On your article, Brian, it would be worthwhile to know more clearly (and of course the study may say, I haven't read it) what "time identifying materials" really means, and whether it means increased financial investment in materials, because then you would have to acknowledge that money was a factor in the students' improvement. Talk of money seems conspicuously absent here, but of course it's a real factor in education. On a different note, there could be a qualitative consideration of teacher perceptions related to time spent identifying materials.

Lajmar - I would be interested to see your study repeated, but with face-to-face reference interactions, to provide a reference point by which to view the data.

Linda - I really liked Brian's observations on your article. I would add that it would be valuable to know the time periods in which the women left their positions and turned to self-employment, what kind of environments they were unable to move up within (corporate, unionized, small, large, etc.) and to know what constitutes "success."

Eric - what about variables such as children, how much each spouse makes, education of each spouse, and religion? All very interesting factors.

Wonderful! Great posts and responses. You got it.

Brian- I think you are right in that the data in my article could to some degree be considered both qualitative and quantitative. The reason I say this is that even though they are using observable behaviors, they are also using a measurement system (RUSA) to determine user satisfaction. If they removed the RUSA scale, then I would view the data as just qualitative.

Whitney- I think repeating the study with face to face interactions would show some interesting results. I know there have been many cases where I have seen some "interesting" behaviors from librarians during face to face contact. I think it would be interesting to compare and contrast the online vs. physical results.

Whitney:Good point about the financial considerations, especially considering the current state of public schools in Indiana. A study like this would not be very effective if the schools in the study were working with a large budget and materials could easily be obtained. That would make the entire study quite irrelevant for most Indiana schools! ****This is re: Your comment: On your article, Brian, it would be worthwhile to know more clearly (and of course the study may say, I haven't read it) what "time identifying materials" really means, and whether it means increased financial investment in materials, because then you would have to acknowledge that money was a factor in the students' improvement. Talk of money seems conspicuously absent here, but of course it's a real factor in education. On a different note, there could be a qualitative consideration of teacher perceptions related to time spent identifying materials.

Brian - I like your mention about being a teacher. I feel that this article applies more the “business” world more than the academic world. I think that sometimes women have a better change of achieving greater success in the academic world, because other factors tend to play a part in their positions as teacher, professor etc. Whitney - I really like your suggestion about what constitutes success to one person might no necessarily constitutes success to another person. The article clearly examines a like minded set of data to a certain sample of women.