Noteworthy Outcomes of Faculty JSTOR Projects

Faculty members were required to submit a final report. The following comments were gleaned from the final reports.

Dr. Chris Campbell submitted his paper to the Louisiana Communication Journal. The research also led to a second paper in which he examines how news organizations cover crime statistics. Once completed, the paper will be submitted to the Critical Studies in Mass Communications journal. Finally, Dr. Campbell noted that "... support for this project served as an incentive [...] to return to scholarly activity. The substantial teaching and service requirements of Xavier faculty make it very difficult to actively pursue a research agenda."
With the permission of his students, Dr. DuRapau published their papers online at http://webusers.xula.edu/~vdurapau/papers.htm.
Dr. Sheri Hoem noted, "As a teaching method, I will definitely use this kind of JSTOR project [...] when I teach Literary Criticism and Theory, as well as in other upper level literature courses in which students are asked to consult published scholarship."
Dr. Cirecie Olatunji conducted pre- and post-tests of student technology competencies. The results of the surveys indicated an increase in technological competency, a change in perceptions regarding the effectiveness of JSTOR as a research tool, and enhanced research skills overall.
Dr. Waldron-Moore noted that several students produced useful drafts of potential research papers for publication. Three papers were selected for publication by InterneXUS, Xavier's forthcoming electronic journal (temporarily at http://webusers.xula.edu/~cdoumen/CV/Internexus/Current.html). The project also generated new research questions and teaching methods using the JSTOR database. Last, Dr. Waldren-Moore made several important suggestions that the Center (or another department on campus):
- provide training to the University Library staff in various technical aspects of using the JSTOR database
- promote university-wide discussion about purchasing online subscriptions and access to databases
- seek information from the Information Technology Center regarding firewall and other security issues related to databases such as JSTOR
- provide new faculty with an introduction to JSTOR
- promote faculty use of JSTOR through workshops, brown bag discussions, etc.