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Offenders with a learning disability present with greater clinical need than those without a learning disability. However, for this client group, access to and engagement with psychological and criminogenic interventions are often limited. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a potentially useful approach to this issue.

A single case study design was used to evaluate an introductory group programme, delivered over 12 weekly sessions, in a forensic learning disability service. Semi-structured interviews were used alongside psychometric measures, which were completed prior to, and following completion of, the group, in order to assess the individual's experience of the group, their emotional understanding and difficulties, and readiness to change.

Readiness to change and emotional understanding improved following completion of the programme. Self-reported emotional difficulties showed improvement, although not all staff reports corroborated this. Notably, the service user reported a positive experience, with increased confidence and motivation to attend further groups.

Generalisation from the results of single case studies is limited. Although results suggest that motivation to engage further has increased, more research is required to assess whether this impacts on actual ability to engage.

Offering an introductory programme prior to further, more criminogenically focused intervention may be more effective than offering these interventions as the first stage of treatment.

An introductory group programme may be potentially helpful in providing the foundation knowledge, confidence and motivation necessary to attend further intervention focusing on criminogenic need for offenders with a learning disability.

This paper aims to examine student exercise physiologists (EPs) and student dietitians’ confidence regarding working with people with severe mental illness (SMI) pre- and post-practicum in a mental health service.

This single-arm, quality improvement project included students completing practicum within a lifestyle programme embedded in mental health services. Student EPs completed 100 h of practicum across 15 weeks as part requirement for their Bachelor of Exercise Physiology degree and student dietitians completed six weeks full-time (40 h/week) for the part requirement of their Master of Nutrition and Dietetics. Students completed the Dietetic Confidence Scale (terminology was adapted for student EPs) pre- and post-practicum.

In total, 27 student EPs and 13 student dietitians completed placement and returned pre- and post-practicum questionnaires. Pre-practicum confidence scores were 90.8 ± 17.1 and 86.9 ± 18.9 out of a possible 140 points for student EPs and student dietitians, respectively. Confidence scores increased substantially post-practicum for both student EPs [mean difference (MD) = 29.3 ± 18.8, p < 0.001, d = 1.56] and dietitian students (MD = 26.1 ± 15.9, p = 0.002, d = 1.64). There were significant improvements in confidence across all domains of the confidence questionnaire for both EPs and dietitian students.

There is a research gap in understanding the confidence levels of student EPs’ and student dietitians’ when working with people with mental illness and the impact that undertaking a practicum in a mental health setting may play. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore student EP and student dietitian confidence in working with people with SMI pre- and post-practicum in a mental health setting.

Physical activity is increasingly recognised as critical to improving physical and mental health (MH). Understanding the education and training requirements of exercise professionals will support better integration of these emerging MH professionals within the multidisciplinary MH team. The purpose of this study was to determine the exposure to, knowledge and attitudes of final year exercise physiology students towards people with mental illness (MI).

Student exposure to and knowledge and attitudes of people living with MH were assessed via a 24-item online questionnaire.

In total, n = 63 out of 78 eligible students participated (81%). Of the participants, 81% (n = 51) showed a favourable attitude towards people with MI and 68% (n = 43) of participants had good knowledge of topics relating to MI. Significant correlations existed between the total score for attitude and any exposure to MH issues and having undertaken placement as part of university training and knowledge and total scores. Further training and education are needed to better equip exercise physiology graduates to work with people with MI.

This is the first study to examine the attitudes and knowledge of exercise physiology students towards people living with MI and their association with exposure to MI. Given the growing number of exercise professionals being integrated into multidisciplinary MH teams, this study may help to direct the delivery of associated training and education services.

THE greatly increased interest in historical studies since the second world war has been, I hope, a welcome challenge to librarians, but it has been very difficult to meet it. That the librarians of our new universities should have had little research material to offer was only to be expected. Unfortunately, research scholars have discovered that our older libraries were also deficient, that source materials had either not been purchased, in the years when they were readily available, or had been acquired only to be discarded at a later date. Recently, therefore, both old libraries and new have found themselves in competition for a small and dwindling supply of out‐of‐print publications.

The purpose of this paper is to present organizational competencies for gaining information technology (IT) benefits within organizations. Following the analysis of 16 in‐depth case studies, a set of six high level, fundamental competencies and 17 facilitating competencies are identified. A framework for orchestrating the organizational competencies is also presented. The results of this research would be useful to academics in developing measures for assessing the level of organizational competence and for practitioners in identifying and nurturing competencies for organizational benefits realization.

The methodology involved two phases. Phase 1 entailed conducting 16 extensive case studies. Case study methodology employed follows guidelines provided by Yin and Benbasat et al. Case studies are a suitable means to collect the data since the notion of competencies in delivering IT benefits has not been well understood in the literature. By analyzing and understanding the particular situation and factors in each organization in an in‐depth manner, the paper develops a sound interpretation of the abilities that organizations need to have in place to deliver IT benefits.

In order to gain business benefits from IT investments, organizations must develop competencies to exploit IT. These competencies involve individual skills and organizational processes that enable those skills to be effectively applied. This paper identifies 23 competencies categorized into fundamental and facilitating competencies that firms need to have in place if IT services are to be delivered adequately and business benefits achieved. Also developed is a network of competences based on the data collected in the 16 cases studied.

Like any research, this paper has its limitations. Given the qualitative and interpretive nature of the research, a lot of assertions are interpretations of the authors. While in the literature, this has been argued as a valid way to undertake research, clearly there are biases that creep into the research.

The model of competencies presented forms a good basis for enterprises to fine‐tune their abilities for harnessing IT.

While management researchers have been researching the notion of organizational competence for a while, it has not been well considered in the information systems arena; it is felt that this research makes a positive contribution to that effect.

Dear Sirs, Whilst trying, without much success, to produce certain quantities of catalogue and index cards usefully and economically on an automatic typewriter freely available to my own library, I confess to feeling some confusion on reading recent papers about the use of this machine solely for catalogue card reproduction.

THERE are no motions of ultimate importance to be submitted to the Library Association Annual General Meeting this year. That which, if passed, is to provide that the President shall be installed in office at the opening of the Annual Conference in itself is merely a domestic or internal Association matter. As we have argued in THE LIBRARY WORLD such an arrangement would give a more dramatic and dignified opening to the President's year; he would be installed by the outgoing President in the presence of the largest assembly that the members can make in body; indeed on the only occasion in a normal year in which he sees and is seen by a full meeting; instead as now rising to take charge of us and to make his most important address as unobtrusively as an ordinary member at a time when his term is almost over. It is a better entry for him and for us, as a spectacle and demonstration, than a small January induction on a cold and usually wet evening at Chaucer House attended at best by not more than a hundred members.

“Breast‐feeding mum ‘humiliated’ in library” screamed the headlines in a South of England newspaper earlier this year: a mother of two had allegedly been turned out of the library for breast‐feeding her baby between the bookshelves. After investigation there turned out to have been the usual amount of exaggeration by the press, but there is a serious point here. We talk about making our libraries relevant and accessible to all members of the community, but how can mothers of young children feel comfortable when using libraries unless there are facilities for breast‐feeding and baby changing? Library designers please take note!

Social studies teachers possess a daunting task in a 21^st century environment of economic-mindedness and technological infatuation. In a setting of individualism and instant gratification, enabling a future citizenry to realize the patterns of economic disparity and to accept their responsibilities towards other less fortunate citizens provides a formidable challenge. The authors interpret understandings of citizenship as being closely related to conceptualizations of economics and view methods by which classrooms employ instructional technology as paramount to exploring these associations. This paper conveys how technology represents an instructional resource that may foster exploration and examination of these relationships and describes a student-centered cooperative instructional model for its classroom implementation.