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Public libraries offer a wide range of developmental support and learning opportunities for young children with and without disabilities. Libraries in many communities function as hubs and places of support for parenting, literacy, education, technology, as well as general local, and health information. A research team recently conducted focus group interviews with early intervention service coordinators (SCs) in three states to capture their perspectives on how libraries serve families with young children with disabilities. Findings from those conversations suggest a need for more collaborative efforts between librarians and early childhood (EC) professionals to support young children with disabilities. For the benefit of EC professionals, libraries, and families of young children with disabilities, this article proposes that EC professionals and librarians concentrate their collaborative efforts on two fronts: (a) extending professional collaboration and partnerships and (b) increasing community awareness of library programs and services.

Information design--incorporating research in graphic design, typography, visualization, and usability--is a user experience practice directly applicable to contemporary museums, libraries, and archives. Information design principles and guidelines improve engagement at every point of service, effectively and efficiently complementing the mission of knowledge organizations. This historical survey explores information design in the context of contemporary user experience design, and provides an overview of information design principles and guidelines developed over 40 years of research and professional application. Applying elements of information design to archival finding aids enhances usability, while also preserving descriptive and contextual structures.

This article reports on the third phase of a project studying the integration of information behavior theories and concepts into professional education for reference and information service (RIS). It also provides a synthesis of the results of all studies in the project, including a syllabus study, an interview study, and the survey. Results of the project show that Kuhlthau's information search process model, along with several other key theories, models, and concepts, is perceived by instructors of introductory RIS courses in North America as important for RIS practice. Instructors feel that students are generally receptive to conceptual content in the course, although most teach a more practice-focused course or a course with a balance of conceptual and practical content. Still, 10-31% of introductory RIS courses do not include any information behavior content, suggesting that the relevance of theory to practice remains an ongoing debate.

This article introduces the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to the LIS community to propose a new way of thinking and teaching about how health is supported in public libraries. The topic of consumer health literacy has been a mainstay in the discourse of public librarianship, but we argue that this approach has not fully supported public librarians seeking to find uniquely local ways to support public health. Health in All Policies (HiAP) was developed by public health researchers and policy makers as a mechanism to promote health by facilitating action across sectors, including those where health is not a primary organizational focus. HiAP's focus on multi-sector community health systems opens a conceptual space for thinking about how to strategically and proactively support and advocate for public libraries and public librarians as one sector among many that contribute to community health. This approach could be a positive alternative to the sometimes negative experiences of public librarians being asked, or ordered, to fulfill public health duties, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when public librarians were pressured to take on new public health roles as perhaps never before. After introducing the concept, the article discusses some of the ways in which it could be incorporated into LIS education, particularly for public librarians, as well as some of the topical areas that need further development to fully bring this perspective into the teaching and research of LIS.

Albeit its critical role in the development of the agriculture sector, the delivery of Extension and Advisory Services (EASs) in Tanzania has remained unsatisfactory and has had a limited impact on the sector. Among others, conventional approaches used in providing EASs have been found inadequate in meeting the priority needs of their clientele. Besides, they tend to demand many frontline extension agents who are few and are unable to serve farmers effectively. Thus, most recently, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to overcome many of the challenges associated with the conventional provision of EASs. As a result, various innovative ICT-based approaches have been blended with conventional EASs to improve the service to clients. These include the use of community radio stations, TV programs, telecentres, Mobile Phones (SMS), and web-based and mobile-based farmers' advisory information systems. This study draws on the work of the ICT-based Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) established in the Rungwe District in Mbeya Region. We explore the experiences of various stakeholders in using the VKC in the delivery of extension services. Challenges hindering the functioning of VKC are highlighted and recommendations to improve the functioning of VKC and consequently, the delivery of EASs are drawn.

Purpose: Innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are essential for increasing resource efficiency and sustainability in the agri-food system. An innovation support service (ISS) can benefit SMEs but the provision and access to it can be restricted across national borders thereby hindering cross-border regions' economic potential. The aim was to investigate how ISSs are provided and used in such a region and explore stakeholders' perceptions on their limitations and opportunities. Methodology: We conducted a case study in the Dutch-German cross-border region Euregio Rhine-Waal which included a content analysis of websites and stakeholder interviews. Findings: The provision of ISSs was limited by differing structures and priorities in both countries. SMEs' unfamiliarity with responsible authorities, significant administrative effort, and uncertainty about pay-offs were perceived as factors limiting ISS. Practical implications: We provide recommendations on how to improve ISS in cross-border regions and inform policymaking for cross-border regional development. We recommend reducing limitations of ISS provision and use, e.g. by engaging ISS providers and users in a co-creative approach. Furthermore, we suggest using opportunities of ISS provision and use, e.g. through increased promotion of available ISS by brokers. Theoretical implications: Our research contributes to the literature of extension and advisory systems by showing how differing institutional settings, combined with different 'innovation cultures' and the availability of cross-border brokers affect cross-border integration of ISS. Originality: This is the first study to explore the limitations and potentials of ISSs in a cross-border region.

A professional practice is a type of internship, a practicum, that encompasses a supervised hands-on training experience for students to develop and identify the core and enabling competencies required in a professional environment. It also allows them to identify the developed and underdeveloped skills that are important in the labour environment while still undergoing an academic training. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the core and enabling competencies required and developed by the students coursing the Library and Information Science Programme at Universidad Tecnologica Metropolitana during their professional practices carried out from 2019 through 2021. To this end, a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions was used as data collection instrument. It was applied to a sample of 64 graduates from this Programme, out of a universe of 70 students in addition to a focus group to delve deeper into the answers obtained. The results established that both core and enabling competencies had been relevant in their professional practice. The most relevant core competencies were those related to information and knowledge services; information analysis and data retrieval; and organisation of data, information and knowledge assets meanwhile the most relevant enabling competencies were communication, teamwork and adaptability.

Introduction: Pennsylvania's Student Assistance Program (SAP) began in the mid-1980s to address student barriers to academic success. SAP teams, groups of trained school and community professionals, review referrals, and connect students to services. State leadership conducts an annual SAP team survey, but capacity to evaluate data and affect change is limited. In 2020, leadership partnered with [institution name] to collaboratively review the survey data. Methods: Frequencies and percentages were calculated. Open responses were coded. Logistic regression models evaluated the association between SAP team size, team meeting frequency, and team maintenance. Results: The 2019 to 2020 survey had 1003 respondents. Median number of SAP team members was 8 (range 1-21). The majority (54%) indicated their SAP team met once per week/cycle for 30 to 90+ minutes. Larger teams met more often. Annual team maintenance occurred for 38% of teams, and was more common for larger teams. SAP team members identified mental health (68%), trauma (44%), and parent engagement (36%) as top training needs. Conclusions: An academic partnership successfully provided the capacity to review SAP survey responses, and informed evidenced-based discussion of best practice guidelines and realignment of staff professional development opportunities.

Telephone-based services are a practical and effective behavioral support for smoking cessation, yet no in-depth analyses of this counseling have been conducted. Understanding the general content of Quitline conversations can help to improve current practices and may inform future interventions. Therefore, we aimed to independently explore conversation themes, topics, and client questions during Quitline counseling sessions with Quitline clients in Queensland, Australia. A purposive sample of 30 recorded counseling sessions, completed between January and March 2019, were de-identified, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. Seven themes, encompassing 35 topics, were derived from 26 initial calls and four follow-up calls: (1) Client details and building rapport; (2) Client history and motivation to quit; (3) Pharmacotherapy; (4) Behavioral aspects of quitting and relationship with smoking; (5) Understanding nicotine dependence and other important considerations; (6) Additional support and smoking cessation resources; and (7) Planning, goal setting and follow-up. Three themes emerged from 18 client questions including: (1) Pharmacotherapy safety and contraindications; (2) Pharmacotherapy instructions and mechanism of action; and (3) Physiology of nicotine dependence. This is the first qualitative analysis of the content of Quitline counseling sessions in Australia. Counselors collect and deliver a breadth of information to provide tailored, evidence-based health care, while building rapport and trust. Findings may be translatable into personalized self-help interventions that are more accessible or appealing to people reluctant to contact Quitline. Harnessing educational opportunities regarding pharmacotherapy adherence and misconceptions can improve client confidence in the product and smoking cessation outcomes. Further research will map conversations to motivational interviewing and behavior change techniques.

The study aimed to examine the level of satisfaction of students with disabilities with library and information services in Saudi universities. The descriptive survey approach was used. The study sample consisted of 35 students with disabilities enrolled in Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was used to collect the data of the study. The results showed a number of information services and special environmental facilities available within the university central library, the frequencies, and percentages of their use by students with disabilities. They were ordered according to the students? responses: book borrowing service, book return service, audiobooks, large print, and Braille book services. Also, it was revealed that the degree of satisfaction of students with disabilities with the library services provided to them was high. In addition, the physical environmental facilities of the library from the point of view of students with disabilities were the availability of a personal and designated place to study such as computer spaces and chairs suitable for students? needs. The signs (directions) related to disability in the library and their compatibility with the needs of students with disabilities and the availability of tools and technologies to meet their needs in the library without the help of others were rated poor.

Brokers are individuals who facilitate transfer of knowledge and resources, and coordinate efforts across boundaries of organizations. They are defined by their role rather than their organizational position. Brokers might be imperative for the formation and maintenance of inter-institutional relationship as they have the responsibility and the necessary structural position to connect otherwise separate groups. In the context of this study, brokers had the role to cultivate an inter-institutional community around open educational resources (OER) by connecting groups of teachers across higher education institutes. OER provide higher education institutes with an aid to face the challenges of improving teaching and learning. Yet most OER users encounter challenges that relate to finding resources that are relevant, up-to-date, and of good quality. Communities could minimize this issue, but many OER initiatives fizzle out as expanding their impact is an arduous task. This qualitative descriptive study draws upon cultural-historical activity theory to understand the complexities associated with the role of brokers in creating sustainable collaboration on OER across 15 higher education institutes in the Netherlands. Data was collected from project documents, process reports, reflections reports, and a retrospective focus group. The findings show that brokers engaged in a wide variety of actions but that a small-scale, personal, and content-oriented approach to encourage teachers to engage with the OER repository and the online community was perceived as the most valuable. Brokers also experienced conflicts due to the demanding context they were operating in, the ambiguity of their role, and the organizational constraints they were confronted with. Practical implications refer to supporting higher education institutes that wish to initiate sustainable collaboration across institutes.

Historic newspapers contain a treasure trove of information about past student musicians, band and choir directors, performance venues, programs, performances, community engagement, and more. Examples, illustrating local news coverage of student activities are available - with countless other examples from across the United States - from Chronicling America (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/). It was created and is supported by the National Digital Newspaper Program, a joint partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). These government agencies formally launched the Chronicling America program in 2004, growing the initiative from the NEH's United States Newspaper Program (USNP), an earlier effort to catalog and preserve millions of pages of historic newspapers in every state.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia severely affected the psychological health of children and produced negative effects on it. How to help children overcome the negative psychological impact caused by the epidemic is a common concern. During the epidemic, the administrative department of education in Nanjing, China actively carried out psychological health education and assistance for students. I outline the measures for developing mental health and psychological assistance in Nanjing, China.

In this article, M. Rebecca Kilburn and Jill S. Cannon report on First Born, a targeted universal home visiting program operating in over half of New Mexico counties. Created in a small town in response to a lack of support for pregnant women and new parents, First Born adapts features of other home visiting programs, responding to conditions common to high-need, lowresource communities. As its name suggests, First Born enrolls first-time families. A team of home visitors, including a registered nurse or other licensed health care professional and a paraprofessional parent educator, offers 40 weekly home visits during the child's first year; the frequency of visits diminishes during the child's second and third year. The nurse visits the home both before and after the child's birth, and also when medical issues are the focus of visit. Because nurses are in short supply in many communities, however, most of the home visits are made by parent educators, who coordinate with the nurse visitor. To promote early childhood health and development, First Born educates parents and helps them access community resources, using a three-pronged approach: helping the family to develop life and social skills, such as decision-making, crisis intervention, and knowledge of child development; using screening tools to identify problems (for example, substance dependency or developmental delays) and referring families to the appropriate sources of help; and promoting effective coordination among community resources. Based on First Born's scale-up experience, Kilburn and Cannon outline several lessons for other universal programs, including the pros and cons of universal services, the expectation that universal programs will have population-level impact, and barriers to innovation.

With the rising cases of theft, vandalism, mutilation, infiltration, and other fraudulent practices at academic libraries, the matter of library security has become a matter of greater concern for modern-day library professionals as well as scholars in the field of library and information science. Considering the seriousness of the issue, the present study has adopted bibliometric techniques to gain significant insights into the performance, direction, and state of research in the field of library security in academic libraries. A total number of 440 articles published in the last two decades were retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using bibliometric techniques. The results indicate that library security is gaining the attention of contemporaneous scholars in the research field of library and information science and led to the identification of digital services, computer simulation, and web interface as some of the key concepts in the area of contemporary library security research.

An academic library plays a significant role in providing information services to fraternities. However, persons with disabilities need special attention and specialized services. This study aims to identify the special needs of, and the services required by, persons with disabilities or differently-abled persons. The samples were collected from graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students with disabilities in 10 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India. The survey research design and the snowball sampling technique were used to collect samples from scattered populations across the ten IITs. A total of 217 samples were collected from the respondents. The results show that graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students with disabilities were satisfied with the library resources and services available to persons with disabilities. The students had a positive opinion about the accessibility of their libraries and the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on their studies and research work. However, they expressed the need for more training and orientation on using new tools and services for persons with disabilities. The study identified essential library tools and services for persons with disabilities. Academic and other libraries elsewhere in the country should take a cue from the IITs and take steps to make themselves accessible and offer specialized services for persons with disabilities. The findings of this research study will be helpful for policymakers and librarians who want to establish special services for persons with disabilities.

Information behavior is an important area of conceptual knowledge for reference service providers, as it provides structure for understanding users' information seeking and use. This study explores the extent to which information behavior theories, models, and concepts have been integrated into professional education for reference and information service (RIS) through a syllabus study and textbook review. In addition, the study identifies specific information behavior theories, models, and concepts used in introductory RIS courses. Syllabi for introductory RIS courses taught at North American library and information science programs were analyzed for information behavior content, as were the textbooks required by the syllabi. Results show that about two-thirds of introductory RIS courses include instruction in information behavior theories, models, and concepts. Overall, the most impactful information behavior theories and models from the literature are introduced.

Small farms and small farmers are a growing sector of the agricultural economy nationwide. Notably, small farms are influenced by similar antagonists to the success of their business as large, concentrated operations, but they experience it differently. The purpose of this study was to describe small farms and farmers in North Dakota to assist North Dakota State University Extension in defining their needs for programming development. We found that nearly 45% of small farmer respondents are women. Small farmers prefer to access information for their operations in a variety of ways but like to engage with Extension through more direct and personal means. Recommendations include developing programming targeted at female farmers and organizing Extension information resources targeted at small farm needs, specifically.

Indirect routes to strengthening research-practice connections, through intermediaries or knowledge brokers, have received little emphasis in discussions of education research and practice. Joel Malin compares direct and indirect approaches to making these connections and considers how indirect actors are situated in the education system and what roles and functions they perform. He describes some of the well-known intermediaries, assesses the effects of their efforts, and offers ideas for moving forward.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to present evidence regarding how young people, who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in South Africa, lack literacy skills and access to enabling resources to actively search and navigate information services systems that are primarily web-based. Information Poverty Theory is adopted to better understand the technological and social strata challenges experienced by young NEET people. Design/methodology/approach: The study used semi-structured interviews for collecting data over two months in 2018, employing snowball sampling with 24 key participants, representing a diversity of educational backgrounds and previous experience of economic participation. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that most interviewed young people, who are NEET, lack advanced information literacy and digital skills to access information services. The results also indicate that access to information services that are primed for online information is a challenge for most of these NEET young people residing in underserviced communities. The high cost of an Internet connection means that the Internet is out of reach for most low-income households. In communities that are underserviced with no adequate information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, people residing in such areas are subjected to living in circumstances where there is poverty and thus a lack of access to online information. Research limitations/implications: This paper reports on data collected in 2018 using intense interviews, while acknowledging limitations in terms of the sample size. Hence, it is not fully representative of the whole population of young people, who are NEET, residing in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Practical implications: The findings illustrate the need for further collaboration among relevant stakeholders to strengthen existing programmes and for stronger partnerships. The arguments presented herein enhance knowledge and understanding concerning the digital literacy skills divide that exists among young people who are NEET. It includes a discussion to contribute to policy development. Originality/value: This study focuses on challenges young people who are NEET experience when looking for work and developmental opportunities. This qualitative study adopts Information Poverty Theory and uses prior studies to link the undertaken survey and research. It is expected that this study may serve as a pilot for future studies and may also contribute to the ongoing discussions around the use of ICTs on their use and access, especially the effect on young people when searching for information related to jobs and other developmental opportunities using online services.

Numerous scholars have noted that the majority of prisoners will be reincarcerated within three years of their release. However, while there has been extensive research on recidivism, much less attention has been paid to the reentry process in the sociological and criminological literature. Given the high rates of former prisoners reentering society with struggles that may affect their friends, family members, and communities, policymakers and practitioners should understand the successful methods for their reintegration. In this paper, we explore the conduits and barriers to reentry for a sample of San Bernardino county callers using United Way's 211 Reentry Call Center from 2014-2015. We find that human needs resources (i.e. housing, clothes, and food assistance) and legal assistance are the two most frequently requested services. The callers in our sample have intersecting, disadvantaged identities and require multiple services which suggests a need for collaboration across agencies.

Traditionally, the speech act of requesting has been regarded as a face-threatening act (Brown & Levinson, 1987) due to the impositive nature on the addressee's negative face. Yet, in specific service encounters, requests can no longer be seen as threatening (Antonopoulou, 2001). This is the case of tourist information offices, where mitigators may not be present due to the task-oriented nature of the exchange. This study aims to widen the scope of research on service encounters by examining 147 naturally occurring requests by native speakers of English in a tourist information office taking into account the variable of gender. Our findings suggest that females used more direct questions whereas men employed want statements to a much higher extent. These results have to be understood within the context of this specific service encounter, in which direct requests do not imply impoliteness or threats to the requestee's negative face.

Introduction: Applied epistemology allows information studies to benefit from developments in philosophy. In information studies, epistemic concepts are rarely considered in detail. This paper offers a review of several epistemic concepts, focusing on understanding, as a call for further work in applied epistemology in information studies. Method: A hermeneutic literature review was conducted on epistemic concepts in information studies and philosophy. Relevant research was retrieved and reviewed iteratively as the research area was refined. Analysis: A conceptual analysis was conducted to determine the nature and relationships of the concepts surveyed, with an eye toward synthesizing conceptualizations of understanding and opening future research directions. Results: The epistemic aim of understanding is emerging as a key research frontier for information studies. Two modes of understanding (hermeneutic and epistemological) were brought into a common framework. Conclusions: Research on the concept of understanding in information studies will further naturalistic information research and provide coherence to several strands of philosophic thought.

Translational research originated in the medical field during the 1990s to describe taking discovery based research through the steps of applying it to clinical research and patient-oriented care. This model is implicitly linear, depicting the flow of information from researchers' bench, to a clinical trial bedside, to a primary care physician's practice. The prevailing model of translational research, referred to as "Bench to Bedside to Curbside," is limited in that it does not adequately incorporate stakeholders outside of the professional or research community because Curbside refers to physician care delivered to patients. This omits the transformative impact that research can have on the general populace if implemented through educational research, disseminating knowledge to people who can use it. In this article we argue that a fourth category needs to be incorporated into the previous T1-T3 Bench to Bedside to Curbside model, and this fourth category represents T4, "Home." We seek to further define and describe, while providing a new model for translational research that is more circular in nature and inclusive of the general populace. We also suggest that the incorporation of educational researchers and practitioners would expand the current collaborative nature of translational research and is a way to expand the translational model. This promises more adequate, effective, and sustainable impacts on a target population.

This paper describes the implementation of problem-based learning (PBL) principles in an undergraduate IT service management course, followed by the results about student satisfaction and work performance. The results indicate the students' general satisfaction with the course implementation, as well as some challenges regarding the self-assessment and peer assessment of their work. The findings also reveal the students' better work performance in project results than in traditional knowledge tests, which reinforces the indications about their positive attitudes towards the interactive PBL environment. The cluster analyses identified seven different patterns in student behaviour regarding course performance. Findings from this study could be used by both researchers and practitioners in their efforts to create or further research a stimulating, interactive learning environment based on PBL that improves the preparation of students for their future workplaces.

One of the impacts of information technology in guidance counseling is in the implementation of the support system. Entering the world of globalization and rapid technological breadth of information requires counseling to adjust to the environment in order to meet the needs of learners. Therefore, cyber-counseling is now developing. It is one of the utilizations of information technology in the world, especially the provision of counseling services of career information for the learners. The issue that needs to be answered in this research is "how is the model of ICT-based career information service that is interesting, acceptable, based on the accuracy, feasibility, and utility to improve career decision-making ability of the learners developed?" This research aims at finding out a model of ICT based-career information services that can be used to help learners in improving their career decision-making. The method used was the Research and Development (R & D) through several steps. Techniques and data collection instruments were questionnaires, observations, and tests. Data analysis technique used was qualitative and quantitative analysis. Based on the data analysis, it is found that t value is 40.79 with df = 149. The t table value is 1.645 with the significance level (P) = 0,000 < a = 0.05. Therefore, the hypothesis stating that "there is a significant effect on improving career decision-making of the learners after the implementation of the service model of ICT-based career information to the Senior High School students in Parepare" is accepted.

The relevance of research: The relevance of the problem studied is caused by the acceleration of transition of the Russian economy on an innovative way of development, which depends on the vector of innovative sphere of services and, to a large extent, information and communication services, as well as it is caused by the poor drafting of methodical approaches to the effectiveness's evaluation of the processes of information and communication services' commercialization. Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to develop a methodic to assess the relationship of basic indicators of projects of information and communication services' development. Methods of the study: The basic methods of research are methods of stochastic factor analysis, method of pair correlation, multiple correlation analysis, matrix models and mathematical modeling. Results of the study: Based on the analysis of traditional methodic for assessing of the cost-effectiveness of projects of information and communication systems' development the paper offers combined method to estimate the dependencies of financial indicators' basic parameters of projects on long-term development of mobile operators in providing of information and communication services. Practical significance: The paper is intended for researchers, teachers and undergraduates studying the problems to assess the effectiveness of the projects' commercialization in the service sector, particularly, in the development of information and communication services, as well as for specialists--mobile operators, engaged in the problems of development projects' investment and implementation.

Introduction: The popularity of social question and answer sites has made it an important and convenient source for obtaining knowledge. This study quantifies how three different system characteristics (interface design, interaction and answer quality) affect users' perceptions (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment), which in turn alter the perceived user experience. Method: Using an online survey, this study investigated the experience of using a leading Chinese site, Baidu Knows. The study received 218 validated responses which were used to test the research model. Analysis: Structural equation modelling technique was used to evaluate the hypothesised research framework. Results: The results show that the influences of the system characteristics (interface design, interaction and answer quality) on user experience are well mediated by user perceptions of usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment. Additionally, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment have direct and significant influences on user experience. Against expectations, perceived ease of use is found to have no significant direct effect on user experience, but have an indirect effect mediated through perceived usefulness. Conclusion: Use experience is mainly determined by user perceptions about its usefulness, the ease of use and the enjoyment of using the social question and answer sites, which are derived from their evaluation in relation to specific service features. By identifying these service features and quantifying how they affect user experience, a number of practical suggestions for service design have been made to help social question and answer sites managers improve their customers' user experience, e.g. offering more attractive rewards and adding various entertainment activities to motivate users to actively participate in knowledge sharing and innovation.

We explore how children experienced texting with a child helpline, based on 724 qualitative responses representing 586 individual SMS counselling sessions. The data were collected through a questionnaire distributed immediately after receiving counselling and two weeks later. The children expressed the importance of feeling listened to and accepted by the counsellor, gaining new perspectives or developing a plan of action. They also emphasised the importance of the counsellors being sensitive to their readiness for change by providing advice and directives when needed and a listening ear when that was preferred. Only a few comments concerned the medium of texting itself, indicating that the sense of psychological closeness can move the technology to the background and outside one's awareness.

Despite the worldwide proliferation of suicide-prevention crisis-line networks, there is limited in-depth knowledge of how the volunteer call responders experience and manage emotional stressors. The study's purpose was to explore emotional stressors related to operating a diaconal suicide-prevention crisis line, and how these are managed in daily operations. In this qualitative study, 27 volunteers were interviewed in four focus groups. The material was analysed using systematic text condensation. The participants experienced emotional stressors related to being unable to actively intervene, encountering traumatised callers and feeling uncertain about representing the Church. They used a combination of personal coping strategies and organisational support factors. Implications for training and practice are further discussed.

As many have noted, we are seeing the continuing marginalization of Social Foundations of Education (SFE) courses and programs to the point at which some are disappearing completely. SFE can play a vital role in helping universities establish relationships with their local communities that are equitable and based upon the voices and needs of the community. In addition to university-wide and community value, a strong connection between SFE courses and departments outside of education, local schools, educational organizations, and government institutions illustrates the undeniable importance of SFE to the training and development of a generation of future educators who are advocates and allies for their local community members and who are change agents in their field. This article describes several projects that highlight what it means to be in service to the field of education and to one's community. These projects are an example of moving theory into practice for students and professors. Projects highlighted in this article include: (1) The YES Institute Curriculum Collaboration; (2) 21st Century Community Learning Centers; (3) Near Peer Service-Learning Program; (4) Migrant Education Program Partnership; and (5) Education as a Human Right Project. This article illustrates situations where SFE is centralized and becomes key to successful pedagogical practices.

Introduction: In recent years, the introduction of social question and answer services and other Internet tools have expanded the ways in which people have their questions answered. There has been speculation and debate over whether such services and other Internet tools are replacing library virtual reference services. Method: Most previous research on the comparison between social question and answer services and virtual reference has been conducted from the perspectives of libraries or library users, and research based on social question and answer services users' viewpoints has not yet been explored. This study surveyed Yahoo! Answers users on their awareness, use, and evaluation of the social question and answer services site and virtual reference. Analysis: The survey data from multiple-choice questions, fill-in, and open-ended questions were analysed using SPSS for a quantitative summary. Results: The findings of this study show that social question and answer services and virtual reference have their own strengths and weaknesses in serving various user needs and in meeting the expectations of an online or virtual service, based on important user-identified considerations. Conclusions: The notion that social question and answer services will take over virtual reference is not supported. As they stand, virtual reference and social question and answer services have great potential for collaboration in meeting user information needs. The practical implications of the findings to virtual reference are also discussed.