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Librarians use subject guides to introduce students to library materials. Surveys, usability tests, and usage statistics demonstrate that students do not relate well to subject guides. We suggest that library resources organized or delivered at a course level are more in line with how undergraduate students approach library research.

Given the burgeoning of genetic research and proliferation of human genetic databases, especially in the biomedical sphere, this paper explores whether the existing laws and regulatory structures for governing genetic databases in England and Wales are adequate. Through a critical survey of relevant rules, bodies and practices, it argues that the current UK framework is far from ideal in at least five major areas: (1) forms and styles of law used, especially the separate legislative regimes for physical biomaterial and data; (2) core definitions; (3) formal regulatory bodies, licensing and notification requirements; (4) ethics committees and other advisory panels; and (5) enforcement powers and sanctions. Such shortcomings could have major implications for stakeholders, hamper efforts to achieve European or international harmonisation of genetic database principles and practices, and undermine the UK’s standing as a world leader in genetics and biotechnology. Drawing on comparative analysis of governance strategies adopted in Estonia, Iceland and Sweden, the paper identifies alternative options and lessons from experiences abroad, suggesting possible avenues for reform that may warrant serious consideration in the UK.

The transformation underway in scholarly communication touches everyone in the academy, including librarians. The burgeoning open access movement is opening alternative channels for the dissemination of scholarly work and feeding the growth of institutional repositories (IRs). While academics still prefer to publish their research in books and journals, they are disseminating their unpublished work more frequently through open-access, digital outlets. This work, often called "grey literature," includes conference presentations, technical reports, and preprints as well as datasets, supplements to published work, and electronic theses and dissertations. In this article, we examine how librarians are taking on different and expanded roles to bring new services and new forms of support to faculty members in this era of open access, making academic libraries more important and useful than ever before.

This paper reports on the initial findings of an interdisciplinary research project on the governance of human genetic databases in England and Wales. The number of biosample and information collections has expanded, yet considerable legal uncertainty surrounds their definition, collection, storage, management, and use which could inhibit research and clinical practice, while failing to protect the rights and interests of all stakeholders. We report some initial findings from the legal research and identify major challenges associated with defining`genetic databases'. We identify a wide range of relevant instruments and regulatory actors, and suggest that none adequately addresses the challenges posed by contemporary research techniques or the`corporeal' and`informational' materials used in the genetic databases context. This preliminary analysis seriously questions the efficacy of the current regulatory framework and concludes that developing an appropriate governance framework for the creation, maintenance, and use of genetic databases requires the bringing together of legal analysis with good quality empirical evidence. 163