"A Library is a Place You Can Lose Your Innocence Without Losing Your Virginity": LGBTQAI+ Young Adults, Young Adult Literature, & Sexuality Health Information Needs

Although sexual education programs are staples in the middle and high school curricula, many of these courses are abstinence-based which do not serve the needs of the teen demographic, let alone those who are LGBTQAI+. LGBTQAI+-focused literature can help fill the gaps in sexuality/sexual health information not addressed in public school curricula. Content analysis, both quantitative and qualitative divulges sexuality and sexual health issues examined in LGBTQAI+ marketed young adult literature. Individual interviews of LGTQAI+ young adults add insight into whether the positive and negative aspects of the young adult literature, discovered through content analysis, affect them in their enjoyment of or willingness to read the book, whether the issues in the book are authentic and pertinent to their everyday life, and if the books fulfill an information need they have about sexuality or sexual health. The mixed methods complement each other as the content analysis explores what is contained in the texts while the interviews with LGBTQAI+ teens will determine the significance of those findings

Youth services in the global learning community

The Youth Services SIG proposes a panel of six presentations focusing on youth, learning, and information in a global context. The purpose of the SIG session is (a) to present a diversity of current research that investigates youth learning in a global context, and (b) to engage the audience in discussing to what extent our teaching, research, service efforts account for the global context and exploring future directions for youth services in equipping contemporary young people for this diverse and global world. The peer-reviewed projects featured in the panel demonstrate youth services librarianship plays a critical role in youth learning in a global context, whether through public library story time, new literacy and fake news curriculums, community engagement and informal learning programs, graphic novels, or young adult literature on or for LGBTQAI+ (an inclusive term that refers to most all sexual and gender identities). Each presentation addresses this year’s conference theme, Exploring Learning in a Global Information Context, in a different, yet significant manner. These projects highlight how youth-centered librarianship promotes learning, global citizenship, global literacy, and cultural understandings and diversity—key competencies in the global information context. The panel will begin with a brief introduction by the moderators (5 minutes). A presentation on each project will follow (maximum 10 minutes per project—total 60 minutes). Finally, the panelists will engage the audience, opening the floor to questions and discussions on the implications for LIS educators and researchers (25 minutes)

What Do Youth Service Librarians Need? Reassessing Goals and Curricula in the Context of Changing Information Needs and Behaviors of Youth

The ALISE Youth Services Special Interest Group (SIG) presents a panel that explores what “youth services” means in the context of LIS education today, including novel additions to youth services curricula and how the changing needs of youth impact LIS education. The session begins with five research presentations, followed by an open discussion and Q&A. The five presentations incorporate the following topics: critical youth information needs, methods of incorporating design thinking and interdisciplinary research into MLIS youth services courses, an investigation of dialogue between librarians and youth, and the role of family and community in youth information behavior. The discussion prompted by this scholarship serves as an important contribution to the continued reform and evolution of youth services education

The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration, established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. This report represents the findings and consensus of the 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies that make up the Lancet Countdown, and draws on the expertise of climate scientists, geographers, and engineers; of energy, food, and transport experts; and of economists, social and political scientists, data scientists, public health professionals, and doctors

The Helicobacter pylori Genome Project : insights into H. pylori population structure from analysis of a worldwide collection of complete genomes

Helicobacter pylori, a dominant member of the gastric microbiota, shares co-evolutionary history with humans. This has led to the development of genetically distinct H. pylori subpopulations associated with the geographic origin of the host and with differential gastric disease risk. Here, we provide insights into H. pylori population structure as a part of the Helicobacter pylori Genome Project (HpGP), a multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at elucidating H. pylori pathogenesis and identifying new therapeutic targets. We collected 1011 well-characterized clinical strains from 50 countries and generated high-quality genome sequences. We analysed core genome diversity and population structure of the HpGP dataset and 255 worldwide reference genomes to outline the ancestral contribution to Eurasian, African, and American populations. We found evidence of substantial contribution of population hpNorthAsia and subpopulation hspUral in Northern European H. pylori. The genomes of H. pylori isolated from northern and southern Indigenous Americans differed in that bacteria isolated in northern Indigenous communities were more similar to North Asian H. pylori while the southern had higher relatedness to hpEastAsia. Notably, we also found a highly clonal yet geographically dispersed North American subpopulation, which is negative for the cag pathogenicity island, and present in 7% of sequenced US genomes. We expect the HpGP dataset and the corresponding strains to become a major asset for H. pylori genomics

The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate

The Lancet Countdown is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement. The 2019 report presents an annual update of 41 indicators across five key domains: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. The report represents the findings and consensus of 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies from every continent. Each year, the methods and data that underpin the Lancet Countdown's indicators are further developed and improved, with updates described at each stage of this report. The collaboration draws on the world-class expertise of climate scientists; ecologists; mathematicians; engineers; energy, food, and transport experts; economists; social and political scientists; public health professionals; and doctors, to generate the quality and diversity of data required. The science of climate change describes a range of possible futures, which are largely dependent on the degree of action or inaction in the face of a warming world. The policies implemented will have far-reaching effects in determining these eventualities, with the indicators tracked here monitoring both the present-day effects of climate change, as well as the worldwide response. Understanding these decisions as a choice between one of two pathways—one that continues with the business as usual response and one that redirects to a future that remains “well below 2°C”—helps to bring the importance of recognising the effects of climate change and the necessary response to the forefront. Evidence provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration clarifies the degree and magnitude of climate change experienced today and contextualises these two pathways

The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate. Publishing updated, new, and improved indicators each year, the Lancet Countdown represents the consensus of leading researchers from 43 academic institutions and UN agencies. The 44 indicators of this report expose an unabated rise in the health impacts of climate change and the current health consequences of the delayed and inconsistent response of countries around the globe—providing a clear imperative for accelerated action that puts the health of people and planet above all else. The 2021 report coincides with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), at which countries are facing pressure to realise the ambition of the Paris Agreement to keep the global average temperature rise to 1·5°C and to mobilise the financial resources required for all countries to have an effective climate response. These negotiations unfold in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic—a global health crisis that has claimed millions of lives, affected livelihoods and communities around the globe, and exposed deep fissures and inequities in the world’s capacity to cope with, and respond to, health emergencies. Yet, in its response to both crises, the world is faced with an unprecedented opportunity to ensure a healthy future for all

The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels

The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown is published as the world confronts profound and concurrent systemic shocks. Countries and health systems continue to contend with the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a persistent fossil fuel overdependence has pushed the world into global energy and cost-of-living crises. As these crises unfold, climate change escalates unabated. Its worsening impacts are increasingly affecting the foundations of human health and wellbeing, exacerbating the vulnerability of the world's populations to concurrent health threats