Reading List Research Articles

Biblical Interpretation Reading List

Biblical Interpretation Reading List

Beyond the Algorithm: Understanding How ChatGPT Handles Complex Library Queries

The introduction of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022 ignited a sensation in the academic community, leaving many astounded by its capabilities. This new release more closely emulates human responses than its predecessors. Among its remarkable capabilities, it can answer questions, catalog items in MARC21, recommend reading lists, and make suggestions on a wide array of topics. To assess ChatGPT’s efficacy in aiding library users, the authors of this paper conducted an experiment comparing ChatGPT’s performance with that of librarians in answering reference questions. Thirty questions were randomly selected from the transaction log of the reference inquiries between June 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023 at the Rider University Libraries. These queries constituted 34% of the total user questions during this two-month period. The authors compared the answers by ChatGPT and those by reference librarians for their accuracy, relevance, and friendliness. The findings indicate that reference librarians markedly outperformed their robotic counterpart. An evident issue arises from ChatGPT’s deficiency in understanding local policies and practices. This consequently hinders its ability to provide satisfactory answers in those areas. OpenAI posits that ChatGPT’s proficiency can be enhanced through targeted fine-tuning using locally specific information. At the moment, ChatGPT remains a great tool for librarians.

Decolonising DMU: Reflections on Changes, Challenges and Impact with an Eye toward the Future

Based at De Montfort University, Decolonising DMU is a strategic initiative working to create an anti-racist institution where all can achieve. Growing from DMU’s Freedom to Achieve project Decolonising DMU extends anti-racist work across the structure and composition of the institution, moving away from a sole focus on the curriculum. The Library has played a core role within both of these projects working with staff and students to gain better representation in library collections, facilitating library work experience to enhance staff and professional diversity, working with academics to decolonise reading lists, enabling changes in pedagogical practice and to raise awareness of issues and the lived experience of people of colour. This ultimately leads to changes in practice to enable a better sense of belonging and visibility for students of colour which in turn leads to more successful engagement and student retention. The article provides examples of actions, challenges and ways forward, with specific reference to Library and Learning Services. Reflections on the complex and evolving nature of this work are made alongside the implications for the student and staff experience plus service and collection development. This work reinforces the critical importance and impact of the decolonising H E movement on academic libraries and student success.

Perlego, a Friend or Foe?

Considering the success of Spotify and Netflix, it was inevitable that an e-textbook subscription-based streaming service become available on the market. Perlego, a personal all-you-can-read digital e-textbook subscription provider, launched in 2017 under a motto of accessibility and affordability for all. They targeted individual students directly and slowly gained popularity. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Perlego turned its business model around by offering a free subscription to meet the outcry for online resources during the first few months of lockdown and by working together with librarians to offer institutional subscription licences. Since then, this new way of providing e-resources has become mainstream. Also, with development of useful built-in study tools, such as a reading list management called Workspace, one-click referencing, and Notebook, it has risen above being simply an e-textbook streaming service to an educational learning platform. Librarians must think hard about what effect this will bring to the future.

Reconceptualizing the curation of prescribed learning resources in an immersive block teaching model

The presentation will describe how the curation of prescribed learning resources has been reconceived as an enabler of an immersive block teaching model. Contemporary higher education curriculum relies on high quality learning resources to engage students, to encourage them to adopt deeper learning approaches (Gledhil et al., 2017) and to support students’ academic adjustment to university (Owusu-Ageyman & Mugume, 2023). Little has been written about learning resources and reading lists within the digital transformation of higher education in the post-pandemic environment. The presentation will showcase a new way to position prescribed learning resources accessed as an integral feature of constructively aligned pedagogy within an immersive teaching model. Through the lens of an institutional case study at Southern Cross University, the presentation will show how prescribed learning resources delivered via integrated reading list technology are an enabling element of an innovative, student-centred, university-wide curriculum renewal project. At a time of increasing student expectations of teaching quality, academic, educational design and library staff need to review whether reading lists of learning resources are fit for purpose (Brewerton, 2014) and consider the cognitive load placed on students by reading (Barile et al., 2022). The presentation will outline the evidence-based, policy-led approach adopted by Southern Cross University and will demonstrate how learning resources and reading lists can contribute to student success. Prescribed learning resources and reading lists are now seen as pedagogical tools within the immersive teaching model, providing a variety of media-rich learning resources aligned to unit learning outcomes. Reading list parameters ensure that a manageable volume of learning is implemented, reducing cognitive load and barriers to participation. The approach to reading lists taken by Southern Cross University to empower immersive teaching practices provides a refreshed model for the use of prescribed learning resources in unit and curriculum design, development, and delivery.

Inclusive education: co-creating a reading list diversity toolkit with student input

Inclusive education: co-creating a reading list diversity toolkit with student input

Re-Imagining Peace Education: Using Critical Pedagogy as a Transformative Tool

Abstract Existing studies demonstrate that although peace and conflict studies (PCS) emerged from a deep connection between political activism and research, the field has increasingly moved toward promoting liberal ideals of peace that sustain the status quo. Amidst this trend, many scholars have pushed research and education programs to explore beyond a hegemonic liberal peace, for example by diversifying reading lists and drawing on decolonial frameworks. This paper adds to such efforts: through the case study of a higher education PCS classroom, we use narratives from two course conveners and a student to explore challenges and opportunities of realizing a critical pedagogy approach to peace education. This approach recenters the classroom not necessarily in terms of what students ought to think, but how; critical theory provides a basis for fostering curiosity, using query as a tool of learning, and focusing class structure on students’ needs. Our findings suggest that using critical pedagogy in PCS addresses calls for a greater understanding of peace beyond the absence of violence, fosters active envisioning of peace, and works toward decolonizing and demystifying peace work. Ultimately, we call for PCS classrooms to foster critical thinking and radical imagination for a pedagogy of peace praxis.

E-books in Spanish university libraries: An analysis of online social sciences degrees

This paper analyzes the availability, via both library lending licenses and open access, of digital versions of the monographs that professors recommend in online bachelor's degrees courses in social sciences at Spanish public universities. Monographs are the type of document most recommended by professors when it comes to teaching and learning in higher education. Digital format is most suitable for online degrees, considering the added effort entailed for libraries to get these documents owing to the geographic dispersion of the students.For this purpose, all the resources in the recommended reading section of the syllabi from a sample of online degree programs in social sciences for the 2022–2023 academic year were extracted. Then, the catalogs of the corresponding university libraries were consulted to check the availability of the monographs on the reading lists. In addition, the catalogs of the usual suppliers to Spanish university libraries were consulted to check the availability of lending licenses for libraries. Finally, types of digital lending platforms are analyzed.Monographs account for 85.6 % of the documents referenced in courses' recommended reading lists. Only 21.0 % of monographs are available in digital format, either through library lending (17.4 %) or open access (4.9 %). On the contrary, practically the entirety of reading lists is available for lending through university libraries in printed format. University libraries could make the effort to acquire even more digital lending licenses for a portion of the books recommended by professors, but in this way they could only obtain 40.9 % of the monographs in digital format.Therefore, the publishing industry is not currently meeting the needs of online university education in the social sciences, owing to a large part of its catalog – especially older works – not being offered in digital format as well as the lack of library lending licenses.

The screenwriting canon and the industrial hidden curriculum: A case for educational activism

This article identifies a cohort of screenplays and screenwriters recurrent on university screenwriting reading lists – a “screenwriting canon” –dominated by hegemonic identities. We identify some reasons for the perpetuation of this canon and its implications and limitations. We are especially concerned by the “hidden curriculum” within tertiary screenwriting courses and seek to expose the industry biases that shape its content and distribution. We find that the screenwriting canon, as distinct from other modes of creative writing and media practice, is shaped by a specific set of industrial values originating in Hollywood, which are expressed through regimes of access to certain texts and not others. These effectively determine what is allowed to count as “good” screenwriting. We argue that if the reading, analysis, discussion, performance and rewriting of screenplays is to be a useful tool for students then access to a greater diversity of screenplays is sorely needed. As educators, it is our responsibility to interrogate and critique the values of the screen industry rather than reproduce them. We make a case for accessing a wider range of screenplays and for introducing students to industry in a way that emphasises “work-ready” values, such as analysing power relations and ethical representation.

School Reading Lists and Understanding Written Information for Life and Work

School reading lists are an essential factor influencing understanding the content and form of various types of texts: artistic, non-artistic, and electronic texts of an everyday nature among Czech technical secondary school pupils. The research aims to determine by analysing eight key school documents whether recommended school lists of texts for study at secondary technical schools are published electronically on schools' websites in the Moravian-Bohemian and Olomouc Regions of the Czech Republic. A partial goal is to determine whether school reading lists contain different types of texts and whether pupils at technical secondary schools understand information with a professional, artistic, media, etc., focus. A quantitatively oriented questionnaire survey through the lens of 523 pupils from 5 Czech secondary technical schools investigated what factors influence the reader's understanding of printed and electronic texts. The research results showed that Czech secondary school pupils like working with informal texts on social networks, frequently require help understanding texts of an administrative nature, and rarely work with texts from everyday life at school. The average to below-average level of reading and digital literacy among Czech 15-year-old pupils was also highlighted by the PISA 2018 international research.

Biblioterapija onkologiniams ligoniams ir jų artimiesiems

Cancer patients experience severe health issues and the resulting emotional and psychological complications; therefore, in addition to medical treatment, they also need emotional/psychological support. Bibliotherapy is one of the possible ways of support. The study is aimed at developing a concept of bibliotherapy for cancer patients and providing practical recommendations for service organizers. It uses a targeted information search on bibliotherapy services in Lithuanian public libraries and a questionnaire survey. The concept of bibliotherapy is based on the theories of nursing, social work and library of science. Bibliotherapy services for cancer patients can be provided in primary health care settings or public libraries. The bibliotherapy service in libraries must be conducted in cooperation with medical professionals. The bibliotherapy service, which can be didactic/informative bibliotherapy (recommended reading lists), personal development bibliotherapy (reading services in public libraries), and reading groups (clubs), can be organized in public libraries or in institutions that provide emotional/psychological support. A number of reading clubs with elements of bibliotherapy have been introduced in Lithuanian libraries. A similar service has been identified for a target group, i.e., cancer patients. On the one hand, naming the target audience of the club may traumatize the potential beneficiaries of the service, and on the other hand, it allows for better dissemination of information and better access for patients. Cooperation between institutions is needed to enable patients to learn about bibliotherapy and to have more confidence in the service.

The Library and beyond: Decolonization as a student/academic Co-Created project

This article details the ‘Decolonisation as Co-Creation’ project, a co-created-with-students approach to decolonisation of a reading list to be used on a specific final year, undergraduate module. This contributes to the overall decolonisation of Aston University through the development of academic outputs and a methodology for approaching the decolonisation of future reading lists. Herein we offer six lessons learned, five outcomes and a four-step process to decolonising a module reading list as carried out by the project participants: library and module leader and student workers. We provide you with our findings only as an example of how the process might work. For us, the most interesting aspect of this process is the unexpected research findings of our student workers; we encourage readers to use the process with an openness to new findings.

Desert island scripts: A mathematics reading list to help bridge the gap between numbers and sociology

Desert island scripts: A mathematics reading list to help bridge the gap between numbers and sociology

Digitally nudging users to explore off-profile recommendations: here be dragons

In many application domains of recommender systems, e.g., on media streaming sites, one main goal of the provider of the recommendation service is to increase the engagement of users by helping them discover new types of content they like. Standard collaborative filtering algorithms by design often lead to a certain level of discovery. Nonetheless, in certain domains, it may be helpful to more actively promote content to users beyond their past preference profile (“off-profile”) and thereby help users explore new content. However, when showing such off-profile content to users in combination with more familiar content, the new content items may be overlooked. In this research, we explore to what extent digital nudging, i.e., subtly directing user choices in a specific direction, can help to raise the attention and interest of users for off-profile content. We conducted a user study (N=1064\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$N=1064$$\\end{document}) on a real-world social book recommendation app. We find that users who are nudged towards recommended books of their non-preferred genres significantly more often put these off-profile books on their reading lists, thus confirming the effectiveness of digital nudging in this application. However, we also found that digital nudges may negatively impact the users’ beliefs and attitudes towards the system and a more limited intention to use the system in the future. As a result, we find that digital nudging in recommendations, while effective in the short run, must be done with due care, keeping an eye on the overall quality perceptions by users and potentially harmful long-term effects.

Magic and Spells in <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> (1997-2003)

Magic and Spells in <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> (1997-2003)

Mobilities and Ethnic Studies

Following the publication of a 2022 special issue in the journal Mobilities, several of the contributing authors and editors gathered virtually on July 26, 2022. Drawing upon the work included w the collection called “Mobilizing Indigeneity and Race Within and Against Settler Colonialism,” the participants discuss how they came to the subject of mobilities, how this concept impacts their work, and the ways it intersects with the fields of Ethnic Studies and Indigenous Studies. The special issue editors Carpio, Barraclough, and Barnd interview and facilitate the discussion between authors Vasquez Ruiz, Toomey, Katz, and Fraga. This article includes a reading list of scholarship used for the special issue on race, Indigeneity, and mobilities.

Essential Readings in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Behavior Analytic Training Programs.

Cultural responsiveness is imperative for the success of behavior analysts. As topics within diversity, equity, and inclusion are emphasized within coursework and supervision, there is a growing need for resources. To date, there is limited research on suggested readings within diversity, equity, and inclusion for behavior analysts. We surveyed behavior analysts to construct a list of essential readings within diversity, equity, and inclusion and reported common publications that instructors assigned and students were assigned within behavior analytic coursework.

A Brontë Reading List: 2021

This reading list is an annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical work on the Brontës published in 2021. We have attempted to compile a comprehensive list of resources by consulting the MLA International Bibliography, Academic Search Complete, and the Brontë Blog (http://bronteblog.blogspot.com). Book chapters and scholarly articles on the Brontës are included except those articles published in Brontë Studies. Entire books on the Brontës are in the reviews section of this journal. The author’s initials in brackets are provided after each annotation.

Announcing the Biblical Interpretation Reading List

Announcing the Biblical Interpretation Reading List

Biblical Interpretation Reading List

Biblical Interpretation Reading List