Keeping the doors open in an age of austerity? Qualitative analysis of stakeholder views on volunteers in public libraries

English public libraries are increasingly adopting a hybrid approach to volunteer use, whereby volunteers plug the gaps created by reductions in paid staff, in response to local authority cuts arising from the Conservative Government’s austerity measures. This article builds on an initial phase of research reported in a previous article from 2015, which examined library service managers’ views of volunteering in public libraries using a Delphi study method. The second phase of research uses a case study method to investigate a variety of stakeholder views regarding public library volunteer use, using interviews, focus groups and surveys, thereby providing a complex picture of understandings and meanings. Results indicate that there is a clear mismatch of opinions relating to this phenomenon, in addition to a number of unintended consequences, directly attributable to the challenges identified. Key consequences of volunteer use relate to social exclusion, reductions in service accountability and quality, and a blurring of the boundaries that exist within the library, causing tensions for all stakeholders. Formal and informal strategies for ensuring these consequences are minimized are vital for library professionals who may be managing these volunteers, and a carefully planned volunteer relationship management strategy is suggested, which underpins the volunteer use equation, ensuring a mutually beneficial arrangement for all. A series of key recommendations are discussed that may help to counter some of the challenges identified, and provide a possible way forward for library professionals having to deal with this complex situation

Keeping the doors open in an age of austerity? Qualitative analysis of stakeholder views on volunteers in public libraries

English public libraries are increasingly adopting a hybrid approach to volunteer use, whereby volunteers plug the gaps created by reductions in paid staff, in response to local authority cuts arising from the Conservative Government’s austerity measures. This article builds on an initial phase of research reported in a previous article from 2015, which examined library service managers’ views of volunteering in public libraries using a Delphi study method. The second phase of research uses a case study method to investigate a variety of stakeholder views regarding public library volunteer use, using interviews, focus groups and surveys, thereby providing a complex picture of understandings and meanings. Results indicate that there is a clear mismatch of opinions relating to this phenomenon, in addition to a number of unintended consequences, directly attributable to the challenges identified. Key consequences of volunteer use relate to social exclusion, reductions in service accountability and quality, and a blurring of the boundaries that exist within the library, causing tensions for all stakeholders. Formal and informal strategies for ensuring these consequences are minimized are vital for library professionals who may be managing these volunteers, and a carefully planned volunteer relationship management strategy is suggested, which underpins the volunteer use equation, ensuring a mutually beneficial arrangement for all. A series of key recommendations are discussed that may help to counter some of the challenges identified, and provide a possible way forward for library professionals having to deal with this complex situation

Herpesviruses carrying a Brainbow cassette reveal replication and expression of limited numbers of incoming genomes

Whether all the infectious herpesvirus particles entering a cell are able to replicate and/or express their genomes is not known. Here, we developed a general method to determine the number of viral genomes expressed in an infected cell. We constructed and analysed fluorophore expression from a recombinant pseudorabies virus (PRV263) carrying a Brainbow cassette (Cre-conditional expression of different fluorophores). Using three isogenic strains derived from PRV263, each expressing a single fluorophore, we analysed the colour composition of cells infected with these three viruses at different multiplicities. We estimate that fewer than seven incoming genomes are expressed per cell. In addition, those templates that are expressed are the genomes selected for replication and packaging into virions. This finite limit on the number of viral genomes that can be expressed is an intrinsic property of the infected cell and may be influenced by viral and cellular factors

Specific Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase-4B Results in Anxiolysis and Facilitates Memory Acquisition

Cognitive dysfunction is a core feature of dementia and a prominent feature in psychiatric disease. As non-redundant regulators of intracellular cAMP gradients, phosphodiesterases (PDE) mediate fundamental aspects of brain function relevant to learning, memory, and higher cognitive functions. Phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B) is an important phosphodiesterase in the hippocampal formation, is a major Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) binding partner and is itself a risk gene for psychiatric illness. To define the effects of specific inhibition of the PDE4B subtype, we generated mice with a catalytic domain mutant form of PDE4B (Y358C) that has decreased ability to hydrolyze cAMP. Structural modelling predictions of decreased function and impaired binding with DISC1 were confirmed in cell assays. Phenotypic characterization of the PDE4BY358C mice revealed facilitated phosphorylation of CREB, decreased binding to DISC1, and upregulation of DISC1 and β-Arrestin in hippocampus and amygdala. In behavioural assays, PDE4BY358C mice displayed decreased anxiety and increased exploration, as well as cognitive enhancement across several tests of learning and memory, consistent with synaptic changes including enhanced long-term potentiation and impaired depotentiation ex vivo. PDE4BY358C mice also demonstrated enhanced neurogenesis. Contextual fear memory, though intact at 24 hours, was decreased at 7 days in PDE4BY358C mice, an effect replicated pharmacologically with a non-selective PDE4 inhibitor, implicating cAMP signalling by PDE4B in a very late phase of consolidation. No effect of the PDE4BY358C mutation was observed in the pre-pulse inhibition and forced swim tests. Our data establish specific inhibition of PDE4B as a promising therapeutic approach for disorders of cognition and anxiety, and a putative target for pathological fear memory

Multiplicity of cerebrospinal fluid functions: New challenges in health and disease

This review integrates eight aspects of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulatory dynamics: formation rate, pressure, flow, volume, turnover rate, composition, recycling and reabsorption. Novel ways to modulate CSF formation emanate from recent analyses of choroid plexus transcription factors (E2F5), ion transporters (NaHCO3 cotransport), transport enzymes (isoforms of carbonic anhydrase), aquaporin 1 regulation, and plasticity of receptors for fluid-regulating neuropeptides. A greater appreciation of CSF pressure (CSFP) is being generated by fresh insights on peptidergic regulatory servomechanisms, the role of dysfunctional ependyma and circumventricular organs in causing congenital hydrocephalus, and the clinical use of algorithms to delineate CSFP waveforms for diagnostic and prognostic utility. Increasing attention focuses on CSF flow: how it impacts cerebral metabolism and hemodynamics, neural stem cell progression in the subventricular zone, and catabolite/peptide clearance from the CNS. The pathophysiological significance of changes in CSF volume is assessed from the respective viewpoints of hemodynamics (choroid plexus blood flow and pulsatility), hydrodynamics (choroidal hypo- and hypersecretion) and neuroendocrine factors (i.e., coordinated regulation by atrial natriuretic peptide, arginine vasopressin and basic fibroblast growth factor). In aging, normal pressure hydrocephalus and Alzheimer's disease, the expanding CSF space reduces the CSF turnover rate, thus compromising the CSF sink action to clear harmful metabolites (e.g., amyloid) from the CNS. Dwindling CSF dynamics greatly harms the interstitial environment of neurons. Accordingly the altered CSF composition in neurodegenerative diseases and senescence, because of adverse effects on neural processes and cognition, needs more effective clinical management. CSF recycling between subarachnoid space, brain and ventricles promotes interstitial fluid (ISF) convection with both trophic and excretory benefits. Finally, CSF reabsorption via multiple pathways (olfactory and spinal arachnoidal bulk flow) is likely complemented by fluid clearance across capillary walls (aquaporin 4) and arachnoid villi when CSFP and fluid retention are markedly elevated. A model is presented that links CSF and ISF homeostasis to coordinated fluxes of water and solutes at both the blood-CSF and blood-brain transport interfaces