Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Wikipedia, Socialpedia, And Randompedia: How Could One Play By The Rules When There Aren’T Any?, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This article documents a cataloging librarian’s personal narrative that reflects his experience of organizing Wikipedia-Edit-thon. This experience leads to a journey of self-education about Wikipedia, a divergence to preconceived notions about it, and an embrace for a change in the future.

Studying The Gang Through Critical Ethnography, David C. Brotherton

Publications and Research

Added to the paucity of critical lenses through which the gang has been viewed criminologically is the increasing influence of the US criminal justice system on the global gang discourse. Such a lens has increased in importance as many nation states have followed the example of US repressive gang policies in thinking about crime and deviance, essentially mirroring its adoption of neo-liberalism in thinking about the political economy. In such an approach it is assumed that a coercive social control system is required to discipline and warehouse those “problem populations” excluded by the concentration of wealth and power. Across the …

Insights From Library Information And Resource Sharing For The Future Of Academic Library Collections, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

The successes and challenges of library resource sharing offer important lessons for librarians considering the future of academic library collections.

What Is Critical About Critical Librarianship?, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

Library work structures intellectual worlds as library workers collect, organize, make accessible, and preserve materials for use. This work is not neutral. Libraries, like all institutions, are produced in and through systems marked by racism, patriarchy, and capitalist modes of production. Critical librarianship offers a framework for thinking about our work that asks how library structures came to be and what ideologies underpin them. Viewing librarianship through this frame allows us to imagine new and better worlds on our way to making them.

Library Use Survey: November 26 - December 9, 2018, Silvia Cho, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

In this self-study, we observed occupancy rates and patterns at the Graduate Center Library over two weeks in November and December of 2018. The mean occupancy at the Library was 26%, or 117.5 occupants. Occupancy on all three floors ranged from 13% or 60 occupants (a Sunday at 1pm) to 38% or 170 occupants (a Saturday at 6pm).

Glycine Supplementation Extends Lifespan Of Male And Female Mice, Richard A. Miller, David E. Harrison, C. Michael Astle, Molly A. Bogue, Joel Brind, Elizabeth Fernandez, Kevin Flurkey, Martin Javors, Warren Ladiges, Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, Francesca Macchiarini, James Nelson, Alexey G. Ryazanov, Jessica Snyder, Timothy M. Stearns, Douglas E. Vaughan, Randy Strong

Publications and Research

Diets low in methionine extend lifespan of rodents, though through unknown mechanisms. Glycine can mitigate methionine toxicity, and a small prior study has suggested that supplemental glycine could extend lifespan of Fischer 344 rats. We therefore evaluated the effects of an 8% glycine diet on lifespan and pathology of genetically heterogeneous mice in the context of the Interventions Testing Program. Elevated glycine led to a small (4%–6%) but statistically significant lifespan increase, as well as an increase in maximum lifespan, in both males (p = 0.002) and females (p < 0.001). Pooling across sex, glycine increased lifespan at each of the three independent sites, with significance at p = 0.01, 0.053, and 0.03, respectively. Glycinesupplemented females were lighter than controls, but there was no effect on weight in males. End‐of‐life necropsies suggested that glycine‐treated mice were less likely than controls to die of pulmonary adenocarcinoma (p = 0.03). Of the 40 varieties of incidental pathology evaluated in these mice, none were increased to a significant degree by the glycine‐supplemented diet. In parallel analyses of the same cohort, we found no benefits from TM5441 (an inhibitor of PAI‐1, the primary inhibitor of tissue and urokinase plasminogen activators), inulin (a source of soluble fiber), or aspirin at either of two doses. Our glycine results strengthen the idea that modulation of dietary amino acid levels can increase healthy lifespan in mice, and provide a foundation for further investigation of dietary effects on aging and late‐life diseases.

Crowd Wisdom Enhanced By Costly Signaling In A Virtual Rating System, Ofer Tchernichovski, Lucas C. Parra, Daniel Fimiarz, Arnon Lotem, Dalton Conley

Publications and Research

Costly signaling theory was developed in both economics and biology and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena. However, the theory’s prediction that signal cost can enforce information quality in the design of new communication systems has never been put to an empirical test. Here we show that imposing time costs on reporting extreme scores can improve crowd wisdom in a previously cost-free rating system. We developed an online game where individuals interacted repeatedly with simulated services and rated them for satisfaction. We associated ratings with differential time costs by endowing the graphical user interface that solicited …

Cctv Surveillance For Crime Prevention. A 40-Year Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis, Eric L. Piza, Brandon C. Welsh, David P. Farrington, Amanda L. Thomas

Publications and Research

Research Summary: We report on the findings of an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras on crime. The findings show that CCTV is associated with a significant and modest decrease in crime. The largest and most consistent effects of CCTV were observed in car parks. The results of the analysis also demonstrated evidence of significant crime reductions within other settings, particularly residential areas. CCTV schemes incorporating activemonitoring generated larger effect sizes than did passive systems. Schemes deploying multiple interventions alongside CCTV generated larger effect sizes than did schemes deploying single or no …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 5.0, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Kathleen Offenholley, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm, Anders A. Wallace

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. The CUNY Games Conference distills its best cutting-edge interactive presentations into a two-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogies in higher education, focusing particularly on non-digital learning activities that faculty can use in the classroom every day. The conference will include workshops lead by CUNY Games Organizers on …

Populism Or Embedded Plutocracy? The Emerging World Order, Michael Lee

Publications and Research

Neoliberalism opened up the world economy to fundamentally illiberal regimes.

Infrastructures Of Taste: Rethinking Local Food Histories In Lithuania, Renata Blumberg, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

Lithuania hosts a diversity of places that offer consumers a taste of local food, which appear to mirror the recent popularity of local and alternative food initiatives globally. In this paper we show that the proliferation of local foods in the region is not a novel phenomenon, nor is it solely a manifestation of taste preferences or identities associated with food. Drawing on the growing scholarly work on the role of infrastructures in mediating social, economic and political relations, we conceptualize the taste for local food as embedded in broader networks and reproduced through material facilities. To advance this argument, …

Islam And Buddhism: The Arabian Prequel?, Anna Akasoy

Publications and Research

Conventionally, the first Muslim-Buddhist encounters are thought to have taken place in the context of the Arab-Muslim expansions into eastern Iran in the mid-seventh century, the conquest of Sind in 711 and the rise of the Islamic empire. However, several theories promoted in academic and popular circles claim that Buddhists or other Indians were present in western Arabia at the eve of Islam and thus shaped the religious environment in which Muhammad’s movement emerged. This article offers a critical survey of the most prominent arguments adduced to support this view and discusses the underlying attitudes to the Islamic tradition, understood …

Games, Movies, And Zombies: Making Ir Fun For Everyone, Shawna M. Brandle

Publications and Research

Throwing as much fun and pop culture into an international relations class as possible, with the goal of improving student learning (and the likelihood of the course running again). Games proved most effective, while movies were less useful in increasing student learning on international relations.

Aligning The Curriculums For College Success: High School And College Library Collaborations, Carl R. Andrews, Dickens Saint Hilaire

Publications and Research

In today’s highly competitive global economy, City University of New York (CUNY) graduates need strong critical thinking skills. More New York City students than ever before are applying to college and enrolling into CUNY schools. This is especially the case with high schools throughout the Bronx, a good portion of these schools are feeder schools for Bronx Community College (BCC). Unfortunately, many of the students who matriculate into BCC come un-prepared for college level work, where information literacy skills are essential. A strong body of published scholarly literature discusses the importance of information literacy instruction at the high school level, …

Opening The Conversation: Getting Started, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

This column explores the concept of Open Educational Resources and how it relates to librarianship

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Eighteen Blind Library Users’ Experiences With Library Websites And Search Tools In U.S. Academic Libraries: A Qualitative Study, Adina Mulliken

Publications and Research

Telephone interviews were conducted with 18 blind academic library users around the U.S. about their experiences using their library and its website. The study uses the perspective that blind users’ insights are fundamental. A common theme was that navigating a webpage is time consuming on the first visit. Issues identified include the need for “databases” to be defined on the homepage, accessibly coded search boxes, logical heading structure, and several problems to be resolved on result pages. Variations in needs depending on users’ screen reader expertise were also raised. Suggestions for libraries to address these issues are offered.

The Processing Of Input With Differential Objectmarking By Heritage Spanish Speakers, Jill Jegerski, Irina A. Sekerina

Publications and Research

Heritage Spanish speakers and adult immigrant bilinguals listened to wh-questions with the differential object marker a (quién/a quién ‘who/whoACC’) while their eye movements across four referent pictures were tracked. The heritage speakers were less accurate than the adult immigrants in their verbal responses to the questions, leaving objects unmarked for case at a rate of 18%, but eye movement data suggested that the two groups were similar in their comprehension, with both starting to look at the target picture at the same point in the question and identifying the target sooner with a quién ‘whoACC’ than with quién ‘who’ questions.

Leaking Women: A Genealogy Of Gendered And Racialized Flow, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Through a feminist and critical race analytic, this paper theorizes the disruptions evoked by leaky women—actually doubly leaky women—those whose nipples, peri-menopausal uterus’ and mouths have “leaked” in ways that rupture/stain/expose the white-patriarchal-capitalist enclosure of work, home and the streets and then dared to leak again by suing for justice in court. In a closing coda, I address the race/class policing dynamics between she who leaks and the “respectable” [usually white] women recruited to plaster up the hole and cauterize the leaker.

A Question Of Space: Surveying Student Usage Of Lgbtq Resources In The Lgbtq Student Center Library And The Campus Library, Anne Hays

Publications and Research

This article explores how self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students use the library located within a culture center on campus serving LGBTQ students, compared to the ways those students use the main campus library. In particular, this study asks how LGBTQ students’ needs of library collections may differ based on where those collections are located. While much has been written about pluralism, diversity, and multiculturalism in the library, there have been strikingly few studies by librarians attempting to work with minority student cultural centers on campus. Through an in-depth survey, this study directly asks LGBTQ students …

The Unbearable Lightness Of The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Accomplishment Of Diversity At An Urban Farmers Market, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

This article provides a critique of work on urban public space that touts its potential as a haven from racial and class conflicts and inequalities. I argue that social structures and hierarchies embedded in the capitalist system and the state’s social control over the racialized poor are not suspended even in places that appear governed by civility and tolerance, such as those under Anderson’s “cosmopolitan canopy”. Durable inequality, residential segregation, nativism, and racism inevitably shape what happens in diverse public spaces. Using an ethnographic study of an urban farmers’ market in New York City, I show that appearances of everyday …

My Problems Are Solvable: Idiographic Methods Offset Age Differences In Interpersonal Problem Solving Among Young, Middle-Aged, And Older Adults, Daniele Artistico, Daniel Cervone, Carolina Montes Garcia

Publications and Research

This study tested the hypothesis that older adults retain high levels of everyday problem solving performance when confronting problems of maximal ecological relevance, identified through idiographic methods. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults completed a daily challenge questionnaire (DCQ) in which they reported problems of maximal personal relevance or idiographic problems. The large majority of the problems reported were interpersonal. We then assessed performance on an everyday problem-solving task in which participants generated solutions for idiographic problems as well as problems generated by group matched research participants representing each of two other age groups (e.g., older adults received their own problems …

“In The Beginning Was Body Language” Clowning And Krump As Spiritual Healing And Resistance, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In the neighborhood of HollyWatts in Los Angeles, dance allows a shift from existing as bodies presented as sites of threat and extinction to sources of spiritual empowerment. Clowning and Krump dancers—their subjectivity and their dancing bodies—negotiate survival from trauma and socioeconomic marginalization. I argue that the dancers’ performances act as embodied narratives of “re-membering in the flesh.” The performance acts as a spiritual retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory through the body. Choreography and quotes from dancers support the claim that Krump and Clowning is “re-membering in the flesh” that enacts self-worth, self-defined sexuality, and …

Obfuscating Authorship: Results Of A User Study On Nondescript, A Digital Privacy Tool, Robin Camille Davis

Publications and Research

For those who write anonymously, particularly for safety reasons, authorship attribution poses a threat. Nondescript, my web app, guides writers in achieving stylometric obfuscation in order to preserve anonymity. The app runs simulations of authorship attribution scenarios by analyzing the user’s linguistic features. In this paper, I will describe the conception of the Nondescript app; discuss related work; and present the results of a user study. Most users in the study were able to anonymize their writing in at least 5 out of 10 authorship attribution scenarios. Users rated the anonymization process an average of 3.6 out of 5 in …

Cognitive, Behavioral, And Situational Influences On Relapse To Smoking After Group Treatment For Tobacco Dependence, Sara E. Lunden, Jami C. Pittman, Neelam Prashad, Ria Malhotra, Christine Sheffer

Publications and Research

Socioeconomic disparities in treatment failure rates for evidence-based tobacco dependence treatment are well-established. Adapted cognitive behavioral treatments are extensively tailored to meet the needs of lower socioeconomic status (SES) smokers and dramatically improve early treatment success, but there is little understanding of why treatment failure occurs after a longer period of abstinence than with standard treatment, why early treatment success is not sustained, and why long-term treatment failure rates are no different from standard treatments. We sought to understand the causes of treatment failure from the perspective of diverse participants who relapsed after receiving standard or adapted treatment in a …

Dominion Road In Auckland, New Zealand And Chinese Community, Wendy W. Tan

Publications and Research

Dominion Road, located at Auckland, New Zealand, runs north-south across most of the central areas of the town. It has been known as having a colorful mix of shops and being described as "United Nations of restaurants". However, around the Balmoral town center, Chinese-owned businesses have topped all other ethnic groups, so a proposal to designate this Road as the first Chinatown of Auckland City has been heard. The author did a literature search in this respect and also made a visit to this area. This article (in Chinese) is her understanding of the status quo after this site visit.

Measurement Plan And Analytic Strategies For Evaluating The Mayor’S Action Plan For Neighborhood Safety. Map Evaluation Update Number 2., Jeffrey A. Butts, John Roman, Angela Silletti, Anthony Vega, Wogod Alawlaqi

Publications and Research

This is the second of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center was asked to create the measurement framework and analytic strategies to evaluate the MAP initiative. Using multiple data sources and onsite observations and interviews, the team aims to understand the relationship between the MAP efforts and the expected outcomes of those efforts.

Building Bridges: Fostering Dynamic Partnerships Between The Library Department And Office Of Student Disability Services In Higher Education, Nilda Alexandra Sanchez-Rodriguez, Joseph Logiudice

Publications and Research

Building effective communication and interdepartmental partnerships are essential components of strengthening services, policies, and procedures to meet the individual information needs of students, faculty, and the college community. Despite major advancements in library services for users with disabilities, there are ongoing challenges, which need to be addressed. It is essential to develop inclusion and accessibility frameworks that serve mutual departmental interests to share and document lessons learned along the way.

This article explores the evolving shared leadership between an Architecture Librarian/Liaison to the AccessAbility Center; and the Director of Student Disability Services at the City College of New York to …

Influence Of Fake News In Twitter During The 2016 Us Presidential Election, Alexandre Bovet, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

The dynamics and influence of fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election remains to be clarified. Here, we use a dataset of 171 million tweets in the five months preceding the election day to identify 30 million tweets, from 2.2 million users, which contain a link to news outlets. Based on a classification of news outlets curated by www.opensources.co, we find that 25% of these tweets spread either fake or extremely biased news. We characterize the networks of information flow to find the most influential spreaders of fake and traditional news and use causal modeling to …

Exploring The Benefits Of Eco-Therapy Based Activities At An Urban Community College, Nicole Kras

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Claiming Our Space: A Quantitative And Qualitative Picture Of Disabled Librarians, Robin Brown, Scott Sheidlower

Publications and Research

Librarianship is made up of many different sorts of people. Until now, while research has been done on nondisabled librarians and who they are, little research has been undertaken on disabled librarians. This piece is based upon a research survey that draws on the experiences of librarians who are willing to self-identify as disabled librarians. The survey was further followed up by interviews. The authors want to enrich everyone’s understanding of what it means to be a librarian and, at the same time, to be disabled.