California State Library

Social scientists have increasingly turned to expert judgments to generate data for difficult-to-measure concepts, but getting access to and response from highly expert informants can be costly and challenging. We examine how informant selection and post-survey response aggregation influence the validity and reliability of measures built from informant observations. We draw upon three surveys with parallel survey questions of candidate characteristics to examine the trade-off between expanding the size of the local informant pool and the pool's level of expertise. We find that a “wisdom-of-crowds” effect trumps the benefits associated with the expertise of individual informants when the size of the rater pool is modestly increased. We demonstrate that the benefits of expertise are best realized by prescreening potential informants for expertise rather than post-survey weighting by expertise.

The purpose of this article is to provide public and private medical schools with a pragmatic blueprint for the development and implementation of an effective medical school pre-entry program that increases the pool of students interested in returning to health care shortage areas. An ancillary benefit of this program is an increase in the number of underrepresented minority students to medical schools. The structure, experiences, and results of the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine's Postbaccalaureate Reapplicant Program are used as a case study to construct the blueprint for returning 85-90% of program participants to shortage areas while increasing minority student admissions. The UC Davis program has been in place since 1991 and post-program acceptance rates have varied from 57% to 100% with an overall acceptance rate of 90.4% through 1999-00. Of 115 participating students who had previously been rejected by medical schools, 104 were accepted to health professional programs: 95 students were accepted to major U.S. medical schools and nine were accepted to masters in public health programs, physician's assistant programs, and one international medical school. This success rate has been achieved through a combination of intense assistance in study skills and test-taking skills, academic course work, and academic and pre-professional counseling.

The current developments in technology and the various societal forces that are driving the major changes in librarianship are very similar to what was recognized as the birth of reference services during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Reference services evolved partly as a result of the spread of education which was in a state of explosive development. As the general population of the time became better educated, more emphasis was put on the use of the library as an integral part of the educational curriculum. Libraries realized they needed skilled staffing to explain or instruct users in how to use the library and the collections. The intermediary between users and the library collections eventually came to be called reference librarians. From these beginnings, the role of reference librarianship has evolved to its present state. This paper discusses the current state of reference librarianship and the roles and duties of today's reference librarians.

Fifteen years ago, when I became a city library director, my highest priority was to increase the percentage of city residents who used the library to 100 percent. During my first six months on the job, I did a community needs assessment and also looked at the other locally funded city services. One of the startling realizations I had was not all city services were striving for that all‐important 100 percent utilization.

Challenges in modifying an older building to accommodate a contemporary library include many of those inherent in planning for any new building: defining future needs, anticipating growth, projecting how new technology will affect functions and staffing patterns. An older building presents additional challenges because electrical, plumbing, and other systems often must be retrofitted to accommodate higher demands. The introduction of new technologies also imposes requirements for ventilation, noise suppression, and temperature regulation that are much more complex than old designs anticipated. Sophisticated, contemporary electronic linkages for voice and data communications make demands that were unknown when the building was designed. These challenges are related to the remodeling of the California State Library.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

THE LEGAL HERITAGE of the English common law, already adapted to American conditions in the Atlantic colonies and Mississippi Valley, further evolved in the distinctive environment of the plains and Pacific coast.The student of this evolution, however, is hampered both by the paucity and fragmentary nature of the available material and by its deplorable presentation.No single publication has traced the history of law in the West and its administration.What little material is available must be gleaned from such obscure publications as bar association proceedings, historical journals, and privately issued biographical sketches and travel books which, having appeared in limited editions, soon go out of print.General and local histories have almost totally ignored the judicial aspect of American western history, thus implying that federal and local government operated without courts.Popular books overemphasize the "Wild West," "hemp law," and the heroics of outlaws and rustlers.Certain territories-Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory-and selected phases of law-mining law, popular justice, and "Judge Colt"-have been given more detailed treatment because the former "enjoyed" a longer period of territorial status and the latter cater to public interest through exaggerated distortion.The intent of this essay is to present a selected group of publications, of a secondary and non-official nature, dealing with the administration of justice in the territorial phase of American government.Geographical coverage is limited to territories of the far west, often designated as the trans-Mississippi region, excluding California and Texas.For organizational purposes, the available material is divided into a number of topics.Brief descriptions of the court system, the bench and bar, and the statutory laws are presented with the material relevant to each topic with special focus on prominent features of popular justice, law enforcement, and celebrated cases. ORGANIZED COURTSThe federal government provided each territory with a supreme court, three district courts, and three judges appointed by the President.