Supporting ‘Best Research for Best Health’ with best information

Background: This article describes the potential role for National Health Service (NHS) libraries in supporting health research. The content is partly based on the proceedings of the ‘Best Information for Best Research for Best Health’ event at University of Leicester in November 2006. Objectives: With reference to the UK Department of Health's Research and Development (R&D) strategy, Best Research for Best Health and the Cooksey Review of public funding of health research, the article seeks to identify areas where NHS library and information staff can become involved in supporting the research process. Methods: The authors examined the challenges and opportunities that these reports offer and looked at two areas where library and information services (LIS) staff can potentially expand their services‐supporting researchers at every stage of the research process and transferring research into practice. Results: Staff in NHS libraries need to create an environment in which their role in the research process is recognized and valued. LIS staff can develop roles within the research process and thereby improve the robustness and validity of research outputs. Training and development of LIS staff is a key priority and can be taken forward despite the limitations of budgets and staffing levels. Conclusions: A proactive and assertive approach is needed to achieve a cultural shift within NHS library practice from supporting research from the outside, to being fully integrated within the research process.     

A Horse of a Different Color: Specifying With Precision Infants' Mappings of Novel Nouns and Adjectives

A precisely controlled automated procedure confirms a developmental decalage: Infants acquiring English link count nouns to object categories well before they link adjectives to properties. Fourteen- and 18-month-olds ( n = 48 at each age) extended novel words presented as count nouns based on category membership rather than shared properties. When the same words were presented as adjectives, infants revealed no preference for either category- or property-based extensions. The convergence between performance in this automated procedure and in more interactive tasks is striking. Perhaps more importantly, the automated task provides a methodological foundation for (a) exploring the development of form–meaning links in infants acquiring languages other than English and (b) investigating the time course underlying infants' mapping of novel words to meaning.     

Therapeutic groupwork with young children and mothers who have experienced domestic abuse

There is mounting recognition that exposure to domestic abuse causes far‐reaching damage to children’s lives, development and psychological well‐being. Studies estimate 10% to 20% of children are at risk of exposure to domestic abuse – thus domestic abuse must be seen as a crucial issue for educational psychologists (EPs). This study investigates the effects of domestic abuse on a group of mothers and their young children. It also describes how an Education Psychology Service (EPS) was involved in developing, running and evaluating therapeutic groupwork to promote positive mother–child relationships and to enhance the psychological well‐being of mothers and their young children who have experienced domestic abuse.     

Consumer health services and collections for Hispanics: an introduction

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority population in the United States today. Providing health information services to Hispanic patients and their family members can be challenging because of diversity. Library staff should be familiar with the specific health care needs and sociocultural characteristics of Hispanics. This article discusses the movement toward providing culturally competent health care and identifies socioeconomic challenges and barriers to health care faced by Hispanics. Suggestions are offered for communicating with this group in the reference setting, and a selective bibliography of Internet consumer health resources available in both Spanish and English is provided.