Marketing Library Services: From Posters to Platforms

No matter how visible your reference desk is, no matter how many information literacy session your librarians teach, no matter how many students come through your library doors each day, there is a need in all libraries for savvy, creative marketing campaigns. We can no longer rely on word-of-mouth to get the message out about what the library can do for students, faculty and staff. This presentation will examine the ups and downs of creating and, especially, maintaining several social media platforms. We will also present some kick-it old school techniques that have proved successful and suggestions on how to promote them. Time and money are always issues, so we will also include time and money saving tips and suggests for your marketing campaigns

Academic Librarians’ Perceptions of Productivity While Working From Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research study assessed academic librarians’ perceptions of productivity while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information was collected via an online survey that was sent out to several Association of College and Research Libraries listservs. Participants were academic librarians who work at large colleges and universities (FTE is greater than 15,000 students). Librarianship is a practice done mostly onsite, and with the sudden transition to remote work, academic librarians were forced to adapt to an unknown work environment with less access to the direct support of supervisors. This research demonstrates that the majority of academic librarians perceived themselves to be highly productive, and generally satisfied with their jobs, while working from home

The Comeback Kid

The elusive events of one May night almost altered the rest of his life. Sexual assault charges loomed as his name appeared in media across the nation, prompting the community he grew up in to turn its back. Ethos reveals the man behind the dropped allegations

Earliest Known Material of Amia, Bowfin, From The Sentinel Butte Formation (Paleocene), Medora, North Dakota

Amia calva is an icon in the field of comparative osteology, yet we have a poor understanding of the evolution of the genus because many fossil amiid bones have gone unidentified. Here we identify new material of the genus, Amia, with evidence of two unidentified species. Previously, the oldest known material identifiable as Amia cf. A. pattersoni, was a specimen from the Paleocene epoch of Alberta, Canada approximately 58 million years in age. Fossils of the two unidentified species of Amia were found in the Sentinel Butte Formation, a geologic formation of Paleocene age (~ 60 million years ago) near the town of Medora, North Dakota. The specimens are classified as Amia because the coronoid tooth plates exhibit conical teeth and the parasphenoid exhibits a long tooth patch that extends anteriorly past the ascending rami of the bone. This new Amia material is distinguished from other species based on three criteria. First, the parasphenoid tooth patch is extremely wide posteriorly, reaching the lateral margins of the bone, but very long and narrow anteriorly. Second, the gular plate is uniquely shaped, not being truncated posteriorly but rather tapering both anteriorly and posteriorly. Third, the teeth of coronoid tooth plates are robust, unlike those of other species of Amia which are thinner and more elongated. The frontals of each specimen are very different in shape and proportions suggesting two different taxa. Width and length ratios of bones from the Amia specimens were analyzed to further determine fossil characteristics. One of these taxa could attain a large size with a total length well in excess of 1 m. Together, these taxa highlight the necessity to document the evolutionary history of this long and important lineage of Amia

Conversations That Matter: Engaging Library Employees in DEI and Cultural Humility Reflection

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Programs subcommittee at University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte’s Atkins library formed in 2019 and created a series of DEI-themed staff development programming to engage library employees. The programs, which included facilitated discussions, short presentations at staff meetings, and interaction with video or article content, were all intended to foster a culture of reflection and awareness. To accommodate changing necessities of virtual and in person work environments, the subcommittee transitioned their work to be applicable both online and in person with an educational hub to promote cultural humility practices. The subcommittee began assessing the results of this programming in an informal process and laid groundwork for a more formalized assessment to inform their future DEI work

Going Multimodal: Programmatic, Curricular, and Classroom Change

AS THE STUDENTS NOTE IN this epigraph, we do not live in a monomodal world. Rather, we experience the world and communicate through multiple modalities. To confine students to learning in only one mode, typically the textual mode in first-year writing courses, indeed limits, students\u27 understanding and creative potential-a point that has reemerged in considerations of education and the teaching of writing..

Erratum:Association of dietary factors with presence and severity of tinnitus in a middle-aged UK population (PLoS ONE (2015) 9:12 (e114711) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114711)

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114711.]

Cigarette smoking, passive smoking, alcohol consumption, and hearing loss

The objective of this large population-based cross-sectional study was to evaluate the association between smoking, passive smoking, alcohol consumption, and hearing loss. The study sample was a subset of the UK Biobank Resource, 164,770 adults aged between 40 and 69 years who completed a speech-in-noise hearing test (the Digit Triplet Test). Hearing loss was defined as speech recognition in noise in the better ear poorer than 2 standard deviations below the mean with reference to young normally hearing listeners. In multiple logistic regression controlling for potential confounders, current smokers were more likely to have a hearing loss than non-smokers (odds ratio (OR) 1.15, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.21). Among non-smokers, those who reported passive exposure to tobacco smoke were more likely to have a hearing loss (OR 1.28, 95 %CI 1.21–1.35). For both smoking and passive smoking, there was evidence of a dose-response effect. Those who consume alcohol were less likely to have a hearing loss than lifetime teetotalers. The association was similar across three levels of consumption by volume of alcohol (lightest 25 %, OR 0.61, 95 %CI 0.57–0.65; middle 50 % OR 0.62, 95 %CI 0.58–0.66; heaviest 25 % OR 0.65, 95 %CI 0.61–0.70). The results suggest that lifestyle factors may moderate the risk of hearing loss. Alcohol consumption was associated with a protective effect. Quitting or reducing smoking and avoiding passive exposure to tobacco smoke may also help prevent or moderate age-related hearing loss