Survey of Web Developers in Academic Libraries

A survey was sent to library web designers from randomly selected institutions to determine the background, tools, and methods used by those designers. Results, grouped by Carnegie Classification type, indicated that larger schools were not necessarily working with more resources or more advanced levels of technology than other institutions

Using Your Library’s Objectives as the Organizational Framework for Library Documentation in Planning, Assessment, and Accreditation

The San Diego Christian/Southern California Seminary Library1 uses its objectives as the organizational framework for its strategic plan, annual report, assessment plan, and policies and procedures manual. This article describes how the library’s objectives compare to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Standards (to ensure best practices), relate to the areas covered in the library strategic plan, annual report, and operations manual, and correspond to the standards and criteria from their respective accrediting agencies, showing how easy it is to identify supporting evidence for a program review or self-study when using this organizing method

Turnaround Time Between ILLiad’s Odyssey and Ariel Delivery Methods: A Comparison

Interlibrary loan departments are frequently looking for ways to reduce turnaround time. The advent of electronic delivery in the past decade has greatly reduced turnaround time for articles, but recent developments in this arena have the potential to decrease that time even further. The ILLiad ILL management system has an electronic delivery component, Odyssey, with a Trusted Sender setting that allows articles to be sent to patrons without borrowing staff intervention, provided the lending library is designated as a Trusted Sender, or this feature is enabled for all lenders. Using the tracking data created by the ILLiad management system, the turnaround time for two delivery methods, Ariel and Odyssey, was captured for two different academic institutions. With the Trusted Sender setting turned on, Odyssey delivery was faster than Ariel for the institutions studied

Teaching Patrons to Fish: The Educational Value of Cancelling Requests for Locally Available Materials

Expansive document delivery service for locally available materials is becoming increasingly popular, but is a learning component lost with the implementation of this service? In this study, the authors compare data from two institutions, one that provides an unadvertised document delivery service without instruction, and another that cancels requests for locally available materials with an instructional component. The behavior of each institution\u27s patrons over a 4-year period is analyzed and found to differ at statistically significant levels. These findings will be useful for interlibrary loan policy makers who are considering whether to implement document delivery for locally available items

Nursing Informatics: is IT for All Nurses?

Given the definition if nursing informatics it should be a core activity for all nurses, and seen as a tool to support high quality care giving. Three studies reported in this paper show that this is not the case. Qualified nurses are perceived as having poor skills and knowledge, and as being resistant to IT as it takes them away from patient care. Educators share this lack of knowledge, and neither academics nor students consider nursing informatics to be a clinical skill. In order to use computers while on placement students were found to need confidence in their skills, and to feel that the use of computers was encouraged. Socialisation into the profession is an important part of nurse education, and currently students are being socialised into a professional role where they are not encouraged to use computers, or to consider their use to be a key nursing task. If nursing informatics is to truly become a way of improving patient care this needs to be changed, and preregistration education is a key place to start to bring this change about

The anti-virulence effect of cranberry active compound proanthocyanins (PACs) on the expression of genes in the third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli CTX-M-15 associated with urinary tract infection.

open access articl

Governance, leadership and a personal reflection: a journey towards a safer, stronger and more resilient community

oai:repository.mdx.ac.uk:1w5758This context statement forms part of the Doctor of Professional Studies (by Public Works) programme and within it I will critically reflect on my public works. There are three elements to my public works, each of which relates to the emergency planning and resilience activities across London’s local government. The first public work is an assurance review that recommended a framework for the assurance of resilience activities. The second public work is the consultation report that explored the views of multiple stakeholders through interviews, workshops and surveys. The third public work is a suite of resilience standards for London’s local government published in response to the consultation report. I focus on four specific areas related to my public works. I explore the subject of validation from a very personal perspective and how my life’s experiences and events have shaped my views in developing my public works including the learning I have embraced from those experiences. I explore the role of leadership in the context of emergency planning and resilience and look at the role of a leader from an ethical, collaborative and challenging standpoint. This analysis is further developed to focus on the role of a political leader, including scrutiny and challenge and learning the lessons from past emergency events. The role of a community in preparing for, responding to and recovering from a major emergency event is discussed including the relationship between the local council and the citizens who live or work in that council area. The summary findings of this critical analysis have resulted in answering personal questions about the need for validation as well as the production of a community development model and an organisational resilience and assurance model to support councils in developing and improving their resilience arrangements