Representing Academic Disciplines on Academic Book Cover

Book Availability: Academic Library Assessment

In the climate of increasing calls for academic assessment, the authors undertook a study to ascertain book availability in an academic library. The study described here uses the methodology pioneered by Tefko Saracevic, W. M. Shaw, Jr., and Paul Kantor and is a follow-up of earlier research reported in College & Research Libraries in 1987. The authors designed the study to identify any improve...

Between Knowledges: Pacific Studies and Academic Disciplines

In this paper, I critically examine a number of notions about interdisciplinaryresearch approaches to the challenges posed by the world today. I juxtapose thiscritique with a discussion of interdisciplinary developments in Pacific studies, rais-ing questions as to how deeper dialogues between academic disciplines and theworldviews of Pacific Islanders may be reached. While inter...

Understanding end-users in academic book publishing

the article reviews ways that commissioning editors in academic book publishing can better understand the end users of their products. It discusses issues in resourcing market research in publishing companies, before going on to look at some of the existing internal and external sources that commissioning editors can draw on. It then considers both qualitative and quantitative ways of testing a...

Auditing an Academic Library Book Collection

Measuring differential item and test functioning across academic disciplines

Differential item functioning (DIF) is when a test item favors or hinders a characteristic exhibited by group members of a test-taking population. DIF analyses are statistical procedures used to determine to what extent the content of an item affects the item endorsement of sub-groups of test-takers. If DIF is found for many items on the test, the final test scores do not represent the same mea...