What We Do Best: Quality Collections Care Practices in Small Museums in Utah

Small museums occupy a distinctive niche in the world of museums. They hold unique objects in their collections, exhibit them, and educate the public about them. All museums have the challenge to care for collections in a manner that will enhance their preservation for future generations. Large museums have paid staff and budgets for collections care. Small museums, as used in this study, have one full-time staff person or less, who are often inadequately trained in caring for collections. Nevertheless, they still must work to preserve their collections for the future. In this qualitative study, the grounded theory method was used to identify and recommend quality collections care practices in small Utah museums for developing training programs in collections care. There are small museums that practice aspects of quality collections care. These museums were identified using survey forms and Performance Goals records in the Utah Office of Museum Services. Seventeen staff and employees from 15 small museums were interviewed. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis to categorize the comments. Themes emerged in response to two research questions: \u27What are quality collections care practices in Utah\u27 and \u27How are staff and volunteers of small museums in Utah trained in quality collections care practices?\u27 Themes from the collections care aspect centered on knowing what you have and caring for what you have. These included use of the PastPerfect Software Program; timely processing of museum objects; and following the museum\u27s mission, security, housekeeping, and preventative conservation. Themes from the training aspect centered on training efforts within the museum, and training received, learned, or gained through efforts outside the museum. These included the Internet for training, sharing information, workshops and conferences, and mentors and networks. Application of the themes to collections care was discussed, including suggestions for implementation. This was followed by a discussion of the role of small museums, volunteers in small museums, state museum organizations, quality collections care practices, and training for collections care. Finally, an alarm was sounded for some serious issues confronting small museums in Utah, ending with recommendations for further study

Mentoring in the learning community: Problematic practices and outcomes of initial implementation of formal mentoring programs in two New Hampshire public school districts

This qualitative study uses a grounded theory methodology to examine how seven teacher mentors in two formalized New Hampshire public school mentoring programs conceptualize their roles and what happens to that conceptualization as they go through their first year of mentoring. The findings suggest that mentors, who have a history of engagement in buddy support, have difficulty shifting their conceptualization of supporting new teachers from the directive practices characteristic of buddy support to the relational practices that characterize learning-focused mentoring. Simply having a formal mentoring structure does not ensure such a shift. In fact, a number of major drawbacks to mentoring were observed. In addition to data collected from the two public school mentoring programs, anecdotal data of three participants in a New Hampshire state pilot mentoring program (Project ACROSS) are also examined and discussed in order to illuminate program structures that may lead to professional development for both mentor and mentee. In conclusion, I propose an approach to mentoring where all teachers engage in co-mentoring and the learning community supports new teacher development rather than having a single mentor take on the sole responsibility

Faculty Senate Chronicle for March 3, 2016

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on March 3, 2016

Results of the 2003-2004 Illinois Youth Hunter Survey

Federal Aid Project Number W-112-R-13, Job Number 103.1, Wildlife Restoration Fund, July 1, 2003 - Sept. 30, 2004Report issued on: December 22, 200

Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Metabolic Diseases on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) are industrial chemicals that were used from 1929 until 1979 as a plasticizer in paints, plastics, and rubber products. However, PCBs continue to persist in the Arctic. They enter the Arctic environment through air and ocean currents. Sunlight and weathering help break down chemicals, so the Arctic’s lack of sunlight and precipitation during the winter allows PCBs to more readily accumulate. These chemicals settle either on organic films or water and are consequently absorbed by the Arctic food web. PCBs then bioaccumulatep in fatty tissues like omega-3 fatty acids. The higher the animal is in the food web, the greater the accumulation of PCBs in its fatty tissue. The Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska rely on a diet that largely consists of bowhead whales, walruses, and seals, all of which are high in omega-3 fatty acids and are near the top of the Arctic food web. Humans occupy the top of the food web and so therefore accumulate the highest concentration of PCBs in their omega-3 fatty acids. Research has shown that high intake of omega-3 fatty acids should promote a healthy endocrine system, therefore protecting against metabolic diseases. However, in recent years, St. Lawrence Island residents have seen a predominate increase in metabolic diseases. A great number of recent scientific evidence suggests a link between exposure to PCBs and endocrine disruption. We hypothesize that consumption of subsistence foods contaminated with PCBs puts these residents at an uncommonly high risk for metabolic diseases