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In 2021, ECU Library embarked on a year-long user experience project to explore students' experiences of a newly refurbished space and investigate what facilities and services students would like to see at a new city campus to be opened in 2025. The study employed a number of user experience and ethnographic methods including observation, interviews, surveys, focus groups and surveys, and worked in partnership with library peer assistants to collect data. Students want a library of the future that offers a variety of flexible informal study spaces, good lighting, comfortable and ergonomic furniture, visible services, and access to technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mis/disinformation has in recent political and health climates become increasingly spread through social media and the internet, drawing increased discussion on the role libraries play in countering and combating the spread of mis/disinformation. This study investigated the impact and management of mis/disinformation at university libraries in Australia through a survey of 88 library staff and interviews with 17 managers. Library staff believe they have a role in teaching skills such as critical thinking and evaluation, advocating in this space and maintaining credible, balanced and inclusive collections. Although combating mis/disinformation is a strategic priority for libraries, it is often not a priority for the institutions themselves, leading to barriers for staff who would like to devote more time and resources to teaching information literacy skills and assessing the credibility and accuracy of collections. While complaints about collection content are low and library managers' view is that libraries should not censor materials, there is an increasing priority in Australia to address historical inaccuracies in content and build and maintain collections that are inclusive and culturally safe. Library staff in Australia would like support from national library bodies through training and resources and playing an advocacy role in national discussions around mis/disinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-based harms experienced in conflict constitute a threat to the right of women and girls to live with dignity. However, transitional justice processes to manage the delicate nexus between peace and justice often do not consider these harms, resulting in adverse outcomes for women and girls in post-conflict societies. At the frontlines of the fight to address gender-based harms through transitional justice, women's rights organisations (WROs) are uniquely placed to identify and advocate for the needs of women experiencing conflict and to provide integral services in conflict contexts. Despite this critical dual role, WROs in conflict settings are systematically excluded from transitional justice processes and chronically underfunded. Moreover, current literature lacks a nuanced understanding of how WROs work in transitional contexts and how international institutions can best foster their engagement and leadership. Expanding on the evidence base for the inclusion of WROs in transitional justice processes, this paper mobilises the concept of hybrid peace to analyse the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and understand the role of WROs in negotiating the interactions between internationalised peace-building processes and local realities. Research methods include a literature review and analysis of public statements from relevant WROs. This paper argues that WROs engaged with the ICTY played a critical role in building positive hybrid peace by: (1) advocating for and supporting the inclusion of gender-based harms in the internationalised transitional justice process; and (2) implementing localised peace formation and fostering positive gender relations at the community level. The research contributes to broader literature defining the role of WROs in the localisation of development and human rights norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open access (OA) movement today incorporates a number of different threads reflecting disagreement among information professionals, publishers, institutions and advocates about how OA is defined and facilitated. It is unclear in this environment how faculty members involved in teaching and research construct understanding about open access and what range of understandings among this constituency may currently exist. This paper reports the results of a study using phenomenography to understand the open access experiences and perceptions of faculty members who teach online; a growing subgroup of faculty whose professional context positions themselves and their students differently in relation to subscription-based digital and print-based library collections and support than in a brick-and-mortar educational environment. Faculty members in this group experienced open access in five qualitatively distinctive ways: as resources for teaching ; as a publication channel ; as a social justice movement ; as open source , and as ‘ free for me ’. These findings have implications for outreach and communication efforts for university libraries and higher education administrators, and offer insights into the concerns and challenges faced by faculty members while engaging with open access materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information is increasingly being disseminated and accessed through social media. This study evaluated how high school students evaluate content on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Thirty-seven students from two different high schools in Western Australia (WA) completed a survey and series of eight activities that asked them to evaluate information (both visual and written) posted on social media sites. The results showed that students trust TV news more than social media. The results also showed that although students often recognised legitimate news sources versus opinion, they often fail to recognise bias when it relates to political or organisation affiliation. The students also did not verify accuracy or authority outside of the social media posts, trusted 'evidence' even when it was inaccurate, often did not recognise the verified tick and often failed to recognise that images and videos can be edited. This study has shown that media literacy instruction in schools needs to move away from the checklist approach of teaching how to evaluate information and move towards an instructional approach that focuses on the more critical thinking aspects of evaluation such as the source of the information, social and political bias and verifying evidence and information through multiple sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As carbon dioxide (CO2) levels increase, coral reefs and other marine systems will be affected by the joint stressors of ocean acidification (OA) and warming. The effects of these two stressors on coral physiology are relatively well studied, but their impact on biotic interactions between corals are poorly understood. While coral-coral interactions are less common on modern reefs, it is important to document the nature of these interactions to better inform restoration strategies in the face of climate change. Using a mesocosm study, we evaluated whether the combined effects of ocean acidification and warming alter the competitive interactions between the common coral Porites astreoides and two other mounding corals (Montastraea cavernosa or Orbicella faveolata) common in the Caribbean. After 7 days of direct contact, P. astreoides suppressed the photosynthetic potential of M. cavernosa by 100% in areas of contact under both present (~28.5°C and ~400 μatm pCO2) and predicted future (~30.0°C and ~1000 μatm pCO2) conditions. In contrast, under present conditions M. cavernosa reduced the photosynthetic potential of P. astreoides by only 38% in areas of contact, while under future conditions reduction was 100%. A similar pattern occurred between P. astreoides and O. faveolata at day 7 post contact, but by day 14, each coral had reduced the photosynthetic potential of the other by 100% at the point of contact, and O. faveolata was generating larger lesions on P. astreoides than the reverse. In the absence of competition, OA and warming did not affect the photosynthetic potential of any coral. These results suggest that OA and warming can alter the severity of initial coral-coral interactions, with potential cascading effects due to corals serving as foundation species on coral reefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing focus in Australian university libraries on digital literacy with a number of universities developing digital literacy frameworks and digital literacy programmes for students and staff. The Council of Australian University Library (CAUL) has developed a Digital Dexterity Framework that outlines the skills and capabilities that students will need to succeed in the workforce. In 2019 Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library made the strategic decision to develop a digital literacy framework after extensive benchmarking and environmental scanning on current digital literacy initiatives in university libraries around Australia. Extensive consultation on the framework was undertaken during the development of the framework, with consistent feedback indicating that students need digital literacy skills in order to participate in the workplace of the future. The ECU Digital Literacy Framework outlines the strategies and actions that will be implemented in order to equip students at ECU with digital literacy skills. Future initiatives include a collaboration between the Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) and the Library Services Centre to embed digital literacy skills into the curriculum, utilising a Library staff digital capability survey to develop training programmes for staff and the development of a study essential module that includes digital literacy elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from an Australian survey that provides an analysis of the reasons why university students prefer to read print or digital course materials. This survey was undertaken as part of the Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS), which is investigating print versus digital reading preferences in 31 countries (Mizrachi et al., 2018). A total of 582 students completed the survey with 471 students providing comments. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the comments from the survey. The comments provided in this survey provide rich data on the reasons why students prefer reading in print or electronic formats, an area of importance due to the increasing prevalence of digital only collections in university libraries. Based on comments, students preferred print due to reasons such as accessibility, eyestrain, tactile features, better focus and ability to highlight and take notes. Although students prefer print, they acknowledge the convenience and cheaper costs of e-texts. Students who were e-preferring were influenced by issues such as cost, environment and convenience. In light of library collections prioritising digital content, tertiary institutions and libraries should carefully consider the role that print textbooks and collections, as well as printing services, may play in supporting student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The findings of three recent phenomenographic studies conducted by a practitioner-researcher team (the information literacy experiences of English as a foreign language (EFL) students, how international branch campus faculty members experience the academic library and the open access experiences of faculty members in online education) are analysed to discover what practical implications were revealed from the categories of description that can be used in practice. Method. Meta-analysis of the categories of description of three phenomenographic studies was conducted. Analysis. Categories of description were analysed iteratively in order to identify which library services and processes could be informed by the results of phenomenographic research. Results. The meta-analysis of phenomenographic results shows that there were three library services and processes: information literacy instruction, scholarly communication and evaluation of services, where research results can be applied to improve library practice. Conclusions. The phenomenographic method reveals usefu l results of library users' experiences and perceptions that can be used as a guide for improving library practice across a variety of settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative effects of warming temperatures on coral physiology are well-documented. However, research increasingly suggests that these effects are variable and that the degree to which corals are impacted by higher temperatures are dependent on a range of environmental and physiological variables. In tropical corals, which live near their upper thermal limits, these disparities have led to significant differences in bleaching and other negative health effects even over relatively small spatial scales. However, the response of temperate corals across small spatial scales is less well understood despite their occurrence in areas with larger temperature ranges than their tropical counterpart. To determine whether responses to thermal stress (27.4 versus 29 °C) differed in a common temperate coral species across a small geographic area, as has been documented in tropical corals, we evaluated coral growth and photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) of the coral Oculina arbuscula over the course of eight weeks when grown at differing temperatures. When measured as buoyant mass (calcification), growth of O. arbuscula did not differ as a function of temperature or site of collection. In contrast, when measured as change in tissue mass or total wet mass, elevated temperature suppressed growth. Change in total wet mass also varied significantly by collection site, corals from some sites experiencing little if any growth and those from other sites experiencing negative growth. Photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) was significantly lower at 29 °C than at 27.4 °C. Analyses of symbionts showed that sequence variants related to the genus Breviolum made up ∼98% of all Symbiondiniaceae across all sites and temperature treatments with one variant (100% sequence identity to Breviolum psygmophilum) being 91% of the total community. Only one Symbiodiniaceae, with a 99.28% sequence identity to Breviolum psygmophilum , differed significantly as a function of temperature. It also comprised only 1–3% of the community. Bacterial microbiome variance increased during our experiment, but there were no significant effects of temperature or collection site. For O. arbuscula from these collection sites, location did not impact the coral's ability to withstand the effects of temperature stress. • Elevated temperatures suppress tissue growth of Oculina arbuscula. • Higher temperature lowered Symbiodiniaceae photosynthetic efficiency of O. arbuscula. • Temperature had minimal effects on composition of coral microbiomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean acidification has been identified as a major contributor to ocean ecosystem decline, impacting the calcification, survival, and behavior of marine organisms. Numerous studies have observed altered sensory perception of chemical, auditory, and visual cues after exposure to elevated CO2. Sensory systems enable the observation of the external environment and therefore play a critical role in survival, communication, and behavior of marine organisms. This review seeks to (1) summarize the current knowledge of sensory impairment caused by ocean acidification, (2) discuss potential mechanisms behind this disruption, and (3) analyze the expected taxa differences in sensitivities to elevated CO2 conditions. Although a lack of standardized methodology makes cross-study comparisons challenging, trends and biases arise from this synthesis including a substantial focus on vertebrates, larvae or juveniles, the reef ecosystem, and chemosensory perception. Future studies must broaden the scope of the field by diversifying the taxa and ecosystems studied, incorporating ontogenetic comparisons, and focusing on cryptic sensory systems such as electroreception, magnetic sense, and the lateral line system. A discussion of possible mechanisms reveals GABAA receptor reversal as the conspicuous physiological mechanism. However, the potential remains for alternative disruption through structure or cue changes. Finally, a taxonomic comparison of physiological complexity reveals few trends in sensory sensitivities to lowered pH, but we hypothesize potential correlations relating to habitat, life history or relative use of sensory systems. Elevated CO2, in concordance with other global and local stressors, has the potential to drastically shift community composition and structure. Therefore research addressing the extent of sensory impairment, the underlying mechanisms, and the differences between taxa is vital for improved predictions of organismal response to ocean acidification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predation is among the most important biotic factors influencing natural communities, yet we have a rather rudimentary understanding of its role in modulating metacommunity assembly., We experimentally examined the effects of two different predators (a generalist and a specialist) on metacommunity assembly, using protist microcosm metacommunities that varied in predator identity, dispersal among local communities and the history of species colonization into local communities., Generalist predation resulted in reduced α diversity and increased β diversity irrespective of dispersal, likely due to predation-induced stochastic extinction of different prey species in different local communities. Dispersal, however, induced source-sink dynamics in the presence of specialist predators, resulting in higher α diversity and marginally lower β diversity., These results demonstrate the distinct effects of different predators on prey metacommunity assembly, emphasizing the need to explore the role of predator diet breadth in structuring metacommunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of a teaching and learning project that explored the flipped classroom model to determine if it was an effective teaching and learning method to use with library and information studies (LIS) students with diverse learning needs. The project involved developing a range of videos in different styles for students to watch before class. These were used in conjunction with a range of student centred and interactive in class activities. The flipped model was evaluated in order to understand the students learning preferences and to evaluate if the model was effective. Results from these evaluations and student feedback, indicated that the flipped classroom model proved to be an effective way to teach Masters LIS students with diverse learning needs, due to it's interactive and student centred approach. The video style lectures, also suited students who speak English as a second language (ESL), as it enabled them to re-watch the videos and learn at their own pace. Utilizing the flipped classroom model holds advantages for LIS faculty as it allows them to engage students in innovative ways, both inside and outside the classroom, and to employ a range of modern teaching tools and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorado has consistently had one of the highest rates of suicide in the United States, and El Paso County has the highest number of suicide and firearm-related suicide deaths within the state. Community-based solutions like those of the Suicide Prevention Collaborative of El Paso County may be more effective in preventing suicide as they are specific to local issues, sensitive to local culture, and informed by local data, community members, and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuing urbanisation is triggering an increase in multi-titled housing internationally. This trend has given rise to a substantial research interest in the social consequences of higher density living. Fewer enquiries have been directed to examining how property title subdivisions generate social issues in multi-titled housing. This is a significant gap in the literature, as the tensions inherent in multi-title developments have significant implications for individuals, developments and entire metropolitan areas. This article employs a life cycle framework to examine the profound operational and governance challenges that are associated with the fusion of private lot ownership with common property ownership. The article calls for a more explicit recognition of these challenges by academics, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]