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This paper is a qualitative study of how social sciences faculty construct their research workflows with the help of technological tools. The purpose of this study is to examine faculty scholarly workflows and how both tools and practices support the research process. This paper could inform academic libraries on how to support scholars throughout the research process.

This is a qualitative study case study of ten faculty members from six research universities from the United States and Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and recorded. Atlas.ti was used to code and analyze the transcripts; each participant was a separate case. Descriptive coding was used to identify digital tools used for collaboration; process and descriptive coding was utilized to examine practices in scholarly workflows.

Through case study analysis the results of this study include the role of technology in faculty research workflows. Each workflow was grouped into four categories: information literacy, information management, knowledge management, and scholarly communication. The findings included scholars creating simple workflows for efficiency and collaboration and utilizing workarounds.

The study did not observe faculty in the process of doing research and, thus, only reports on what the researchers say that they do.

The research is unique in that there is almost no research on how social scientists conduct their research workflows and the affordances/impasses of this process.

This paper aims to review current literature pertaining to information literacy and digital literacy skills and practices within the research workflow for doctoral students and makes recommendations for how libraries (and others) can foster skill-sets for graduate student research workflows for the twenty-first century scholarly researcher.

A review of existing information literacy practices for doctoral students was conducted, and four key areas of knowledge were identified and discussed.

The findings validate the need for graduate students to have training in information literacy, information management, knowledge management and scholarly communication. It recommends empirical studies to be conducted to inform future practices for doctoral students.

This paper offers four areas of training to be considered by librarians and faculty advisers to better prepare scholars for their future.

This paper presents a distinctive synthesis of the types of information literacy and digital literacy skills needed by graduate students.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the process of implementing LibGuides content management system (CMS) eReserves with Blackboard integration to streamline workflow for the end-user and staff workflow.

Based on some of the issues with the existing system, there was a need to improve workflow for the user and staff. The previous course reserve process included a non-automated process. Implementing the LibGuides CMS eReserves module training for circulation staff consisted of in-person instruction and creating a tutorial with step by step directions for staff. The library sent out many email announcements and corresponded with individual faculty members. The authors also worked with the instructional designers for feedback and best practices when developing Blackboard courses, specifically online courses. The authors also developed an information page with a tutorial.

Findings indicate that the LibGuides CMS eReserves module is a success. The quick implementation process and ease of use for end-users and staff have proven to be beneficial. With the launch of the new system in fiscal year: 2013-2014, this revitalized the Seton Hall University eReserves program with a 142 per cent increase in usage. There could be many contributing factors to the increase in usage: the online form, direct links to Blackboard, the increase in online courses, etc. eReserves are up 42 per cent as of April for this year.

At the time of our evaluation, there were no other libraries using the eReserves module. The authors reviewed the literature and found no published articles about LibGuides CMS eReserves module.

Research examining organizational diversity has largely ignored the role corporate web sites play in establishing the tone for diversity in organizations. Serving as “electronic storefronts,” corporate web sites are typically the first point of contact individuals have with an organization. The purpose of this paper is to centralize communication as a critical tool in understanding the strategies corporations use to communicate their diversity philosophy, practices and policies. This virtual ethnographic study examines corporate web sites (n=100) across industries and sectors to capture the strategies organizations use to strategically communicate diversity to a variety of stakeholders.

Taking a virtual ethnographic, this study examines 100 corporate web sites across industries to capture the methods organizations employ to strategically communicate diversity in their respective organization.

Results from this ethnographic study reveal that organizations typically use three strategies in their diversity messages: impression management, persuasion and strategic ambiguity. Strategic ambiguity and the persuasive use of selling, telling and framing their diversity message are ubiquitous in corporate diversity communication. The use of these strategies may have a profound impact on how diversity is perceived within organizations. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

This is one of the first social science/humanistic studies to examine diversity messages on corporate web sites and advances a conceptual framework for electronic diversity communication. Additionally, this project employs a virtual ethnographic approach, a novel, yet contemporary, method.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse fatigue-life prediction based on a reliability assessment for coil springs of vehicle suspension systems using different road excitations under random loading.

In this study, a reliability assessment was conducted to predict the fatigue life of an automobile coil spring during different road data surfaces. Campus, urban and highway road surfaces were considered to capture fatigue load strain histories using a data acquisition system. Random loadings are applied on top of a coil spring where coil is fixed from down. Fatigue reliability was established as a system of correlated events during the service life to predict the probability of fatigue life using Coffin–Manson, Morrow and Smith–Watson–Topper (SWT) models.

Fatigue-life prediction based on a reliability assessment revealed that the Morrow model can predict a safe region of a life data point for the three road surfaces. Highway road data indicated the highest rate of reliability at 0.8 for approximately 1.69 × 10⁵ cycles for the SWT model.

Reliability assessment of the fatigue life of vehicle coil springs is vital for safe operation. The reliability analysis of a coil spring under random loading excitations can be used for fatigue-life prediction.

It is customary these days to denounce our society for its unconscionable neglect of the elderly, while we look back romantically to some indeterminate past when the elderly were respected and well cared for. Contrary to this popular view, old people historically have enjoyed neither respect nor security. As Simone de Beauvoir so effectively demonstrates in The Coming of Age (New York: Putnam, 1972), the elderly have been almost universally ill‐treated by societies throughout the world. Even the Hebrew patriarchs admonished their children to remember them as they grew older: “Cast me not off in time of old age; when my strength fails, forsake me not” (Psalms 71:1). Primitive agrarian cultures, whose very existence depended upon the knowledge gleaned from experience, valued their elders, but even they were often moved by the harsh conditions of subsistence living to eliminate by ritual killing those who were no longer productive members of society. There was a softening of societal attitudes toward the elderly during the period of nineteenth century industrial capitalism, which again valued experience and entrepreneurial skills. Modern technocratic society, however, discredits the idea that knowledge accumulates with age and prefers to think that it grows out‐of‐date. “The vast majority of mankind,” writes de Beauvoir, “look upon the coming of old age with sorrow and rebellion. It fills them with more aversion than death itself.” That the United States in the twentieth century is not alone in its poor treatment of the aged does not excuse or explain this neglect. Rather, the pervasiveness of prejudice against the old makes it even more imperative that we now develop programs to end age discrimination and its vicious effects.