Jess Newman, Suzanne Bonefas and Wendy Trenthem
This paper offers a case study in creating capacity for digital initiatives at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee through an exploration of the Crossroads to Freedom program, a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers a case study in creating capacity for digital initiatives at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee through an exploration of the Crossroads to Freedom program, a decade-long digital public history initiative. At present, digital scholarship and preservation work falls under the purview of information services (IS), a merged information technology (IT) and library division and home to the digital preservation and scholarship (DPS) team. DPS is a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate students, IS staff and various internal and external partners.
Design/methodology/approach
By exploring the evolution of digital projects at a small, liberal arts college, this paper will introduce readers to one dynamic path to cultivating capacity and support for digital initiatives within the confines of limited staffing and monetary resources.
Findings
Topics and strategies include working effectively with community partners, leveraging existing strengths, building and sustaining a community of practice (CoP), integrating undergraduates as full staff members and navigating cultural change within the library and higher education more broadly.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates a decade of successful innovation and adaptation to the changing landscape of digital initiatives and the library’s role in higher education that is rooted in community-centric commitment to social justice. Discussion of these strategies and theoretical frameworks should prove helpful to institutions looking to reimagine traditional approaches to digital archives and scholarship programs.
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Jessica Gale, Jane Clarbour and Kelly Rayner
Literature suggests that mentally disordered offenders are considerably more difficult to treat and slower to respond to psychological treatment. Less is known about the…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature suggests that mentally disordered offenders are considerably more difficult to treat and slower to respond to psychological treatment. Less is known about the particular factors that can contribute to this resistance. A more comprehensive understanding of the factors that treating psychologists feel can promote or inhibit progression through rehabilitative treatment may increase the likelihood of positive clinical outcomes. This paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Four practising psychologists employed within a male medium- and low-secure forensic unit in the North East of England took part in a semi-structured interview. Their views, opinions and experiences regarding patient progression through treatment pathways were recorded, transcribed and analysed.
Findings
This thematic analysis identified that numerous patient-specific parameters influenced perceived progression, and environmental and external factors had a significant impact on the patients’ expressed attitude towards treatment.
Practical implications
Alongside issues of motivation and engagement, participants identified external factors that influence perceived treatment success with their forensic patients.
Originality/value
Additional research is needed to identify the factors that are the most influential in promoting or inhibiting perceived and actual progress. This will hopefully optimise treatment engagement and the motivation to change problematic behaviours in mentally disordered offenders.
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John Wiseman, Lara Williamson and Jess Fritze
This purpose of this paper is to summarise the outcomes of a recent project in Victoria, Australia exploring the effectiveness of community engagement strategies in improving…
Abstract
Purpose
This purpose of this paper is to summarise the outcomes of a recent project in Victoria, Australia exploring the effectiveness of community engagement strategies in improving climate mitigation and adaptation outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Roundtables and interviews with a diverse range of community engagement practitioners and policy makers involved in climate change work were conducted, informed by a discussion paper outlining recent Australian and international learning about community engagement and climate change.
Findings
The project confirms and builds on recent international learning about the importance of carefully planned and implemented community engagement as essential components in effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Originality/value
The paper brings together learning from recent on‐the‐ground experience from Australian community engagement practitioners and policy makers working in the climate change field. In addition to evidence supporting the international case for community engagement methodologies the paper also summarises a number of factors important to effective climate change community engagement strategies.
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‘Nothing’, Winston Churchill assured the readers of Nash's Pall Mall Magazine in 1925, ‘makes a man more reverent than a library’, and to prove his point, imagined a day spent…
Abstract
‘Nothing’, Winston Churchill assured the readers of Nash's Pall Mall Magazine in 1925, ‘makes a man more reverent than a library’, and to prove his point, imagined a day spent browsing amongst a really large collection of books. Such a day could end only in despair at the sight of the ‘vast, infinitely‐varied store of knowledge and wisdom which the human race has accumulated and preserved’; to read, to admire and to enjoy even a few of the treasures of saints, historians, scientists, poets and philosophers is beyond our time on earth. ‘But if you cannot read them’, he continued,
Jill Manthorpe, Jess Harris and Sam Mauger
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on UK older people’s forums. Forums seek to influence statutory responses to ageing, and enable older people to speak up on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on UK older people’s forums. Forums seek to influence statutory responses to ageing, and enable older people to speak up on matters important to them. The review examined three facets of forums: their membership, structures, and effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Methods included searching databases, internet, and specialist libraries for materials relating to older people’s forums. Key points were extracted and source material described but not subject to quality appraisal. Relevant non-UK studies are included to draw contrast and comparisons.
Findings
Several studies and reports have explored forum members’ socio-demographic profiles, motivations and triggers for joining and the two-way rewards of participation. However, membership remains a minority activity, with only a small percentage of members actively engaged and the review highlights gaps in the literature on widening participation. Both statutory and voluntary sectors have supported forum development and sustainability. There is little data on formal structures but some exploration of the informal communications and behaviours that sustain them has been undertaken. Forums are viewed as effective but resource intensive. The size and representativeness of the membership, strength of influence and deployment of members’ expertise are all identified as potential contributors to effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
Some material may not have been accessible and there is potential bias by greater inclusion of journal published materials than other possible sources. Material was not quality appraised, and research literature and self-reporting by forums are presented alongside each other.
Practical implications
Practitioners should familiarise themselves with current older people’s organisations locally to ensure that consultations are broad and reach different groups. While partnerships with voluntary sector health and care providers are encouraged some of these groups may not wish to represent all older people. Wider reach may provide multiple perspectives. Help in kind as well as financial resources may be welcomed by older people’s groups, such as meeting spaces, assistance with administration, and briefings that are accessible. Offering to meet with older people’s forums to discuss matters regularly may provide insight into experiences of services and changing needs earlier than professional feedback. Dismissing older people’s forums as made up of the “usual suspects” is likely to be unfair and unhelpful to building up positive relationships.
Originality/value
The review provides a preliminary assessment of the size and scope of research and grey literature on UK older people’s forums, synthesising points of similarity and difference and identifying clear gaps in the evidence.
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Julie Stubbs, Sophie Russell, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Chris Cunneen and Melanie Schwartz
Purpose – There are many unknowns about the obstacles as well as the resilient characteristics that vulnerable youth possess as they engage in the transition to adulthood. This…
Abstract
Purpose – There are many unknowns about the obstacles as well as the resilient characteristics that vulnerable youth possess as they engage in the transition to adulthood. This chapter seeks to address some of these unknowns.
Methodology/approach – This chapter is based on qualitative interviews with 60 youths residing in a homeless shelter and follow-up interviews with 39 of these youths after they left the shelter.
Findings – This chapter presents the difficult life histories of these youths and how these histories affect their ability to successfully transition into adulthood. Youths reported elevated levels of instability, most often due to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as parental drug abuse, poverty, and transience. From these experiences, youths learned to rely only on themselves for support and believe resiliently in their own ability to achieve their goals. However, when located after they had left the shelter, many were still struggling mightily to achieve these goals. Post shelter, the most stable group of participants was women with children and many young mothers spoke evocatively about the support and motivation given to them by their children.
Research limitations/implication – This chapter is limited by its small, nonrandom sample. Future research on the transition to adulthood would benefit from analyzing the transition for youths with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Originality/value of paper – The sample population and the use of qualitative, longitudinal data make this paper an important contribution to the broader transition to adulthood literature as well as the growing sociological literature on homeless youth.
Randi L. Sims and Jess J. Boytell
The purpose of this paper is to test the relation between employee goal orientation and occupational withdrawal intentions and behaviors considering employee satisfaction a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the relation between employee goal orientation and occupational withdrawal intentions and behaviors considering employee satisfaction a mediator in the relations.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were obtained from a sample of 241 licensed real estate professionals using a self-administrated questionnaire. Mediation hypotheses were tested using Smart PLS.
Findings
The results indicate that job satisfaction fully mediates the relation between learning goal orientation and occupational withdrawal intentions and behaviors. A direct positive relation was found between avoid goal orientation and occupational withdrawal intentions and behaviors.
Practical implications
Worker shortages in many occupations increases the importance of the ability to understand and predict occupational withdrawal behaviors.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literature by considering goal orientation as an individual employee characteristics central in predicting and understanding occupational attitudes and withdrawal intentions and behaviors.