Local genealogical societies and libraries have a common interest in providing genealogical researchers with materials and expert assistance. Societies and libraries can cooperate to meet genealogists' needs in several ways: (1) collection development, access, and creation; (2) indirect reference service (societies as a referral resource; (3)…

Based on years of experience with intergenerational correspondence at the "Senior Partners Network," this book is designed to help grandparents (and grandchildren) to find the right topics for correspondence, all laid out in clear steps. The book also offers sample letters, cards, and e-mail messages, and provides dozens of themes. The…

This issue brief describes the outcomes of a study conducted by the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) that investigated the effectiveness of a training workshop on using a networking approach to job development for people with disabilities. The two-day workshop focused on teaching how to identify and use connections such as family members,…

To shed light on reciprocal social networks for adult literacy learners, an ethnographic study sought to understand the dynamics of social networks from a sociocultural perspective, that of the adult basic education learners themselves. Subjects were a diverse population of six adult learners at a suburban adult education center (five working to…

The collegial networking model, advanced for women as an alternative to the traditional "old boy" male network in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is described in this paper. Based on affiliation rather than competitiveness, the collegial model is applicable to professional women in the 1990s, with the following added recommendations: (1)…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between three employee variables--perceived job satisfaction, ambiguity tolerance, and locus of control--and an employee's propensity to participate actively in the organization's communication network (network propensity). Relevant data were gathered from 108 members of an engineering firm who…

Predictors of fathers' involvement in childrearing activities were investigated as part of a study of the ecology of urban childrearing in five western societies. Selected on the basis of a stratified random sample technique, participants were 96 white fathers from intact families having a 3-year-old child. Network theory provided three hypotheses…

Improving the quality of teaching should be a fundamental concern of the discipline of speech communication. In studying communicating style in any context or situation (including the classroom), attention needs to be given (1) to the character of the interpretive and behavioral repertoires of individuals; (2) to any socio-historical expectations…

The presence of support friends is related to general well being in successful aging. Some social gerontological research concludes that the positive effects of interacting with support friends can be attributed to the quality of these relationships; however, there is a gap in our understanding regarding the mechanism which accounts for this…

By applying Kenneth Burke's concepts of Order, the Secret, and the Kill to the newspaper-audience-advertiser relationship, the narrow imagery that depicts that relationship only in economic terms can be counteracted. Burke's maps of hierarchy, mystery, and transcendence in human action allow the depiction of a complex meshing of patterns,…

Although researchers have found a correlation between health and social participation, more data are needed to determine the influence of health on the institutionalized elderly's participation. A study was conducted to explore the relationship between the perceived health status of the institutionalized elderly and their social participation. The…

Since a discourse community may have its membership assigned both on the basis of speech or of writing, it follows that the concept of discourse community needs to be both medium-neutral and unconstrained by space and time. The defining characteristics of a discourse community might be (1) communality of interest, (2) mechanisms for…

The reliability and validity of the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB), a measure designed to tap behaviors pertaining to the provision of social support, were studied. Data were analyzed on a pre-test sample of 100 adults from a community-based, epidemiologic study of 1,008 black adults in Virginia. Findings are presented on the…

This report focuses on individual financial support networks which supplement the incomes of persons who live in different households. It introduces a new data set from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Information was collected in a supplement to the SIPP conducted between January and April 1985 in about 17,000 households.…

Caregiving studies often focus on the impaired elder who is the care receiver and the one family member who is perceived as the primary caregiver. Such studies fail to consider all members of the family, whether or not they are involved in providing care. This study was conducted to explore the effects of an elder's health-related dependency on…