From Silos to (Archives)Space: Moving Legacy Finding Aids Online as a Multi-Department Library Collaboration

The Special Collections department at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library houses archival materials that showcase southern Appalachian life and natural history, with particular attention to Western North Carolina. Notable collections focus on Horace Kephart, renowned naturalist, author, and promoter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and George Masa, whose photographs of the Appalachian region were used as promotional materials to support the establishment of a national park in the Smokies. However, these collections remain largely inaccessible outside of the library’s walls. The approximately 700 finding aids for these collections reside in Microsoft Word format and are available only to users who physically visit the Special Collections department or contact the department via phone or email

Extent Of Sexual Knowledge, Accumulation Of Sexual Information, And Sex Education Attitudes Of Undergraduate Students At Appalachian State University

The purpose of this study was to determine the (1) extent of sexual knowledge, (2) methods of collecting sexual information, and (3) attitudes toward sex education of randomly selected undergraduate students at Appalachian State University. Additionally, students' attitudes regarding an expanded sex education curricula at this institution were investigated

"The ladies merely breathed deeply ": Women's Invisible Contributions to the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club

In the early 1930s, a group of hiking enthusiasts from Knoxville, Tennessee, believed no group of persons anywhere would profit more from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park than they. Their club, the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, dedicated itself to bringing a Smokies national park to fruition and developingthe Appalachian Trail. During the interwar era, hiking clubs formed across the nation and were integral to generating widespread citizen support for national parks and other wildernessareas. Women were part of the hiking club movement from the beginning and provided invaluable, although often invisible, labor. This article highlights the women in the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club during the 1920s and 1930s who contributed immeasurably to the club’s activities. When we study this movement through an interdisciplinary framework of sociability and connective labor, set against the unique cultural and economic conditions of the New Deal and Great Depression era, we see the value of these women’s efforts despite being subjected to gender-based notions of skill and ability. Without their contributions, the club would not have sustained its successful and wide-reaching advocacy

Morphology of the melon and its tendinous connections to the facial muscles in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

The melon is a lipid rich structure located in the odontocete forehead that functions to propagate echolocation sounds into the surrounding aquatic environment. To date, the melon’s abilities to guide and impedance match biosonar sounds to water has been attributed to its unique fatty acid composition. The melon, though, is also acted upon by facial muscles (rostral, pars anterointernus, and nasal plug muscles). The goals of this study were to investigate the gross morphology of the melon in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and to describe how it is tendinously connected to these facial muscles. Standard gross dissection (n = 8) and serial sectioning (n = 3) techniques were used to describe the melon and to identify the connections between it and the surrounding muscles and blubber in three orthogonal body planes. The melon was also thin-sectioned in three body planes (n = 3) and polarized light was used to reveal the birefringent collagen fibers within and surrounding the melon. This study identified two distinct regions of the melon, the main body and the caudal melon. The caudal melon is bilaterally asymmetrical. This study is the first to identify three regions of the right caudal melon, termed the cup, stem, and cone and two regions of the left caudal melon, named the cup and branch. All regions of the melon vary in shape and display locally specific muscle-tendon morphologies. The entire length of the melon, from the initial site of sound generation to its rostral end, is acted upon by facial muscles. These muscles have highly organized tendon populations that traverse the melon and insert into either the surrounding blubber, the connective tissue matrix of the nasal plug, or the connective tissue sheath surrounding the sound generators. The facial muscles and tendons also lie within multiple orthogonal planes, which suggest that the melon is capable of changing its shape in multiple planes. Thus, the sound propagation pathway from the echolocation sound generators to the surrounding water appears to be a tunable system. Specifically, the facial muscles are hypothesized to be able to change the frequency, beam width, and directionality of the emitted sound beam in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Improved methods of detection for the difficult to identify marine toxin, Okadaic acid

The focus of this study was to investigate an alternative, economic approach to the detection of the diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins in microalgae and shellfish. This group of marine toxins has had a negative impact on human health and economy of the shellfish industry. The method selected for investigation was the evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). Chemical detection of any member of the DSP toxins is compromised by the fact that none of them contain a strong chromophore or fluorophore. Preparation of a fluorescent derivative involves a time consuming chemical reaction and specialized equipment that yields questionable toxin concentration accuracy. Alternatively other biochemical methods have been reported, which include an enzyme bioassay using protein phosphatase, or an enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). However, these methods are not economical, often requiring specialty reagents, and in the case of the ELISA-based assay, not all the members of the DSP toxin group may be detected with equal sensitivity. The mouse bioassay, used almost universally, can only be used in a broad empirical sense, and there is reluctance among certain countries to continue using this method as a routine monitoring method. More recently, mass spectrometry is often used and may be the best detector available, but the initial capitol cost is high, as is the daily operation of the instrument. Consequently, this detection method is most usually reserved for research laboratories. In selecting an economical detection method for these toxins, the ELS detector offered an attractive, inexpensive approach. The results reported here, where DSP toxins were monitored in phytoplankton and shellfish tissue, support that hypothesis

Reaching Faculty During the Summer: Taking Inspiration from the Blogosphere

Librarians at Western Carolina University have performed scholarship-focused summer outreach to the teaching faculty for many years, primarily via in-person workshops. Since faculty often focus on scholarship rather than instruction during summers, our emphasis on research and publication was timely and appropriate. However, the in-person research workshops were poorly attended, as faculty who do not teach summer courses often do not come to campus

Tracing change and its effects on students and staff : a longitudinal case study at one elementary school

The researcher of this case study investigates the processes and results of change in one elementary school where the teachers and the administrator initiated and implemented multiple restructuring efforts, over three years, between the fall of 1991 and the spring of 1994. The researcher examines: a) staff conceptions concerning factors that initiate, support, or block restructuring efforts; b) staff conceptions regarding benefits and liabilities of change; c) student and staff outcomes; and d) actions of the principal. The researcher served as principal of the school during the research period. She accessed and analyzed six data sources in conducting this study: a) interviews of three key informants; b) anonymous staff surveys; c) End-Of-Grade test results; d) kindergarten screening results; e) unobtrusive measures; and f) transcribed notes from two focus groups

Retirement modeling [electronic resource] : an exploration of the effects of retirement role model characteristics on retirement self-efficacy and life satisfaction in midlife workers

" The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among retirement role model characteristics, retirement self-efficacy, and current life satisfaction in midlife workers. Most of the literature related to retirement planning and to counseling workers who are preparing for retirement (e.g., Harper & Shoffner, 2004; Perkins, 2000; Quick, 1990) does not contain suggestions for assisting workers in identifying and observing retirement role models, possibly because there is little evidence as to if and how role models affect retirement self-efficacy. Considering that self-efficacy predicts later performance (Bandura, 1977a, 1997), interventions that increase retirement self-efficacy can be expected to increase later success in the tasks associated with transitioning to retirement, in addition to reducing preretirement anxiety. In this study, a proposed structural model describing the relationships among role model characteristics, retirement self-efficacy, and current life satisfaction was tested, and correlations among the model variables were examined. A model describing the relationships among two role model characteristics (success of models in retirement and similarity of abilities and resources between role models and the participants), retirement self-efficacy, and current life satisfaction was determined to be a good fit. Significant positive correlations at the p < .01 level were identified between current life satisfaction and both retirement self-efficacy (r = .52) and variety of retirement role models (r = .28) and between retirement self-efficacy and both success of models in retirement (r = .36) and variety of models (r = 18). The role model characteristic of success of models in retirement also correlated significantly (p < .01) with the other two retirement role model characteristics, variety of models (r = .20) and similarity of abilities and resources between the role models and the participants. Participants for the study were 218 University of North Carolina at Greensboro employees between the ages of 45 and 60 years. Participants completed the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI; Australian Centre on Quality of Life, 2002), a modified version of the Retirement Self-Efficacy (RSE) Scale (Neuhs, 1991), the Retirement Observations Questionnaire (ROQ; Harper, 2004), and a demographic questionnaire." Abstract from author supplied metadata

Interpersonal perfectionism, attributions, expectations, and social disconnection in daily life: an extension of the social disconnection model

There is extensive research supporting the social disconnection model, which is a model linking interpersonal perfectionism (i.e., perceiving others have excessively high standards for oneself) with suicidal behavior through subjective or objective social disconnection. However, research has not examined cognitive factors related to hopelessness that may play an important role in explaining how perfectionists think about their social relationships. The current study extended research on the perfectionism social disconnection model by including these cognitive factors, such as negative attributions about social events and expectations for future social interactions. Additionally, the current study examined these factors in daily life. The primary aim was to examine how attributions about specific negative social events and expectations about future social events, relate to socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP), daily subjective disconnection, and daily mood. The current study used experience sampling methodology (ESM) with 145 participants to test a two-level path model examining whether attributions and expectations explain the relation between SPP and loneliness at the following time point. Results indicate that attributions and expectations did not predict loneliness at the following time point. However, post-hoc analyses revealed that across models, SPP was positively associated with loneliness and expectations, which were also related to each other at the same time point. Although the causal direction of the association between social expectations and loneliness is unclear, treatment targeting expectations about future social interactions and loneliness may decrease feelings of disconnection for perfectionists

Nothing Happens Unless First a Dream: Demystifying the Academic Library Job Search and Acing the Application Process

Academic library positions can be highly desirable for both new librarians and experienced librarians interested in transitioning into a different setting. Yet for both novice and experienced librarians alike, landing an interview for an academic librarian position can feel intimidating and overwhelming. Applicants may have difficulty understanding tenure track requirements, no academic library experience, no coursework in relevant areas, and may be competing with a large pool of qualified candidates. When academic job openings ask for years of academic library experience and library school specializations suggest that the path you pick is the path you keep until retirement, it begins to feel as though finding a position in an academic library is an insurmountable endeavor. As three librarians who have successfully made the move into an academic setting, we can attest that although the way may be unclear, this goal is not impossible to achieve. This paper will explain some of the facets unique to the academic setting with which applicants might not be familiar, how to tailor application materials to an academic position and why this is crucial for success, and how to acclimate to new responsibilities and expectations