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Exam period can be a stressful time for students, and having examples of past papers to help prepare for the tests can be extremely helpful. It is possible that past exams are already shared on your campus--by professors in their specific courses, via student unions or groups, or between individual students. In this article, we will go over the workflows and infrastructure to support the systematic collection, provision of access to, and repository management of past exam papers. We will discuss platform-agnostic considerations of opt-in versus opt-out submission, access restriction, discovery, retention schedules, and more. Finally, we will share the University of Toronto setup, including a dedicated instance of DSpace, batch metadata creation and ingest scripts, and our submission and retention workflows that take into account the varying needs of stakeholders across our three campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current metadata schema, internet search engines and databases of scientific literature have an Anglo-American language and cultural bias. While it is possible to catalogue or index non-English, non-Latin script publications and achieve some degree of success in the retrieval of such information, librarians and researchers are often disappointed by inconsistencies in the accuracy of search results for this type of publication and frustrated by the limitations created by the biases embedded in the technology and schema. This paper is the result of a two-year dialog between a Farsi-speaking medical librarian in Iran and an English-speaking metadata librarian in Canada. They present the argument that a metadata schema which incorporates graphical images such as Emoji along with keyword indexing or a controlled vocabulary and new search engines which can make use of the new schema for Boolean searching is a robust potential solution for the difficulties they discussed. While this new information seeking environment that requires both the edition of a graphical facet to metadata schema and new search engines presents the potential to break down significant intercultural barriers, the authors recognize that this undertaking is more than a simple technological or procedural change but would require significant agreement between and work from librarians, standards bodies and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Research in palliative care (PC) is often regarded as challenging due to the vulnerability of the population and other peculiarities. We aim to systematically identify barriers to research in PC in the literature. Methods The electronic databases CINAHL, MEDLINE were searched for papers published in the last 25 years. Citations and then abstracts were screened for inclusion. Original papers were included on first-level analysis. On a second level reviews, reports, and position papers were analyzed. Papers containing a direct patient report were specifically analyzed. Barriers were categorized (ethical considerations, financial and time expenses, study design and methodology, human resources and politics) and results quantified. Results Twenty-one original papers and 65 other papers were included. Five studies involved patients directly, five were systematic reviews, three were study experiences, and seven were surveys or workshop reports. Most papers originated from UK, USA, or Norwegian Universities. Ethics and methods were the most often mentioned categories on both levels. Accrual, attrition, and gatekeeping were frequently named barriers. Complex invasive studies or possible side effects hinder patients' participation, as patients are often willing to participate for altruistic motivations. Discussion Barriers to PC research are ethical concerns and methodological challenges. Possible strategies to overcome methodological barriers include international collaborative efforts to include more patients and improve study designs. Ethical barriers indicate the need for patient involvement in the research development process and tailoring research specifically to the PC population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, the predominant prohibition model for cannabis use has shifted towards a regulated legal model, most widely in the context of medical purposes. In 2018, Canada became the first G7 country to legalize cannabis for adult use, implementing a two-phase roll-out of cannabis regulations. A stated goal of the new legal framework is to minimize harms by providing a safe supply of cannabis to Canadian consumers. One way that this can be achieved is through appropriate Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QC/QA) measures. Canada has implemented stringent QC/QA measures for all classes of cannabis, which include requirements such as labelling THC and CBD content per product and limiting THC doses. This paper will provide an overview of the current QC/QA measures in Canada, highlighting differences based on class of cannabis and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the current standards. QC/QA standards represent a key safety feature that can enable informed purchasing and provide consumers with necessary information about various cannabis products. As Canada continues to progress its cannabis policies, QC/QA measures provide a key consideration for ensuring Canada meets its objective of providing a safe supply of cannabis to Canadian consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]