Futures thinking for academic librarians : higher education in 2025

33 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.Libro Electrónico"Para los bibliotecarios académicos que tratan de demostrar el valor de sus bibliotecas en sus instituciones, es importante saber lo que va a ser valorado en el futuro para que podamos empezar a tomar las medidas apropiadas ahora. Este documento presenta 26 posibles escenarios basados en una evaluación de las implicaciones de las tendencias actuales, que pueden tener un impacto en todo tipo de bibliotecas universitarias y de investigación durante los próximos 15 años. Los escenarios representan los temas relacionados con la cultura académica, la demografía, la educación a distancia, la financiación, la globalización, la infraestructura, instalaciones, bibliotecas, clima político, la industria editorial, los valores sociales, los alumnos, el aprendizaje, y la tecnología. El informe refleja la opinión experta de los miembros de la ACRL en cuanto a sus expectativas y percepciones acerca de la probabilidad, el impacto, la velocidad del cambio, y la amenaza, oportunidades potenciales de cada escenario. Finalmente, el estudio extrae consecuencias para las bibliotecas universitarias. Para los escenarios que han sido identificados como de alto impacto con una alta probabilidad de ocurrir, es responsabilidad de los directores de bibliotecas y de aquellos que establecer agendas estratégicas para bibliotecas universitarias con el fin de poder planificar para actuar ahora sobre estos escenarios. Este informe refuerza la idea de que las bibliotecas universitarias son parte de un ecosistema más grande, y los bibliotecarios deben constantemente explorar el entorno en busca de signos de los cambios que puedan surgir. Se incluye un apéndice con una actividad sugerida para participar junto a colegas de la biblioteca en desarrollar su imaginación y teniendo en cuenta los futuros posibles. Esto puede aumentar la capacidad de participar en el pensamiento estratégico y la planificación, el apoyo a los bibliotecarios en la toma de mejores decisiones ahora que se puede abordar una variedad de diversos futuros posibles de futuros posibles" Tomado de: http://www.universoabierto.com/8045/el-futuro-de-las-bibliotecas-universitarias/ACRL has released a new report, “Futures Thinking for Academic Librarians: Higher Education in 2025,” to prompt academic librarians to consider what trends may impact the future of higher education in order to take strategic action now. Authored by David J. Staley, director of the Harvey Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching in the History Department of Ohio State University, and Kara J. Malenfant, ACRL scholarly communications and government relations specialist, the report presents 26 possible scenarios for the future which may have an impact on all types of academic libraries over the next 15 years. The scenarios are based on implications assessment of current trends and reflect a variety of potential futures for higher education. The scenarios represent a variety of themes relating to academic culture, demographics, distance education, funding, globalization, infrastructure/facilities, libraries, political climate, publishing industry, societal values, students/learning and technology."For academic librarians seeking to demonstrate the value of their libraries to their parent institutions, it is important to understand not only the current climate. We must also know what will be valued in the future so that we can begin to take appropriate action now. This document presents 26 possible scenarios based on an implications assessment of current trends, which may have an impact on all types of academic and research libraries over the next 15 years. The scenarios represent themes relating to academic culture, demographics, distance education, funding, globalization, infrastructure/facilities, libraries, political climate, publishing industry, societal values, students/learning, and technology. They are organized in a “scenario space” visualization tool, reflecting the expert judgment of ACRL members as to their expectations and perceptions about the probability, impact, speed of change, and threat/opportunity potential of each scenario. Finally, the study draws out implications for academic libraries. For scenarios which have been identified as high impact with a high probability of occurring, it is incumbent upon library directors and those who set strategic agendas for academic libraries to plan to act now upon these scenarios. This report reinforces the notion that academic libraries are part of a larger ecosystem, and librarians should be consistently scanning the environment to look for signs of the changes that may come. It includes an appendix with a suggested activity to engage library colleagues in stretching your imaginations and considering possible futures. This can build capacity to engage in strategic thinking and planning, supporting librarians in making better decisions now that can address a variety of possible futures." Tomado de: http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/06/24/futures-thinking-for-academic-librarians-higher-education-in-2025/"La prospectiva nos ayuda a comprender lo que puede pasar en el futuro -no a conocer el futuro mismo- y nos da la oportunidad -si sabemos aprovecharla- de influir en él trabajando desde el presente. Un instrumento prospectivo bastante habitual es la creación de escenarios que ayudan a las organizaciones a prever futuros posibles, a entender las diferentes maneras en que los acontecimientos pueden desarrollarse y a diseñar con acierto sus planificaciones estratégicas. Para poder ser verdaderamente útiles, los escenarios deben ser bien documentados, relevantes, pertinentes, coherentes y verosímiles. La creación de escenarios que enmarquen los planes estratégicos de las bibliotecas es relativamente frecuente ya que son un potente elemento inspirador a la hora de establecer estrategias de futuro. La técnica ha sido empleada con éxito por muchas bibliotecas que, de esta manera, han podido enfocar el uso de sus recursos y su potencial innovador hacia aquellas acciones que tendrían mayor impacto y aportarían más valor a sus usuarios. Muy a menudo las bibliotecas, a la hora de planificar, buscan horizontes a 3-5 años pero el estudio encargado por la ACRL, Futures thinking for academic librarians: Higher Education in 2025, nos propone echar un vistazo a lo que espera a las bibliotecas universitarias mucho más allá, en el horizonte de los próximos 15 años. Tomando como punto de partida las tendencias actuales, presenta 26 posibles escenarios con el fin de ayudar a descubrir qué será importante en el futuro para que, ya desde ahora mismo, las bibliotecas puedan emprender las acciones adecuadas. Los diferentes escenarios proponen una visión plausible e internamente consistente de lo que podría pasar en la posible evolución de temas clave para las bibliotecas universitarias como son la cultura académica, la demografía, la educación a distancia, la financiación, la globalización, las infraestructuras, las mismas bibliotecas, el clima político, la industria editorial, los valores sociales, los estudiantes y el aprendizaje, y la tecnología. A partir de los resultados de una encuesta, el estudio refleja las opiniones, expectativas y percepciones de los miembros de la ACRL sobre la probabilidad, impacto, velocidad de cambio y amenaza y / o oportunidad potencial de cada uno de los escenarios. Hay que indicar, sin embargo, que aunque los escenarios han sido preparados para ayudar principalmente a las bibliotecas estadounidenses, la mayoría son perfectamente plausibles y adaptables a nuestro entorno. De los 26 escenarios presentados aquel que fue considerado de más alto impacto y mayor probabilidad y, en definitiva, el que preocupó más, fue el escenario titulado "Aumento de la amenaza de la delincuencia informática" que presenta la universidad como objetivo de los piratas informáticos, que interrumpen las operaciones durante días y semanas mientras los bibliotecarios luchan por mantener la privacidad de los usuarios y se enfrentan a un creciente escrutinio y crítica en su intento de preservar la libertad intelectual en línea. Ciencia ficción? No, un escenario posible. El estudio propone otros escenarios de títulos sugerentes como "Un título universitario para cada ciudadano", "Rotura del monopolio del libro de texto", "Veo lo que ves", "Fuera del negocio" o "La longevidad es la nueva salud ". No todos acabarán siendo reales, a medida que el horizonte temporal se acerque a estos 15 años se irán transformando. Unos ganarán en detalle y certeza, otros se desvanecerán o nuevos acontecimientos les harán tomar un giro inesperado. Lo que probablemente es más importante, como dice el estudio, es no perder la visión estratégica periférica que nos ayudará a evitar ser sorprendidos por las sorpresas. Futures thinking for academic librarians: Higher Education in 2025 concluye con un apéndice que presenta una metodología sencilla para trabajar los escenarios dentro de las bibliotecas y sacar todo el provecho adaptándolos al entorno específico de cada una. De esta manera se puede estimular el pensamiento en clave de futuro y se pueden crear y poner a prueba nuevas estrategias de la biblioteca universitaria." Tomado de: http://www.ub.edu/blokdebid/es/content/escenarios-de-2025-para-bibliotecas-universitarias-de-2010-como-evitar-ser-sorprendidos-por-Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Theoretical Frameworks 4 Methodology 5 The Scenarios 7 Analysis of Findings and Discussion 21 Conclusion 23 References 23 Appendix A Methodological Notes 25 Appendix B Demographic Profile of Survey Respondents 28 Appendix C Activity: Scenario Thinking at Your Library 3

Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success

Academic librarians are connecting with campus partners in novel ways to question and discover how they bring value to their institutions. To foster these partnerships, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), with funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, launched “Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success” (AiA). This three-year program will to aid 300 postsecondary institutions of all types as they create engaged libraries of the future. Each selected institution has a team with a librarian and at least two people from other campus units. The librarians will participate in a formal 14-month professional development program and lead their campus teams in developing and implementing action-learning projects. The projects investigate library impact and consider different aspects of the academic library (e.g., collections, space, instruction, reference, etc.). They must ultimately be tied to student learning (e.g., course, program, or degree learning outcomes) and/or success (e.g., student retention, completion, or persistence). This session will report on the assessment work of the first 75 institutions. Learn about the questions they are exploring as they develop and implement action-learning projects on campus and how ACRL is developing this assessment community of practice

Exploring the contributions of the academic library to student learning

Journal ArticleMost recently, as part of our multiyear Value of Academic Libraries Initiative, ACRL joined with three partners ? the Association for Institutional Research, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the Council of Independent Colleges ? to convene two national summits in late 2011. These summits, ?Demonstrating Library Value: A National Conversation,? were the basis of a project made possible by a National Leadership Collaborative Planning Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. We invited community college, college, and university chief academic officers, senior institutional researchers, and academic librarians to share their best thinking and advice in dialogue with representatives from accreditation commissions and higher education organizations. We learned from participants about the data campus administrators would like librarians to provide and what collaborative assistance is available through institutional research offices in order to determine the professional competencies that librarians need

Influences on the Emissions of Bacterial Plasmas Generated through Nanosecond Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

In the past decade, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been shown to provide compositional data that can be used for discrimination between bacterial specimens at the strain level. This work demonstrates the viability of this technique in a clinical setting. Studies were conducted to investigate the impact of emissions generated by a nitrocellulose filter paper background on the classification of four species: E. coli, S. epidermidis, M. smegmatis, and P. aeruginosa. Limits of detection were determined as 48±12 kCFU per ablation event for new mounting procedures using standard diagnostic laboratory techniques, and a device for centrifuge filtration was designed for sampling from low-titer bacterial suspensions. Plasma emissions from samples grown at biological levels of magnesium, zinc, and glucose were shown not to deviate from controls. A limit of detection for environmental zinc was found to be 11 ppm. Discrimination with heat-killed samples was demonstrated, providing a sterile diagnostic environment

Exact two-particle eigenstates in partially reduced QED

We consider a reformulation of QED in which covariant Green functions are used to solve for the electromagnetic field in terms of the fermion fields. It is shown that exact few-fermion eigenstates of the resulting Hamiltonian can be obtained in the canonical equal-time formalism for the case where there are no free photons. These eigenstates lead to two- and three-body Dirac-like equations with electromagnetic interactions. Perturbative and some numerical solutions of the two-body equations are presented for positronium and muonium-like systems, for various strengths of the coupling.Comment: 33 pages, LaTex 2.09, 4 figures in EPS forma

UML Reflections

The UML shares with reflective architectures the idea that self-definition of languages and systems is a key principle for building and maintaining complex systems. The UML is now defined by a four-layer metalevel structure, enabling a flexible and extensible definition of models by metamodels, and even a self-description of the meta-metamodel (the MOF). This metalevel dimension of UML is currently restricted to structural reflection. But recently a new extension to the UML, called the Action Semantics (AS), has been proposed for standardization to the OMG. This paper explores how this proposed extension brings a behavioural reflection dimension to the UML. Indeed, we show that it is not only possible but quite e#ective to use the AS for manipulating UML models (including the AS metamodel). Besides elegant conceptual achievements, such as a metacircular definition of the AS, reflective modeling with the AS leverages on the UML metalevel architecture to provide the benefits of a reflective approach, in terms of separation of concerns, within a mainstream industrial context. A complete model can now be built as an ideal model representing the core concepts in the application, to which non-functional requirements are integrated as fully traceable transformations over this ideal model. For example, this approach paves the way for powerful UML-defined semantics-based model transformations such as refactoring, aspect weaving, application of design patterns or round-trip engineering

The bound mu+ mu- system

We consider the hyperfine structure, the atomic spectrum and the decay channels of the bound mu+ mu- system (dimuonium). The annihilation lifetimes of low-lying atomic states of the system lie in the nanosecond range range. The decay rates could be measured by detection of the decay products (high energy photons or electron-positron pairs). The hyperfine structure splitting of the dimuonic system and its decay rate are influenced by electronic vacuum polarization effects in the far time-like asymptotic region. This constitutes a previously unexplored kinematic regime. We evaluate next--to-leading order radiative corrections to the decay rate of low-lying atomic states. We also obtain order alpha^5 corrections to the hyperfine splitting of the 1S and 2S levels.Comment: 10 figures (eps format) attached, Scheduled tentatively by PRA for Nov/Dec 199

Semi-Analytic Approach to Higher-Order Corrections in Simple Muonic Bound Systems: Vacuum Polarization, Self-Energy and Radiative-Recoil

The current discrepancy of theory and experiment observed recently in muonic hydrogen necessitates a reinvestigation of all corrections to contribute to the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen muH, muonic deuterium muD, the muonic 3He ion, as well as in the muonic 4He ion. Here, we choose a semi-analytic approach and evaluate a number of higher-order corrections to vacuum polarization (VP) semi-analytically, while remaining integrals over the spectral density of VP are performed numerically. We obtain semi-analytic results for the second-order correction, and for the relativistic correction to VP. The self-energy correction to VP is calculated, including the perturbations of the Bethe logarithms by vacuum polarization. Subleading logarithmic terms in the radiative-recoil correction to the 2S-2P Lamb shift of order alpha (Zalpha)^5 mu^3 ln(Zalpha)/(m_mu m_N) are also obtained. All calculations are nonperturbative in the mass ratio of orbiting particle and nucleus.Comment: 10 pages; svjour style; to appear in the European Physical Journal