This study looks at the roles of kaum tua and investigates how these roles have changed over time. With the ageing Māori population and the reported importance of kaum tua roles in the wellbeing of Māori communities, the findings of this study provide an insight into the possible future direction of these roles. The study was conducted with the assistance of members of one hapu (N=47) that were 65 years of age and over. The study was by interview, utilising a semi-structured questionnaire with both open ended and closed questions. Narratives from participants was analysed and compared to the roles of kaum tua that were found in the literature, namely; Leadership, cultural knowledge, dispute resolution, protection and nurturing of young, provide spiritual and other guidance, social control, provide rituals, preserve te reo Māori and live active and healthy lives. Findings of this research supported the roles found in the literature. The roles of kaum tua still exist but may have diminished over time. The change in roles is in the adaptation to meet the needs of the time period while maintaining the core values of each role and providing a continuation of practices.

Trends and patterns of reproductive behaviour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland Abstract The main goal of this diploma thesis is to analyse fertility trends in the (former) German Democratic Republic, the (former) Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and Switzerland after Second World War to 2010 and attitudes of population of the countries above towards parenthood and the changing roles of men and women. German-speaking countries belong to countries with long-term low fertility level, however each country has its own specific reproductive behavior due to historical development. Analysis of fertility is focused on describing the trends of the number of live births and the proportion of children born outside marriage, total fertility rate, cohort fertility, fertility rates by age and the mean age of women at childbirth. Attitudes of respondents towards parenthood and the changing roles of men and women were analyzed based on international survey, European Values Study 2008, by statistical methods - chi-square test and factor analysis. Further, the thesis deals with family policy in German-speaking countries with a focus on current measures. The main findings of this thesis are summarized in the final chapter.

Today, librarians are confronted with new roles during the execution of their work. The emerging roles require practical and technical skills, professional competencies and ability to perform and to constantly be in touch with those emerging technologies to stay afloat. The purpose of this research was to investigate the changing roles of academic librarians at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and its constituent college libraries in the current information age so that challenges can be established and measures put in place to overcome them. The current study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study was descriptive in nature and a survey research method was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents from each of the 13 libraries. Data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview schedule. A population of 70 respondents was to be surveyed but only 54 of them responded to the questionnaire. Quantitative data was descriptively analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The study revealed that the role of librarians at the UoN has not necessarily changed in terms of duties, responsibilities, functions and processes, but what has changed is the intensity and manner of conducting the role. The main challenge remains that of re-training of staff in the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). Therefore the study recommended training of staff in the use of ICTs, acquiring powerful servers to increase bandwidth connectivity and allocating more funds towards various activities. The study recommends that a similar research be replicated using different groups of librarians, for example those who started working when the services were already automated to find out whether they are also as challenged as their counterparts. A further research should also be carried out to investigate current jobs that exist elsewhere in the profession, such as knowledge management, ICT management in libraries, research data management and data curation. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)