In December 2007 I began an internship with the Tennessee Williams Scholars' Conference/Tennessee Williams Annual Review. The Conference and Review are co-produced by Williams expert and professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University Dr. Robert Bray and the publications department of The Historic New Orleans Collection. The majority of my internship took place from my home and at The Collection, where I also currently serve full-time as an editor on book projects and the institution's quarterly magazine. The following report provides an overview of my internship, my analysis of the operation of the Conference/Review, and my recommendations for the organization developed over the course of my tenure, which will conclude in December 2008.

Although there is substantial literature on the use of performance appraisal in the for-profit world, there is little literature available concerning the appraisal of staff positions in higher education. More knowledge is needed in this area since there is considerable research indicating that performance appraisal creates benefits to an organization and its employees. This study provides a comprehensive review of the development and use of performance appraisal in the United States, and a detailed look at the purposes, benefits, and challenges of performance appraisal. The study found a very high usage of staff performance appraisal in its population of 108 Christian colleges and universities. However, it also found a significant amount of dissatisfaction with the appraisal process due to (a) lack of leadership support for the appraisal process, (b) supervisors not being held accountable for the timely completion of their appraisals, and (c) the lack of training provided supervisors for doing performance appraisals well.

The purpose of the thesis is to describe life and work of Martha E. Williams related to library and information science. The thesis introduces private life of Martha E. Williams, her professional development in the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute in Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her activities in professional library associations and academic awards given to her. The core of the thesis is made of thorough analysis of individual works, activities and projects that Martha E. Williams conducted or significantly participated in. Martha E. Williams contributed to development of databases and information industry, worked as an editor of register of Computer-Readable database (CRDB) and of serial Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). Furthemore, Martha E. Williams devoted her time systematically to transparency of information retrieval, database classification and evaluation, usage data, analysis of governmental and private databases and the role of libraries and information centers in the era of rapid expansion of databases.

This research explored the perception of the incorporation of ‘future-self’ for young people (YP) moving from specialist provision for children where the Local Authority have identified the provision as Moderate Learning Difficulties and additional needs, their parent/carers views, and the perspectives of professionals supporting their transition to mainstream further education. The ‘future-self’ approach had its basis in social cognitive theory, as the creation of imagined ‘future-selves’ is thought to influence an individual’s behaviour to aid them to work towards their aspired self (Baker, 2015; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oysterman & James, 2011). Phase one used a case study methodology using semi-structured interviews to explore the YP and their parent/carer’s experience of transition planning having included the young person’s vision of their ‘future-self’, at aged 16. Materials were designed to aid their understanding using visual support. Phase two gained the views of YP using focus groups as they approach transition out of FE at aged 19 or older into continued training, employment, and on towards adulthood, in relation to inclusion of their vision of their ‘future-self’ in this preparation. This phase also explored the perceptions of the professionals for incorporating the young person’s view of their ‘future-self’ using semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six stage thematic analysis to identify themes in the data. Focus groups were thematically analysed using Ritchie and Spencer’s (1994) five stage analysis. A number of themes were found for the YP at both stages, the parents/carers and the professionals. Findings indicated that the YP are more involved in the transition planning and a range of methods are applied to prepare the YP however there are a number of barriers still limiting the options for the YP such as: lack of choice available, protectiveness of others, low aspirations, failure to explore holistic longer term outcomes, insufficient multi-agency involvement, overreliance on parents, and the need for more effective strategic planning and awareness of the systems around the YP. The findings from this research indicate that applying a ‘future-selves’ approach for YP as a method to generate future aspirations to motivate YP’s behaviour has been effective as a tool to add to existing transition preparations. This could act as a way to overcome the currently existing poorer long term outcomes for YP with this population. Based upon this small scale project, further investigation would be required to assess the benefit for a wider population.