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A Canadian national survey of 788 library staff doing instructional work revealed that most participants expected to be doing some teaching in their workplaces, and the largest proportion of participants have been teaching for more than 10 years. Most instruction continues to take the form of short presentations to groups of learners. On the whole, preparatory experiences are informal—on-the-job experience, reading professional literature, and attending workshops. The majority of respondents identify instructional work as integral to their professional identity, but nearly one-third see this work as a duty or expectation, and a small proportion view it as an imposition. The study results have implications for design of programs that prepare library staff for the workplace, and for library managers who need to support effective instructional practice.

Objective: to evaluate the well-being of post-menopausal women and to determine whether certain factors may have a positive, negative or neutral influence on well-being in this sector of the population. Design: a survey of public attitude. Setting: the general post-menopausal population of Canada. Participants: twenty-eight physicians and two nurse directors of health clinics in various parts of Canada agreed to give the questionnaire to interested post-menopausal patients. A total of 2,000 stamped, self-addressed surveys were sent to these physicians and nurses with the request to distribute the questionnaires, between July 1994 and March 1995. Four hundred and thirty-four individuals subsequently returned a completed questionnaire. Main outcome measures: the subjective well-being (SWB) of post-menopausal women was assessed. Family history, medical history, therapeutic interventions economic status, social factors and philosophical perspectives were explored and analysed and related to well-being. Comments and demographic data were also solicited. Results: most post-menopausal women reported a high level of subjective well-being with 61.7 percent stating that they are happy and satisfied. Forty-six percent stated that their lives were close to their ideal and just over half (52%) reported feeling as happy as they were at a younger age. Various social economic, philosophical and medical factors appeared to influence SWB in this population, with logistic regression analysis indicating that the three most important factors were the degree of loneliness, the amount of stress and any difficult financial circumstances. Of the 47.7 Percent of respondents who had used or were using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), 84.3 Percent reported some or marked improvement in SWB following therapy. While the preferred source of information on menopausal issues was health care workers 49.7 Percent of respondents were not satisfied with the teaching on this topic received from their personal physicians. Conclusions: although most Canadian women report being content in the post-menopausal stage of life well-being appears to be associated with both medical and social events, with demographic factors and philosophical outlook. Social and familial factors are of at least as much importance to overall well-being as is actual physical health. Given the lack of satisfaction with the scope of teaching on menopausal issues, it is important that health care delivery to this population moves beyond symptomatology to addressing questions related to physical and social well-being.

The rapid expansion of assisted reproductive technologies and related research offers great hope for those experiencing the problem of infertility. Concern has been expressed, however, that practical, legal, and ethical evaluations of new technologies have not kept pace with the introduction of these services into clinical practice. Even common reproductive services, such as gamete donation, need to be examined on an ongoing basis as new research becomes available and as long term implications are revealed. Despite the increasing public familiarity with gamete donation, many issues related to this medical procedure require careful consideration. Canadian public attitudes toward gamete donation will be highligthted as the following areas are explored: the acquisition of donor gametes and embryos; the disclosure or non-disclosure of biological origins and the ’best interest’ of the child; and the potential long term implications for donors and recipients. The dilemmas raised by the relatively routine practice of gamete donation clearly illustrate the need for ongoing examination of the many complexities arising from assisted reproductive technologies, and the need for careful guidelines and accountability in the area of reproductive medicine.