Library and information needs of Latinos in rural Dunklin County, Missouri.

Libraries in rural Missouri are struggling to provide adequate services to a growing number of Spanish-speaking residents. This article examines the barriers to effective library services through the evaluation of a survey conducted among Latinos in Dunklin County, Missouri in 2002. Successful library outreach to the Spanish-speaking in other areas of the country have included Spanish language materials, child-friendly programs in Spanish and promotion of the library services through media outlets which target the Hispanic population.Post-printIncludes bibliographical references

A School-Library-Centered Community Information Resource Sharing Model and Its Impact on Cultural Life of Rural Communities in China

This paper provides a case study of the rural library programs sponsored by the Evergreen Education Foundation (EEF) and identifies the vital role of school libraries in improving local residents’ access to information and enriching their cultural life. It analyzes the data collected from user surveys of one high school library and one book station from two library clusters in underdeveloped rural Tianzhu and Tongwei counties in Gansu Province of western China to assess the impact and effectiveness of a schoollibrary- centered community information resource sharing model developed and implemented by China Evergreen Rural Library Service Stations (CERLS). A total of 1,350 surveys were distributed to the community library users in the two counties to gain a better understanding of their satisfaction level and expectations of the libraries’ collections, services, and outreach programs, and to examine the impact of the model on the social and economic life of local residents. A quantitative approach was used to analyze the survey data and a standard structure and format of data presentation was followed so that the research might be replicated by CERLS libraries in other locations. As CERLS programs continue to expand into other locations in China, this study may provide useful information and a model to analyze prospective programs. This study could provide impetus for more studies on the rural library programs in other areas of China and in other underdeveloped regions of the world

Riding Circuit: Bringing the Law to Those Who Need It

This article surveys the Access to Justice movement in the United States and proposes including more types of professionals to develop longer term solutions that will alleviate barriers to the court system. This article discusses the need to expand the access to justice concept to reach beyond the courthouse to address civil legal issues before they blossom into litigation. Mobile outreach providing preventive lawyering and early treatment of societal problems can prevent delays and the bottleneck that many courts are seeing with the vast numbers of Self-Represented Litigants. A team of professionals including lawyers, social workers, nurses, counselors, translators and law librarians, working with a network of public librarians, can make a significant impact into the everyday lives of the working poor and folk of modest means in underserved areas

A Prospectus on Substantive Change

Prepared for The Commission on Colleges, Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, October 1, 1987. For consideration by the Commission on Colleges at its December 5 and 6, 1987, meeting at the Salt Lake Hilton Hotel

Census 2020: Making Western New York Count

Although climate change requires an international response and will require national policies and actions, local geographies have to be involved because it that is where the harms are felt. But how can local and regional areas respond to the climate crisis? This article offers a story of the emergence of a climate justice movement in Buffalo and Western New York as an example of how one community is addressing climate change and its unequal impacts

Educating the Educators: Outreach to the College of Education Distance Faculty and Native American Students

The focus of "Educating the Educators: Outreach to the College of Education Distance Faculty and Native American Students" is to examine and explore the relationship between the Library and the College of Education regarding provision and promotion of Library services to students and faculty taking and teaching classes virtually and at satellite campus and computer lab locations throughout the state. It will include an overview of the special challenges facing the Library in providing these services to a college that offers a large number of distance education classes, enrolls a large number of Native American students, and includes a majority of the institution’s distance students and part time distance faculty. Specifically, the presentation will explore four areas: • The nature of the programs, students and faculty of the College of Education • The unique conditions under which these courses are offered in rural and reservation locations • The special conditions of the reservation, including population, economic and educational considerations; and finally; • How the library's services and promotion efforts have been adapted to be most effective in this unique environmen

Building Community: Synergy and Empowerment through Staff Development and Marketing in a Small Rural Academic Library

This paper presents two collaborative programs at a small academic library that leverage the insights, engagement, and interests of our most important asset: our staff. Two new library committees, the Staff Training Advisory Group and the Marketing Team, extended planning, accountability, and partnerships to paraprofessional staff members. The onset and associated activities of these two committees yielded not only direct results in terms of staff training programs and marketing initiatives, but also resulted in creating a more collaborative culture and shared purpose in our library. This paper examines how the overlap of these two committees created a convergence that fostered excitement about the library, interest in improving library roles, and furthering library initiatives. By working together, and with our university community, we developed solid, popular programs in addition to cultivating a more intentional, thoughtful, and inclusive approach to our work and, ultimately, to supporting our university community.published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (more details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Ye

Access to health services in Western Newfoundland, Canada: Issues, barriers and recommendations emerging from a community-engaged research project

Research indicates that people living in rural and remote areas of Canada face challenges to accessing health services. This article reports on a community-engaged research project conducted by investigators at Memorial University of Newfoundland in collaboration with the Rural Secretariat Regional Councils and Regional Partnership Planners for the Corner Brook–Rocky Harbour and Stephenville–Port aux Basques Rural Secretariat Regions of Newfoundland and Labrador. The aim of this research was to gather information on barriers to accessing health services, to identify solutions to health services’ access issues and to inform policy advice to government on enhancing access to health services. Data was collected through: (1) targeted distribution of a survey to communities throughout the region, and (2) informal ‘kitchen table’ discussions to discuss health services’ access issues. A total of 1049 surveys were collected and 10 kitchen table discussions were held. Overall, the main barriers to care listed in the survey included long wait times, services not available in the area and services not available at time required. Other barriers noted by survey respondents included transportation problems, financial concerns, no medical insurance coverage, distance to travel and weather conditions. Some respondents reported poorer access to maternal/child health and breast and cervical screening services and a lack of access to general practitioners, pharmacy services, dentists and nurse practitioners. Recommendations that emerged from this research included improving the recruitment of rural physicians, exploring the use of nurse practitioners, assisting individuals with travel costs,  developing specialist outreach services, increasing use of telehealth services and initiating additional rural and remote health research.Keywords: rural, remote, healthcare, health services, social determinants of healt

Hugh J. Andersen Foundation - 2009 Annual Report

Contains mission statement, foundation history, grant information, 2008-09 highlights, grants list, financial statements, and lists of board members and staff

SPEC Kit 356 Diversity and Inclusion

Today, diversity is defined beyond racial and ethnic groups and includes gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, religious belief, national origin, age, and ideas. The increase of published literature about cultural competencies, microaggressions, and assessment of diversity issues, as well as the inclusion of social justice movements in libraries, suggests diversity-related activities have increased and evolved over the last seven years. Over this time span, several libraries have obtained funding to support strategies to increase the number of minority librarians on their staff and support their advancement within the organization. There also appears to be an increase in the number of diversity or multicultural groups at the local, state, and national levels. However, these changes have not been consistently documented. Therefore, it is important to re-examine this topic to evaluate the impact of evolving endeavors, to see if more ARL libraries are involved, to see how diversity plans have changed over the years, and to document the current practices of research libraries. The main purpose of this survey was to identify diversity trends and changes in managing diversity issues in ARL libraries through exploring the components of diversity plans and initiatives since 2010, acknowledge library efforts since the 1990s, provide evidence of best practices and future trends, and identify current strategies that increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries and the types of programs that foster a diverse workplace and climate. The survey was conducted between May 1 and June 5, 2017. Sixty-eight of the 124 ARL member institutions responded to the survey for a 55% response rate. Interestingly, only 22 of the respondents to the 2010 SPEC survey participated in this survey, but this provides an opportunity to explore the diversity and inclusion efforts of a new set of institutions in addition to seeing what changes those 22 institutions have made since 2010. The SPEC Survey on Diversity and Inclusion was designed by Toni Anaya, Instruction Coordinator, and Charlene Maxey-Harris, Research and Instructional Services Chair, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These results are based on responses from 68 of the 124 ARL member libraries (55%) by the deadline of June 12, 2017. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response data and selected comments from the respondents. The purpose of this survey is to explore the components of diversity plans created since 2010, identify current recruitment and retention strategies that aim to increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries, identify staff development programs that foster an inclusive workplace and climate, identify how diversity programs have changed, and gather information on how libraries assess these efforts