Kaya van Beynen

Exploring Peer-to-Peer Library Content and Engagement on a Student-Run Facebook Group

Student-run Facebook groups offer librarians a new means of interacting with students in their native digital domain. Facebook groups, a service launched in 2010 enables university students to create a virtual forum to discuss their concerns, issues, and promote events. While still a relatively new feature, these groups are increasingly being utilized by students in universities and colleges throughout North America. Little research has been done on these groups and how they may be changing the way that students interact with each other and with their university on social media. A student-run university Facebook group was monitored for a year to measure library content and types of engagement. The purpose of this research was to systematically explore whether outreach to these new virtual forums are of value to librarians in term of effort and outcome, and to provide research-based insight into the best practices for librarians when confronted with similar unofficial student-run Facebook groups. Our findings suggest that library employees strategically focus on key periods during the semester and use photographs and contests to increase virtual engagement and spontaneous in-library event participation. Students used the Facebook group both as a source for library information and to thoroughly answer their peers’ general library questions; when confronted with more research-based questions, the students referred each other to the library for help. We conclude, that library outreach on a student-run university Facebook group is manageable and can complement in-house marketing and reference efforts.

A sustainability index for small island developing states

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a novel approach to measuring the progress of small island developing states (SIDS) towards sustainable development (SD) as set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Currently, these goals do not provide adequate guidance on how countries might measure their progress towards sustainability. We use these goals and a subset of their targets to develop an index with concrete targets, through the use of pertinent sustainability indicators, that SIDS should aim to achieve a sustainable society. In addition to the three categorical pillars of SD (social, economic and environmental), we included the category Climate Change and Disaster Management (incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction). The basis of our decision is that the UN and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have both recognized the vulnerability of SIDS to both environmental hazards. Our index scores a total 70 individual indicators for the four categories to track the progress of a SIDS towards a sustainable society. Using the Caribbean nation, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, as our SIDS case study, we report the average of the scores for each category to illustrate its progress towards sustainability. Overall Trinidad and Tobago is slowly progressing towards a more sustainably developed society. Our results show that the nation is only moderately successful regarding progress in three traditional pillars of SD, social, economic and environmental. However, Trinidad and Tobago scores poorly in the Climate Change and Disaster Management category and needs to improve in this area especially due to its vulnerability.

Debris, diatoms, and dolphins: tracking child engagement at a public science festival

ABSTRACT Visitors to public science festivals have a tremendous amount of free choice to decide how to navigate through the festival, as well as when, where, and how long to stop at an exhibit. This study examines how elementary-aged children individually or collaboratively engaged with festival exhibits at a public science festival in St. Petersburg, Florida. Although many exhibit activities are designed to appeal to children, no research has been done with regard to child engagement with one-day, outdoor science festivals, such as this one. Engagement can be measured by unobtrusive observation of the behavior and interactions of children. Factors that influenced child engagement in a free-choice learning environment included attention capacity and goals (e.g. engage with exhibits, explore the ambient environment, eat lunch), the ability to interact with peers and adults during their engagement, and the ability to make choices about engaging in collaborative activities or independent free play.