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The paper aims to explore the issues surrounding the user conceptualisation of academic libraries. The paper will solidify the role of academic libraries as learning spaces and problematise how libraries are conceptualised by users.

The paper is a literature-based conceptual paper and draws on a wide range of literature to challenge the concept of academic libraries and presents how they are becoming reframed as different spaces.

The paper argues that the concept of a library is at risk. While libraries have undergone substantial changes, the concept of a library has lingered. This paper demonstrated that libraries need to proactively engage users in this debate.

The spatial approach taken by this paper demonstrates the complicity behind the user conceptualisation of libraries. Developing an understanding of this process is an important foundation for libraries to develop their user engagement.

Purpose: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults smoke at rates much higher than the general population. Young adults, in general, are less likely to seek medical help for smoking cessation and LGB individuals are less likely to seek health care generally. Alternative methods to encourage smoking cessation are necessary. This research seeks to establish whether LGB young adults in California would be willing to use social media for smoking cessation.

Approach: We conducted 41 qualitative interviews among LGB young adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in Fall 2014.

Findings: The results suggest that our participants were interested in a LGB-focused social media intervention, as long as the intervention was private or anonymous and moderated. Further, across topical areas our participants spoke extensively about the import of social connections. We may be able to leverage these connections to encourage cessation.

Research Limitations: This is a qualitative, non-generalizable dataset from a fairly limited geographic area.

Public Health Implications: Online smoking cessation interventions aimed at young adults would benefit from further testing with LGB young adults to ensure efficacy among this population. In addition, states and localities concerned about young adult LGB smoking might benefit from investing in an online socially mediated cessation forum. Online interventions could be scalable and might be useful for other groups who regularly face discrimination, stigma, or other stressors that make successful smoking cessation difficult.

Deficiencies or imbalances in dietary fat intake may influence on mental and neurological functions of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study aims to compare body mass index (BMI) and the amount of fatty acids intake in the autistic patients with the comparison group.

This case-control was carried out on 200 randomly selected children from 5 to 15 years old (100 autistic patients as the case group and 100 healthy children as the comparison group) in Tehran, Iran. The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess the intake of calorie, macronutrients and different types of dietary fatty acids including saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), linoleic acid (LA), α-Linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and trans fatty acids.

The autistic patients had higher BMI, birth weight and mother’s BMI compared to the comparison group (All p < 0.01). No significant difference was found in the amount of dietary calorie, protein, carbohydrate and total fat intake between two groups. The risk of ASD was associated with higher intake of MUFAs (OR: 3.18, CI%:1.13–4.56, p = 0.04), PUFAs (OR: 4.12, CI95%: 2.01–6.25, p < 0.01) and LA (OR: 4.76, CI95%: 1.34–14.32, p < 0.01).

The autistic children had higher BMI and higher intake of unsaturated fatty acids except for omega-3 fatty acids. Further longitudinal studies are warranted.

This paper aims to describe the Social Branding framework, which uses lifestyle branding to change behaviour within psychographically-defined target audiences. Syke, a Social Branding programme to reduce cigarette use within the higher-risk alternative teen peer crowd in Virginia, USA, is presented as a case study with evaluation results.

Social Branding first creates an authentic lifestyle brand that appeals to a psychographically-defined audience. Once sociocultural authority is built, the lifestyle brand introduces tailored behavioural messaging using targeted messaging channels, relying on experiential marketing events and in-group influencers to align the desired behaviour with the audience’s social identity and values. The evaluation consisted of annual cross-sectional surveying (2011–2014; n = 2,266) on brand recall, liking, message comprehension and current smoking. Among those with recall, the prevalence of liking/comprehension categories (disliked and did not understand; liked or understood; liked and understood) and of smoking within categories was compared across years using chi-square tests. Multivariate logistic regression explored liking/comprehension as a predictor of smoking.

Recall, liking and comprehension were significantly higher in 2014 than in 2011, as was the proportion who both liked and understood Syke. Those who liked and understood Syke had half the odds of current smoking compared to those who disliked and did not understand it.

Syke reached, was liked by and was understood by the target audience. The Social Branding framework effectively appeals to and reaches higher-risk audiences, with learnings applicable to other behaviours and populations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework of cool for social marketing through a comprehensive literature review and integrating extant literature on cool.

A comprehensive search and review of extant literature across social marketing, business disciplines, arts, psychology, social sciences and humanities was undertaken to develop an understanding of cool and its relevance to social marketing. The review permitted developing a comprehensive set of characteristics that are associated with cool.

A conceptual framework of cool organised according to the following dimensions is presented and discussed: deviating from norm, self-expressive, indicative of maturity, subversive, pro-social, evasive, and attractive.

This paper advances theoretical knowledge in the social marketing domain by offering a conceptual framework of cool, and by suggesting a set of guidelines to develop cool social marketing programs.

Assessing learners with extensive support needs has traditionally been rooted in deficit perspectives, in which student incapacities are highlighted. We start this chapter with an overview of this historical view and identify its shortcomings. Next, we identify alternate assessment and progress monitoring as key efforts for shifting the lens from deficit-oriented assessment toward more grade-aligned, inclusive-, and strengths-based strategies. We also identify strategies for comprehensive assessment that can continue this shift in approach. Finally, we conclude with ideas for future directions in assessing learners with extensive support needs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of university libraries in accelerating the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) through information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The study adopted a descriptive survey design using a researcher developed questionnaire for data collection. In all, 103 professional librarians working in all the university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria were surveyed. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 19) was used to run the analysis.

The university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria are not lagging behind in the provision of ICT facilities for the delivery of twenty-first century library services. The paper highlights the critical role of university libraries in bridging digital gaps by taking advantage of ICTs to accelerate the attainment of SDGs. ICTs have the capacity to accelerate the actualisation of SDG in all communities. However, illiteracy, lack of political accountability and transparency, lack of financial resources and inadequate power supply were the major challenges impeding the achievement of SDGs in Ogun State, Nigeria.

This paper establishes the role of university libraries in bridging digital gaps through ICTs in order to facilitate the attainment of SDGs.

The paper originality lies in its concise articulation of the roles of university libraries and ICTs in the actualisation of SDGs. Library and information professionals who are eager to contribute their quota to the achievement of SDGs will find this article useful.

Academic outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain poor, especially in the area of reading, in particular, reading comprehension. In recent years, researchers have begun to investigate subcomponent skills of reading comprehension for children with ASD in order to better understand its development and potential interventions to enhance outcomes. This chapter highlights the current knowledge in the field in regards to the key cognitive and language skills associated with reading development for individuals with ASD. These include emergent-literacy skills, word-reading and decoding, reading fluency, oral language, and social cognition. Additionally, the chapter makes suggestions for future research in this area, in particular the need to conduct research to establish evidence-based practices to better support the syndrome-specific reading needs for this population.