Help or hype? Assessing digital literature review tools for graduate students

A core role for academic librarians is to support early career researchers as they develop an increasingly focused understanding of the literature in their discipline and research area in order to contribute to the development of new knowledge. Graduate students use their knowledge of the literature to develop research questions and argue for the value of their work to the broader community of scholars. This task is both intellectually and technically challenging. A dissertation or thesis requires that students demonstrate knowledge of their field as well as cite perhaps hundreds of sources. This process has long been supported by tools for collecting and citing literature, such as Zotero or EndNote. But in recent years, companies have developed tools that purport to address the challenges of this process by helping scholars identify relevant literature and even to develop summaries and analysis of existing sources through the use of AI or other automated technology. We have observed increasing interest in these tools among graduate students. At the same time, we are aware of some trepidation from librarians and faculty about the impact of such tools on graduate students’ ability to not just search for and connect the literature, but to gain a deep and focused understanding of a body of research. In particular, we are concerned about how the developers of such tools characterize the process of conducting a literature review, which should be seen as an act of intentional analysis and argumentation. In this presentation, we offer the results of an environmental scan of these tools to understand their intended use and features with an eye to understanding how the promotion of these tools describe the literature process. With this information, we then critically examine the potential of these tools for the literature review process for identifying relevant research and developing a review that supports the graduate student’s own scholarship. Given the cost to access these tools, privacy concerns for users, and known issues with AI for analysis, we propose to assess whether this technology solves many of the challenges of literature review work or whether they divert graduate students’ focus thereby hindering the ultimate goals of knowledge acquisition and production within the students’ discipline or professional field

Big Hair and Big Egos: Texan Stereotypes in American Entertainment Media as Formed Through Television Viewing.

This thesis explores the stereotypes of Texans portrayed in American entertainment media, and attempts to identify the reasons for both the existence, and persistence of these images. The study includes a brief history of Texas, and background information on the formulation of stereotypes. Cultivation theory is used to explain the process of stereotypes formed through television viewing. Content analysis of the responses from an on line survey involving 52 participants revealed that people outside the state of Texas have strong perceptions about Texans that are consistent with media representations. As the level of television viewership increased, so did the indelibility of the impressions. Those who watch more television were more likely to perceive the image of Texans as negative, and less likely to change their opinions of Texans after visiting the state

Evaluation of the Wellspring Model for Improving Nursing Home Quality

Examines how successfully the Wellspring model improved the quality of care for residents of eleven nonprofit nursing homes in Wisconsin. Looks at staff turnover, and evaluates the impact on facilities, employees, residents, and cost

Contraception Choice and Compliance Among Mothers with Opioid Addiction: Identifying Barriers to Care

West Virginia leads the nation in substance abuse deaths per capita. This epidemic has given rise to a novel population of high risk, obstetrics patients with opiate abuse. Appropriate education, counseling, and implementation of contraception is of extreme importance among this population due to risks of unintended pregnancy. This study was a retrospective chart review to determine compliance and uptake of contraceptive methods by patients in a maternal buprenorphine maintenance program prior to and following implementation of standardized contraception education and Medicaid coverage of immediate postpartum long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC). Rates of planned contraception and rates of actual method initiation were compared between two groups representing two distinct time periods before and after intervention. Rates of high efficacy contraception options, especially LARC options, were noted to statistically significantly increase following dedicated education and Medicaid coverage. Patients receiving no contraception at all significantly decreased following these interventions. Patients desiring surgical sterilization continued to encounter barriers to care as the rate of actual sterilization to desired sterilization was still very low

Implementing Electronic Tablet-Based Education of Acute Care Patients

Poor education-related discharge preparedness for patients with heart failure is believed to be a major cause of avoidable rehospitalizations. Technology-based applications offer innovative educational approaches that may improve educational readiness for patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings; however, a number of challenges exist when implementing electronic devices in the clinical setting. Implementation challenges include processes for "on-boarding" staff, mediating risks of cross-contamination with patients' device use, and selling the value to staff and health system leaders to secure the investment in software, hardware, and system support infrastructure. Strategies to address these challenges are poorly described in the literature. The purpose of this article is to present a staff development program designed to overcome challenges in implementing an electronic, tablet-based education program for patients with heart failure

Good and ‘bad’ deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a rapid qualitative study

Dealing with excess death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the question of a good or bad death' into sharp relief as countries across the globe have grappled with multiple peaks of cases and mortality; and communities mourn those lost. In the UK, these challenges have included the fact that mortality has adversely affected minority communities. Corpse disposal and social distancing guidelines do not allow a process of mourning in which families and communities can be involved in the dying process. This study aimed to examine the main concerns of faith and non-faith communities across the UK in relation to death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research team used rapid ethnographic methods to examine the adaptations to the dying process prior to hospital admission, during admission, during the disposal and release of the body, during funerals and mourning. The study revealed that communities were experiencing collective loss, were making necessary adaptations to rituals that surrounded death, dying and mourning and would benefit from clear and compassionate communication and consultation with authorities