The researchers systematically screened more than 50,000 articles on existing studies of acute care for elders interventions, and聽included 63 different studies in either a narrative or meta-analysis.

91亚色 nursing Professor Mary Fox, the study's principal investigator,聽unveiled the preliminary findings at 91亚色 Central Hospital recently, while聽Michael Johnny of the Knowledge Mobilization (KM) unit provided KMb strategies to help the hospital determine how to disseminate the information.

Above: Mary Fox with participants at the unveiling at 91亚色 Central Hospital

The goal of the research is to develop senior-friendly hospitals by informing and engaging decision makers about the best interventions to prevent functional cognitive, social and physical decline in older adults when they are hospitalized. Seventy-five per cent of people age 65 and older have two chronic illnesses and that can lead to a sudden worsening of their condition requiring hospitalization, says Fox.

Right: Mary Fox

鈥淪ixty-two per cent of all day beds in acute care are filled with people 65 years of age and older and they make up only 13 per cent of the population. They really are the core care customer for acute care hospitals,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y role is to get the evidence and engage the decision makers and researchers in interpreting it for their context. We鈥檙e not just rolling it out, but engaging them from the very beginning so the information will be more useful.鈥�

Left: Deborah Tregunno

The study also looked at what the system needs to provide and what interventions are needed to best serve seniors in acute care hospitals.

鈥淚 was interested in the study because there is really a lot of evidence that says when older people visit hospitals, they are at risk of experiencing bad outcomes,鈥� says Fox. 鈥淭he poor outcomes are not related to their illness, but to other things, like not getting up and walking around while in the hospital or not eating well. There are things that fall through the cracks.鈥�

91亚色 Central Hospital is interested in knowing what those things are so they can provide even better care for older adults.

Professor Deborah Tregunno and Professor Malini Persaud,聽a former post-doctoral fellow, both of聽91亚色's School of Nursing in the聽Faculty of Health, along with 91亚色 librarian IIo-Katryn Maimets and researchers from Ryerson University and the University of Toronto,聽were co-investigators of the study.

The team聽also included聽Michael Johnny,聽Andrea England, director of research and partnerships in the Faculty of Health,聽91亚色 adjunct librarian Angela Hamiton and decision-making partners Tiziana Rivera, chief practice officer at 91亚色 Central Hospital, and Dr. Mary Ferguson-Par茅, former vice-president of professional affairs and chief nurse executive at University Health Network.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The Victorian Studies Network at 91亚色

Faculty and students from English, history, political science, science & technology, and the Scott Library will discuss their current scholarship during the symposium, which will take place Oct. 22, from 10am to 2:45pm, 203A Norman Bethune College, Keele campus.

The morning session, moderated by Katey Anderson of the Department of Humanities, will start with聽Alison Halsall of the Department of English discussing 鈥淭he Polysemic Pliancy of Elizabeth Siddal in H. D.'s White Rose and the Red". The manuscript , had never been published and instead had been tucked away in archives until Halsall's edited聽version was published last year.

Next on the program will be 91亚色 student Benjamin Mitchell鈥檚 talk on 鈥淪omewhere Between Light and Shadow: Alfred Russel Wallace, Spirit Photography and the Trial of Henry Slade鈥�. Wallace was a British naturalist and聽an associate聽of Charles Darwin. Scott Library Librarian Scott McLaren will then聽look at 鈥淭he Unmapped Country Within Us: New Acquisitions in Victorian Print Culture鈥�.

In the afternoon session, moderated by of the Department of Humanities, 91亚色 student Constance Crompton will talk about 鈥淏uilding Gentility: Eugen Sandow and Middle-Class Masculine Muscles鈥�. This will be followed by history Professor 鈥檚 look at 鈥溾�楢 Strange Dice-Box of a World鈥�: The Transcolonial Careers of Henry Samuel Chapman鈥� and a talk by Melinda Baldwin 鈥� 鈥溾�業 Wish I Were Wise Enough to Understand More of it鈥�: 狈补迟耻谤别鈥檚 Audience, 1869-1880鈥�.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

The VSNY is an interdisciplinary network whose membership spans a range of departments and programs across 91亚色. The symposium is sponsored by the Office of the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

For more information, visit the VSNY website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Here, 91亚色 humanities Professor , English Professor and PhD student Elena Basile offer an appreciation of Prof. Godard and her tireless work:

It is with great sadness that the Department of English at 91亚色 announces the death of Professor Emerita Barbara Godard, a professor of English, French, social聽& political thought and women鈥檚 studies. A pillar of the 91亚色 community and one of Canada鈥檚 pre-eminent literary scholars, Prof. Godard broadly influenced the fields of Canadian and Quebec studies, translation studies, feminist poetics, semiotics and cultural studies.

Right: Prof. Barbara Godard

She was a generous supervisor and mentor who trained and influenced a contemporary generation of cultural workers, including academics, writers and artists. The scope of her mentorship was fully recognized in 2002 when she became the recipient of teaching awards from 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools. Prof. Godard retired from full-time teaching in 2008, but continued a full intellectual and pedagogical life until her sudden passing.

Prof. Godard was a prolific and influential intellectual. An extraordinarily sharp and encyclopedic thinker, Prof. Godard鈥檚 interests encompassed semiotics, translation, gender, textuality and the body, as well as archives, memorials, and the history and changing politics of cultural production. With a keen eye for detail and a unique capacity for breadth of vision, she catalyzed interdisciplinary connections among culture, language, gender, politics, poetics and meaning.

After completing her doctorate at the University of Bordeaux, Prof. Godard began teaching at 91亚色 in 1971 as a visiting assistant professor and was hired into a tenure-track position in 1976. She published eight books, 80 book chapters and 115 articles and catalogue entries. She translated the major writers of Quebec feminism, including Nicole Brossard, Yolande Villemarie and Louky Bersianik. She also served as editor or on the editorial board of no less than 22 journals. She was a founding co-editor of the feminist literary periodical , a contributing editor of and , and the book review editor for Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. She also made long-standing contributions to , s and ECW among others.

Prof. Godard was committed to and passionate about her graduate students across the Departments of English, French Studies, Film and Visual Arts,聽the School of Women鈥檚 Studies and the Program in Social & Political Thought, supervising over 35 PhD candidates. She built bridges between people and modes of inquiry because of her genuine enthusiasm for ideas. She worked between and across languages which so often divide. Prof. Godard inspired her colleagues and students through her critical creativity and her unwavering commitment to interrogating and producing the conditions for full civic engagement in the University and in the public sphere. We will miss her greatly.

Funeral arrangements

A funeral service will take place at 11am on Friday, May 21, at St. James-the-Less, 635 Parliament St., Toronto. A reception for friends and family will follow at Prof. Godard鈥檚 house at 217 Major St.,Toronto.

Prof. Godard鈥檚 family has requested no flowers; in light of her earlier struggles, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society would be greatly appreciated.

As there may be other causes to which you might wish to make a memorial donation, the agency can inform Prof. Godard鈥檚 sister Elizabeth Cox at ecox27@sympatico.ca and her son Alexis at lex_o_matic@yahoo.com.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Over the past 50 years, the 91亚色 Libraries have grown and changed in lockstep with the University's expansion and聽with innovations聽made possible聽by the Internet.

For students and researchers looking for information, a search of all of 91亚色 Libraries' print and electronic resources often meant looking in a number of different places. Added to this conundrum was the physical location of library holdings in eight different libraries housed in聽different buildings,聽plus departments and research centres聽located on two geographically distinct campuses.

Pulling all of these resources together was becoming more cumbersome by the day for librarians, students and researchers. Now all of that has changed with the introduction on Jan. 4 of what the 91亚色 Libraries聽are calling a 鈥渘ext generation catalogue鈥� or 鈥渄iscovery layer" which offers a comprehensive made-in-91亚色 solution that is proving to be a聽Canadian first.

The libraries鈥� new discovery layer merges all of聽the different catalogues and holdings聽into one seamless interface聽using open source software application. 鈥淚t brings together what were two separate silos: the catalogue, which has print material, CDs, DVDs and a lot of electronic resources, with our electronic resources listings,鈥� says聽William Denton,聽91亚色's Web Librarian. 鈥淚t used to be that to find something, you had to look in both places to be sure nothing had been missed. It was confusing and聽complicated, and it made it harder for people to find what they needed. On top of that, other material, like the 91亚色Space digital repository and the 91亚色 Digital Journals, were somewhere else entirely.鈥�

Denton says the introduction of the libraries'聽new discovery layer聽allows users to search all of the 91亚色 Libraries鈥� holdings, including the digital journals and 91亚色Space, at one time. From traditional printed journals to online eResources, everything is now readily available through a new and聽improved search, which is聽built on the open source system called VuFind. "91亚色 is a leader in this field," says Denton. "A lot of interest has been expressed by other Canadian universities in what we are doing with VuFind."

A plain-text search for "earthquake" yields information and resources from all of 91亚色's libraries and electronic holdings. Included are聽660 references from the Scott Library, 557 from the Steacie Science & Engineering Library, 458 from 91亚色's Sound聽& Moving Image Library and a host of other resources, all ranked by relevancy. A user can聽then drill down to refine the request聽using the same search function. Click to view the results.

The project to develop the discovery layer began last year when a committee was convened to look at ways to聽rejig the libraries' catalogue. Added to the mix the committee had to consider was an important consideration that many of today's students have grown up in a digital age and are programmed and wired聽differently.聽"We wanted to implement a search and discovery interface that was intuitive, robust," says Denton. "It had to be something that encompassed our extensive holdings and had the capacity to grow. The goal was to make searching for information less complicated and closer to what students experience when using search engines and Internet resources."

After an extensive search, the libraries settled on VuFind. "There were many advantages to VuFind," says Denton. "It is free and open source, and this fits with our other beliefs about open access, open data, open doors and open minds. VuFind also has many features and it can grow with us. The search engine is very powerful and is built on the best open source tool available.

"Best yet is that it gives us just one place to search with no more silos of information. Everything in our catalogue, eResources list, 91亚色Space and the 91亚色 Digital Journals is searchable at once," he says.

The old catalogue will remain in place while the new system is tweaked and perfected, says Denton. "We still have work to do to let people construct a complex search, but聽right now the actual search is a basic keyword, and while this makes it easier for students and researchers to find exactly what they need, there is sometimes a need to generate more precise search results and that's where the older catalogue will come in handy," says Denton.

But like a great wine, the new discovery layer聽catalogue will get better as it ages and develops. "This is just the first step in a series of improvements which will continue to be implemented throughout the year,"聽says Denton. "The next version will include the advanced search function and another round of usability testing聽will soon be聽underway.

"We plan to include things from outside of 91亚色, such as the millions of articles in the thousands of journals we subscribe to, but it will be a little while until everything is in place to make that happen," adds Denton. "That's very high on our list of major improvements, though.

"In May and September, more new features will be added, including subject guides for courses," says Denton. "Plans include making it so that when a student logs into the 91亚色 Libraries through Passport 91亚色, we will know what they need. For example, if the student was enrolled in Anthropology 3000, the library would serve up a personalized, customized experience for the student that includes all the resources they need for the course."

The 91亚色 Libraries are encouraging feedback from the community and have a feedback page that can be accessed from the new catalogue interface. For more information on the new system, or to provide feedback, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The summaries are available in a located on the KM Unit's Web site. They provide an introduction into the variety and depth of research that is conducted at 91亚色 and the University of Victoria as part of ResearchImpact, a service-oriented program designed to connect university research with across Canada to ensure that research helps inform decision-making. The KM Unit's new Community Collaboration Stations provide research collaborators with access to a 91亚色 computer, which allows them to access materials contained in the 91亚色 Libraries and other online resources.

Some of the new research summaries highlight the work of 91亚色 education Professor Stephen Gaetz, who studies homelessness, and that of Professor Uzo Anucha of the School of Social Work in 91亚色's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who studies youth and poverty. The complete library of research summaries consists of 84 entries that present the results of research on a variety of issues, including HIV/AIDS, immigration & settlement, employment and climate change, as well as research on business & management, law and health services, to name but a few.

First announced in the spring of 2009 (see YFile, May 27), the ResearchSnapshot concept was ;tested in focus groups which included University researchers, provincial policy-makers and community social service organizations. The聽focus group participants were supportive of the initiative, which was described as offering an excellent introduction to research聽with just enough background and contact information, without being overwhelming.

Above: Participants in the afternoon research forum presented by 91亚色's KM Unit. The forum featured 91亚色 researchers speaking on the topic of youth engagement. The announcement of the new ResearchSnapshots and Community Collaboration Stations was made at the Dec. 2 forum.

There are limitations to the utility of the research summaries, says David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services at 91亚色. He points out that a decision about public policy or professional practice should not be made on the basis of a single research study. 鈥淲e use ResearchSnapshots as a calling card to alert our non-academic research partners that there is research expertise at 91亚色 that might be relevant to a partner鈥檚 interests,鈥� says Phipps. This calling card helps 91亚色鈥檚 KM Unit broker relationships between 91亚色 and potential collaborators or organizations seeking to use research to inform decisions, says Phipps.

鈥�91亚色 has opened Canada鈥檚 first Knowledge Mobilization Unit that is fully integrated into the University鈥檚 research infrastructure,鈥� says Stan Shapson, 91亚色's vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭he expertise of 91亚色鈥檚 researchers and their graduate students should be accessible in order to maximize the social economic and environmental impacts of public investments in university research.鈥�

Daniele Zanotti, CEO of the United Way of 91亚色 Region, agrees. 鈥淚t is important that community agencies are working from the best knowledge available so that they can make well-informed decisions,鈥� she says. 鈥�91亚色's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides an avenue for community organizations to tap into the research expertise available in the University. It makes research, as well as researchers and graduate students, accessible to non-academic decision-makers.鈥�

The development of the ResearchSnapshots was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. Production of the latest 40 research summaries and the Community Collaboration Stations were made possible through the support of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at 91亚色.

To access the research summary database, click . To reserve time on a Community Collaboration Station, contact 91亚色鈥檚 KM Unit by e-mail at kmunit@yorku.ca.

From YFile - 91亚色's daily e-bulletin

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