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The purpose of this paper is to study model(s) of acquiring e‐books to support: effective support of learning and teaching; and efficient use of collection budget.

The research was based on: five years of usage data from two e‐book packages: Net Library and Safari; two methods of acquisition: NetLibrary was a one‐time purchase; Safari was purchased on a subscription; usage difference or lack of difference over time between packages; and controlled for content subjects in both packages.

The research found that: Safari (with updates) showed increased usage over time; NetLibrary (without updates) showed generally declining usage over time; and controlling NetLibrary subject content showed that usage in the science and technology area declined noticeably over the years; while education, history, social sciences, literature and language usage decline was steady.

Title counts in both packages were similar; however, after isolating for matching subject areas the numbers of titles in NetLibrary were small. Therefore, one or two titles in a small population may have skewed the pattern, making the results less accurate.

Understanding whether and in which subject areas students and faculty use e‐books means effective selection decision and good use of shrinking budgets.

Usage data over five years provided evidence on which to base subscription/purchase decisions to effectively support learning and teaching and use collection funds wisely. Analyzing the usage figures will inform selection of e‐books to support learning and teaching.

This paper seeks to report a data‐driven assessment of student and faculty use of electronic scholarly resources pre‐ and post‐implementation of an open‐URL link resolver.

Usage data were extracted from two multidisciplinary scholarly aggregators pre‐ and post‐implementation of an open‐URL link resolver. Open‐URL link resolver usage data for both aggregators were also collected and two timelines established. Statistical analysis was performed to assess direct and indirect impact.

Study results show that the implementation of an open‐URL link resolver has directly contributed to usage increase in the short and long periods under study. Usage patterns also indicate the technology has indirect impact.

Limitations include one‐semester limits of short‐term data. Non‐standardized data could be compared only within each aggregator.

Research outcomes provide a tool for the assessment of student/faculty use of electronic scholarly resources and Collections and Catalog librarian participation in teaching and learning. Usage data are increasingly available to librarians, so work based on research findings can be assessed.

This paper reports student/faculty usage data of searching activities, not their perceptions of electronic resources. Usage data demonstrate that librarians who select and provide access to electronic resources positively affect teaching and learning.

In a paper presented to the U.C.E.A. Conference on Thought and Research in Educational Administration held in honour of Professor Dan Griffiths, Professor Donald Willower drew the participants' attention to the existence of evidence of a special brand of humour in educational administration subcultures. Willower categorised this humour as the “war story” variety, and suggested such humour may turn what could be considered a personal attack on the administration into a less threatening, amusing incident and, when expressed in meetings with the members of the subculture, seemed to evoke shared ordeals, common meanings and social support. Wood, in studying coping mechanism in a British high school, concluded that humour and laughter played a major role in coping strategies of teachers and students alike. The positions raised by these authors prompted certain questions regarding humour and its importance to school communities and became the stimulus for the study reported here into the relationship of humour to the role of the school principal, and the implications of such a relationship for research in education. This article outlines the rationale for studying the humour of principals, the methodology of the study, its findings and conclusions.