Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Media And Learning At The Ferguson Municipal Public Library, Madelynn Dickerson

Library Staff Publications and Research

This brief article highlights the way in which the Ferguson Municipal Public Library harnessed social media, specifically Twitter, to provide opportunities for learning in the community during the August 2014 protests after the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager shot and killed by a white police officer. The article presents data from the Ferguson Library’s Twitter account and looks at community reception of the library’s educational efforts.

Drawing Comparisons: Analyzing Art & Architecture Print And E-Book Usage, Madelynn Dickerson, Jamie Hazlitt, Caroline Muglia, Jeremy Whitt

Library Staff Publications and Research

Recent studies have shown that despite possible preconceptions, e-books in art and architecture subject areas are actually quite well used. By collaborating across four SCELC-affiliated Southern California institutions (Claremont Colleges Library, Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University, and the University of Southern California), we engaged in extensive usage analyses to understand more about what might motivate art and architecture researchers to seek out e-books, and compare that usage to print books.

Critical Collection Analysis: Using Dh Tools To Contextualize Historical Collecting Patterns Within A Political Framework, Lydia Bello, Nina Clements, Madelynn Dickerson, Margaret Hogarth

Library Staff Publications and Research

With the growth of digital humanities and a wide range of free and open source analysis tools at our fingertips, librarians have a unique opportunity to use these new tools to critically analyze library collections. Moving beyond usage and budgets, strategies such as text analysis, temporal pattern finding and data visualization offer insights into the structure and content of our collections, which in turn supports evidenced-based decision-making for future acquisitions. At the Claremont Colleges Library, librarians across divisions have been encouraged to learn tools and approaches to Digital Humanities, and apply these principles to our own work and relationships with …

Why Has “Development” Become A Political Issue In Indian Politics?, Aseema Sinha

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Most observers of India have an implicit model of how Indians vote. They assume that voters in India act on their primary identities, such as caste or community, and that parties seek votes based on group identities—called vote banks—that can be collated into majorities and coalitions. K.C. Suri articulates the logic of this dominant model:

People of this country vote more on the basis of emotional issues or primordial loyalties, such as caste, religion, language or region and less on the basis of policies. The victory or defeat of a party depends on how a party or leaders marshal support …

How Global Rules And Markets Are Shaping India’S Rise On The International Stage, Aseema Sinha

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Over the last quarter century, India has shifted from a hesitant economic power to a confident player on the international stage. In her new book, Aseema Sinha draws on extensive research to ask where this global activism has come from, and considers the international dimensions of domestic change. Here she discusses how her findings challenge standard narratives on globalisation and the supposedly homegrown character of India’s reform trajectory.

Scalar, Tensor, And Ethics In Digital Asset Management, Allegra Swift, Craig Dietrich

Library Staff Publications and Research

This working group will foreground Scalar, a Semantic Web-based scholarly publishing system, and its developing “spin-off” application, Tensor, the latter created specifically for the collection and management of media from a variety of digital archives. The group will explore issues in access and use of digital archives, particularly around ethics and global citizenship when scholars work with media assets to create online digital scholarship. There is a lack of awareness of risk and ethics to guide the creation of such software, especially amplifying issues related to marginalized groups, sensitive data, and the confusion around the use of content that is …

Beta Spaces As A Model For Recontextualizing Reference Services In Libraries, Madelynn Dickerson

Library Staff Publications and Research

Reference services are at a cross-roads. While many academic libraries continue to offer reference services from behind a desk, others are moving to roving and embedded reference models. Meanwhile, libraries are also engaged in the development of collaborative learning spaces—often rich with technology, such as makerspaces and learning labs—but these spaces are often removed from the reference services environment. Beta spaces are another type of collaborative environment used in both public and academic libraries with the potential to infuse energy into the reference space and emphasize research support through experimentation, collaboration, and user contribution. Beta spaces are user-oriented environments with …

Publishing Undergraduate Research: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, Allegra Swift

Library Staff Publications and Research

Scholarly communications are evolving rapidly; there are shifts in how research is communicated, what counts for scholarship, and who is doing the communicating. Undergraduates are contributing to the scholarly conversation but with little education in what it means to participate online as a scholar, much less as a global digital citizen. Many faculty members engage in scholarly communication as they always have and are often unaware of the rapid developments in publishing and sharing research. Librarians with responsibilities in publishing, scholarly communication, and instruction are especially challenged to meet these gaps in digital literacy. Publishing undergraduate scholarship can be perceived …

Bioswales For Stormwater Remediation And Infiltration: Assessing Regulatory Climate And Quantifying Filtration Capacity Of A Claremont Bioswale, Skyler Lewis, Boyu Liu, Paul Picciano, Liana Solis, Char Miller

Environmental Analysis Program Senior Projects

Watershed management is critical in ensuring a sustainable water supply. This project is designed to assess the impact of bioswales in the context of Southern California’s climate. The patterns of droughts and floods make these green infrastructure appealing as they offer potential to boost water quality and regenerate local aquifers, while reducing the area of impermeable surfaces in our urban landscape. As bioswales have not been commonly incorporated into infrastructure development, our project focuses on a relatively new bioswale, added in 2012 and located on Pomona College’s campus, to serve as our case study in determining the viability of bioswales …

Dismantle Your Electronic Resources Fund! Applying The Power Of Faceted Classification To Acquisitions Budget Management., Maria Savova, Jason S. Price

Library Staff Publications and Research

Effective collection management and funding advocacy require that academic library materials budgets reflect the complexity of their underlying acquisitions. We introduce a faceted budget structure that addresses acquisition mode, material type, material format, and discipline in each fund - thereby empowering budget transparency, reliable ongoing spending control, and accurate long-term planning.

Multi-Year Optimization Of Malaria Intervention: A Mathematical Model, Harry J. Dudley, Abhishek Goenka '15, Cesar J. Orellana '17, Susan E. Martonosi

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Malaria is a mosquito-borne, lethal disease that affects millions and kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, mostly children. There is an increasing need for models of malaria control. In this paper, a model is developed for allocating malaria interventions across geographic regions and time, subject to budget constraints, with the aim of minimizing the number of person-days of malaria infection.

Daesh/Is Armored Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (Avbieds): Insurgent Use And Terrorism Potentials., Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This essay in the TRENDS terrorism futures series focuses on advanced threats related to vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). It provides a threat typology of these devices with their evolution into the armored (AVBIED) variant that has now been fielded by Daesh/IS in both Iraq and Syria. A short overview of such insurgent use will be provided as well as a brief discussion of the terrorism potentials of such use if directed against the UAE, Europe, or the United States.

Creative Connections: Engaging Students And Faculty Through A Library Artist In Residence, Alexandra Chappell

Library Staff Publications and Research

It can be challenging to forge connections between an academic library and undergraduate art students, who are often heavily engaged in beginning studio practice and may only associate the library with the more traditional research done by other disciplines. One way to overcome this challenge is to change their perceptions of the library through programming that demonstrates that the library can be a site for exploration, inspiration, research, and innovation by artists. At the Claremont Colleges Library, we partnered with a member of the art faculty to create a Library Artist in Residence (LAIR) program, which has the twin goals …

Developing A Primary Source Lab Series: A Collaboration Between Special Collections And Subject Collections Librarians, Adam Rosenkranz, Gale Burrow, Lisa L. Crane

Library Staff Publications and Research

In 2014 librarians at the Claremont Colleges Library piloted a 2-part workshop series that gave graduate students the opportunity to closely read a primary source as artifact, explore related digital primary sources, identify interesting research questions, and find secondary scholarship that spoke to those questions. This Primary Source Workshop series was developed collaboratively by special collections librarians, subject liaison librarians, and graduate faculty. The series has since been adapted for a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes. As a sequence, the workshops emphasize the continuity from paper sources to digital sources and the interrelationships of primary and secondary sources in …

A Pragmatic And Flexible Approach To Information Literacy: Findings From A Three-Year Study Of Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Barbara Junisbai, M. Sara Lowe, Natalie Tagge

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

While faculty often express dismay at their students’ ability to locate and evaluate secondary sources, they may also be ambivalent about how to (and who should) teach the skills required to carry out quality undergraduate research. This project sought to assess the impact of programmatic changes and librarian course integration on students’ information literacy (IL) skills. Using an IL rubric to score student papers (n=337) over three consecutive first-year student cohorts, our study shows that when faculty collaborate with librarians to foster IL competencies, the result is a statistically significant improvement in students’ demonstrated research skills. Our study also reveals …

The Developmental Systems Approach And The Analysis Of Behavior, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

The developmental systems approach is a perspective that has been adopted by increasing numbers of developmental scientists since it emerged in the twentieth century. The overview presented in this paper makes clear that proponents of this approach and proponents of modern behavior analysis should be natural allies. Despite some distinctions between the two schools of thought, the essential ideas associated with each are compatible with the other; in particular, scientists in both camps work to analyze the provenance of behavior and recognize the central role that contextual factors play in behavioral expression.

Racial And Socioeconomic Disparities In Body Mass Index Among College Students: Understanding The Role Of Early Life Adversity, David S. Curtis, Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell, Stacey N. Doan, Aleksandra E. Zgierska, Carol D. Ryff

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The role of early life adversity (ELA) in the development of health disparities has not received adequate attention. The current study examined differential exposure and differential vulnerability to ELA as explanations for socioeconomic and racial disparities in body mass index (BMI). Data were derived from a sample of 150 college students (Mage = 18.8, SD = 1.0; 45 % African American; 55 % European American) who reported on parents’ education and income as well as on exposure to 21 early adverse experiences. Body measurements were directly assessed to determine BMI. In adjusted models, African American students had higher …

The Developmental Effect Of State Alcohol Prohibitions At The Turn Of The 20th Century, Mary F. Evans, Eric Helland, Jonathan Klick, Ashwin Patel

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

We examine the quasi-randomization of alcohol consumption created by state-level alcohol prohibition laws passed in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. Using a large dataset of World War II enlistees, we exploit the differential timing of these laws to examine their effects on adult educational attainment, obesity, and height. We find statistically significant effects for education and obesity that do not appear to be the result of pre-existing trends. Our findings add to the growing body of economic studies that examine the long-run impacts of in utero and childhood environmental conditions.

Terrorist And Insurgent Teleoperated Sniper Rifles And Machine Guns, Robert J. Bunker, Alma Keshavarz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This data set consists of twenty-one teleoperated weapons systems used by terrorist and insurgent groups. It is worth noting that there are many more systems’ images available, but no group affiliation could be associated with them, which is why they were not included in this research project. The plethora of videos and photos on social media indicates that terror and insurgent groups are increasingly turning to improvised weaponry use on the battlefield. One class of improvised weapon that is emerging is remote controlled sniper rifles and machine guns. They are being used across Syria, Iraq, and a lone case in …

Mission In Evolving Cultures: Constructively Managing Music-Related Conflict In Cross-Cultural Church Planting Contexts, David R. Dunaetz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The choice of music, an essential element of worship and church life, must be addressed in cross-cultural church planting contexts. As cultures evolve, church planters are faced with choices about musical styles that may lead to interpersonal conflicts within the church. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine factors that may enable cross-cultural church planters to constructively manage music-related conflicts when they arise. Members of church plants, like all people, have various goals when entering into such conflicts. They are concerned about the content of the conflict (i.e., the musical style) and thus have content goals. They are …

Missio-Logoi And Faith: Factors That Influence Attitude Certainty, David R. Dunaetz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

One of the goals of missio-logoi (missionary speech) used by missionaries is the development of faith in the lives of those whom the missionaries serve. From a biblical perspective, faith has both a relational (e.g., John 3:16) and a cognitive dimension (e.g., Hebrews 11:1). This cognitive dimension is similar to what social psychologists call attitude certainty, the degree to which an individual is certain that a particular attitude or belief is true. This study reviews the empirical research conducted to discover the factors that influence attitude certainty. These factors include support for the beliefs by peers, repeated verbal expression of …

Backward Compatibility Effects In Younger And Older Adults, Alan Hartley, François Maquestiaux, Sara B. Festini, Kathryn Frazier, Patricia J. Krimmer

Scripps Faculty Publications and Research

In many dual-task situations, responses to the second of two tasks are slowed when the time between tasks is short. The response-selection bottleneck model of dual-task performance accounts for this phenomenon by assuming that central processing of the second task is blocked by a bottleneck until central processing of Task 1 is complete. This assumption could be called into question if it could be demonstrated that the response to Task 2 affected the central processing of Task 1, a backward response compatibility effect. Such effects are well-established in younger adults. Backward compatibility effects in older (as well as younger) adults …