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In the over three decades since its establishment in 1990, the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library has been a leader through taking the initiative in developing and maintaining partnerships for the benefit of its primary user community: the firefighters of Illinois. Partnerships at the local, state, national, and international levels have allowed the IFSI Library to respond to the unique information needs of firefighters through the creation and continued use of services and programs which have been created specifically to meet these unique needs, and the IFSI Library's place within the Illinois state fire academy allows these services and programs to be promoted and made available to firefighters across the state. By taking the initiative to create partnerships for the benefit of firefighters, the IFSI Library has established itself as a leader in partnership with both the library and information science field as well as to the fire service. The services and programs made possible through the IFSI Library's partnerships have contributed to Illinois firefighters' ability to access the information and resources that they need to continue keeping their communities safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the over three decades since its establishment in 1990, the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library has been a leader through taking the initiative in developing and maintaining partnerships for the benefit of its primary user community: the firefighters of Illinois. Partnerships at the local, state, national, and international levels have allowed the IFSI Library to respond to the unique information needs of firefighters through the creation and continued use of services and programs which have been created specifically to meet these unique needs, and the IFSI Library's place within the Illinois state fire academy allows these services and programs to be promoted and made available to firefighters across the state. By taking the initiative to create partnerships for the benefit of firefighters, the IFSI Library has established itself as a leader in partnership with both the library and information science field as well as to the fire service. The services and programs made possible through the IFSI Library's partnerships have contributed to Illinois firefighters' ability to access the information and resources that they need to continue keeping their communities safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the second part of a special issue of Library Trends that focuses on the cultural heritage of China and the digital scholarship being applied to it. The first part covered various aspects of cultural heritage digital scholarship work in China, including international collaboration, technology, and diversity. The second part includes seven articles that highlight international collaboration, technology, and access and application in the study and preservation of China's cultural heritage. These articles demonstrate how digital scholarship can make cultural heritage more accessible and usable for scholars, students, and the general public. The authors hope that readers will gain a deeper understanding of China's cultural heritage and be inspired to explore innovative applications of digital scholarship in their own countries. [Extracted from the article]

Because intelligent hydrogels have good biocompatibility, a rapid response, and good degradability as well as a stimulus response mode that is rich, hydrophilic, and similar to the softness and elasticity of living tissue, they have received widespread attention and are widely used in biomedical engineering. In this article, we conduct a systematic review of the use of smart hydrogels in biomedical engineering. First, we introduce the properties and applications of hydrogels and compare the similarities and differences between traditional hydrogels and smart hydrogels. Secondly, we summarize the intelligent hydrogel types, the mechanisms of action used by different hydrogels, and the materials for preparing different types of hydrogels, such as the materials for the preparation of temperature-responsive hydrogels, which mainly include gelatin, carrageenan, agarose, amylose, etc.; summarize the morphologies of different hydrogels, such as films, fibers and microspheres; and summarize the application of smart hydrogels in biomedical engineering, such as for the delivery of proteins, antibiotics, deoxyribonucleic acid, etc. Finally, we summarize the shortcomings of current research and present future prospects for smart hydrogels. The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers engaged in related fields with a systematic review of the application of intelligent hydrogels in biomedical engineering. We hope that they will get some inspiration from this work to provide new directions for the development of related fields. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an introduction to a special issue of Library Trends that focuses on cultural heritage and digital scholarship in China. It highlights the richness and diversity of China's cultural heritage, including well-known sites like the Great Wall and Forbidden City, as well as the artifacts and knowledge of ethnic minority and underserved communities. The article emphasizes the importance of preserving and protecting cultural heritage, as well as the innovative use of digital scholarship in this endeavor. The special issue covers a wide range of topics, including international collaboration, technology, diversity, and access to cultural heritage resources. It concludes by calling for continued efforts to safeguard and share Chinese cultural heritage for the benefit of the world. [Extracted from the article]

The Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library provides fire and emergency library and information assistance and services to the Institute's instructional staff, students, Illinois fire departments and firefighters, and other fire/emergency-related users in the successful and effective performance of their jobs. In response to the COVID pandemic, IFSI Librarians have developed new services and resources to continue serving patrons. At the same time, new procedures and services were adopted. With the staff's return to the library's physical location, IFSI's Learning Resource and Research Center building, new COVID-19-related safety measures have been instituted. IFSI Librarians worked with IFSI staff to create the COVID-19 Archives Collection to preserve important documents about the pandemic as it occurs. The Library received grant awards respectively from IMLS and ALA. During the pandemic, the IFSI International Programs continued to provide information resources and access to international users. The Library organized online academic activities via Zoom on a variety of workshops, lectures, and discussions to ensure that users were able to receive enough resources to continue their study and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'IFLODD: The Illinois Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths Digital Image Collection Database' is a knowledge management initiative at the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It collects and provides Internet access to a multi-dimensional dataset of photographs and fire department records that document Illinois firefighters who died in the line of duty. This paper discusses the development, maintenance, and management of IFLODD through grant funding, in-house administrative support, and community partnership. It also describes how IFLODD contributes to IFSI's teaching, training, and research efforts and how it has been recognized in the fire service and Library and Information Science communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses issues surrounding the development of a small special library's Internet reference services to support firefighter distance learners for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute's (IFSI) online Firefighter II Certification Program, the first of its kind in the nation. Planning for the Internet reference services involves consideration of user needs, funding, staff management, and collection development. In addition, this article explores how the IFSI Library has established a collaboration and partnership with the online course and Information Technology teams, and local public and community college libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report explored the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA)'s strategic planning process for 2020-2025 during COVID-19. The paper introduced CALA's mission statement, values, and discussed the importance of the strategic plan. A strategic planning task force was formed to create an opportunity for membership input in virtual town hall meetings and surveys. The authors presented a case study on the process of revising a strategic plan and discussed the implementation phases. The authors also shared the challenges and recommendations in organizing strategic planning for a library association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2021, the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), in partnership with the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), received $100,000 in funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program National Forum Grant in the Lifelong Learning project category for Path to Leadership: National Forum to Advance Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) Librarianship. Funding from the grant resulted in an online national forum, webinars, and a reunion program. This paper details the planning and implementation of this project. It also includes project evaluation and a proposed curriculum outline to fully develop an APIA leadership program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2021, the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), in partnership with the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), received $100,000 in funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program National Forum Grant in the Lifelong Learning project category for Path to Leadership: National Forum to Advance Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) Librarianship. Funding from the grant resulted in an online national forum, webinars, and a reunion program. This paper details the planning and implementation of this project. It also includes project evaluation and a proposed curriculum outline to fully develop an APIA leadership program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine circovirus type 4 (PCV4) is a novel virus associated with porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS)-like signs identified firstly in China in 2019. However, the details of the molecular epidemiology of PCV4 are unclear at this time. A total of forty-two related sequences were selected from the GenBank database to explore the spread of PCV4 and its rule in genetic evolution. Of the selected strains, 41 were from south China in 2019 to 2021 and the other was a foreign representative strain. Phylogenetic tree construction, nucleotide and amino acid (aa) sequence alignment, gene recombination and antigen structure prediction were performed on the collected sequences using bioinformatics softwares. The 42 PCV4 strains were divided into two subgenotypes: PCV4a (35/42) and PCV4b (7/42), according to the constructed genetic evolution tree. PCV4a is the main epidemic strain, and it can be further divided into two different gene clusters: PCV4a-1 (22/35) and PCV4a-2 (13/35). The pairwise comparison analysis showed that the complete genome sequence similarity of the 42 PCV4 strains ranged between 97.9% and 100%, and the aa sequences of the Cap proteins of 42 PCV4 strains had three major heterogenic or hypervariable regions—27–28, 96 and 212—all located near the antigenic epitope of the Cap protein. The results of this study can provide some basis for further studying the spread and epidemic growth of PCV4, and the prevention and control of PCV4 infection in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]