Browsing by Subject "best practices"
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Item Best Practices of Print Journalists Who Have Won Awards for Mental-Health Reporting: A Qualitative Interview Study(2012-02-14) Subramanian, RomaBoth in the United States and abroad, newspapers tend to portray people with mental illness negatively, making them vulnerable to social rejection, discrimination, and forced treatment. This portrayal also makes them hesitant to seek treatment for fear of being stigmatized. To help determine how reporting on mental illness can be improved, I interviewed in this study 11 U.S.-based print journalists who had won awards for stories on mental illness about how they covered their stories. The interviews, which were semi-structured, were conducted between October 2010 and February 2011 and were analyzed using a grounded-theory approach. Eight themes were identified in the interview transcripts: determining story idea, evaluating newsworthiness, identifying and obtaining information from interview sources, identifying and obtaining information from non-interview sources, ensuring accuracy, building rapport with sources, writing the story, and factors facilitating reporting. Overall, respondents prepared their stories in accordance with journalistic conventions. What helped them produce quality stories was a mixture of the following organizational and personal factors: editorial support, considerable journalism experience, personal exposure to mental illness, and empathy. Also noteworthy were respondents' opinions on suggestions in reporting guides about imitation or copy-cat suicides, sensitive language, and positive mental illness news. Whereas some agreed that reporting suicide details could lead to imitation suicides, others disagreed, explaining, for example, that the details were important to the story. Similarly, respondents expressed diverse views about the importance of using sensitive language to describe individuals with mental illness. Finally, respondents indicated that instead of calling for positive stories on mental illness, media guidelines should encourage thoughtful and balanced reporting on various aspects of mental illness. In conclusion, the results suggest that it would be valuable to investigate in more detail how journalists' personal attitudes toward mental illness influence their reporting. Also, guidelines for mental-health reporting should be created with the collaboration of journalists and mental-health professionals. Further, there is a need to make journalists aware of the copy-cat suicide phenomenon. Finally, lessons gleaned from respondents' experiences in reporting their award-winning stories can be used to inform mental-health media guides.Item Compliance and Best Practices in Transition Planning: Effects of Disability and Ethnicity(2011-02-22) Landmark, Leena JoIt is well known that individuals with disabilities have poor postsecondary outcomes. As a result, state and local education agencies are held accountable for the post-school achievements of their students with disabilities. The purposes of this study were (a) to determine the extent to which the transition components of Individualized Education Program (IEP) documents were compliant with the transition requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA), (b) to determine the extent to which the transition components of the IEP documents provided evidence of best practices, (c) to determine the effects that disability category and ethnicity had on compliance and practices as evidenced in the transition components of the IEP documents, and (d) to determine the relationship between overall compliance and best practices. The sample for the study included 212 secondary students who had a developmental disability, an emotional disorder, or a learning disability and who were African American, Caucasian, or Hispanic. Several types of analyses were conducted including descriptive, multiple logistic regression, and Spearman's rho correlation. The overall level of compliance was 2.03 (SD = 1.238). The range of possible scores was 0 - 5, with 0 indicating that none of the components of compliance were 100 percent compliant, and 5 indicating that all of the components were 100 percent compliant. The overall level of best practices as evidenced in the IEP documents was 4.89 (SD = 1.569). The range of possible scores was 0 - 8, with 0 indicating that there was no evidence of any of the practices in the IEP document, and 8 indicating that evidence of all the practices was found in the IEP document. A student's disability category and ethnicity were found to be influencing characteristics for increasing or decreasing the probability of an IEP document being compliant and/or having evidence of best practices. A statistically significant correlation of r = .429 was found between the overall levels of compliance and best practices, indicating that as the level of compliance increased, so too did the level of best practices evident in the IEP document.Item Furthering Educational Program Delivery through Master Gardener Speakers Bureaus(2012-07-16) Fry, JaylaAlthough the demand for public presentations exists, barriers prevent many Master Gardener Volunteers from participating in speaking events. This study identifies the perspectives of both County Extension Agents and Master Gardener Volunteers on effective Master Gardener Speakers Bureaus. Characteristics and best practices of successful Speakers Bureaus are identified as well as barriers to their development and growth. A parallel mixed method study was designed to simultaneously gather qualitative and quantitative data. The results conclude for Master Gardener Speakers Bureaus to be successful, both agents and volunteers need to have a positive attitude and be support of the Speakers Bureau?s efforts. Utilizing volunteer leadership and offering training are the two best practices that emerged from the data and are recommended to overcome the barriers for Master Gardener Speakers Bureaus.Item I Am Not a Photographer: One Librarian’s Journey Toward Understanding FADGI, Image Quality, and Digitization Best Practices(2017-05-25) Willis, Shannon; University of North TexasIn digitization labs that have grown out of library departments, it has become common place for librarians to be tasked with overseeing the imaging and digitization of cultural heritage collections. While librarians are well trained in library and information science, there can frequently be a gap in their imaging and photography knowledge, making the task of establishing imaging workflows and judging image quality a challenge. While guidelines for imaging exist, they are not always clear and how best to apply them is not always apparent. In September of 2016, The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI), the organization who has historically established guidelines for imaging in the United States, issued a new version of their guidelines including a star-rating system for image quality. But questions still remain as to who is using these guidelines, and how do they apply them if they do. To attempt to bridge the imaging knowledge gap, and in light of the new FADGI guidelines, the Digital Projects Lab Manager at the University of North Texas (UNT) conducted site visits at over a dozen digitizing institutions across the country. Institutions included in the study were the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, Crowley Company, Northwestern University, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the University of Maryland, New York Public Library, Yale University, Boston Public Library, MIT, Harvard University, Stanford University, San Francisco Public Library, and the University of California at Berkley. Funded by an internal grant, the Lab Manager was able to tour each institution’s digitization space and speak with its head of imaging. In viewing a range of digitization labs and observing a variety of approaches to digitization work, several common threads between institutions became apparent. From how to best apply FADGI guidelines, to common tools used, to how the best-of-the-best do imaging, many lessons were learned from this research. With the information gleaned from these institutions, the Digital Lab Manager was able to better outline for her institution the ways imaging at UNT could be improved and offer a number of options for potential future paths forward. This presentation will illuminate much of what was gleaned from an investigation of various top digitization labs and how it can be applied.Item TDL Metadata Working Group Update(2010-05-17) Alemneh, Daniel; Davis, Jee-Hyun; Chen, Mingyu; Mercer, Holly; Hazzard, Jeanne; Harlan, Amanda; Thomale, Jason; University of North Texas; Texas A&M University; Texas State University; Baylor University; Texas Tech UniversityThe forum will update participants on the status of three projects undertaken by the Metadata Working Group in 2009 - 2010: (1) Design of a metadata information website, (2) Creation of best practices for images and datasets, (3) Creation of metadata courses for TDL training.