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This paper aims to propose a framework for examining and understanding corporate commitment amongst teleworking employees that deconstructs and expands upon approaches to date. It seeks to propose a perspective from which apparent tensions highlighted in existing studies can be understood and explored, and to suggest new relationships and combinations of conditions that impact on the communication practices and assumptions of both managers and employees.

The approach to data collection and analysis is qualitative and interpretive, with primary data obtained by means of semi‐structured interviews subsequently analysed using both open and focussed coding. This method was selected because the dimensions and implications of communication practices in this particular context were largely unknown.

This study illustrates the significance of distinguishing between the needs that underpin employees' choosing to continue the relationship and their readiness to act in the organisation's interests. It also demonstrates that categorising the nature of the organisational relationship by identifying employees' mental relationship models may be, if not more useful than identifying types of commitment, at least additionally useful in understanding how organisational commitment in remote workforces is constructed and perpetuated.

This study and the framework it proposes for understanding commitment adds to existing research into remote workforce commitment in that it suggests new ways in which to conceptualise and examine what studies to date have identified as its constituent elements and antecedents. In particular, it facilitates debate and discussion regarding the ways the range of influences on behaviours identified as “committed” interrelate, as well as regarding the way employees' disposition may alter the perceived meaning of such behaviours.

Identifies and analyses the unique communication challenges arising from the employment of mobile service engineers, in whose supervision and work conditions, it is argued, are combined the disadvantages of both remote and face‐to‐face communication management contexts, without the advantages of either. The paper therefore begins by examining closely the communication dynamics that distinguish this “dispersed” work situation from others and make it particularly challenging, and then suggests a model for diagnosing what organisations might do to overcome these challenges.

To investigate and explain the extent to which communication systems and practices may enhance or undermine organisational commitment in field service engineers. To identify communication principles underpinning both successful (intentional and unintentional) and counter‐productive strategies for engaging commitment in remote technical workforces.

The approach of the study is critical interpretive. Data were obtained from two UK service companies, in the form of interviews and observation (primary sources), and organisational texts and publications (secondary sources).

The findings illustrate management strategies and practices through which remote technical workers form a sense of organisational attachment, and the communication principles underpinning them. In doing so, they suggest that availability of digital technology and frequency of electronic communication are not necessarily key to developing and maintaining a sense of organisational attachment in workforces of this kind.

As an interpretive study, the findings relate to the way the identified communication systems are perceived and interpreted. This could usefully be supplemented by quantitative analysis of actual systems use.

This paper firstly expands what may be understood as effective use of communication systems in remote work contexts, and secondly poses new questions regarding the relationships between types of employee commitment and the role of communication technology as a means of fostering and perpetuating them. It also emphasises the value of distinguishing between types of teleworkers when researching the complex needs and practices of this diverse work form. This paper also provides insight for practitioners the forms of organisational commitment encouraged or undermined by remote communication systems.

The purpose of this study is to determine the students’ perceptions of librarians as teachers of information literacy at the North-West University in South Africa.

The study used a survey research method in which online questionnaires were used to gather data from students who would have attended information literacy classes.

Students found librarians to be effective teachers of information literacy, and they found the subject to be very useful. However, some of the surveyed students felt that a lot of the subject was presented in a short period, which could easily result in exhaustion and information overload. The use of local or vernacular languages was also indicated as an area requiring the librarians’ attention for the teachers to be more effective.

The results of this study support the assessment of librarians as teachers by students to assist them (librarians) to refine their teaching methods and to make the conduct of information literacy worthwhile for the students.

The outcomes of this study may be used to advocate for more information literacy (IL) contact time with the students by librarians when negotiating with faculty. Further, these results may be used to showcase the value placed by students to IL.

This study is a welcome addition to the scant literature on the quality of teaching delivered by the librarians and the assessment mechanisms used to provide feedback on students’ learning of IL. This study is a first of its kind comparing the perceptions of librarians’ teaching abilities by postgraduate and undergraduate students.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which first-year writing course guides contain instructional content and whether the ACRL Framework for information literacy has been addressed in these guides.

First-year writing course guides were identified from American Research Libraries websites and examined for instructional elements. These elements were categorized using a rubric that mapped the Framework to instructional content. Qualtrics was used to organize and analyze the data.

Most first-year writing course guides include instructional content, but less than half incorporate the Framework in some way. Guides that do incorporate the Framework focus on “searching as strategic exploration” and “research as inquiry”.

This paper provides librarians with practical information on first-year writing guides and includes examples of how the Framework might be addressed.

This study contributes to the literature on research guide content and is the first to invent first-year writing course guides.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the communication applications (apps) that can be used with devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone to support augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

A brief discussion of the research into the use of high‐technology communication aids is followed by an introduction to the iPad, iPod and iPhone AAC apps.

These devices and apps clearly have a role within the spectrum of AAC devices currently available. They may have some distinct advantages in cost, ease of use and acceptability but more research into their use is needed.

This article starts with a model of communicative competence and presents some recent research into barriers in the use of high‐technology AAC. It suggests some ways in which AAC apps may address some of the barriers to implementation and functional use. Finally, the need for individual assessment to determine specific communication needs is stressed. These devices and apps may not always be the best solution for people with complex communication needs.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.