Charlene N. Simser, Marcia G. Stockham and Elizabeth Turtle
This paper aims to present a case study of the Kansas State University Libraries open access publishing endeavor, New Prairie Press (NPP). The library as publisher is a growing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a case study of the Kansas State University Libraries open access publishing endeavor, New Prairie Press (NPP). The library as publisher is a growing worldwide movement. Many academic and research libraries see it as their strategic mission to highlight and disseminate the research and creative work being done by faculty and students at their institutions. Topics covered include current activities, business plan development, needed technology and skill sets and migration from an open source platform to a hosted solution.
Design/methodology/approach
The article presents a case study of one library’s experience of establishing a publishing press – libraries as publishers.
Findings
This article finds that during the years of operation, NPP staff members have learned much about the role that libraries can play in the evolving scholarly communications landscape.
Originality/value
This article finds that the continual assessment of value, alignment with strategic goals and funding will be critical to ensure future growth and direction of the press.
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Martin P. Courtois and Elizabeth C. Turtle
This paper aims to explore the benefits of using faculty focus groups as an early component of a scholarly communications program with suggestions for planning and conducting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the benefits of using faculty focus groups as an early component of a scholarly communications program with suggestions for planning and conducting sessions, recruiting participants and analyzing outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the authors' use of focus groups in the initial stages of organizing a scholarly communications program at Kansas State University.
Findings
The paper finds that focus groups are an effective method to begin identifying scholarly communication issues that resonate with faculty on a particular campus. Focus groups can be helpful in targeting efforts to begin a scholarly communications program.
Practical implications
Focus groups are effective in generating insights, opinions and attitudes and are low cost in terms of time and resource commitments.
Originality/value
There is very little in the literature about using faculty focus groups to start a campus scholarly communication program. This paper provides practical and useful information that other libraries can use to incorporate this method into their planning.
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Presents, at some length, the story of the writer’s father, sharing the history and experiences of a generation who prospered in the Chinese laundry industry. Chronicles the…
Abstract
Presents, at some length, the story of the writer’s father, sharing the history and experiences of a generation who prospered in the Chinese laundry industry. Chronicles the introduction of the wholesale shirt laundry, presenting new innovations and ideas and branching out into new regulated businesses in other fields, showing how emerging problems were tackled and overcome. Cites that most of the information is from memory, observation, letters and manuals. Considers the development and changes in the industry from 1930 to 1970, looking also at the accompanying changes in standards of living.
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Boris Urban and Jabu Maphalala
The learning outcomes are that at the end of the case discussion, the students should be able to evaluate the drivers of social innovation in an African context; discuss social…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes are that at the end of the case discussion, the students should be able to evaluate the drivers of social innovation in an African context; discuss social entrepreneurship as a process-driven set of activities; assess the organisation–environment–opportunity fit when innovating; analyse and resolve practical issues in developing simple and affordable social innovations; appreciate how social enterprises are mission-based businesses rather than charities; and evaluate how an organisation may achieve social objectives and remain sustainable.
Case overview/synopsis
SolarTurtle is an award-winning South African social enterprise that manufactures and supplies secure, mobile, solar power stations and kiosks to communities where the electricity grid does not reach. The company converts shipping containers into housings for solar panels to protect them from theft and extreme weather conditions. These units are called “PowerTurtles”. Through the franchise model, the company supplies PowerTurtles to off-grid institutions in rural areas. PowerTurtles are also sold to private sector enterprises and are scalable to suit the energy needs of customers. With the successful launch of the AutoTurtle in 2018 (which folds away the solar panels automatically, where the PowerTurtle requires them to be folded away manually), the company started to develop a new lightweight, fibreglass, solar kiosk with roof-mounted solar panels called the MiniTurtle, and a mobile trolley version known as the BabyTurtle. Now, in 2018, Van der Walt hopes to develop the business to the point where it can sustain itself.
Complexity academic level
Post-graduate students of entrepreneurship, public governance and social welfare.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available upon request for educators only. These teaching notes should be shared solely with the instructor and students should not have access to. Please contact your library to gain login or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.
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Frederick O'Dell and Hugh Preston
The purpose of this study is to investigate reasons for non‐use of a UK hospital library service and under‐utilisation by some groups of staff. The context is the increasing role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate reasons for non‐use of a UK hospital library service and under‐utilisation by some groups of staff. The context is the increasing role of evidence‐based clinical and non‐clinical activity in the health sector and requirements for professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sample survey of staff groups in an acute services, teaching and district general hospital (DGH) is carried out. Three core themes for non‐use of hospital libraries are identified from the literature and the survey findings are evaluated in accordance with those themes using quantitative and qualitative evidence.
Findings
The evaluation demonstrates that the three selected themes of ignorance of service, not having a need and perceived bar on access are based on shortcomings in library promotion and hospital staff members' assumptions about access and benefits.
Research limitations/implications
Selection of specific non‐use factors within a larger list from previous studies enables a focus on issues that have previously been less fully investigated. The limited scale of the research indicates the value of a further larger scale survey.
Practical implications
The findings could help health sector libraries to improve service delivery and increase the number of library users.
Originality/value
The selected themes have only been previously investigated in broader studies and not in the specific detail of the current study. The study focuses on perception of service benefit as well as practical issues of access and so can be of value to hospital library managers in their aim of achieving or endorsing a role within the core hospital ethos.
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On the basis of data from a project that examined the school experiences of children who were seen to have readiness risks, this chapter examines the child in the child-centered…
Abstract
On the basis of data from a project that examined the school experiences of children who were seen to have readiness risks, this chapter examines the child in the child-centered classroom and how this child shaped by our notions of development. Across the classrooms observed, the teachers seemed to teach to a kindergarten prototype, a generic child who had the social, physical, and academic maturity and did not have much pedagogical support. The data are then read through three conceptualizations of development (postmodern deconstruction, developmental realism, and cultural developmentalism). I argue that I use these conceptualizations almost simultaneously in my work and that a hybrid reading highlights the invisibility of individual children in child-centered classrooms.
Once a taboo subject, death and dying has been considered not only a possible but a healthy topic of discussion since the pioneering work of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler‐Ross with dying…
Abstract
Once a taboo subject, death and dying has been considered not only a possible but a healthy topic of discussion since the pioneering work of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler‐Ross with dying patients in Chicago beginning in 1965. Since then, the widely publicized court case of the comatose young Karen Ann Quinlan, the growth of the hospice movement, and the rise of groups asserting a person's right to choose the moment and manner of death rather than undergo the prolonged suffering of terminal illness have fueled public interest. Media attention reflects this increasing public awareness—the popular 60 Minutes televised interviews with both hospice people and supporters of the right‐to‐die; a “Dear Abby” newspaper column drew over 40,000 requests to the Society for the Right to Die for information on living wills.
That ice‐creams prepared with dirty materials and under dirty conditions will themselves be dirty is a proposition which, to the merely ordinary mind, appears to be sufficiently…
Abstract
That ice‐creams prepared with dirty materials and under dirty conditions will themselves be dirty is a proposition which, to the merely ordinary mind, appears to be sufficiently obvious without the institution of a series of elaborate and highly “scientific” experiments to attempt to prove it. But, to the mind of the bacteriological medicine‐man, it is by microbic culture alone that anything that is dirty can be scientifically proved to be so. Not long ago, it having been observed that the itinerant vendor of ice‐creams was in the habit of rinsing his glasses, and, some say, of washing himself—although this is doubtful—in a pail of water attached to his barrow, samples of the liquor contained by such pails were duly obtained, and were solemnly submitted to a well‐known bacteriologist for bacteriological examination. After the interval necessary for the carrying out of the bacterial rites required, the eminent expert's report was published, and it may be admitted that after a cautious study of the same the conclusion seems justifiable that the pail waters were dirty, although it may well be doubted that an allegation to this effect, based on the report, would have stood the test of cross‐examination. It is true that our old and valued friend the Bacillus coli communis was reported as present, but his reputation as an awful example and as a producer of evil has been so much damaged that no one but a dangerous bacteriologist would think of hanging a dog—or even an ice‐cream vendor—on the evidence afforded by his presence. A further illustration of bacteriological trop de zèle is afforded by the recent prosecutions of some vendors of ice‐cream, whose commodities were reported to contain “millions of microbes,” including, of course, the in‐evitable and ubiquitous Bacillus coli very “communis.” To institute a prosecution under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act upon the evidence yielded by a bacteriological examination of ice‐cream is a proceeding which is foredoomed, and rightly foredoomed, to failure. The only conceivable ground upon which such a prosecution could be undertaken is the allegation that the “millions of microbes ” make the ice‐cream injurious to health. Inas‐much as not one of these millions can be proved beyond the possibility of doubt to be injurious, in the present state of knowledge; and as millions of microbes exist in everything everywhere, the breakdown of such a case must be a foregone conclusion. Moreover, a glance at the Act will show that, under existing circumstances at any rate, samples cannot be submitted to public analysts for bacteriological examination—with which, in fact, the Act has nothing to do—even if such examinations yielded results upon which it would be possible to found action. In order to prevent the sale of foul and unwholesome or actual disease‐creating ice‐cream, the proper course is to control the premises where such articles are prepared; while, at the same time, the sale of such materials should also be checked by the methods employed under the Public Health Act in dealing with decomposed and polluted articles of food. In this, no doubt, the aid of the public analyst may sometimes be sought as one of the scientific advisers of the authority taking action, but not officially in his capacity as public analyst under the Adulteration Act. And in those cases in which such advice is sought it may be hoped that it will be based, as indeed it can be based, upon something more practical, tangible and certain than the nebulous results of a bacteriological test.