Re-engaging/Engaging Part-time Librarians

In order to maintain high quality service and strengthen retention of part-time librarians, this article addresses ways of engaging new part-time librarians and re-engaging long-time part-time librarians. Part-time librarians are hired primarily to work hours outside the traditional work week or as temporary replacements for unanticipated vacancies, yet they end up providing a third of the service, solely, during evenings and weekends in most small to mid-sized academic institutions. Most are brought in with very little training or orientation to the institution and are expected to hit the ground running while maintaining quality service. This article provides managers with suggestions to better integrate part-time librarians into the fabric of the institution.     

Eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage dissociates the lactate and gas exchange thresholds

We tested the hypothesis that exercise-induced muscle damage would increase the ventilatory (V(E)) response to incremental/ramp cycle exercise (lower the gas exchange threshold) without altering the blood lactate profile, thereby dissociating the gas exchange and lactate thresholds. Ten physically active men completed maximal incremental cycle tests before (pre) and 48 h after (post) performing eccentric exercise comprising 100 squats. Pulmonary gas exchange was measured breath-by-breath and fingertip blood sampled at 1-min intervals for determination of blood lactate concentration. The gas exchange threshold occurred at a lower work rate (pre: 136 ± 27 W; post: 105 ± 19 W; P < 0.05) and oxygen uptake (VO(2)) (pre: 1.58 ± 0.26 litres · min(-1); post: 1.41 ± 0.14 litres · min(-1); P < 0.05) after eccentric exercise. However, the lactate threshold occurred at a similar work rate (pre: 161 ± 19 W; post: 158 ± 22 W; P > 0.05) and VO(2) (pre: 1.90 ± 0.20 litres · min(-1); post: 1.88 ± 0.15 litres · min(-1); P > 0.05) after eccentric exercise. These findings demonstrate that exercise-induced muscle damage dissociates the V(E) response to incremental/ramp exercise from the blood lactate response, indicating that V(E) may be controlled by additional or altered neurogenic stimuli following eccentric exercise. Thus, due consideration of prior eccentric exercise should be made when using the gas exchange threshold to provide a non-invasive estimation of the lactate threshold.     

'I felt like I did something good'— the impact on mainstream pupils of a peer tutoring programme for children with autism

There have been many research projects studying the use of peer intervention strategies to develop the social, communication and interaction skills of children with autism, yet few of these studies focus in detail on the impact of such strategies on the mainstream peers. In this article, Val Jones, an advisory teacher for autism spectrum conditions, explores the impact of peer tutoring children with autism on the peer tutors themselves. This enquiry focuses on ten to eleven-year-old mainstream pupils who were paired with twelve children with autism and associated learning difficulties for weekly peer tutoring sessions at a primary school with a specialist autism unit. At the end of a series of tutoring sessions, the perspectives of the peer tutors were gathered through questionnaires. All of the peer tutors reported that they had enjoyed the experience and most felt that the peer tutoring had brought them direct benefits by building confidence, teaching responsibility, encouraging caring attitudes and helping them to acknowledge diversity. Val Jones also gathered the views of parents and school staff who again reported largely positive outcomes from the peer tutoring process. While this small-scale study focuses on findings from one school, there are wider implications here for the development of inclusive policies and practices and this article will be of interest to professionals working across the range of specialist and mainstream settings.