On Being a New Librarian

This article includes tips and information from a new librarian as she reflects on her first year. Topics covered include professional development, mentoring, writing a manual, and reading the literature

Music Across Campus: a Study of Streaming Technology Use in Iowa Academic Libraries

This article looks at the use of streaming audio in a small subsection of academic libraries. The results of a survey are presented, in addition to a brief review of the library literature. The issues of adding a streaming technology program include computer hardware and software, funding, access, feedback, copyright, and local policy

Should We Flip the Script?: A Literature Review of Deficit-Based Perspectives on First-Year Undergraduate Students’ Information Literacy

This mixed method systematic review considers recent literature on the information literacy (IL) skills of first-year undergraduate students. The review uncovers the following themes: faculty and librarians perceive first-year students as lacking IL skills; students have varying perceptions of their IL skills; assessment studies yield conflicting findings on first-year students\u27 IL; communication between high school and college librarians is challenging; and some IL researchers emphasise and leverage first-year students\u27 prior knowledge and experience in IL instruction. These themes emerge from extensive searches in four research databases for scholarly and professional articles written in English within the past ten years. With the exception of a few articles, studies reviewed consistently express their findings in terms of students’ gaps or deficits. We question whether this is the most productive basis for developing effective IL programs. Instead, we call for further investigation of students’ existing knowledge and skills as a basis for implementing constructivist and strengths-based pedagogies

The 800-pound Gorilla in the Room, or, How to Explain To a Non-Librarian What a Cataloger Is.

Librarians often find it difficult to explain what we do. Catalogers often find it difficult to explain to other librarians what we do. This article offers some suggestions

The Applicability of Video Self-Modeling for Adults With Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities

Video Self-Modeling (VSM) has shown to be an effective intervention in modifying maladaptive behaviors in children, particularly those with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (ID/DD). Although the effectiveness of VSM with children with ID/DD has been well established in the extant literature, considerably fewer studies have addressed the applicability of VSM with adults of the same population. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine the utility of VSM with three adults with ID/DD, specifically targeting table manners as the behavior of interest for the intervention. Two aspects of table manners were measured utilizing a multiple baseline design: food spillage on the person and appropriate napkin use. Data were graphed and analyzed on the basis of level, trend, and variability. Results indicated that the intervention was successful with Participant 2 on the appropriate napkin use variable, but not on food spillage on the person. Participants 1 and 3 did not evidence significant changes in behavior following the introduction of the VSM intervention. Possible reasons for the limited success of this intervention include the complexity of the target behaviors, age of participants at age of intervention, and lack of changes in environment to reinforce learning gained from videos. Future research should examine possible limits of the VSM technique as well as ways of utilizing the VSM procedure to function most effectively with older adults

de Rham Cohomology, Homotopy Invariance and the Mayer-Vietoris Sequence

This thesis will discuss the de Rham cohomology, homotopy invariance and the Mayer-Vietoris sequence. First the necessary information for this thesis is discussed such as differential p-forms, the exterior derivative as well as pull back of a map. The de Rham cohomology is defined explicitly, some properties of the de Rham cohomology will also be discussed. It will be shown that the de Rham cohomology is in fact a homotopy invariant as well as some examples using homotopy invariance are provided. Finally the Mayer-Vietoris sequence will be established, an example of using the Mayer-Vietoris sequence to compute the de Rham cohomology of groups of spheres is provided

Happily Ever After? Redefining Womanhood and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century Novels

Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, and Henry James challenged patriarchal conventions and assumptions by redefining womanhood and marriage in their novels, particularly by breaking from the traditional marriage ending. While Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and Jane Eyre end in marriage, these novels depict a freely chosen companionate marriage based on equality; Villette replaces the typical marriage ending with complete independence; and Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady both portray the decisive rejection of the marriage ideal for a life of renunciation. This thesis analyzes the ways in which these novels challenge nineteenth-century society, as well as the ways they fail to break free from the confines of patriarchy. It looks at the ways in which each novel portrays womanhood and marriage and questions whether the novel presents a realistic alternative for women struggling to attain independence in an oppressive society

An evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Test of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

The Test of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia (TODD) was designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of dyslexia in a theoretically based and timely manner. It is based on the work of Padget, Knight, and Sawyer (1996) and Wolf (1999) and includes measures of intelligence, academic achievement, and basic cognitive processes believed to be related to reading. The TODD was administered to 105 students ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old. These children were randomly selected from two schools in a school district in East Tennessee. Each child was administered the entire TODD battery. Measures of reliability and construct validity were obtained. Results suggest that the TODD has adequate reliability based on measures of internal consistency. Reliabilities ranged from .97 to .68 and are comparable to other similar assessment instruments. The first measure of construct validity was completed using age-to-raw score correlations. Correlations for each TODD subtest were significant at the .01 level and ranged from .38 to .80. Finally, exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the factor structure of the 8 subtests used to measure the basic cognitive processing variables. Data from the initial factor analysis and from the reliability analysis led to the decision to eliminate one subtest-Auditory Gestalt: Closure and to perform a 2 nd exploratory factor analysis. This 2nd factor analysis yielded Two and Three Factor Models that seemed consistent with current reading research. Factor One of the Two Factor Model, called Auditory Processing, included: Memory of Symbols (.81), Phonological Awareness (.80), Word Memory (.77), Auditory Gestalt: Synthesis (.71) and Rapid Symbol Naming (.65). Factor Two, called Visual Processing/Speed, contained Visual Processing: Closure (.94) and Visual Processing: Discrimination (.81). Visual Processing: Discrimination has a secondary loading of .46 on Factor One and Rapid Symbol Naming has a secondary loading of .59 on Factor Two. The Three Factor Model . showed similar loadings but resulted in a separate Memory Factor defined by loadings of the Word Memory (.90), Memory for Symbols (.50), and Rapid Symbol Naming (.47) subtests on a 3 rd factor. Results of this study suggest that the TODD shows promise for providing professionals with a tool that will enhance the assessment and diagnosis of dyslexia