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Education for academic librarians in Austria is organised by several universities based on a continuing education programme on Library and Information Studies. Current changes on the legal regulations of this programme interfere with the difficult general situation in present times of crisis. The paper shows how effects can be tackled and discusses several approaches for an adapted curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental awareness is affected by fluctuations, which occur when other social events are prioritized. This paper investigates how environmental awareness of persons between the age of 20 and 30 living in Austria has changed during the period of the Covid-19 crisis compared to the period directly before. To answer this question a literature review and a quantitative survey (n = 210) on the affective and cognitive component of environmental awareness have been conducted. The results show a slight increase in the affective/cognitive component. This correlates with some socio-demographic characteristics and the change in certain behaviors but not with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on one's life. However, the high topicality of the Covid-19 crisis, as well as the dynamic of the crisis, should be highlighted. Therefore, no assessment of the long-term development of environmental awareness can be made and further research is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change is very complex and difficult challenge for our society. Demographic change has become a crucial problem for many regions within in Austria. We expect a strong impact and pressure on the current social infrastructure across the country depending on the population change as householders are becoming more heterogeneous because of international migration, low birth rates, and ageing. However, the impact might be different for the regions as some regions might gain, some others might lose from this future development. This paper analyzes the effects and linkages of demographic change on flood risk management. The paper selected 17 experts from the health and care sector across the country with the aim to analyze their awareness, perspective and understanding of the interlinkages between demographic change, flood risk management and their influence on the current social infrastructure. The results show that there exists a high awareness of the problem, but on a very superficially touch upon. The main reason is the current lack of policy integration and co-operation between the various disciplines, which in turn means that the goal of "health-in-all policies" is at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last ten years, a national IT infrastructure with an electronic health record (ELGA) has been established in Austria. In 2016, e-medication was successfully put into operation as an ELGA service. This paper summarizes the most important steps in the development of the project and presents essential results and lessons learned. The main challenges were the overlapping planning, testing, usability of the software products, and the coordination of the rollout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Medical education is gaining in significance internationally. A growing interest in the field has been observed in German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) since the early 2000s. This interest is not, however, reflected in an increase in the number of publications on medical education of German-speaking authors in international professional journals. The following investigation examines the potential use of active participant numbers of German-speaking researchers at AMEE conferences as a means of measuring said development. Methods: The AMEE conference proceedings fromthe categories poster presentations, short communications, research papers and plenary presentations from the years 2005-2013 were examined for evidence of Austrian, German and Swiss participation. The abstracts were subsequently analysed in terms of content and categorised according to study design, methodology, object of study, and research topic. Results: Of the 9,446 analysed abstracts, 549 contributions show at least one first, last or co-author from Austria, Germany or Switzerland. The absolute number of contributions per conference varied between 44 in 2010 and 77 in 2013. The percentage fluctuated between 10% in 2005 and 4.1% in 2010. From the year 2010 onwards, however, participation increased continually. The research was predominantly descriptive (62.7%). Studies on fundamental questions of teaching and learning (clarification studies) were less frequent (4.0%). For the most part, quantitative methods (51.9%) were implemented in addressing subjects such as learning and teaching methods (33%), evaluation and assessment (22.4%) or curriculum development (14.4%). The study population was usually comprised of students (52.5%). Conclusions: The number of contributions from Austria, Germany and Switzerland peak at the beginning and at the end of the evaluated period of time. A continual increase in active participation since 2005 was not observed. These observations do not reflect the actual increase of interest in medical education research in German-speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On January the 1st, 2016 a new agreement between 32 Austrian scientific libraries and the publisher Springer took its effect: this deal covers accessing the licensed content on the one hand, and publishing open access on the other hand. More than 1000 papers by Austrian authors were published open access at Springer in the first year alone. The working group "Springer Compact Evaluierung" made the data for these articles available via the platform OpenAPC and would like to use this opportunity to give a short account of what this publishing agreement actually entails and the working group intends to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational therapy has a long tradition of dealing with humans displaying reduced activities of daily life. The current demographic development suggests an increase of elder people in need of care, thus the funds available have to be employed efficiently. The nursing allowance in Austria is being used to enable help and support of persons who are impaired in their activities of daily life. A medical estimate determines - based on a specific schematic -the amount of nursing allowance to aid in the support and help of the disabled person. This paper focuses on the question if occupational therapists have the expertise to assist the medical doctor in assessing a person in need of care with a medical estimate. In this paper, a special focus is put on an evidence-based point of view of the Austrian process in a legal framework. The article displays strengths and weaknesses of occupational therapists estimating the incapacities of persons in need of care. This position paper has been developed in the course of the lecture „Erstellung von Gutachten“ of the „Master course Occupational Therapy“ at the University of Applied Science in Vienna and intends to incite a discussion in all areas (science, practice, job politics) about the diverse aspects of the future expert activities of occupational therapists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides executive summary and recommendations of “Researchers and their data. Results of an Austrian survey - Report 2 01 5 " This report provides an overview of the nation-wide survey on research data, which was carried out within the project e-lnfrastructures Austria in 2015. This was directed at the arts, humanities and sciences staff of all 21 public universities and three extramural research institutions in Austria. The participants were asked about the following topics: data types and formats; data archiving backup and loss; ethical and legal aspects; accessibility and re-use; and infrastructure and services. The first survey conducted at the national level in this context was used for the practical handling of research data in Austria, and is therefore the basis for a consecutive optimization of relevant infrastructure, an adaptation of the services provided, as well as a reorientation in identifying resources in this strategic area which correspond to the expressed needs of people in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU funded Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) run from March 2009 to February 2011. More than 53.000 people worldwide participated in this online-survey on the Golden Road to Open Access, among them about 46.000 scholars. The paper will put a spotlight on the input of the 462 Austrian scientists who took part in this survey. It analyses their answers to 9 selected questions out of the survey's original total of 23 questions. A focus is put on significant differences in these answers between scientists from Austria and Germany. The financial supporting structure for Open Access in Austria is quite dissimilar from Germany hence differences should be expected. Even so 89% of scientists in both countries agree that Open Access is helpful in their own field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse and compare the opening hours of 50 randomly selected university libraries in Austria, Germany, Canada and the USA. Thus we want to answer five concrete questions concerning opening hours, such as ''Is there a correlation between opening hours and size of a library?'' The study reveals for example that larger libraries have extended opening hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]