Mixed-methods library evaluation integrating the patron, library, and external perspectives: The case of Namibia regional libraries

The article presents a mixed-methods evaluation of regional libraries in Namibia, which incorporates three perspectives: the patron perspective (library users), the library perspective (library staff, management, and related officials), and the external perspective (including evaluators and monitoring data). Seven data collection methods were used: patron surveys, patron panel studies, focus group discussions, key informant and staff interviews, secondary data analysis, media analysis, and observations. The goal of the evaluation was to assess library performance for both formative and summative purposes by addressing evaluation questions on areas such as library services, use, and operations. Building upon the literature review of how mixed-methods approaches can contribute to library evaluation, the aim of this article is to show how a mixed-methods evaluation can be designed to examine multi-faceted library performance and to illustrate how the evaluation design allows information complementarity and can be utilized to present diverse viewpoints of the above three perspectives. The evaluation design, analysis process, and lessons learned from this study may be useful to evaluators engaged in evaluation of public services or programs (including public libraries) that examine multiple aspects of service performance and involve a variety of stakeholders.

The experience of educational quality in undergraduate nursing students: a phenomenological study

AIM

The evaluation of academic education has become crucial in the European Union since the Bologna Process encouraged all European universities to reach high quality standards in education. Although several studies have been conducted on the quality of undergraduate nursing education, few studies have explored this topic from the students' perspective. The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of educational quality in undergraduate nursing students.

METHOD

The phenomenological method was used to study 55 students (mean age 24 years; 73% female) pursuing a baccalaureate degree in nursing in three universities in central Italy.

RESULTS

The following five themes emerged from the phenomenological analysis: 1) quality of faculties: teaching skills, preparation, sensitivity to students, self-discipline; 2) theory-practice integration and communication between teaching and clinical area; 3) general management and organization of the programme; 4) quality of infrastructures: libraries, classrooms, information technology, services, administration, and communication; and 5) clinical tutorship: humanity, relationships and ability of the clinical tutor to guide and support.

CONCLUSION

This study's novel finding was a deeper understanding of the educational quality's meanings among undergraduate nursing students. Students thought educational quality consisted of the faculty members' sensitivity towards their problems and the clinical tutors' humanity, interpersonal skills, guidance and support.

Fungal spore concentrations in indoor and outdoor air in university libraries, and their variations in response to changes in meteorological variables

The fungal spore concentration (FSC) in the air poses a risk for human health. This work studied the FSC in university libraries and how it is affected by environmental factors. A total of 347 samples were obtained using a Microbio MB2(®) Aerosol Sampler. The wind speed (WS), cross wind (CW), temperature (T), relative humidity (HR), barometric pressure (BP) and dew point (DP) were recorded using a Kestrel(®) 4500 weather station. The median indoor/outdoor FSC was 360/1230 CFU m(-3). FSC correlated inversely with BP, HR and DP; and positively with WS and CW; whereas T showed negative or positive correlation with FSC, depending on the region or sampling time. Eleven fungal genera were found and the dominant isolates were identified as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tamarii and Aspergillus oryzae. All fungi identified are known to be allergenic. It was concluded that environmental variables can influence the air FSC in different ways.

Today's Medical Knowledge. Evolution of Data Exchange between Tradition and Globalization

The authors historically review bibliographic research concepts and define globalization in time. Moreover, recent free online data exchange is important in terms of medical progress, scientific updating and patient-care improving. In the author's opinion, data globalization is favoring medical knowledge flow even more. The concept of a traditional library has radically changed over time, gradually missing their pivotal role in research activity. To date, the birth of the Internet and its sudden development has given a great boost to the spread of worldwide information, quickly and cheaply. Nevertheless, besides the advantages, the Internet also hides misleading risks. In this paper, the professional Medline source is compared to common Internet sources. The authors state that Internet sources have a great importance in the spread of medical knowledge. They conclude, however, that the risk of too much available information could lead to a decrease in quality.

Web quality control for lectures: Supercourse and Amazon.com

Peer review has been at the corner stone of quality control of the biomedical journals in the past 300 years. With the emergency of the Internet, new models of quality control and peer review are emerging. However, such models are poorly investigated. We would argue that the popular system of quality control used in Amazon.com offers a way to ensure continuous quality improvement in the area of research communications on the Internet. Such system is providing an interesting alternative to the traditional peer review approaches used in the biomedical journals and challenges the traditional paradigms of scientific publishing. This idea is being explored in the context of Supercourse, a library of 2,350 prevention lectures, shared for free by faculty members from over 150 countries. Supercourse is successfully utilizing quality control approaches that are similar to Amazon.com model. Clearly, the existing approaches and emerging alternatives for quality control in scientific communications needs to be assessed scientifically. Rapid explosion of internet technologies could be leveraged to produce better, more cost effective systems for quality control in the biomedical publications and across all sciences.

Electronic health record meets digital library: a new environment for achieving an old goal

Linking the electronic health record to the digital library is a Web-era reformulation of the long-standing informatics goal of seamless integration of automated clinical data and relevant knowledge-based information to support informed decisions. The spread of the Internet, the development of the World Wide Web, and converging format standards for electronic health data and digital publications make effective linking increasingly feasible. Some existing systems link electronic health data and knowledge-based information in limited settings or limited ways. Yet many challenging informatics research problems remain to be solved before flexible and seamless linking becomes a reality and before systems become capable of delivering the specific piece of information needed at the time and place a decision must be made. Connecting the electronic health record to the digital library also requires positive resolution of important policy issues, including health data privacy, government encouragement of high-speed communications, electronic intellectual property rights, and standards for health data and for digital libraries. Both the research problems and the policy issues should be important priorities for the field of medical informatics.

Health care information services in Ireland

Against a background of fundamental change in the Irish health care environment, a research project was commissioned to determine the information needs of all health care practitioners (including physicians, allied health professionals, managers, scientists, and technicians) as well as the public, patients, and their caregivers. The research, including a study of international best practice, revealed serious deficiencies in access, awareness, and availability of information for both staff and patients in Ireland. Recommendations include the establishment of a panel to develop a comprehensive national health information strategy and plan to coordinate the future development of health sciences information services.

Serials standards work: the next frontier

Serials, one of the more complicated areas of library technical endeavors, has lacked the benefit of standards for a long time. Even now, with standards beginning to be available, the majority of institutions are not working within standard serials formats. A survey to determine the use of serials standards in libraries was conducted in 1988 by the American Library Association, Resources and Technical Services Division, Serials Section, Committee to Study Serials Standards. In the spring of 1988 a survey was sent to a group encompassing the Association of Research Libraries members, CONSER participants, United States Newspaper Program participants, Microform Project libraries, and some vendors and librarians who attended the Committee meetings on a regular basis. The survey questionnaire assessed the current level of serials standards awareness of librarians and vendors. Topics included the type of serials systems used, standards relevant to serials control and union listing and whether or not they are implemented, types and levels of training staff received in the application of standards, benefits of the standards, and areas where standards are most needed.

The accreditation of academic programs in industrial hygiene

The American Academy of Industrial Hygiene has initiated a program to accredit academic programs in industrial hygiene. Guidelines, criteria, and procedures to be employed by the Accreditation Committee are summarized, along with a status report of activities currently underway.

Trends in nonprinted U.S. census and survey data and some research implications

I have raised a number of issues related to research using computerized data, which must be considered by supplying agencies, libraries, funding agencies. and researchers. Before the 1980 census data are released, researchers should suggest ways in which the data could be made easier and more useful to work with, and data supplying institutions should both respond to and take a lead in finding new approaches that will allow scientists to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by computerized data.

Review of criteria used to measure library effectiveness

This article reports the results of a survey of literature on measures of library effectiveness. This survey led to the formulation of six criterion concepts (accessibility, cost, user satisfaction, response time, cost/benefit ratio, and use). The advantages and disadvantages of each method of measurement are discussed. Several points which became clear during the analysis are discussed. First, there is a relative lack of concern with the rationale behind the evaluation process, although the results invariably lead to a confused interpretation when there is no clear understanding of the purpose of an evaluation. Second, the total library system is rarely considered; instead, each evaluation criterion is taken in isolation rather than as part of the whole. Third, the library's preservation function has not been considered at all.