State Library of Victoria

BACKGROUND: Searching for studies to include in a systematic review (SR) is a time- and labor-intensive process with searches of multiple databases recommended. To reduce the time spent translating search strings across databases, a tool called the Polyglot Search Translator (PST) was developed. The authors evaluated whether using the PST as a search translation aid reduces the time required to translate search strings without increasing errors. METHODS: In a randomized trial, twenty participants were randomly allocated ten database search strings and then randomly assigned to translate five with the assistance of the PST (PST-A method) and five without the assistance of the PST (manual method). We compared the time taken to translate search strings, the number of errors made, and how close the number of references retrieved by a translated search was to the number retrieved by a reference standard translation. RESULTS: Sixteen participants performed 174 translations using the PST-A method and 192 translations using the manual method. The mean time taken to translate a search string with the PST-A method was 31 minutes versus 45 minutes by the manual method (mean difference: 14 minutes). The mean number of errors made per translation by the PST-A method was 8.6 versus 14.6 by the manual method. Large variation in the number of references retrieved makes results for this outcome inconclusive, although the number of references retrieved by the PST-A method was closer to the reference standard translation than the manual method. CONCLUSION: When used to assist with translating search strings across databases, the PST can increase the speed of translation without increasing errors. Errors in search translations can still be a problem, and search specialists should be aware of this.

OBJECTIVES: Identifying solutions to improve recovery after critical illness is a pressing problem. We systematically evaluated studies of peer support as a potential intervention to improve recovery in critical care populations and synthesized elements important to peer support model design. DATA SOURCES: A systematic search of Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsychINFO, and Excertpa Medica Database was undertaken May 2017. Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews identification number: CRD42017070174. STUDY SELECTION: Two independent reviewers assessed titles and abstracts against study eligibility criteria. Studies were included where 1) patients and families had experienced critical illness and 2) patients and families had participated in a peer support intervention. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus and a third independent reviewer adjudicated as necessary. DATA EXTRACTION: Two independent reviewers assessed study quality with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, and data were synthesized according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews guidelines and interventions summarized using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication Checklist. DATA SYNTHESIS: Two-thousand nine-hundred thirty-two studies were screened. Eight were included, comprising 192 family members and 92 patients including adults (with cardiac surgery, acute myocardial infarction, trauma), pediatrics, and neonates. The most common peer support model of the eight studies was an in-person, facilitated group for families that occurred during the patients' ICU admission. Peer support reduced psychologic morbidity and improved social support and self-efficacy in two studies; in both cases, peer support was via an individual peer-to-peer model. In the remaining studies, it was difficult to determine the outcomes of peer support as the reporting and quality of studies was low. CONCLUSIONS: Peer support appeared to reduce psychologic morbidity and increase social support. The evidence for peer support in critically ill populations is limited. There is a need for well-designed and rigorously reported research into this complex intervention.

Stigma and discrimination are fundamental causes of health inequities, and reflect privilege, power, and disadvantage within society. Experiences and impacts of stigma and discrimination are well-documented, but a critical gap remains on effective strategies to reduce stigma and discrimination in sexual and reproductive healthcare settings. We aimed to address this gap by conducting a mixed-methods systematic review and narrative synthesis to describe strategy types and characteristics, assess effectiveness, and synthesize key stakeholder experiences. We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, Global Health, and grey literature. We included quantitative and qualitative studies evaluating strategies to reduce stigma and discrimination in sexual and reproductive healthcare settings. We used an implementation-focused narrative synthesis approach, with four steps: 1) preliminary descriptive synthesis, 2) exploration of relationships between and across studies, 3) thematic analysis of qualitative evidence, and 4) model creation to map strategy aims and outcomes. Of 8,262 articles screened, we included 12 articles from 10 studies. Nine articles contributed quantitative data, and all measured health worker-reported outcomes, typically about awareness of stigma or if they acted in a stigmatizing way. Six articles contributed qualitative data, five were health worker perspectives post-implementation and showed favorable experiences of strategies and beliefs that strategies encouraged introspection and cultural humility. We mapped studies to levels where stigma can exist and be confronted and identified critical differences between levels of stigma strategies aimed to intervene on and evaluation approaches used. Important foundational work has described stigma and discrimination in sexual and reproductive healthcare settings, but limited interventional work has been conducted. Healthcare and policy interventions aiming to improve equity should consider intervening on and measuring stigma and discrimination-related outcomes. Efforts to address mistreatment will not be effective when stigma and discrimination persist. Our analysis and recommendations can inform future intervention design and implementation research to promote respectful, person-centered care for all.

Introduction Clubfoot is a common congenital birth defect, with an average prevalence of approximately 1 per 1000 live births, although this rate is reported to vary among different countries around the world. If it remains untreated, clubfoot causes permanent disability, limits educational and employment opportunities, and personal growth. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to estimate the global birth prevalence of congenital clubfoot. Methods and analysis Electronic databases including MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase, Global Health, Latin American & Caribben Health Science Literature (LILACS), Maternity and Infant Care, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar will be searched for observational studies based on predefined criteria and only in English language from inception of database in 1946 to 10 November 2017. A standard data extraction form will be used to extract relevant information from included studies. The Joanna Briggs Institute appraisal checklist will be used to assess the overall quality of studies reporting prevalence. All included studies will be assessed for risk of bias using a tool developed specifically for prevalence studies. Forest plots will be created to understand the overall random effects of pooled estimates with 95% CIs. An I 2 test will be done for heterogeneity of the results (P>0.05), and to identify the source of heterogeneity across studies, subgroup or meta-regression will be used to assess the contribution of each variable to the overall heterogeneity. A funnel plot will be used to identify reporting bias, and sensitivity analysis will be used to assess the impact of methodological quality, study design, sample size and the impact of missing data. Ethics and dissemination This review will be conducted completely based on published data, so approval from an ethics committee or written consent will not be required. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and relevant conference presentations. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016041922 .

Digital badges are an educational innovation used to measure learning of specific skills, such as information literacy. However, few studies have quantitatively surveyed employers for their perceptions about information literacy skills or digital badges. An online survey was developed and sent to employers to gauge perceptions of information literacy skills of college graduates and the use of the innovation of digital badges to represent competencies that students have accumulated. Here are the results of the survey: information literacy and metaliteracy skills are valued in the workplace; employers would like more detailed representations of student skills; and digital badges are a possible way to showcase student achievement.

Premature ovarian insufficiency involves amenorrhea and elevated follicle-stimulating hormone before age 40, and its genetic basis is poorly understood. Here, we study 13 premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) patients using whole-exome sequencing. We identify PREPL and TP63 causative variants, and variants in other potentially novel POI genes. PREPL deficiency is a known cause of syndromic POI, matching the patients' phenotype. A role for TP63 in ovarian biology has previously been proposed but variants have been described in multiorgan syndromes, and not isolated POI. One patient with isolated POI harbored a de novo nonsense TP63 variant in the terminal exon and an unrelated patient had a different nonsense variant in the same exon. These variants interfere with the repression domain while leaving the activation domain intact. We expand the phenotypic spectrum of TP63-related disorders, provide a new genotype:phenotype correlation for TP63 and identify a new genetic cause of isolated POI.

Public library staff are increasingly required to work with members of the public with high social needs. Public libraries are places of sanctuary and connection for people experiencing challenges such as homelessness, poverty, mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuses. In recognizing their role to serve the needs of all people who enter their buildings, public library staff are often asked to work outside their areas of expertise to meet the needs of community members. Public library staff can experience feeling overwhelmed and anxious when working with this community, often wanting to help but not knowing where the boundary between providing support and undermining the self-determination of the individual lies, and not knowing what resources and services would best meet the needs of these visitors. To assist patrons with high social needs and library staff, the City of Melbourne Libraries followed an approach now common in the United States of America, but largely untested in Australia by working with a local housing group to place a social worker in their City Library. This article explores the early work of the Library Social Worker as she engaged with library patrons and provided training to library staff. Using statistics and case notes that describe her activities and their outcomes, we can see that although this practice is new for the Australian public library system, the placement of a social worker into a busy urban library has significant benefits to both patrons in need and the staff who work with them.

BACKGROUND: Poor representation of pregnant and lactating women and people in clinical trials has marginalised their health concerns and denied the maternal-fetal/infant dyad benefits of innovation in therapeutic research and development. This mixed-methods systematic review synthesised factors affecting the participation of pregnant and lactating women in clinical trials, across all levels of the research ecosystem. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We searched 8 databases from inception to 14 February 2024 to identify qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies that described factors affecting participation of pregnant and lactating women in vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials in any setting. We used thematic synthesis to analyse the qualitative literature and assessed confidence in each qualitative review finding using the GRADE-CERQual approach. We compared quantitative data against the thematic synthesis findings to assess areas of convergence or divergence. We mapped review findings to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation Model of Behaviour (COM-B) to inform future development of behaviour change strategies. We included 60 papers from 27 countries. We grouped 24 review findings under 5 overarching themes: (a) interplay between perceived risks and benefits of participation in women's decision-making; (b) engagement between women and the medical and research ecosystems; (c) gender norms and decision-making autonomy; (d) factors affecting clinical trial recruitment; and (e) upstream factors in the research ecosystem. Women's willingness to participate in trials was affected by: perceived risk of the health condition weighed against an intervention's risks and benefits, therapeutic optimism, intervention acceptability, expectations of receiving higher quality care in a trial, altruistic motivations, intimate relationship dynamics, and power and trust in medicine and research. Health workers supported women's participation in trials when they perceived clinical equipoise, had hope for novel therapeutic applications, and were convinced an intervention was safe. For research staff, developing reciprocal relationships with health workers, having access to resources for trial implementation, ensuring the trial was visible to potential participants and health workers, implementing a woman-centred approach when communicating with potential participants, and emotional orientations towards the trial were factors perceived to affect recruitment. For study investigators and ethics committees, the complexities and subjectivities in risk assessments and trial design, and limited funding of such trials contributed to their reluctance in leading and approving such trials. All included studies focused on factors affecting participation of cisgender pregnant women in clinical trials; future research should consider other pregnancy-capable populations, including transgender and nonbinary people. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review highlights diverse factors across multiple levels and stakeholders affecting the participation of pregnant and lactating women in clinical trials. By linking identified factors to frameworks of behaviour change, we have developed theoretically informed strategies that can help optimise pregnant and lactating women's engagement, participation, and trust in such trials.

Abstract This article looks at the stresses inherent in crisis intervention work in general, and on the effects on psychologists in particular. The authors review debriefing strategies currently used and argue that the needs of psychologists differ from those of other crisis interveners such as police or ambulance workers. They present a debriefing strategy that takes into account the psychologist's need for psychological understanding and integration.

We recently described a new neurodevelopmental syndrome (TAF1/MRXS33 intellectual disability syndrome) (MIM# 300966) caused by pathogenic variants involving the X-linked gene TAF1, which participates in RNA polymerase II transcription. The initial study reported eleven families, and the syndrome was defined as presenting early in life with hypotonia, facial dysmorphia, and developmental delay that evolved into intellectual disability (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We have now identified an additional 27 families through a genotype-first approach. Familial segregation analysis, clinical phenotyping, and bioinformatics were capitalized on to assess potential variant pathogenicity, and molecular modelling was performed for those variants falling within structurally characterized domains of TAF1. A novel phenotypic clustering approach was also applied, in which the phenotypes of affected individuals were classified using 51 standardized Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms. Phenotypes associated with TAF1 variants show considerable pleiotropy and clinical variability, but prominent among previously unreported effects were brain morphological abnormalities, seizures, hearing loss, and heart malformations. Our allelic series broadens the phenotypic spectrum of TAF1/MRXS33 intellectual disability syndrome and the range of TAF1 molecular defects in humans. It also illustrates the challenges for determining the pathogenicity of inherited missense variants, particularly for genes mapping to chromosome X. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article provides recommendations that can be used by public library services and associated organisations when considering building or refurbishing library buildings. Recommendations range from simple and easy-to-implement practices and procedures, to large-scale building development. It also provides a framework for libraries to follow when designing a new building, refurbishing existing buildings and raising community awareness of the benefits of designing and running sustainable libraries. The article looks at sustainability and its importance within a library, refurbishment of library buildings, greener work practices and public education initiatives. Three key areas of sustainability are highlighted: building/refurbishing, sustainable practices and education. The recommendations and concepts noted in the article are demonstrated through a case study of the Melton Library and Learning Hub in Victoria. In the relative absence of relevant Victorian publications, Tomorrow's Green Public Library also serves as a resource guide to direct public libraries to further information and publications available.

Abstract The article gives a detailed description of the debriefing process evolved by two counselling psychologists who work with victims of armed hold‐ups. The process is seen in the contxt of literature relating to post‐trauma reactions and the type of interventions that are effective. The authors give details of their procedures and interventions, their reasons for using them, as well as considering broader issues of working within an organizational context.

Minecraft is a popular building block game ubiquitous in the cultural landscape of young people. Noticing a gap in traditional library programs for virtual games such as Minecraft, children and youth services librarians at North Melbourne Library developed a collaborative Minecraft Gaming Day between librarians and young library patrons. The Minecraft Gaming Day was a uniquely creative experience linking traditional library service provision with socialisation, identity and the building of community. It challenged the traditional programming approach for young people and creating a program with young people, allowing young people to have a role in library programming, treating them as valued community members, and giving them the ability to contribute their vision to the future of library services. The combination of digital and real play spaces gave the young community a positive, educational and active way to participate in library programming and demonstrated how young people and librarians can work together to creatively help public libraries support their communities and promote social inclusion and literacy building. This article is based on ethnographic research drawing from empirical data, including staff evaluations and a focus group conducted with five young people involved with the planning and implementation of the program.

Abstract This article extends the idea of parallel process from the therapeutic situation to crisis circumstances where similar processes can occur. Parallel processes have a particular relevance in a crisis since critical incidents tend to raise the emotional climate of the counseling situation. The processes that occur with a group of victims in the aftermath of a crisis can be reenacted between counsellors working with the victims and this has implications for clinical work. As example of such a situation is discussed as are the ramifications for the debriefing of counsellors.

Now more than ever, in this COVID-19 pandemic, our individual and collective ability to access, understand and apply information to inform our health care and broader lifestyle decisions ie, to be health literate - has life or death consequences. This paper reflects upon the proposition of public libraries as health literate multi-purpose workspaces for improving health literacy. We draw upon our combined experiences as evaluators of organizational health literacy initiatives, and library sector development, engagement and advocacy. Key ideas were presented as part of the 2020 State Library Victoria seminar series on 'Libraries: The Heart of a Healthy Community'. Key messages included: Public libraries are well positioned to contribute to the health literacy movement, as they provide the general public with: universal free access to information and services; extensive in-house and outreach educational collaborative learning opportunities; and health and wellbeing support by being welcoming, safe, and trusted community spaces. To date, limited discussion exists about conceptualizing public libraries as health literate multi-purpose workspaces for supporting and sustaining public library health literacy efforts. A health literate organizational framework is suggested to support libraries simply supporting health information literacy to being recognised as health literate organizations. Five workspace principles (empowerment, equitable, inclusive, collaborative and integrated) are suggested to provide directions for public libraries as health literate multi-purpose workspaces for improving the health literacy of individuals, communities, organizations and indeed systems. To inform the design, implementation and evaluation of public libraries as workspaces for improving health literacy, key principles-focused evaluation questions are suggested for consideration. SO WHAT?: Public Libraries as welcoming, safe, and trusted community organizations are well placed to be health literate multipurpose workspaces for improving health literacy.

This article extends the idea of parallel process from the therapeutic situation to crisis circumstances where similar processes can occur. Parallel processes have a particular relevance in a crisis since critical incidents tend to raise the emotional climate of the counseling situation. The processes that occur with a group of victims in the aftermath of a crisis can be reenacted between counsellors working with the victims and this has implications for clinical work. As example of such a situation is discussed as are the ramifications for the debriefing of counsellors.

Discusses the “people” aspect of organisational change and the ways in which human resource development (HRD) can act as an effective organisational change tool. Outlines a six‐step best‐practice model for the application of HRD in achieving organisational change.

Many Higher Degree by Research candidates find the experience of searching the literature overwhelming and stressful. Experienced researchers draw on deep disciplinary knowledge, prior experience, and their networks to locate relevant information and sources. Inexperienced researchers may lack access to internal roadmaps of terms, authors and methodologies and require informed guidance. Advanced information literacy is a critical factor for student success, particularly to support the literature review process, and the need for effective information management skills has never been greater. The quality of doctoral candidates' literature reviews, and their ability to undertake substantive and ‘do-able’ research is linked. Whilst do-it-yourself ICT and ‘Google-like’ search engines have led to easier information access, are Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students equipped to effectively navigate through, and manage the plethora of research sources available? This paper shares findings and recommendations of a case study profiling PhD candidate usage of the University of Melbourne Library's research consultation service. The study explored whether consultations conducted at the ‘point of need’ make a difference in the early stages of PhD candidature and questioned whether consultations contribute to improved research ability and successful outcomes. The paper also questions assumptions made by candidates and supervisors in relation to information-related research skills.

Abstract On the west coast of North America and in Australia, there have been parallel cases of sequential invasion and replacement of the shoreline plant American sea-rocket by European sea-rocket. A similar pattern has also occurred in New Zealand. For 30 to 40 yr, from its first recording in 1921, American sea-rocket spread throughout the eastern coastlines of the North and South Islands of New Zealand. European sea-rocket has so far been collected only on the North Island. From its first collection in 1937, European sea-rocket spread to the northern extremity of the island by 1973, and by 2010, it had reached the southernmost limit. In the region where both species have occurred in the past, American sea-rocket is now rarely found. This appears to be another example of congeneric species displacement.

Digital platforms have become central to twenty-first century education, culture, and government, and libraries devote an increasing proportion of budgets to acquisitions of e-resources. This research reports on a recent project that investigated Australian teenagers’ use of traditional print and digital platforms for long-form recreational reading. Specifically, it investigates whether digital devices are a preferred modality for Australian adolescents’ recreational reading and if access to digital devices with e-reading capabilities, such as tablets, smartphones, e-readers, and laptop or desktop computers, is associated with more reading engagement by avid and reluctant readers. The research, based on a diverse sample of urban and regional participants from two states, suggests that Australian adolescents’ preferences for e-books have been largely overestimated. Issues of relevance to public libraries are discussed.