Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Tiered Reference: The New Landscape Of The Frontlines, Susan Gardner

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Introduction

When one walks into a typical academic library today, he or she is hard-pressed to see a reference librarian in plain view working at a public services desk. The well marked “reference desk” of yore, staffed by a smiling librarian and once a staple of every traditional academic library, has evolved into a less visible, more amorphous facility. Most libraries now use a new service strategy called “tiered reference,” whereby the initial reference contact point is with trained students or paraprofessionals at a general service desk. These non-librarians field all manner of questions, including directional, computing, and occasionally reference. …

Subject Librarians In The Changing Academic Library, Louise Feldman

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

This article overviews the literature and key topics surrounding the role of subject librarianship in the evolving environment of academic libraries. Subject librarians are looked at in the context of the broad trends affecting librarianship and in the context of the traditional roles they have held in collection development, instruction, and reference. The author opened a discussion on this topic entitled, “Subject Librarians: Viable or Vanishing?” for the RUSA-CODES Dual Assignments Discussion Group at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas in January of 2006.

Assessing Library Collections Using Brief Test Methodology, Jennifer Benedetto Beals

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

The brief test methodology was developed by Howard White as an assessment tool to determine or verify the existing strength of a library collection. The relatively quick and inexpensive procedure utilizes the Research Libraries Group’s Conspectus levels, subject expertise, and cataloging records in WorldCat. In support of the University of Tennessee Libraries’ continuing efforts to encourage resource sharing with Information Alliance partners, I developed a project with art counterparts at the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University. Using brief tests, I completed an assessment of each institution’s collection in the subject area of African art. The results enabled us …

Psychosocial Characteristics Related To Internet Behavior, Lia Bartnicki

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The idea that one can suffer from Internet Addiction (IA) is currently being debated in the field of psychology, with mounting evidence to suggest that such and addiction is possible. The goal of this study is to investigate whether several common psychosocial characteristics are associated with IA behavior. Forty-five people participated in the study by completing a battery of questionnaires on IA, personality, and aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Significant correlations were found between IA behavior and self-esteem, loneliness, age, conscientiousness, and sleep deprivation. Such findings suggest that people who report high amounts of IA behavior may be experiencing significant psychosocial …

An Optimal Depletion Cge Model: A Systematic Framework For Energy-Economy Analysis In Resource-Based Economies, Hodjat Ghadimi

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Numerical economic models of energy fall into two general categories: models analyzing within energy sector issues and models examining the interaction between the energy sector and the rest of the economy. The first category are mostly partial equilibrium models with a very detailed and disaggregated representation of the energy sector. Although very useful for sector planning purposes this class of models essentially neglect the interdependence of the energy sector and the rest of the economy. The second category, appropriately called energy-economy interaction models, are multisectoral and general equilibrium models focusing on the relationship between the energy sector and the rest …

County-Level Determinants Of Local Public Services In Appalachia: A Multivariate Spatial Autoregressive Model Approach, Gebremeskel H. Gebremariam, Tesfa Gebremedhin, Peter V. Schaeffer

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

A multivariate spatial autoregressive model of local public expenditure determination with autoregressive disturbance is developed and estimated in this paper. The empirical model is developed on the principles of utility maximization of a strictly quasi concave community utility function. The existence of spatial interdependence is tested using Moran’s I statistic and Lagrange Multiplier test statistics for both the spatial error and spatial lag models. The full model is estimated by efficient GMM following Kelejian and Prucha’s (1998) approach using county-level data from 418 Appalachian counties. The results indicate the existence of significant spillover effects among local governments with respect to …

The Interaction Between Individuals’ Destination Choice And Occupational Choice: A Simultaneous Equation Approach, Christiadi, Brian Cushing

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

This study examines the relationship between an individual’s occupation choice and destination choice. It portrays the relationship as an interaction between the supply of occupational skills by individuals and demand by different labor market regions. The analysis applies a two-equation simultaneous system: (1) a multinomial logit model of occupational choice and (2) a conditional logit model of state destination choice. The unusual merger of multinomial logit and conditional logit models in a simultaneous equation framework requires derivation of a unique variancecovariance matrix. The results indicate strong association between supply of (migration) and demand for (industry mix) an individual’s occupational skills. …

Extreme Makeover: Metroscape Cities Catch On To Recreational Trends, Steve Wilson

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

In the summer of 2005, the City of Portland’s Department of Parks and Recreation approved a Skatepark Master Plan to build 19 skateparks and skatespots around the city, joining a nationwide trend that signals a shift in the relationship between municipalities and skateboarders. Dedicated and publicly-approved areas for skateboarding are popping up in towns across the country, demonstrating how skateboarding has become a recreational norm on par with traditional sports such as football, baseball, and basketball. In fact, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA), the number of skateboarders has nearly doubled in the past decade, making it the …

Ballymun Needs Analysis: Summary Report, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Reports

No abstract provided.

How To Approach Comprehensive Tax Reform: Have The Rules Of The Game Changed?, Roy W. Bahl

ECON Publications

In the first section of this paper, we describe tax change over the past three decades, and attempt to identify its determinants. The focus is on developing countries.

The main objective of this paper, addressed in the second section, is more normative and is pointed toward the issue of whether there are some universal "rules" that might guide the next round of comprehensive tax reform efforts in developing countries. Based on the international experience, a set of propositions about how to do a comprehensive tax reform is offered.

Book Review - International Exposure: Perspectives On Modern European Pornography, 1800-2000 (L. Z. Sigel, New Brunswick, Nj: Rutgers University Press, 2005), Mandy J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

University Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Generation Parenting: Grandparents Who Receive Tanf, Vanessa Robinson-Dooley, Nancy P. Kropf

SW Publications

A review of the scholarly literature indicates that the number of grandparents who are second generation parents (e.g., raising their grandchildren) has increased dramatically. These grandparents often return to parenting with a variety of financial and physical health issues that need to be addressed within the context of their caregiving role. The current study is a secondary data analysis of a sample of grandparent caregivers that received TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) using data from a larger study conducted on welfare reform. The research is primarily descriptive, providing a summary of these grandparents' functioning. Finding and implications for understanding …

Acorn’S Accelerated Income Redistribution Project: A Program Evaluation, Fred Brooks, Daniel Russel, Robert Fisher

SW Publications

Objective. This study evaluated the community organization ACORN’s efforts to increase the uptake of families claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through door-to-door canvassing and managing free tax preparation clinics in three pilot cities. Method. The mixed-method program evaluation included administrative record review; a telephone survey (N = 1063), and individual and focus group interviews. Results. During the 2003 tax year ACORN prepared taxes at no charge for 3,850 families who collected a total of $4 million in EITC and other tax credits. In two pilot cities ACORN led all other free sites in number of …

March 2006 - Staff Meeting Agenda

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

September 2006 - Staff Meeting Agenda

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Travelling Knowledges: Positioning The Immigrant Reader Of Aboriginal Literatures In Canada, Rob Appleford

Great Plains Quarterly

Canadian Aboriginal writing has blossomed in the past two decades and made a major contribution to the cultural life of both Aboriginal peoples and the general public. Given this wealth, it becomes necessary for the non-Aboriginal literary critic to develop sensitive models for approaching this creative and critical work, both in the classroom and in academic research. The question becomes: how can a non-Aboriginal critic use her "outsider" status in an enabling way when teaching and studying this culturally-specific material? In Travelling Knowledges: Positioning the 1m/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada, Renate Eigenbrod has attempted to use her …

Book Review: Flood Stage And Rising, Shiela Coghill

Great Plains Quarterly

Jane Varley's Flood Stage and Rising opens with what becomes the haunting echo of the narrative, "how far north should we go?" The "north" of the Great Plains impresses itself on Varley's consciousness immediately when she observes, "the land was flat. So flat it looked bizarre." In order to begin her PhD studies, she and her husband Gary move from one landscape (the lush greenery and hills of Virginia) to the rich diluvian river bed of Grand Forks, North Dakota. A Great Plains town that inspires tall tales, Grand Forks is built on the edge of the Red River, the …

Book Review: As For Sinclair Ross, Peter Dickinson

Great Plains Quarterly

Long admired by academics and fellow writers for his finely wrought portraits of small-town prairie life in Canada between the wars, and of the restless, complex, desiring souls contained within and by this landscape, Sinclair Ross was an intensely private man who nevertheless craved a wider popular audience for his work. It is thus somewhat ironic that his greatest public notoriety should have come as a result of his posthumous outing by Keath Fraser in As for Me and My Body (1997), a memoir documenting Fraser's twenty-seven-year friendship with the author that was affectionately written but rather salaciously reviewed. Even …

Book Review: Calamity Jane: The Woman And The Legend, Herbert T. Hoover

Great Plains Quarterly

No scholar might be better qualified to write a biography of Calamity Jane than James McLaird. During a protracted career as a professor of history at Dakota Wesleyan University, he prepared a grassroots bibliography for South Dakota and published articles about exploration west of the Missouri River while he collected and marketed rare books about the history of the northern Great Plains. He makes the point that had Calamity Jane never existed, substantive themes in either state or regional history would not have been affected but western folklore would have diminished.

Book Review: Keeping Heart On Pine Ridge: Family Ties, Warrior Culture, Commodity Foods, Rez Dogs, And The Sacred, Harvey Markowitz

Great Plains Quarterly

For most outsiders to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, the subtitle of Vic Glover's book will probably seem little more than an odd (and slightly blasphemous) melange of disassociated categories. For the Oglala Lakota residents of Pine Ridge, however, these categories are bound together by a cultural and spiritual logic embedded in their daily experiences. It is a testimony to Glover's status as a participant in and keen observer of Pine Ridge life that readers of the forty-four vignettes comprising his collection will come away with a deep appreciation of the strengths, weaknesses, tragedies, and joys that characterize this American …

Book Review: The Cambridge Companion To Willa Cather, Mary R. Ryder

Great Plains Quarterly

In this collection of thirteen essays Lindemann successfully meets her goal of offering recent criticism that recenters Cather as a writer who responded fully to the "changing social and demographic conditions" of her time. The essays indeed encourage reading "against the grain of Cather's escapism" in a range of "interpretative possibilities." Particularly useful are essays exploring little-examined areas of Cather scholarship, including the late Susan Rosowski's study of the comic sense of self in Cather's works and Lisa Marcus's discussion of Cather and the "geography of Jewishness." Rosowski resituates Claude Wheeler's yearning for something splendid in One of Ours within …

Book Review: At Home On This Moveable Earth, David R. Pichaske

Great Plains Quarterly

In this third of a projected four-book memoir, William Kloefkorn examines his late high school and early college years, a time of physical growth and intellectual exploration, of redefining relationships with parents and community, and of laying the foundation for his career as a teacher, scholar, and Nebraska State Poet. Adolescence is the time for what Robert Bly aptly calls "the road of ashes," a period of metaphorical "basement work in the kitchen" (Iron John: A Book About Men). Kloefkorn's reminiscences focus on basement and earth and tedious physical exertion: excavating a foundation for the Zenda Co-op Grain …

Review Essay: The Making Of Margaret Laurence's Epic Voice, David Stouck

Great Plains Quarterly

George Woodcock, international man of letters, once referred to Margaret Laurence as Canada's Tolstoy. To some the comparison seems far-fetched, out of scale, but for others it has substance. Certainly, both writers were from continental plains and were drawn to large events in their country's history; they wrote at length about the relations of the sexes, about injustice and the harsh impact of war, and about the plight of poor people. One could also note they both turned away from writing fiction in midcareer, feeling they had lost the gift, and instead addressed with moral authority the pressing issues of …

Book Review: Powwow, Clifford E. Trafzer

Great Plains Quarterly

Powwow invites readers into the dancing circle where a cornucopia of information, analysis, and interpretation vibrates, telling us about the popular intertribal celebration. The topic of American Indian powwows creates strong emotions and colorful stories, and the editors invite several authors into the "dance arena" of this book to share their research and experiences. As a result, readers will hear the drum, see traditional and fancy dancers, smell the sizzling fry bread, and feel the spirit that is the American Indian powwow. The editors point out that powwows vary in size from the larger Red Earth gathering on the Great …

Book Review: Westerns In A Changing America, 1955-2000, Edward Buscombe

Great Plains Quarterly

This is a survey of Western movies made over the past half century which attempts to plot their meanings against the social and political history of America during that time. Using his own personal observations and the ideas of a small number of historians, the author finds that the films closely reflect changes in American society during this period.

Book Review: Promise: Bozeman's Trail To Destiny, Michael Cassity

Great Plains Quarterly

The transformation of the area along the Bozeman Trail through Wyoming and Montana in the 1860s provides a key to understanding the larger forces at work reshaping the American West in the late nineteenth century. The complex dynamics at work within the Native American cultures in the area and between them and the intruders hold a great potential for substantive historical inquiry. The present volume is a broad collection, a miscellany, of historical documents, personal reminiscences, and oral histories, as well as observations by professional historians; it even contains some fictional narratives drawing on the events at hand. Not surprisingly, …

Book Review: Challenging Frontiers: The Canadian West, Molly P. Rozum

Great Plains Quarterly

"To me what is most important is to come to grips with both colonial history and contemporary life," writes Emma LaRocque in her essay, "When the 'Wild West' Is Me," on de-mythologizing the cowboys and Indians of popular culture. What makes this new collection fresh is its emphasis on connections between past and present communities in the Canadian West. Eighteen thought-provoking articles are organized in three parts: "Images of the West," "Challenging Western History and Frontier Myth-Making," and "New Frontiers." A scholarly introduction and editorial analyses between the various sections bind the articles to key themes of community building and …

Great Plains Quarterly Editorial Matter, Summer 2006

Great Plains Quarterly

Table of Contents, Notes and News.

Book Review: Imagining The African American West, Jere W. Roberson

Great Plains Quarterly

Blake Allmendinger invites us into an old/new West that is not a place on a map, but rather a place in the psyche-always imagined, out there, over there, someplace, not here. He challenges us to cease thinking of the West only in geographic terms and to envision it as an image, this time with black figures in it and writing about it.

Book Review: Writing Out Of Place: Regionalism, Women, And American Literary Culture, Kathleen Boardman

Great Plains Quarterly

Although it has everything to do with location, nineteenth-century American literary regionalism is nor "about" natural geographic boundaries, according to Judith Fetterley and Marjorie Pryse. That is, issues of vantage point, marginalization, and gender and racial positioning are crucial to this literature, and the lens of feminist standpoint theory brings it sharply into focus. In contrast, the habit of categorizing by setting - Sarah Orne Jewett and the Maine coast or Mary Austin in the California desert - suggests geographic determinism and distracts us from what these writers might have in common: regionalism as "a discourse or a mode elf …