Everyone at the Same Start Line: A Library Information Literacy Certificate Program to Ensure Graduate-Level Skills

Graduate information literacy skill proficiency has arguably been one of the most difficult concerns to address for academic librarians. This poster presentation addresses our need to identify the unique challenges facing students entering a graduate academic program; how to address those needs in an effective and accessible learning environment; and engaging graduate faculty to integrate the library’s program into their diverse program areas. Areas of information include a synopsis of our literature review, faculty survey results, a draft assessment tool, and an outline of the proposed tiered instruction modules. Our literature review reveals the diversity of obstacles in ensuring graduate students are properly equipped with the information literacy skills needed to succeed. Challenges include varying levels of incoming aptitude; graduate non-homogenous information needs across different student populations and programs; and there is not yet a standard assessment tool designed to evaluate incoming graduate student proficiencies. Other contributing factors are technology deficits, time out of school, and external obligations. Adding to this is the growing popularity of online advanced degree options, which tend to isolate students in small, degree-specific information silos from which they tend not to intuitively reach out to their library or librarians for help. In Spring 2021 we began the development of a graduate information literacy certificate program to be adopted and integrated in all our graduate programs. Our development process is facilitated by a Department of Education Title V grant, devoted to enriching the academic attainment and retention of Latinx post-baccalaureate students (PODER). Among the grant objectives is a charge to integrate information literacy and research education within graduate courses. Initial graduate faculty discussions revealed a preference for an asynchronous library program, as faculty broadly agreed that graduate students were likely both mature and disciplined enough to be successful, self-directed learners. We composed and analyzed a faculty survey collecting more detailed information on preferences in modality, deployment, and outcomes of an information literacy program. From these discussions and faculty survey results, a useful and broadly applicable information literacy program specific to our graduate students has begun to develop. Our first step is a testing framework, assessing the information literacy skill proficiency of each incoming graduate student. The assessment is divided by three tiers of proficiency – foundational, advanced, and professional – with students testing out of those tiers in which they demonstrate comprehension. Students then engage with asynchronous modular library content to learn (or re-learn) the critical information literacy skills needed to succeed at the graduate level. By passing a post-assessment test, graduate students receive a certificate as part of their degree program requirements. This framework is designed to target the information literacy skill deficits seen in our incoming graduate student population, to assess what individual students will need to learn or re-learn at for graduate-level research and information assessment needs, and support their knowledge gaps by building, reinforcing, and applying iterative skill-based lessons through an asynchronous, online-accessible graduate information literacy certificate

Effectiveness of Mechanisms and Models of Coordination between Organizations, Agencies and Bodies Providing or Financing Health Services in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Effective coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises is required to ensure efficiency of services, avoid duplication, and improve equity. The objective of this review was to assess how, during and after humanitarian crises, different mechanisms and models of coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services compare in terms of access to health services and health outcomes. METHODS: We registered a protocol for this review in PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews under number PROSPERO2014:CRD42014009267. Eligible studies included randomized and nonrandomized designs, process evaluations and qualitative methods. We electronically searched Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the WHO Global Health Library and websites of relevant organizations. We followed standard systematic review methodology for the selection, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessment. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. RESULTS: Of 14,309 identified citations from databases and organizations' websites, we identified four eligible studies. Two studies used mixed-methods, one used quantitative methods, and one used qualitative methods. The available evidence suggests that information coordination between bodies providing health services in humanitarian crises settings may be effective in improving health systems inputs. There is additional evidence suggesting that management/directive coordination such as the cluster model may improve health system inputs in addition to access to health services. None of the included studies assessed coordination through common representation and framework coordination. The evidence was judged to be of very low quality. CONCLUSION: This systematic review provides evidence of possible effectiveness of information coordination and management/directive coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises. Our findings can inform the research agenda and highlight the need for improving conduct and reporting of research in this field

Control of locomotion: The effect of visual obstruction and visual cues

In this study the effects of visual obstruction and visual cues on human locomotion, when performing a targeting foot placement task while walking was examined. Subjects (N = 14) were instructed to place their foot on a target as accurately as possible while maintaining forward progression. Visual obstruction was achieved through use of basketball goggles, which blocked the subjects’ lower field of vision. There were four visual cues conditions (no visual cues, target-nonspecific-cues, target-specific-close cues, and target-specific-far cues). Accuracy was decreased by visual obstruction; this decrease was not mediated by visual cues. However, visual cues modified the swing kinematics and foot placement variability. Therefore, visual cues modified how the task was accomplished, but did not affect the outcome achieved. Increased head pitch range and head pitch minimum were observed, consistent with visual sampling prior to the target stride. Greater adjustments were observed in the penultimate stride, leading to a smooth targeting stride

Using the Health Belief Model to predict university students\u27 vaccination decisions

This cross-sectional study was undertaken to compare university students who received the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccination versus those who did not. The comparison between the immunized and non-immunized students was made in terms of gender, academic year, academic department, nationality, and the six constructs of the Health Belief Model: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self efficacy. An email with a hyperlink to an online survey was sent to 4000 university students. The online survey, “Influenza Vaccination Questionnaire,” was based on adapted questions from two earlier surveys. Construct validity was established through expert review of the survey items. Response bias, item clarity, and readability were assessed by review and feedback from 30 individuals. Reading ease and reading grade level were assessed by the Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid tests, respectively. Principal components analysis was used to reduce the items used for further analyses, and to ensure that any survey items used loaded on just one theoretical construct. Backward stepwise logistic regression analyses showed the following variables were significantly related (p \u3c 0.05) to immunization: cues to action, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits. Characteristics of the vaccination played a contributing role in the vaccination decision for college students, while the characteristics of the disease itself did not. This finding has implications for the development and implementation of future vaccination campaigns targeted at specific segments of the population

ZINC AND COPPER LEVELS IN THE EASTERN OYSTER CRASSOSTREA-VIRGINICA FROM THE LOWER JAMES RIVER

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