Background: Spinal fusion surgery is currently recommended when curve magnitude exceeds 40-45 degrees. Early attempts at spinal fusion surgery which were aimed to leave the patients with a mild residual deformity, failed to meet such expectations. These aims have since been revised to the more modest goals of preventing progression, restoring 'acceptability' of the clinical deformity and reducing curvature.
Academic library non/low use and undergraduate student achievement: a preliminary report of research in progress.
AbstractPurpose: Reports an ongoing investigation of library use at Huddersfield University that has identified a historical correlation between Library usage and degree classification.Approach: Three sets of data -use of electronic resources, book loans, and visits to the library -when represented graphically show consistent amounts of no and low use at campus, academic school, degree-type and course level. Combining these findings with data showing academic achievement raises the question: is there a positive correlation between library use and attainment?Findings: Understandably Library usage varies between academic schools and there are often pedagogic reasons for low usage, but it would appear that, in some subjects, students who 'read' more, measured in terms of borrowing books and accessing electronic resources, achieve better grades.Limitations: Further work will focus on undergraduate, fulltime students at the main University campus.
Implications:The research intends to discover the reasons behind non/low use so as to develop then trial effective interventions for improving the grades of all students, from the bottom up, rather than just supporting those that are already high flyers. The results will inform both Library service delivery and University goals concerning the quality of the student learning experience, improving retention and improving the level of final degree award.Originality: There are implications for all subjects and all levels of achievement at the University.
There is limited experience of using tools to determine nurse staffing. No one tool is likely to suit every application. More information is needed to clarify the practicalities of using the tools.
Performance measurement is a topic of current interest at both national and local level. This article is a selective historical review of performance measurement from the 1960s to the present day. Despite the plethora of literature on the topic there appears to be a notable lack of progress. Some of the major and most recent work is assessed and the fundamental difficulties in attempting to measure the performance of library services are noted. It is suggested that future work must concentrate on output measures which are both appropriate to the service being provided and easy to understand by all.
EARLY WORKIt is generally accepted that the 'pioneering work' on performance measurement is Morse's book (1) on library effectiveness which was published in 1968. Although there is evidence that plenty of quantitative work had been done before then, Morse's very mathematical book was the first serious monograph on the topic.A selective bibliography by Reynolds (2) confirms the interest in measurement in library and information services but only 7 out of 184 entries are indexed under 'evaluation'-instead, the material tends to concentrate on costs/time measurement.
THE EARLY 1970sIn 1972 an American symposium (3) considered approaches to measuring library effectiveness. Among other things the participants looked at the methodologies then available and a measurement-effectiveness index was suggested. There was a feeling then that measurement was more concerned than in the past with the quality of service and reader satisfaction than simply with physical measurements. It was said that 'although quantitative measures do not equal quality, one can infer levels of quality from them' (3, p. 16)-this is fundamental to the idea of interlibrary comparisons which developed in the 1980s. It is interesting to note that measures were
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