Instruction: Core Competencies

The ISU Library’s Instruction Competencies Task Force reviewed and adapted the national ALA/ACRL Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians Standards to guide instruction-related professional development and teaching practices of ISU librarians who teach

Are You Out There? Challenges of Connecting with Distance Learners

Many colleges and universities have increased the number and breadth of distance learning (DL) courses and online degree programs. In a growing DL environment, more rigorous and sustained attention to DL needs is necessary to encourage recognition of the campus academic library as a viable resource, and to facilitate its access and use by students who may never visit campus. With low staffing and stripped budgets, what can libraries do to ensure that online and physical collections and services are easily available to DL students, many of whom live at a great distance from campus? An initial environmental scan done by librarians and campus staff on a DL library taskforce identified areas of concern. To begin working on these issues, a library DL committee was formed. That committee initiated a series of surveys to both DL instructors and students to hear from them directly concerning what was working well and what challenges might exist in using our library’s collections and services at a distance. The student survey has been especially helpful and has been repeated three times over five years, most recently in 2016. The DL committee has used survey results from over 900 student survey respondents to guide improvements to the library website, off-campus login, communication issues, the provision of interlibrary loan services, and online instruction. The committee has collaborated with various campus units and staff, including the Registrar’s Office, campus DL administrators and staff, the campus Teaching Improvement center, instructional technology staff who create DL courses, and IT staff, among others. This presentation will address some of the major issues students identified as problems, and the changes we have implemented, including our library’s efforts to reach out and regularly connect with our growing number of DL students. </p

Reading Race: Using Book Discussions to Start Dialogues on White Fragility and Other Racisms

The following presentation should be cited as Vega Garcia, Susan A. and Inefuku, Harrison W. Reading Race: Using Book Discussions to Start Dialogues on White Fragility and Other Racisms. IDEAL 2019 Conference, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 6, 2019.</p

Peer Evaluation of Teaching in an Online Information Literacy Course

This paper reports on the development and implementation of a process of peer evaluation of teaching to assess librarian instruction in a high-enrollment online information literacy course for undergraduates. This paper also traces a shift within libraries from peer coaching to peer evaluation models. One common model for peer evaluation, using pre- and post-observation meetings between instructor and evaluator, as well as a formal summative report, has been adapted to focus attention on key aspects of online teaching. The paper also discusses the need for evaluating librarians’ online teaching performance, as distinct from online course design

Priorities in Cardio-Oncology Basic and Translational Science

Despite improvements in cancer survival, cancer therapy–related cardiovascular toxicity has risen to become a prominent clinical challenge. This has led to the growth of the burgeoning field of cardio-oncology, which aims to advance the cardiovascular health of cancer patients and survivors, through actionable and translatable science. In these Global Cardio-Oncology Symposium 2023 scientific symposium proceedings, we present a focused review on the mechanisms that contribute to common cardiovascular toxicities discussed at this meeting, the ongoing international collaborative efforts to improve patient outcomes, and the bidirectional challenges of translating basic research to clinical care. We acknowledge that there are many additional therapies that are of significance but were not topics of discussion at this symposium. We hope that through this symposium-based review we can highlight the knowledge gaps and clinical priorities to inform the design of future studies that aim to prevent and mitigate cardiovascular disease in cancer patients and survivors.</p

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Endophytes vs tree pathogens and pests: can they be used as biological control agents to improve tree health?

Like all other plants, trees are vulnerable to attack by a multitude of pests and pathogens. Current control measures for many of these diseases are limited and relatively ineffective. Several methods, including the use of conventional synthetic agro-chemicals, are employed to reduce the impact of pests and diseases. However, because of mounting concerns about adverse effects on the environment and a variety of economic reasons, this limited management of tree diseases by chemical methods is losing ground. The use of biological control, as a more environmentally friendly alternative, is becoming increasingly popular in plant protection. This can include the deployment of soil inoculants and foliar sprays, but the increased knowledge of microbial ecology in the phytosphere, in particular phylloplane microbes and endophytes, has stimulated new thinking for biocontrol approaches. Endophytes are microbes that live within plant tissues. As such, they hold potential as biocontrol agents against plant diseases because they are able to colonize the same ecological niche favoured by many invading pathogens. However, the development and exploitation of endophytes as biocontrol agents will have to overcome numerous challenges. The optimization and improvement of strategies employed in endophyte research can contribute towards discovering effective and competent biocontrol agents. The impact of environment and plant genotype on selecting potentially beneficial and exploitable endophytes for biocontrol is poorly understood. How endophytes synergise or antagonise one another is also an important factor. This review focusses on recent research addressing the biocontrol of plant diseases and pests using endophytic fungi and bacteria, alongside the challenges and limitations encountered and how these can be overcome. We frame this review in the context of tree pests and diseases, since trees are arguably the most difficult plant species to study, work on and manage, yet they represent one of the most important organisms on Earth