No abstract

This paper presents findings from a European collaborative study. A common framework for reanalysis of existing data was devised. Alcohol-related problems encountered were classified as "internal" and "external." Logistic regression analyses were then conducted to predict lifetime presence of any internal problem, any external problem, and any problem at all. The predictor variables were gender, life stage (corresponding roughly to young, middle and older age), past year's drinking level in four categories of grams of alcohol per month, and past year's "binge" drinking. All four predictor variables were associated with the presence of alcohol-related problems, with women and retired people having fewer problems and heavy drinkers and binge drinkers having more. At all levels of alcohol consumption, men were more likely than women to experience at least one adverse consequence. Internal problems were more common than external problems. Country differences are discussed and recommendations are made for further studies.

No abstract

Background: Most NHS library services routinely offer both mediated searches and information skills training sessions to their users. We analyse the impact of these two services on the amount of literature searching demonstrated by users of hospital-based library services in the north-west of England. Methods: Data for (1) mediated literature searches, (2) number of library users attending information skills training sessions, (3) amount of library staff time devoted to information skills training, and (4) number of Athens-authenticated log-ins to databases were obtained from statistical returns for 2007, and analysed for significant correlations. Results: There was evidence of quite strong correlations between the two measures of training activity and the number of mediated literature searches performed by library staff. There was weaker evidence of correlation between training activity and total literature searching activity. Discussion: Attending training sessions may make some library users aware of the difficulty of complex literature searches and actually reduce their confidence to perform their own complex searches independently. The relationships between information skills training, mediated literature searches, and independent literature searching activity remain complex.

Exchange, one of Foulkes’s four group-specific therapeutic factors, is a valuable if neglected concept in group-analytic literature, standing for the encounter with difference in the group. Groups’ multiple poles of difference allow individuals to experience and explore a range of possibilities hitherto unimagined. The clinical dimensions of exchange are explored through the metaphor of the mother/baby dyad; identity formation in a specific cultural context grounded in familial and group identifications are also touched upon. In the group these together allow for the creation, and recreation, of individual identity.