Spatial Analytics Dashboards: Assisting Researchers to Select the Appropriate Tool

This review provides an overview of the following popular spatial analytics dashboard software: Tableau, PowerBI, ArcGIS Insights, ArcGIS Operations Dashboard and covers optimal use cases for each. Also included is a curriculum for an introductory one-shot instructional session on data literacy and research visualization using Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS in an academic library context.

Question formulation skills training using a novel rubric with first-year medical students

Objective: The research used an assessment rubric to measure medical students’ improvement in question formulation skills following a brief evidence-based medicine (EBM) training session conducted by a health sciences librarian.Method: In a quasi-experimental designed study, students were assessed on their pre-instructional skills in formulating answerable EBM questions, based on a clinical scenario, using a rubric. Following their training, they were assessed using the same scenario and rubric. Student pre- and post-test scores were compared using a paired t-test.Results: Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement in their question formulation skills on their post-instructional assessments. The average score for students on the pre-test was 45.5 (SD 11.1) and the average score on the post-test was 65.6 (SD 5.4) with an increase of 20.1 points on the 70-point scale, p<0.001.Conclusion: The brief instructional session aided by the rubric improved students’ performance in question formulation skills.

Evoking truthiness: Using satirical news comedies to teach information literacy

Instruction librarians looking for new ways to spice up their library instruction can use video clips from “The Most Important News Show . . . Ever” (The Daily Show) and other satirical news comedies to capture the attention of students during their next instructional session. These videos can serve as an entertaining mechanism to help students understand information literacy (IL) concepts.

Learning by Teaching about RDM: An Active Learning Model for Internal Library Education

This paper reports on the design, delivery and assessment of a model for internal library education around research data management (RDM). Conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS), the exercise and resultant instructional session employed an active learning approach, in which a group of librarians and archivists explored data issues and conventions in a discipline of their own selection and presented their findings to an audience of library colleagues. In this paper, we put forth an adaptable active learning model for internal RDM education and offer guidance for its implementation by peer libraries that are similarly building internal capacity for the design and delivery of RDM services that are responsive to disciplinary needs.

Therapeutic play in preparing for surgery: behavior of preschool children during the perioperative period

Objective:to describe the behavior of children during the instructional session of therapeutic play (ITP) in the preoperative period and to verify the behavior presented by them during the perioperative period. Methods: Exploratory descriptive study with a quantitative approach, developed in a large private hospital in Sao Paulo, in which the behaviors presented by 30 children between three and five years old, undergoing minor surgery were seen at the hospital during the session of TP and in the surgical center, from admission to awaken from anesthesia. Results: Most children participated in the ITP session (21; 70%), entered the surgical room spontaneously (22; 73.3%) without resisting mother separation (24; 80%), collaborating with the anesthetic procedure (16; 53.3%) and quietly awakening from anesthesia (26; 87%). Conclusion: The use of ITP led the child to understand the surgical procedure, making it less traumatic.

Process Evaluation of Workplace Interventions with Physical Exercise to Reduce Musculoskeletal Disorders

Process evaluation is important to explain success or failure of workplace interventions. This study performs a summative process evaluation of workplace interventions with physical exercise. As part of a randomized controlled trial 132 office workers with neck and shoulder pain were to participate in 10 weeks of elastic resistance training five times a week at the workplace; the 2 min group performed a single set of lateral raise to failure, and the 12 min group performed 5-6 sets with 8–12 repetitions. Participants received a single instructional session together with a training diary and manual at baseline (100% dose delivered and 100% dose received), and 59 and 57 participants, respectively, replied to the process evaluation questionnaire at 10-week follow-up. Results showed that in the 2 and 12 min groups, respectively, 82% and 81% of the participants completed more than 30 training sessions. However, two-thirds of the participants would have preferred more than a single exercise to vary between. In the 12 versus 2 min group more participants experienced the training sessions as too long (30% versus 5%). Most participants (67–92%) found the training diary and manual helpful, adequacy in a single instructional session, and satisfaction with the type of training. Among those with low adherence, lack of time (51%) and difficulties in starting exercising after illness (26%) were common barriers for regular training. Among those with low adherence, 52% felt that five training sessions per week were too much, and 29% would rather have trained a completely different kind of exercise. In conclusion, resistance training at the workplace is generally well received among office workers with neck-shoulder pain, but a one-size-fits-all approach is not feasible for all employees.

A Lesson in Boosterism: The Contest for the Alberta Provincial Capital, 1904-1906

Although 1905 marked a major transition in the political life of the old Northwest Territories, attention in Alberta's urban centres was focused not upon the larger questions raised by the granting of provincial status to the area, but rather upon the issue of which of the several competing communities would capture the title of provincial capital. Ambitious boosters in Red Deer, Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and a host of smaller settlements (such as Banff) coveted capital status for their particular city, town or even village as a symbol of its swelling importance and as an aid to further promotion. Many elements were called into play during the bitter capital campaign that followed the 1904 federal election including the geographical location, the future prospects and the business activities of the various aspirants. None of these factors proved to be critical in the final decision. The victor, Edmonton, emerged triumphant due in almost equal part to the persistent and aggressive actions of its boosters and to the inadequacy or failure of the urban promoters in rival centres. As boosters in Red Deer, Banff, Medicine Hat and Calgary discovered, success in the capital quest was dependent on much more than desire. By utilizing their advocates in both the federal and provincial political arenas and by thrusting their city into the public eye, Edmonton's community boosters gave their competitors an instructional session they would not soon forget.