Enhancing the student experience: A case study of a library peer mentor program

In the fall semester of 2010 the University of Saskatchewan Library piloted a Library Peer Mentor initiative as part of a larger Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) program offered by the University Learning Centre. As partners in the Learning Commons located in the Murray Library, it made sense that the program should expand to include library peer mentors. After four years, personal interviews were conducted with current and former library peer mentors to consider their experience in the program and what impact it has had on them. The case study highlights how academic libraries can collaborate and broaden their scope to incorporate peer learning strategies and provide new opportunities to enhance the student experience

Hate Couture: Subcultural fundamentalism and the Serbian Black Metal Music Scene

This work is an ethnography of the Serbian black metal music scene. Through ethnographic descriptions and a study of the manner in which social scientists have conceptualized youth movements and scenes in the past decades it is hoped to present a study of an international phenomenon from the perspective of a Serbian music scene. Many of the current anxieties concerning the post-socialist decline in mainstream consensus and its substitution with forms of youth culture as ‘politics by other means’ will be addressed. These social scenes are a response to the demands and possibilities that contemporary modernity produces in the Balkans and within capitalist society in general. Both Serbia and the black metal scene, have in the past been represented as both ‘other’ and dangerous to the body politic of Europe. The disjuncture between perception and experience are explored here through techniques of ethnographic representation and embodied descriptions of the attraction and internal logics that operate both within Serbia and the wider black metal music scene. Hospitality, scene myth-making, cathartic effervescence, masculinity and a ‘volkish’ performance of identity are some of the themes explored here through the medium of music and its capacity to both mirror and contest extremes of ideology and violence. This work also takes into account the ‘flows’ of influence and discourse that exist in scenic networks that link Scandinavian Satanic Paganism, the extreme right in Polish and Russian metal music and a receptive but deeply individualistic Serbian version of a shared scenic space. Despite the scenes' links to extremist discourses this thesis reveals insights into a (scene based) virulently patriotic Pan-Slavic identity. An identity which manages to regularly contradict and efface many of the tensions that outside observers would typically expect to exist between Serbs, Bosnians, Croatians and their surrounding neighbors, in reflexive and surprising ways

A New Student Learning Focus for the Academic Library: From Geographical Proximity of the Learning Commons to Organizational Proximity within the Library

Peer ReviewedIn 2015 student learning programs at the University of Saskatchewan moved organizationally to the university library. While these services resided physically in the library as part of the Learning Commons partnership, this recent change presents the library with a new focus and responsibility for broader student learning support and academic skill development. Highlighting examples of organizational integration of student learning support, this article uses a proximity perspective, suggesting that geographical proximity of services in the learning commons does not go far enough to achieve the deeper collaboration and integration necessary for holistic and integrated learning, and that organizational proximity is needed

Research on the Intergenerational Links in the Every Child Matters Outcomes.Report to the Department of Children, Schools and Families

The Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda was introduced in the UK, as a policy aiming to improve child outcomes along five broad areas. The categories are Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution and Achieve Economic Wellbeing1. The objective therefore, is to move beyond the traditional focus on child academic outcomes, to improve the wellbeing of children in the UK. From a policy perspective, there is a need to understand the mechanism through which the wide range of child ECM outcomes form. This report evaluates the role of families in driving the ECM outcomes of their children. Specifically, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of ECM outcomes between parents and children. We take the approach of analysing correlations across generations in a wide set of outcomes - the broadest set of variables studied to date. Existing studies of intergenerational correlations across generations tend to focus on outcomes such as earnings, and consequently very little is known about how healthiness, safety and enjoyment of school are correlated across generations. We contribute towards this literature by extending the scope of child outcomes. This research was commissioned before the new UK Government took office on 11 May 2010. As a result the content may not reflect current Government policy and may make reference to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) which has now been replaced by the Department for Education (DfE). The views expressed in this report are those of the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education.Every Child Matters, ECM, education

Improving resolvability: partial property transfers and central counterparties

One of the most significant reforms introduced in the wake of the global financial crisis was the introduction of mandatory clearing for certain standardised ‘over the counter’ (OTC) derivatives. As a result of this policy, central counterparties (CCPs) have assumed a larger role in the global financial system. Designing a harmonised regime for the orderly management of failing CCPs is an integral part of post-crisis regulatory reforms but is challenging. This work remains ongoing at the international, regional and national levels. This article seeks to contribute to the ongoing debates. The article’s focus is on a particularly appealing resolution tool, partial property transfer. It explains how a resolution strategy using partial property transfer interacts with the typical legal structure of systemically significant CCPs. The first thesis developed in this article is that in order for resolution authorities to be able to implement a partial property transfer of a failing clearing service or services while ensuring the continuity of critical service provision, ex ante reforms to the organisational structure of some clearing houses should be considered. The second is that, to be fit for purpose, the creditor safeguard used in a partial property transfer resolution needs to be framed in terms of the losses at the point of transfer to creditors of the affected clearing service. The article offers proposals designed to facilitate effective resolutions in this context. It provides worked examples to illustrate the rationale behind the proposals and to explore how they improve the resolvability of large CCPs