Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Five reports cover the 2009 Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Conference, the COUNTER and Usage Data webinar, the 2009 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, the 2009 North American Serials Interest Group Conference, and selected sessions of the 2009 annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois.     

Examining the historical and present energy metabolism of a Rust Belt City: Syracuse,NY 1840–2005

Early cities depended on local, solar-based energy resources for their metabolism. Over time, cities have become increasingly dependent on fossil fuels, both directly and indirectly, as they facilitate exploitation of solar resources from much farther away. Alternatives to fossil fuels, typically generated locally, often provide lower surplus energy to society. As cities consider the transition back to solar-based energy resources, it becomes necessary to understand the capability of the solar-based economy to provide e.g. energy (including food) from nearby lands. To do so, we compared the energy metabolism (respiration) of a typical rust-belt city, Syracuse, NY, with the net primary production in the surrounding county (production) over its development (1840–2005). We calculated the ratio of respiration to production (R:P) and examined how this ratio changed during the periods of industrialization, shifts in major fuel types, and deindustrialization. We found that from 1840 to 1950 respiration became increasingly centralized in the urban core; since then it has become more diffused. Urban respiration exceeded production in the county by 9:1 in 1930, and it remains just under 2:1 today. Respiration reached an absolute (67 PJ) and a per capita (339 GJ) maximum in 1970, then fell by 40 % and 20 % respectively, due to deindustrialization and population losses. Conversely, production increased 480 % from its lows in 1930 because of reforestation and improved agricultural yields. What this means is that to achieve a higher P:R ratio requires either increased production of food and fuels in areas surrounding the city, or decreased per capita energy consumption.     

Face Preferences for Infant‐ and Adult‐Directed Speakers in Infants of Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers: Association with Infant Cognitive Development

Face preferences for speakers of infant‐directed and adult‐directed speech (IDS and ADS) were investigated in 4‐ to 13.5‐month‐old infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers. Following 1 min of exposure to an ID or AD speaker (order counterbalanced), infants had an immediate paired‐comparison test with a still, silent image of the familiarized versus a novel face. In the test phase, ID face preference ratios were significantly lower in infants of depressed than nondepressed mothers. Infants' ID face preference ratios, but not AD face preference ratios, correlated with their percentile scores on the cognitive (Cog) scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant & Toddler Development (3rd Edition; BSID‐III), assessed concurrently. Regression analyses revealed that infant ID face preferences significantly predicted infant Cog percentiles even after demographic risk factors and maternal depression had been controlled. Infants may use IDS to select social partners who are likely to support and facilitate cognitive development.     

The Effect of a Mediation-Blocking Task on the Acquisition of Instructive Feedback Targets

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The inclusion of instructive feedback in discrete-trial training has been shown to increase the efficiency of learning. However, the behavioral mechanism...     

Moderators of Career Calling and Job-Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity in a cross-sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job-search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job-search goal and to more intense job-search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job-search behaviors in the work-as-calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job-search activities.     

Research encounters,reflexivity and supervision

Reflexivity in qualitative and ethnographic social science research can provide a rich source of data, especially regarding the affective, performative and relational aspects of interviews with research subjects. This paper explores by means of three case examples different ways of accessing and using such reflexivity. The examples are drawn from an empirical psycho-social study into the identity transitions of first-time mothers in an inner-city multicultural environment. Fieldnotes and supervision were used to engage with researcher subjectivity, to enhance the productive use of reflexivity and to address the emotional work of research. The methodology of the supervision was psychoanalytic, in its use of a boundaried frame and of psychoanalytic forms of noticing oneself, of staying engaged emotionally as well as creating a reflective distance. The examples illustrate how this can enhance the knowledge gained about the research subjects.     

Getting Together to Get Ahead: The Impact of Social Structure on Women's Networking

This paper examines the impact of socio‐structural variables (i.e. perceptions of permeability, stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations) on the extent to which professional women perceive a women's network as a collective strategy for status enhancement. A survey among network members (n=166) suggests that the extent to which women support and consider a network to benefit women as a collective is dependent on perceptions of whether individual mobility is possible (permeability of group boundaries) and beliefs that organizational conditions will improve for women in the future (stability of conditions for women). Specifically, the network is less likely to be perceived as a collective vehicle for change when individual advancement is possible (because intergroup boundaries are perceived as permeable) and status improvement in the future is unlikely. However, regardless of beliefs about the future, when female participants perceive that many barriers to individual advancement exist (due to the impermeability of intergroup boundaries), the network is considered in more collective terms presumably because the only way to challenge the status quo is through a collective effort. The practical implications for organizations that wish to or have established a women's network are discussed.     

保护加拿大的绿色力量

在加拿大,经常可以听到这样一句话:“环保就是力量。“那里,天空湛蓝,湖水清澈,空气清新,满山遍野覆盖着草地和森林,到处都有一种水洗过的感觉,用纤尘不染来形容一点也不为过,尤其夏秋季节,更是景色迷人。加拿大也和其他西方国家一样,走过一段“先污染,后治理“的工业