What Is Your Library Worth? Extension Uses Public Value Workshops in Communities

Public libraries are seeing flat or reduced funding even as demands for new services are increasing. Facing an identical problem, Extension developed a program to identify the indirect benefits to non-participants of Extension programs in order to encourage their public funding support. This educational approach was customized to public libraries and piloted with 15 libraries. Evaluations demonstrated that the approach was popular and effective in changing local practices. Strategies are shared for customizing Extension\u27s public value program so that any public program can articulate short private and public value statements

Reporting Library Advocacy Stories to Increase Funding: Guidebook for Story Reporters

Reporting Library Advocacy Stories to Increase Funding: Guidebook for Story Reporters, Paper 2 describes how a public library can report advocacy stories effectively in the 21st century. Section 1 covers the basics of library advocacy stories. Section 2 describes the story plot in detail, with examples, and integrates numerous references. The Appendices and a Glossary provide a number of tools useful to Story Reporters and other key players in the library’s story telling team. Companion paper to Library Storytelling Team Guidebook, Paper 1https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/extension_business/1004/thumbnail.jp

Library Storytelling Team Guidebook

Library Storytelling Team Guidebook, Paper 1 describes how a public library can organize a team to report its advocacy stories. Section 1 addresses the question, “Should we start a library storytelling project?” Changes in the public’s willingness to fund libraries and the changing roles of libraries in the 21st century are outlined. An overview of advocacy library stories and a team approach for an effective storytelling program follow. This section concludes with pointers to determine when it may not be appropriate to start this effort. Section 2 discusses the roles of the team members and when a consultant may be needed. Nearly 65% of the content has robust Appendices and a Glossary that provide sample agendas, a release form, a story review form, and other tools. These will save you time and the need to hire a consultant.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/extension_business/1003/thumbnail.jp

How Does Our Local Library Benefit My Family?

Libraries benefit everyone in their community, not only library users but also those that never use it.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/extension_business/1002/thumbnail.jp

Late-Time Tails in Gravitational Collapse of a Self-Interacting (Massive) Scalar-Field and Decay of a Self-Interacting Scalar Hair

We study analytically the initial value problem for a self-interacting (massive) scalar-field on a Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime. Following the no-hair theorem we examine the dynamical physical mechanism by which the self-interacting (SI) hair decays. We show that the intermediate asymptotic behaviour of SI perturbations is dominated by an oscillatory inverse power-law decaying tail. We show that at late-times the decay of a SI hair is slower than any power-law. We confirm our analytical results by numerical simulations.Comment: 16 pages, 3 ps figures, Revte

Screening of charged spheroidal colloidal particles

We study the effective screened electrostatic potential created by a spheroidal colloidal particle immersed in an electrolyte, within the mean field approximation, using Poisson--Botzmann equation in its linear and nonlinear forms, and also beyond the mean field by means of Monte Carlo computer simulation. The anisotropic shape of the particle has a strong effect on the screened potential, even at large distances (compared to the Debye length) from it. To quantify this anisotropy effect, we focus our study on the dependence of the potential on the position of the observation point with respect with the orientation of the spheroidal particle. For several different boundary conditions (constant potential, or constant surface charge) we find that, at large distance, the potential is higher in the direction of the large axis of the spheroidal particle

The Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice: topological excitations

We study the topological defects in the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet in two dimensions on a triangular lattice (HAFT). While the topological analysis of the order parameter space indicates that the defects are of $Z_2$ type, consideration of the energy leads us to a description of the low--energy stationary points of the action in terms of $\pm$ vortices, as in the planar XY model. Starting with the continuum description of the HAFT, we show analytically that its partition function can be reduced to that of a 2--dimensional Coulomb gas with logarithmic interaction. Thus, at low temperatures, the correlation length is determined by the spinwaves, while at higher temperatures we expect a crossover to a Kosterlitz--Thouless type behaviour. The results of recent Monte Carlo calculations of the correlation length are consistent with such a crossover.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, preprint: ITP-UH 03/9

Catalytic Leadership: Reconsidering the Nature of Extension\u27s Leadership Role

Extension\u27s role in leading change in communities must shift from traditional notions of leadership to one of catalytic leadership. The expertise, programming-driven leadership model of Extension\u27s past must be replaced with one of activating and convening stakeholders and facilitating problem-solving processes that address public issues collaboratively. This article introduces the basic skills of catalytic leadership, offers two illustrative examples from Extension in Iowa, and connects this leadership model with Public Issues Education. It concludes with some suggestions for how Extension units can move toward the catalytic model

Computational science and re-discovery: open-source implementations of ellipsoidal harmonics for problems in potential theory

We present two open-source (BSD) implementations of ellipsoidal harmonic expansions for solving problems of potential theory using separation of variables. Ellipsoidal harmonics are used surprisingly infrequently, considering their substantial value for problems ranging in scale from molecules to the entire solar system. In this article, we suggest two possible reasons for the paucity relative to spherical harmonics. The first is essentially historical---ellipsoidal harmonics developed during the late 19th century and early 20th, when it was found that only the lowest-order harmonics are expressible in closed form. Each higher-order term requires the solution of an eigenvalue problem, and tedious manual computation seems to have discouraged applications and theoretical studies. The second explanation is practical: even with modern computers and accurate eigenvalue algorithms, expansions in ellipsoidal harmonics are significantly more challenging to compute than those in Cartesian or spherical coordinates. The present implementations reduce the "barrier to entry" by providing an easy and free way for the community to begin using ellipsoidal harmonics in actual research. We demonstrate our implementation using the specific and physiologically crucial problem of how charged proteins interact with their environment, and ask: what other analytical tools await re-discovery in an era of inexpensive computation?Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure