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Given the rapid development of digital mental health technologies and a focus on connecting with youth, there is an urgent need to enhance the engagement of young people with lived expertise in research. Even so, youth with lived experience of accessing mental health services are particularly affected by power imbalances and may receive limited compensation in academic settings. Therefore, an emphasis on how research engagement not only improves the work but can benefit young people themselves is required. Here, 5 young people with lived expertise report on their experience of being employed as researchers at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre. As such, this team is uniquely placed to offer reflections from their work across multiple stages of research. This led to four key insights, including (1) creating accepting work cultures, (2) providing diverse opportunities for involvement, (3) giving young people agency and flexibility around sharing lived experiences, and (4) creating accommodating work environments for all researchers. We suggest that these insights can support more diverse ways of engaging young people and maximizing the value of participation for both researchers and young people themselves.

Abstract There has recently been an increase in ongoing patient-report routine outcome monitoring for individuals within clinical care, which has corresponded to increased longitudinal information about an individual. However, many models that are aimed at clinical practice have difficulty fully incorporating this information. This is in part due to the difficulty in dealing with the irregularly time-spaced observations that are common in clinical data. Consequently, we built individual-level continuous-time trajectory models of suicidal ideation for a clinical population (N = 585) with data collected via a digital platform. We demonstrate how such models predict an individual’s level and variability of future suicide ideation, with implications for the frequency that individuals may need to be observed. These individual-level predictions provide a more personalised understanding than other predictive methods and have implications for enhanced measurement-based care.

ABSTRACT Objectives Despite high levels of mental ill‐health amongst young people (aged 15–30), this group demonstrates low help‐seeking and high drop‐out from mental health services (MHS). Whilst shared decision‐making can assist people in receiving appropriate and effective health care, young people frequently report that they do not feel involved in treatment decisions. The current study focused on co‐design of a clinical education and participant information programme for the Brain and Mind Centre Youth Model of Care. This model, which articulates a youth‐focused form of highly personalised and measurement‐based care, is designed to promote shared decision‐making between young people and clinical service providers. Methods We conducted workshops with 24 young people (16–31; MAge = 21.5) who had accessed mental health services. Participants were asked what advice they would give to young people entering services, before giving advice on existing materials. Workshops were conducted and transcripts were coded using thematic analysis by two lived experience researchers and a clinical researcher. Results Young people found it empowering to be educated on transdiagnostic models of mental illness, namely clinical staging, which gives them a better understanding of why certain treatments may be inappropriate and ineffective, and thus reduce self‐blame. Similarly, young people had limited knowledge of links between mental health and other life domains and found it helpful to be educated on multidisciplinary treatment options. Measurement‐based care was seen as an important method of improving shared decision‐making between young people and health professionals; however, to facilitate shared decision‐making, young people also wanted better information on their rights in care and more support to share their expertise in their own needs, values and treatment preferences. Conclusions These findings will inform the delivery of the further development and implementation of a youth‐specific clinical education and participant information programme for the BMC Youth Model. Patient or Public Contribution Workshops were facilitated by researchers with lived expertise in mental ill‐health (A.H. and/or C.G.) and a clinical researcher (who has expertise as an academic and a clinical psychologist). A.H. and C.G. were also involved in conceptualisation, analysis, interpretation, review and editing of this paper.

Background Primary youth mental health services in Australia have increased access to care for young people, yet the longer-term outcomes and utilisation of other health services among these populations is unclear. Aims To describe the emergency department presentation patterns of a help-seeking youth mental health cohort. Method Data linkage was performed to extract Emergency Department Data Collection registry data (i.e. emergency department presentations, pattern of re-presentations) for a transdiagnostic cohort of 7024 youths (aged 12–30 years) who presented to mental health services. Outcome measures were pattern of presentations and reason for presentations (i.e. mental illness; suicidal behaviours and self-harm; alcohol and substance use; accident and injury; physical illness; and other). Results During the follow-up period, 5372 (76.5%) had at least one emergency department presentation. The presentation rate was lower for males (IRR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.86–0.89) and highest among those aged 18 to 24 (IRR = 1.117, 95% CI 1.086–1.148). Almost one-third (31.12%) had an emergency department presentation that was directly associated with mental illness or substance use, and the most common reasons for presentation were for physical illness and accident or injury. Index visits for mental illness or substance use were associated with a higher rate of re-presentation. Conclusions Most young people presenting to primary mental health services also utilised emergency services. The preventable and repeated nature of many presentations suggests that reducing the ongoing secondary risks of mental disorders (i.e. substance misuse, suicidality, physical illness) could substantially improve the mental and physical health outcomes of young people.

BackgroundHighly personalized care is substantially improved by technology platforms that assess and track patient outcomes. However, evidence regarding how to successfully implement technology in real-world mental health settings is limited. ObjectiveThis study aimed to naturalistically monitor how a health information technology (HIT) platform was used within 2 real-world mental health service settings to gain practical insights into how HIT can be implemented and sustained to improve mental health service delivery. MethodsAn HIT (The Innowell Platform) was naturally implemented in 2 youth mental health services in Sydney, Australia. Web-based surveys (n=19) and implementation logs were used to investigate staff attitudes toward technology before and after implementation. Descriptive statistics were used to track staff attitudes over time, whereas qualitative thematic analysis was used to explore implementation log data to gain practical insights into useful implementation strategies in real-world settings. ResultsAfter the implementation, the staff were nearly 3 times more likely to agree that the HIT would improve care for their clients (3/12, 25% agreed before the implementation compared with 7/10, 70% after the implementation). Despite this, there was also an increase in the number of staff who disagreed that the HIT would improve care (from 1/12, 8% to 2/10, 20%). There was also decreased uncertainty (from 6/12, 50% to 3/10, 30%) about the willingness of the service to implement the technology for its intended purpose, with similar increases in the number of staff who agreed and disagreed with this statement. Staff were more likely to be uncertain about whether colleagues in my service are receptive to changes in clinical processes (not sure rose from 5/12, 42% to 7/10, 70%). They were also more likely to report that their service already provides the best mental health care (agreement rose from 7/12, 58% to 8/10, 80%). After the implementation, a greater proportion of participants reported that the HIT enabled shared or collaborative decision-making with young people (2/10, 20%, compared with 1/12, 8%), enabled clients to proactively work on their mental health care through digital technologies (3/10, 30%, compared with 2/12, 16%), and improved their response to suicidal risk (4/10, 40% compared with 3/12, 25%). ConclusionsThis study raises important questions about why clinicians, who have the same training and support in using technology, develop more polarized opinions on its usefulness after implementation. It seems that the uptake of HIT is heavily influenced by a clinician’s underlying beliefs and attitudes toward clinical practice in general as well as the role of technology, rather than their knowledge or the ease of use of the HIT in question.

Summary: Understanding the drivers of fisheries bycatch is essential for limiting its impacts on vulnerable species. Here we present a model to estimate the relative magnitude of sea turtle bycatch in major coastal fisheries across the southeastern US based on spatiotemporal variation in fishing effort and the simulated distributions of juvenile Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtles recruiting from oceanic to nearshore habitats. Over the period modeled (1996–2017), bycatch in recreational fisheries was estimated to be greater than the sum of bycatch that occurred in commercial fisheries that have historically been considered high risks to turtles (e.g., those using trawls, gillnets, and bottom longlines). Prioritizing engagement with recreational anglers to reduce bycatch could be especially beneficial to sea turtle populations. Applying lessons learned from efforts to protect turtles in commercial fisheries may help meet the challenges that arise from the large, diffuse recreational fishing sector.

Abstract Aims The needs of young people attending mental healthcare can be complex and often span multiple domains (e.g., social, emotional and physical health factors). These factors often complicate treatment approaches and contribute to poorer outcomes in youth mental health. We aimed to identify how these factors interact over time by modelling the temporal dependencies between these transdiagnostic social, emotional and physical health factors among young people presenting for youth mental healthcare. Methods Dynamic Bayesian networks were used to examine the relationship between mental health factors across multiple domains (social and occupational function, self-harm and suicidality, alcohol and substance use, physical health and psychiatric syndromes) in a longitudinal cohort of 2663 young people accessing youth mental health services. Two networks were developed: (1) ‘initial network’, that shows the conditional dependencies between factors at first presentation, and a (2) ‘transition network’, how factors are dependent longitudinally. Results The ‘initial network’ identified that childhood disorders tend to precede adolescent depression which itself was associated with three distinct pathways or illness trajectories; (1) anxiety disorder; (2) bipolar disorder, manic-like experiences, circadian disturbances and psychosis-like experiences; (3) self-harm and suicidality to alcohol and substance use or functioning. The ‘transition network’ identified that over time social and occupational function had the largest effect on self-harm and suicidality, with direct effects on ideation (relative risk [RR], 1.79; CI, 1.59–1.99) and self-harm (RR, 1.32; CI, 1.22–1.41), and an indirect effect on attempts (RR, 2.10; CI, 1.69–2.50). Suicide ideation had a direct effect on future suicide attempts (RR, 4.37; CI, 3.28–5.43) and self-harm (RR, 2.78; CI, 2.55–3.01). Alcohol and substance use, physical health and psychiatric syndromes (e.g., depression and anxiety, at-risk mental states) were independent domains whereby all direct effects remained within each domain over time. Conclusions This study identified probable temporal dependencies between domains, which has causal interpretations, and therefore can provide insight into their differential role over the course of illness. This work identified social, emotional and physical health factors that may be important early intervention and prevention targets. Improving social and occupational function may be a critical target due to its impacts longitudinally on self-harm and suicidality. The conditional independence of alcohol and substance use supports the need for specific interventions to target these comorbidities.

Abstract Background The World Economic Forum has recently highlighted substantial problems in mental health service provision and called for the rapid deployment of smarter, digitally-enhanced health services as a means to facilitate effective care coordination and address issues of demand. In mental health, the biggest enabler of digital solutions is the implementation of an effective model of care that is facilitated by integrated health information technologies (HITs); the latter ensuring the solution is easily accessible, scalable and sustainable. The University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre (BMC) has developed an innovative digital health solution – delivered through the Youth Mental Health and Technology Program – which incorporates two components: 1) a highly personalised and measurement-based (data-driven) model of youth mental health care; and 2) an industrial grade HIT registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. This paper describes a research protocol to evaluate the impact of implementing the BMC’s digital health solution into youth mental health services (i.e. headspace - a highly accessible, youth-friendly integrated service that responds to the mental health, physical health, alcohol or other substance use, and vocational concerns of young people aged 12 to 25 years) within urban and regional areas of Australia. Methods The digital health solution will be implemented into participating headspace centres using a naturalistic research design. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected from headspace health professionals, service managers and administrators, as well as from lead agency and local Primary Health Network (PHN) staff, via service audits, Implementation Officer logs, online surveys, and semi-structured interviews, at baseline and then three-monthly intervals over the course of 12 months. Discussion At the time of publication, six headspace centres had been recruited to this study and had commenced implementation and impact evaluation. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in 2021. This study will focus on the impact of implementing a digital health solution at both a service and staff level, and will evaluate digital readiness of service and staff adoption; quality, usability and acceptability of the solution by staff; staff self-reported clinical competency; overall impact on headspace centres as well as their lead agencies and local PHNs; and social return on investment.

Introduction Currently, the literature on personalised and measurement-based mental healthcare is inadequate with major gaps in the development and evaluation of 21st century service models. Clinical presentations of mental ill health in young people are heterogeneous, and clinical and functional outcomes are often suboptimal. Thus, treatments provided in a person-centred and responsive fashion are critical to meet the unique needs of young people and improve individual outcomes. Personalised care also requires concurrent assessment of factors relating to outcomes and underlying neurobiology. This study builds on a completed feasibility study and will be the first to incorporate clinical, cognitive, circadian, metabolic and hormonal profiling with personalised and measurement-based care in a cohort of young people admitted to hospital.Methods and analysis This prospective, transdiagnostic, observational study will be offered to all young people between the ages of 16 and 30 years admitted to the inpatient unit of the participating centre. In total, 400 participants will be recruited. On admission to hospital, young people will undergo clinical and diagnostic assessment, cognitive testing, self-report questionnaires, metabolic and hormonal data collection, and anthropomorphic measurements. Participants will wear an actigraphy watch for at least 1 week during admission to measure circadian patterns and sleep-wake cycles. A feedback session between clinician and participant will occur after clinical and other laboratory assessments to tailor individual treatment plans, explain the ongoing process of measurement-based care, and provide participant and family education. Associations between cognitive impairments, disturbed sleep-wake behaviours, circadian rhythms, clinical symptoms and functional impairments will be evaluated to improve the understanding of parameters affecting clinical outcomes.Ethics and dissemination This study protocol was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committees of the University of Sydney (HREC USYD 2015/867) and St Vincent’s Hospital (HREC SVH 17/045). This study will be published on completion in a peer-reviewed journal.

Summary: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a primary disorder of contractility in heart muscle. To gain mechanistic insight and guide pharmacological rescue, this study models HCM using isogenic pairs of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) carrying the E99K-ACTC1 cardiac actin mutation. In both 3D engineered heart tissues and 2D monolayers, arrhythmogenesis was evident in all E99K-ACTC1 hiPSC-CMs. Aberrant phenotypes were most common in hiPSC-CMs produced from the heterozygote father. Unexpectedly, pathological phenotypes were less evident in E99K-expressing hiPSC-CMs from the two sons. Mechanistic insight from Ca2+ handling expression studies prompted pharmacological rescue experiments, wherein dual dantroline/ranolazine treatment was most effective. Our data are consistent with E99K mutant protein being a central cause of HCM but the three-way interaction between the primary genetic lesion, background (epi)genetics, and donor patient age may influence the pathogenic phenotype. This illustrates the value of isogenic hiPSC-CMs in genotype-phenotype correlations. : In this article Smith, Denning and colleagues show that the E99K-ACTC1 cardiac actin mutation is a central cause of HCM, but the three-way interaction between the primary genetic lesion, background genetics, and donor patient age may influence the pathogenic phenotype. Pharmacological rescue experiments demonstrated dual dantroline/ranolazine to be an effective treatment. Keywords: arrhythmia, contractile function, hypertrophy, cardiomyopathy

BackgroundA priority for health services is to reduce self-harm in young people. Predicting self-harm is challenging due to their rarity and complexity, however this does not preclude the utility of prediction models to improve decision-making regarding a service response in terms of more detailed assessments and/or intervention. The aim of this study was to predict self-harm within six-months after initial presentation.MethodThe study included 1962 young people (12-30 years) presenting to youth mental health services in Australia. Six machine learning algorithms were trained and tested with ten repeats of ten-fold cross-validation. The net benefit of these models were evaluated using decision curve analysis.ResultsOut of 1962 young people, 320 (16%) engaged in self-harm in the six months after first assessment and 1642 (84%) did not. The top 25% of young people as ranked by mean predicted probability accounted for 51.6% - 56.2% of all who engaged in self-harm. By the top 50%, this increased to 82.1%-84.4%. Models demonstrated fair overall prediction (AUROCs; 0.744-0.755) and calibration which indicates that predicted probabilities were close to the true probabilities (brier scores; 0.185-0.196). The net benefit of these models were positive and superior to the 'treat everyone' strategy. The strongest predictors were (in ranked order); a history of self-harm, age, social and occupational functioning, sex, bipolar disorder, psychosis-like experiences, treatment with antipsychotics, and a history of suicide ideation.ConclusionPrediction models for self-harm may have utility to identify a large sub population who would benefit from further assessment and targeted (low intensity) interventions. Such models could enhance health service approaches to identify and reduce self-harm, a considerable source of distress, morbidity, ongoing health care utilisation and mortality.

Mental disorders that commonly emerge during adolescence and young adulthood are associated with substantial immediate burden and risks, as well as potentially imparting lifetime morbidity and premature mortality. While the development of health services that are youth focused and prioritize early intervention has been a critical step forward, an ongoing challenge is the heterogeneous nature of symptom profiles and illness trajectories. Consequently, it is often difficult to provide quality mental health care, at scale, that addresses the broad range of health, social, and functional needs of young people. Here, we describe a new digital platform designed to deliver personalized and measurement-based care. It provides health services and clinicians with the tools to directly address the multidimensional needs of young people. The term “personalized” describes the notion that the assessment of, and the sequence of interventions for, mental disorders are tailored to the young person—and their changing needs over time, while “measurement-based” describes the use of systematic and continuing assessment of a young person’s outcomes over the entire course of clinical care. Together, these concepts support a framework for care that transcends a narrow focus on symptom reduction or risk reduction. Instead, it prioritizes a broader focus on enhancing social, health, and physical outcomes for young people and a commitment to tracking these outcomes throughout this key developmental period. Now, with twenty-first century technologies, it is possible to provide health services with the tools needed to deliver quality mental health care.

Background: Frontline health-care workers have traditionally travelled away from their job sites to receive continuing education and training, which not only disrupts continuity of patient care but also incurs travel costs and causes scheduling issues. Asynchronous e-learning is an effective, non-disruptive, and economical alternative to the traditional model of continuing education and training. However, in resource-constrained settings, poor access to computers and unreliable internet connectivity have slowed implementation of e-learning. Here, we report on the effectiveness of our flexible, open-source method for the delivery of distance training on Android tablets that does not require access to the internet. Through five training programmes we aimed to assess learner satisfaction, costs compared with traditional training models, technical feasibility, completion rates, and challenges affecting implementation to continuously improve our framework. Methods: Five tablet-based training programmes were developed by the University of Washington Department of Global Health E-learning Programme (eDGH) and delivered in Namibia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Participants were health care professionals, including clinical assistants, frontline health care workers, primary counsellors, pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and community health workers. The training programmes preserved much of the experience of a traditional online course, with videos, assessments, and interactive features such as discussion forums via the messaging application WhatsApp. Training programmes included a 24-month clinical officer training, month-long trainings on prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV and child and adolescent HIV counselling, interactive job aides for clinical mentors, and health information systems. Tablets were usually loaned to participants for the duration of the training. Implementation partners included non-government organisations and ministries of health. Data collection methods varied by project but included focus group discussions, structured interviews, and online surveys. Findings: We included data from 248 participants who completed one of the five training courses between November, 2014, and September, 2016. For training programmes that evaluated learning with pre-tests and post-tests, the target audience demonstrated increased learning, although pass rates differed between programmes. In Namibia and Tanzania, per person costs for the tablet-based version of the training programme was about three times less than the in-person training. Because participants completed most of their training at the job site or home, off-site time decreased from 4 days for the in-person training to under 1 day. For training programmes that used text messaging to keep learners engaged, all participants finished in the time allotted. Overall, feedback showed that participants are enthusiastic about the tablet-based training. In Zimbabwe, many participants reported sharing the training programmes with co-workers and several participants requested more ways to engage with other learners. The training programme in Namibia and Tanzania had no technical difficulties with the tablets, while in Zimbabwe there were minor issues with the software. Interpretation: We plan to improve flexibility and usability of e-learning programmes through additional testing to ensure users on all devices have the best learning experience possible. We will continue to expand the types of learning activities and incorporate more real-time interactions among peers and course facilitators through text-message-based discussion groups or added face-to-face interactions for participants at the same facility. Funding: The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over the past decade there has been a growing recognition of the involvement of the home in several public health and hygiene issues. Perhaps the best understood of these issues is the role of the home in the transmission and acquisition of foodborne disease. The incidence of foodborne disease is increasing globally. Although foodborne disease data collection systems often miss the mass of home-based outbreaks of sporadic infection, it is now accepted that many cases of foodborne illness occur as a result of improper food handling and preparation by consumers in their own kitchens. Some of the most compelling evidence has come from the international data on Salmonella species and Campylobacter species infections.

Evidence shows that there are reductions in gray matter volume (GMV) and changes in long association white matter fibres within the left insula-temporoparietal junction (TPJ) during the early stages of psychotic disorders but less is known about short association fibres (sAFs). In this study we sought to characterise the changes in sAFs and associated volumetric changes of the left insula-TPJ during the early stages of psychosis. Magnetic resonance imaging was obtained from a sample of young people with psychosis (n = 42) and healthy controls (n = 45), and cortical parcellations of the left insula-TPJ were used as seeding masks to reconstruct 13 sAFs. Compared to healthy counterparts, the psychosis group showed significant reductions in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the sAFs connecting the superior (STG) and middle temporal gyri (MTG) and as well as reduced GMV within the inferior temporal gyrus and increased white matter volume (WMV) within Heschl's gyrus (HG). Furthermore, adolescent-onset psychosis subjects (onset 18 year or earlier) showed FA reductions in the STG-HG sAF when compared to adult-onset subjects, but this was not associated with changes in GMV nor WMV of the STG or HG. These findings suggest that during the early stages of psychosis, changes in sAFs and associated cortical GMV and WMV appear to occur independently, however age of onset of a psychotic syndrome/disorder influences the pattern of neuroanatomical abnormalities.

The folding of the myosin head often requires a UCS (Unc45, Cro1, She4) domain-containing chaperone. Worms, flies, and fungi have just a single UCS protein. Vertebrates have two; one (Unc45A) which functions primarily in non-muscle cells and another (Unc45B) that is essential for establishing and maintaining the contractile apparatus of cardiac and skeletal muscles. The domain structure of these proteins suggests that the UCS function evolved before animals and fungi diverged from a common ancestor more than a billion years ago. UCS proteins of metazoans and apicomplexan parasites possess a tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR), a domain for direct binding of the Hsp70/Hsp90 chaperones. This, however, is absent in the UCS proteins of fungi and largely nonessential for the UCS protein function in Caenorhabditis elegans and zebrafish. The latter part of this review focusses on the TPR-deficient UCS proteins of fungi. While these are reasonably well studied in yeasts, there is little precise information as to how they might engage in interactions with the Hsp70/Hsp90 chaperones or might assist in myosin operations during the hyphal growth of filamentous fungi.

A Review of: Chilimo, W. L., & Onyancha, O. B. (2018). How open is open access research in library and information science? South African Journal of Libraries & Information Science, 84(1), 11-19. https://doi.org/10.7553/84-1-1710 Abstract Objective – To investigate the open access (OA) availability of Library and Information Science (LIS) research on the topic of OA, the relative openness of the journals in which this research is published, and the degree to which the OA policies of LIS journals facilitate free access. Design – Bibliometric, quantitative dataset analysis. Setting – African academic library and information science department. Subjects – 1,185 English-language, peer-reviewed articles published between 2003 and 2013 on OA and published in journals indexed by three major LIS databases, of which 909 articles in the top 56 journals received further analysis. Methods – Authors first searched LIS indexes to compile a dataset of published articles focusing on OA. They then manually identified and evaluated the OA policies of the top 56 journals in which these articles were found. The openness of these journals was scored according to a rubric modified from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic resources Coalition’s (SPARC’s) 2013 OA spectrum. Finally, authors manually searched Google Scholar to determine the OA availability of the articles from the dataset. Main Results – Of the 909 articles published in the top 56 journals, 602 were available in some form of OA. Of these, 431 were available as gold copies and 171 were available as green copies. Of the 56 journals evaluated for openness, 13 were considered OA, 3 delayed OA, 27 hybrid/unconditional post-print, 2 hybrid/conditional post-print, and 11 had unrecognized OA policies. Conclusion – The increasing amount and significance of LIS research on OA has not directly translated to the comprehensive adoption of OA publishing. Although a majority of the articles in the dataset were available in OA, the authors indicate that some measures of OA adoption and growth assessed in this study are only somewhat higher than in other disciplines. The authors call upon LIS professionals to become more conversant with journals’ OA policies. An acknowledgement that not all LIS scholars researching OA are necessarily advocates thereof led the authors of this study to recommend further investigation of OA research not available in OA to shed light on those scholars’ perceptions and preferences.

A Review of: Teper, J. H. (2019). Considering “sameness” of monographic holdings in shared print retention decisions. Library Resources & Technical Services, 63(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.63n1.29 Abstract Objective – To investigate the degree to which books catalogued using the same bibliographic record differ and to consider the implications of these differences for cooperative monographic print retention programs. Design – Book condition survey. Setting – Academic library consortium in the United States of America. Subjects – 47 monographic titles, publication years 1851-1922, held by all consortium members and catalogued using the same respective OCLC record number. 625 out of a possible 705 circulating copies of these titles were available for item-level analysis via interlibrary loan. Methods – Book condition surveys were completed for all items and the resulting sets of assessment data points were analyzed to reveal trends. Main Results – 3.4% of items analyzed exhibited cataloguing errors (i.e., were catalogued using the wrong OCLC records), 56.8% retained their original bindings, 17.8% were marked to show previous ownership, 95.7% were complete with no missing content, 9.8% had no damage, and 18.9% had received identifiable preservation action. Conclusion – Books catalogued using the same OCLC record demonstrated many differences when compared at the item level. These differences are important in light of shared print retention programs and highlight a need for inquiry into the number of copies that should be retained to minimize the loss of uniqueness in print materials.

A Review of: Harker, K. R., O'Toole, E., & Sassen, C. (2018). Assessing an academic library professional development program. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 18(1), 199-223. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2018.0010 Abstract Objective – To analyze various measures of need, participation, satisfaction, and impact of an academic library professional development program. Design – Multi-modal; surveys, curriculum vitae (CV) analysis, and attendance statistics. Setting – Academic library in the United States. Subjects – Library faculty of all ranks. Methods – Assessment of the Career Development Program began with an interest survey conducted at the beginning of the fiscal year in which participants ranked their interest in professional development topics. Attendance statistics were collected at all program sessions and participants were emailed post-event surveys comprised of three Likert-scale questions and an open-ended question. Participants in the peer-review service were emailed a survey with two Likert-scale questions and an open-ended question. All programs and surveys were voluntary. An “activities survey” attempted to document counts of scholarly publications and presentations according to geographic scope, format, and peer-review. However, due to low response rates, the activities survey was replaced after two years with an analysis of library faculty member CVs on a publicly-accessible university website. The final assessment was a narrative annual report that drew on and summarized all of the previously conducted assessments. Main Results – Multi-modal assessment of the professional development program improved its relevance and quality while also documenting its impact. Conclusion – Continuous and multi-faceted assessment of professional development programs not only leads to improved efficacy, but also provides accountability and details the value of the program to stakeholders. Professional development programs promote scholarly productivity, which has implications for the career satisfaction of academic librarians. Further research should investigate the validity of professional development program assessment instruments and identify which assessment methods are most effective for evaluating professional development programs and measuring the impact of this programming on scholarship.

A Review of: Lloyd, A., & Wilkinson, J. (2017). Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee youth enactment of information literacy in everyday spaces. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000617709058 Abstract Objective – To describe the ways in which refugee youth use everyday information to support their learning. Design – Photo voice technique, a process by which the population under consideration is provided with cameras and asked to visually document an aspect of their experience. Setting – Social agency in New South Wales, Australia Subjects – Fifteen 16-25 year old refugees resettled from South Sudan or Afghanistan Methods – Three workshops were conducted. In the first, participants learned how to use the cameras and the protocols for participation. Between the first and second workshops, participants took several photographs of places, sources and types of information that were personally meaningful. In the second workshop, participants were first split into small groups to share and discuss the five images that they selected as their most important information sources and later reconvened as a large group in which participants again shared and discussed their images. In the third and final workshop, the authors shared their findings and analysis with the participants and invited discussion. The authors analyzed both photos and group transcripts from the workshops using Charmaz’s constant comparative method. Main Results – Refugee youth use digital, vernacular, meditational, and visual literacies in everyday settings in to order to understand and create their new information landscapes. Information literacy enactment is agile and responsive to context. Conclusion – Engaging with digital, vernacular, and visual information in a variety of contexts is central to how young refugees (re)form their information landscapes.

A Review of: Shao, X., & Purpur, G. (2016). Effects of information literacy skills on student writing and course performance. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(6), 670-678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2016.08.006 Abstract Objective – To measure the correlation of tested information literacy skills with individual writing scores and overall course grade. Design – Online, multiple-choice survey. Setting – Public research university in North Carolina, United States of America. Subjects – Freshmen students enrolled in either first-year seminar (UCO1200) or basic English writing course (ENG1000). Methods – A 25-question, forced-choice test was piloted with 30 students and measured for internal consistency using Cronbach’s Alphas. The survey instrument was slightly revised before being administered online via SelectSurvey, to 398 students in 19 different sections of either UCO1200 or ENG1000, during class sessions. The test measured students’ information literacy skills in four areas: research strategies, resource types, scholarly vs. popular, and evaluating websites. The preliminary questions asked for each student’s name, major (by category), number of library instruction sessions attended, and the names of library services utilized. The students’ information literacy scores were compared to their writing scores and overall course grades, both of which were obtained from course instructors. The information literacy scores were also analyzed for correlation to the number of library instruction sessions attended or the types of library services utilized. Main Results – Information literacy skills positively correlated with writing scores (n=344, r=-.153, p=0.004) and final course grades (n=345, r=0.112, p=0.037). Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients results demonstrated relationships between writing scores and the information literacy test section “Scholarly versus Popular Sources” (n=344, r=0.145, p=0.007), and final grade and information literacy test sections “Types of Sources” (n=345, r=0.124, p=0.021) and “Website Evaluation” (n=345, r=0.117, p=0.029). The impact of using other library services or of attending multiple information literacy sessions was not statistically significant. Conclusion – Students’ mastery of tested information literacy skills directly correlates to their writing and final course grades. The study confirms the need for faculty and library collaboration to create well-integrated library instruction and services, and advocates for librarians to become integral to campus initiatives for student learning and success.

A Review of: Zhang, Q., Goodman, M., & Xie, S. (2015). Integrating library instruction into the Course Management System for a first-year engineering class: An evidence-based study measuring the effectiveness of blended learning on students’ information literacy levels. College & Research Libraries, 76(7), 934-958. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.7.934 Objective – To assess the efficacy of an online library module and of blended learning methods on students’ information literacy skills. Design – Multi-modal, pre- and posttests, survey questionnaire, and focus groups. Setting – Public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. Subjects – First-year engineering students. Methods – Of 413 students enrolled in Engineering Science (ES) 1050, 252 volunteered to participate in the study. Participants were asked to complete the online module, a pretest, a posttest, an online follow-up survey, and to take part in a focus group. Researchers generated a pretest and a posttest, each comprised of 15 questions:; multiple choice, true or false, and matching questions which tested students’ general and engineering-specific information literacy skills. The pretest and posttest had different, but similarly challenging, questions to ensure that students involved in the study would not have an advantage over those who had opted out. While all components of the study were voluntary, the posttest was a graded course assignment. In-person tutorials were offered on 4 occasions, with only 15 students participating. Both tutorial and module content were designed to cover all questions and competencies tested in the pretest and the posttest, including Boolean operators, peer review, identifying plagiarism, engineering standards, engineering handbooks, search strategies, patents, article citations, identifying reliable sources, and how to read journal articles. The posttest survey was delivered in the CMS immediately after the posttest was completed. It measured self-reported student behaviours and preferences concerning the online modules. Two focus groups were convened after all posttest surveys were completed to gather qualitative data about student preferences. Main Results – Of the 252 volunteers, 239 students (57.9% of enrolled students) completed both the pretest and the posttest, 89 filled out the follow-up survey, and 7 students participated in a focus group. Students used the online module content differently; accordingly those numbers were not reported. Researchers compared pretest and posttest scores to find that the posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores (p < 0.001). Of 239 pretest and posttest pairs evaluated, the mean pretest score was 10.456 and the mean posttest score was 13.843. A t-test survey and focus group data evaluated student perceptions of the module. Students reported a slight preference for online instruction. Conclusion – After completing an online library module, students’ performance on information literacy skills tests improved from the pretest to the posttest. Focus group and survey data indicate a slight student preference for online tutorials over in-person instruction. Although intended as a blended approach to library instruction, the voluntary in-person instruction was not well attended and has subsequently been changed to mandatory in-class instruction. The authors recommend further research to evaluate how the medium and format of instruction impacts student learning outcomes.