Visions and values : the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s prizing of picture books in the twenty-first century

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) administers the oldest national prize for children’s literature in Australia. Each year, the CBCA confers “Book of the Year” awards to literature for young people in five categories. In 2001, the establishment of an “Early Childhood” category opened up the venerable “Picture Book” category (first awarded in 1955) to books with an implied readership up to 18 years of age. As a result, this category has emerged in recent years as a highly visible space within which the CBCA can contest discourses of cultural marginalisation insofar as Australian (“colonial”) literature is constructed as inferior or adjunct to the major Anglophone literary traditions, and the consistent identification of children’s literature (and, indeed, of children) as lesser than its ‘adult’ counterparts. The CBCA is engaged in defining, evaluating, and legitimising a tradition of Australian children’s literature which is underpinned by a canonical impulse, and is a reflexive practice of self-definition, self-evaluation and self-legitimisation for the CBCA itself. While it is obviously problematic to identify award winners as a canon, it is equally obvious that literary prizing is a cultural practice derived from the logic of canonicity. In his discussion of the United States’s Newbery Medal, Kenneth Kidd notes that “Medal books are instant classics, the selection process an ostensible simulation of the test of time” (169) and that “the Medal is part of the canonical architecture of children's literature” (169). Thus, it is instructive to consider the visions and values of the national, of the social, and of the literary-aesthetic, in the picture books chosen by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) as the “best” of the early twenty-first century. These books not only constitute a kind of canon for contemporary Australian children’s literature, but may well come to define what contemporary Australian children’s literature means in the wider literary field. The Book of the Year: Picture Book awards given by the CBCA since 2001 demonstrate that it is not only true of the Booker Prize that, “The choices of winning books reflect not only on the books themselves, then, but also back on the Prize, affecting its reputation and creating journalistic capital which is vital for the Prize to achieve its prominence and impact.” (81). Many of the twenty-first century CBCA award-winning picture books complicate traditional or comfortable understanding of Australianness, children’s literature, or “appropriate” modes of form and content, reminding us that “moments when texts resist or complicate recuperation into national discourses offer fruitful points for exploring the relationships between text and celebratory context” (Roberts 6). The CBCA has taken the opportunities offered by the liberation of the Picture Book category from an implied readership to challenge dominant constructions of children’s literature in Australia, and in so doing, are engaged in overt practices of canonicity with potentially long-lasting effects. Works Cited: Kidd, Kenneth. “Prizing Children’s Literature: The Case of Newbery Gold.” Children's Literature 35 (2007): 166-190. Roberts, Gillian. Prizing Literature: The Celebration and Circulation of National Culture. Toronto: U Toronto P, 2011. Squires, Claire. “Book Marketing and the Booker Prize.” Judging a Book by Its Cover: Fans, Publishers, Designers, and the Marketing of Fiction. Eds. Nicole Matthews and Nickianne Moody. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 71-82.

Deletions and other pleasures : Episode 1: The pleasures of science fiction

"Christy Dena’s online-remix-narrative takes iconic images of popular culture and builds with them a strange world where the human fallibility is programmatically deleted. Both dystopic and playful, Dena’s work is an ironic reimagining of pleasure as a state of robotic flatlining, using tropes of science fiction to critique processes of social normalisation and increasing alienation from emotionality." This creative response began as a completely different story and form. What excited me in the end was the concept of deletion and how it could be an interesting mechanic: where the only thing you can do in the world is delete. I thought about deleting parts of robots to make them better. Healing comes from taking away, from removing things. Memories of Joseph Weizenbaum’s chatbot ELIZA came flooding back: where the (human) player is a patient talking to a Rogerian psychotherapist. But in this work I’m switching the roles and making the player the doctor, a doctor to robots…a doctor that can only prescribe deletions. I conceived of the work as a branching narrative, and started writing it in Twine. With every robot patient, the player chose one of many deletions. But when I realised I wouldn’t be able to arrange an artist and sound designer I looked for another option. I played with Zeega and felt that I could get the mood I was after with that platform. So the piece transformed into a work where the player/viewer is imprisoned in the decisions of the deleting protagonist…which has its own effect on the experience and meaning.

Migrants, refugees and mobility : how useful are information communication technologies in the first phase of resettlement?

The rate at which people move and resettle around the world is unprecedented. Mobility and resettlement is now greatly assisted by the use of inexpensive internet communication technologies (ICTs) for a wide variety of functions: to communicate locally and across territories, for localised information seeking, geo – locational mapping and for forging new social connections in host countries and cities. This article is based on a qualitative study of newly arrived migrants and mobile people from non English speaking backgrounds (NESB) to the city of Brisbane, Australia and investigates how the internet is used to assist the initial period of settling into the city. As increasing amounts of essential information is placed online, the study asks how people from NESB communities manage to negotiate the types of information they require during the early stages of resettlement, given varying levels of access to ICTs, digital and language literacy. The study finds that the internet is widely used for specific location information seeking (such as accommodation and job-seeking), but this is often supplemented with other non-mediated sources of information. The study identified implications for social policy in regard to the resourcing and access of information. While findings are specific to the study location, it is feasible that the patterns of internet use for resettlement have relevance in a broader context.

Harmonising occupational health and safety regulation in Australia: The first report of the national OHS review

The Australian government had set up a major National Review into Model Occupational Health and Safety Laws (National OHS Review) to examine the Occupational health and safety (OHS) statutes in Australia to identify areas of best practice, common practice and inconsistency and to make recommendations for a model OHS Act. The article analyses the first report of the review panel.

Take my brother first : heroic final act saves sibling

"A schoolboy who begged rescuers to save his little brother first is among a dozen people drowned."

2nd ESMO Consensus Conference on Lung Cancer : non-small-cell lung cancer first-line/second and further lines in advanced disease

To complement the existing treatment guidelines for all tumour types, ESMO organises consensus conferences to focus on specific issues in each type of tumour. The 2nd ESMO Consensus Conference on Lung Cancer was held on 11-12 May 2013 in Lugano. A total of 35 experts met to address several questions on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in each of four areas: pathology and molecular biomarkers, first-line/second and further lines in advanced disease, early stage disease and locally-advanced disease. For each question, recommendations were made including reference to the grade of recommendation and level of evidence. This consensus paper focuses on 1st line / 2nd and further lines of treatment in advanced disease. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Indigenous livelihoods policy reference group: Research priorities identified from the first meeting, 28th April 2010

The CSIRO Indigenous Livelihoods Project sought to work with Indigenous communities, government and non-government stakeholders to bring together western science and Indigenous knowledge in order to understand the potential livelihood benefits of enterprises based on natural resource management. The research focus was to enhance livelihood opportunities for Indigenous communities derived from new enterprises and activities based on natural resource management in regional and remote Australia. Underpinning outcomes were: · Identification of effective policy and institutional arrangements required to establish and maintain sustainable livelihoods; · Improved systems understanding of factors that enhance or inhibit sustainable livelihoods based on natural resource management; · Tools and methods for measuring the livelihood benefits of natural resource management; · Education, training, employment and capacity building for Indigenous communities and researchers.

A prospective study of natural recovery from cannabis use in early psychosis

Background and Objectives: Cannabis use is common in early psychosis and has been linked to adverse outcomes. However, factors that influence and maintain change in cannabis use in this population are poorly understood. An existing prospective dataset was used to predict abstinence from cannabis use over the 6 months following inpatient admission for early psychosis. Methods: Participants were 67 inpatients with early psychosis who had used cannabis in the 6 weeks prior to admission. Current diagnoses of psychotic and substance use disorders were confirmed using a clinical checklist and structured diagnostic interview. Measures of clinical, substance use and social and occupational functioning were administered at baseline and at least fortnightly over the 6-month follow up. Results: No substance use or clinical variables were associated with 6-months’ of cannabis abstinence. Only Caucasian ethnicity, living in private accommodation and receiving an income before the admission were predictive. Only private accommodation and receiving an income were significant predictors of abstinence when these variables were entered into a multivariate analysis. Conclusions: While the observed relationships do not necessarily imply causation, they suggest that more optimal substance use outcomes could be achieved by addressing the accommodation and employment needs of patients.

The educational context and services of children with additional needs in their first years of school in Australia

In Australia, children with additional needs are now primarily educated in mainstream regular classes and schools. While discussion has focused on teacher attitudes, teacher preparation and professional development to support the academic progress of children with additional needs, there is limited research examining the educational contexts and services provided to such children in Australian schools. This descriptive paper examines the educational contexts of 563 Australian children with additional needs, in reference to 3600 of their typically developing peers. Data in relation to educational setting, retention, prevalence of additional needs, access to specialist services, learning support, and individual programming are reported.

Preparing Queensland pharmacists to vaccinate – Australia’s first pharmacists immunisation pilot

In November 2013, the Queensland Department of Health announced its intention to pilot pharmacists vaccination for influenza in the 2014 Flu season. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Queensland Branch was tasked with development of an appropriate training program for the pilot.

Australia’s first Pharmacist Immunisation Pilot - who did pharmacists inject?

The Queensland Pharmacist Immunisation Pilot is Australia’s first to allow pharmacists vaccination. The pilot ran between April 1st 2014 and August 31st 2014, with pharmacists administering influenza vaccination during the flu season. METHODS Participant demographics and previous influenza vaccination experiences were recorded using GuildCare software. Participants also completed a ‘post-vaccination satisfaction survey’ following their influenza vaccination. RESULTS A total of 11,475 participant records were analysed. Females accounted for 63% of participants, with the majority of participants aged between 45 – 64 years (53%). Overall, 49% of participants had been vaccinated before, the majority at a GP clinic (60%). Most participants reported receiving their previous influenza vaccination from a nurse (61%). Interestingly, 1% thought a pharmacist had administered their previous vaccination, while 7% were unsure which health professional had administer it. It was also of note that approximately 10% of all participants were eligible to receive a free vaccination from the National Immunisation Program, but still opted to receive their vaccine in a pharmacy. Over 8,000 participants took part in the post-vaccination survey, 93% were happy to receive their vaccination from a pharmacy in the future while 94% would recommend this service to other people. The remaining 7% and 6% respectively had omitted to fill in those questions. DISCUSSION Participants were overwhelmingly positive in their response to the pharmacist vaccination pilot. These findings have helped pave the way for expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists with the aim to increase vaccination rates across the state.

Australia’s first Allied Health Prescribing Program – exploring participants' understanding and confidence in clinical therapy choices for patient management

BACKGROUND Globally there are emerging trends for non-medical health professionals to expand their scope of practice into prescribing. The NPS Prescribing Competencies Framework and the Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway Program are recent initiatives to assist with implementation of prescribing for allied health professionals (AHPs). For AHPs to become prescribers, training programmes must be designed to extend their knowledge of medicines information and medicine management principles with the aim of optimising medicines related outcomes for patients. AIM To explore the understanding and confidence in clinical therapeutic choices for patient management of those AHPs enrolled in the Allied Health Prescribing Training Program Module One: Introduction to clinical therapeutics for prescribers, delivered by Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. METHOD A pre-post survey was developed to explore key themes around understanding and confidence in selecting therapeutic choices for patients with varying complexities of conditions. Data were collected from participants in week one and 13 of the module via an online survey using a five-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Agree (SA) to 5 = Strongly Disagree (SD)). RESULTS In the pre-Module survey the AHPs had a limited degree (D/SD) of understanding and confidence regarding the safe and effective use of medicines and appropriate therapeutic choices for managing patients, particularly with complex patients. This improved significantly in the post Module survey (A/SA).