“He’s Not Good at Sensing That Look That Says,I’m Drowning Here!” Academic Mothers’ Perceptions of Spousal Support

Abstract

Research consistently shows that, regardless of increased parental involvement in child-rearing over the last few decades, the ‘lion’s share’ of childcare and housework is still undertaken by women rather than men. Academia is known to have no fixed working hours as such. As a result, the pressure on academic mothers tends to be inflated, and this has repercussions on women’s promotional paths, publishing outcomes and general professional and personal well-being. The positive effect of working women having spousal support is well documented in many employment areas. This paper looks at perceived spousal support which academic mothers, living and working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), report. While some of the women did report their spouses to be supportive, this was often theoretical rather than practical. The ways in which this spousal support situation has affected the academic mothers’ lives is discussed.     

Scholarly Communications Training: Professional Development for the Next Generation of Scholars

Abstract

Many campuses are seeing increased needs for support in scholarly communications areas such as open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and related topics. This article discusses a professional development program that addresses scholarly communications needs for online and in-person graduate students and faculty at UNC Greensboro (UNCG), through a collaborative, interdepartmental effort that brings together librarians from the departments of Research, Outreach, and Instruction (ROI) and Technical Services. The authors provide a brief overview of the literature related to scholarly communications needs and training in academic libraries and discuss the UNCG program’s inception, modules, format, assessment, and future directions.     

Effectively Evaluating the Accessibility of Electronic Monographs Using VPATs and Other Resources at the College of Staten Island Library- CUNY

Abstract

This study, building upon previous research work at the College of Staten Island (CSI) library, attempts to evaluate the accessibility of select digital monograph platforms and file formats utilized at the City University of New York (CUNY). The usability of CSI library’s locally developed ER-ACT tool to assist librarians with limited technical knowledge to review VPATs and to perform simple testing was also evaluated with challenges and successes reported. It was determined that the use of color-coded results in this study can help identify serious accessibility issues within ebooks and to communicate the results within libraries to assist with collection development decision-making. The study also includes a review of new court rulings related to accessibility issues in higher education and discusses where accessibility staffing reports in terms of job roles and duties held by university professionals. The testing of the accessibility of library ebooks, with various accessibility tools, are reviewed within the context of Section 508 revisions and new VPAT standards.     

Nurture net of nature: Re-evaluating the role of shared environments in academic achievement and verbal intelligence

Prominent authors in the behavioral genetics tradition have long argued that shared environments do not meaningfully shape intelligence and academic achievement. However, we argue that these conclusions are erroneous due to large violations of the additivity assumption underlying behavioral genetics methods – that sources of genetic and shared and nonshared environmental variance are independent and non-interactive. This is compounded in some cases by the theoretical equation of the effective and objective environments, where the former is defined by whether siblings are made more or less similar, and the latter by whether siblings are equally subject to the environmental characteristic in question. Using monozygotic twin fixed effects models, which compare outcomes among genetically identical pairs, we show that many characteristics of objectively shared environments significantly moderate the effects of nonshared environments on adolescent academic achievement and verbal intelligence, violating the additivity assumption of behavioral genetic methods. Importantly, these effects would be categorized as nonshared environmental influences in standard twin models despite their roots in shared environments. These findings should encourage caution among those who claim that the frequently trivial variance attributed to shared environments in behavioral genetic models means that families, schools, and neighborhoods do not meaningfully influence these outcomes.     

Social Policy's ‘Greatest Hits’

The ‘age of metrics’ or ‘the metric tide’ in the form of bibliometrics has largely by‐passed Social Policy. This study aims to broaden the focus from the most cited articles in Social Policy journals to discover the most cited works in Social Policy or ‘Social Policy's Greatest Hits’. It finds some 24 works with over 2000 Google Scholar citations, but only nine of these are by social policy writers. In terms of total citations, Gosta Esping‐Andersen's The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism is the clear leader by a significant margin, with the most cited Social Policy (or Social Administration) writers being Peter Townsend, Richard Titmuss, Ruth Lister and Jane Lewis. In addition to total citations, it presents citations per year, and ‘Social Policy citations’ (i.e. the use made of the work within the discipline of Social Policy). This list is headed by Gosta Esping‐Andersen and Paul Pierson, with the leading social policy writer being Jane Lewis. This article presents a set of the ‘most plausible contenders’ for the works with greatest influence within Social Policy or ‘Social Policy's Greatest Hits’. It is concluded that, even with its flaws, bibliometrics is an important approach to exploring the vast field of Social Policy.     

Coalition for a Healthier Community: Lessons learned and implications for future work

The Coalition for a Healthier Community (CHC) initiative was implemented to improve the health and well-being of women and girls. Underpinning CHC is a gender-based focus that uses a network of community partners working collaboratively to generate relevant behavior change and improved health outcomes. Ten programs are trying to determine whether gender-focused system approaches are cost-effective ways to address health disparities in women and girls. Programs implemented through coalitions made up of academic institutions, public health departments, community-based organizations, and local, regional, and national organizations, are addressing health issues such as domestic violence, cardiovascular disease prevention, physical activity, and healthy eating. Although these programs are ongoing, they have made significant progress. Key factors contributing to their early success include a comprehensive needs assessment, robust coalitions, the diversity of populations targeted, programs based on findings of the needs assessments, evaluations taking into consideration the effect of gender, and strong academic–community partnerships. A noteworthy impact of these programs has been their ability to shape and impact public, social, and health policies at the state and local levels. However, there have been challenges associated with the implementation of such a complex program. Lessons learned are discussed in this paper.     

翻转课堂与学术英语的融合与应用研究

翻转课堂的目的在于重新调整教学流程。教学理论、教学角色、教学形式以及教学效果的翻转促使学生向自主学习、互动学习和主动学习转变，传统的知识传递也向知识的吸收内化转变。翻转课堂下学术英语教学可增强学生的学习灵活性、创造性、互动性，但翻转课堂也给学术英语教学带来了挑战，如缺乏学习的及时性、积极性和鉴别性，这些需要加以克服和避免。翻转课堂可以在口语、听力、阅读、写作和教材设计上面与学术英语进行有效的融合和应用，以取得教学效果的最优化。     

Unreasonable adjustments: the additional unpaid labour of academics with disabilities

Abstract

Two recent contributions to this section have drawn attention to the barriers which academics with disabilities have to navigate in academia where ableism “is endemic” (Brown and Leigh, 2018 Brown, N & Leigh, J (2018) Abelism in academia? Where are the disabled and ill academics. Disability & Society, 33 (6): 985–989.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]: 4). Hannam-Swain (2018 Hannam-Swain, S (2018) The additional labour of a disabled PhD student. Disability & Society, 33 (1): 138–142.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) highlighted the additional intellectual, emotional and physical labour required of her as a disabled PhD student, and Brown and Leigh (2018 Brown, N & Leigh, J (2018) Abelism in academia? Where are the disabled and ill academics. Disability & Society, 33 (6): 985–989.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) queried “where are all the disabled and ill academics?” However, Brown and Leigh primarily focus on those with invisible “conditions” and the dilemmas raised by disclosure in a context where such conditions negate academic status and credibility. In contrast, since my “disability” is visible, I do not share the dilemma/“luxury” of secrecy. My presence announces my status before me, and this negates my personhood altogether in academic settings. It also places a burden of additional unpaid labour upon me which has significant mental health and career impacts as well as violating principles of equality.     

Document Delivery as a Supplement or Replacement for Serial Subscriptions

Abstract

Increasing serials costs and shrinking budgets present challenges for academic libraries to continue providing sufficient access to scholarly articles. Rapid document delivery services can serve as an effective means to fill the gap caused by serials cancellations. This column examines several of the existing document delivery service providers and addresses issues involved in their implementation.     

The Read Feed: Reviews

Abstract

Michelle DeMars reviews Academic Libraries for Commuter Students: Research-Based Strategies. Hayley Moreno reviews Coding with XML for Efficiencies in Cataloging and Metadata: Practical Applications of XSD, XSLT, and XQuery.