Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Lsu Libraries’ Virtual Reference Transcripts: An Analysis, Jenna Ryan, Alice L. Daugherty, Emily C. Mauldin

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

Virtual reference is an important service provided by the Louisiana State University Libraries. A subcommittee within the Reference Department of Middleton Library decided to quantitatively and qualitatively review virtual reference transcripts for the 2005-2006 school year in order to assess and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the services provided. The transcript analysis provides information reflecting how our patrons are using virtual reference and how our librarians are performing in the virtual environment.

Tiered Reference: The New Landscape Of The Frontlines, Susan Gardner

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Introduction

When one walks into a typical academic library today, he or she is hard-pressed to see a reference librarian in plain view working at a public services desk. The well marked “reference desk” of yore, staffed by a smiling librarian and once a staple of every traditional academic library, has evolved into a less visible, more amorphous facility. Most libraries now use a new service strategy called “tiered reference,” whereby the initial reference contact point is with trained students or paraprofessionals at a general service desk. These non-librarians field all manner of questions, including directional, computing, and occasionally reference. …

Subject Librarians In The Changing Academic Library, Louise Feldman

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

This article overviews the literature and key topics surrounding the role of subject librarianship in the evolving environment of academic libraries. Subject librarians are looked at in the context of the broad trends affecting librarianship and in the context of the traditional roles they have held in collection development, instruction, and reference. The author opened a discussion on this topic entitled, “Subject Librarians: Viable or Vanishing?” for the RUSA-CODES Dual Assignments Discussion Group at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas in January of 2006.

Assessing Library Collections Using Brief Test Methodology, Jennifer Benedetto Beals

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

The brief test methodology was developed by Howard White as an assessment tool to determine or verify the existing strength of a library collection. The relatively quick and inexpensive procedure utilizes the Research Libraries Group’s Conspectus levels, subject expertise, and cataloging records in WorldCat. In support of the University of Tennessee Libraries’ continuing efforts to encourage resource sharing with Information Alliance partners, I developed a project with art counterparts at the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University. Using brief tests, I completed an assessment of each institution’s collection in the subject area of African art. The results enabled us …

Navigating Dangerous Deliberative Waters: Shallow Argument Pools, Group Polarization And Public Debate Pedagogy In Southeast Europe, Gordon R. Mitchell, Damien S. Pfister, Georgeta Bradatan, Dejan Colev, Tsvetelina Manolova, Gligor Mitkovski, Ivanichka Nestorova, Milena Ristic, Gentiana Sheshi

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An Albanian social movement called Mjaft ! serves as a synecdoche for wider trends unfolding in Southeast Europe, where student, driven public deliberation is enlivening the political landscape not only in Albania, but also in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania. What do these initiatives suggest about the political dynamics of linkages formed between academic debating groups and civil society organizations? Can public debate democratically energize South, east European citizenries? What general insight does this case study reveal about argumentation as applied critical practice? This paper explores these questions by drawing from collaborative research conducted by the authors under …

Deliberating Debate’S Digital Futures, Carly Woods, Matthew Brigham, Brent Heavner, Takuzo Konishi, John Rief, Brent Saindon, Gordon R. Mitchell

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Human communities can use collective deliberation to make considered decisions regarding their relationship to technology. Such reflection is particularly warranted, because as sociologist Langdon Winner (1986) observes, "technological artifacts have politics" (p. 19). In other words, choices about technology carry political implications, because patterns of sociality are embedded within technical tools (McMillan and Hyde, 2000). Fortunately, Winner notes, "by far the greatest latitude of choice exists the very first time a particular instrument, system, or technique is introduced" (Winner 1986, p. 29). Winner's insight punctuates the salience and timeliness of this forum exchange, which comes at a moment when the …

How To Improve Critical Thinking Skills In The Media Tsrategy Course By Implementing An Online Peer Learning Component, Frauke Hachtmann

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

This study addresses how a specific teaching standard set forth by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) can be measured in one of the core courses in an accredited advertising program at a large Midwestern university. Specifically, it focuses on how critical thinking skills can be improved using online peer learning in the advertising media strategy course. This study is the result of an inquiry course portfolio the author developed as a fellow of the "Peer Review of Teaching Project."

The Cost Of Our Counties, Katherine Mayse, Brian A. Hernandez, Mark Mahoney, Meredith Grunke, Michele Brown, Jessica Donovan, Danielle Welty, John Bender

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Media

This series of 15 stories examines County government in Nebraska -- how it came to be as it is, what it does. what it costs, and what it means to the people who live in central and western Nebraska. The stories were reported and written by students in the Depth Reporting class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Cooperating in publication of the 15-part series were the Kearney Hub, North Platte Telegraph, and Scottsbluff Star-Herald.

Contents
Series looks at questions of state's county structure
Despite job's big changes, career lawman still is …

One Big Family, One Big House: An In-Depth Look At Lincoln's Clinton Elementary School, Brent Atema, David Bennett, Nicholas Berry, Joel Gehringer, Sean Hagewood, Steve Hermann, Yangkyoung Lee, Benjamin Mccarthy, Craig Reier, Jeff Salem, Andrew Stewart, David Story, Amy Thompson, Whitney Turco, Jason Wiest, Mary Kay Quinlan, Nancy Anderson, Timothy G. Anderson, Bruce Thorson

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Media

Lincoln’s Clinton neighborhood is a nondescript one in many ways, not unlike hundreds of other neighborhoods around the nation. Mature trees line streets with decades-old houses in varying states of repair. And the neighborhood elementary school, a stately, 1920s-era brick building, is right out of Central Casting. But within this very ordinariness is a story about a neighborhood where many families struggle with poverty, as they have for decades in this corner of Lincoln, and where the schoolhouse doors open to a refuge for some 400 children who collectively speak a dozen languages and rely on the teachers and staff …