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This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of the mental health needs of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers living in an East Anglian seaside town with high rates of socio‐economic deprivation. Nine key informants were recruited from people working with refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers, and from people who were either members of, or had extensive knowledge of the issues affecting the relevant communities. Barriers were reported both at the stage of seeking services and in accessing services once sought. Barriers to seeking services included different understandings of mental health problems, lack of acknowledgement, discussion and prioritisation of mental health problems, stigma, lack of knowledge of services, fear of authority and lack of trust. Barriers to access included previous negative experiences of accessing NHS services, resource limitations, lack of interpreting and translation services, and practical barriers such as transport and hours of appointments. The findings are discussed in relation to mental health service delivery and mental health promotion.

There are many barriers to effective mental health promotion with mothers living in socially disadvantaged communities. These include failure to take account of local cultural knowledge, community values and identities; feelings arising from experiences of poor health and disadvantage; mistrust of health professionals, and lack of engagement with services. Qualitative methodologies were used to explore maternal mental health and service delivery to people living in poor social conditions. Individual interviews and group discussions were undertaken with nine mothers living in a disadvantaged community. Further data were obtained from fieldwork contacts with seven health professionals working in the community. The research identified four discursive strategies used by participants when they and others encountered difficulties in relation to stigma, mental health and their daily lives as mothers within the community. These strategies were othering, counteracting, blaming, and resisting. The analysis offers a resource to community initiatives seeking to examine how mothers can deal most effectively with a lack of control and power in their lives.

Curricula is developing from a pure knowledge-based outcome to a more skill-based outcome, with the objective of creating and advancing competencies that meet employer expectations. While the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand organisations to change practices and adapt to sustainable goals, there is a lack of understanding in how competencies can enhance these goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: Study 1 explores competencies related to sustainability required in a work force and examines employer perceptions on the existing literature for competencies. Study 2 empirically tests the influence of sustainability scholarship on non-technical competencies in the work force.

A mixed method approach was undertaken. A sample of managers from 39 large Australian organisations participated in the scoping study. This was followed by further interviewing executives from 12 multinational corporations in China to assess the validity of competencies and provide deeper understanding of the issues at hand. The quantitative study analysed a sample of executive responses from 229 multinationals in China using factor and regression analysis to test for the effects of mediation.

The research highlights that the underlying competencies regarding sustainability influences the bigger picture within firms for attaining sustainability. The affective and cognitive growth of sustainability scholarship is governed mainly by a firm’s sustainable values. Core organisational values facilitate the development of non-technical competencies. These relationships and their cumulative effect on competencies provide a theoretical framework for acquiring sustainability within organisations. Employees need sustainability scholarship for enhancing sustainability. Sustainability scholarship reflects high-level learning obtained through universities or training. The research found that non-technical competencies such as professional ethical responsibility mediate between core business competencies and sustainability scholarship.

By exploring employer’s perception of competencies, the study first makes an important contribution in addressing the need to support SDGs by bridging organisational-level competencies and sustainability literacy, which hold significant benefits for practitioners, academia and organisations at large. Second, the theoretical findings strengthen the need for embedding competencies in the curriculum. It conveys the need for sustainability literacy/scholarship to align with organisational training and learning pedagogies, in order to effectively meet industry needs. Third, it provides useful insights on employers’ estimation about workplace competencies and broadens our understanding on the contribution that competencies within organisations make to this end.

IF THE Guinness book of records is still watching these columns, I can now tell them that, after all, Mrs Carole Bignell's hope (NLW February p30) that she had established a record by registering her daughter as a library member at the tender age of two weeks must be dashed. Ken Bowden, District Librarian at Bacup, Lanes (where he gets his copy of NLW a little late), writes that not only did one of his neighbours enrol his daughter when she was five days old some years ago, but that Ken's own son entered the world in February 1977 and was enrolled at Bacup on his third day. Any advance on three days?

The purpose of this paper is to consider how library education can best incorporate the profession's emerging interest in evidence‐based practice (EBP) whilst ensuring that the educational experience is meaningful to the contemporary library student.

A learning and teaching model developed by the Queensland University of Technology will be presented as a case study on how the library education curriculum can be developed to incorporate a focus on EBP whilst catering to the unique learning style of the millennial student.

To effectively meet the needs of the millennial student, library educators must develop their curriculum to include a real world activities and perspective, be customisable and flexible, incorporate regular feedback, use technology, provide trusted guidance, include the opportunity for social and interactive learning, be visual and kinaesthetic, and include communication that is real, raw, relevant and relational.

This paper contributes to the current discussion on how EBP can be integrated effectively into the contemporary library curriculum in general, and meet the learning needs of the millennial student in particular.