Brian Kelly, Paul Bevan, Richard Akerman, Jo Alcock and Josie Fraser
The purpose of this paper is to provide a number of examples of how Web 2.0 technologies and approaches (Library 2.0) are being used within the library sector. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a number of examples of how Web 2.0 technologies and approaches (Library 2.0) are being used within the library sector. The paper acknowledges that there are a variety of risks associated with such approaches. The paper describes the different types of risks and outlines a risk assessment and risk management approach which is being developed to minimise the dangers while allowing the benefits of Library 2.0 to be realised.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper outlines various risks and barriers which have been identified at a series of workshops run by UKOLN (a national centre of expertise in digital information management based in the UK) for the cultural heritage sector. A risk assessment and risk management approach, which was initially developed to support use of Web 2.0 technologies at events organised by UKOLN, is described and its potential for use within the wider library community, in conjunction with related approaches for addressing areas such as accessibility and protection of young people, is described.
Findings
Use of Library 2.0 approaches is becoming embedded across many libraries which seek to exploit the benefits which such technologies can provide. The need to ensure that the associated risks are identified and appropriate mechanisms implemented to minimise such risks is beginning to be appreciated.
Practical implications
The areas described here should be of relevance to many library organisations which are making use of Library 2.0 services.
Originality/value
The paper should prove valuable to policy makers and web practitioners within libraries who may be aware of the potential benefits of Library 2.0 but have not considered the associated risks.
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Lydia Makrides, Gilles R. Dagenais, Arun Chockalingam, Jacques LeLorier, Natalie Kishchuk, Josie Richard, John Stewart, Christine Chin, Karine Alloul and Paula Veinot
The purpose of this paper is to docoment a randomized controlled trial, with follow‐up at three and six months, to determine the impact of a coronary risk factor modification…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to docoment a randomized controlled trial, with follow‐up at three and six months, to determine the impact of a coronary risk factor modification program for employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Intervention participants received a 12‐week health promotion program involving exercise, education seminars, nutritional analysis and smoking cessation counselling. Outcome measures included differences in coronary risk factors of control and intervention participants between baseline and three and six‐month follow‐up visits.
Findings
The participants included 566 individuals employed in the Halifax area, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were between 19 and 66 years old with at least two modifiable coronary risk factors. There were statistically significant differences at three months in coronary risk score improvement, smoking cessation, physical activity level increases, body mass index reductions and serum cholesterol. At six months, improvements remained significant except for cholesterol. Reduction in blood pressure was not significantly different. Intervention participants compared to control participants showed significant differences in both cardiac and stroke risk at three and six‐month visits.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates that employees had a significant coronary disease risk reduction as a result of a relatively short health promotion intervention. Benefits three months post‐intervention were not sustained to the same extent as during the intervention. This underscores the need for long‐term commitment with lifestyle changes and raises the issue of the need for a comprehensive approach that also addresses environmental factors.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the current research base on this topic as there are few well‐designed studies to reduce coronary risk factors for employees.
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Carolin Decker-Lange, Knut Lange and Andreas Walmsley
The purpose of this study is to examine the underexplored link between entrepreneurship education (EE) and graduate employability in the higher education (HE) sector in the United…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the underexplored link between entrepreneurship education (EE) and graduate employability in the higher education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom (UK).
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on a thematic content analysis of semi-structured interviews with 45 professionals in UK HE, representing the “supply” side of EE.
Findings
The findings demonstrate a unidirectional link between EE and employability outcomes. This link is affected by societal, stakeholder-related, and teaching and learning-related factors.
Research limitations/implications
Although the value of universities’ initiatives connecting EE and employability for economic development is emphasized, the study does not provide direct empirical evidence for this effect. Macroeconomic research is needed.
Practical implications
EE and employability would benefit from knowledge exchange between universities’ stakeholders and a broader understanding of what constitutes a valuable graduate outcome.
Social implications
The study reveals the benefits of EE on a micro level. Participation in EE supports the connection between individual investments in HE and employability.
Originality/value
Based on human capital theory, many policymakers regard EE as a vehicle through which the relationship between investments in HE and career success on a micro level and economic growth on a macro level can be nurtured. Challenging this logic, the study highlights the potential of institutional theory to explain a contextualization of the link between EE and employability on a national level.
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Campbell Fraser and Anna Zarkada‐Fraser
A method for the development, validation and refinement of a performance measurement tool for retail store managers in Australia and Singapore is presented. This tool is based on…
Abstract
A method for the development, validation and refinement of a performance measurement tool for retail store managers in Australia and Singapore is presented. This tool is based on a set of performance elements – measurable task‐related activities and behaviours – that, when combined, define the performing manager. While organisations in both countries were found to concur on the 50 performance elements which should constitute the overall measurement tool, the importance attached to several of the elements differed significantly between the two countries. This difference is a significant determinant of the transferability of retail management skills between the two cultures and has wider implications for the internationalisation of the retail environment where management from different cultures are required to co‐exist within a single retail organisation.
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LIBRARIANS do not desire tribute because, in the clenched antagonisms of to‐day, they carry on their normal work, so far as that is possible. Happy are those who have been allowed…
Abstract
LIBRARIANS do not desire tribute because, in the clenched antagonisms of to‐day, they carry on their normal work, so far as that is possible. Happy are those who have been allowed to continue their whole‐time devotion to library service, because there has seldom if ever been so much opportunity for good work. In some areas it must be limited, because the dark hours are hours of perpetual air raids or warnings of them, and our people in the more exposed towns cannot be expected to attend evening lectures, talks or recitals. A certain amount of afternoon work is possible, if there is adequate shelter in or adjacent to libraries. The confinement to their homes of our readers affords opportunities to persuade them to read, if persuasion is necessary. First we can instil into folk the desirability of always carrying a book, so that when they are caught by a warning they have something with which to wile away the time in the shelter. Then, there appears a chance of drawing attention to the books which we ought to have read but have not, and our readers may be urged to make black‐out hours profitable by special Studies. Few recent publications are better designed for this than the twenty‐one “Suggestions” which have just come from Leeds. Each consists of a four‐page leaflet, three pages bearing carefully selected and annotated titles, and they are on the subjects that matter—Modern Poetry, Voyages, Modern Thought, Without Passport (travel in Continental Europe), Humour, Amateur Drama, Popular Science, Kitchen Ranging, and so on—the range is great; and we believe these are worthy of national circulation. Reverting to lectures, Bristol has arranged its usual excellent programmes for adults and children respectively.
Some libraries and information services are quite definitely user‐centred; some think they are but are not always; some seem to be designed for librarians rather than users. The…
Abstract
Some libraries and information services are quite definitely user‐centred; some think they are but are not always; some seem to be designed for librarians rather than users. The purpose of this monograph is to encourage the development of libraries to meet the perceived needs of users — I hope it will be found useful by librarians and information workers as well as by students.
Linda Charmaraman, Catherine Grevet Delcourt, Sidrah Durrani, Jyontika Kapoor, Amanda M. Richer and Le Fan Xiao
This study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of legitimate peripheral participation to “onboard” newcomers.
Design/methodology/approach
Through surveys with 968 early adolescents (average age was 13), the authors quantitatively explored sources and types of guidance for young social media users, popularity of conversation themes related to this guidance and how these conversations are associated with positive social media engagement. The authors qualitatively documented a case study of how a summer workshop of 17 students promotes positive social media use through a community of practice.
Findings
Although early adolescent girls reported that they more frequently talked to their parents about a wider range of social media topics, same-age peers and younger family members (e.g., siblings, cousins) were also frequent sources. Surprisingly, the authors also found that the source most strongly associated with positive social media use was the peer group. This case study of an intentional community of practice demonstrated how peers go from “peripheral” to “centered” in socializing each other for more positive social media use.
Originality/value
Unlike most prior scholarship on mediating social technology use, this study focuses on a critical developmental period (e.g. early adolescents), sources of guidance other than exclusively parents, explore the specific conversation topics that offer guidance and document an informal community of practice for girls that provides the training ground for peers and adult facilitators to codesign more positive social media spaces.
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Purpose – Using a framework of intersectionality, this chapter makes visible the realities of women of color who try to form relationships through the use of personal…
Abstract
Purpose – Using a framework of intersectionality, this chapter makes visible the realities of women of color who try to form relationships through the use of personal advertising.Methodological/approach – A discursive analysis of race and social class in personal ads using Phrase Tokens, and in-depth interviews with 14 women of color who participated in various forms of personal advertising, present the synergism of race and racism, sex and sexism, and sexuality and heteronormativity, and how these systems continue to pervade interpersonal relations.Finding – Patterns found in both texts and narratives illustrate how establishing relationships among women who are members of heterogeneous collectivities continues to be located in systems of inequality. These data also illustrate how ad placers are unique individuals whose markers of race, class, gender, and sex identity, produce commonalities, yet how their narratives reflect diverse goals, experiences, and responses to those experiences. Women of color convey how personal advertising remains rooted in modern society where people choose their individual affiliations and continue to be defined by their group affiliations.Originality/value of chapter – Though the structural factors and social processes involved in personal advertising are relevant to the formation of interpersonal and social relationships, the phenomenon of personal advertising as a form of courtship has received relatively little attention by sociologists. In rethinking the intersections of race, gender, and social class in personal advertising this chapter includes participants’ voices to more fully understand the motivations for personal advertising, how women ‘do’ identity, and how they experience personal advertising.