A pillar of the Youngstown community: The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County engages in the Harwood practice

ABSTRACT

The Harwood Institute arrived in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1999; and today, over 18 years later, its teachings have made a profound effect upon the city. The Youngstown Public Library, through the leadership of Carlton Sears and Heidi Daniel, has wholeheartedly embraced the methods and ideology of the Harwood Institute, helping to reinvigorate and power a city working its way back to prosperity.     

Benefits to Collection Development Librarians from Collaborating with “Community-Embedded” Librarians-In-Training

The 21st century collection manager encounters serious challenges in collection development (e.g., budget shortages, lack of skilled personnel, lower agency prioritization, and reduced available staff time). This article explores a practical, low-cost solution to these challenges that prevent collection developers from regularly creating/managing adequately balanced collections. It discusses the role of 93 “community-embedded” librarians-in-training to develop contextually situated collections in a graduate course taught seven times in an information sciences program in a southern land grant university. Findings of collection management activity tasks completed during the course provide evidence of accrued tangible outcomes/benefits to motivate collection development librarians and their information agencies collaborate with librarians-in-training in future initiatives.     

Bringing the Law to the Library: The Importance of Librarian Mediation in Access to Justice Services

Library access to justice programs and services help people who need legal information and who cannot afford an attorney. Librarian mediation is a critical component in the provision of access to justice services. However, the value of library mediation, or assistance with using library resources, is often unrecognized, particularly where members of the public are trying to access electronic legal information sources, online legal forms, and other law technologies. This article will explore the role of librarians in providing access to justice services from the perspective of the work of Richard Susskind, which emphasizes technological approaches to providing legal services. While there is a place for technology in access to justice services, there is also a valuable role that librarians play in contributing to access to justice.     

Is There a Future for Journalism?

A functionalist perspective on the future of journalism would posit that because human society needs journalism, we will find ways to support this communications practice. Yet such a perspective, however consoling, assumes a teleology that is far from guaranteed. What will happen is far from easy to predict; nevertheless, this paper pinpoints several key issues that impact on the future of journalism. It also advances some general propositions and a broad periodisation around UNESCO’s historical role in relation to these issues. The analysis gives particular attention to political and economic matters, the safety of journalists and internet governance. Each of these dimensions entails existential threats to journalism, but some opportunities are also noted. Four paradoxes are also identified, with tensions that may lead to change in one direction or another.     

Digital Inclusion in Library Context: A Perspective from Users with Print Disability

Digital inclusion is a strategy pursued to foster social inclusion of those who have been sidelined from the mainstream of information society due to lack of access to digital technologies and the skills to use them. Libraries have been working to close the gap by providing access to computers, the Internet, digital content, and digital literacy programs. However, research reveals a new type of divide where digitally competent people could be digitally excluded. This shows the need for a better conceptualization of access and literacy. This paper commits to exploring the concept of access to digital content from the perspective of people with print disability. It involved in-depth interviews with ten participants with print disability where the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health was used as a framework for data analysis. The overall analysis shows that digital inclusion would be more meaningful if it involved providing content in alternative formats and empowering users to make informed choices. Issues such as flexibility and adaptability in content presentation and design of content discovery tools are among those discussed.     

Contesting Communities

This introductory article to the combined special issue of Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice provides an overview of some of the key contemporary approaches to studying journalism and social order. It argues the need to step beyond a functionalist framework when considering the news media’s central role in shaping social connections, community and cohesion. To advance our understandings of social order, our paper suggests a greater emphasis of the significance of journalism’s relationship to the wider social sphere along with three other key considerations, including (1) a critical focus on the relationship between media, politics and social order, especially in defining and/or negotiating “anti-social” practices and social disintegration; (2) a more refined focus on the “imagined” and geographic boundaries of news audiences in digital spaces; and (3) the changing relationship to norms and conventions of journalism practice from trust and legitimacy to the role of journalists as arbiters and connectors across social spaces.     

未成年人犯罪的现状及其预防

未成年人是祖国的未来.未成年人的犯罪问题一直是全社会关注的热点,同时也是消除社会不稳定的因素,为经济、政治、文化等各方面发展创造良好环境的重要课题之一.分析未成年人犯罪的特点、原因,寻觅预防未成年人犯罪的对策,是一项功在当代、利在千秋的事情.     

依法行政加强药品监督管理

贯彻《行政许可法》，依法加强药品监督管理，其根本目的是保证药品质量，保障人民用药安全有效。必须加强药监队伍建设，树立公正执法形象，构建健康有序的药品市场，实现药品监督执法的规范化、法治化。     

College course scarcity and time to degree

College students are taking longer to earn baccalaureate degrees now than ever before, but little is known about institutional factors that may contribute to this trend. In this paper we investigate an important institutional constraint—course scarcity—that we hypothesize may be associated with increased time to degree. We employ a unique administrative dataset from a large, moderately selective, public institution and use an instrumental variables approach, identifying off the random registration times assigned to students. Results suggest that course scarcity does not delay students’ graduation. We explore alternative explanations for our findings and discuss a variety of other factors correlated with time to baccalaureate completion.