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Purpose. There are a large number of free electronic resources available on the web, from various sources, including the outputs of funded research projects. As yet, there are not well‐established procedures for the evaluation of the quality and usefulness of these electronic resources. This article examines two preliminary approaches to the problem. Approach. An investigation into free e‐books was carried out for the JISC to examine the potential for the use of free e‐books in teaching and learning in further and higher education in the UK. Questionnaires, a dissemination workshop and focus groups were used to obtain the research results. Three possible approaches to evaluation are discussed, involving the collection of high‐quality resources in a trusted repository, large‐scale evaluation of available resources, and evaluation by end‐users. The practical problems of each approach are discussed. The prospect of future large‐scale digitisation projects and their possible impact in this field is also considered. In a separate section, the question of evaluation of electronic resources is briefly considered in the context of collections development in the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Findings. The conclusion is drawn that it is more cost‐effective to intervene early in the lifecycle of a digital resource and to help ensure good practice in the creation of the resource than to attempt to evaluate and enhance a resource at the end of the creation process. Originality. This paper draws on the unique experience of the AHDS as a central, national service for researchers in the arts and humanities creating and using electronic resources.

Crowding in service environments is a constant concern for many firms due to the negative consequences it has on consumers and companies alike. Yet, scant empirical research exists on firm-generated initiatives aimed at improving customer service experiences in crowded situations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information, a managerially actionable variable, influences social interactions (in the form of customer social withdrawal and citizenship behavior) and service experience.

Two experimental studies were conducted using an extended service context.

This research demonstrates that receiving information about crowds in advance results in heightened social withdrawal, which improves customer service experience. However, providing consumers with a platform to share crowding information increases customers’ citizenship behavior toward service employees and other customers, which, in turn, improves customer service experience.

For extended service encounters (e.g. air travel) where social interactions are inevitable, companies should encourage customers to share their real-time experiences with other customers in hopes of creating more positive social interactions (e.g. citizenship behavior) within the crowded environment.

Existing investigations of crowding stem from an overemphasis on the physical and atmospheric aspects of the environment by treating crowds as a “fixture” in the servicescape, rather than as “active participants” involved in the crowding environment. While the mere presence of crowds alone has negative effects, this research takes it a step further by examining interactions among and between customers and service employees within the crowded service environment.

The purpose of this paper is to document how a doctoral research team applied an action research process to improve communication and collaboration strategies among rural Midwestern school district stakeholders.

An appreciative inquiry (AI) action research methodology framed as a qualitative case study using the AI 4‐D cycle over four consecutive weeks was facilitated with nine purposively selected stakeholders.

Findings suggest that the AI 4‐D cycle promoted greater respect and value of participants' strengths/assets through shared personal narratives; participants transformed their rural school district's culture from defensive, isolationist, and reactive to one that embraced internal and external collaboration, greater levels of trust, and hope; and participants increased social capital between the school district and community agencies as well as in the relationship among school district stakeholders.

Participants entered the process with strong expressions of powerlessness focused on school district and stakeholder deficits. They left the process empowered, with a plan to improve stakeholder communication, form district and community partnerships at many levels, and act immediately to initiate transformation projects. Participants became conduits of hope for their rural community and viewed themselves as assuming leadership roles to bring groups together to build generative capacity.

The paper highlights the importance of the highly participatory nature of school organizations as democratic institutions, and it demonstrates that educators are empowered when their focus is on a co‐constructed imagined future.

Purpose: In this chapter, I analyze proceedings from 2015 when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was asked to determine whether Dutee Chand, an Indian sprinter, could compete as a female athlete. Excluded on the basis that her naturally high testosterone levels conferred an unfair athletic advantage, Chand argued that existing policies in international sport were scientifically flawed. The purpose of the analysis is to examine whether the case led to a shift in the gender politics of sport, law, and science.

Methodology/Approach: I present a textual analysis of the arbitral award document, drawing on feminist methodology to identify where and how the adjudicating panel’s assessment of the case was gendered.

Findings: The CAS decision defined the right to compete as primarily a matter for science to decide, in the process obscuring the gendered and tilted playing field upon which scientific knowledge production takes place. Furthermore, the right to unconditional recognition as a woman was reduced to science alone.

Social Implications: My analysis reveals that Chand’s victory is a precarious one, with binary and biologized models of sex and gender prevailing when the institutions of sport, law, and science determine the policy boundaries of “fair play” for female athletes.

Originality/Value of Study: This chapter shows how the institutions of sport, law, and science work together to determine gender. As a consequence, even feminist versions of the biology of sex difference risk reifying the authority of science as the dominant knowledge form within the institutional spaces of sport and law.

An important step towards ousting the Germans from a lucrative branch of West African trade in which Germany has hitherto held almost a monopoly has been proposed by a Colonial Office Committee and adopted by the Government. This Committee was appointed a year ago by Mr. BONAR LAW, with Mr. STEEL‐MAIT‐LAND, M.P., as chairman, “to consider and report upon the present condition and the prospects of the West African trade in palm kernels and other edible and oil‐producing nuts and seeds, and to make recommendations for the promotion in the United Kingdom of the industries dependent thereon.”

Revolutionary thinker and Civil Rights leader, Ella Baker, once declared, “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” Baker’s statement epitomizes her philosophy that the wisdom needed to fight against hegemony emerges from the brilliance of the people stuck at the bottom of oppressive systems. Standing in stark contrast to the charismatic leadership philosophy of many in the nation, Baker’s model encourages disenfranchised youth and elders to lead themselves into the struggle to bring down America’s apartheid system of governing. Yet grassroots governing is complex and constantly evolving. But it leaves no space for static hierarchal iterations of leadership, an epistemology that pervades and corrodes the nation.

Growing up in this nation’s segregated south, I have struggled to understand the impact of racism on school leaders, faculty, students, and parents. Thus, my chapter will use institutionalized racism as the lens to examine the toxic environment that school leaders, and, ultimately, all leaders face because of the country’s chosen amnesia of its bloody history, a history that still impacts current public policy. Within that context I will also offer alternative ways to lead, especially that modeled by Civil Rights icon and president of the Algebra Project, Robert P. Moses.

The authors locate the EQLIPSE Project in the context of the growing interest in the application of performance measurement and quality assurance techniques to libraries. The EQLIPSE consortium is described, and the main works which informed the Project's design are enumerated. The six workpackages of the Project are outlined, followed by details of progress to date. Of the completed workpackages, the first resulted in a deliverable report defining user requirements. The output from the second was an initial functional specification for the EQLIPSE system. In the second phase of the Project a prototype system was developed and data collection procedures were defined. The prototype was tested in July 1996 and amended accordingly. EQLIPSE is to be one of four Projects in the EC Concerted Action CAMILE; the purpose and aims of which are described.

This paper aims to examine the textual coverage of the topic of public engagement in leading English language sustainability textbooks.

In this paper, the authors’ findings are based on a content analysis of 12 textbooks published between 2005 and 2015. The authors generated the sample through three sources: a review of the offerings of five major academic publishers, title searches of academic databases and an examination of the syllabi compiled by AASHE. Texts that displayed a high degree of disciplinarity or those that were narrowly focused were rejected. A list of a priori codes was established in which the authors expected to find in the indices of the texts. This resulted in 21 expected a priori codes for which the authors assessed the sample texts to gauge the place of engagement in these materials.

The authors find that only two textbooks contained ten or more references to engagement. Overall, very little attention was paid to the ways in which individuals, groups or institutions can engage in action for a sustainable society. The authors argue that substantive changes in the writing of textbooks are necessary to provide students with comprehensive training on why engagement is critical. More diverse writing teams, attention to cultural obstacles and mindfulness of the politics of difference are recommended.

Practical implications include pedagogical methods aimed at better-informed students knowledgeable of the importance of public engagement in the sustainability transition.

Social implications include a more dynamic socially sustainable educational experience for students, which is aligned with cutting-edge scholarship.

The authors know of no other research devoted to the analysis of engagement in contemporary sustainability textbooks. The authors hope to encourage writers of sustainability textbooks and their editors to incorporate more robust social science scholarship on pivotal topics such as how social change and action intersects with sustainability. Second, the authors seek to broaden a conversation about the role of public engagement in sustainability-focused textbooks and curricula.

The phenomenal growth in dog ownership, dog-related products and services consumption, and the development of the pet industry emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of dog-human companionship. This study explored different dimensions of willingness to buy and pay for dog-human companionship.

The study was conducted among dog owners (N = 337). The data was collected from the dog owners through an adapted questionnaire. Variance-based Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to understand the relationship among the variables under study.

The results of the data analysis revealed that specialty purchases and activity/youth had a significant association with willingness to pay for dog companionship. However, boundaries predict the willingness to buy products and services related to dogs. In addition, there was a significant difference between males and females regarding buying intentions, wherein females were willing to buy dog products in the Indian context.

This study provides significant dimensions of willingness to buy and pay for the pet industry. The results of this study can help managers draft marketing strategies to influence dog owners.