Say Cheese

The last few weeks have been very busy; my project has finally gotten underway! It features several students, and it has been a lot of fun getting them together to take these photos that will be used to promote Reference Desk services. The philosophy is that other students will see these pictures and since it features people they know it will entice them to stop and read the posters or web banners. Hopefully these will be up and around the library the week before finals and students will utilize the Reference Desk more. [excerpt

#advertising #werk

Project: Ask Us. This project that has been in the works for quite some time is finally coming to fruition and I’m very excited about it. At the start of the semester it was very unclear what my project would be in this wide-world of librarianship and how to relate it back to the Reference Desk. Luckily for me the Reference department has been undergoing a sort of marketing revival and I get to help. Admittedly, I knew nothing about how to market the skills of reference librarians but after reading many articles, I think we have a winning strategy. [excerpt

Meetings, Weedings, Development.. Oh My!

Hello!! Since the last time I posted a lot has happened and so far, still good. That’s not to say I haven’t needed help on a few Reference Questions but things are going pretty well. I’ve had a few ‘RefWins’ where I’ve felt that I was particularly helpful, one was even over chat! Everything is going great thus far and I’m definitely learning, a lot. [excerpt

The Semester is Over?!?!

Big News! My project for the semester is finally done! After reading through a lot of information on the best tactics for promoting a Reference Desk we finally found. After tailoring to our needs and putting our own flair on it we then had to find the students to help us. [excerpt

Dilation theory in finite dimensions and matrix convexity

We establish a finite-dimensional version of the Arveson-Stinespring dilation theorem for unital completely positive maps on operator systems. This result can be seen as a general principle to deduce finite-dimensional dilation theorems from their classical infinite-dimensional counterparts. In addition to providing unified proofs of known finite-dimensional dilation theorems, we establish finite-dimensional versions of Agler's theorem on rational dilation on an annulus, of Berger's dilation theorem for operators of numerical radius at most 1, and of the Putinar-Sandberg numerical range dilation theorem. As a key tool, we prove versions of Caratheodory's and of Minkowski's theorems for matrix convex sets

Librarianship is Neat!

I’ve got a few weeks under my belt now with this Internship and so far, so good. I’ll be totally honestly though, when I first started every time someone came near the desk I got a little nervous because after 3.5 years I thought I knew my way around the Library; nope. BUT, now with three weeks of perusing research guides, databases, asking a zillion questions and rereading everything in my training guide approximately three times, I feel confident that I can be helpful, and that’s great! [excerpt

The significant impact of education, poverty, and race on Internet-based research participant engagement

PURPOSE: Internet-based technologies are increasingly being used for research studies. However, it is not known whether Internet-based approaches will effectively engage participants from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. METHODS: A total of 967 participants were recruited and offered genetic ancestry results. We evaluated viewing Internet-based genetic ancestry results among participants who expressed high interest in obtaining the results. RESULTS: Of the participants, 64% stated that they were very or extremely interested in their genetic ancestry results. Among interested participants, individuals with a high school diploma (n = 473) viewed their results 19% of the time relative to 4% of the 145 participants without a diploma (P < 0.0001). Similarly, 22% of participants with household income above the federal poverty level (n = 286) viewed their results relative to 10% of the 314 participants living below the federal poverty level (P < 0.0001). Among interested participants both with a high school degree and living above the poverty level, self-identified Caucasians were more likely to view results than self-identified African Americans (P < 0.0001), and females were more likely to view results than males (P = 0.0007). CONCLUSION: In an underserved population, engagement in Internet-based research was low despite high reported interest. This suggests that explicit strategies should be developed to increase diversity in Internet-based research. Genet Med 19 2, 240–243