Digital Commons Network^™

Parenting And The Academic Library: Experiences, Challenges, And Opportunities, Courtney Stine, Sarah Frankel, Anita Hall

Faculty Scholarship

Academic Library Workers in Conversation is a C&RL News series focused on elevating the everyday conversations of library professionals. The wisdom of the watercooler has long been heralded, but this series hopes to go further by minimizing barriers to traditional publishing with an accessible format. Each of the topics in the series were proposed by the authors and they were given space to explore. This issue’s conversation revolves around parenting and how academic libraries must do more. The insights from the authors apply beyond parenting and are a great reminder that people make our academic libraries work.— Dustin Fife, series …

Horse Racing And Historical Horse Racing’S Impact On The Kentucky Economy: Possible Hhr Saturation?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Commonwealth of Kentucky currently has 5 thoroughbred racing tracks and 3 harness racing tracks (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission 2023 and Mint Julep Louisville 2021). As Table 1 below shows, the industry employees roughly 7,000 people (direct jobs), and these jobs annually support another 2,000 jobs or so throughout the state. These 2,000 jobs are jobs that are provided by the suppliers to the horse race tracks (indirect jobs) and jobs that are created by the spending of the race track employees and the employees of suppliers on food, housing, transportation, and clothing by vendors and retailers throughout the state …

A Review Of The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act In Kentucky Schools System, Spencer Collins

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The federal government's role in education has been center stage for the past decade. Policy actors on the right call for a complete deconstruction of the federal Department of Education (ED). In today's partisan fighting over government funding, the topic of education services is critical. With further investigations into education services provided by federal funding, one vulnerable population that needs to be safeguarded is those students with disabilities. Protecting those students with disabilities and ensuring equal access to education and resources provided for non-disabled students should be one of the highest priorities of policy actors within the education sphere today. …

University Of Kentucky Healthcare Community Engagement Program Strategic Plan, Madison Fyffe

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Strategic planning is an essential tool in providing direction to an organization through analysis of its current state and ideal future, and development of strategic goals. The University of Kentucky HealthCare’s community engagement program is a robust program within the department of Brand Strategy, tasked with serving all 120 Kentucky counties and over 150 local, state, and national organizations through health education, event sponsorship, and promotional resources. In its current state, a strategic plan to guide and track performance does not exist. This capstone aims to develop a strategic plan through the assessment of strategic planning theory, stakeholder analysis, and …

Sports Betting In Kentucky: An Analysis Of Kentucky’S Sports Wagering Legislation Through Local And Regional State Budgetary Revenue Trends, Brett Gillispie

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Kentucky’s legislation legalizing sports wagering in the Commonwealth and delineating its taxation, HB551 of the 2023 Regular Session of the General Assembly, has been implemented and posted numbers in its early months that suggested it will exceed revenue projections for the Commonwealth. Researchers have raised concerns, particularly in studying West Virginia, which implemented similar legislation in 2019, that sports betting may be cannibalizing existing gambling revenue for states that implement it. However, this was not conclusive. While evidence from West Virginia suggests that sports betting may be cannibalizing existing revenue, evidence from Kentucky and the individual and broader regional trends …

Disparities In Mortality Between Appalachian And Non-Appalachian Regions Of Kentucky, Sonali S. Salunkhe, Sahal Alzahrani, Beatrice Ugiliweneza

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: In the opioid epidemic, the U.S. faces a significant public health crisis, with some areas of the country, such as rural and Appalachian regions, suffering more than others. The differential regional impact of the crisis in Kentucky—a state with both non-metropolitan/metropolitan and Appalachian/Non-Appalachian statuses—has not yet been documented despite such knowledge being essential to the success of overdose prevention efforts.

Purpose: This study compares all-cause, drug- and opioid-related mortality between counties in different regions of Kentucky: Appalachian non-metropolitan, Appalachian metropolitan, non-Appalachian non-metropolitan, and non-Appalachian metropolitan.

Methods: Age-adjusted mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online …

Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacterales—Kentucky, 2013–2020: Challenges And Successes, Mary Issac, Andrea Flinchum, Kevin Spicer

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) are considered urgent, antibiotic-resistant threats in the U.S. and are of global concern. Active collaboration between public health authorities and healthcare facilities and providers will be necessary to prevent and contain these organisms.

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of CRE in Kentucky and to discuss challenges and successes with building and sustaining an effective prevention and containment program.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive summary of CRE isolates reported by healthcare providers, facilities, and laboratories in Kentucky from 2013 through 2020. Data available from case reporting forms and laboratory testing are summarized.

Results: From 2013 through 2020, 1805 CRE …

Page, Tate Cromwell "Piney," 1908-1984 (Fa 1397), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1397. Papers of Page, former Dean of the College of Education at Western Kentucky University, primarily concerning his work documenting the people, places, history and folklore of the Ozarks region in Arkansas where he was raised. Also includes his photographs of historic structures, made mostly in western Kentucky.

Self-Reported Consumption Of Bottled Water V. Tap Water In Appalachian And Non-Appalachian Kentucky, Jason W. Marion

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Quantitative studies on drinking water perceptions in Appalachia are limited. High-profile water infrastructure failures in the U.S. and Eastern Kentucky, coupled with human-made and natural disasters in the Appalachian Region, have likely impacted opinions regarding tap water.

Purpose: To use existing unexplored data to describe baseline tap water v. bottled water consumption in Kentucky.

Methods: Telephone-based cross-sectional data were obtained from the 2013 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP) directed by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Among many items in KHIP, self-reported consumption of bottled water over tap water, reasons for bottled water use, and demographic data were obtained. …

The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These thesis and exhibition, invite the viewers to travel through different places in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The region’s landscape, like many other American landscapes, is often known to the public through the settler colonial lens—a lens that ignores Indigenous peoples’ history in the region. The work in the exhibition is a response to landscape art's history and its complicity with American settler colonialism- art that was recruited to create a new identity for the settlers and for the country from the beginning of the American Colonial Project. Landscape art was a crucial part of this effort, presenting the land …

The Bellarmine Bee Bed: Organizing A Native Plant Garden Using Feedback From The Local Community, Kate Moran

Undergraduate Theses

Animal pollinators are the cornerstone of healthy ecosystems. Their survival is essential for the persistence of entire food chains: from the flowers they cross-pollinate directly, to the animals who depend on those plants for nutrition. The establishment of pollinator gardens—particularly ones that consist of native plants—is an effective way to enhance their biodiversity, abundance, and well-being.

The main goal of this thesis is to construct a pollinator garden that maximizes the benefits for animal pollinators using feedback from local gardeners. A survey was used to gather information about the popularity and preferences of 40 flowering plants, and after analyzing the …

Predicting Groundwater Spring Locations From Topographic And Climatic Data Using Maxent Modeling, Ayten Ece Koc

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The World Resources Institute reveals that 17 countries face extremely high levels of water stress. Moreover, with increasing population and industrialization, the gap between water supply and demand increases day by day around the world. Groundwater is a key freshwater source, and springs are important resources as they enable to access groundwater. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor, protect, and manage groundwater springs. The first step in spring management is to recognize and define freshwater resources and to determine the locations of groundwater springs that serve as natural discharge points. Traditionally, field studies have been employed to determine the locations …

Bluegrass Backstory: Connecting People To Local History Through Podcasting, David Hunter Hartlage

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Kentucky has a rich cultural identity, built upon a storied local history. Unfortunately, certain aspects of local cultural history, such as the origins of Kentucky vernacular music or how the bourbon industry has promoted growth in Kentucky’s communities, are not readily apparent. The increasing popularity and accessibility of podcasting offers local historians an opportunity to address this problem.

The goal of this project was to create a podcast program which makes information regarding the history, culture, and identity of Kentucky accessible to all in a scholarly—but engaging—way. I researched podcasting equipment and how to use it, then purchased that equipment …

Exploring Environmental Racism, Quality Of Life, And Inequalities In Kentucky Counties, Bailey Harder, James Maples

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Environmental racism explores how pollution-producing industries are systematically constructed in and around poor, minority communities. Exposure to pollutants over time negatively impacts resident well being and quality of life while economic trends limit opportunities to relocated. Kentucky provides a valuable opportunity for exploring environmental racism. The state’s long dependency on coal extraction has created environmental opportunities for studying this phenomenon amid deindustrialization throughout the region. This study examines how changes in air pollution (a proxy measure of environmental toxins) correlates to poverty, quality of life, and resident racial demographics. Results indicate that Kentucky counties with higher air pollution had lower …

Comparing Substance Use Social Issues In Appalachian And Non-Appalachian Regions In Kentucky, Erica C. Bellamy, James N. Maples

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Substance use and abuse is not a uniquely Appalachian problem, but it remains a prevalent social problem for the geographical region. Kentucky has been one of the central states experiencing generations of substance abuse, ranging from methamphetamines to OxyContin to heroin. Eastern Kentucky, which includes a portion of Central Appalachia, has been a focal point for the proposed war against substance use. What remains undemonstrated in studies is exactly how substance abuse differs between the Central Appalachian counties of Eastern Kentucky and the remainder of the state, if any difference exists at all. In this study, the researchers examine how …

Sociological Explanations Of Coronavirus Incidence Rates In Kentucky Counties, Sarah Cooper, James N. Maples

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

This study explores sociological explanations for Covid-19 incidence rates among Kentucky Counties. The authors examine how incidence rates varied pre/post-Omicron variant based on a county’s educational attainment, poverty rates, political perspective, health status, and place status (Appalachian status, metropolitan status). The authors discovered that none of these variables effectively explained differences in county level Covid-19 rates before Omicron. However, once Omicron became the prevalent variant in Kentucky, metropolitan status, Appalachian status, two measures of poverty rates, political perspective, and three measure of educational attainment all predicted differences in mean Covid-19 incidence rates.

Cares Act Unemployment Insurance Program Implementation In Kentucky: A Case Study, Alicia Landon

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States. The deadly virus filled hospitals to capacity and caused approximately 375,000 deaths nationwide over the next nine months (Ahmad et al., 2021). In an effort to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, federal and state governments closed businesses and agencies within a matter of weeks. Almost as quickly as the threat to human health changed the lives of Americans, the secondary threat of economic disruption began to unfold. Nationwide unemployment rates increased from approximately 4% to 15% between February 2020 and April 2020 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, …

How The Increase In Remote Employees Due To Covid-19 Has Impacted Local Income Tax Revenues For U.S. Cities, Brian T. Pearson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This research paper will discuss COVID-19’s impact on remote work and its effect on local income taxes for cities across the United States. The paper specifically will be looking into how the increase in remote workers has affected revenue and policy changes for local income taxes since the pandemic. Before the pandemic, most US citizens with jobs had to be on-site, but COVID-19 seems to have changed how businesses are operating for the foreseeable future. A lot of businesses across the country have shifted to having more of their employees working fully remote or partially remote (hybrid) schedules. This has …

Expanding The Samat In Kentucky Correction Institutions: Benefits And Funding, Blair Lozier

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The United States has seen an increasing rate of substance use disorder among individuals. Those convicted and incarcerated are more likely to have substance use disorder. With correctional institutions becoming overcrowded, policymakers struggle to find an answer to the number of individuals incarcerated with substance use disorder. The Cabinet of Health and Family Services and the Department of Corrections created Supportive Assistance with Medication for Addiction Treatment (SAMAT) in Kentucky. SAMAT is an addictive services program focused on preventing overdose and relapse and aiding recidivism for individuals with opioid and alcohol use disorder. The SAMAT has been deemed successful through …

The Financial Impact Of Undocumented Workers On Kentucky's Economy, Diana Gold

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Undocumented immigrant workers have a significant presence and impact on the economy of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. However, it is difficult to fully understand their financial impact due to the scarcity of published statistics on this topic. In addition, undocumented immigrants try to live unnoticed due to the nature of their legal status and fear of deportation. Some nonprofit organizations and a few public institutions have been able to track data related to their tax contributions, population size, ages, work fields, spending habits, and public resources used. Gathering the available data will help better understand the financial impact of undocumented …

An Analysis Of Policy Changes Of State Individual Income Taxes Over Recent Years, Melissa Feddes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This paper provides an overview of how often each state implemented changes to its individual income tax policies (if any) and focuses on six states (OH, MD, OK, KY, and PA) to conduct a comparison of changes and structures from 2015 to 2023. It also evaluates how these changes appeared to impact the selected state's revenues over time.

Examining Migration Flows Across Kentucky's Counties, James Brady Stein

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The state of Kentucky is home to many rural counties which experience high levels of outward migration due to their relatively unfavorable economic conditions. While migration trends nationally have begun to plateau, migration flows from county to county show a much more volatile story. This study will examine the relationship between economic opportunity and migration flow estimates in Kentucky’s counties through a multiple regression approach with the response variable being annual migration flow estimates, with multiple predictor variables showing the economic composition of the county. Variables used in this regression include annual unemployment rates, educational attainment levels, county poverty rates, …

Examining Academic Performance And Education Stability Measures For Youth In Foster Care, Alex Asbury

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The state of Kentucky has seen an increase in its population of youth who are involved with child welfare and in the foster care system while also seeing less cases end in reunification with families. While youth process trauma related to the removal from their homes and the potential of experiencing multiple moves through their time with child welfare, it is important that educational stability remain intact to promote normalcy and improve educational outcomes for youth in foster care. Following the signing of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Kentucky education system has seen improvement in its processes …

Curbing Diabetes Prevalence And Reducing Risk Through Policy, Grayson Blount

Undergraduate Public Policy Capstone Projects

The purpose of this policy brief is to illuminate the dire circumstances surrounding the ongoing diabetes epidemic in Kentucky. Type II diabetes mellitus, a preventable and manageable chronic illness, affects nearly 465,000 Kentuckians currently. Beyond the daily struggle associated with diabetes, many acute complications can arise that are severly detrimental to quality of life, such as blindness or lower extremeity amputation. Additionally, the costs associated with diabetes are tremendous, to patients, to providers, and to the state. It is in the best interest of all stakeholders to do whatever we can in order to reduce prevalence and improve management of …

Association Of Diabetes Prevalence With Labor Force Participation Rates In Kentucky Counties, Ryan Montgomery

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Compared to other states in the USA, Kentucky has one of the highest rates of diagnosed diabetes and one of the lowest levels of labor force participation. This project employs a multivariable linear regression model to estimate the correlation between county-level diabetes prevalence and county-level labor force participation rates in Kentucky counties from 2015-2019, using publicly available data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Labor force participation rates serve as the dependent variable and diabetes prevalence rates serve as the primary independent variable, alongside nine …

An Exploration Of Service Needs And Preferences Of Dementia Caregivers In Kentucky, Heehyul Moon, Sunshine Rote, Allison Kacmar, Amy Kostelic, Bari Lewis

The Journal of Extension

As Americans live longer, the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias will increase. Caregivers are critical to the care and life quality of people with dementia. Yet, dementia caregivers are at increased risk for health issues, social isolation, and financial challenges. To help educators with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service work with their local Alzheimer’s Association and the University of Louisville to better support dementia families, we explored caregiver needs and service utilization using an online survey. Our findings highlighted the need for counseling/support, care management skills, resource education, self-care strategies, and legal services. Extension Service Educators …

A Comparison Of The Economic Impact Of Horse Racing Tracks In Kentucky Versus Neighboring Indiana, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Louisville metro area is one that spans two states—Kentucky and Indiana. Since the University of Louisville has many students and employees who come from the Hoosier State, it would be interesting to see how the two states compare when it comes to what has been labeled a “signature” industry for the Commonwealth of Kentucky—horse racing.

The Economic Impact Of Buying And Redeveloping Ellis Park By Churchill Downs, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

Churchill Downs’ acquisition of Ellis Park Racing and Gaming in Henderson, Kentucky reflects the growing number of mergers across the US among racetracks, racetracks and casinos, and casinos with other casinos. Some years back, Ellis racetrack closed for one year due to declining profitability, yet after new ownership took over and a gaming center was added, it began a rebound in earnings (Courier and Press 2008). The $75 million that Churchill Downs plans to spend to transform Ellis Park (Schulz 2022) will have a much bigger impact than the construction, revamping, and expansion of park facilities. This is in addition …

Divided We Fall: Gender-Based Occupational Segregation In Kentucky’S Executive Branch 2012-2020., Hillary Mcgoodwin Abbott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fifty-eight years have passed since the Title VII of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was signed into law, yet discrimination in employment still occurs; the Kentucky Executive Branch is no exception. This paper will use Theodore Lowi’s agency typology and EEOC categorical data from the 2012 and 2020 Kentucky Office of Diversity and Employment Training Semi-Annual Report on Female and Minority Employment (SAR) to identify gendered occupational segregation in three distinct Executive Branch agencies, address potential contributing factors and areas of change (Alkadry & Tower, 2006; Lowi, 1985; Newman, 1994; Escriche, 2007). Addressing any underlying discriminatory practices that may …

Assessing Citizen Attitudes Towards Climate Change, Renewable Energy, And Solar Development In Kentucky., Ryan Patrick Lloyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on public attitudes and perceptions of renewable energy development strategy, solar energy, and climate change using a statewide survey in the 23 counties of Kentucky (KY) where solar developments have been installed or will be installed soon. Results indicate a that the public has a complex view of renewable energy development (RED) and how best an energy transition should be carried out, if at all. Solar RED was generally perceived positively by members of the public, with rooftop or household solar being stated as the preferred model of development. Citizens were most concerned over the visual impact …