COVID-19 Protocols in Academic Libraries in Canada and the United States

In the Fall of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged throughout the world, educational institutions pivoted to online learning and supporting services, especially those found in academic libraries, adjusted. To better understand measures taken by academic libraries in Canada and the United States, the Association of College & Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Value of Academic Libraries (VAL) committee formed a subcommittee to examine how academic libraries adjusted and provided services to their respective institutions during COVID-19 pandemic. This report is the culmination of this examination

Smartphone Use on an Academic Library Website Featuring Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design (RWD) allows a single website to support multiple screen sizes. By using a single-site approach instead of maintaining separate full-size and mobile websites, smartphones can access all website features instead of a subset. This study examined smartphone use of a new academic RWD library website to find out which features are used on small devices. An intriguing finding was that five of the top smartphone features (search bar, library hours, my account, room reservation, and floor maps) are all custom web applications that were written in-house and are fully integrated into the RWD. Conversely, several of the least used smartphone features (WorldCat, chat, and eReserve) are third-party applications. In addition, this study found that undergraduate students demonstrated more frequent use and interest in certain website features (e.g., renewal, room reservation, floor maps) than graduate students and faculty members.ye

RNA interference-mediated c-MYC inhibition prevents cell growth and decreases sensitivity to radio- and chemotherapy in childhood medulloblastoma cells

BACKGROUND: With current treatment strategies, nearly half of all medulloblastoma (MB) patients die from progressive tumors. Accordingly, the identification of novel therapeutic strategies remains a major goal. Deregulation of c-MYC is evident in numerous human cancers. In MB, over-expression of c-MYC has been shown to cause anaplasia and correlate with unfavorable prognosis. METHODS: To study the role of c-MYC in MB biology, we down-regulated c-MYC expression by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) and investigated changes in cellular proliferation, cell cycle analysis, apoptosis, telomere maintenance, and response to ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapeutics in a representative panel of human MB cell lines expressing different levels of c-MYC (DAOY wild-type, DAOY transfected with the empty vector, DAOY transfected with c-MYC, D341, and D425). RESULTS: siRNA-mediated c-MYC down-regulation resulted in an inhibition of cellular proliferation and clonogenic growth, inhibition of G1-S phase cell cycle progression, and a decrease in human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression and telomerase activity. On the other hand, down-regulation of c-MYC reduced apoptosis and decreased the sensitivity of human MB cells to IR, cisplatin, and etoposide. This effect was more pronounced in DAOY cells expressing high levels of c-MYC when compared with DAOY wild-type or DAOY cells transfected with the empty vector. CONCLUSION: In human MB cells, in addition to its roles in growth and proliferation, c-MYC is also a potent inducer of apoptosis. Therefore, targeting c-MYC might be of therapeutic benefit when used sequentially with chemo- and radiotherapy rather than concomitantly

Assessing Academic Library Performance: A Handbook

Barbara Ghilardi is a contributing author, Creating Space with Our Community in Mind: A Library Building Assessment, Chapter 10, pp. 95-106. Assessment is essential to describe a library’s value and to inform decision-making. Using the four key assessment components of design, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination, Assessing Academic Library Performance: A Handbook provides strategies and case studies for performing four different types of assessments: Service assessments for the library’s outward and inward facing services that either help library users or other library employees to help users. These assessments focus on providing and improving how things are done to better serve others. Resources assessments for the physical and virtual resources that the library has in its holdings or to which it provides access. Resources are the reason libraries exist as they help patrons in instructional and research pursuits. Space assessments for physical and online library spaces. These assessments help ensure that spaces meet user needs. Personnel relationship assessments look at how library employees interact with each other. as library professionals. While not for evaluation or advancement purposes, these types of assessments provide information on what library employees can do to improve their relationships with one another. Each section has information on conducting each aspect of libraries followed by three examples to illustrate how assessment is used to support descriptions of library value and to help library employees make decisions that are critical to library improvement.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/library-books/1012/thumbnail.jp