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The article focuses on two studies of the library reference service quality in Pennsylvania State University Libraries, conducted using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program (WOREP) survey. The authors say that 1980's developed WOREP is still a relevant reference tool. The authors say that the result of the second WOREP study showed the positive effects that could be achieved by focusing on the best reference practices. The authors say that while the training sessions were vital for developing knowledge base of public sector staff, the WOREP results demonstrated that behavioral techniques were crucial in promoting reference success. Several charts on the studies result are also provided.

Trust toward outgroup members is generally lower than it is toward ingroup members. Behavioral synchrony with virtual outgroup characters has been identified as a means of improving attitudes toward racial outgroup members, but this effect has not been tested for outgroup trust. We tested the effect of synchrony with an ingroup/outgroup virtual agent on a behavioral measure of outgroup trust. An experiment used an online economic game to obtain pretest and posttest measures of trust. In between these measures, participants played a dance video game on Xbox Kinect. They were randomly assigned to either an ingroup or outgroup agent (black or white) partner. Game score served as a continuous measure of synchrony with the agent. Regression analysis revealed that agent race moderated synchrony's effect on change in outgroup trust. Increased synchrony with an outgroup agent led to increased outgroup trust. Conversely, increased synchrony with an ingroup agent led to decreased outgroup trust. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for using virtual interactions to build outgroup trust in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 317,000 tonnes of road salt (NaCl) are applied annually for road deicing in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) of Minnesota. Although road salt is applied to increase driving safety, this practice influences environmental water quality. Thirteen lakes in the TCMA were studied over 46 months to determine if and how they respond to the seasonal applications of road salt. Sodium and chloride concentrations in these lakes were 10 and 25 times higher, respectively, than in other non-urban lakes in the region. Seasonal salinity/chloride cycles in the lakes were correlated with road salt applications: High concentrations in the winter and spring, especially near the bottom of the lakes, were followed by lower concentrations in the summer and fall due to flushing of the lakes by rainfall runoff. The seasonal salt storage/flushing rates for individual lakes were derived from volume-weighted average chloride concentration time series. The rate ranged from 9 to 55% of a lake''s minimum salt content. In some of the lakes studied salt concentrations were high enough to stop spring turnover preventing oxygen from reaching the benthic sediments. Concentrations above the sediments were also high enough to induce convective mixing of the saline water into the sediment pore water. A regional analysis of historical water quality records of 38 lakes in the TCMA showed increases in lake salinity from 1984 to 2005 that were highly correlated with the amount of rock salt purchased by the State of Minnesota. Chloride concentrations in individual lakes were positively correlated with the percent of impervious surfaces in the watershed and inversely with lake volume. Taken together, the results show a continuing degradation of the water quality of urban lakes due to application of NaCl in their watersheds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]