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The purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D and provide a proposal for taking advantage of the new opportunities prevailing in the adoption of Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D concepts. The specific objectives of this study are as follows: to review the status of research in Pakistan on any aspect of Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D; to explore how a user‐centered library can be developed with the help of Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D applications; to find out information professionals' opinions in this regard; and to provide a proposal for adoption of Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D tools.

This study is descriptive in nature and is based on a literature review and personal interviews. The researchers reviewed the findings of previous surveys recently conducted by researchers in Pakistan on different aspects of Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D. These surveys assisted the researchers in exploring the current status of acceptability of these applications by the library community in Pakistan. Moreover, semi‐structured interviews were conducted to gain an in‐depth understanding of the phenomena under study. Finally, keeping in mind the findings of the literature reviewed, previous surveys and current interviews, a proposal for the survival of libraries in Pakistan in an era of emerging technologies is given.

It was found that libraries in Pakistan are now becoming aware of the use of Library 2.0 Second Life for Library Services.

The interviews being limited to a purposive sample of information professionals, care has to be taken in generalizing the findings of the study.

The paper not only presents a good understanding of different concepts, such as Library 1.0, Library 2.0 and Library 3D, but also their application.

The paper is the first in Pakistan to deal with the emerging concept of Library 3‐D. It also provides a proposal for information professionals in using Library 2.0 and Library 3‐D applications for library services.

In highly digitalised countries such as Denmark, statistics show that one out of four employees has experienced high levels of stress. However, despite ample research evidence on the presence of technostress, the knowledge on this phenomenon is not yet part of the material and guidelines from official authorities. Previous research on technostress provides quantitative psychological and neurophysiological perspectives on technostress, focussing on the individual, the technology or the technological environment. The authors see this as a limited approach, as it leaves out the social environment in which technostress arises. The authors aim to expose the sociological mechanisms that contribute to technostress by using the sociological lens of obligation. The authors ask: ‘What is the knowledge that the sociological lens of obligation can bring to the theoretical understanding of technostress?’ To answer our research question, the authors employ an embedded case study in Denmark by looking into the existing political material and interviews with 14 employees across 6 organisations. The authors find that stress in practice is mostly addressed from a response perspective, which points to the individual. This view is inherent in how the individuals take responsibility for the technostress they experience. Another critical finding from our data is that technostress is socially constructed. The authors contribute to theory by using a new-to-IS theory and a qualitative approach to technostress research, which allows us to uncover how the social construction of obligation impacts the individual employee. Our theoretical contributions point to a need for practice to move in the direction of seeing technostress as a societal, rather than solely individual, responsibility.

This qualitative study explores the acquisition of global mindset in business executives who engaged in short-term business travel. Global mindset is operationalized as actively seeking to engage and reflect upon perspectives and orientations that both complement and contradict one’s own worldview. The narratives of 16 global supply chain leaders who work for a multinational company were content-analyzed. The results indicate that short-term business travel provides the context for participant reflection on their development as global leaders. They describe their development as a continuous evolution over time that is focused less on becoming a cultural expert and more on being culturally responsive in order to build relationships and achieve business results. The findings suggest that companies could take steps to leverage the developmental opportunity that short-term business travel represents.

Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on the subjects retrospectively to 1985 and approximately 1,100 references are listed.

The purpose of this paper is to validate Tsiotsou’s (2012) sport team brand personality scale in a new country (Australia) and segment (Generation Y) and extend its use from sport teams to individual athletes. This paper also explores the scale’s predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence.

An online panel survey with 560 responses from Australian Generation Y consumers was obtained. Structural equation modelling was used to test and validate the scale.

This paper confirmed the sport team brand personality scale can be applied to an individual athlete. Three dimensions of the scale, namely, competitiveness, morality and authenticity, were found to have predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence. Authenticity was the strongest predictor, followed by morality and competitiveness.

Individual athlete brand personality is powerful in influencing how Australian Generation Y consumers identify with their favourite athlete as a role model. These insights assist brand and marketing managers to use athletes as part of their communication strategies regarding brand and product endorsements.

This research addresses Tsiotsou’s (2012) call to test the robustness and external validity of the sport team brand personality scale and to empirically test how the scale can predict outcomes. The authors succeeded in validating and extending the sport brand personality scale to an individual athlete level in a new country and consumer segment. The scale was found to have predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence.

Policymakers worldwide have proposed a new contract – the ‘social impact bond’ (SIB) – which they claim can allay the underperformance afflicting not-for-profits, by tying the private returns of (social) investors to the success of social programs. We investigate experimentally how SIBs perform in a first-best world, where investors are rational and able to obtain hard information on not-for-profits’ performance. Using a principal-agent multitasking framework, we compare SIBs to inputs-based contracts (IBs) and performance-based contracts (PBs). IBs are based on a piece-rate mechanism, PBs on a non-binding bonus mechanism, and SIBs on a mechanism that, due to the presence of an investor, offers full enforceability. Although SIBs can perfectly enforce good behaviour, they also require the principal (i.e., government) to relinquish control over the agent’s (i.e., not-for-profit’s) payoff to a self-regarding investor, which prevents the principal and agent from being reciprocal. In spite of these drawbacks, in our experiment SIBs outperformed IBs and PBs. We therefore conclude that, at least in our laboratory test-bed, SIBs can allay the underperformance of not-for-profits.

Sets out to provide a selected bibliography or recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and exhibition catalogues examining library instruction and information literacy.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this study is to propose a hybrid system to combine the self‐organizing map (SOM) of a neural network with the data‐mining (DM) method for course recommendation of the e‐learning system.

This research constructs a hybrid system with artificial neural network (ANN) and data‐mining (DM) techniques. First, ANN is used to classify the e‐Learner types. Based on these e‐Learner groups, users can obtain course recommendation from the group's opinions. When groups of related interests have been established, the DM will be used to elicit the rules of the best learning path. It is ideal for this system to stimulate learners' motivation and interest. Moreover, the hybrid approach can be used as a reference when learners are choosing between classes.

In order to enhance the efficiency and capability of e‐learning systems, the SOM method is combined to deal with cluster problems of DM systems, SOM/DM for short. It was found that the SOM/DM method has excellent performance.

This research is limited by the fact that its participants are from a business college of a university in Taiwan, and it is applied by SOM/DM to recommend courses of e‐learners. This research is useful in the domain of the e‐learning system.

The results of this research will provide useful information for educators to classify their e‐learners or students more accurately, and to adapt their teaching strategies accordingly to retain valuable e‐learners subject to limited resources. The experiments prove that it is ideal to stimulate learners' motivation and interest.

This paper examines the influence of facilitators and barriers on employees’ preference to work in a hybrid model. The study uses the theoretical lens of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) and dual factor theory (DFT). It examines the influence of health consciousness (stimulus), facilitators (e.g. work flexibility, work–life balance and team building) (organism) and barriers (e.g. pandemic and travel stressor and role overload [organism] on employees’ preference to work in a hybrid model) (response). Further, it tests the moderating influence of organizational culture.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among employees in India, Sri Lanka and Germany, obtaining 281 usable questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using Warp PLS 7.0 was used as the analytical technique to examine the model fit and test hypotheses.

The findings reveal that health consciousness is essential in enhancing facilitators and motivating employees to prefer a hybrid working model. The study’s findings also prove the positive influence of work flexibility, work–life balance and team building as facilitators. The results suggest that pandemic and travel stressors inhibit employees’ preference for working in a hybrid model.

The study is based on a cross-sectional research design to generalise the findings. Future researchers can utilize longitudinal design to decipher the variation in response over time. The study has developed a model combining SOR with DFT; the authors suggest that future researchers use other theories in combination with SOR, like self-determination theory (SDT), to decipher the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of employees in the context of the hybrid working model.

This study identifies the need for open communication with the employees to overcome their concerns regarding the hybrid working model. The study also suggests that human resource (HR) managers need to prioritize the task that needs to be accomplished from the office versus working from home. The authors recommend various measures, like water cooler breaks and a buddy system, to motivate employees to work in a hybrid model.

This study is among the first studies focused on the hybrid working model. The current study adds to the limited literature on the facilitators and barriers of working in a hybrid work model.