AARP International Opinion Leader Research on Global Aging

"What 158 opinion leaders in the G7 countries (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Japan, United States and Canada) think about global aging’s impact on the economics of their nations and how their countries compare in preparing for their populations growing older are revealed in this survey conducted for AARP’s Reinventing Retirement Conference held in London."
Download Executive Summary | Full Report (125 pages)

Fast food, race/ethnicity, and income: a geographic analysis.

"In this paper, the geographic distribution of fast food restaurants is examined relative to neighborhood sociodemographics." Findings:"Predominantly black neighborhoods have 2.4 fast-food restaurants per square mile compared to 1.5 restaurants in predominantly white neighborhoods."
Jason P. Block, Richard A. Scribner and Karen B. DeSalvo,
Fast food, race/ethnicity, and income: A geographic analysis,
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 27, Issue 3, October 2004,
Pages 211-217.

Caveat: Study surveyed only New Orleans, LA.
Link to Abstract | Link to Article

America's Families and Living Arrangements : 2003

New U.S. Census Report : Population Characteristics
"Basic trends in household and family composition, living arrangements and marital status of adults, and characteristics of unmarried-couple households are presented in this report. A new section is included that highlights married-couple families with a stay-at-home parent." Download Report

Former CASBS Fellow wins Grawemeyer Award for Psychology

Elizabeth Loftus, CASBS fellow 1979, "a psychologist noted for her study of human memory and how it can be altered has won the 2005 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology." Her book Eyewitness testimony is in the CASBS Library Tyler Collection [KF9672 .L63] Press Release

Students Study Less Than Expected, Survey Finds

Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the National Survey of Student Engagement.
"The survey measures 'engagement' -- the level of student involvement in academics and campus activities -- to provide colleges with a better understanding of their quality than is found in popular rankings, like that of U.S. News & World Report.It gives participating colleges comparative data by assessing their effectiveness in five categories: the level of academic challenge on the campus, the level of 'active' and collaborative learning, the level of interaction among students and faculty members, the prevalence of 'enriching educational experiences,' and the extent to which the college offers a supportive environment for students."
Link to Article | Link to NSSE | Download Survey

Most community-college students are not meeting their educational goals, according to CCESSE Survey.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports results from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCESSE). Some findings include "some 86 percent of students hope to complete a degree or certificate program. Yet only 25 percent of students nationwide who had enrolled in either kind of program in the 1995-96 academic year had earned one within six years, according to data that the survey's authors culled from the American Council on Education and the U.S. Education Department. Some 53 percent of the survey's respondents said transferring to a four-year institution was their primary goal, but only 25 percent of community-college students typically do so."

The CCESSE survey key findings have been made available online and the data is searchable.

Link to article | Link to survey

Economy Slowed, But Immigration Didn’t: The Foreign-born Population 2000-2004

"An analysis of data not yet published by the Census Bureau shows that the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached a new record of more than 34 million in March of 2004, an increase of over 4 million just since 2000. The fact that immigration has remained so high indicates that immigration does not rise and fall in close step with the economy, as some have imagined." Report available as html version | pdf version

Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004

"This statistical report assembles a series of indicators that examine the extent to which males and females have access to the same educational opportunities, avail themselves equally of these opportunities, perform at similar levels throughout schooling, succeed at similar rates, and reap the same benefits from their educational experiences. This report serves as an update of an earlier publication, Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women (NCES 2000-030), which was prepared for Congress in 2000." Source: National Center for Education Statistics. Download Report

The Status of Women in the States

"After decades of progress, women are still decades away from achieving full equality in America, according to a new report on the status of women. 'At the rate things are changing, it’ll be 50 years before women’s paychecks equal men’s, and nearly a full century before women hold half the seats in Congress,' according to economist Heidi Hartmann. Hartmann heads the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which today issued The Status of Women in the States, the institute’s fifth biennial report comparing women’s progress toward equality in the 50 states and the District of Columbia." Link to project website | Download Report Press Release

Leader Authenticity Markers: Findings from a Study of African-American Political Leaders

From the abstract: "As leaders struggle to be authentic, followers make decisions about the degree to which they believe their leaders are authentic. In this study we develop the scholarship on authenticity and leadership by introducing and applying the concept of leader authenticity markers. These are features and actions that others use to determine the degree to which they believe a leader is authentic or inauthentic. We present findings from an exploratory study of authenticity markers of African-American political leaders. Political leadership of ethnic minority groups is a particularly important realm in which to study leader authenticity and leader authenticity markers. We report and discuss the seven authenticity markers identified in the research and five themes about authenticity markers. The implications of these findings for leadership studies and practice are discussed, as are directions for future research." Source : J.F.K. School of Government, Harvard University. Download PDF

No Second Chance - People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing

From Human Rights Watch "This 101-page report is the first examination of “one strike” policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. Unfortunately, the criteria for exclusion are needlessly overbroad and can exclude certain offenders for life—regardless of evidence of their rehabilitation." download pdf

Florida E-Voting Discrepencies

The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections by Michael Hout, Laura Mangels, Jennifer Carlson, and Rachel Best, with the assistance of the UC Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team. Link to report | Summary [pdf]

World Bank Report on Somalia : Anarchy Works

Abstract: "Somalia has lacked a recognized government since 1991—an unusually long time. In extremely difficult conditions the private sector has demonstrated its much-vaunted capability to make do. To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises have been using foreign jurisdictions or institutions to help with some tasks, operating within networks of trust to strengthen property rights, and simplifying transactions until they require neither. Somalia’s private sector experience suggests that it may be easier than is commonly thought for basic systems of finance and some infrastructure services to function where government is extremely weak or absent." download pdf

Search Tool : OAIster

A project of the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Service, OAIster is one of the best searchable directories of digital resources on the web. The collection includes scholarly marketing analysis, university and economic institute research papers, plus historical images and other academic research materials. The directory is searchable with numerous advanced search functions. Link to OAIster

New Search tool: Google Scholar

The people at Google are always developing new ways to reach web content. The newest addition to their product line is Google Scholar (beta) : " Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web." To search by author type author:name in the search entry field box. Be sure to visit their FAQ to find tips on how to most efficiently search for other items.

Librarian's caveat : No one database will have everything, and Google Scholar is no exception, but it is one of many tools to use for research and with typical Google ease. Also be aware that Google Scholar may point you to papers that may be purchased over the web. Many times these papers are available from databases to which your institution already subscribes.

Open Access Journals in the ISI Citation Databases: Analysis of Impact Factors and Citation Patterns

"The findings indicate that journals published under the Open Access (OSA) model continue to gain impact in the world of scholarly research. Despite ranking lower as a group than those published under traditional models, the growth in the number of OA journals is impressive, and some OA journals rank near the top their respective fields. Rankings are based on the Journal Impact Factor, as published in the Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®). The Journal Impact Factor is the key performance metric for the ranking and comparison of journals."[via Resourceshelf] download pdf

Community of Science launches new version of COS Funding Opportunities

"The most significant change with version 4.0 is the migration to Lucene search engine technology. The new search technology improves the performance of the service, which supports an ever-increasing number of users searching over 23,000 records of available grants, awards and other funding. Enhancements were also made to the service's user search interfaces, including the introduction of a step-by-step guided option for new users and the ability to sort search results." The service also allows users to set up email alerts for funding opportunities. Link to database | Link to press release

2004 National Book Awards Announced

Congratulations to:

• Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age [nonfiction]
• Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay [fiction]
• Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 [poetry]
• Pete Hautman, Godless [young people's literature]

Link to full list and finalists

Strong Support for Stem Cell Research Among Bush Supporters

From the Press Release: "In stark contrast to generally held perceptions, stem cell research is widely supported by those who voted to re-elect the President, according to a poll made public today by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In fact, the study showed, a greater percentage of President Bush’s 2004 voters polled support embryonic stem cell research than oppose it, and would favor a broadened policy for federal funding of scientific investigation using embryonic stem cells that would otherwise be discarded from fertility clinics." Download PDF

Facts for features : Thanksgiving Day

Are you a typical American who consumes 14 pounds of turkey each year? This press release from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals fascinating statistics about one of America's favorite holidays. Includes turkey, cranberry, and sweet potato production forecasts. Link to article

Best Performing Cities: Where America's Jobs Are Created and Sustained

From the Milken Institute press release: "Led by the Fort Myers-Cape Coral metro area, a burgeoning retirement and tourist destination on the state’s southwest coast, Florida landed seven metros in the top 20 on this year’s ranking, including five in the top 10. The others are West Palm Beach-Boca Raton (4th), Daytona Beach (5th), Sarasota-Bradenton (6th), Fort Lauderdale (9th), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (12th) and Naples (15th). Their strong showing on the Institute’s annual survey of where America’s jobs are being created shows that Florida’s economy has been creating new jobs at a brisk pace, the result of a rebounding U.S. economy, the return of tourists, low housing costs and a growing elderly population that has fueled job growth in health care and other services." Downloadable PDF [via Docuticker]

Finding Hidden Threats by Analyzing Unusual Behavior

Abstract: "Presents a unique approach to selecting and assembling disparate pieces of information to produce a general understanding of a threat. The Atypical Signal Analysis and Processing schema identifies atypical behavior potentially related to terror activity; puts it into context; generates and tests hypotheses; and focuses analysts’ attention on the most significant findings. A supporting conceptual architecture and specific techniques for identifying and analyzing out-of-the-ordinary information are also described." From the RAND Corporation. Downloadable PDF

Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action

From the Brookings Institution. "The report offers a detailed action plan for neutralizing the international movement at the core of worldwide terrorism. The report also describes the nature of the jihadist threat; provides comprehensive profiles of the various jihadist groups; and offers a rationale for the effort and money that would be needed to make the plan a success. The plan presented in the report builds on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and serves as a road map for winning the war against the jihadists. " Downloadable PDF in parts

What if the President asks you to join the administration?

Brookings Institution publication entitled "A Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees attempts to answer virtually every question someone might have upon being asked to serve as a presidential appointee. The Guide is a collaboration between The Presidential Appointee Initiative and the Council for Excellence in Government." Download pdf in two parts: Part 1 | Part 2

Digest of Education Statistics

"The primary purpose of the Digest of Education Statistics is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest includes a selection of data from many sources, both government and private, and draws especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)." The tables and figures for the 2003 Digest have recently been added. Link to site

Turning the pages at the British Library

"Turning the Pages is the award-winning interactive program that allows museums and libraries to give members of the public access to precious books while keeping the originals safely under glass." Users of the site can 'turn pages' virtually and view high quality images of the books. The site includes "Leonardo's Notebook : sketches by the great genius and notes in 'mirror writing'", The Jane Austen manuscript "History of England" and the world's oldest dated printed book a Chinese scroll "Diamond Sutra." Requires Macromedia Shockwave player.
Link: http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation2.html

Creative Commons launches Science Commons

"Science Commons is a new project of Creative Commons and will launch on January 1, 2005. The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing."[via Resosurceshelf]

CASBS Librarians' Booklist

For the members of the CASBS community, the librarians have posted lists of books they've found enjoyable, thought-provoking, or just plain entertaining.
Link to the lists (CASBS login required)

The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss

"The Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of San Diego presents this cheery retrospective of early advertising illustration by a young Theodor Seuss Geisel. Fresh out of college and smack-dab in the middle of the Depression, Dr. Seuss got his start drawing charming and goofy ads for corporate stalwarts like NBC, Ford, and General Electric. You'll see some familiar faces here -- the Cat in the Hat pitches for the Ford Company, a very Grinch-ish critter hawks Flit Mosquito..." [via Yahoo! Picks]
Link to site

Persuaders: Companion Site to the PBS Documentary

What's going on in the marketing world today? The site discusses the meaning of 'brand' and describes the new science of neuromarketing: "the study of the brain's responses to ads, brands, and the rest of the messages littering the cultural landscape." The full program will be viewable online after Nov. 12.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

Women’s Work Supports, Job Retention, and Job Mobility: Child Care and Employer-Provided Health Insurance Help Women Stay on Jobs

"This Research-in-Brief presents selected findings from IWPR’s forthcoming report Work Supports, Job Retention, and Job Mobility among Low-Income Mothers by Dr. Sunhwa Lee. The findings indicate that low-income mothers have a high rate of job turnover compared with higher-income mothers. Yet, low income mothers who have health insurance coverage from their employers are significantly more likely to stay on their job than women who have other types of health insurance or no health insurance. Having a regular child care arrangement—whether it be relative care, non-relative care, or center-based care—also helps job retention among low-income mothers with preschool children."[via Docuticker] Downloadable pdf

CSIS Recommendations for New Administration

On November 4 the Center for Strategic and International Studies held a panel press conference to discuss the U.S. Foreign Policy and strategy. They have made the transcript available for download [pdf]

"Serfaty Urges Bush to Rethink Strategy, Repair Transatlantic Partnership
President Bush must immediately jumpstart dialogue with European allies and develop an innovative foreign policy approach that recognizes Europe s geostrategic significance, according to a strategy paper by Simon Serfaty, CSIS Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy." The strategy paper is also available for download[pdf]

Historical Census data:Colonial Times to 1970

Two 2-part report from the U.S. Census Bureau:

1. Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States - Colonial Times to 1970, Part 1 [PDF]
2. Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States - Colonial Times to 1970, Part 2 [PDF]

Article on Open-Access publishing in Britain

"British Government Refuses to Support Open-Access Approach to Scientific Publishing"
"The British government has rejected most of the recommendations by a parliamentary committee that favors making the results of state-supported scientific research freely available."
Full Article
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

CRS Reports on Election Issues

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has released updated reports
on the following election issues:

1. Campaign Finance: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Soft Money (pdf)
2. The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals (pdf)

[via FPC]

Hidden Cost of Buying Information

Research from the Harvard Business School "suggests that if we pay for
information, we tend to overweigh its actual value."
Link to online article

White Paper: "Succeeding in the 21st Century"

"What Higher Education Must Do to Address the Gap in Information and Communication Technology Proficiencies."
"...Seven leading college and university systems in the United States joined with Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 2003 to form the National Higher Education Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Initiative." "...The central goal of the National Higher Education ICT Initiative is to provide colleges and universities with the measurement bases they need to evaluate their existing approaches to ICT education and to develop new strategies for closing the gap between those who possess essential ICT skills and those who do not."
Link to pdf

China's Richest 200

Source: Forbes
"The theme that emerges is how growing consumerism is fueling the wealth generation in China.
Increasingly well-off young urban Chinese--particularly the 30-somethings known as China's richest generation--are trading up a lifestyle on the back of an economy that is growing by upward of 9% per year."[via resourceshelf]
Link to Article

Tax Incidence, Tax Burden, and Tax Shifting: Who Really Pays the Tax?

From the Heritage Foundation
"The true measure of the burden of a tax is the change in people'™s economic situations as a result
of the tax. The changes should be measured as the effects on everyone'™s net-of-tax income after all economic adjustments have run their courses. The burden measure should include not only changes in people'™s after-tax incomes in a single year, but the lifetime consequences of the tax change as well. Unfortunately, policymakers are not presented with this type of comprehensive informa­tion on the true burden of taxation and must make policy judgments based on incomplete and mis­leading statistics."
Link to article

Bush Administration Tax Policy: Short-Term Stimulus

From the Brookings Institution
"This article examines the effects of recent tax cuts as a short-term economic stimulus and is the
fifth in a series that summarizes and evaluates tax policy in the Bush administration. A particular
goal for each of the 2001, 2002, and 2003 tax cuts was to spur the economy in the short term."
Authors:William G. Gale, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies & Peter R. Orszag, Senior Fellow, Economic
Studies. [via Docuticker]
Link to article

How Election Results Will Affect Geopolitics, Global Perceptions

New Administration's Foreign Policy: How Election Results
Will Affect Geopolitics, Global Perceptions

Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS)
"Kurt Campbell, CSIS vice president and director of the
International Security Program, Patrick Cronin, CSIS
director of studies, Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS
South Asia Program, Jon Alterman, director of the CSIS
Middle East Program, Robin Niblett, director of the CSIS
Europe Program, and Bathsheba Crocker, codirector of the
CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, analyzed foreign
policy challenges facing the second Bush administration on
Nov. 4 at CSIS." Transcript of event.[via docuticker]
link to PDF(96 KB)

Prisoners in 2003 - Report from U.S. Dept. of Justice

"Reports the number of persons in State and Federal prisons
at yearend, compares the increase in the prison population
during 2003 with that of the previous year, and gives the
prison growth rates since 1995. The report also provides the
number of male and female prisoners on December 31, 2003. It
includes incarceration rates for the States and the 5
highest and 5 lowest jurisdictions for selected
characteristics, such as the growth rate, number of
prisoners held, and incarceration rates. Tables present data
on prison capacities and the use of local jails and
privately operated prisons. Estimates are provided on the
number of sentenced prisoners by gender, race, and Hispanic
origin."[docuticker]
URL: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p03.htm

Primary Resources--United Kingdom

New Releases from the National Archives of the United Kingdom.
"This month's new releases include files on the 1926 General
Strike, efforts to quell Sinn Fein activities in England
during the 1920s and files detailing the murder of British
POWs in Europe." [via resourceshelf]
URL:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Foundation Center New Report

The Foundation Center Report: International Grantmaking III
(2004) examines changes in international and cross-border
giving based on a sample of 1,000+ top-ranked foundations.
(link direct to pdf: Highlights only)[via resourceshelf]
URL:
http://fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/pdf/intlhlts.pdf

Canadian College Rankings

'Maclean's' Magazine released their latest rankings of
Canada's colleges. the University of Waterloo unseated last
year's leader, the University of Guelph, as the top
comprehensive university. Both institutions are in Ontario,
as is the University of Toronto, which remained No. 1 in the
"medical doctoral" category.
URL:
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/11/2004110806n.htm

HomeTownLocator

HomeTownLocator "profiles include census, demographic and
income data, parks, schools, libraries, hospitals, airports,
environmental conditions, local newspapers, media outlets,
employment, maps, coordinates and aerial photos." Searchable
by City or Town, County, Area Code, and ZipCode. [via
ResearchBuzz]
http://www.hometownlocator.com/

Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001

"This report is the latest in a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates in 2001, and includes time series data on high school dropout and completion rates for the period 1972 through 2001." [via ResourceShelf]

URL: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/dropout2001/

2004 American Community Survey

"As policy-makers and the public debate
the different aspects of growth and development, Smart
Growth America and the National Association of Realtors®
asked Belden Russonello & Stewart to look at Americans’
preferences for the type of communities they want to live in
and the policies they support for creating those
communities. The preferences and other opinions expressed in
the survey suggest a direction for solving the conflicting
pressures of the desire to develop and the wish to preserve
communities." [via ResourceShelf]

URL:http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/narsgareport.html

Dictionary of the History of Ideas

A digitized version of the out-of-print reference classic
has been made available through the University of Virginia Library's
Electronic Text Center. Searchable and browsable by subject,
author, and alpha. Entries include "academic freedom" "epicureanism and free will," and the "problem of evil."
URL:http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html

Winning Women

Winning Women: An Analysis of IWF’s Swing State Survey and Polling Data from 2004

"Data on women’s attitudes collected during the course of the campaign provides important insight into the issues and messages that resonate with women. The Independent Women’s Forum sponsored a comprehensive psycho-linguistic communications analysis that included focus groups and a telephone survey (n=729) of likely women voters in seven key battleground states at the campaign’s beginning. The survey was designed not only to develop a better understanding of women’s attitudes toward particular candidates and issues, but also to examine how women respond to these issues and what messages resonate with women."
URL: http://www.iwf.org/articles/article_detail.asp?ArticleID=693

Directory of Open Access Journals

"This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 1345 journals in the directory." Hosted by Lund University Libraries, located in Lund, Sweden and is supported by SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
URL:http://www.doaj.org