Search results

Collection assessment is an essential aspect of library collection development, especially for public institutions currently affected by financial budget cuts. Collection managers working with little to no budget have the task of establishing unconventional methods of selecting most relevant materials. This paper aims to demonstrate the correlation between a syllabi analysis, faculty survey and circulation statistics as a practical measure to enhance and expand the architecture library services at the City College of New York and in academia in general.

This study uses mixed use assessment strategies to evaluate a library collection. The scope of the study supports combining collection-based practices and use-based methods to gather two types of data: quantitative (including collection size and/or in-house use statistics) and qualitative (accomplished by user opinion surveys, focus groups and/or list checking).

Out of 74 architecture faculty members, 22 participated in a library survey to help uncover new opportunities for cross-collaboration. The findings simultaneously reinforce the importance of exploring syllabi and usage data as methods of assessment to reveal opportunities for cultivating library collections.

This paper will provide a better understanding of faculty perceptions to discover academic needs and achieve library integration into the design curriculum. The study demonstrates prospective directions for collection evaluation and faculty collaboration to open further opportunities for building a successful library.

Formal assessment and development of executives have become standard practices in organizations. There is a need, however, to determine what levers are available to maximize the impact and return on investment of initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to present outcomes and learnings from a multi-method approach to evaluating behavior change following the implementation of PepsiCo’s Senior Leader Development Center, a comprehensive process designed to accelerate capability at the executive level.

Learnings are presented based on analyses from three independent data sources collected throughout the 18-month program: behavioral change ratings from managers, direct reports, and peers via a 360 survey; attitudinal measures from participants’ post-program completion; and third-party observations by an internal facilitator.

Overall, findings indicate that while program rigor and content do matter as baseline components, principles of participant engagement and commitment emerged as most essential to delivering programs with sustained impact.

This case is based on leaders in a high-touch multi-trait multi-method assessment and development program in one organization. Additional research is needed to explore in other settings.

Results and implications are organized by each of the four key stages of the assessment and development process: conduct data-based assessments, deliver feedback and insights, build the development plan, and take action to implement the plan. Findings and recommendations for practice regarding each stage are discussed.

Few case studies or applied research exist that focus on the execution and outcomes associated with senior executive assessment and development programs in major corporations. This paper offers findings regarding the overall impact of such a program and key learnings from its sustained effort in a complex multi-national organization. The discussion and implications in this paper may directly influence how other organizations design and manage future talent management interventions with similar types of senior-level populations.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the behavioral barriers to sustainable action in a campus community.

This paper reports three different methodological approaches to the assessment of behavioral barriers to sustainable actions on a college campus. Focus groups and surveys were used to assess campus members’ opinions about the barriers that limit sustainable behaviors on campus. After identifying general barriers, behavioral assessment was used to assess specific barriers to energy conservation in a target location on campus and to develop an intervention to reduce energy use for that location.

Across methodologies, four key behavioral barriers to sustainable actions were consistently reported: communication/awareness, inconvenience, financial concerns and lack of engagement. The intervention that was developed targeted the barriers of communication issues and lack of awareness and resulted in reduced energy use for a target campus location.

This paper highlights the value of assessing barriers to ongoing sustainability efforts using multiple methods and using this information to develop an intervention to foster behavioral change. The paper also highlights strategies that have been implemented to address some of the barriers which were identified.

Top-level operations leaders can drive organizational performance across a broad range of pro-environmental objectives. The authors’ focus is on understanding which specific leadership competencies are most conducive to green performance outcomes. The authors further consider the influence of Lean thinking on the importance of these competencies.

In study 1, of a multi-method investigation, the authors interview executive search professionals, on how green objectives impact top-level operations leadership searches. In study 2, the authors adopt a multi-attribute choice task to examine how Lean thinking impacts competency preferences. Finally, in study 3, the authors merge secondary data on corporate environmental performance with a survey of top-level operations managers’ assessments. This triangulating multi-method approach provides an integrated and holistic view into these dynamics.

Results show particularly strong associations between resource and energy management outcomes and the specific leadership competencies of stewardship. This set of leadership competencies play the greatest role when Lean thinking is deficient.

While the authors’ focus is on top-level operations managers, and their under-explored impact on environmental performance, such an impact represents only one dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that these managers may be critically influencing.

The associations uncovered in this research suggest critical leadership characteristics to consider in developing and recruiting top-level operations managers, when specific environmental objectives exist.

The study’s findings draw attention to the importance of leadership characteristics among influential corporate decision-makers, instrumental in the environmental progress of firms.

This work fills a critical gap in the authors’ understanding of how top-level operations managers influence green corporate objective, and how their contributions are valued across settings.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the Multidisciplinary Sustainability Education Project (MSEP) as a framework using sustainability-themed education modules to introduce students to the need for multidisciplinary approaches to solving twenty-first-century problems while retaining traditional course strengths and content.

The MSEP uses sustainability-themed education models and a multidisciplinary approach to link courses across disciplines. Modules are identified by an overarching question with activities designed to address the overarching question from course-specific perspectives, resulting in students writing short technical reports summarizing their results. Students then read and evaluate technical reports from other classes, and complete a summary activity designed to connect perspectives from different disciplines.

The multi-method assessment identified no loss or gain in discipline-specific learning; increased understanding about the characteristics of twenty-first-century problems, in particular those related to sustainability; and increased students ' favorable perceptions of introductory calculus. Assessment of increased understanding of how different disciplines can work together to understand complex problems was difficult to measure due to limitations of a project-developed assessment instrument.

This paper contributes to undergraduate sustainability education by describing a framework for connecting courses using sustainability-themed modules. By implementing an asynchronous manner where courses use materials from the project Web site and contribute materials to the Web site after implementing a module, it is easy to incorporate a module into existing courses, any educational institution’s existing structure and across institutions. The framework’s flexible design allows new courses from any discipline to connect to a module, allowing for multidisciplinary connections to grow over time.

Prisons in the sub-Saharan African region face unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Malawi, the first prison system case of COVID-19 was notified in July 2020. While prison settings were included in the second domestic COVID-19 response plan within the Law Enforcement cluster (National COVID-19 preparedness and response plan, July–December 2020), they were initially not included in the K157bn (US$210m) COVID-19 fund. The purpose of the study was to assess prison preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in Malawi..

A multi-method situation assessment of the COVID-19 response and human rights assurance of prisoners and staff was conducted in a large prison complex in Malawi. Qualitative research underpinned by the Empirical Phenomenological Psychological (EPP) framework consisted of interviews with key informants such as prison health personnel, senior prison staff, penal and judicial policymakers, government and civil society organisations (n = 14) and focus group discussions with consenting male (n = 48) and female prisoners (n = 48) and prison wardens (n = 24). Prison site visits were supported by detailed observations based on the World Health Organisation Checklist for COVID-19 in prisons (n = 9). Data were collected and analysed thematically using the EPP stepwise approach and triangulated based on Bronfenbrenner’s model conceptualising COVID-19 as a multi-level event disrupting the prison eco-system.

The results are presented as MICRO-MESO level individual and community experiences of incarceration during COVID-19 spanning several themes: awareness raising and knowledge of COVID-19 in prisons; prison congestion and the impossibility of social distancing; lack of adequate ventilation, hygiene and sanitation and provisions and correct use of personal protective equipment; MESO-MACRO level interplay between the prison community of prisoners and staff and judicial policy impacts; medical system COVID-19 response, infrastructure and access to health care; COVID-19 detection and quarantine measures and prisoner access to the outside world.

This unique situation assessment of the Malawian prison system response to mitigate COVID-19 illustrates the dynamics at the micro-level whereby prisoners rely on the state and have restricted agency in protecting themselves from disease. This is due to severe structural inadequacies based on low resource allocation to prisons leading to a compromised ability to prevent and treat disease; an infirm and congested infrastructure and bottlenecks in the judicial system fuelling a continued influx of remand detainees leading to high overcapacity. Multi-pronged interventions involving key stakeholders, with prison management and line Ministry as coordinators are warranted to optimise COVID-19 interventions and future disease outbreaks in the Malawian prison system.

The purpose of this research is to determine the competencies that predict highly effective performance in R&D managers and to explore where, along their career and life, managers develop these competencies.

Participants were 35 scientists and engineers working as first level managers at a major US government research center in the Mid‐West. Intended as a comprehensive inquiry into the competencies of R&D managers, three factors determined the design: establishing a criterion measure of performance to define Highly Effective and Typical groups; using a multi‐trait, multi‐method approach to measurement; and collecting data on competency development that preceded work history.

Nine variables were found to differentiate the two groups of managers. These were similar enough to collapse into two competencies: managing groups and interpersonal sensitivity. For the highly effective managers who demonstrated these two competencies, development of their capability began at young ages and prior to work experience. Effective and regular use of the two competencies occurred later in life and typically as a result of taking on leadership roles outside the work setting.

People skills are important to effective management of R&D; technical ability is not enough to be a highly effective manager of R&D; differences in learning styles are important in learning interpersonal skills; people skills can be developed; development does not mean training; and activities outside work are important in developing leadership competencies.

Prisons in Africa face unprecedented challenges during Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In July 2020, the first prison system case of COVID-19 was notified in Zimbabwe. Subsequently, the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services released their COVID-19 operational plan. The purpose of the study was to assess preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in selected prisons in Zimbabwe.

A multi-method situation assessment of COVID-19 preparedness was conducted across three Zimbabwean prisons. The World Health Organization checklist to evaluate preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons was administered to frontline health managers. Information garnered was further explored during site observation and in multi-stakeholder key informant interviews with policymakers, prison health directorate, frontline health-care professionals, officers in charge and non-governmental organizations (n = 26); focus group discussions with correctional officers (n = 18); and male/female prisoners (n = 36). Data was triangulated and analyzed using content thematic analysis.

Outdated infrastructure, severe congestion, interrupted water supply and inadequate hygiene and sanitation were conducive to ill-health and spread of disease. Health professionals had been well-trained regarding COVID-19 disease control measures. COVID-19 awareness among prisoners was generally adequate. There was no routine COVID-19 testing in place, beyond thermo scanning. Access to health care was good, but standards were hindered by inadequate medicines and personnel protective equipment supply. Isolation measures were compromised by accommodation capacity issues. Flow of prison entries constituted a transmission risk. Social distancing was impossible during meals and at night.

This unique situation assessment of Zimbabwean prisons’ preparedness and approach to tackling COVID-19 acknowledges state and prison efforts to protect prisoners and staff, despite infrastructural constraints and inadequate resourcing from government.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the use of reflective research journals to assess students on a Stage One information literacy (IL) module can offer unparalleled insight into the complex information research processes and subjective learning experiences that lie behind the production of an academic essay.

Research journals created by 109 students over the course of a Stage One IL module were analysed qualitatively to reveal an iterative, problem‐strewn process, mostly culminating in deep satisfaction at the eventual production of an acceptable academic essay. Quotations from the journals are included to bring the students' experiences vividly to life.

Students' experiences of research are discussed under three key themes: Problems and Challenges; Enjoyment and Pride; and Learning Experience. Analysis showed that while problems were inevitable, students mostly considered the process to have been a useful and worthwhile learning experience.

Research journals offer an alternative mode of assessment which may be adopted by IL instructors wishing to focus on the students' subjective experience of “becoming information literate”. Traditional, quantitative forms of assessment do not offer the same insight into the actual process of doing research, instead focusing on what the students say they know, rather than demonstrate it performatively.

To date, few papers have reported the use of research journals to assess an IL programme, and it remains a novel assessment method in this context. This paper describes the advantages and pitfalls of using the method with Stage One students, and places its use within the general context of assessment practices for IL.