Journal articles on the topic 'National Numeracy Project'

Final year students applying for graduate jobs in industry are often required to sit numeracy tests as part of the recruitment process. Students in the College of Arts can be disadvantaged in this area as, often, the last time they will have come across any Mathematics will have been at National 5, GCSE or equivalent level (at the age of 15 or 16). This project was a collaboration between the Mathematics & Statistics support within the Learning Enhancement and Academic Development Service (LEADS) and the Careers Service to create a repository of resources designed to help students refresh their basic mathematical skills and give them the confidence to tackle Employers’ Numeracy tests successfully. A Moodle course including videos and tailored learning materials was created to enable students to improve their confidence and ability in relevant mathematical and statistical skills, as well as sample tests (both timed and untimed) to give students an idea of what to expect in a real assessment.

AbstractThe Academic Development Study of Australian Twins was established in 2012 with the purpose of investigating the relative influence of genes and environments in literacy and numeracy capabilities across two primary and two secondary school grades in Australia. It is the first longitudinal twin project of its kind in Australia and comprises a sample of 2762 twin pairs, 40 triplet sets and 1485 nontwin siblings. Measures include standardized literacy and numeracy test data collected at Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 as part of the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy. A range of demographic and behavioral data was also collected, some at multiple longitudinal time points. This article outlines the background and rationale for the study and provides an overview for the research design, sample and measures collected. Findings emerging from the project and future directions are discussed.

The Incheon Declaration 2015- “Towards 2030: a new vision for education,” recognizes the important role of education as the main driver of development, and therefore commits to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all(p. i).” The declaration further commits to “ensuring that all youth and adults, especially girls and women, achieve relevant and recognized functional literacy and numeracy levels and acquire life skills and that they are provided with adult learning and training opportunities (p. 7).”” This commitment is a clear recognition of the role of adult education in development. Sadly, although adult education and lifelong learning are key for achieving social change and reducing poverty levels, the sector receives minimal attention in development matters in many African countries. According to UNESCO the adult education sub-sector of state education systems remains relatively underfunded and marginal despite the improved living conditions in many African countries since the 1990s. Few countries have specific, ratified national adult education policies while in some others adult education is seen as a human right but only practically enforceable subject to availability of resources. This paper outlines evidence of positive changes accrued from literacy and skills training project in one region in Somaliland. In addition to literacy and numeracy, the participants in the project were trained in tailoring or cookery as well as on health, nutrition, hygiene and entrepreneurship. More so, the project offered micro-credit to those wishing to start small businesses. Major developmental changes including employment, healthier families, businesses and better civic participation were realized by the individual participants, their families and the community. From this evidence the paper argues that it is important for countries in Africa to seriously harness the adult education sub-sector for development as one way of translating the Incheon commitment to tangible achievements

As part of the ‘Bridging the Language Gap’ project undertaken with 86 State and Catholic schools across Queensland, the language competencies of Indigenous students have been found to be ‘invisible’ in several key and self-reinforcing ways in school system data. A proliferation of inaccurate, illogical and incomplete data exists about students’ home languages and their status as English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) learners in schools. This is strongly suggestive of the fact that ‘language’ is not perceived by school systems as a significant operative variable in student performance, not even in the current education climate of data-driven improvement. Moreover, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the annual standardised testing regime, does not collect relevant information on students’ language repertoires and levels of proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE). Indigenous students who are over-represented in NAPLAN under-performance data are targeted through ‘Closing the Gap’ for interventions to raise their literacy and numeracy achievements (in SAE). However, Indigenous students who are EAL/D learners cannot be disaggregated by system data from their counterparts already fluent in SAE. Reasons behind such profound language invisibility are discussed, as well as the implications for social inclusion of Indigenous students in education.

This article employs Rittel and Webber’s ‘wicked’ problem as a heuristic device for enhancing understanding about National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in the Australian education context. Using a research project with seven independent schools in New South Wales, Australia, which analysed NAPLAN data from primary (elementary) students in years 3 and 5, this article highlights the ‘wicked’ nature of the problem of NAPLAN testing, and standardised testing more generally. The research project, as a catalyst for the article, evidenced a set of difficulties, particularly for smaller primary schools, and highlighted the ways in which these schools experienced many of the challenges that the literature indicates are evident in the current regimes of standardised testing. The article focusses on problematising NAPLAN’s use in Australia and uses the literature to critique its application. It then outlines Rittel and Webber’s criteria that determine whether a problem might be ‘wicked’ and applies this as a lens for considering NAPLAN testing. In problematising NAPLAN testing and applying wicked problem theory to the issue, this article asserts that many of the challenges can be managed and indeed may empower and liberate stakeholders.

Concern over poor standards in mathematics among English school leavers has led to a number of government initiatives in recent years. Without a secure foundation of mathematical understanding and competence during the primary school years, later learning in mathematics is problematic. This paper examines recent major initiatives at the primary stage of schooling and their effect on raising standards, including the National Numeracy Strategy and the Improving Primary Mathematics (IPM) project. The latter project, influenced by successful Continental approaches to teaching mathematics, aimed both to raise average standards of attainment and to reduce the large variation in attainment that has, in the past, characterised the performance of English pupils.Although the new teaching approaches, and the innovatively detailed teaching materials, developed by the IPM project have enabled significant improvements to be effected, concern remains over the low attainment in England of an unduly large proportion of pupils (as compared with Continental schools). It is suggested that serious consideration needs to be given to adopting arrangements that are the norm in several other countries — namely, to introduce some flexibility in age of entry to schooling (at present in England this is governed strictly by date of birth). Such a change would, it is suggested, significantly reduce the number of low attainers and range of attainment within a class, and make a teacher's task of successful interactive whole-class teaching more manageable.

One of the goals of the National Development Plan 2014-2020 is to reduce the proportion of students with low cognitive skills, and at the same time increase the proportion of students with higher level cognitive skills. In line with those goals, the National Centre for Education is implementing the project “Competency-based approach to curriculum”, funded by the European Social Fund. The purpose of the research described in this article is to find out to what extent the current large-scale national assessments for 6th Grade are coherent with the new curriculum and what improvements are needed for aligning the national assessments with the national curriculum. The theoretical framework of the research is developed by analysing the frameworks of the programme for international student assessment (PISA), trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS), progress in international reading literacy study (PIRLS), as well as the framework of the revised national curriculum in Latvia. National 6th Grade assessments of the year 2018 are analysed by using Classical test theory and Rasch model. The indicators of the test items are mapped according to the developed theoretical framework. Authors conclude that the national 6th Grade tests assess the elements of literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy. Students have a high level of performance in test items with low cognitive depths, but there is an insufficient number of test items with high cognitive depths, allowing pupils to demonstrate skills in new contexts, which is an essential goal of the new national curriculum. Further research is required on the use of data from the large-scale assessment in supporting and guiding student instruction and learning.

<p>Teacher education for South African foundation phase education requires student<br />teachers to be prepared for teaching science concepts in an integrated programme in a<br />learning area known as life skills . This study examined the challenges faced by university<br />teachers of foundation phase student teachers in the development of science modules/<br />courses. The national curriculum for this subject aims to strengthen learner awareness<br />of social relationships, technological processes and elementary science (DBE 2011a). We<br />developed an integrated numeracy, science and technology module for foundation phase<br />student teachers, based on the science-technology-society (STS) approach to teaching<br />science concepts. Students’ understanding of science concepts was assessed, using a<br />project method in which they solved a problem derived from children’s literature. Then<br />students’ views of this integrated approach to teaching science concepts were gathered.<br />The negative views of the foundation phase student teachers towards the integrated STS<br />approach was thought to indicate an empiricist view of the nature of science that could<br />impede their future teaching.</p>

Let us briefly remind ourselves of the current policy-context of this issue in Britain. The need to raise children's schooling attainments to a very substantial extent has become widely accepted in the past fifteen years following international comparisons (many based on research at this Institute) of workforce vocational qualifications and school-leaving standards. The consequences are expressed today in interventionist public policy in terms of a National Curriculum laid down for all school-ages (adopted ten years ago), together with more recent detailed syllabuses in the core subjects of language and mathematics embodied in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies for primary schools (adopted in the past two years). Much of the need for such reforms in Britain can be traced to worries as to whether teaching time was well spent, particularly in primary schools using ‘modern’ teaching methods which required children within each classroom to be divided into small groups, each group sitting around its own small table, many children not facing the wall-board (many classrooms even having their wall-board removed) so as to promote less ‘didactic’ teaching and more ‘discovery’ learning by pupils. The frequently ensuing difficulties of teachers in dividing their time effectively among those groups, the consequential frustration of those children who awaited the teacher's attention, the slower general pace of learning, and the particular disadvantages suffered by slower-developing children, need not be spelled out here; they have been closely examined in research involving timed classroom observation, such as the ‘Oracle’ project of Professor Maurice Galton and his colleagues.

Background Previous studies have reported a high prevalence of chronic otitis media (OM) and hearing impairment (HI) in Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. Children affected by these disorders are believed to be at increased risk for adverse outcomes in early childhood development, school attendance, academic performance, and child maltreatment and youth offending. However, to date, there have been no studies quantifying the association between HI and these outcomes in this population. Objective This study will investigate the association between HI and the 5 outcomes in Aboriginal children living in remote NT communities. Methods Individual-level information linked across multiple administrative datasets will be used to conduct a series of retrospective observational studies on selected developmental and school outcomes. The predictor variables for all studies are the results from audiometric hearing assessments. The outcome measures are as follows: Australian Early Development Census results, representing developmental readiness for school, assessed around 5 years of age; Year 1 school attendance rates; Year 3 school-based academic performance, assessed in the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy; incidence of child maltreatment events (including both notifications and substantiated cases); and incidence of a first guilty verdict for youth offenders. Confounding and moderating factors available for the analysis include both community-level factors (including school fixed effects, socioeconomic status, level of remoteness, and housing crowdedness) and individual-level factors (including maternal and perinatal health and hospital admissions in early childhood). Results The study commenced in 2018, with ethics and data custodian approvals for data access and linkage. This has enabled the completion of data linkage and the commencement of data analysis for individual component studies, with findings expected to be published in 2019 and 2020. Conclusions This study will provide first evidence of the impact of OM-related HI on the developmental, educational, and social outcomes of Australian Aboriginal children. The findings are expected to have significant implications for policy development, service design, and resource allocation. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR1-10.2196/15464

For quite some time the achievements of students in remote Australian schools have been lamented. There is not necessarily anything new about the relative difference between the results of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote communities and their counterparts in urban, regional and rural schools across Australia. However, in the last decade a number of changes in the education system have led to the difference being highlighted — to such an extent that what had been an ‘othering’ of remote students (and their families) has turned into marginalisation that is described in terms of disadvantage, deficit and failure. One of the primary instruments used to reinforce this discourse has been the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing. This instrument has also been used as part of the justification for a policy response that sees governments attempting to close the educational gap, sometimes through punitive measures, and sometimes with incentives. At a strategic level, this is reflected in a focus on attendance, responding to the perceived disadvantage, and demanding higher standards of performance (of students, teachers and schools more generally). Accountability has resulted in lots of counting in education — counts of attendance, enrolments, dollars spent and test scores. These measures lead one to conclude that remote education is failing, that teachers need to improve their professional standards and that students need to perform better. But in the process, have we who are part of the system lost sight of the need to make education count? And if it is to count, what should it count for in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities? These are questions that the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation is attempting to find answers to as part of its Remote Education Systems project. This article questions the assumptions behind the policy responses using publicly available NAPLAN data from very remote schools. It argues that the assumptions about what works in schools generally do not work in very remote schools with high proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. It therefore questions whether we in the system are counting the right things (for example attendance, enrolments and measures of disadvantage).

When people talk about education of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, the language used is often replete with messages of failure and deficit, of disparity and problems. This language is reflected in statistics that on the surface seem unambiguous in their demonstration of poor outcomes for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. A range of data support this view, including the National Action Plan—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) achievement data, school attendance data, Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data and other compilations such as the Productivity Commission's biennial Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report. These data, briefly summarised in this article, paint a bleak picture of the state of education in remote Australia and are at least in part responsible for a number of government initiatives (state, territory and Commonwealth) designed to ‘close the gap’. For all the programs, policies and initiatives designed to address disadvantage, the results seem to suggest that the progress, as measured in the data, is too slow to make any significant difference to the apparent difference between remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander schools and those in the broader community. We are left with a discourse that is replete with illustrations of poor outcomes and failures and does little to acknowledge the richness, diversity and achievement of those living in remote Australia. The purpose of this article is to challenge the ideas of ‘disadvantage’ and ‘advantage’ as they are constructed in policy and consequently reported in data. It proposes alternative ways of thinking about remote educational disadvantage, based on a reading of relevant literature and the early observations of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation's Remote Education Systems project. It is a formative work, designed to promote and frame a deeper discussion with remote education stakeholders. It asks how relative advantage might be defined if the ontologies, axiologies, epistemologies and cosmologies of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families were more fully taken into account in the education system's discourse within/of remote schooling. Based on what we have termed ‘red dirt thinking’ it goes on to ask if and what alternative measures of success could be applied in remote contexts where ways of knowing, being, doing, believing and valuing often differ considerably from what the educational system imposes.

BackgroundPoor mental health in childhood is common, persistent and associated with a range of adverse outcomes that include persistent psychopathology, as well as risk-taking behaviour, criminality and educational failure, all of which may also compromise health. There is a growing policy focus on children’s mental health and the role of schools in particular in addressing this.ObjectivesTo evaluate whether or not the Incredible Years®(IY) Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) training improved children’s mental health, behaviour, educational attainment and enjoyment of school, improved teachers’ mental health and relationship with work, and was cost-effective in relation to potential improvements.DesignA two-arm, pragmatic, parallel-group, superiority, cluster randomised controlled trial.SettingA total of 80 UK schools (clusters) were recruited in three distinct cohorts between 2012 and 2014 and randomised to TCM (intervention) or teaching as usual [(TAU) control] with follow-ups at 9, 18 and 30 months. Schools and teachers were not masked to allocation.ParticipantsEighty schools (n = 2075 children) were randomised: 40 (n = 1037 children) to TCM and 40 (n = 1038 children) to TAU.InterventionsTCM was delivered to teachers in six whole-day sessions, spread over 6 months. The explicit goals of TCM are to enhance classroom management skills and improve teacher–student relationships.Main outcome measuresThe primary planned outcome was the teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Total Difficulties (SDQ-TD) score. Random-effects linear regression and marginal logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations were used to analyse outcomes.ResultsThe intervention reduced the SDQ-TD score at 9 months [adjusted mean difference (AMD) –1.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) –1.9 to –0.1;p = 0.03] but there was little evidence of effects at 18 months (AMD –0.1, 95% CI –1.5 to 1.2;p = 0.85) and 30 months (AMD –0.7, 95% CI –1.9 to 0.4;p = 0.23). Planned subgroup analyses suggested that TCM is more effective than TAU for children with poor mental health. Cost-effectiveness analysis using the SDQ-TD suggested that the probability of TCM being cost-effective compared with TAU was associated with some uncertainty (range of 40% to 80% depending on the willingness to pay for a unit improvement in SDQ-TD score). In terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), there was evidence to suggest that TCM was cost-effective compared with TAU at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence thresholds of £20,000–30,000 per QALY at 9- and 18-month follow-up, but not at 30-month follow-up. There was evidence of reduced disruptive behaviour (p = 0.04) and reductions in inattention and overactivity (p = 0.02) at the 30-month follow-up. Despite no main effect on educational attainment, subgroup analysis indicated that the intervention’s effect differed between those who did and those who did not have poor mental health for both literacy (interactionp = 0.04) and numeracy (interactionp = 0.03). Independent blind observations and qualitative feedback from teachers suggested that teachers’ behaviour in the classroom changed as a result of attending TCM training.LimitationsTeachers were not masked to allocation and attrition was marked for parent-reported data.ConclusionsOur findings provide tentative evidence that TCM may be an effective universal child mental health intervention in the short term, particularly for primary school children who are identified as struggling, and it may be a cost-effective intervention in the short term.Future workFurther research should explore TCM as a whole-school approach by training all school staff and should evaluate the impact of TCM on academic progress in a more thorough and systematic manner.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN84130388.FundingThis project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full inPublic Health Research; Vol. 7, No. 6. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. Funding was also provided by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula (NIHR CLAHRC South West Peninsula).

We investigated the development of linear measure concepts within an instructional unit on paths and lengths of paths, part of a large-scale curriculum development project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). We also studied the role of noncomputer and computer interactions in that development. Data from paper-and-pencil assessments, interviews, and case studies were collected within the context of a pilot test of this unit with 4 third graders and field tests with 2 thirdgrade classrooms. Three levels of strategies for solving length problems were observed: (a) apply general strategies such as visual guessing of measures and naive guessing of numbers or arithmetic operations; (b) draw hatch marks, dots, or line segments to partition lengths to serve as perceptible units to quantify the length; (c) no physical partitioning—use an abstract unit of length, a “conceptual ruler,” to project onto unsegmented objects. Those students who had connected numeric and spatial representations evinced different and more powerful problem-solving strategies in geometric situations than those who had forged fewer such connections.

The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Thematic Collections Network, a digitization project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, seeks to digitize ca. 800,000 herbarium specimens through imaging, transcription, and georeferencing. The use of autofocus alone in herbarium specimen imaging with a digital single-lens reflex camera does not yield consistently sharp images, even with relatively two-dimensional specimens and a proper selection of focus point. The FineFocus technique provides a way of assessing contrast, as a proxy for focus quality, through analysis of a standard text target using two freeware programs run through a batch script. By calculating a numeric value, this protocol provides an objective way to obtain a high level of focus quality for a specific imaging rig with given conditions before proceeding with imaging. Adjusting focus with FineFocus yields noticeably sharper images, allowing users to see fine details otherwise obscured by poor focus, such as secondary venation. This technique can be easily implemented in herbarium digitization workflows to improve the quality of specimen images.

The application of spatiotemporal (ST) analytics to integrated data from major sources such as the World Bank, United Nations, and dozens of others holds tremendous potential for shedding new light on the evolution of cultural, health, economic, and geopolitical landscapes on a global level. Realizing this potential first requires an ST data model that addresses challenges in properly merging data from multiple authors, with evolving ontological perspectives, semantical differences, and changing attributes, as well as content that is textual, numeric, categorical, and hierarchical. Equally challenging is the development of analytical and visualization approaches that provide a serious exploration of this integrated data while remaining accessible to practitioners with varied backgrounds. The WSTAMP project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has yielded two major results in addressing these challenges: 1) development of the WSTAMP database, a significant advance in ST data modeling that integrates 10,000+ attributes covering over 200 nation states spanning over 50 years from over 30 major sources and 2) a novel online ST exploratory and analysis tool providing an array of modern statistical and visualization techniques for analyzing these data temporally, spatially, and spatiotemporally under a standard analytic workflow. We discuss the status of this work and report on major findings.

In Korea, low back pain is the ailment that is most frequently treated using collaborative care regimens that include aspects of Western and traditional Korean medicine. As part of a national pilot project on the collaboration between Western and Korean medicine, we aimed to investigate the clinical effectiveness of collaborative treatment and compare it with treatment methods that involved only Korean or Western Medicine practices for patients with low back pain. This nationwide, multicenter, prospective, observational, and comparative study spanned 8 weeks, during which patients with low back pain were evaluated at three time points (at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks). The primary outcome was low back pain-related disability measured by the Oswestry Disability Index, while the secondary outcomes included severity of low back pain (as on a numeric rating scale) and quality of life (as per a 5-level EuroQol-5 dimensions questionnaire). We analyzed 150 patients (including 129 per-protocol cases) and found that the Oswestry Disability Index and 5-level EuroQol-5 dimensions showed statistically significant differences over time between the collaborative treatment group and the sole treatment group after adjusting for sex, income level, and age. Conversely, the numeric rating and EuroQol-visual analog scales showed no significant between-group differences over time. Based on our findings, we believe that collaborative treatment that includes parallelly administered aspects of Western and Korean medicine can benefit patients with low back pain by facilitating functional improvements and lead to a better quality of life.

Introduction and Aim of the Study Sacral neuromodulation has been used as a safe, effective treatment option for patients with lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD). Several clinical studies demonstrated its positive effects on refractory urge incontinence, non-osbstructive urinary retention, urgency frequency syndrome, as well as on other non- urological disorders, such as fecal incontinence and chronic constipation. The aim of this research project was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sacral neuromodulation on the management of LUTD refractory to the standardized first line treatment options. Materials and Methods We retrospectively collected and evaluated data from patients undergoing sacral neuromodulations between September 2001 and November 2010 in 4 Urological Centres of North-Eeast Italy. The patients were affected by Overactive Bladder Syndrome (OAB), Urinary Retention (UR), Fecal Incontinence (FI), Constipation (CO), Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP). All the patients were evaluated with voiding diaries, before and after implantation. Patients included in the present evaluation were followed up in a network of 4 Italian urological centres, which participate to in the Italian Clinical Service project - a national urological database and medical care project aiming at describing and improving the use of implantable urological devices in the Italian clinical practice. Continuous normally distributed variables were reported as the mean value±standard deviation (SD). Continuous non-normally distributed variables were presented as the median values and an interquartile range (IQR). The t-test and Wilcoxon test were used to compare continuous variables, as appropriate. A two-sided p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Overall, 157 patients underwent implantation of sacral neuromodulator during the period under review. Eighty-three out of 157 (53%) patients complained of OAB; 52 (33%) of UR; 5 (3%) of faecal incontinence; 4 (2%) of chronic constipation; 12 (8%) of CPP. The median follow- up was 11 months (IQR 1 - 91 months). In patients treated for OAB, we documented a statistically significant reduction in the mean number of: incontinence episodes/die, pads/die, daily micturitions, nocturnal micturitions and global micturitions. In patients treated for UR, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the mean post- voiding residual volume and in the number of self catheterization. Interpretation of Results It is difficult to translate into quantifiable data the subjective perception of improvement of the symptos expressed by the patients, as they are frequently subjective perceptions, not always numeric data. This subjective perception makes it difficult to the clinician to evaluate the real outcomes of this procedure, and makes it difficult to achieve a complete follow-up. Conclusions This multicenter research project confirmed the midterm safety and effectiveness of sacral neuromodulation in the treatment of refractory overactive bladder syndrome and urinary retention, showing high cure rates and low complication rates.

En este artículo se presenta el Enfoque de los Itinerarios de Enseñanza de las Matemáticas, un enfoque que trata de ser respetuoso con las necesidades reales de los estudiantes para aprender matemáticas. En la primera parte se presenta la fundamentación del enfoque, que se sustenta en tres pilares interrelacionados: la perspectiva sociocultural del aprendizaje humano, el modelo de formación realista-reflexivo y la educación matemática realista; en la segunda parte se describe el enfoque, que se refiere a una secuencia de enseñanza intencionada que contempla tres niveles: 1) enseñanza en contextos informales (el entorno inmediato, los materiales manipulativos y los juegos); 2) enseñanza en contextos intermedios (recursos literarios y tecnológicos), y 3) enseñanza en contextos formales (recursos gráficos); finalmente, en la tercera parte se ejemplifica dicho enfoque con un itinerario de enseñanza del álgebra temprana para estudiantes de 3 a 12 años. Se concluye que la implementación de este enfoque requiere un amplio dominio de conocimientos didáctico-disciplinares, lo que implica un esfuerzo importante por parte de todos los agentes implicados en la formación del profesorado para que así, todo aquel profesional preocupado por mejorar su práctica docente y adaptarla a las exigencias del siglo XXI, pueda tener acceso a estos conocimientos. Referencias Alsina, Á. (2004). Barrinem? Matemàtiques amb jocs i problemes. Lògica 3. Cataluña: Edicions l'Àlber, S.L. Alsina, Á. (2010). La “pirámide de la educación matemática”, una herramienta para ayudar a desarrollar la competencia matemática. Aula de Innovación Educativa, 189, 12-16. Recuperado desde https://dugi-doc.udg.edu//bitstream/handle/10256/9481/PiramideEducacion.pdf Alsina, Á. (2018). Seis lecciones de educación matemática en tiempos de cambio: itinerarios didácticos para aprender más y mejor. Padres y Maestros, 376, 13-20. Alsina, Á. (2019a). 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Elementos de una posible estructura del aprendizaje realista en la formación inicial y permanente del profesorado. En O. Esteve, K. Melief, y Á. Alsina (Eds.), Creando mi profesión. Una propuesta para el desarrollo profesional del profesorado (pp. 39-64). Barcelona: Octaedro. Torra, M. (2012). Patrones matemáticos en los cuentos. Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 421, 56-58. Recuperado desde http://www.cuadernosdepedagogia.com/content/Inicio.aspx Treffers, A. (1987). Three Dimensions. A Model of Goal and Theory Description in Mathematics Instruction - The Wiskobas Project. Dordrecht: Reidel Publishing Company. Vásquez, C., y Alsina, Á. (2015). Un modelo para el análisis de objetos matemáticos en libros de texto chilenos: situaciones problemáticas, lenguaje y conceptos sobre probabilidad. Profesorado, Revista de currículum y formación del profesorado, 19(2), 441-462. Recuperado desde https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5294556 Vásquez, C., y Alsina, Á. (2017). Proposiciones, procedimientos y argumentos sobre probabilidad en libros de texto chilenos de educación primaria. Profesorado, Revista de currículum y formación del profesorado, 21(1), 433-457. Recuperado desde https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/567/56750681022.pdf Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky y la formación social de la mente. Barcelona: Paidós. Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voces de la mente. Un enfoque sociocultural para el estudio de la acción mediada. Madrid: Aprendizaje Visor. Financiamiento: FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España. Agencia Estatal de Investigación Proyecto EDU2017-84979-R

Italian autochthonous turkey breeds are an important reservoir of genetic biodiversity that should be maintained with an in vivo approach. The aim of this study, part of the TuBAvI national project on biodiversity, was to use run of homozygosity (ROH), together with others statistical approaches (e.g., Wright’s F-statistics, principal component analysis, ADMIXTURE analysis), to investigate the genomic diversity in several heritage turkey breeds. We performed a genome-wide characterization of ROH-rich regions in seven autochthonous turkey breeds, i.e., Brianzolo (Brzl), Bronzato Comune Italiano (BrCI), Bronzato dei Colli Euganei (CoEu), Parma e Piacenza (PrPc), Nero d’Italia (NeIt), Ermellinato di Rovigo (ErRo) and Romagnolo (Roma). ROHs were detected based on a 650K SNP genotyping. ROH_islands were identified as homozygous ROH regions shared by at least 75% of birds (within breed). Annotation of genes was performed with DAVID. The admixture analyses revealed that six breeds are unique populations while the Roma breed consists in an admixture of founder populations. Effective population size estimated on genomic data shows a numeric contraction. ROH_islands harbour genes that may be interesting for target selection in commercial populations also. Among them the PTGS2 and PLA2G4A genes on chr10 were related to reproduction efficiency. This is the first study mapping genetic variation in autochthonous turkey populations. Breeds were genetically different among them, with the Roma breed proving to be a mixture of the other breeds. The ROH_islands identified harboured genes peculiar to the selection that occurred in heritage breeds. Finally, this study releases previously undisclosed information on existing genetic variation in the turkey species.

Abstract Objectives Healthcare providers have been called to intervene during the first 1000 days of life to reduce childhood obesity. Screening instruments that facilitate the identification of targets for intervention are not currently available. A Diet Quality Index Score (DQIS) was created and measured for its validity in predicting excessive weight gain in a sample of Latino infants. Evidence that infants with BMI percentiles ≥85th at 2 months developed early childhood obesity demands strategies to detect targets for intervention in a systems-based approach. Methods Secondary database analysis using data sourced from a lifestyle intervention project implemented among WIC participants. Assessments were completed on baseline while the infant was 0–2 months of age and follow up at 4–6 months. Socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics of infants and their caregivers were evaluated. DQIS was calculated using an infant food frequency questionnaire. Descriptive analysis of the variables of interest was conducted. Correlation analysis between the numeric DQIS and categorical assessment of the scale was performed to determine the degree of association of values or risk category associated with a BMI z score percentile at or above 85th according to the age and gender appropriate WHO growth standards. Results 169 dyads were included in this study (Puerto Rico 54.4%), mean caregiver age was 27 y (4.94). 41.4% had achieved an educational level high school or less. In infants: 52% received care in health centers, 82.2% where up to date on vaccinations, 99.4% had an excellent DQIS score at baseline. At follow up 19.5% were found in good and 8.9% needs improvement to poor range. Mean BMI z scores increased from -0.52 (1.35) at birth to 0.9 (1.46) at follow up. Conclusions The infant DQIS used between 4 to 6 months of life as a screening tool could assist non nutritional healthcare providers in the identification of intervention targets while a more detailed assessment is completed. Funding Sources This study was supported by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), of the NIH, award number U54MD008149. Infrastructure support also provided by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities RCMI Grant: 8G12MD007600. This research was also supported by grant U54MD007584 (RMATRIX) from the NIMHD of the NIH.

<p>Desde los estudios monográficos realizados por Hamilton en 1949, se ha producido el acercamiento a este tema por numerosos autores, en relación con otros trabajos relativos a la economía en general y al estudio de los sistemas bancarios de la Edad Moderna en particular. Para la preparación del presente artículo, y siempre a la vista del importante papel de esta amplia y bien estructurada bibliografía, se han estudiado las obras originales de los autores, españoles y extranjeros, que durante tres siglos y dentro de sus planes tendentes a reformar su país, estimaron que una buena solución para paliar los problemas económicos de España era la creación de un banco público que canalizase los ingentes flujos de capitales de una Corona extendida por todo el orbe. A pesar de ello, y debido principalmente a la abundancia de moneda metálica derivada de las continuas llegadas de metales preciosos y numerario procedentes de los territorios ultramarinos de la monarquía, dichos planes sólo se intentaron poner en práctica en situaciones de absoluta necesidad, como sucedió durante las sucesivas crisis económicas y monetarias de comienzos del siglo XVII y durante la Guerra de Independencia de Estados Unidos, cuando la falta de moneda metálica llevó a los gobernantes a recurrir a la emisión de papel moneda, y finalmente a la creación del Banco Nacional de San Carlos.</p><p>From the case studies conducted by Hamilton in 1949, the approach to this subject has been carried out by many authors, in relation to other work on economy topics in general and to the study of the banking systems of the Modern Age in particular. For the preparation of this article, and always bearing in mind the important role of this comprehensive and well-structured literature, it has been studied the original works of the authors, Spanish and foreign, who for three centuries and within their plans for reforming their country, estimated that a good solution to alleviate the economic problems of Spain was the creation of a public bank that would channel the enormous capital flows of a kingdom widespread throughout the world. However, principally due to the abundance of numerary derived from continuing arrivals of precious metals and cash from the overseas territories of the monarchy, these plans only had been tried to implement in cases of absolute necessity, as during the successive economic and monetary crisis in the early seventeenth century, and during the War of Independence of the United States, where the lack of coins led the rulers to turn to the issue of paper money, and finally to the creation of the National Bank of San Carlos.</p>

Welcome to the second issue of Volume 43 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 43:2, 2019). Four papers are presented in this issue on qualitative research support. This special issue arises from conversations in the Qualitative Social Science and Humanities Data Interest Group (QSSHDIG) at IASSIST about how best to support qualitative researchers. This group was founded in 2016 to explore the challenges and opportunities facing data professionals in the social sciences and humanities, and has focused on using, reusing, sharing, and archiving of qualitative, textual, and other non-numeric data. In ‘Annotation for transparent inquiry (ATI),’ Sebastian Karcher and Nic Weber present their work on a new approach to transparency in qualitative research by the same name, which they have been exploring at the Qualitative Data Repository at the University of Syracuse, New York. As one solution to the problem of ‘showing one’s work’ in qualitative research, ATI allows researchers to link final reports back to the underlying qualitative and textual data used to support a claim. Using the example of Hypothes.is, they discuss the positives and negatives of ATI, particularly the amount of time required to annotate a qualitative article effectively and technical limitations in widespread web display. The next article highlights how archived materials can be re-used by qualitative researchers and used to build their arguments. In ‘Research driven approaches to archival discovery,’ Diana Marsh examines what qualitative researchers need from the collections at the National Anthropological Archives in the United States, in order to improve archival discovery for those not as accustomed to working in the archives. In ‘Bringing method to the madness,’ Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh, Leader of the Research Data Services Team at the Georgia State University Library, outlines a project created to bridge the gap between training researchers to use qualitative data software and training them in qualitative methods. Her answer has been a collaborative workshop with a sociology professor who provides a methodological framework while she applies those principles to a project in NVivo. These successful workshops have helped to encourage researchers to consider qualitative methods while at the same time promoting the use of CAQDAS software. Jonathan Cain, Liz Cooper, Sarah DeMott, and Alesia Montgomery in their article ‘Where QDA is hiding?’ draw on a study originally conducted for QSSHDIG to create a list of qualitative data services in libraries. When they realized that finding these services was quite difficult, they expanded the study to examine the discoverability of library sites supporting QDA. This study of 95 academic library websites provides insight into the issues of finding and accessing library websites that support the full range of qualitative research needs. They also outline the key characteristics of websites that provide more accessible access to qualitative data services. We thank our authors for participating in this special issue and providing their insights on qualitative data and research. If you are interested in issues related to qualitative research, then please join the Qualitative Social Sciences and Humanities Data Interest Group. Starting with IASSIST 2019 in Australia, our interest group has a new leadership team with two of our authors, Sebastian Karcher and Alesia Montgomery, taking over as co-conveners. We are certain that they would love to hear your ideas for the group, and we look forward to working with the qualitative data community more in the future. Lynda Kellam, Cornell Institute for Social & Economic Research Celia Emmelhainz, University of California, Berkeley

Background Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a rare, severe post-traumatic pain condition affecting distal limbs. Patients who do not spontaneously improve in 12 months are classed as having ‘long-standing CRPS’ and often cannot be effectively treated, leading to a poor prognosis. CRPS is associated with functional autoantibodies. Two small trials, including a randomised controlled trial, have suggested that low-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) may be an effective treatment for some patients. Objective We hypothesised that low-dose IVIg is effective for reducing pain in long-standing CRPS. Methods A randomised, double blinded placebo-controlled multicentre trial in seven UK pain management centres. Patients were eligible if they had moderate or severe long-standing CRPS that they had experienced for up to 5 years. Participants were randomly allocated to receive 0.5 g/kg IVIg, the active intervention, or visually indistinguishable 0.1% albumin in saline placebo. Randomisation was initiated by study sites via an independent online randomisation system and was 1 : 1 with varying block sizes, stratified by study centre. Participants, investigators and assessors were blinded to group assignment. The study drug/placebo was infused intravenously at the study centres on day 1 and day 23 after randomisation. The primary outcome was the 24-hour average pain intensity between day 6 and day 42, on an 11-point (0–10) numeric rating scale, compared between the groups. Outcomes were analysed using a mixed-effects regression model that used 37 measurements of pain intensity (the primary outcome) per participant. All patients who received an infusion and provided any outcome were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Results A total of 111 patients were recruited and assigned between 27 August 2013 and 28 October 2015. Three patients were excluded because they had been inappropriately randomised, five patients were withdrawn from the primary analysis because they provided no outcomes and 103 patients were analysed for the primary outcome. The average pain score in the IVIg group was 0.27 units (95% confidence interval –0.24 to 0.80 units) higher than in the placebo group. Therefore, there is no significant evidence of a treatment effect at the 5% level and there was no significant difference between groups. Six serious adverse events but no suspected unexpected serious adverse reactions were reported during the blinded and open-label phase. Conclusion and future work Low-dose immunoglobulin was not effective in relieving pain in patients with moderate to severe CRPS of 1–5 years’ duration. Better drug treatments for long-standing CRPS are urgently required. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN42179756. Funding This project was funded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme, a Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research partnership. Additional funding was obtained by the Pain Relief Foundation. Biotest UK Ltd provided the active study medication at no cost.

According to a 2016 NHTSA report (National Center for Statistics and Analysis, 2016) approximately 50,000 bicyclist injuries and 729 bicyclist fatalities were reported in the United States in the year 2014, with most crashes between motor vehicles and bicycles occuring during daylight hours. Most collisions between motor vehicles and bicyclists involve the bicyclist being struck from behind (Hutchinson & Lindsay, 2009; Kim, Kim, Ulfarsson, & Porrello, 2007). For this reason, it is important that bicyclists be sufficiently conspicuous to drivers who are approaching from behind. There has been a recent surge in research that applies basic perceptual science to make vulnerable road users more easily noticed by drivers. For example, humans’ perceptual sensitivity to biological motion (or “biomotion”; Johansson, 1973) can be used to enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians at night (for a review, see Tyrrell, Wood, Owens, Whetsel-Borzendowski, & Stafford-Sewall, 2016). Similar findings, using either retroreflective tape or LEDs, have been found to apply to cyclists’ conspicuity as well (e.g., Kwan & Mapstone, 2004; Wood, et al., 2012; Costa, et al., 2017). Taken together, the existing evidence makes it clear that efforts to enhance the conspicuity of both pedestrians and bicyclists – possibly including fluorescent apparel in daylight – are most effective when capitalizing on drivers’ perceptual sensitivity to biomotion. As such, this project explored the potential value of using fluorescent apparel strategically to make bicyclists more conspicuous to drivers during daylight hours. Specifically, we examined the influence of four different clothing configurations on the distances at which participants recognize the bicyclist wearing them. Methods. Visually healthy observers (N=186; mean age = 18.7 years) searched for bicyclists while a researcher drove them along a pre-determined route on public roads. Experimenters instructed participants to press a button on a numeric keypad each time they were confident that they recognized any person “on or with” a bicycle, who was “stopped or moving,” and who was “in or near the roadway.” Approximately seven minutes into their trip, participants encountered an experimenter wearing one of four outfits, pedaling (75 - 90 rpm) on a stationary bicycle on a sidewalk to the right of the roadway while facing away from the approaching vehicle. Experimenters delivered instructions to participants in such a way that was designed to limit participants’ expectancy that they would encounter a planted/scripted researcher on a bicycle during their trip. Participants’ button presses initiated a timer on the laptop computer operated by an experimenter in the back-seat of the research vehicle. The back-seat experimenter then stopped the timer once the test vehicle passed the test bicyclist. The elapsed time was used to calculate each participant’s response distance ( distance = speed × time). This technique has been used in numerous on-road pedestrian conspicuity experiments, and its accuracy has been verified for stationary roadway stimuli (e.g., Fekety, Edewaard, Stafford-Sewall, & Tyrrell, 2016; Whetsel-Borzendowski, Stafford-Sewall, Rosopa, & Tyrrell, 2015). After passing the experimenter bicyclist, the participants were informed that data collection had ended. Participants were then interviewed and debriefed while being driven back to the starting location. Each experimental session lasted approximately 30 minutes. Results. We performed a one-way between-subjects analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test the significance of the effects of clothing configuration on the response distances. The main effect of clothing was statistically significant, F(3,120) = 16.072, η2 = .287, p < .001. Thus, the participants’ response distances significantly varied among the four clothing configurations. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons (Bonferroni) revealed that that a fluorescent yellow jersey did not significantly improve the cyclist’s conspicuity relative to a black jersey. However when the cyclist paired the fluorescent jersey with fluorescent yellow leggings, participants responded from a distance 3.3x farther than an identical outfit with black leggings. Discussion. The finding that fluorescent yellow leggings can provide a dramatic enhancement to bicyclist conspicuity is, we believe, a consequence of highlighting the bicyclist’s pedaling motion. The rhythmic up-down movements of a cyclist’s lower legs uniquely specify a pedaling motion that is visually distinct from, for example, a pedestrian walking or jogging. Further, considerable research has identified that highlighting a cyclist’s biological motion can provide powerful conspicuity enhancements. Thus fluorescent leggings can offer a powerful and low-tech tool for enhancing bicyclists’ daytime conspicuity.

Abstract Background Strategies aimed at reducing health inequalities include a focus on improving education, a key determinant of health and labour market outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that both early life socioeconomic disadvantage and child maltreatment result in poorer educational outcomes, but have not examined the effect of the combination of these adversities. Methods This study used de-identified, linked government administrative data from the South Australian Early Childhood Data Project on children born in South Australia who completed Year 5 National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) during 2008-2015 (n = 61,445), and their corresponding birth, perinatal, school enrolment and child protection system data. Results Overall, 23.7% (95% CI 23.4-24.1) had a poor NAPLAN outcome (at or below national minimum standard on three or more of the five domains - reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, numeracy). This proportion was approximately double for children who experienced substantiated maltreatment compared to children who did not experience contact with the child protection system, irrespective of the social circumstances (parental education, employment, housing and area-level disadvantage) in which the child lived. Conclusions Social advantage is not sufficient to protect children from poor educational outcomes if they experience substantiated maltreatment. Interventions and services will need to focus on child maltreatment, in addition to socioeconomic factors, to improve educational outcomes in the population. Key messages Within each social group, from advantaged to disadvantaged children, the risk of poor NAPLAN outcomes was greater for children who had contact with the child protection system.

Abstract Focus of Presentation Rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are endemic among Indigenous Australians. End RHD in Australia: Study of Epidemiology (ERASE) aimed to characterize contemporary RF/RHD epidemiology. Using multi-jurisdictional linked data from several administrative sources, we undertook sub-studies covering diverse epidemiological questions, requiring substantial methods development. Mixed methods further identified barriers/facilitators to inform system redesign. Our multi-disciplinary collaboration supported diverse initiatives to contribute to policy at government, service and community/stakeholder levels. We show how findings from ERASE were applied/translated to address the impact of RF/RHD in Australia. Findings Academic: &gt;15 papers and commentaries/editorials provided the backbone to translational outputs and methods sharing. PhD students have ongoing projects using ERASE datasets. Advocacy: ERASE epidemiological and economic information supported the Endgame Strategy (roadmap for eliminating RHD in Australia by 2031) presented to government. Health professionals: ERASE data contributed to Australian RF/RHD guidelines. Slides of results/interpretation are publically-available on the RHDAustralia website. Student lectures integrate biomedical and culturally-informed perspectives. Indigenous stakeholder engagement: involves (1)presentations to peak Indigenous-controlled organisations (2)co-designed resources (booklets/slides) for capacity-building of RHDAustralia’s national Champions4Change network (3)research workshops to promote two-way learning and health literacy/numeracy. Challenges remain regarding strengths-based approaches when reporting high disparities. Conclusions/Implications Strong translational commitment and national multi-disciplinary networks of Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators ensured ERASE generated multiple outputs that continue to inform training, practice, policy and community health literacy. Key messages Build translation and broad collaboration into study from the start.

ABSTRACTObjectivesPrevious research has identified that heavy maternal alcohol use impacts on a child’s health and development including poor cognitive and educational outcomes. However, very few studies have used objective measures of heavy alcohol-use and standardised school-based measures. Further, the magnitude of the effect of heavy maternal alcohol use on the educational outcomes of children in Australia is unknown. The primary aim of the project was to examine the association between in-utero and childhood exposure to maternal alcohol use disorder, which provides a proxy for heavy alcohol use, and children’s educational outcomes. ApproachThis Western Australian population cohort study made use of linked administrative data to compare the educational outcomes of a cohort of exposed children born between 1989 and 2007 whose mother had an alcohol related diagnosis recorded on health datasets, with children whose mother did not have a diagnosis. The exposed cohort of mothers was frequency matched on maternal age within Indigenous status, and year of child’s birth with a comparison cohort of mothers without an alcohol-related diagnosis. Records were linked with education records up to 2011, which included the results of standardised state and national testing for children (ages 8-14), and school attendance data (ages 6-18). Mixed multivariate models were used to examine the relationship between exposure, and timing of exposure in relation to pregnancy, and the risk of failure to meet educational benchmarks for reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and school attendance. Separate analyses were run for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. ResultsA higher proportion of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous exposed children failed to reach minimum standards for all domains of testing compared to those in the unexposed cohort. The risk of failure in the exposed cohort remained significant with adjustment for a set of known confounders and there was no consistent relationship between timing of exposure and academic performance. ConclusionThis project provides a unique view of how maternal alcohol use disorders affect a child’s educational outcomes. The use of linked administrative data overcomes the use of retrospective recall of past behaviour, and self-reports of drinking patterns which may be considered socially unacceptable. Results of this project indicate that children whose mothers have an alcohol use disorder are academically at risk. These results suggest that routine monitoring of maternal alcohol use, early identification of at-risk children and intervention at both the school and family level may assist vulnerable children to reach academic benchmarks.

AbstractPurposeChanges in the world show that the role, importance, and coherence of SSH (social sciences and the humanities) will increase significantly in the coming years. This paper aims to monitor and analyze the evolution (or overlapping) of the SSH thematic pattern through three funding instruments since 2007.Design/methodology/approachThe goal of the paper is to check to what extent the EU Framework Program (FP) affects/does not affect research on national level, and to highlight hot topics from a given period with the help of text analysis. Funded project titles and abstracts derived from the EU FP, Slovenian, and Estonian RIS were used. The final analysis and comparisons between different datasets were made based on the 200 most frequent words. After removing punctuation marks, numeric values, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs, 4,854 unique words in ETIS, 4,421 unique words in the Slovenian Research Information System (SICRIS), and 3,950 unique words in FP were identified.FindingsAcross all funding instruments, about a quarter of the top words constitute half of the word occurrences. The text analysis results show that in the majority of cases words do not overlap between FP and nationally funded projects. In some cases, it may be due to using different vocabulary. There is more overlapping between words in the case of Slovenia (SL) and Estonia (EE) and less in the case of Estonia and EU Framework Programmes (FP). At the same time, overlapping words indicate a wider reach (culture, education, social, history, human, innovation, etc.). In nationally funded projects (bottom-up), it was relatively difficult to observe the change in thematic trends over time. More specific results emerged from the comparison of the different programs throughout FP (top-down).Research limitationsOnly projects with English titles and abstracts were analyzed.Practical implicationsThe specifics of SSH have to take into account—the one-to-one meaning of terms/words is not as important as, for example, in the exact sciences. Thus, even in co-word analysis, the final content may go unnoticed.Originality/valueThis was the first attempt to monitor the trends of SSH projects using text analysis. The text analysis of the SSH projects of the two new EU Member States used in the study showed that SSH's thematic coverage is not much affected by the EU Framework Program. Whether this result is field-specific or country-specific should be shown in the following study, which targets SSH projects in the so-called old Member States.

Collaborative practice which acknowledges differentiated learning needs of students, diverse long term educational outcomes, and acknowledges the respective skill sets of both teacher and librarian in delivering a curriculum which embraces the future focused needs of 21st century learners – to be literate and numerate, critical and creative thinkers, active seekers, users and creators of knowledge, informed decision makers, and active participants in their future world. Looking at the journey of two school library managers and their diverse school communities, both involved in the Otago/Southland Information Literacy Project from June 2007 to November 2008. This project, commissioned by the National Library of New Zealand in collaboration with the Otago University Education Department and the New Zealand Ministry of Education, involved the participation of librarians and teachers from seven schools from the Otago and Southland regions of New Zealand looking at a collaborative approach to student learning outcomes and focused on year 8 students.

Nationally, there is a great demand for systems that meet the needs of local employers as well as develop tools and training for their incumbent workers. Concurrently, demand for healthcare professionals is growing and projected to continue for the next decade. Worcester State University created the “Direct Care Workforce Development Program” to offer a pathway for nontraditional-aged students in direct care positions to advance to higher-level jobs with family sustaining wages. Direct care workers (DCWs) (e.g., patient care assistant) encounter challenges in a quest to continue their education. They may be non-native speakers, lack a foundation in basic numeracy skills, or lack experience with technology. Therefore, DCWs require many support services for success in professional health-studies programs. In response, a partnership emerged between an urban medical center, state university, and labor union to provide academic pathways for DCWs to progress in careers through higher education. Two cohorts of DCWs from the medical center enrolled in the program, which provided courses totaling nine college credits. Career maps, containing action steps towards goals, and individual coaching helped DCWs define their aspirations. Many workers who completed the program matriculated into two and four-year professional programs, while others plan to do so in the future.

05–486Balnaves, Edmund (U of Sydney, Australia; ejb@it.usyd.edu.au), Systematic approaches to long term digital collection management. Literary and Linguistic Computing (Oxford, UK) 20.4 (2005), 399–413.05–487Barwell, Graham (U of Wollongong, Australia; gbarwell@uow.edu.au), Original, authentic, copy: conceptual issues in digital texts. Literary and Linguistic Computing (Oxford, UK) 20.4 (2005), 415–424.05–488Beech, John R. & Kate A. Mayall (U of Leicester, UK; JRB@Leicester.ac.uk), The word shape hypothesis re-examined: evidence for an external feature advantage in visual word recognition. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 302–319.05–489Belcher, Diane (Georgia State U, USA; dbelcher1@gsu.edu) & Alan Hirvela, Writing the qualitative dissertation: what motivates and sustains commitment to a fuzzy genre?Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.3 (2005), 187–205.05–490Bernhardt, Elisabeth (U of Minnesota, USA; ebernhar@stanford.edu), Progress and procrastination in second language reading. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK) 25 (2005), 133–150.05–491Bishop, Dorothy (U of Oxford, UK; dorothy.bishop@psy.ox.ac.uk), Caroline Adams, Annukka Lehtonen & Stuart Rosen, Effectiveness of computerised spelling training in children with language impairments: a comparison of modified and unmodified speech input. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 144–157.05–492Bowey, Judith A., Michaela McGuigan & Annette Ruschena (U of Queensland, Australia; j.bowey@psy.uq.edu.au), On the association between serial naming speed for letters and digits and word-reading skill: towards a developmental account. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.4 (2005), 400–422.05–493Bowyer-Crane, Claudine & Margaret J. Snowling (U of York, UK; c.crane@psych.york.ac.uk), Assessing children's inference generation: what do tests of reading comprehension measure?British Journal of Educational Psychology (Leicester, UK) 75.2 (2005), 189–201.05–494Bruce, Ian (U of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand; ibruce@waikato.ac.nz), Syllabus design for general EAP writing courses: a cognitive approach. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.3 (2005), 239–256.05–495Burrows, John (U of Newcastle, Australia; john.burrows@netcentral.com.au), Who wroteShamela? Verifying the authorship of a parodic text. Literary and Linguistic Computing (Oxford, UK) 20.4 (2005), 437–450.05–496Clarke, Paula, Charles Hulme & Margaret Snowling (U of York, UK; CH1@york.ac.uk), Individual differences in RAN and reading: a response timing analysis. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 73–86.05–497Colledge, Marion (Metropolitan U, London, UK; m.colledge@londonmet.ac.uk), Baby Bear or Mrs Bear? Young English Bengali-speaking children's responses to narrative picture books at school. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.1 (2005), 24–30.05–498De Pew, Kevin Eric (Old Dominion U, Norfolk, USA; Kdepew@odu.edu) & Susan Kay Miller, Studying L2 writers' digital writing: an argument for post-critical methods. Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 259–278.05–499Dekydtspotter, Laurent (Indiana U, USA; ldekydts@indiana.edu) & Samantha D. Outcalt, A syntactic bias in scope ambiguity resolution in the processing of English French cardinality interrogatives: evidence for informational encapsulation. Language Learning (Malden, MA, USA) 55.1 (2005), 1–36.05–500Fernández Toledo, Piedad (Universidad de Murcia, Spain; piedad@um.es), Genre analysis and reading of English as a foreign language: genre schemata beyond text typologies. Journal of Pragmatics37.7 (2005), 1059–1079.05–501French, Gary (Chukyo U, Japan; french@lets.chukyo-u.ac.jp), The cline of errors in the writing of Japanese university students. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.3 (2005), 371–382.05–502Green, Chris (Hong Kong Polytechnic U, Hong Kong, China), Profiles of strategic expertise in second language reading. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics (Hong Kong, China) 9.2 (2004), 1–16.05–503Groom, Nicholas (U of Birmingham, UK; nick@nicholasgroom.fsnet.co.uk), Pattern and meaning across genres and disciplines: an exploratory study. Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 4.3 (2005), 257–277.05–504Harris, Pauline & Barbara McKenzie (U of Wollongong, Australia; pharris@uow.edu.au), Networking aroundThe Waterholeand other tales: the importance of relationships among texts for reading and related instruction. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.1 (2005), 31–37.05–505Harrison, Allyson G. & Eva Nichols (Queen's U, Canada; harrisna@post.queensu.ca), A validation of the Dyslexia Adult Screening Test (DAST) in a post-secondary population. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.4 (2005), 423–434.05–506Hirvela, Alan (Ohio State U, USA; hirvela.1@osu.edu), Computer-based reading and writing across the curriculum: two case studies of L2 writers. Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 337–356.05–507Holdom, Shoshannah (Oxford U, UK; shoshannah.holdom@oucs.ox.ac.uk), E-journal proliferation in emerging economies: the case of Latin America. Literary and Linguistic Computing (Oxford, UK) 20.3 (2005), 351–365.05–508Hopper, Rosemary (U of Exeter, UK; r.hopper@ex.ac.uk), What are teenagers reading? Adolescent fiction reading habits and reading choices. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 113–120.05–509Jarman, Ruth & Billy McClune (Queen's U, Northern Ireland; r.jarman@qub.ac.uk), Space Science News: Special Edition, a resource for extending reading and promoting engagement with newspapers in the science classroom. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 121–128.05–510Jia-ling Charlene Yau (Ming Chuan U, Taiwan; jyau@mcu.edu.tw), Two Mandarin readers in Taiwan: characteristics of children with higher and lower reading proficiency levels. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 108–124.05–511Justice, Laura M, Lori Skibbel, Andrea Canning & Chris Lankford (U of Virginia, USA; ljustice@virginia.edu), Pre-schoolers, print and storybooks: an observational study using eye movement analysis. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 229–243.05–512Kelly, Alison (Roehampton U, UK; a.m.kelly@roehampton.ac.uk), ‘Poetry? Of course we do it. It's in the National Curriculum.’ Primary children's perceptions of poetry. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 129–134.05–513Kern, Richard (U of California, Berkeley, USA; rkern@berkeley.edu) & Jean Marie Schultz, Beyond orality: investigating literacy and the literary in second and foreign language instruction. The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA) 89.3 (2005), 381–392.05–514Kispal, Anne (National Foundation for Educational Research, UK; a.kispal@nfer.ac.uk), Examining England's National Curriculum assessments: an analysis of the KS2 reading test questions, 1993–2004. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 149–157.05–515Kriss, Isla & Bruce J. W. Evans (Institute of Optometry, London, UK), The relationship between dyslexia and Meares-Irlen Syndrome. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 350–364.05–516Lavidor, Michal & Peter J. Bailey (U of Hull, UK; M.Lavidor@hull.ac.uk), Dissociations between serial position and number of letters effects in lateralised visual word recognition. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 258–273.05–517Lee, Sy-ying (Taipei, Taiwan, China; syying.lee@msa.hinet.net), Facilitating and inhibiting factors in English as a foreign language writing performance: a model testing with structural equation modelling. Language Learning (Malden, MA, USA) 55.2 (2005), 335–374.05–518Leppänen, Ulla, Kaisa Aunola & Jari-Erik Nurmi (U of Jyväskylä, Finland; uleppane@psyka.jyu.fi), Beginning readers' reading performance and reading habits. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.4 (2005), 383–399.05–519Lingard, Tony (Newquay, Cornwall, UK; tonylingard@awled.co.uk), Literacy Acceleration and the Key Stage 3 English strategy–comparing two approaches for secondary-age pupils with literacy difficulties. British Journal of Special Education32.2, 67–77.05–520Liu, Meihua (Tsinghua U, China; ellenlmh@yahoo.com) & George Braine, Cohesive features in argumentative writing produced by Chinese undergraduates. System (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 33.4 (2005), 623–636.05–521Masterson, Jackie, Veronica Laxon, Emma Carnegie, Sheila Wright & Janice Horslen (U of Essex; mastj@essex.ac.uk), Nonword recall and phonemic discrimination in four- to six-year-old children. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 183–201.05–522Merttens, Ruth & Catherine Robertson (Hamilton Reading Project, Oxford, UK; ruthmerttens@onetel.net.uk), Rhyme and Ritual: a new approach to teaching children to read and write. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.1 (2005), 18–23.05–523Min Wang (U of Maryland, USA; minwang@umd.edu) & Keiko Koda, Commonalities and differences in word identification skills among learners of English as a Second Language. Language Learning (Malden, MA, USA) 55.1 (2005), 71–98.05–524O'Brien, Beth A., J. Stephen Mansfield & Gordon E. Legge (Tufts U, Medford, USA; beth.obrien@tufts.edu), The effect of print size on reading speed in dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 332–349.05–525Pisanski Peterlin, Agnes (U of Ljubljana, Slovenia; agnes.pisanski@guest.arnes.si), Text-organising metatext in research articles: an English–Slovene contrastive analysis. English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 24.3 (2005), 307–319.05–526Rilling, Sarah (Kent State U, Kent, USA; srilling@kent.edu), The development of an ESL OWL, or learning how to tutor writing online. Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 357–374.05–527Schacter, John & Jo Booil (Milken Family Foundation, Santa Monica, USA; schacter@sbcglobal.net), Learning when school is not in session: a reading summer day-camp intervention to improve the achievement of exiting First-Grade students who are economically disadvantaged. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 158–169.05–528Shapira, Anat (Gordon College of Education, Israel) & Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, Opening windows on Arab and Jewish children's strategies as writers. Language, Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK) 18.1 (2005), 72–90.05–529Shillcock, Richard C. & Scott A. McDonald (U of Edinburgh, UK; rcs@inf.ed.ac.uk), Hemispheric division of labour in reading. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 244–257.05–530Singleton, Chris & Susannah Trotter (U of Hull, UK; c.singleton@hull.ac.uk), Visual stress in adults with and without dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.3 (2005), 365–378.05–531Spelman Miller, Kristyan (Reading U, UK; k.s.miller@reading.ac.uk), Second language writing research and pedagogy: a role for computer logging?Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 297–317.05–532Su, Susan Shiou-mai (Chang Gung College of Technology, Taiwan, China) & Huei-mei Chu, Motivations in the code-switching of nursing notes in EFL Taiwan. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics (Hong Kong, China) 9.2 (2004), 55–71.05–533Taillefer, Gail (Toulouse U, France; gail.taillefer@univ-tlse1.fr), Reading for academic purposes: the literacy practices of British, French and Spanish Law and Economics students as background for study abroad. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.4 (2005), 435–451.05–534Tardy, Christine M. (DePaul U, Chicago, USA; ctardy@depaul.edu), Expressions of disciplinarity and individuality in a multimodal genre. Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 319–336.05–535Thatcher, Barry (New Mexico State U, USA; bathatch@nmsu.edu), Situating L2 writing in global communication technologies. Computers and Composition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 22.3 (2005), 279–295.05–536Topping, Keith & Nancy Ferguson (U of Dundee, UK; k.j.topping@dundee.ac.uk), Effective literacy teaching behaviours. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 125–143.05–537Torgerson, Carole (U of York, UK; cjt3@york.ac.uk), Jill Porthouse & Greg Brooks, A systematic review of controlled trials evaluating interventions in adult literacy and numeracy. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 87–107.05–538Willett, Rebekah (U of London, UK; r.willett@ioe.ac.uk), ‘Baddies’ in the classroom: media education and narrative writing. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 142–148.05–539Wood, Clara, Karen Littleton & Pav Chera (Coventry U, UK; c.wood@coventry.ac.uk), Beginning readers' use of talking books: styles of working. Literacy (Oxford, UK) 39.3 (2005), 135–141.05–540Wood, Clare (The Open U, UK; c.p.wood@open.ac.uk), Beginning readers' use of ‘talking books’ software can affect their reading strategies. Journal of Research in Reading (Oxford, UK) 28.2 (2005), 170–182.05–541Yasuda, Sachiko (Waseda U, Japan), Different activities in the same task: an activity theory approach to ESL students' writing process. JALT Journal (Tokyo, Japan) 27.2 (2005), 139–168.05–542Zelniker, Tamar (Tel-Aviv U, Israel) & Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, School–Family Partnership for Coexistence (SFPC) in the city of Acre: promoting Arab and Jewish parents' role as facilitators of children's literacy development and as agents of coexistence. Language, Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK) 18.1 (2005), 114–138.

Usually, a literature search is a benign phase of the research regime. It was, however, during this phase on my current project where a semi-conscious pique I’d been feeling developed into an obvious rancour. Because I’ve been involved in both electronic production and consumption, and the pedagogy surrounding it, I was interested in how the literate domain was coping with the transformations coming out of the new media communications r/evolution. This concern became clearer with the reading and re-reading of Kathleen Tyner’s book, Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information. Sometimes, irritation is a camouflage for an emerging and hybridised form of knowledge, so it was necessary to unearth this masquerade of discord that welled-up in the most unexpected of places. Literacy in a Digital World makes all the right noises: it discusses technology; Walter Ong; media literacy; primary, secondary, and tertiary schooling; Plato’s Phaedrus; psychoanalysis; storytelling; networks; aesthetics; even numeracy and multiliteracies, along with a host of other highly appropriate subject matter vis-à-vis its object of analysis. On one reading, it’s a highly illuminating overview. There is, however, a differing interpretation of Literacy in a Digital World, and it’s of a more sombre hue. This other more doleful reading makes Literacy in a Digital World a superior representative of a sometimes largely under-theorised control-complex, and an un.conscious authoritarianism, implicit in the production of any type of knowledge. Of course, in this instance the type of production referenced is literate in orientation. The literate domain, then, is not merely an angel of enlightened debate; under the influence and direction of particular human configurations, literacy has its power struggles with other forms of representation. If the PR machine encourages a more seraphical view of the culture industry, it comes at the expense of the latter’s sometimes-tyrannical underbelly. It is vital, then, to question and investigate these un.conscious forces, specifically in relation to the production of literate forms of culture and the ‘discourse’ it carries on regarding electronic forms of knowledge, a paradigm for which is slowly emerging electracy and a subject I will return to. This assertion is no overstatement. Literacy in a Digital World has concealed within its discourse the assumption that the dominant modes of teaching and learning are literate and will continue to be so. That is, all knowledge is mediated via either typographic or chirographic words on a page, or even on a screen. This is strange given that Tyner admits in the Introduction that “I am an itinerant teacher, reluctant writer, and sometimes media producer” (1, my emphasis). The orientation in Literacy in a Digital World, it seems to me, is a mask for the authoritarianism at the heart of the literate establishment trying to contain and corral the intensifying global flows of electronic information. Ironically, it also seems to be a peculiarly electronic way to present information: that is, the sifting, analysis, and categorisation, along with the representation of phenomena, through the force of one’s un.conscious biases, with the latter making all knowledge production laden with emotional causation. This awkwardness in using the term “literacy” in relation to electronic forms of knowledge surfaces once more in Paul Messaris’s Visual “Literacy”. Again, this is peculiar given that this highly developed and informative text might be a fine introduction to electracy as a possible alternative paradigm to literacy, if only, for instance, it made some mention of sound as a counterpoint to textual and visual symbolisation. The point where Messaris passes over this former contradiction is worth quoting: Strictly speaking, of course, the term “literacy” should be applied only to reading and writing. But it would probably be too pedantic and, in any case, it would surely be futile to resist the increasingly common tendency to apply this term to other kinds of communication skills (mathematical “literacy,” computer “literacy”) as well as to the substantive knowledge that communication rests on (historical, geographic, cultural “literacy”). (2-3) While Messaris might use the term “visual literacy” reluctantly, the assumption that literacy will take over the conceptual reins of electronic communication and remain the pre-eminent form of knowledge production is widespread. This assumption might be happening in the literature on the subject but in the wider population there is a rising electrate sensibility. It is in the work of Gregory Ulmer that electracy is most extensively articulated, and the following brief outline has been heavily influenced by his speculation on the subject. Electracy is a paradigm that requires, in the production and consumption of electronic material, highly developed competencies in both oracy and literacy, and if necessary comes on top of any knowledge of the subject or content of any given work, program, or project. The conceptual frame of electracy is herein tentatively defined as both a well-developed range and depth of communicative competency in oral, literate, and electronic forms, biased from the latter’s point of view. A crucial addition, one sometimes overlooked in earlier communicative forms, is that of the technate, or technacy, a working knowledge of the technological infrastructure underpinning all communication and its in-built ideological assumptions. It is in this context of the various communicative competencies required for electronic production and consumption that the term ‘literacy’ (or for that matter ‘oracy’) is questionable. Furthermore, electracy can spread out to mean the following: it is that domain of knowledge formation whose arrangement, transference, and interpretation rely primarily on electronic networks, systems, codes and apparatuses, for either its production, circulation, or consumption. It could be analogue, in the sense of videotape; digital, in the case of the computer; aurally centred, as in the examples of music, radio or sound-scapes; mathematically configured, in relation to programming code for instance; visually fixated, as in broadcast television; ‘amateur’, as in the home-video or home-studio realm; politically sensitive, in the case of surveillance footage; medically fixated, as in the orbit of tomography; ambiguous, as in the instance of The Sydney Morning Herald made available on the WWW, or of Hollywood blockbusters broadcast on television, or hired/bought in a DVD/video format; this is not to mention Brad Pitt reading a classic novel on audio-tape. Electracy is a strikingly simple, yet highly complex and heterogeneous communicative paradigm. Electracy is also a generic term, one whose very comprehensiveness and dynamic mutability is its defining hallmark, and one in which a whole host of communicative codes and symbolic systems reside. Moreover, almost anyone can comprehend meaning in electronic media because “electric epistemology cannot remain confined to small groups of users, as oral epistemologies have, and cannot remain the property of an educated elite, as literate epistemologies have” (Gozzi and Haynes 224). Furthermore, as Ulmer writes: “To speak of computer literacy or media literacy may be an attempt to remain within the apparatus of alphabetic writing that has organized the Western tradition for nearly the past three millennia” (“Foreword” xii). The catch is that the knowledge forms thus produced through electracy are the abstract epistemological vectors on which the diverse markets of global capitalism thrive. The dynamic nature of these “multimodal” forms of electronic knowledge (Kress, “Visual” 73), then, is increasingly applicable to all of us in the local/global, human/world conglomerate in which any polity is now framed. To continue to emphasise literacy and alphabetic consciousness might then be blinding us to this emerging relationship between electracy and globalisation, possibly even to localisation and regionalisation. It may be possible to trace the dichotomy outlined above between literate and electrate forms of knowledge to larger political/economic and cultural forces. As Saskia Sassen illustrates, sovereignty and territoriality are central aspects in the operation of the still important nation-state, especially in an era of encroaching globalisation. In the past, sovereignty referred to the absolute power of monarchs to control their dominions and is an idea that has been transferred to the nation-state in the long transition to representative democracy. Territoriality refers to the specific physical space that sovereignty is seen as guaranteeing. As Sassen writes, “In the main … rule in the modern world flows from the absolute sovereignty of the state over its national territory” (3). Quite clearly, in the shifting regimes of geo-political power that characterise the global era, sovereign control over territory, and, equally, control over the ideas that might reconfigure our interpretation of concepts such as sovereignty and territoriality, nationalism and literacy, are all in a state of change. Today’s climate of geo-political uncertainty has undoubtedly produced a control complex in relation to these shifting power bases, a condition that arises when psychic, epistemological and political certainties move to a state of unpredictable flux. In Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities another important examination of nationalism there is an emphasis on how literacy was an essential ingredient in its development as a political structure. Operational levels of literacy also came to be a key component in the development of the idea of the autonomous self that arose with democracy and its use as an organising principle in citizenship rituals like voting in some nation-states. Eric Leed puts it this way: “By the sixteenth century, literacy had become one of the definitive signs — along with the possession of property and a permanent residence — of an independent social status” (53). Clearly, any conception of sovereignty and territoriality has to be read, after being written constitutionally, by those people who form the basis of a national polity and over whom these two categories operate. The “fundamental anxiety” over literacy that Kress speaks of (Before Writing 1) is a sub-component of this larger control complex in that a quantum increase in the volume and diversity of electronic communication is contributing to declining levels of literacy in the body politic. In the current moment there is a control complex of almost plague proportions in our selves, our systems of knowledge, and our institutions and polities, because it is undoubtedly a key factor at the epicentre of any turf war. Even my own strident anxieties over the dominance of literacy in debates over electronic communication deserve to be laid out on the analyst’s couch, in part because any manifestation of the control complex in a turf war is aimed squarely at the repression of alternative ways of being and becoming. The endgame: it might be wiser to more closely examine this literacy control complex, possible alternative paradigms of knowledge production and consumption such as electracy, and their broader relationship to patterns of political/economic/cultural organisation and control. Acknowledgements I am indebted to Patrice Braun and Ros Mills, respectively, for editorial advice and technical assistance in the preparation of this essay. Note on reading “The Literacy Control Complex” The dot configuration in ‘un.conscious’ is used deliberately as an electronic marker to implicitly indicate the omni-directional nature of the power surges that dif.fuse the conscious and the unconscious in the field of political action where any turf war is conducted. While this justification is not obvious, I do want to create a sense of intrigue in the reader as to why this dot configuration might be used. One of the many things that fascinates me about electronic communication is its considerable ability for condensation; the sound-bite is one epistemological example of this idea, the dot, as an electronic form of conceptual elision, is another. If you are interested in this field, I highly recommend perusal of the MEZ posts that crop up periodically on a number of media related lists. MEZ’s posts have made me more cognisant of electronic forms of written expression. These experiments in electronic writing deserve to be tested. Works Cited Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. rev. ed. London and New York: Verso, 1991. Gozzi Jr., Raymond, and W. Lance Haynes. “Electric Media and Electric Epistemology: Empathy at a Distance.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 9.3 (1992): 217-28. Messaris, Paul. Visual “Literacy”: Image, Mind, and Reality. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994. Kress, Gunther. “Visual and Verbal Modes of Representation in Electronically Mediated Communication: The Potentials of New Forms of Text.” Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Era. Ed. Ilana Snyder. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997. 53-79. ---. Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy. London: Routledge, 1997. Leed, Eric. “‘Voice’ and ‘Print’: Master Symbols in the History of Communication.” The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture. Ed. Kathleen Woodward. Madison, Wisconsin: Coda Press, 1980. 41-61. Sassen, Saskia. Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization. New York: Columbia UP, 1996. Tyner, Kathleen. Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. Ulmer, Gregory. Teletheory: Grammatology in the Age of Video. New York: Routledge, 1989. ---. Heuretics: The Logic of Invention. New York: Johns Hopkins U P, 1994. ---. “Foreword/Forward (Into Electracy).” Literacy Theory in the Age of the Internet. Ed. Todd Taylor and Irene Ward. New York: Columbia U P, 1998. ix-xiii. ---. Internet Invention: Literacy into Electracy. Boston: Longman, 2003. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Maybury, Terrence. "The Literacy Control Complex" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/05-literacy.php>. APA Style Maybury, T. (2004, Mar17). The Literacy Control Complex. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/05-literacy.php>

The natural science collections community has identified an increasing need for shared, structured and interoperable data standards that can be used to describe the totality of institutional collection holdings, whether digitised or not. Major international initiatives - including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) - consider the current lack of standards to be a major barrier, which must be overcome to further their strategic aims and contribute to an open, discoverable catalogue of global collections. The Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Collection Descriptions (CD) group is looking to address this issue with a new data standard for collection descriptions. At an institutional level, this concept of collection descriptions aligns strongly with the need to use a structured and more data-driven approach to assessing and working with collections, both to identify and prioritise investment and effort, and to monitor the impact of the work. Use cases include planning conservation and collection moves, prioritising specimen digitisation activities, and informing collection development strategy. The data can be integrated with the collection description framework for ongoing assessments of the state of the collection. This approach was pioneered with the ‘Move the Dots’ methodology by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, started in 2009 and run annually since. The collection is broken down into several hundred discrete subcollections, for each of which the number of objects was estimated and a numeric rank allocated according to a range of assessment criteria. This method has since been adopted by several other institutions, including Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Museum für Naturkunde and Natural History Museum, London (NHM). First piloted in 2016, and now implemented as a core framework, the NHM’s adaptation, ‘Join the Dots’, divides the collection into approximately 2,600 ‘collection units’. The breakdown uses formal controlled lists and hierarchies, primarily taxonomy, type of object, storage location and (where relevant) stratigraphy, which are mapped to external authorities such as the Catalogue of Life and Paleobiology Database. The collection breakdown is enhanced with estimations of number of items, and ranks from 1 to 5 for each collection unit against 17 different criteria. These are grouped into four categories of ‘Condition’, ‘Information’ (including digital records), ‘Importance and Significance’ and ‘Outreach’. Although requiring significant time investment from collections staff to provide the estimates and assessments, this methodology has yielded a rich dataset that supports both discoverability (collection descriptions) and management (collection assessment). Links to further datasets about the building infrastructure and environmental conditions also make it into a powerful resource for planning activities such as collections moves, pest monitoring and building work. We have developed dynamic dashboards to provide rich visualisations for exploring, analysing and communicating the data. As an ongoing, embedded activity for collections staff, there will also be a build-up of historical data going forward, enabling us to see trends, track changes to the collection, and measure the impact of projects and events. The concept of Join the Dots also offers a generic, institution-agnostic model for enhancing the collection description framework with additional metrics that add value for strategic management and resourcing of the collection. In the design and implementation, we’ve faced challenges that should be highly relevant to the TDWG CD group, such as managing the dynamic breakdown of collections across multiple dimensions. We also face some that are yet to be resolved, such as a robust model for managing the evolving dataset over time. We intend to contribute these use cases into the development of the new TDWG data standard and be an early adopter and reference case. We envisage that this could constitute a common model that, where resources are available, provides the ability to add greater depth and utility to the world catalogue of collections.

Image 1: A Little Free Library. Image credit: Nadine Kozak.IntroductionLittle Free Libraries give people a reason to stop and exchange things they love: books. It seemed like a really good way to build a sense of community.Dannette Lank, Little Free Library steward, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, 2013 (Rumage)Against a backdrop of stagnant literacy rates and enduring perceptions of urban decay and the decline of communities in cities (NCES, “Average Literacy”; NCES, “Average Prose”; Putnam 25; Skogan 8), legions of Little Free Libraries (LFLs) have sprung up across the United States between 2009 and the present. LFLs are small, often homemade structures housing books and other physical media for passersby to choose a book to take or leave a book to share with others. People have installed the structures in front of homes, schools, libraries, churches, fire and police stations, community gardens, and in public parks. There are currently 50,000 LFLs around the world, most of which are in the continental United States (Aldrich, “Big”). LFLs encompass building in multiple senses of the term; LFLs are literally tiny buildings to house books and people use the structures for building neighbourhood social capital. The organisation behind the movement cites “building community” as one of its three core missions (Little Free Library). Rowan Moore, theorising humans’ reasons for building, argues desire and emotion are central (16). The LFL movement provides evidence for this claim: stewards erect LFLs based on hope for increased literacy and a desire to build community through their altruistic actions. This article investigates how LFLs build urban community and explores barriers to the endeavour, specifically municipal building and right of way ordinances used in attempts to eradicate the structures. It also examines local responses to these municipal actions and potential challenges to traditional public libraries brought about by LFLs, primarily the decrease of visits to public libraries and the use of LFLs to argue for defunding of publicly provided library services. The work argues that LFLs build community in some places but may threaten other community services. This article employs qualitative content analysis of 261 stewards’ comments about their registered LFLs on the organisation’s website drawn from the two largest cities in a Midwestern state and an interview with an LFL steward in a village in the same state to analyse how LFLs build community. The two cities, located in the state where the LFL movement began, provide a cross section of innovators, early adopters, and late adopters of the book exchanges, determined by their registered charter numbers. Press coverage and municipal documents from six cities across the US gathered through a snowball sample provide data about municipal challenges to LFLs. Blog posts penned by practising librarians furnish some opinions about the movement. This research, while not a representative sample, identifies common themes and issues around LFLs and provides a basis for future research.The act of building and curating an LFL is a representation of shared beliefs about literacy, community, and altruism. Establishing an LFL is an act of civic participation. As Nico Carpentier notes, while some civic participation is macro, carried out at the level of the nation, other participation is micro, conducted in “the spheres of school, family, workplace, church, and community” (17). Ruth H. Landman investigates voluntary activities in the city, including community gardening, and community bakeries, and argues that the people associated with these projects find themselves in a “denser web of relations” than previously (2). Gretchen M. Herrmann argues that neighbourhood garage sales, although fleeting events, build an enduring sense of community amongst participants (189). Ray Oldenburg contends that people create associational webs in what he calls “great good places”; third spaces separate from home and work (20-21). Little Free Libraries and Community BuildingEmotion plays a central role in the decision to become an LFL steward, the person who establishes and maintains the LFL. People recount their desire to build a sense of community and share their love of reading with neighbours (Charter 4684; Charter 8212; Charter 9437; Charter 9705; Charter 16561). One steward in the study reported, “I love books and I want to be able to help foster that love in our neighbourhood as well” (Charter 4369). Image 2: A Little Free Library, bench, water fountain, and dog’s water bowl for passersby to enjoy. Image credit: Nadine Kozak.Relationships and emotional ties are central to some people’s decisions to have an LFL. The LFL website catalogues many instances of memorial LFLs, tributes to librarians, teachers, and avid readers. Indeed, the first Little Free Library, built by Todd Bol in 2009, was a tribute to his late mother, a teacher who loved reading (“Our History”). In the two city study area, ten LFLs are memorials, allowing bereaved families to pass on a loved one’s penchant for sharing books and reading (Charter 1235; Charter 1309; Charter 4604; Charter 6219; Charter 6542; Charter 6954; Charter 10326; Charter 16734; Charter 24481; Charter 30369). In some cases, urban neighbours come together to build, erect, and stock LFLs. One steward wrote: “Those of us who live in this friendly neighborhood collaborated to design[,] build and paint a bungalow themed library” to match the houses in the neighbourhood (Charter 2532). Another noted: “Our neighbor across the street is a skilled woodworker, and offered to build the library for us if we would install it in our yard and maintain it. What a deal!” (Charter 18677). Community organisations also install and maintain LFLs, including 21 in the study population (e.g. Charter 31822; Charter 27155).Stewards report increased communication with neighbours due to their LFLs. A steward noted: “We celebrated the library’s launch on a Saturday morning with neighbors of all ages. We love sitting on our front porch and catching up with the people who stop to check out the books” (Charter 9673). Another exclaimed:within 24 hours, before I had time to paint it, my Little Free Library took on a life of its own. All of a sudden there were lots of books in it and people stopping by. I wondered where these books came from as I had not put any in there. Little kids in the neighborhood are all excited about it and I have met neighbors that I had never seen before. This is going to be fun! (Charter 15981)LFLs build community through social interaction and collaboration. This occurs when neighbours come together to build, install, and fill the structures. The structures also open avenues for conversation between neighbours who had no connection previously. Like Herrmann’s neighbourhood garage sales, LFLs create and maintain social ties between neighbours and link them by the books they share. Additionally, when neighbours gather and communicate at the LFL structure, they create a transitory third space for “informal public life”, where people can casually interact at a nearby location (Oldenburg 14, 288).Building Barriers, Creating CommunityThe erection of an LFL in an urban neighbourhood is not, however, always a welcome sight. The news analysis found that LFLs most often come to the attention of municipal authorities via citizen complaints, which lead to investigations and enforcement of ordinances. In Kansas, a neighbour called an LFL an “eyesore” and an “illegal detached structure” (Tapper). In Wisconsin, well-meaning future stewards contacted their village authorities to ask about rules, inadvertently setting off a six-month ban on LFLs (Stingl; Rumage). Resulting from complaints and inquiries, municipalities regulated, and in one case banned, LFLs, thus building barriers to citizens’ desires to foster community and share books with neighbours.Municipal governments use two major areas of established code to remove or prohibit LFLs: ordinances banning unapproved structures in residents’ yards and those concerned with obstructions to right of ways when stewards locate the LFLs between the public sidewalk and street.In the first instance, municipal ordinances prohibit either front yard or detached structures. Controversies over these ordinances and LFLs erupted in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, in 2012; Leawood, Kansas, in 2014; Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2015; and Dallas, Texas, in 2015. The Village of Whitefish Bay banned LFLs due to an ordinance prohibiting “front yard structures,” including mailboxes (Sanburn; Stingl). In Leawood, the city council argued that an LFL, owned by a nine-year-old boy, violated an ordinance that forbade the construction of any detached structures without city council permission. In Shreveport, the stewards of an LFL received a cease and desist letter from city council for having an “accessory structure” in the front yard (LaCasse; Burris) and Dallas officials knocked on a steward’s front door, informing her of a similar breach (Kellogg).In the second instance, some urban municipalities argued that LFLs are obstructions that block right of ways. In Lincoln, Nebraska, the public works director noted that the city “uses the area between the sidewalk and the street for snow storage in the winter, light poles, mailboxes, things like that.” The director continued: “And I imagine these little libraries are meant to congregate people like a water cooler, but we don’t want people hanging around near the road by the curb” (Heady). Both Lincoln in 2014 and Los Angeles (LA), California, in 2015, cited LFLs for obstructions. In Lincoln, the city notified the Southminster United Methodist Church that their LFL, located between the public sidewalk and street, violated a municipal ordinance (Sanburn). In LA, the Bureau of Street Services notified actor Peter Cook that his LFL, situated in the right of way, was an “obstruction” that Cook had to remove or the city would levy a fine (Moss). The city agreed at a hearing to consider a “revocable permit” for Cook’s LFL, but later denied its issuance (Condes).Stewards who found themselves in violation of municipal ordinances were able to harness emotion and build outrage over limits to individuals’ ability to erect LFLs. In Kansas, the stewards created a Facebook page, Spencer’s Little Free Library, which received over 31,000 likes and messages of support. One comment left on the page reads: “The public outcry will force those lame city officials to change their minds about it. Leave it to the stupid government to rain on everybody’s parade” (“Good”). Children’s author Daniel Handler sent a letter to the nine-year-old steward, writing as Lemony Snicket, “fighting against librarians is immoral and useless in the face of brave and noble readers such as yourself” (Spencer’s). Indeed, the young steward gave a successful speech to city hall arguing that the body should allow the structures because “‘lots of people in the neighborhood used the library and the books were always changing. I think it’s good for Leawood’” (Bauman). Other local LFL supporters also attended council and spoke in favour of the structures (Harper). In LA, Cook’s neighbours started a petition that gathered over 100 signatures, where people left comments including, “No to bullies!” (Lopez). Additionally, neighbours gathered to discuss the issue (Dana). In Shreveport, neighbours left stacks of books in their front yards, without a structure housing them due to the code banning accessory structures. One noted, “I’m basically telling the [Metropolitan Planning Commission] to go sod off” (Friedersdorf; Moss). LFL proponents reacted with frustration and anger at the perceived over-reach of the government toward harmless LFLs. In addition to the actions of neighbours and supporters, the national and local press commented on the municipal constraints. The LFL movement has benefitted from a significant amount of positive press in its formative years, a press willing to publicise and criticise municipal actions to thwart LFL development. Stewards’ struggles against municipal bureaucracies building barriers to LFLs makes prime fodder for the news media. Herbert J. Gans argues an enduring value in American news is “the preservation of the freedom of the individual against the encroachments of nation and society” (50). The juxtaposition of well-meaning LFL stewards against municipal councils and committees provided a compelling opportunity to illustrate this value.National media outlets, including Time (Sanburn), Christian Science Monitor (LaCasse), and The Atlantic, drew attention to the issue. Writing in The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf critically noted:I wish I was writing this to merely extol this trend [of community building via LFLs]. Alas, a subset of Americans are determined to regulate every last aspect of community life. Due to selection bias, they are overrepresented among local politicians and bureaucrats. And so they have power, despite their small-mindedness, inflexibility, and lack of common sense so extreme that they’ve taken to cracking down on Little Free Libraries, of all things. (Friedersdorf, n.p.)Other columnists mirrored this sentiment. Writing in the LA Times, one commentator sarcastically wrote that city officials were “cracking down on one of the country’s biggest problems: small community libraries where residents share books” (Schaub). Journalists argued this was government overreach on non-issues rather than tackling larger community problems, such as income inequality, homelessness, and aging infrastructure (Solomon; Schaub). The protests and negative press coverage led to, in the case of the municipalities with front yard and detached structure ordinances, détente between stewards and councils as the latter passed amendments permitting and regulating LFLs. Whitefish Bay, Leawood, and Shreveport amended ordinances to allow for LFLs, but also to regulate them (Everson; Topil; Siegel). Ordinances about LFLs restricted their number on city blocks, placement on private property, size and height, as well as required registration with the municipality in some cases. Lincoln officials allowed the church to relocate the LFL from the right of way to church property and waived the $500 fine for the obstruction violation (Sanburn). In addition to the amendments, the protests also led to civic participation and community building including presentations to city council, a petition, and symbolic acts of defiance. Through this protest, neighbours create communities—networks of people working toward a common goal. This aspect of community building around LFLs was unintentional but it brought people together nevertheless.Building a Challenge to Traditional Libraries?LFL marketing and communication staff member Margaret Aldrich suggests in The Little Free Library Book that LFLs are successful because they are “gratifyingly doable” projects that can be accomplished by an individual (16). It is this ease of building, erecting, and maintaining LFLs that builds concern as their proliferation could challenge aspects of library service, such as public funding and patron visits. Some professional librarians are in favour of the LFLs and are stewards themselves (Charter 121; Charter 2608; Charter 9702; Charter 41074; Rumage). Others envision great opportunities for collaboration between traditional libraries and LFLs, including the library publicising LFLs and encouraging their construction as well as using LFLs to serve areas without, or far from, a public library (Svehla; Shumaker). While lauding efforts to build community, some professional librarians question the nomenclature used by the movement. They argue the phrase Little Free Libraries is inaccurate as libraries are much more than random collections of books. Instead, critics contend, the LFL structures are closer to book swaps and exchanges than actual libraries, which offer a range of services such as Internet access, digital materials, community meeting spaces, and workshops and programming on a variety of topics (American Library Association; Annoyed Librarian). One university reference and instruction librarian worries about “the general public’s perception and lumping together of little free libraries and actual ‘real’ public libraries” (Hardenbrook). By way of illustration, he imagines someone asking, “‘why do we need our tax money to go to something that can be done for FREE?’” (Hardenbrook). Librarians holding this perspective fear the movement might add to a trend of neoliberalism, limiting or ending public funding for libraries, as politicians believe that the localised, individual solutions can replace publicly funded library services. This is a trend toward what James Ferguson calls “responsibilized” citizens, those “deployed to produce governmentalized results that do not depend on direct state intervention” (172). In other countries, this shift has already begun. In the United Kingdom (UK), governments are devolving formerly public services onto community groups and volunteers. Lindsay Findlay-King, Geoff Nichols, Deborah Forbes, and Gordon Macfadyen trace the impacts of the 2012 Localism Act in the UK, which caused “sport and library asset transfers” (12) to community and volunteer groups who were then responsible for service provision and, potentially, facility maintenance as well. Rather than being in charge of a “doable” LFL, community groups and volunteers become the operators of much larger facilities. Recent efforts in the US to privatise library services as governments attempt to cut budgets and streamline services (Streitfeld) ground this fear. Image 3: “Take a Book, Share a Book,” a Little Free Library motto. Image credit: Nadine Kozak. LFLs might have real consequences for public libraries. Another potential unintended consequence of the LFLs is decreasing visits to public libraries, which could provide officials seeking to defund them with evidence that they are no longer relevant or necessary. One LFL steward and avid reader remarked that she had not used her local public library since 2014 because “I was using the Little Free Libraries” (Steward). Academics and librarians must conduct more research to determine what impact, if any, LFLs are having on visits to traditional public libraries. ConclusionLittle Free Libraries across the United States, and increasingly in other countries, have generated discussion, promoted collaboration between neighbours, and led to sharing. In other words, they have built communities. This was the intended consequence of the LFL movement. There, however, has also been unplanned community building in response to municipal threats to the structures due to right of way, safety, and planning ordinances. The more threatening concern is not the municipal ordinances used to block LFL development, but rather the trend of privatisation of publicly provided services. While people are celebrating the community built by the LFLs, caution must be exercised lest central institutions of the public and community, traditional public libraries, be lost. Academics and communities ought to consider not just impact on their local community at the street level, but also wider structural concerns so that communities can foster many “great good places”—the Little Free Libraries and traditional public libraries as well.ReferencesAldrich, Margaret. “Big Milestone for Little Free Library: 50,000 Libraries Worldwide.” Little Free Library. 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Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2004.“Good Luck Spencer.” Spencer’s Little Free Library Facebook Page 25 Jun. 2014. 26 Mar. 2017 <https://www.facebook.com/Spencerslittlefreelibrary/photos/pcb.527531327376433/527531260709773/?type=3>.Hardenbrook, Joe. “A Little Rant on Little Free Libraries (AKA Probably an Unpopular Post).” Mr. Library Dude (9 Apr. 2014). 25 Feb. 2017 <https://mrlibrarydude.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/a-little-rant-on-little-free-libraries-aka-probably-an-unpopular-post/>.Harper, Deb. “Minutes.” The Leawood City Council 7 Jul. 2014. <http://www.leawood.org/pdf/cc/min/07-07-14.pdf>. Heady, Chris. “City Wants Church to Move Little Library.” Lincoln Journal Star 9 Jul. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017 <http://journalstar.com/news/local/city-wants-church-to-move-little-library/article_7753901a-42cd-5b52-9674-fc54a4d51f47.html>. Herrmann, Gretchen M. “Garage Sales Make Good Neighbors: Building Community through Neighborhood Sales.” Human Organization 62.2 (2006): 181-191.Kellogg, Carolyn. “Officials Threaten to Destroy a Little Free Library in Texas.” Los Angeles Times (1 Oct. 2015). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-little-free-library-texas-20150930-story.html>.LaCasse, Alexander. “Why Are Some Cities Cracking Down on Little Free Libraries.” Christian Science Monitor (5 Feb. 2015). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2015/0205/Why-are-some-cities-cracking-down-on-little-free-libraries>.Landman, Ruth H. Creating the Community in the City: Cooperatives and Community Gardens in Washington, DC Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1993. Little Free Library. 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Average Prose, Document, and Quantitative Literacy Scores of Adults: 1992 and 2003. National Assessment of Adult Literacy. 25 Feb. 2017 <https://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp>.Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1999.“Our History.” Little Free Library. Little Free Library Organization (2017). 25 Feb. 2017 <https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourhistory/>.Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.Rumage, Jeff. “Little Free Libraries Now Allowed in Whitefish Bay.” Whitefish Bay Patch (8 May 2013). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://patch.com/wisconsin/whitefishbay/little-free-libraries-now-allowed-in-whitefish-bay>.Sanburn, Josh. “What Do Kansas and Nebraska Have against Small Libraries?” Time 10 Jul. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017 <http://time.com/2970649/tiny-libraries-violating-city-ordinances/>.Schaub, Michael. “Little Free Libraries on the Wrong Side of the Law.” LA Times 4 Feb. 2015. 25 Feb. 2017 <http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-little-free-libraries-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-law-20150204-story.html>.Shumaker, David. “Public Libraries, Little Free Libraries, and Embedded Librarians.” The Embedded Librarian (28 April 2014) 26 Mar. 2017 <https://embeddedlibrarian.com/2014/04/28/public-libraries-little-free-libraries-and-embedded-librarians/>.Siegel, Julie. “An Ordinance to Amend Section 16.13 of the Municipal Code with Regard to Exempt Certain Little Free Libraries from Front Yard Setback Requirements.” Village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin (5 Aug. 2013).Skogan, Wesley G. Police and Community in Chicago: A Tale of Three Cities. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.Solomon, Dan. “Dallas Is Regulating ‘Little Free Libraries’ for Some Reason.” Texas Monthly (14 Sept. 2016). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/dallas-regulating-little-free-libraries-reason/>.“Spencer’s Little Free Library.” Facebook 15 Jul. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017 <https://www.facebook.com/Spencerslittlefreelibrary/photos/pcb.527531327376433/527531260709773/?type=3>.Steward, M. Personal Interview. 7 Feb. 2017.Stingl, Jim. “Village Slaps Endnote on Little Libraries.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11 Nov. 2012: 1B, 7B.Streitfeld, David. “Anger as a Private Company Takes over Libraries.” The New York Times (26 Sept. 2010). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html>.Svehla, Louise. “Little Free Libraries—The Possibilities Are Endless.” Public Libraries Online (8 Mar. 2013). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/03/little-free-libraries-the-possibilities-are-endless/>.Tapper, Jake. “Boy Fights Council to Save His Library.” CNN 4 Jul. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017 <http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/04/boy-fights-to-save-his-library/>.Topil, Greg. “Little Free Libraries in Lincoln.” City of Lincoln, Nebraska (n.d.). 25 Feb. 2017 <http://lincoln.ne.gov/City/pworks/engine/row/little-library.htm>.

‘Bitzer,’ said Thomas Gradgrind. ‘Your definition of a horse.’‘Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.’ Thus (and much more) Bitzer.‘Now girl number twenty,’ said Mr. Gradgrind. ‘You know what a horse is.’— Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)Dickens’s famous pedant, Thomas Gradgrind, was not an anomaly. He is the pedagogical manifestation of the rise of quantification in modernism that was the necessary adjunct to massive urbanisation and industrialisation. His classroom caricatures the dominant epistemic modality of modern global democracies, our unwavering trust in numbers, “data”, and reproductive predictability. This brief quotation from Hard Times both presents and parodies the 19th century’s displacement of what were previously more commonly living and heterogeneous existential encounters with events and things. The world had not yet been made predictably repetitive through industrialisation, standardisation, law, and ubiquitous codes of construction. Theirs was much more a world of unique events and not the homogenised and orthodox iteration of standardised knowledge. Horses and, by extension, all entities and events gradually were displaced by their rote definitions: individuals of a so-called natural kind were reduced to identicals. Further, these mechanical standardisations were and still are underwritten by mapping them into a numerical and extensive characterisation. On top of standardised objects and procedures appeared assigned numerical equivalents which lent standardisation the seemingly apodictic certainty of deductive demonstrations. The algebraic becomes the socially enforced criterion for the previously more sensory, qualitative, and experiential encounters with becoming that were more likely in pre-industrial life. Here too, we see that the function of this reproductive protocol is not just notational but is the sine qua non for, in Althusser’s famous phrase, the manufacture of citizens as “subject subjects”, those concrete individuals who are educated to understand themselves ideologically in an imaginary relation with their real position in any society’s self-reproduction. Here, however, ideology performs that operation through that nominally least political of cognitive modes, the supposed friend of classical Marxism’s social science, the mathematical. The historical onset of this social and political reproductive hegemony, this uniform supplanting of time’s ineluctable differencing with the parasite of its associated model, can partial be found in the formation of metrics. Before the 19th century, the measures of space and time were local. Units of length and weight varied not just between nations but often by municipality. These parochial standards reflected indigenous traditions, actualities, personalities, and needs. This variation in measurement standards suggested that every exchange or judgment of kind and value relied upon the specificity of that instance. Every evaluation of an instance required perceptual acuity and not the banality of enumeration constituted by commodification and the accounting practices intrinsic to centralised governance. This variability in measure was complicated by similar variability in the currencies of the day. Thus, barter presented the participants with complexities and engagements of skills and discrete observation completely alien to the modern purchase of duplicate consumer objects with stable currencies. Almost nothing of life was iterative: every exchange was, more or less, an anomaly. However, in 1790, immediately following the French Revolution and as a central manifestation of its movement to rational democratisation, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand proposed a metrical system to the French National Assembly. The units of this metric system, based originally on observable features of nature, are now formally codified in all scientific practice by seven physical constants. Further, they are ubiquitous now in almost all public exchanges between individuals, corporations, and states. These units form a coherent and extensible structure whose elements and rules are subject to seemingly lossless symbolic exchange in a mathematic coherence aided by their conformity to decimal representation. From 1960, their basic contemporary form was established as the International System of Units (SI). Since then, all but three of the countries of the world (Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States), regardless of political organisation and individual history, have adopted these standards for commerce and general measurement. The uniformity and rational advantage of this system is easily demonstrable in just the absurd variation in the numeric bases of the Imperial / British system which uses base 16 for ounces/pounds, base 12 for inches/feet, base three for feet/yards, base 180 for degrees between freezing and cooling, 43,560 square feet per acre, eights for division of inches, etc. Even with its abiding antagonism to the French, Britain officially adopted the metric system as was required by its admission to the EU in 1973. The United States is the last great holdout in the public use of the metric system even though SI has long been the standard wanted by the federal government. At first, the move toward U.S. adoption was promising. Following France and rejecting England’s practice, America was founded on a decimal currency system in 1792. In 1793, Jefferson requested a copy of the standard kilogram from France in a first attempt to move to the metric system: however, the ship carrying the copy was captured by pirates. Indeed, The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 expressed a more serious national intention to adopt SI, but after some abortive efforts, the nation fell back into the more archaic measurements dominant since before its revolution. However, the central point remains that while the U.S. is unique in its public measurement standard among dominant powers, it is equally committed to the hegemonic application of a numerical rendition of events.The massive importance of this underlying uniformity is that it supplies the central global mechanism whereby the world’s chaotic variation is continuously parsed and supplanted into comparable, intelligible, and predictable units that understand individuating difference as anomaly. Difference, then, is understood in this method not as qualitative and intensive, which it necessarily is, but quantitative and extensive. Like Gradgrind’s “horse”, the living and unique thing is rendered through the Apollonian dream of standardisation and enumeration. While differencing is the only inherent quality of time’s chaotic flow, accounting and management requite iteration. To order the reproduction of modern society, the unique individuating differences that render an object as “this one”, what the Medieval logicians called haecceities, are only seen as “accidental” and “non-essential” deviations. This is not just odd but illogical since these very differences allow events to be individuated items so to appear as countable at all. As Leibniz’s principle, the indiscernibility of identicals, suggests, the application of the metrical same to different occasions is inherently paradoxical: if each unit were truly the same, there could only be one. As the etymology of “anomaly” suggests, it is that which is unexpected, irregular, out of line, or, going back to the Greek, nomos, at variance with the law. However, as the only “law” that always is at hand is the so-called “Second Law of Thermodynamics”, the inconsistently consistent roiling of entropy, the evident theoretical question might be, “how is anomaly possible when regularity itself is impossible?” The answer lies not in events “themselves” but exactly in the deductive valorisations projected by that most durable invention of the French Revolution adumbrated above, the metric system. This seemingly innocuous system has formed the reproductive and iterative bias of modern post-industrial perceptual homogenisation. Metrical modeling allows – indeed, requires – that one mistake the metrical changeling for the experiential event it replaces. Gilles Deleuze, that most powerful French metaphysician (1925-1995) offers some theories to understand the seminal production (not reproduction) of disparity that is intrinsic to time and to distinguish it from its homogenised representation. For him, and his sometime co-author, Felix Guattari, time’s “chaosmosis” is the host constantly parasitised by its symbolic model. This problem, however, of standardisation in the face of time’s originality, is obscured by its very ubiquity; we must first denaturalise the seemingly self-evident metrical concept of countable and uniform units.A central disagreement in ancient Greece was between the proponents of physis (often translated as “nature” but etymologically indicative of growth and becoming, process and not fixed form) and nomos (law or custom). This is one of the first ethical and so political debates in Western philosophy. For Heraclitus and other pre-Socratics, the emphatic character of nature was change, its differencing dynamism, its processual but not iterative character. In anticipation of Hume, Sophists disparaged nomos (νόμος) as simply the habituated application of synthetic law and custom to the fluidity of natural phenomena. The historical winners of this debate, Plato and the scientific attitudes of regularity and taxonomy characteristic of his best pupil, Aristotle, have dominated ever since, but not without opponents.In the modern era, anti-enlightenment figures such as Hamann, Herder, and the Schlegel brothers gave theoretical voice to romanticism’s repudiation of the paradoxical impulses of the democratic state for regulation and uniformity that Talleyrand’s “revolutionary” metrical proposal personified. They saw the correlationalism (as adumbrated by Meillassoux) between thought and thing based upon their hypothetical equitability as a betrayal of the dynamic physis that experience presented. Variable infinity might come either from the character of God or nature or, as famously in Spinoza’s Ethics, both (“deus sive natura”). In any case, the plenum of nature was never iterative. This rejection of metrical regularity finds its synoptic expression in Nietzsche. As a classicist, Nietzsche supplies the bridge between the pre-Socratics and the “post-structuralists”. His early mobilisation of the Apollonian, the dream of regularity embodied in the sun god, and the Dionysian, the drunken but inarticulate inexpression of the universe’s changing manifold, gives voice to a new resistance to the already dominate metrical system. His is a new spin of the mythic representatives of Nomos and physis. For him, this pair, however, are not – as they are often mischaracterised – in dialectical dialogue. To place them into the thesis / antithesis formulation would be to give them the very binary character that they cannot share and to, tacitly, place both under Apollo’s procedure of analysis. Their modalities are not antithetical but mutually exclusive. To represent the chaotic and non-iterative processes of becoming, of physis, under the rubric of a common metrics, nomos, is to mistake the parasite for the host. In its structural hubris, the ideological placebo of metrical knowing thinks it non-reductively captures the multiplicity it only interpellates. In short, the polyvalent, fluid, and inductive phenomena that empiricists try to render are, in their intrinsic character, unavailable to deductive method except, first, under the reductive equivalence (the Gradgrind pedagogy) of metrical modeling. This incompatibility of physis and nomos was made manifest by David Hume in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) just before the cooptation of the 18th century’s democratic revolutions by “representative” governments. There, Hume displays the Apollonian dream’s inability to accurately and non-reductively capture a phenomenon in the wild, free from the stringent requirements of synthetic reproduction. His argument in Book I is succinct.Now as we call every thing custom, which proceeds from a past repetition, without any new reasoning or conclusion, we may establish it as a certain truth, that all the belief, which follows upon any present impression, is deriv'd solely from that origin. (Part 3, Section 8)There is nothing in any object, consider'd in itself, which can afford us a reason for drawing a conclusion beyond it; ... even after the observation of the frequent or constant conjunction of objects, we have no reason to draw any inference concerning any object beyond those of which we have had experience. (Part 3, Section 12)The rest of mankind ... are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement. (Part 4, Section 6)In sum, then, nomos is nothing but habit, a Pavlovian response codified into a symbolic representation and, pragmatically, into a reproductive protocol specifically ordered to exclude anomaly, the inherent chaotic variation that is the hallmark of physis. The Apollonian dream that there can be an adequate metric of unrestricted natural phenomena in their full, open, turbulent, and manifold becoming is just that, a dream. Order, not chaos, is the anomaly. Of course, Kant felt he had overcome this unacceptable challenge to rational application to induction after Hume woke him from his “dogmatic slumber”. But what is perhaps one of the most important assertions of the critiques may be only an evasion of Hume’s radical empiricism: “there are only two ways we can account for the necessary agreement of experience with the concepts of its objects: either experience makes these concepts possible or these concepts make experience possible. The former supposition does not hold of the categories (nor of pure sensible intuition) ... . There remains ... only the second—a system ... of the epigenesis of pure reason” (B167). Unless “necessary agreement” means the dictatorial and unrelenting insistence in a symbolic model of perception of the equivalence of concept and appearance, this assertion appears circular. This “reading” of Kant’s evasion of the very Humean crux, the necessary inequivalence of a metric or concept to the metered or defined, is manifest in Nietzsche.In his early “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” (1873), Nietzsche suggests that there is no possible equivalence between a concept and its objects, or, to use Frege’s vocabulary, between sense or reference. We speak of a "snake" [see “horse” in Dickens]: this designation touches only upon its ability to twist itself and could therefore also fit a worm. What arbitrary differentiations! What one-sided preferences, first for this, then for that property of a thing! The various languages placed side by side show that with words it is never a question of truth, never a question of adequate expression; otherwise, there would not be so many languages. The "thing in itself" (which is precisely what the pure truth, apart from any of its consequences, would be) is likewise something quite incomprehensible to the creator of language and something not in the least worth striving for. This creator only designates the relations of things to men, and for expressing these relations he lays hold of the boldest metaphors.The literal is always already a reductive—as opposed to literature’s sometimes expansive agency—metaphorisation of events as “one of those” (a token of “its” type). The “necessary” equivalence in nomos is uncovered but demanded. The same is reproduced by the habitual projection of certain “essential qualities” at the expense of all those others residing in every experiential multiplicity. Only in this prison of nomos can anomaly appear: otherwise all experience would appear as it is, anomalous. With this paradoxical metaphor of the straight and equal, Nietzsche inverts the paradigm of scientific expression. He reveals as a repressive social and political obligation the symbolic assertion homology where actually none can be. Supposed equality and measurement all transpire within an Apollonian “dream within a dream”. The concept captures not the manifold of chaotic experience but supplies its placebo instead by an analytic tautology worthy of Gradgrind. The equivalence of event and definition is always nothing but a symbolic iteration. Such nominal equivalence is nothing more than shifting events into a symbolic frame where they can be commodified, owned, and controlled in pursuit of that tertiary equivalence which has become the primary repressive modality of modern societies: money. This article has attempted, with absurd rapidity, to hint why some ubiquitous concepts, which are generally considered self-evident and philosophically unassailable, are open not only to metaphysical, political, and ethical challenge, but are existentially unjustified. All this was done to defend the smaller thesis that the concept of anomaly is itself a reflection of a global misrepresentation of the chaos of becoming. This global substitution expresses a conservative model and measure of the world in the place of the world’s intrinsic heterogenesis, a misrepresentation convenient for those who control the representational powers of governance. In conclusion, let us look, again too briefly, at a philosopher who neither accepts this normative world picture of regularity nor surrenders to Nietzschean irony, Gilles Deleuze.Throughout his career, Deleuze uses the word “pure” with senses antithetical to so-called common sense and, even more, Kant. In its traditional concept, pure means an entity or substance whose essence is not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material, uncontaminated by physical pollution, clean and immaculate. The pure is that which is itself itself. To insure intelligibility, that which is elemental, alphabetic, must be what it is itself and no other. This discrete character forms the necessary, if often tacit, precondition to any analysis and decomposition of beings into their delimited “parts” that are subject to measurement and measured disaggregation. Any entity available for structural decomposition, then, must be pictured as constituted exhaustively by extensive ones, measurable units, its metrically available components. Dualism having established as its primary axiomatic hypothesis the separability of extension and thought must now overcome that very separation with an adequacy, a one to one correspondence, between a supposedly neatly measurable world and ideological hegemony that presents itself as rational governance. Thus, what is needed is not only a purity of substance but a matching purity of reason, and it is this clarification of thought, then, which, as indicated above, is the central concern of Kant’s influential and grand opus, The Critique of Pure Reason.Deleuze heard a repressed alternative to the purity of the measured self-same and equivalent that, as he said about Plato, “rumbled” under the metaphysics of analysis. This was the dark tradition he teased out of the Stoics, Ockham, Gregory of Rimini, Nicholas d’Autrecourt, Spinoza, Meinong, Bergson, Nietzsche, and McLuhan. This is not the purity of identity, A = A, of metrical uniformity and its shadow, anomaly. Rather than repressing, Deleuze revels in the perverse purity of differencing, difference constituted by becoming without the Apollonian imposition of normalcy or definitional identity. One cannot say “difference in itself” because its ontology, its genesis, is not that of anything itself but exactly the impossibility of such a manner of constitution: universal anomaly. No thing or idea can be iterative, separate, or discrete.In his Difference and Repetition, the idea of the purely same is undone: the Ding an sich is a paradox. While the dogmatic image of thought portrays the possibility of the purely self-same, Deleuze never does. His notions of individuation without individuals, of modulation without models, of simulacra without originals, always finds a reflection in his attitudes toward, not language as logical structure, but what necessarily forms the differential making of events, the heterogenesis of ontological symptoms. His theory has none of the categories of Pierce’s triadic construction: not the arbitrary of symbols, the “self-representation” of icons, or even the causal relation of indices. His “signs” are symptoms: the non-representational consequences of the forces that are concurrently producing them. Events, then, are the symptoms of the heterogenetic forces that produce, not reproduce them. To measure them is to export them into a representational modality that is ontologically inapplicable as they are not themselves themselves but the consequences of the ongoing differences of their genesis. Thus, the temperature associated with a fever is neither the body nor the disease.Every event, then, is a diaphora, the pure consequent of the multiplicity of the forces it cannot resemble, an original dynamic anomaly without standard. This term, diaphora, appears at the conclusion of that dialogue some consider Plato’s best, the Theaetetus. There we find perhaps the most important discussion of knowledge in Western metaphysics, which in its final moments attempts to understand how knowledge can be “True Judgement with an Account” (201d-210a). Following this idea leads to a theory, usually known as the “Dream of Socrates”, which posits two kinds of existents, complexes and simples, and proposes that “an account” means “an account of the complexes that analyses them into their simple components … the primary elements (prôta stoikheia)” of which we and everything else are composed (201e2). This—it will be noticed—suggests the ancient heritage of Kant’s own attempted purification of mereological (part/whole relations) nested elementals. He attempts the coordination of pure speculative reason to pure practical reason and, thus, attempts to supply the root of measurement and scientific regularity. However, as adumbrated by the Platonic dialogue, the attempted decompositions, speculative and pragmatic, lead to an impasse, an aporia, as the rational is based upon a correspondence and not the self-synthesis of the diaphorae by their own dynamic disequilibrium. Thus the dialogue ends inconclusively; Socrates rejects the solution, which is the problem itself, and leaves to meet his accusers and quaff his hemlock. The proposal in this article is that the diaphorae are all that exists in Deleuze’s world and indeed any world, including ours. Nor is this production decomposable into pure measured and defined elementals, as such decomposition is indeed exactly opposite what differential production is doing. For Deleuze, what exists is disparate conjunction. But in intensive conjunction the same cannot be the same except in so far as it differs. The diaphorae of events are irremediably asymmetric to their inputs: the actual does not resemble the virtual matrix that is its cause. Indeed, any recourse to those supposedly disaggregate inputs, the supposedly intelligible constituents of the measured image, will always but repeat the problematic of metrical representation at another remove. This is not, however, the traditional postmodern trap of infinite meta-shifting, as the diaphoric always is in each instance the very presentation that is sought. Heterogenesis can never be undone, but it can be affirmed. In a heterogenetic monism, what was the insoluble problem of correspondence in dualism is now its paradoxical solution: the problematic per se. What manifests in becoming is not, nor can be, an object or thought as separate or even separable, measured in units of the self-same. Dogmatic thought habitually translates intensity, the differential medium of chaosmosis, into the nominally same or similar so as to suit the Apollonian illusions of “correlational adequacy”. However, as the measured cannot be other than a calculation’s placebo, the correlation is but the shadow of a shadow. Every diaphora is an event born of an active conjunction of differential forces that give rise to this, their product, an interference pattern. Whatever we know and are is not the correlation of pure entities and thoughts subject to measured analysis but the confused and chaotic confluence of the specific, material, aleatory, differential, and unrepresentable forces under which we subsist not as ourselves but as the always changing product of our milieu. In short, only anomaly without a nominal becomes, and we should view any assertion that maps experience into the “objective” modality of the same, self-evident, and normal as a political prestidigitation motivated, not by “truth”, but by established political interest. ReferencesDella Volpe, Galvano. Logic as a Positive Science. London: NLB, 1980.Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition. Trans. Paul Patton. New York: Columbia UP, 1994.———. The Logic of Sense. Trans. Mark Lester. New York: Columbia UP, 1990.Guenon, René. The Reign of Quantity. New York: Penguin, 1972.Hawley, K. "Identity and Indiscernibility." Mind 118 (2009): 101-9.Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford: Clarendon, 2014.Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. Norman Kemp Smith. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1929.Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. Trans. Ray Brassier. New York: Continuum, 2008.Naddaf, Gerard. The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany: SUNY, 2005. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Douglas Smith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.———. “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.” Trans. Walter Kaufmann. The Portable Nietzsche. New York: Viking, 1976.Welch, Kathleen Ethel. "Keywords from Classical Rhetoric: The Example of Physis." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 17.2 (1987): 193–204.