Marriott Library Blog

As the summer winds down and school is about to start for learners of all ages, I find myself wondering where the summer went. Many of us have the same feelings, I know. I think of my two teenagers, in particular, and the various ways they have filled their summer hours: sleeping-in, reading, swimming, paid employment, etc. I poked around UScholar Works for an article related to this general topic and came across a working paper by Professor Cathleen Zick titled Over-Scheduled or at Loose Ends? The Shifting Balance of Adolescent Time Use.

In this paper Professor Zick notes that, over the past decades, there has been a decline in the number of hours adolescents spend working a job. She uses two time diary studies (one from 1977-78; the other, 2003-2005) to obtain data to answer the following questions: How are adolescents spending their time, given that they’re working less? Are they filling their time with more developmentally enriching activities? Is the employment decline related to family income levels and/or declining wage rates? Visit the full paper here if you would like some answers to those questions.

The mission of USpace, the University of Utah’s Institutional Repository is to collect, maintain, preserve, record, and provide access to the intellectual capital and output of the University of Utah, to reflect the University’s excellence, and to share that work with others. The University’s excellence emanates through a range of venues including its teaching, research and service. While research is sometimes thought of in terms of scientific laboratories, clinics, journal articles and books, it also occurs within studios devoted to art, music, and movement with outcomes such as paintings, sculptures and performances. One such example of this is De metal y madera: for flute, cello, percussion, and electronics. Written in 1999 by Professor Miguel Chuaqui, the musical score represents a culmination of his research interests which include “collaborations with colleagues in areas as diverse as Modern Dance (interactive dance systems) and the School of Medicine (interactive software development for therapeutic musical applications).” While reading the score in USpace, you can listen to a brief performance. This kind of research represents a growing area for USpace as we look toward fulfilling our goal of collecting, maintaining, preserving, recording and providing access to the intellectual capital of the University of Utah.