Effective Motivation of Paraprofessional Staff in Academic Libraries In Nigeria

The paper examined the factors that affect paraprofessional staff motivation and performance in academic libraries. It underlines the importance of well-motivated staff in ensuring a continuously maximized performance. The literature review comprises relevant papers which discuss how motivation is used to modify behavior of staff to improve performance. It explores Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its application to the category of staff under study. Training and development of paraprofessional staff were some of the benefits highlighted

Educating and Training Library Practitioners: A Comparative History with Trends and Recommendations

published or submitted for publicatio

An Educational Pathway for Geriatric Home Caregivers

The establishment of a multi-tiered educational pathway for geriatric home caregivers would support efforts to meet the needs of an increasing number of community dwelling older adults who require assistance with activities of daily living, while generating a cadre of qualified employees for an expanding non-medical private home care market. An educational pathway for geriatric home caregivers would also standardize the training of home care assistants while providing these individuals access to routine, high quality continuing education opportunities and the potential for career advancement. This issue brief provides two model educational pathways toward becoming a Geriatric Home Caregiver

Promoting Social Interaction Skills to Influence the Transition to Employment for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) affect one in 68 children in the United States and are characterized by deficits in social interaction. Decreased social interaction skills limit youth with ASDs’ ability to obtain and maintain a job. Acquisition of needed social interaction skills must occur during high school years as part of youths’ transition program. The Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to consider ways to facilitate social interaction to influence the transition to employment. The specific aims of the study were to explore strategies currently used to facilitate social skills, identify social skills currently targeted, and identify other supports needed to enhance youths’ social interaction skills. This study contributes data from the perspective s of parents, special education teachers, teachers, vocational transition counselors, and paraprofessionals. Through a phenomenological approach and data analysis, my data yielded four main themes. Adult supports have a common vision for the youth with ASDs’ transition, and use attempted strategies of cueing, matching the person and the context, and reflecting. However, there are definitely still deficits of social interaction that affect employment. Therefore, additional needed interventions of increasing supports and training and providing natural contexts for the youth were suggested. Interestingly, specific social interaction skills targeted could not be identified by the adult supports. This research provides the information needed for occupational therapists to create a more effective transition plan, so that youth with ASD can have meaning and success as they move into adulthood and seek employment