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This article describes the development of a Web Library Guide at the University of Birmingham, UK. Having developed a hypertext guide using Asymetrix Toolbook which gave guidance to users on the subjects and services available in the Main Library of the University, the information was repackaged for loading on to the World Wide Web. The reasons for this move are outlined, the process of the transposition is explained and future possibilities for the project are suggested.

In this article we explore how inpatient mental health services in England and Wales are interpreting and responding to policy derived from Mainstreaming Gender and Women's Mental Health (DH, 2003) in relation to women's safety in inpatient settings. This article will outline the background to concerns about safety in mental health settings for women and drawing on relevant literature and on interviews with service managers, practitioners and users identify some current issues in improving safety for women in inpatient settings and in creating single sex provision. Our review suggests that whilst there are improvements in provision for women in inpatient settings, some women are still not being offered a real choice of a women‐only setting on admission to hospital, and that changing the culture that permits a lack of physical and relational safety for women presents real challenges. We will discuss some of the implications for future practice.

Although there is great potential for diversity, library and information science (LIS) is a relatively homogenous profession. Increasing the presence of librarians of color may help to improve diversity within LIS. However, recruiting ethnic minorities into LIS has proven to be difficult despite various initiative including scholarships, fellowships, and locally focused programs. The central questions explored in this research can be divided into two parts: (1) Why do ethnic minorities choose librarianship as a profession? (2) What would motivate members of minority groups to join a profession in which they cannot see themselves?

The research was conducted through semi-structured, qualitative interviews of 32 ethnic minority students from one of four ethnic minority groups (African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American) currently enrolled in an LIS graduate program. Eleven themes emerged from the data: libraries, librarians, library work experience, LIS graduate program, career plans and goals, education and family, support, mentors, ethnicity and community, acculturation, and views of diversity.

The findings seem to support many assumptions regarding expectations and career goals. The findings related to libraries, librarians, mentors, and support illustrate that many recruitment initiatives are starting in the right place. However, the most noteworthy findings were those that centered on identity, acculturation, and diversity because they dealt with issues that are not often considered or discussed by many in the profession outside of ethnic minority organizations.

Professional development (PD) is an essential component of continuing learning for in-service teachers. This paper discusses a school-based example of using the best practice of coaching in early childhood education supported by a professional development school partnership. We explain how a teacher identified need led to a collaborative, multistep approach to meeting that need in connection to State mandates.

In this research, we used a case study methodological approach with a team of preschool teachers at one school. The model combines use of PD sessions, classroom coaching, classroom observation and reflection.

Teachers’ feedback indicates that using the strategy positively impacted most of the participants’ ability to support communication, community-building and inclusive practices in their classrooms. The data that emerged in the following year evidenced increased use of visual supports in classrooms, use in connection with literacy goals and interest in creating new uses in the school.

This article contributes an action-oriented school-based example of bridging research to practice to support teachers’ needs through PD and coaching in a PDS. The design and practical implications may interest preschool educators, instructional coaches, administrators, professional development schools and others involved with monitoring teacher development initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to offer practicing academic librarians an overview of adult education theories as a way to more deeply understand and further foster adult learning in academic libraries.

This paper is a literature review.

This review introduces academic librarians to a range of specific adult education learning theories; it offers examples of academic library users engaging in these types of adult learning; it considers how academic libraries can further foster adult learning; and it identifies major characteristics of adult learners.

This literature review offers a summative overview of adult education in a way that has not appeared in the library literature to date, along with explicit connections between adult education theories and academic library practices.

This paper aims to explore an adaptation of the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps^TM) program, which uses the Lean Startup methodology to help STEM scientists commercialize their research. The adaptation, known as I-Corps for Social Impact (I-Corps SI), extends the for-profit canonical model to include mixed revenue and non-profit business models, to help researchers generate social impact.

A research team of policy and non-profit experts observed and adapted a canonical I-Corps process, then interviewed academics who are scaling and sustaining socially impactful solutions from their research, including past I-Corps participants, to validate research team learning.

The paper describes limitations of the I-Corps model and modifications required to enhance social impact.

While the field of social entrepreneurship has grown rapidly over the past few decades, social scientists have lagged behind in translating evidence-based research into solutions that can be scaled and sustained to achieve social impact. The paper presents an evidence-based case for a pedagogical tool to close this gap.

A focus on validated learning and business model development supports a paradigm shift within the social sciences, which can help spur greater social innovation from evidence-based research.

This chapter explores how four culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse colleagues use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine inquiry-based teaching and learning in international contexts. Respectively from the USA, Canada, Taiwan, and China, the main research question is, “How can we develop an inquiry stance in our similarly diverse teacher candidates?” For five months, they explore the question with one another in an interactive online journal. The analysis of their written journal reflections result in four main themes: (1) naming and framing inquiry and context, (2) perspectives on translating theory to practice, (3) common practices for developing inquiry stance, and (4) policy work. The chapter concludes with a list of recommendations for fostering inquiry-based teaching and learning with culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse teacher candidates. Self-study research methodologies, Philosophy for Children, and online journaling are also suggested as professional development models for diverse globalized teacher educators.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the delivery of facilitated action learning sets as an integral component of a multidisciplinary end-of-life care course.

The educational intervention described in this paper is delivered by specialist palliative care practitioners to those working with dying patients and their families in non-specialist settings. The programme consists of two components: the first taught/experience-based component takes place in a hospice. The second integral component involves action learning sets which are facilitated by specialist palliative care staff over a six-month period. This paper reports the challenges, learning and benefits of using action learning sets to improve end-of-life care.

Action learning sets provide support which enables staff to implement changes to end-of-life care. Participants in the successful action learning sets were motivated to change practice and identified themselves as change agents. Management support was vital to allow participants the authority to implement changes to practice.

Facilitators need to gain participant and management commitment to the action learning process before the programme begins if they are to be successful in achieving changes to end-of-life care.

Hospices and other health care organisations work in partnership to deliver this programme, and this paper demonstrates how action learning sets can increase mutual understanding and communication between specialist and non-specialist end-of-life care settings.

Many organisations are reconsidering their investment in formal education and training, in favour of more informal approaches to learning such as mentoring, temporary assignments, stretch assignments, and job rotation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which managers have developed capabilities for their roles thus far and their preferred approaches for future development with particular consideration given to a comparison of formal and informal learning.

This paper reports on a case study conducted within an Australian nonprofit organisation focussing on the extent to which managers attribute their current level of management skills to formal or informal learning and the extent to which they would prefer formal or informal learning (or a combination) for future development.

Findings indicate a large part of the managers’ current management capabilities were acquired through informal means, and these are seen as desirable for ongoing development, however, there is also a desire for formal learning methods to complement informal methods.

Management development is a critical HRD activity however there is limited knowledge about how managers have built their current capabilities and their preferences in terms of the mix of formal and informal learning for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an online faculty development pilot course on how to engage students online. A framework was used, referred to as the Trifecta of Student Engagement, for the design of the course. The Trifecta of Student Engagement proposes that students, in order to be fully engaged in a course, need to be engaged with their course content, with their peers and with their instructor. The course has three units of content that each correspond to the Trifecta of Student Engagement. This course has gone through one pilot with faculty and has impacted students and faculty positively.

An online faculty development course was piloted with eight faculty members across a range of disciplines who participated in the program. After taking the course, they had to apply the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to a course they taught and share what they did via written report, webinar, or web presentation. This study summarized the faculty participants’ written reports and presentations as well as provided a qualitative evaluation on the impact this course had on students and faculty.

After faculty applied the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to courses taught, faculty saw an improvement in student engagement, satisfaction, learning and achievement. Three faculty surveyed students to determine their engagement and satisfaction and found students to respond positively to the use of tools and activities for student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement. Two faculty examined student grades to determine if there were changes in student outcomes. One professor saw average grades increase by 11 percent. Another professor saw grades improve by 8 percent. She also found that student assessment of learning increased by 0.57. Both faculty attributed the improvement to the effectiveness of the teaching strategies employed.

This research is limited to the eight faculty who participated in the pilot. Some faculty used methods to attempt to measure the impacts of their teaching practices by surveying students and looking at student performance data. A second pilot is needed for additional faculty to take the course and apply the Trifecta of Engagement framework to generate more data for impact.

Institutions looking to create an online teaching professional development course for faculty can utilize the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework for their course design. Additionally, faculty can read about tools and strategies that they can immediately apply to create more student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement.

Faculty can be more intentional in how they engage students in their online course experience.

This paper adds to the literature on faculty development regarding student-centered teaching practices. Other institutions looking to create a faculty development course or program that utilizes a student-centered framework may find aspects of this paper useful for their own online teaching professional development initiatives.