Elements of Employment Related Disclosure of Disability after Brain Injury

Few studies have examined the elements of disclosing a disability in the workplace. Those few studies had a primary focus on reasonable accommodations (RA) where the disclosure process was either secondary or tertiary to the study. Further, there have been no studies to date which have examined elements of disclosure for individuals with brain injury (BI). Disclosure of disability is a crucial first step in the request process for a reasonable accommodation in the workplace and is required by the ADA for individuals requesting job related accommodations. This study examined the (a) experiences of work-related disability disclosure for individuals with BI, (b) the injury, demographic and other factors associated with the decision to disclose a disability at work, and (c) employment-related outcomes associated with disclosure. The primary goal of the current study is to describe the population of people with brain injury who disclose their disability in the workplace and to make inferences about the contributing factors involved in the disclosure process. The study used a cross-sectional survey methods research design. The study consisted of 200 individuals recruited from an online survey hosted on the Brain Injury Association of America's website. Of these participants, 144 (74.6%) disclosed their disability on at least one job and 91 (45%) were currently working. Level of education (X2 =11.945, 3, p=.008), self-efficacy score (F=7.52; p=.007) and time between injury and current age (F=4.56; p=.034) were significantly related to disclosure. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the combined effects of several predictor variables with disclosure. In this analysis, only time since injury and self-efficacy (SE) scores were significant, where higher SE scores increased the odds of disclosure, and time since injury decreases the odds of disclosure (the more recent the injury, the more likely the individual was to disclose)

Supporting collaborative information retrieval in the virtual library

The advent of the virtual library is usually presented as a welcome development for library users. Unfortunately, this tends to reinforce the perception of the use of information resources as a solitary activity. In fact, as many studies have emphasised, information retrieval (IR) in the conventional library is often a highly collaborative activity, involving users' peers and experts such as librarians. Failure to take this into account in the design of virtual library services may result in its users being disadvantaged and denied timely and effective access to sources of assistance. Our focus here is on collaboration between users and librarians. We report an investigation of collaboration issues as seen from the perspective of librarians' and users' contexts and encapsulated in the notion of genre. Finally, we describe the design of a pilot multimedia-based system intended to support collaboration between librarians and IR system users

Using a dumb number to do smart things: learning to dance with ISSN

Abstract This written celebration of 40 years of the ISSN Network is written in two parts. The first takes its starting point in about 1995, about halfway in the life of the ISSN Network, when the Internet was well established and the Web was beginning to have significance for scholarly communication. As this was also when contact was made with the ISSN International Centre and EDINA was being established, this chronicles some of their joint activity over the past twenty years. This makes reference to the role the ISSN has had in identifying serial content during the shift from the print to the digital. The second part reflects upon the relationship between the Web, the Scholarly Record and the ISSN as part of a forward look to the next twenty to forty years. An underlying theme is focus on how to ensure continuity of access to the digital back copy of issued content from old and new forms of seriality. Keywords: ISSN. Library. Distributed systems. Digital preservation. Open Access. Usando um número silencioso para fazer coisas inteligentes: aprendendo a dançar com o ISSN Resumo Esta celebração aos 40 anos da rede ISSN é escrita em duas partes. A primeira inicia por volta de 1995, próximo da meia-vida da rede ISSN, quando a Internet estava bem estabelecida e a Web começava a ter significância para a comunicação acadêmica. Como também foi o período em que se fez contato com o Centro Internacional do ISSN e EDINA estava se estabelecendo, narram-se algumas de suas atividades conjuntas nos últimos vinte anos. Faz referência ao papel do ISSN na identificação de conteúdo seriado durante a mudança do impresso para o digital. A segunda parte reflete sobre o relacionamento entre Web, o Registro Acadêmico e o ISSN como parte de uma visão de futuro para os próximos vinte a quarenta anos. Um tema subjacente é o foco, sobre como assegurar a continuidade de acesso à cópia digital de conteúdo publicado pelas formas novas e antigas de publicações seriadas. Palavras-chave: ISSN. Biblioteca. Sistemas distribuídos. Preservação digital. Acesso aberto. Usando um número silencioso para hacer cosas inteligentes: aprendiendo a bailar con el ISSN Resumen Esta celebración de los 40 años de la red ISSN es escrita en dos partes. La primera empieza aproximadamente en 1995, cerca de la mitad de la vida de la red ISSN, cuando la Internet estaba bien establecida y la Web empezava a tener importancia para la comunicación académica. Como también fue el período en que se contactó el Centro Internacional del ISSN y EDINA se estabelecía, son narradas algunas de sus actividades en conjuntos en los últimos veinte años. Hace referencia al papel del ISSN en la identificación de contenido seriado durante el cambio del impreso al digital. La segunda parte refleja sobre el relacionamento entre Web, el Registro Académico y el ISSN como parte de una visión de futuro para los próximos veinte a cuarenta años. Un tema subyacente es el enfocado, sobre como asegurar la continuidad del acceso a la copia digital de contenido publicado por las formas nuevas y antíguas de publicaciones seriadas. Palavras-chave: ISSN. Biblioteca. Sistemas distribuídos. Preservação digital. Acesso aberto

Tales from The Keepers Registry: Serial Issues About Archiving & the Web

A key task for libraries is to ensure access for their patrons to the scholarly statements now found across the Internet. Three stories reveal progress towards success in that task. The context of these stories is the shift from print to digital format for all types of continuing resources, particularly journals, and the need to archive not just serials but also ongoing ‘integrating resources’ such as databases and Web sites. The first story is about The Keepers Registry, an international initiative to monitor the extent of e-journal archiving. The second story is about the variety of ‘serial issues’ that have had to be addressed during the PEPRS (Piloting an E-journals Preservation Registry Service) project which was commissioned in the UK by JISC. These include identification, naming and identification of publishers, and the continuing need for a universal holdings statement. The role of the ISSN, and of the ISSN-L, has been a key. The third story looks beyond e-journals to new research objects and the dynamics of the Web, to the role of citation and fixity, and to broader matters of digital preservation. This story reflects upon seriality, as the Web becomes the principal arena and medium for scholarly discourse. Scientific discourse is now resident on the Web. Much that is issued on the Web is issued nowhere else: it is a digital native. Statistics that indicate the extent of archiving for e-journals to which major university libraries subscribe are also included in the article

Handling Repository-Related Interoperability Issues: the SONEX Workgroup

12 pages, 4 figures.-- Contributed to: 2nd DL.org Workshop "Making Digital Libraries Interoperable: Challenges and Approaches" (Glasgow, Sep 9-10, 2010).To be published by Springer in its 'Lecture Notes in Computer Science' series.Sharing of scholarly content through a network of Open Access repositories is becoming commonplace but there is still need for systematic attention into ways to increase the rate of deposit into, and transfer of content across, the OA repository space. This is a report of the work of a small international group, supported by JISC, with remit to describe, analyse and make recommendations on deposit opportunities and use cases that might provide a framework for project activity geared to the ingest of research papers and other scholarly works. The multi-authored, multi-institutional work is put forward as the default, and nine use case actors are listed, as deposit agents, with four main use case scenarios. There is also some comment and pointers to projects in Europe which address some of these use case scenarios.Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)Publicad

An enquiry into the use of numeric data in learning & teaching

Within UK higher education the renewed attention to learning and teaching is an impetus for change. Advances in information technology create new space for learning beyond the traditional classroom lecture format. New initiatives are creating networked teaching materials for shared use across institutions. But little is known about the readiness of teachers and students to take advantage of these resources for teaching and study. Are universities providing the support needed for using these networked resources in classrooms, computer labs, and independent study? An academic Task Force on the use of numeric data in learning and teaching has issued a report on the barriers faced by teachers and students to using national data services across a number of disciplines, including but not limited to the social sciences. The enquiry focused on numeric data, which involves a higher number of skills to use than many other types of information resources. Results were analysed from a national survey of teaching departments in universities, and seven case studies of real-life teaching scenarios in both post- and undergraduate classes in several disciplines. The Task Force contributed views from their own significant experience of teaching in academia as well. The project is part of a national development programme on learning and teaching funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). Its unique focus within the set of projects is on the value of introducing statistical data such as area census statistics, sample survey datasets, and economic trend data to the educational experience of students, particularly when students actively take part in analysing the data, and practice drawing conclusions from empirical evidence. The enquiry found that despite established use of quantitative secondary analysis of national datasets in research, a number of issues make its use in teaching and students’independent study difficult, and therefore rare. Whilst print tables and graphs are often used by lecturers in teaching empirical subjects, statistical files requiring ‘hands- on’ computer analysis are not commonly built into the teaching design, except in methods courses. Yet these are transferable skills needed by today’s graduates to enter the professions or advanced study. Only one-quarter of survey respondents who said they used data in the classroom had considered using the nationally funded academic data services provided by the Data Archive (at Essex), MIMAS (at Manchester), or EDINA (at Edinburgh) as a source of the data used in their teaching. The survey uncovered a number of barriers experienced by teachers in the use of these services, namely a lack of awareness of relevant materials, lack of sufficient time for preparation, complex registration procedures, and problems with the delivery and format of the datasets available. These problems were elaborated in open-ended comments by respondents and in the case studies of current teaching practice. A compounding problem is the lack of local support for teachers who would like to incorporate data analysis into substantive courses. A majority of the survey respondents said that the level of support for data use in their own institutions was ad-hoc. Peer support was more common than support from librarians and computing service staff, and over one-third received no support whatever. The top three forms of local support needed were data discovery/ locating sources, helping students use data, and expert consultation for statistics and methods (for staff). The Task Force analysed the results of the sur vey and the experiences expressed in the case studies and issued recommendations for UK higher education, summorised below: 1. A broad initiative is recommended to promote subject-based statistical literacy for students, coupled with tangible support for academic teaching staff who wish to incorporate empirical data into substantive courses. 2. The development of high-quality teaching materials for major UK datasets must be funded adequately, in order to provide salience to subject matter and demonstrate relevant methods for coursework. 3. The national data services need to improve the usability of their datasets for learning and teaching. 4. A more concerted and co-ordinated promotion of the national data services could then follow, which is responsive to user demand. 5. Universities should develop IT strategies that include data services and support for staff and students, and integration of empirical datasets into learning technologies