Adolescents as public library users

Summary in English.|Bibliography: leaves 161-170.The primary objectives and scope of this research are to examine the library usage behaviour of adolescents, specifically those attending a high school in Grassy Park and those using Grassy Park Library. A central aspect of this research was to identify the types of library needs (curricular and non-curricular) that these two groups might have and how they went about to satisfy these needs. Their library usage patterns and reading behaviour were also investigated

Discourses of teenage sexuality

This research investigates the conditions that prevent safe sex amongst teenage women and men. It integrates survey techniques and statistical methods with focus group discussions and discourse analysis as the methods of inquiry. Initially, I proposed that a discourse of romantic love' could explain the dissonance between teenagers' knowledge about sexually transmissible diseases and their infrequent use of condoms. However, when teenagers told their own stories about sexual encounters, the influence of a 'romantic' script was not supported. Instead, they spoke with enthusiasm about the intimacy and pleasure which shaped their experience of sexual encounters and sexual relationships. In contrast, teachers and parents spoke in ways that often endorsed the imperative for disease prevention, but that did not allow discussion of teenagers' sexual pleasure nor of their desire for sexual intimacy in relationships. During 1992,1 conducted a survey of 794 students (aged between 16 and 20 years) at senior secondary colleges in Canberra. The central findings were derived from questions that asked the teenage respondents about their most recent sexual encounter. I constructed a quantitative model in which respondents' reports of intercourse without a condom were regressed on (1) using oral contraception, (2) relationship status—being with regular versus casual partners, (3) drinking alcohol at the time of the encounter, and (4) including sex games or water play in the encounter. Oral contraception showed a very strong association with unsafe sex, and was heavily confounded with being in a regular sexual relationship. There was no association between drinking alcohol and using (or not using) condoms. Playing sex games was associated with unsafe sex, and this effect was independent of the other variables. The practices depicted in the survey results are consistent with the discourse of intimacy and pleasure that emerged from analysis of the focus group discussions. Teenagers are more worried about unwanted pregnancy than about sexually transmissible disease. In many instances they know that the risk of infection is slight, and if they are using oral contraception with a partner who has had little or no previous sexual experience it 'makes sense' to them not to use a condom. Teenagers often find it difficult to talk about condoms in sexual encounters, although they can speak freely about them elsewhere. The focus group findings emphasised the difficulties in intimate communication—feeling apprehensive about a partner's expectations and fearing rejection. A reference to condoms is also a reference to intercourse and this correspondence inhibits talking about condoms until partners are clear about each others' intentions. If teenagers have a ready repertoire for talking about condoms in ways that are playful and light-hearted, then they may use condoms more often. The results of this research emphasise the value of producing knowledge that reflects teenagers' subjective experience and is thus relevant to the conduct of their sexual relationships. In concluding, I propose that the different ways of speaking about sex highlight barriers to the use of condoms and to the promotion of safe sex in school settings. Sex education could be directed more deliberately toward the 'window of opportunity' that exists early in teenagers' sexual experience, when they may exchange the use of condoms for oral contraception. At this time, teenage women and men could be assisted to adopt lively and competent ways in which to talk about and handle condoms, located in their expectations of encountering intimacy and pleasure with sexual partners

Quid pro quo:reflections on the value of problem structuring workshops

Attracting clients who are willing to invest in using a problem structuring method (PSM) can be particularly difficult for the emerging generation of modellers. There are many reasons for this, not least that the benefits of a problem structuring intervention are vague and evidence of benefits are often anecdotal for example, claims of constructing a deeper understanding of the problem or building the commitment of a group to implementing an outcome. This paper contributes to the evaluation of problem structuring methods by reflecting on the quid pro quo that a client and problem structuring modeller can enjoy from collaboration. The paper reflects on 21 cases, where Journey Making (a problem structuring method) was used with 16 organizations to help managers agree a suite of actions to tackle a complex strategic issue. The reflections are clustered around those benefits that pertain to: PSMs in general; PSMs that use computer-supported workshops; the Journey Making methodology

Making a journey in knowledge management strategy

This paper reports results from an ongoing project examining what managers think about knowledge management in the context of their organisation. This was done in a facilitated computerassisted group workshop environment. Here we compare the outcomes of workshops held for two relatively large UK organisations, one public sector and the other private. Our conclusions are that there are relatively few differences between the perceptions of these two groups of managers, and that these differences stem more from the stage of the knowledge management life cycle that the two organisations have reached, rather than from the difference in context between public and private sector. © iKMS & World Scientific Publishing Co

Negotiation in strategy making teams : group support systems and the process of cognitive change

This paper reports on the use of a Group Support System (GSS) to explore at a micro level some of the processes manifested when a group is negotiating strategy-processes of social and psychological negotiation. It is based on data from a series of interventions with senior management teams of three operating companies comprising a multi-national organization, and with a joint meeting subsequently involving all of the previous participants. The meetings were concerned with negotiating a new strategy for the global organization. The research involved the analysis of detailed time series data logs that exist as a result of using a GSS that is a reflection of cognitive theory

Sleep deprivation impairs and caffeine enhances my performance, but not always our performance: how acting in a group can change the effects of impairments and enhancements

What effects do factors that impair or enhance performance in individuals have when these individuals act in groups? We provide a framework, called the GIE ("Effects of Grouping on Impairments and Enhancements”) framework, for investigating this question. As prominent examples for individual-level impairments and enhancements, we discuss sleep deprivation and caffeine. Based on previous research, we derive hypotheses on how they influence performance in groups, specifically process gains and losses in motivation, individual capability, and coordination. We conclude that the effect an impairment or enhancement has on individual-level performance is not necessarily mirrored in group performance: grouping can help or hurt. We provide recommendations on how to estimate empirically the effects individual-level performance impairments and enhancements have in groups. By comparing sleep deprivation to stress and caffeine to pharmacological cognitive enhancement, we illustrate that we cannot readily generalize from group results on one impairment or enhancement to another, even if they have similar effects on individual-level performance

Australia\u27s health 2000 : the seventh biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Australia\u27s Health 2000 is the seventh biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It is the nation\u27s authoritative source of information on patterns of health and illness, determinants of health, the supply and use of health services, and health services costs and performance.This 2000 edition serves as a summary of Australia\u27s health record at the end of the twentieth century. In addition, a special chapter is presented on changes in Australia\u27s disease profile over the last 100 years.Australia\u27s Health 2000 is an essential reference and information source for all Australians with an interest in health

The Great American Biotic Interchange: Dispersals, Tectonics, Climate, Sea Level and Holding Pens

The biotic and geologic dynamics of the Great American Biotic Interchange are reviewed and revised. Information on the Marine Isotope Stage chronology, sea level changes as well as Pliocene and Pleistocene vegetation changes in Central and northern South America add to a discussion of the role of climate in facilitating trans-isthmian exchanges. Trans-isthmian land mammal exchanges during the Pleistocene glacial intervals appear to have been promoted by the development of diverse non-tropical ecologies

The function of fear in institutional maintenance: Feeling frightened as an essential ingredient in haute cuisine

Fear is a common and powerful emotion that can regulate behaviour. Yet institutional scholars have paid limited attention to the function of fear in processes of institutional reproduction and stability. Drawing on an empirical study of elite chefs within the institution of haute cuisine, this article finds that the multifaceted emotion of fear characterised their experiences and served to sustain their institution. Chefs’ individual feelings of fear prompted conformity and a cognitive constriction, which narrowed their focus on to the precise reproduction of traditional practices whilst also limiting challenges to the norms underpinning the institution. Through fear work, chefs used threats and violence to connect individual experiences of fear to the violation of institutionalized rules, sustaining the conditions in which fear-driven maintenance work thrived. The study also suggests that fear is a normative element of haute cuisine in its own right, where the very experience and eliciting of fear preserved an essential institutional ingredient. In this way, emotions such as fear do not just accompany processes of institutionalization but can be intimately involved in the maintenance of institutions

Australia\u27s health 2002 : the eighth biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Australia\u27s Health 2002 is the eighth biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It is the nation\u27s authoritative source of information on patterns of health and illness, determinants of health, the supply and use of health services, and health service costs and performance. Australia\u27s Health 2002 is an essential reference and information resource for all Australians with an interest in health