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The purpose of this article is to study how public libraries argue for the inclusion of non-traditional library collections and to identify public library objectives related to these collections.

The data was collected through a Web survey which was sent to public library managers in all Swedish municipalities. Data were analyzed using a model in which public library practices are divided into three categories relating to the public library’s goals, activities and tools.

Three different main arguments are used to support the introduction of non-traditional collections: as a contribution to public library goals or activities to attract non-users and as the result of external requests or needs. Through analysis of the survey results, the public library’s common goal, a socially sustainable society, was identified. Other library goals identified were an environmentally sustainable society and an improved library.

The results may inspire practitioners to reflect upon how non-traditional collections are related to library goals and activities and what consequences their inclusion may have for the library. For example, if non-traditional collections are used only to attract new users, there is a risk of creating expectations that the library cannot live up to.

Today, focus is placed on the conditions for public libraries in the digital world. It is easy to overlook the importance of non-traditional library collections, and the role they fulfill. This article draws attention to these collections and their possible consequences for public libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of UML extensions on the elicitation of the knowledge that is intrinsic to the business processes of electronic government that will be available on digital TV.

Based on the understanding that: knowledge of e‐government is inherent in the applications available to the citizen; these applications aggregate content and services; and business processes result in products or services that are available for the citizen, this study seeks to, through the use of diagrams proposed by Eriksson and Penker, elicit the knowledge intrinsic to business processes, facilitating the development of applications destined to digital TV.

The proposed model facilitates the understanding of business processes and the identification of opportunities for improvement. The application of the BP diagram has enabled the authors to obtain an overview of all elements participating in the process as well as detail the relationship between them in a single diagram to facilitate the understanding of the process as a whole and assist its implementation. The assembly line diagram not only highlighted the interaction between business processes and information objects read and written in the assembly line, but also aided the identification of use cases that support the actors of the system and, consequently, the preparation of the t‐Government application requirements. The activity diagram provided highlights of how the activities that comprise the processes interact among each other and what flow of action is necessary to achieve the goal of the business process.

It is worth mentioning that what is being dealt with here is t‐Government applications accessible via iDTV (a fixed device). It is also understood that such applications are not tied to a specific TV program, since they are treated as resident applications; that is, citizens download them from an STB TV Channel and can interact with them whenever they want, regardless of the program that is being aired at the moment.

The use of unified modeling language (UML) extensions as a technique for knowledge modeling is a domain still little explored in literature. Although UML was originally designed to assist in systems modeling, its application has been extended to business and knowledge modeling.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the main decisions for designing distribution centers (DCs) and the contextual characteristics of the distribution networks.

Experts were surveyed and responses analyzed quantitatively through multivariate data techniques. This study considered four contextual characteristics that were deemed as influential for DC design: types of routes in the distribution network, quantity of DCs, distribution network levels and company size.

This paper evidenced which decisions are affected by each contextual characteristic encompassed in this study. This paper identified that the characteristic types of route in the distribution network must be carefully considered, as it had the greatest amount of associations with the decisions for designing a DC.

Despite its importance, most studies on design of DCs disregard the effect of the context in which DCs are inserted. This research provides arguments to support decision-making process of DCs design, increasing assertiveness of their planning. This work fulfills a literature gap by empirically examining the effect of contextual variables on the decisions related to DC design. Regarding practice, this paper addressed a fundamental issue for managers looking to design a DC, as it evidenced how contextual characteristics impact the decision-making.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting an organization’s dynamic capability and, consequently, its ability to manage organizational change.

A single case study was conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the situation that the case company experienced during a specific phase of reconfiguration. Data were collected through nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Gioia methodology.

Challenges, barriers and enablers affecting the organization's dynamic capability in the reconfiguration phase were identified.

This study contributes to the theory of dynamic capabilities and to the current investigatory stream regarding microfoundations by presenting practical examples of challenges, barriers and enablers that affect an organization’s ability to succeed during an organizational reconfiguration. These examples are intended to aid in discussions on microfoundations of dynamic capabilities and their impact in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to study how Swedish local politicians perceive the impact of public library digital services on public libraries and to discuss how this can affect the sustainable development of public libraries.

Empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with local politicians from 19 different Swedish municipalities. Data were treated to qualitative content analysis and discussed based on the concept of sustainable organization.

According to local politicians, public library digital services may affect public libraries through changes to libraries’ physical spaces, librarians’ tasks and competencies and libraries’ economic situations. Based on these findings, public library digital services can both strengthen and weaken public library sustainability through, for example, increased access and expenditures, the latter of which may threaten public library sustainability.

Interviews did not focus specifically on the politicians’ views on public library digital services but dealt generally with their views on public libraries. To identify reasons for variations in views on this topic, follow-up interviews should be done. Data on views from public library managers would also be of use to determine the degree to which they are shared with local politicians.

When sustainability and public libraries are discussed, the focus is generally on the library’s contribution to a sustainable society. Here, the focus is instead on the sustainability of the public library itself.

This study seeks to comprehend how sociomateriality influences the openness paradox within the context of open strategising.

We adopted a qualitative approach and developed a case study as a research method. The data included 10 semi-structured interviews, direct observation and documentary analysis, including virtual documents, collaborative platforms and communication systems.

We found that sociomateriality influences the transition between openness and closure in open strategy (OS) dimensions, namely inclusion, participation and transparency, once organisational practitioners actively build on social relationships and engage with material elements within this paradoxical context.

The primary limitation was the challenge of managing extensive data, especially tracking all meetings and interactions. Nonetheless, we aimed to provide a comprehensive view and meaningful insights from the data. Future research could employ mixed methods to achieve a more holistic understanding of the phenomenon.

By understanding the role of formalisation and legitimation played by sociomateriality during open strategising, practitioners can navigate the complexities of balancing openness and closure, fostering innovation and engagement while ensuring the legitimacy of strategising. Recognising the coexistence of exclusions in social practices enables society to comprehend this paradox and highlight the need to address it, fostering an inclusive environment and promoting balanced openness in various social contexts.

Our study contributes to the OS literature by highlighting the role of sociomateriality in shaping the openness and closure interplay. Additionally, we emphasise the importance of formalisation and legitimation practices involving materiality in the balance between openness and closure in a context where openness is deemed essential for strategic success.

The purpose of this study is examined whether coproduction appears spontaneously in the literature on public sector innovation and governance, the citizens’ role in coproduction and the implication of citizens’ participation in the governance of innovation networks.

The review complied with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol. The search was performed in the Ebsco, Scopus and WOS databases. The authors analyzed 47 papers published from 2017 to 2022. Thematic and content analysis were adopted, supported by MAXQDA.

The papers recognize the importance of the citizens in public innovation. However, only 20% discuss coproduction, evidencing the predominance of governance concepts related to interorganizational collaborations – but not necessarily to citizen engagement. The authors also verified the existence of polysemy regarding the concept of governance associated with public innovation, predominating the term “collaborative governance.”

The small emphasis on “co-production” may result from the search strategy, which deliberately did not include it as a descriptor, considering the research purpose. One can consider this choice a limitation.

Considering collaborative governance as a governing arrangement where public agencies directly engage nonstate stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented and deliberative (Ansell and Gash, 2007), the forum where the citizen is supposed to be engaged should be initiated by public agencies or institutions and formally organized, as suggested by Österberg and Qvist (2020) and Campomori and Casula (2022). These notions can be useful for public managers concerning their role and how the forums structure should be to promote collaboration and the presence of innovation assets needed to make the process fruitful (Crosby et al., 2017).

Despite the collaborative nature of public innovation, the need for adequate governance characteristics, and the importance of citizens in the innovative process, most studies generically address collaborative relationships, focusing on interorganizational collaboration, with little focus on specific actors such as citizens in the governance of public innovation. Thus, it is assumed that the literature that discusses public innovation and governance includes the discussion of coproduction. The originality and contribution of this study is to verify this assumption.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the effects of a hypocaloric diet with a low-glycaemic index (GI) on weight loss and postprandial blood glucose and assess both the satiety and palatability of the diet.

A clinical trial was conducted with ten women (mean age: 38.8±11.3 years; body mass index: 27.2±3.5 kg/m2) submitted to a hypocaloric diet, assessments were performed at baseline and after seven days of treatment.

Significant reductions were found in body weight (1.1±0.7 kg; p=0.001), triccipital skinfold (2.87±3.24 mm; p=0.021) and waist circumference (3.6±4.8 cm; p=0.041). Mean fasting and postprandial blood glucose values were 88.7±6.1 mg/dL and 91.6±9.6 mg/dL, respectively. Responses regarding satiety and palatability of the low-GI diet were predominantly “extremely satisfied” and “I liked it very much,” respectively, for all meals and throughout all seven days of the study.

The present study demonstrated the benefits of a low-GI diet with regard to weight loss, blood glucose control and satiety. The diet proved to be palatable, which could favor compliance with long-term treatment.

This paper aims to synthesize nanostructured flower-like molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) particles and evaluate their suitability to act as additives for lubricants.

A hydrothermal method without any surfactant successfully produced 250 nm mean diameter Nanostructured flower-like MoS₂ particles. The resulting product was then solvothermally treated with absolute ethanol producing lipophilic powder particles which after being dispersed in two different lubricants were tribologicaly characterized by using a pin-on-disk tribometer geometry with reciprocal movement under immersion.

The influence on the stability and the coefficient of friction of the nano-oils is shown to be strongly dependent on their molecular structure. After 1 h of tribological testing, a ramified polyolester oil with 1 Wt.% of MoS₂ nanoflowers did not show decrease in its average coefficient of friction, while an additive naphthenic oil with the same concentration of nanoparticles showed a decrease of 86 per cent.

In this paper, nanostructured flower-like MoS₂ synthesized by the hydrothermal method was dispersed in lubricating oils to study its stability and tribological properties. To ensure good stability of the nano-oils, the particles were solvothermally treated with absolute ethanol to dehydrate and lipophilize them. A ramified polyolester-based nano-oil with 1 Wt.% of MoS₂ nanoflowers showed no decrease in its steady state coefficient of friction, while a naphthenic-based nano-oil with the same concentration of nanoparticles presented a remarkable 86 per cent reduction.