Wilfred Ashworth, John Byon, Frank M Gardner, Tony Preston and Steve Kirby
AFTER 17 years continuous service as a LA Council member it seemed strange to me to attend the first council meeting of 1979 as NLW'S reporter.
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This review allows librarians to compare three of the major discovery services – EBSCO Discovery Service, Ex Libris’ Primo and Serials Solutions’ Summon – on the basis of price…
Abstract
Purpose
This review allows librarians to compare three of the major discovery services – EBSCO Discovery Service, Ex Libris’ Primo and Serials Solutions’ Summon – on the basis of price, content, user experience, features and functionality and back-end configuration to make informed decisions about the best tool for their institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The comparisons were made through a literature review, study of the vendors’ websites, several interviews and personal usability testing of each tool.
Findings
The tools each have their strengths and weaknesses, and a decision of which tool is most appropriate for an institution varies depending on the institution’s needs and current situation.
Originality/value
A literature review shows that no study has yet been conducted comparing these three discovery tools, and few comparative studies of discovery tools have been published recently.
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This study sought to explore the understanding and experiences of hazing of seven Black men, 18–25 years of age, who attended all-boys ex-Model C schools in South Africa to…
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This study sought to explore the understanding and experiences of hazing of seven Black men, 18–25 years of age, who attended all-boys ex-Model C schools in South Africa to describe what it might reveal about masculinities and cultural heteronormativity. This study aims to understand the institutional culture of boys' high schools including sport and the factors that inform, produce and reproduce heteronormative culture. This study used a retrospective ethnographic method of inquiry to explore participants' memories of their experiences and perceptions about the initiation/hazing they were subjected to during their school years. As points of entry into the extensive and broad theoretical discussions, I discuss hazing in sports, institutional culture and heteronormative ideals that have shaped the narratives around hazing in boys' schools, as well as the racial issues that exist within these structures. This illustrates how the issue of hazing is a systematic one that relies heavily on the reproduction of a system based on values and ideals that continue to be perpetuated and are reflected here.
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The United States government is the world's largest publisher. Its presses churn out thousands of items annually, covering every conceivable subject. Even though most of the items…
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The United States government is the world's largest publisher. Its presses churn out thousands of items annually, covering every conceivable subject. Even though most of the items deal with present day concerns, the United States government is responsible for the publication of a large number of histories. Unfortunately, these works, with the possible exception of the Department of Defense's Military History Series, have received little exposure and limited use. In an effort to bring this valuable resource to light, the following bibliography presents annotated citations to nearly 150 histories published from mid‐1977 through mid‐1979.
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Mitchell Langbert, Michael Stanchina and Donal Grunewald
This case study aims to illustrate the interaction of organizational culture, human resource (HR) policy and firm performance. It contrasts the cultures of two science‐driven…
Abstract
Purpose
This case study aims to illustrate the interaction of organizational culture, human resource (HR) policy and firm performance. It contrasts the cultures of two science‐driven organizations – the Navy's nuclear submarine force and Merck, the large pharmaceutical firm – and traces the reaction of one individual to two organizations – the United States nuclear navy and Merck & Co., a large pharmaceutical firm.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a case study based on field interviews and secondary sources.
Findings
The task‐oriented culture of the submarine fleet is compared to Merck's relations and team‐oriented corporate environment. Management skills such as flexibility, power and influence, interpersonal communication, self‐awareness and goal setting can influence career outcomes. Managerial skills are important in all settings, but a given style's efficacy is contingent upon organizational context. Adaptability is important, as is personal mission. Thus, the case examines how organizational culture, HR policies and leadership interact with an individual's career outcomes and organizational performance as well.
Research limitations/implications
Because this is a case study it is not generalizable. However, the issues depicted in the case have been recognized in the managerial skills literature. The case study serves to illustrate and deepen managerial skills concepts.
Practical implications
This case study has illustrative value as well as hypothesis and theory‐building value, but is not generalizable.
Originality/value
There is relatively little research on the specifics of how to apply managerial skills in a corporate setting. Hence, the case covers important, sensitive material of practical and theoretical value.
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This chapter summarizes both volumes of A Socio-legal History of the Laws of War. It reexamines the key themes and how they are interconnected. It closes with a consideration of…
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This chapter summarizes both volumes of A Socio-legal History of the Laws of War. It reexamines the key themes and how they are interconnected. It closes with a consideration of the value of international law, especially the laws of war, and what may lie ahead.
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Designing learning environments is increasingly about mediating between the interactions in real and virtual space of largely self-organising learning communities. Traditional…
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Designing learning environments is increasingly about mediating between the interactions in real and virtual space of largely self-organising learning communities. Traditional ways of briefing designers are less and less proficient, as the demands made on space become less timetabled, more probabilistic. ‘learning landscapes’1 are proposed in which clusters of activity can be seen to be taking place across a field, that activity can be browsed, audited and fully engaged with. Such organic flows of interest and concentration are hindered by traditional demarcated space models, and attempts to enable the flows through ‘flexible’ interlinking of rooms fail.
There is evidence2 that the organic interactions between learners grow exponentially when these learners are connected together as virtual communities in open, robust virtual platforms. But this works best when these interactions are grounded from time to time in real places. How can designers best provide spaces that support learning in real and virtual space? Should design teams be composed of people with skills in devising real and virtual space?
Increasingly the answer is ‘yes’, and this places strains on procurement processes. Built form can take a long time to deliver. So can virtual platforms take time to devise and make operable. Can these processes be aligned? The concepts for RMIT’s Design Hub, a physical design research platform, were developed through research conducted twelve years before the building was completed. Many of the gap years were taken up with establishing the financial basis for constructing the Hub. During this time the concepts were validated by testing with various potential user groups, and a further tranche of international investigations validated the level of innovation being sought. The process for RMIT’s Swanston Academic Building (SAB) was smoother and shorter, but it involved a year in which a ‘learning landscape’ concept was moulded through intensive work with user client focus groups.
Neither of these projects has a virtual doppelganger, though both have sophisticated and evolvable IT systems. The Hub embeds a process of curating research interaction and dissemination that is hampered by this fact. The mediated learning landscape of the SAB falls short of the originating concepts, – because space constraints did not allow for an undivided, flowing landscape. A well designed virtual counterpart could have provided what the insertion of walls has obscured. Should all future innovative learning and researching environments have a virtual counterpart from the outset?
There is an emerging trend for such paired environments in creative city thinking and in museums. Surely briefing and procuring real and virtual environments in tandem will enliven future space use in universities?