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Lets start with the praise. In many ways this is an excellent book to give LIS professionals some essential background knowledge about the Net to help in using it and in advising others.

This chapter describes an alternative model to out-of-the-classroom learning which has been highly successful in assisting students in New Zealand to make the transition to either the workplace, or to higher qualifications.

The final paper within the New Zealand Diploma in Business is ‘Applied Management’ in which students work in groups to design and implement a semester-long research inquiry with a host organisation. The authors discuss the challenges and strategies associated with delivering this paper and reference three current studies which relate to this student cohort: the first about students’ perceptions of cooperative learning in groups, and the alternate selection and assessment techniques the university has been trialling; the second about a Māori mentoring pilot pairing students with mentors in the workplace; and third, examining students’ experiences and expectations of the Diploma as a pathway into degree study.

Our story offers an example of how a focus on quality and accountability to local business stakeholders has created a successful co-curricular learning environment, and suggests the value of combining the three strands of research, teamwork and co-curricular projects.

While the context is of a small, regional institute, many of the elements of good practice will be transferable to other higher education providers.

On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.

The problems of achieving accurate temperature profiles in large scale and difficult environments like paint manufacture, are solved by the Distributed Temperature Sensor (DTS) from York Ltd.

In December 2007, Lord Bradley was asked by the Government, in a six‐month period, to review court liaison and diversion schemes for mentally ill people. A year and a half later, and having extended the brief to encompass the entire criminal justice system, Lord Bradley has reported. The Government has now responded to Bradleys’ findings (Ministry of Justice, 2009) so it is timely to comment on the review particularly in relation to prisons in England. The English prison population is almost at its highest ever level and currently stands at around 82,000 people ‐ according to the Prison Service’s standard of certified normal accommodation, the prison population is now 8000 more than it should be. As HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, has noted ‘activity and support from staff . . . were the two things thought to be most helpful by prisoners with mental health and emotional problems, in over‐crowded and under‐resourced prisons these essential elements of care are at a premium’ (HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 2007).

Research suggests that individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are inconsistently supported throughout the criminal justice system (CJS) in the UK. Bradley (2009) recommended the introduction of criminal justice liaison and diversion (L&D) teams to bridge the gap between the CJS and mental health services and provide a more consistent and improved quality of support for individuals with vulnerabilities, including those with autism. This study aims to explore the experiences of staff working in L&D teams who encounter individuals with ASD.

Interviews were conducted with ten L&D team members. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to gain insight into their lived experiences of working with autism in the CJS.

Interpretation of individual transcripts resulted in three super-ordinate themes: “feeling helpless and helpful in the system”, “transition to knowing” and “impact on self”. Each theme encapsulated a number of sub-themes depicting the limitations of services, difficult environments, making a difference, lack of understanding, developing understanding and the impact of these experiences on staff’s confidence, attitudes and well-being.

Criminal justice services are limited for people with autism. There is a lack of autism awareness by staff. Lack of awareness impacts staff attitudes and confidence. Training in autism should be provided to criminal justice staff.

This research highlights the limitations of services available for individuals with autism and the widespread lack of autism awareness. These concerns directly impacted participants’ confidence, attitudes and well-being. Recommendations are proposed to guide future practice and research including increasing availability of access to ASD services, enforcing mandatory autism-specific training for staff and routinely collecting service-user feedback.