Ageing-in-place : home enhancement to give elderly a dream home

Everyone has their own definition of dream home , but there is always something in common - comfort and safety. Seniors prefer to stay in their own house for as long as possible, yet the inevitable decline of their physical functionality in the process of ageing has rendered some to rely on wheelchairs, canes and other aids. The original interior design might pose threats to them, making the house unsuitable for them. In view of this service gap, collaborated with the Institute of Surveyors Building Surveying Cooperation, the Hong Kong Housing Society launched the Elderly Safe Living Scheme to enhance public awareness of barrier-free domestic design through public education in the forms of road shows, seminars, consultation, and home assessment

Open Access, Privacy, and Ethics

Open access is generally touted as a beneficial good. It enables communities, especially those with the least resources, to access literature that they often would otherwise not be able to afford. It brings publicly funded studies and ensuing publications out from behind a paywall for the public good. Open data sets allow for the aggregation of studies, leading to higher statistical power and generalizability. Open data sets can also be utilized to address replication concerns. Despite these tremendous benefits, there are existing and valid concerns about open access in a networked world. As increased quantities of materials are digitized, especially when the contents mention and refer to individuals still alive, open access and institutional repository professionals will need to address privacy concerns and interrogate their moral and ethical values. San Jose State University (SJSU) Library recently uploaded over 80 years of the Spartan Daily, the student campus newspaper, to its campus institutional repository (IR). Former SJSU students have contacted the IR managers to request that whole issues be taken down or redacted because of unflattering news reports on their activities as SJSU undergraduates. These concerns of privacy and managing one’s online identity are generally not seen favorably by the IR managers; their perspective is that the Spartan Daily is an official University publication. To modify the content is tantamount to censorship. This session will grapple with privacy and ethical concerns that intersect with open access

Privacy and Anonymity in a Reference Librarianship Digital Archive

This poster will discuss the ethical concerns with the processing, digitizing, and organizing of the Pacific Library Partnership’s System Reference Center (SRC) reference question archive, which contains material artifacts of complex reference questions from 1972-2004. Reference services, a core librarian responsibility, centers on connecting users with answers, materials, and the information that will satisfy their research needs. With the proliferation of online materials and ubiquity of search engines, the nature of reference services has changed dramatically over the last decades. The archive is comprised of questions submitted for reference librarian review by other reference librarians who had exhausted local resources and capabilities. Thus, these questions offer a unique perspective on the nature of the questions that required expert searchers with extensive resources. Included in this collection’s documentation are the originating librarian-patron consultation and SRC librarian answer, providing a detailed view of the intellectual approach and type(s) and quantity of resources consulted. This poster will consider the privacy concerns for this particular archive, reference services, and librarians

From fear of death to management of life : inspirations from the life and death education

Talking about death has always been a taboo for most traditionally-minded Chinese. Even though people understand that nobody could escape from death, they rather want to have a discussion on one\u27s life instead. However, does not bringing death up the table mean that this topic is unimportant and hence negligible

Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters

The pressure of climate change, environmental degradation, and urbanisation, as well as the widening of socio- economic disparities have rendered the global population increasingly vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. With a primary focus on medical and public health humanitarian response to disasters, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters provides a timely critical analysis of public health responses to natural disasters. Using a number of case studies and examples of innovative disaster response measures developed by international agencies and stakeholders, this book illustrates how theoretical understanding of public health issues can be practically applied in the context of humanitarian relief response. Starting with an introduction to public health principles within the context of medical and public health disaster and humanitarian response, the book goes on to explore key trends, threats and challenges in contemporary disaster medical response. This book provides a comprehensive overview of an emergent discipline and offers a unique multidisciplinary perspective across a range of relevant topics including the concepts of disaster preparedness and resilience, and key challenges in human health needs for the twenty-first century. This book will be of interest to students of public health, disaster and emergency medicine and development studies, as well as to development and medical practitioners working within NGOs, development agencies, health authorities and public administration