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Despite the long-standing interest of sociologists in the impact of social structure on the psychological well-being of individuals, the structural contexts of the support process remain understudied. To begin to fill this gap, some support researchers have used social statuses to tap location in the social structure. Others have analyzed the interpersonal environments in which individuals are embedded by using quasi-network data that describe categories of alters or, less commonly, network data linked to specific alters. We use network data to test models that examine: (1) direct effects of network structure on perceived adequacy of social support; and (2) their direct and indirect effects (through social support) on psychological distress — net of social status effects. Our results suggest that the social network context is more important in the support process than researchers using quasi-network data have concluded.

Through a review of the literature, this article seeks to outline and understand the evolution and extent of user–participant involvement in the existing library and information science (LIS) research to identify gaps and existing research approaches that might inform further methodological development in participant-oriented and design-based LIS research.

A scoping literature review of LIS research, from the 1960s onward, was conducted, assessing the themes and trends in understanding the user/participant within the LIS field. It traces LIS research from its early focus on information and relevancy to the “user turn”, to the rise of participatory research, especially design-based, as well as the recent inclusion of Indigenous and decolonial methodologies.

The literature review indicates that despite the reported “user turn”, LIS research often does not include the user as an active and equal participant within research projects.

The findings from this review support the development of alternative design research methodologies in LIS that fully include and involve research participants as full partners – from planning through dissemination of results – and suggests avenues for continuing the development of such design-based research. To that end, it lays the foundations for the introduction of a novel methodology, Action Partnership Research Design (APRD).

The purpose of this paper is to explore a new mentoring and advocacy-networking paradigm sponsored by the National Science Foundation (15-7680) Office for Broadening Participation in Engineering in the USA. The Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT) program pairs underrepresented minority (URM) faculty with emeriti faculty in engineering for career mentorship.

Researchers utilized a phenomenological qualitative research design to explore the influence of the three domains of the mentoring and advocacy-networking paradigm (career development, sponsorship, and coaching) through participant interviews of URM and emeriti faculty. Interviews, grounded by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), offered an in-depth understanding of the nature, meaning, and ways in which the IMPACT participants perceived the value of the mentoring experience.

Phenomenological findings suggest mentees viewed IMPACT participation as a means for career progression, and mentors saw it as an opportunity to “give back” to the engineering field. Neither believed cultural or generational gaps would hamper their mentoring relationships, as their shared academic interests would facilitate a bridge for any gaps.

This paper identifies new questions related to the expectations and interests of both mentors and mentees who are engaged in a mentoring relationship. A longitudinal approach would offer deeper insight into mentoring as the relationship persists over time.

Evidence at this stage indicates that the IMPACT program has the potential to contribute to the career progression of URM faculty through the inclusion of an often overlooked resource of emeriti faculty.

As is true of so much that we read and hear, neither of these statements is wholly accurate. While the Association of American Publishers may not have a position in favor of increasing conglomeration in the publishing industry, it is most certainly not opposed to it. As others have noted in this handbook, the growing domination of publishing by a small number of large firms is changing the amount and quality of available information in ways not yet fully understood. If libraries are to provide quality service, library workers should bring all their powers of analysis and skepticism to their jobs. They must involve themselves more fully than ever before in all aspects of knowledge and its avenues of dissemination, so that the library might provide as full a range of resources and services as possible for the needs of its clientele. To judge materials without examination, or without careful regard for the source of information, is to abdicate the inherent responsibility of a library service. For in a great many ways, the librarian's selection of materials influences what is published.

The evolution of the Fair Trade movement offers an apposite case through which to examine the idea of regulating risk through a “social sphere.” An analysis of Fair Trade through the lens of “defiance” reveals discrete models and actors of risk regulation that evolve in an iterative fashion. These findings not only add complexity and heterogeneity to the social actors and mechanisms of regulation in the social sphere, but also highlight the challenges this diversity poses for the project of alleviating market risk. In turn, the framework of defiance offers a fertile analytical framework for the study of transnational risk regulation by capturing the dynamic actor and institutional complexities that underpin, and embody challenges for, the regulation of risk through the social sphere. The article begins with an overview of the Fair Trade movement and consideration of Fair Trade’s approach to regulating market risk. It then introduces the notion of defiance, focusing on two of its subtypes: game playing and resistance. Following a short overview of the methodological framework employed to analyze these dynamics, the third section applies these analytical categories of defiance to explore primary data gathered on Fair Trade’s evolution. The article shows that the motivational posture of game playing, through its continued experimentation and entrepreneurship in transnational risk regulation, is pregnant with potential to mitigate the risks generated by economic activity.

This paper describes the simulation of a nearest neighbour searching algorithm for document retrieval using a pool of microprocessors. The documents in a database are organised in a multi‐dimensional binary search tree, and the algorithm identifies the nearest neighbour for a query by a backtracking search of this tree. Three techniques are described which allow parallel searching of the tree. A PASCAL‐based, general purpose simulation system is used to simulate these techniques, using a pool of Transputer‐like microprocessors with three standard document test collections. The degree of speed‐up and processor utilisation obtained is shown to be strongly dependent upon the characteristics of the documents and queries used. The results support the use of pooled microprocessor systems for searching applications in information retrieval.

The London County Council has now passed into history. Often accused of being an overloaded bureaucracy, which it probably was, and a stage for demagogues, of political bias and Socialist waste, it may go unmourned by many, but because of its great influence on local government development in this country and its achievements, it should not be allowed to go unsung. When created by the Local Government Act, 1888, from parts of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent, it must have seemed at the time something of an administrative anachronism, just as the welding of the remnants of power of the Council with that of Middlesex into a Greater London Council seems so now. Its powers were much greater than those of other county councils and its relations with metropolitan borough councils, constituted by the Local Government Act, 1899, more powerful, the division of functions and authority strongly favouring the L.C.C., especially since 1948 when the National Health Service Act, 1946, transferred the personal health services from the Boroughs. Decentralisation was practised, the area of the L.C.C. being divided into nine divisions, but Greater London long ago outgrew its administrative boundaries, outside which were densely populated areas indistinguishable from London itself, so that re‐organisation was inevitable.