Details a Library Association one‐day workshop aimed to raise amonglibrarians and to encourage senior managers of and information servicesto devise appropriate strategies coping…
Abstract
Details a Library Association one‐day workshop aimed to raise among librarians and to encourage senior managers of and information services to devise appropriate strategies coping with the process of demographic change on the Library Service (LIS) workforce. Covers issues for the LIS including gender, graduates and returners to work and on solutions proposed. Concludes that it will become that library schools reduce their drop‐out rates after if employers are to fill the posts which become available.
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This article discusses the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) as a metadata framework within applications that are primarily concerned with the provision of access to…
Abstract
This article discusses the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) as a metadata framework within applications that are primarily concerned with the provision of access to digital forms of archive documents. These digital forms are transcripts encoded using the Text‐Encoding Initiative (TEI) and images. The article argues that EAD, as it currently stands, is focused on the provision of metadata for original archive documents rather than for digital forms of originals, and it explores where metadata about originals and their digital forms converge and diverge. It suggests how the EAD framework can be expanded to allow for the capture of adequate metadata about both types of document and asserts that such expansion enables EAD to act as a more complete and comprehensive metadata framework in online environments. This approach to digitisation relies on the flexibility of XML technology. The article is based on the research undertaken within the LEADERS project (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/leaders‐project/).
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From Boolean operators to virtual reality…..
Dina H. Bassiouni and Chris Hackley
This paper aims to investigate children’s experience as consumers of video games and associated digital communication technology, and the role this experience may play in their…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate children’s experience as consumers of video games and associated digital communication technology, and the role this experience may play in their evolving senses of identity.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative depth interviews and discussions were conducted in a convenience sample consisting of 22 children of both genders aged 6-12 years, parents and video games company executives in the southwest of the UK. The fully transcribed data sets amounting to some 27,000 words were analysed using discourse analysis.
Findings
The findings revealed the heightened importance that the knowledge of video games plays in children’s strategies for negotiating their nascent sense of identity with regard to peer groups, family relationships and gender identity. Video games were not only a leisure activity but also a shared cultural resource that mediated personal and family relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on an interpretive analysis of data sets from a small convenience sample, and is therefore not statistically generalisable.
Practical implications
This study has suggested that there may be positive benefits to children’s video game playing related to aspects of socialisation, emotional development and economic decision-making. An important caveat is that these benefits arise in the context of games as part of a loving and ordered family life with a balance of activities.
Social implications
The study hints at the extent to which access to video games and associated digital communications technology has changed children’s experience of childhood and integrated them into the adult world in both positive and negative ways that were not available to previous generations.
Originality/value
This research addresses a gap in the field and adds to an understanding of the impact of video games on children’s development by drawing on children’s own expression of their subjective experience of games to engage with wider issues of relationships and self-identity.
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A series of six workshops was held to compare eddy current codes, using the six benchmark problems described in the following six papers. The problems include transient and…
Abstract
A series of six workshops was held to compare eddy current codes, using the six benchmark problems described in the following six papers. The problems include transient and steady‐state ac magnetic fields, close and far boundary conditions, magnetic and non‐magnetic materials. All the problems are based either on experiments or on geometries that can be solved analytically. The workshops and solutions to the problems are described. Results show that many different methods and formulations give satisfactory solutions, and that in many cases reduced dimensionality or coarse discretization can give acceptable results while reducing the computer time required.
Chris J. Turner, Ashutosh Tiwari, Richard Olaiya and Yuchun Xu
The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison of a number of business process mining tools currently available in the UK market. An outline of the practice of business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison of a number of business process mining tools currently available in the UK market. An outline of the practice of business process mining is given, along with an analysis of the main techniques developed by academia and commercial entities. This paper also acts as a primer for the acceptance and further use of process mining in industry, suggesting future directions for this practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Secondary research has been completed to establish the main commercial business process mining tool vendors for the market. A literature survey has also been undertaken into the latest theoretical techniques being developed in the field of business process mining.
Findings
The authors have identified a number of existing commercially available business process mining tools and have listed their capabilities within a comparative analysis table. All commercially available business process mining tools included in this paper are capable of process comparison and at least 40 per cent of the tools claim to deal with noise in process data.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is to provide a state‐of‐the‐art review of a number of commercial business process mining tools available within the UK. This paper also presents a summary of the latest research being undertaken in academia in this subject area and future directions for the practice of business process mining.
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Ashutosh Tiwari, Kieron Younis, Chris Turner, Peter Sackett and Miguel Cebrian Bautista
The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology for rapidly and reliably capturing, representing and analysing process systems to facilitate the potential for operations…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology for rapidly and reliably capturing, representing and analysing process systems to facilitate the potential for operations performance improvement within a complex product design and manufacturing facility operating in a high‐performance business environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper demonstrates the proposed methodology within an electro‐mechanical design and manufacturing environment producing complex non‐standard products for a global market. The technique has national and international application for a wide spectrum of design and manufacturing facilities.
Findings
The authors also demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in capturing, representing and analysing processes to assess the feasibility of and identify the issues involved in realising further performance improvements in an existing complex product, high variety, design and manufacturing facility.
Practical implications
Through the enhanced level of understanding of business processes and knowledge intensive operations, the design and manufacturing facilities managers can now realise the next level of performance enhancement by fully exploiting the potential of performance improvement initiatives. Since the proposed methodology creates an environment in which risks inherent in new techniques are controlled, the facilities managers can also gain competitive advantage by becoming the early adopters of radical performance enhancement approaches.
Originality/value
Most major and many smaller manufacturing companies have adopted the popular performance improvement initiatives. These companies are now striving to achieve the next level of performance enhancement at the system or enterprise level and require a better understanding of their business processes and knowledge intensive operations. This understanding needs to be achieved rapidly, cost effectively and in a readily communicable and quantifiable form to allow analysis and ongoing re‐analysis within the volatile industrial environment. The proposed methodology achieves this through the identification, communication, understanding and analysis of the internal and external interactions and dependencies of the facility.
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Ashutosh Tiwari, Chris Turner and Peter Sackett
The techniques that help organisations implement leading edge cost and quality practices in manufacturing operations management are typically disparate and generic in nature…
Abstract
Purpose
The techniques that help organisations implement leading edge cost and quality practices in manufacturing operations management are typically disparate and generic in nature. There is a need to identify integrated practices at the right level of granularity, based on a clear definition of the existing operations practices. This paper proposes a novel framework for achieving and maintaining good cost and quality operations management practice within a manufacturing environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework uses a new approach for identifying the profile of current activities and better practice activities for the roles of team leaders, cell leaders and operations managers within a manufacturing company.
Findings
The paper proposes a recommended set of context‐specific activities for these roles. These recommended activities are utilised to develop a cascade of deployable recommendations.
Originality/value
The framework is illustrated within a manufacturing environment producing complex product ranges. The implementation of the framework enables improved operational efficiency and effectiveness. It also enables the benefits of improved operational standardisation and consistency.
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Tony Gordon and Malcolm Warwick
The seminar was attended by 19 delegates from wide‐ranging industrial and academic backgrounds and whose needs for automation prompted many diverse and probing questions.