Thinking like a student: subject guides in small academic libraries

Small academic libraries still need to produce web-based subject guides despite limited budgets. This practical communication describes how one such library in Australia used freely available wiki software and third-party hosting to create a web-based set of subject guides and a subsequent redesign based around typical student tasks. It demonstrates that it is possible to produce high quality guides that meet student needs with minimal costs

Is it a library or is it art?

The Future Library. The Library of Unborrowed Books. The Reanimation Library. A Library of Approximate Location. These are not typical names for libraries but they are tantalising and they are real. Each of these libraries has been created by an artist and they are not the only ones. These libraries function both as libraries and as art installations and can be temporary exhibitions or permanent installations. Some are recognisably libraries and others are not. Some are tied to a specific place and others are peripatetic. They are scattered around the globe and, as well as investigating artistic themes of time, loss, place and memory, consider the library as subject as well as object. As such, they raise interesting questions for librarians. What does the library symbolise for the artist and the audience? What are the motivations of the artists involved? What purposes do these libraries aim to achieve? What does it mean for the artist to become the librarian? What are the implications for us as librarians? What can we learn from these artist libraries? This paper will explore these questions and attempt some preliminary answers

Thinking like a student: subject guides in small academic libraries

Small academic libraries still need to produce web-based subject guides despite limited budgets. This practical communication describes how one such library in Australia used freely available wiki software and third-party hosting to create a web-based set of subject guides and a subsequent redesign based around typical student tasks. It demonstrates that it is possible to produce high quality guides that meet student needs with minimal costs

The history of falls and the association of the timed up and go test to falls and near-falls in older adults with hip osteoarthritis

Abstract Background Falling accounts for a significant number of hospital and long-term care admissions in older adults. Many adults with the combination of advancing age and functional decline associated with lower extremity osteoarthritis (OA), are at an even greater risk. The purpose of this study was to describe fall and near-fall history, location, circumstances and injuries from falls in a community-dwelling population of adults over aged 65 with hip OA and to determine the ability of the timed up and go test (TUG) to classify fallers and near-fallers. Method A retrospective observational study of 106 older men and women with hip pain for six months or longer, meeting a clinical criteria for the presence of hip OA at one or both hips. An interview for fall and near-fall history and administration of the TUG were administered on one occasion. Results Forty-five percent of the sample had at least one fall in the past year, seventy-seven percent reported occasional or frequent near-falls. The majority of falls occurred during ambulation and ascending or descending steps. Forty percent experienced an injury from the fall. The TUG was not associated with history of falls, but was associated with near-falls. Higher TUG scores occurred for those who were older, less mobile, and with greater number of co-morbidities. Conclusion A high percentage of older adults with hip OA experience falls and near-falls which may be attributed to gait impairments related to hip OA. The TUG could be a useful screening instrument to predict those who have frequent near-falls, and thus might be useful in predicting risk of future falls in this population.</p

Co-occurring Threats to Agency Among Female Sex Workers in Baltimore, Maryland

Driven largely by the unequal distribution of power, female sex workers (FSW) globally bear a disproportionately high burden of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and interpersonal violence. Prior literature has identified a number of multi-level factors that may serve to constrain FSWs\u27 agency, or their ability to define and take action to realize goals. Among these are work-based violence and substance use, which are potentiated by the criminalization of sex work and structural vulnerability. Quantitative research related to U.S.-based FSWs\u27 own sense of agency, as well as the barriers that may impede it, is sparse. We sought to identify patterns of various threats to agency and explore to what extent they were associated with perceived agency among a cohort of 381 FSW in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, using latent class analysis. Latent class indictors were past-six-month experience of client-perpetrated sexual violence, client-perpetrated physical violence, homelessness, food insecurity, arrest, daily crack-cocaine use, and daily heroin use. Perceived agency was measured using the short form of the Pearlin Mastery Scale. We identified three typologies of threatened agency among women in our sample: a threatened by structural factors, drug use, and violence class, a threatened by structural factors and drug use class, and a less threatened class. Mean perceived agency score was significantly lower for the class characterized by client-perpetrated violence than for either of the other classes. This suggests violence, in the context of deeper, structural power imbalances embedded in hunger, homelessness, and drug use, may dramatically reduce one\u27s sense of agency and operate as a critical barrier to empowerment. Our study adds important insights to the broader FSW community empowerment literature and supports the need for interventions to bolster both individual and collective agency among U.S.-based FSW, including interventions to prevent sex work-related violence

Lower Limb Kinematic and Kinetic Differences between Transtibial Amputee Fallers and Non-Fallers

Stair walking relies on concentric contraction of the ankle plantarflexor and knee extensor muscles, which are either absent or weakened in transtibial amputees. As a result the risk of falling is increased in this population. The aim of this study was to compare the gait patterns of transtibial amputee fallers and non-fallers during stair ascent. Eleven participants (fallers = 6; non-fallers = 5) walked along a 3-m walkway and ascended a three-step staircase with handrails, at their self-selected pace, while three-dimensional kinematic data were collected from the lower limbs. A force plate was embedded into the first step and kinetic data were measured for the intact lead limb only. The fallers walked significantly faster (p = 0.00) and exhibited less hip flexion (p = 0.05) and less anterior pelvic tilt (p = 0.04) compared to the non-fallers. The fallers had significantly greater first and second peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF) on the intact limb than the non-fallers (p = 0.05 and p = 0.01, respectively) contributing to the significantly larger ankle (p = 0.02) and hip moments (p = 0.04). These findings suggested the amputee non-fallers performed mechanically demanding tasks more cautiously. Two of the participants self-selected a ‘step to’ gait pattem, ascending one step at a time. This may be considered a compensatory mechanism for the lack of ankle mobility and functional muscle performance in these two transtibial amputees

The impact of community mobilisation on HIV prevention in middle and low income countries: a systematic review and critique

While community mobilisation (CM) is increasingly advocated for HIV prevention, its impact on measurable outcomes has not been established. We performed a systematic review of the impact of CM within HIV prevention interventions (N = 20), on biomedical, behavioural and social outcomes. Among most at risk groups (particularly sex workers), the evidence is somewhat consistent, indicating a tendency for positive impact, with stronger results for behavioural and social outcomes than for biomedical ones. Among youth and general communities, the evidence remains inconclusive. Success appears to be enhanced by engaging groups with a strong collective identity and by simultaneously addressing the socio-political context. We suggest that the inconclusiveness of the findings reflects problems with the evidence, rather than indicating that CM is ineffective. We discuss weaknesses in the operationalization of CM, neglect of social context, and incompatibility between context-specific CM processes and the aspiration of review methodologies to provide simple, context-transcending answers