Volume 16, Issue 1

Although the Dunns’ learning styles and Gardner’s multiple intelligences theories are two distinct areas of research, they do not oppose each other and can be used together to improve learning. The design of this tutorial is an attempt to integrate students’ learning styles and their unique blend of intelligences in the library research process. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking so that learners can make meaningful associations among information acquired during research. The means used to integrate these two theories is sequenced learning strategies. This tool-kit provides a favorable environment so that participants can learn the styles in which they learn best and intuitively apply their own blend of intelligences.
Keywords: Library instruction, online tutorial, critical thinking skills, information management, concept mapping, mental imagery, storytelling, information literacy, learning strategies, higher-order thinking, multiple intelligences, learning styles.

Based on qualitative analysis of data gathered during in-depth narrative interviews and informal discussions about “queer” youth experiences with twenty-one “queer” individuals, this paper presents a “queer” manifesto of library interventions in support of “queer” youth during various phases of the coming out process. Important characteristics of coming out are discussed, especially as a life-long process for “queer” individuals to acknowledge their sexuality and share that awareness with others. Significant concerns and challenges faced by “queer” youth during different phases in their coming out experiences provide a context for the identification of library interventions that reflect (and require) extending traditional library functions of information provision as well as fulfilling non-traditional expectations that include proactive social justice efforts for libraries to come out of the closet in support of “queer” youth.

In this paper, we introduce a novel method, based on specific frequency segmentation, for the exchange of encoded texts between different XML schemas. In this process, we encode the text part of each element of the Dublin Core using a signal processing technique so that every text element broadcasts an audio signal in a unique frequency. In this way, every schema based on the XML language can exchange textual data. This method may be used in order to interchange different philosophies of the XML Schema and may also be used as a solution to the general problem of interoperability. More specifically, this method may be applied to TV metadata and the broadcasting services of automated libraries.

Research designed to study the Internet is beset with challenges. One of these challenges involves obtaining samples of Web pages. Methodologies used in previous studies may be categorized into random, purposeful, and purposeful random types of sampling. This paper contains an outline of these methodologies and information about the development of a custom sampling tool that may be used to obtain purposeful random samples of Web page links. The custom search application called Web Sampler works through the Google Web APIs service to collect a random sample of pages from search results returned from the Google index. Web Sampler is inexpensive to develop and may be easily customized for specialized search needs required by researchers who are investigating Web page content.

This article explores how wikis can be used in library reference services to manage knowledge and why they should be used in this environment. The article begins with a description of wikis, then covers knowledge management and the systems that support knowledge management, specifically collaborative and conversational technologies. Next, the author discusses how wikis can be used as a knowledge management system and explores the organizational applications. Finally, a discussion follows on how wikis can be used to support knowledge management in library reference services with some examples of wikis as both private and public knowledge repositories and as collaborative workspaces.