Search results

DESPITE the critics who arise to condemn the onward march of the Public Library movement there can be little doubt that after the settling process has been gone through it will be more seriously reckoned with as a factor within our social evolution than at present; and meantime it were well to remember that fine definition of Dickens in regard to the Public Libraries of fifty years ago, and to see whether it was a prophecy or a realisation when he said, “It is grand to know that … the immortal mechanism of God's own hand, the mind, is not forgotten in the din and uproar, but is lodged and tended in a palace of its own.” Let us extend the meaning and see how the Public Library movement has grafted itself upon the mind of the great public by whom it is supported, and how it stands in regard to the authorities by whom it is controlled, and then, taking this position, let us ask the two questions: “How does it express itself popularly, and do people look at it in the light which Dickens did?”

Since the emergence of the Internet in the twentieth century and the rapid growth of different types of information technologies (IT), our lives, either personal or professional, have become digitised. Adoption and diffusion of IT enhance individuals and organisational performance, yet scholars discovered a dual nature of IT in which IT usage may have negative aspects too. First, the inability to cope with IT in a healthy manner creates stress in users, termed technostress. Second, digitisation and adoption of new technologies (e.g. IoT and multi-cloud environments) have increased vulnerabilities to information security (InfoSec) threats. Although organisations utilise counteraction strategies (e.g., security systems, security policies), end-users remain the top source of security incidents. Existing behavioural research has approached technostress and InfoSec independently. However, it is not clear how technology-stressors influence employees’ security-related behaviours. This chapter reviews the interaction effect of these concepts in detail by proposing a conceptual model that explains that technostress is the main reason for employees’ non-compliance with security policies in which users with high-level perceptions of technostress are more likely to violate InfoSec policies. Counteraction strategies to mitigate technostress and security threats are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of traditionally unmonitored energy sources and sinks on assessment of the as-built thermal performance of occupied homes. The analysis aims to demonstrate the potential scale of uncertainties introduced in a heat balance estimation of the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) when using in-use monitored data.

Energy flows for two UK homes – one a 1930s dwelling with high heat loss, the second a higher-performing 2014-built home – are predicted using the UK Government’s standard assessment procedure (SAP) and visualised using Sankey diagrams. Selected modelled energy flows are used as inputs in a quasi-steady state heat balance to calculate in-use HTCs as if from measured data sets gathered in occupied homes. The estimated in-use HTCs are compared against SAP-calculated values to illustrate the impact of including or omitting various heat sources and sinks.

The results demonstrate that for dwellings with low heat loss, the increased proportion of heating demand met by unmetered internal and solar gains informs a greater sensitivity of a heat balance estimation of the HTC to their omission. While simple quasi-steady state heat balance methods may be appropriate for dwellings with very high heat loss, alternative approaches are likely to be required for those with lower heat loss.

A need to understand the impacts of unmetered heat flows on the accuracy with which a building’s thermal performance may be inferred from in-use monitored data is identified: this paper illustrates the scale of these impacts for two homes at opposite ends of the energy performance scale.

We examine frames expressed during the Arab Uprisings that toppled authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in 2011. Through a visual analysis of 3,506 photographs taken at protest sites, we identify a new type of master frame, the “reclamation” master frame, in which protestors assert their right to what they feel they should have but has not been delivered or has been stolen from them by dictators. In the cases we consider, protestors reclaimed their right to (1) integrity of governance; (2) a proud nation, and (3) the dignity of the victims of state violence. They framed their struggle as a redefinition of the relationship between state and citizens. Identifying the master frame of reclamation as central to the Arab Uprisings, we argue that it helps us understand how protestors sustained mobilization over days and weeks in the face of brutal repressions. We suggest that it opens avenues for research on protests in authoritarian regimes.

Using multi-wave survey data, the authors quantified the financial impact of a sponsorship. The purpose of this paper is to predict the number of new buyers based upon changed brand attitudes, consistent with a hierarchy of effects model. The authors then established the financial return on the sponsorship spending by estimating the customer lifetime value (CLV) of these new buyers.

The authors collected the data around a major college football bowl game. Six phases of data collection were used to determine purchasing behavior and brand attitudes of attendees before and after the sponsored event, in comparison to television viewers of the event and the general public. The authors applied Lavidge and Elrick’s (1961) attitudinal constructs as the independent variables in a logistic regression to predict future purchase. The final data collection was used to validate the model’s prediction.

The findings show that the model accurately predicted the number of new customers after one buying cycle for the sponsor’s products. The authors also quantified the positive impact of the sponsorship on the CLV of existing customers within the same time frame.

The managerial implications of this study are significant. Sponsorships are highly risky, with fixed outlays up front, and unclear benefits to be realized in the future. The authors provide a methodology that not only allows sponsors to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorship, but to determine the return on their sponsorship investment. The authors have taken consumer behavior theory from marketing communications research and combined it with CLV tools, thus allowing marketers to determine the number of new customers that a sponsorship generates, as well as how it influences the buying patterns that drive CLV.

THE first of the Islington Public Libraries, opened on September 21st, has proved a phenomenal success, and, at the same time, has thrown an interesting light on several modern theories in librarianship. It is, as our readers know, the fust of a system of five libraries, towards the erection of which Dr. Carnegie has given £40,000. The building itself is, as many librarians had an opportunity of judging at the “private view” described in our last number, of an exceedingly well‐lighted and attractive character. The arrangement and accommodation provided present several novel features. On the ground floor, opening from the Central Hall, is the Children's Lending Library and Reading Room. This is stocked with about 3,000 volumes for lending purposes, including French and German juvenile literature, and the reading room portion has seating accommodation for about a hundred children. A representative selection of children's magazines are displayed here, and there are special study‐tables for girls and boys equipped with suitable reference collections. A feature of this room is a striking dado of pictures illustrating scenes from English history, which goes far to make the room interesting and attractive.