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First year students arrive at Barnard generally very comfortable in front of a computer, able to use the web to satisfy their interest in popular culture, the arts or politics, and skilled at using websites like Facebook and YouTube to find information about people, movies or music. However, we in the library soon discover that many are at sea in dealing with scholarly information. In particular, they are often unclear as to how to distinguish between articles and books that are scholarly and those that may be well-written and seem authoritative, but are not scholarly. In addition, they have many questions about what constitutes plagiarism; they know that they must not do it, but they are often unclear as to exactly what it is. These, then, are some of the information literacy issues we are trying to deal with in our teaching of first year students at Barnard Library.

Purpose: To examine the association between weight status duration and weight perception accuracy. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 to 2006. Sample: A total of 4029 adults aged 20 years or older. Measures: To assess weight status duration, participants' past (10 years ago) and present body mass indexes were used to create 4 groups: normal weight in the past and present (group 1), normal weight in the past but overweight/obese in the present (group 2), overweight/obese in the present but not in the past (group 3), and overweight/obese in the past and present (group 4). We classified individuals as having an accurate/inaccurate weight perception based on present body mass index and whether they considered themselves as overweight, underweight, or about the right weight. Analysis: Logistic regression. Results: Our findings suggest that participants who were overweight/obese in the past, present, or during both time periods had increased odds of possessing an inaccurate weight perception. Furthermore, being normal weight in the past but obese in the present increased the odds of having an inaccurate weight perception nearly 10-fold and almost 5-fold for those obese in both the past and present. Conclusion: Studies such as this can aid clinicians in identifying individuals who may have increased odds of inaccurately identifying their weight status, thereby providing additional opportunities to facilitate weight loss.

Purpose: To identify factors that influence Black women's body size perceptions Design: Interviews (cognitive mapping exercise) with 25 women; focus group with 7 additional women Setting: Mississippi Delta Participants: Thirty-two black women Measures: Influences on body size perceptions, body mass index, and body satisfaction Analysis: Interviewee maps were combined and condensed, using matrix addition and qualitative aggregation, to create a social map. The social map was presented to a focus group. A paired sample t test and descriptive statistics were run to assess weight perception accuracy and body satisfaction. Results: The initial social map contained 27 variables. Male preferences (87.5%) and appearance (64%) were believed by most participants to influence perceptions of body size. The focus group identified lack of encouragement, stress, and substance use as factors worth adding to the map. A statistically significant proportion of interviewees possessed an inaccurate weight perception, t(24) = 2.741, P < .05. Furthermore, 76% were dissatisfied with their current weight status and 80% desired a healthy body size. Conclusion: These findings provide practitioners with leverage points, beyond diet and physical activity, that may improve the efficacy of weight reduction interventions among black women. Considering the paucity of research regarding influences on body size perceptions, this study also provides researchers with participant-defined variables worthy of further examination.