The British Library and the impact of research

Gives a critical history of the British Library approach to research and how it failed fully to engage with the Higher Education sector as it launched on a golden period od library research stimulated by the Follett Repor

Guided Grief Imagery: A Resource for Grief Ministry and Death Education

Reviewed Book: Droege, Thomas A. Guided Grief Imagery: A Resource for Grief Ministry and Death Education. New York: Paulist Press, 1987

Bridging the Gap: Canadian Engineer Operations at Canal du Nord–Bourlon Wood, 1918

During the last hundred days of the Great War, the Allied armies swept eastward past the Hindenburg Line with hammer-blow offensive warfare. Performing their work under intense machine gun and shell fire, engineers erected bridges and constructed roads, allowing infantry and artillery units to pursue the retreating enemy. These combat engineers played a vital role in battle tactics and logistical services of open warfare. Their versatile formations contributed to the Canadian Corps’ rapid victories, which included the successful Canal du Nord crossing leading to the capture of Bourlon Wood in September 1918

College Student Perceptions of Varying Disability Types: Does Contact Experience Matter?

Studies exploring prejudices between groups have suggested that contact is related to attitudes. This relationship has been studied in the context of attitudes toward people with disabilities and has yielded inconsistent results. Other variables, such as gender, type of relationship, and the type of disability, have been studied in conjunction with and distinct from the contact variable. The present study, conducted among college students, investigated if the contact experience or the exposure to a specific type of disability in a vignette individually were associated with the attitude variable of social distance, as well as if there was an interaction between the two independent variables. Contact experience did not significantly predict scores on the social distance measure; however, type of disability was a significant predictor of undergraduate students’ social distance attitudes. Specifically, physical disability predicted significantly lower scores of social distance than intellectual disability, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The results of this research were consistent with prior studies measuring similar variables, prompting a need for further research on the role of contact experience and disability type in forming prejudices toward people with disabilities. As type of disability seems to play a significant role in attitudes toward people with disabilities, greater efforts should be directed towards educating students and faculty on non-physical disability types

New York Breaks Gideon’s Promise

In 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States held that criminal defendants have the constitutional right to counsel, regardless of whether they can afford one, in the famous case of Gideon v. Wainwright. However, statistics, as well as public defense attorneys, reveal that the Supreme Court’s decision has yet to be fulfilled. Part of the problem is due to the system of mass incarceration in the United States. In 2013, the Brennan Center for Justice reported that the prison population reached 2.3 million individuals, compared to the 217,000 inmates imprisoned when Gideon was decided. The American Bar Association estimates that between 60 to 90 percent of criminal defendants cannot afford a lawyer, and must rely on public criminal defense services. Even though there has been an exceptional rate of criminalization and growth in the prison system population, funding for public defenders remains inadequate and meager compared to prosecution offices. In 2007, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), determined that state and local public defender offices’ budgets were merely $2.3 billion, compared to prosecutor offices’ budgets that were approximately$5.8 billion. BJS further concluded that only 27 percent of county-based public defender offices have an adequate number of attorneys to effectively manage their caseloads. This has real consequences for defendants. “Numerous studies that stretch from the 1980s to recent years show that public defenders meet with clients less quickly, file fewer motions, plea-bargain more often, and get charges dismissed less often than private attorneys.” However, since politicians receive little incentive from voters to reform the public defense system and increase public defender offices’ funding, these deficits continue to persist in jurisdictions. The absence of a political upside for lawmakers to increase funding may be the reason why Governor Cuomo of New York vetoed Bill S.8114/A.10706, a criminal justice reform bill that would have required New York State, rather than the individual counties, to provide funding for public defender office