes, ranging from voluntary approaches to regulation. This thesis firstly compares two methods of legislation, that of the European Union and of New Zealand. Secondly it explores the views on environmental legislation of six farmers from the lower South Island of New Zealand. The literature review covers the subjects of the natural environment with respect to agriculture, environmental legislation in the European Union and New Zealand, the decision making process of farmers, and the impacts the legislation has on farmers. The legislation comparison was embedded in a study by the European Commission Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development to which the author contributed. The results showed that there were limited differences between the European Union and New Zealand with respect to dairy and sheep environmental compliance costs with no country studied being disadvantaged. The research for understanding the views of six farmers used a multi-case embedded exploratory method of research with qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews. The impact of environmental legislation on the farmers resulted in a number of outcomes including financial, environmental, risk to property rights, the influence of environmental groups and the public, and different interpretations and enforcement by those who administer the RMA. These outcomes affected the farmers by causing satisfaction, uncertainty and stress

The Dark Soul of the People. Slaves in Mauritius, 2000

The aim of this study was to focus on a demographic interpretation of slavery in Mauritius. The slave-owning class left many documents that dealt with slavery, such as despatches, reports, newspapers, gazettes, and slave registers. These records were written from the perspective of the masters and the slaves themselves were silent about what their lives were like. A demographic analysis, although it is based on information from the slave owners, allowed a broader perspective. Each item of information about thousands of individual slaves, when aggregated into a whole, allowed a broader picture of slavery that neither the slaves nor the owners could possibly have seen. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the collective experience of Mauritian slaves in that way. However, a purely demographic analysis has its limits: it focused on a "snap-shot" of a population at a particular time — in this case, part of the Mauritian slave population in 1835. Yet the shape and experience of a population is grounded in its history.This study therefore attempted to contextualise the 1835 slave population by reviewing the history of slavery in Mauritius from its introduction in the seventeenth century. Further, the demographic analysis itself was embedded in the literature of Mauritian and other slave systems. This study aimed, therefore, to integrate the literature with a demographic approach to Mauritian slavery

PKD1 Inhibits AMPK2 through Phosphorylation of Serine 491 and Impairs Insulin Signaling in Skeletal Muscle Cells

Background: Diminished activity of the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is associated with impaired insulin signaling. Results: Protein Kinase (PK)C/D1 activation inhibits AMPK2 via Ser491 phosphorylation; PKD1 inhibition prevents this in skeletal muscle cells. Conclusion: PKD1 is a novel upstream AMPK-kinase that phosphorylates AMPK on Ser491 and regulates insulin signaling. Significance: PKD1 inhibition may be a novel strategy for improving insulin sensitivity