Remote Work in Library Technical Services: Connecting Historical Perspectives to Realities of the Developing COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The concept and practice of remote work in library technical services is not new, but the scale and speed of the transition to remote work for many libraries due to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. This column provides an overview of pre-pandemic literature on remote work in library technical services and briefly examines the history, planning, case studies, technology and equity concerns, challenges, and potential benefits of remote work. Initial connections are drawn between existing literature and the impact of the pandemic on remote work, and future directions for research and discussion are offered.     

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.     

Parental income and the fruits of labor: Variability in homework efficacy in secondary school

Research in the sociology of education has shown that noncognitive traits are important predictors of educational outcomes and a mechanism of the intergenerational transmission of status. However, previous research on this topic typically posits that there is a constant effect of these traits with variable prevalences of these traits by socioeconomic status. Using time spent on homework as an example, I analyze income-based heterogeneity in homework efficacy, defined as the individual effect of study time on academic achievement, using a national U.S. probability sample of secondary students. Higher income students gain more knowledge from their homework time than their counterparts in all grades and all subjects except history, with greater group differences for math than for science and reading. These results are confirmed by models accounting for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity in the 8th–10th, but not 10th–12th, grade windows. These results imply that increases in the amount of homework assigned may increase the socioeconomic achievement gap in math, science, and reading in secondary school.     

Mobility and Professional Networks in Academia: An Exploration of the Obligations of Presence

This article explores the obligations of presence behind work-related mobility for academics in internationalizing higher education systems. By further developing John Urry’s concept of ‘meetingness’, the article reveals how academics depend on corporeal and virtual mobility to create and maintain a networked professional life outside their own institution, which is crucial in the context of changing work conditions. Our insights are drawn from original qualitative research (42 interviews) in a Flemish and Danish context. The data reveal obligations of presence associated with an interrelated mix of functionality, and the construction of dense and sparse social networks that together support career success and work at the frontiers of academic knowledge. Despite the now well-recognized costs of corporeal mobility, obligations of presence result in virtual and corporeal mobility coexisting, rather than the former substituting for the latter. Virtual mobility is mainly used when conflicting obligations of presence exist, and as a means of sustaining networks over time given the processual nature of meetingness, rather than as a means to reduce levels of corporeal mobility.     

论朱次琦与简朝亮

朱次琦临终前自焚所著与简朝亮重塑朱次琦经师人师的形象,传承朱次琦的学说与简朝亮学说的断裂,既反映朱次琦、简朝亮师徒二人的形不离影,更体现洞识时代前行方向的重要性.     

Social network effects on academic achievement

How peer groups contribute to educational outcomes has long interested researchers. However, the possibility that peer groups dominated by either low- or high-achieving youth can have substantively different effects on achievement has been largely ignored. In this paper, we show that while being embedded in a high-achieving network of friends is not associated with increased own achievement, being embedded in a low-achieving network is associated with decreased own achievement. In additional analyses, we present evidence that these associations are at least in part due to influence, as opposed to only selection effects or shared environment. We also examine whether the structure of the network in which a student is embedded might affect their educational achievement. We show that achieving at higher levels positively predicts how centrally located a student is in their network, but being more centrally located does not predict concurrent achievement. This finding suggests that the behavior of individuals is affecting the formation of network structure and not the reverse.     

Academic Affiliations of Social Work Journal Article Authors from 1999–2003

Abstract

The academic affiliations of the authors of all articles published between 1999 and 2003 in six major social work journals were tabulated to produce a ranking of the colleges and universities whose faculty made the most substantive contributions to the social work literature. The results of this analysis are compared with findings of four identical, previously published studies, which cover the five-year periods of 197–1983, 1984–1988, 1989–1993, and 1994–1998. The limitations of this method of analysis are discussed, as are its merits.     

中国城市化发展进程的思考

城市化是一个国家或地区走向现代化的重要内容。我国要在2020年实现全面小康社会的奋斗目标以及本世纪中叶基本实现现代化,必须加快城市化步伐。而作为世界上人口最多、特别是农村人口占绝对比重的发展中国家,如何落实科学发展观,选择一条适合中国国情的城市化发展道路,对中国目前乃至未来经济社会的可持续发展必将产生重要而深远的影响。     

中国优秀学术论文急速外流的原因及应对策略

通过对2014年中国SCI和SSCI学术论文外流情况的统计,当前学术论文外流的严重情况被全面和具体地呈现出来。通过系统梳理学术论文外流的相关研究,一方面从国家对论文外流缺乏宏观引导、科研考核机制刺激优秀论文外流、我国缺乏具有国际影响力的期刊以及国内期刊运作机制与国际化水平尚待提升4个方面揭示学术论文外流的具体原因;另一方面从宏观层面提出加强国家引导、集中优势资源打造国际顶级期刊、调整科研绩效考评政策、深化期刊体制改革、设立国内科技论文评奖机制5个方面的应对措施。     

黄庭坚诗文中的弥勒信仰

北宋弥陀净土思想风行天下,黄庭坚对此却并无太大兴趣。相反,他对统治者一向提防的弥勒信仰（尤其是弥勒下生信 仰）倒是颇为留心。究其原因,与黄庭坚的禅学思想背景及其儒家知识分子的现实品格有莫大关系。