Despite the fact that these studies varied in methodology and spanned a period of more than 15 years, a number of common themes emerged regarding inaccuracies, incompleteness, incomprehensibility and overall low use of MSDSs. The results of the literature review suggest that there are serious problems with the use of MSDSs as hazard communication tools. The article concludes with recommendations for governments, regulatory bodies, and occupational health and safety personnel to seriously reassess the ways in which MSDSs are written, monitored, regulated, and used.

The news media are an important channel for communicating public health messages, providing important information about geographic extent, symptoms, and precautionary measures. This function may be particularly important in the case of new and emerging infectious diseases, which are unfamiliar to both the public and health professionals. We conducted a content analysis of the coverage in six Canadian newspapers of two emerging infectious pathogens in British Columbia (BC), West Nile virus and Cryptococcus gattii (C. gattii), between 2001 and 2006. C. gattii was first identified in the Canadian Pacific Northwest in 1999, having previously been restricted to tropical and subtropical areas. By summer 2006, C. gattii had killed at least eight people and was responsible for over 150 hospitalizations in the province of BC, as well as significant morbidity and mortality among companion animals. West Nile virus reached Canada in 2001 and has since caused significant morbidity and mortality. It has not, to date, reached BC. Despite the much higher incidence of disease and death caused by C. gattii in BC, West Nile virus received five times more news coverage in the British Columbian and national newspapers examined. Surprisingly, the local newspaper closest to the center of the British Columbia C. gattii outbreak had a much lower proportion of coverage of the disease than other papers in the province. The article discusses possible explanations for these findings, and the implications for public health communication.

This paper focuses on Web-based discussion in an online policy consultation and examines specific discourse features to evaluate how the concept of civility served to shape public discourse in a moderated, rule-based forum. The study results reveal that citizen participants in the case study under consideration developed, maintained, and enforced norms of civil discourse, and that these norms helped to promote understanding and consensus-building. The study also cautions that civil dialogue alone cannot ensure effective communication between governments and citizens. Civil dialogue can be used to marginalize some participants, and it does not necessarily allow dialogue participants to effectively transmit their opinions to government decision-makers.Resumé : Cet article porte sur une discussion Web effectuée dans le contexte d'une évaluation de politiques en ligne. Il examine certains aspects de cette discussion afin d'évaluer comment le concept de courtoisie a influencé le discours public lors d'un forum dirigé. Les résultats de cette recherche révèlent que les citoyens participant à cette étude de cas ont élaboré, maintenu et renforcé des normes de discours civique, et que ces normes ont promu une bonne entente et l'obtention d'un consensus. L'étude démontre cependant que le dialogue civique seul ne peut pas assurer une communication efficace entre les citoyens et leurs gouvernements. Ainsi, on peut utiliser un dialogue civique pour marginaliser certains participants. D'autre part, un tel dialogue ne permet pas forcément aux participants de communiquer leurs avis aux décideurs gouvernementaux.

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Digital scholarship centres located within academic libraries are proliferating. This project gathered feedback from library staff and researchers at the University of Calgary to inform the development of a physical space and associated services to support the evolving nature of academic research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the results were analyzed thematically. Common needs identified included access to interdisciplinary collaborators, technologies, and space. The library was beginning to renovate an existing space to support collaboration and, informed by this research, reconfigured and realigned services and expertise to support digital scholarship in a more cohesive manner. This study will be of interest to other academic libraries wishing to develop a digital scholarship centre that is responsive to the needs of their local community.