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Producers in many sectors, including food, are seeking to convert chemical compounds into value. Turkey is in the midst of a 'quality turn' in its olive oil sector, as producers seek ways to capture value through what I describe here as processes of qualification. Based on fieldwork with olive oil producers and others in the sector in Turkey, I show how the qualities of 'high-quality' olive oil are made through labour, technique and technology, remaking the chemistry of the oil. The work of stabilizing and standardizing the experiences of taste and smell to align with international norms involves harvesters, producers, laboratories, international standards, terminologies, infrastructures, equipment, and consumers. Such oil is relatively unfamiliar in Turkey, however, necessitating the formation of a market for it through the economization of its qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect on the evolution of place-based governance from a long-term (15 year) study of rural development initiatives undertaken in a region of Poland as part of its accession to the European Union. We decompose the recursive process of institutional learning arising from initiatives for heritage preservation and rural economic development. In our analysis, we elaborate a typology of unavoidable development dilemmas that must be explicitly managed in order to allow place-based governance to effectively harness the cultural value, social context, and developmental needs of certain locales or landscapes. Although creating and sustaining local value remain contingent on broader realities of governance, proactive management of these dilemmas can help prevent many of the usual contestations around goals and identity from becoming intractable in later periods. Our proposed approach to enabling place-based governance emphasizes conflict recognition and engagement as important complements to more common prescriptive models of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines information literacy and young learners in the context of the school environment. An overview of children's cognitive development and information processing, theories and models of information behaviour, and what defines information literacy is provided. Observation of young children's use of the Internet for information purposes and the role of the teacher librarian in providing teaching and learning sequences that guide young learners in information literacy skills is also profiled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of leadership and leadership principles have been studied extensively. We know that the application of leadership principles is strongly determined by the personality and style of the individual exercising such leadership, the leader's hierarchical level, and the surrounding environment. Less clarity exists, however, about how to apply and understand leadership under diverse circumstances, and how to transition one's own leadership style during a lifetime of growth and professional progression. After developing an “action card game” (as a participatory experience) to teach leadership to construction Project Managers (PM), the authors decided to address the leadership transition need with a second set of “action cards.” This second set of cards vividly illustrates the different, as well as highly challenging, demands imposed by a corporate Senior Executive's perspective and environment. The Senior Executive Magic Action Cards (SEMAC) game is also played with a deck of 52 cards that describe plausible executive actions. During 12 discussion rounds, each member of a four or five person “Senior Executive” team proposes an action based on his/her personal preference. Team members then vigorously advocate, negotiate, and compromise to reach a decision on the best action that, in their view, addresses internal or external events that have profound impact on the company's future. Although leadership awareness, education, and wisdom are programmed into the action cards, events, and procedures, the participants receive the greatest benefit from the insights gained during team discussions where personal experience and knowledge are shared. By playing first the PM and then the Senior Executive game, participants eventually are forced to ask themselves if they are prepared for, and willing to take on, such responsibilities and challenges. Feedback from past participants clearly indicates that the desired learning objectives are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership is a concept rooted in human relationships, personal experience, and introspection. Teaching leadership, therefore, is best done by placing students in simulated situations where each individual can recognize within a short time the systemic consequences of personal behaviors and actions affecting others. A 52-action-card game was developed for this purpose. The game reveals a “player's” current management or leadership preferences and also elicits questioning and team discussion of the consequences of alternative actions. The cards provide a choice of actions that are plausible in responding to a deeply troubled construction project. Unbeknown to the players, each suite of action cards represents a different style. The game consists of selecting and recording 10 action cards, which, first in the opinion of the individual and then by consensus after vigorous team discussion and negotiation, will improve the troubled construction project. The individually selected cards are plotted on a four quadrant spider graph, profiling the students' leadership and management preferences, both at the beginning and at the end of the course or seminar. By selecting again 10 preferred action cards at the conclusion of a session, any shift in preferences can be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual Cornell High Energy Synchrotron (CHESS) Users' Meeting was held June 10-11, 2008, at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, with an attendance of over 130 people. Events included updates on the facility status, exciting results from users' research, vendor exhibits, a poster session, two workshops (including one on nanoscience jointly sponsored by the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF)), and social events. Prizes were presented for the best submitted 2007-2008 Ph.D. thesis, and for the best posters in two categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a professional group, teacher librarians are often regarded as very innovative and proactive, even as influential. Recent studies have identified the relationship between the principal and the teacher librarian as a catalyst for influence. But how do teacher librarians perceive themselves? Do they regard the pursuit of influence as a positive thing and how do they achieve influence within their schools? This case study of six Australian teacher librarians provides some answers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]