Symbols of service: Oral histories of veterans tattoos as outreach

Outreach to special populations can be a sensitive endeavor, especially when the population, such as veterans, has a unique life experience in comparison to the general population. The use of oral histories for engagement and outreach can be a useful tool in making a connection to the veteran population because it gives them an opportunity to talk without being judged and the library a chance to listen. This case study highlights the collaboration between the library and the campus veteran center in an effort to come together and showcase veteran stories around their tattoos.     

Negotiating national identity through loss: Australian newspaper coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Sport and the media have long served as arenas for the development of national identity, both of which are examined in this study of the newspaper coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This article reports on the findings of a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the FIFA World Cup; the newspaper data collected included all major daily Australian newspapers. Following an in-depth analysis, five themes emerged: patriotism; dealing with loss; celebrity; national identity; and ethnicity. This paper examines the related themes of dealing with loss and national identity. Analysis revealed that during the pre-event phase, a clearly articulated national identity was constructed through the media; this was then used as a reference point for subsequent media coverage following Australia’s loss to Germany, a significant turning point for the Australian team. The aim of this article is to investigate the role played by the mass media in the representation, production and construction of Australian national identity within the context of sporting loss in an international competition. Media representation of Australian sporting nationalism is used as a lens through which to examine how elements of Australian national identity were represented, reproduced and reinforced by the media following the Australian soccer team’s poor performance.     

Impact of severity of autism and intervention time‐input on child outcomes: comparison across several early interventions

In this article, written by Phil Reed and Lisa Osborne, both from Swansea University, the impact of severity of autism, and the time‐input of the treatment programme, on the outcome effectiveness for four early interventions for individuals on the autism spectrum was explored. The four interventions studied were applied behaviour analysis (ABA), special nursery, an adapted portage intervention, and a local authority approach. Sixty‐six children (aged from two years six months to four years) were studied over nine months, in terms of their intellectual, educational and adaptive behavioural functioning. Children undergoing the ABA approach demonstrated greater gains in functioning (especially in educational functioning). There were differences in the way that autism severity and intervention time‐input impacted on the different early intervention programmes. For special nursery, portage and local authority approaches, the gains made by the children were inversely related to the severity of their autism and directly related to time‐input. In contrast, the converse was true for the ABA approach. These data are discussed with respect to their implications for choosing an intervention strategy for a child on the autism spectrum.