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Unicorn and STILAS are multiuser client/server systems developed in and for the Unix environment to automate all aspects of information management, from cataloging and authority control to intelligent access of non‐SIRSI databases. In keeping with the client/server concept, SIRSI has introduced a graphical user interface (GUI) to Unicorn and STILAS. The SIRSI system provides a path to information both inside and outside the library. SIRSI provides a standard interface, an “Intelligent Interface” client to diverse database systems and other vendors' library automation systems. SIRSI's Reference Database Managers provide an intelligent connection to locally mounted reference databases. SIRSI's VIZION, a stand‐alone desktop client, provides an automatic graphical user interface to hundreds of online sources of information and services available through the Internet and via modem. Furthermore, SIRSI has recently introduced WebCat, which facilitates mounting and access to the complete catalogs and other services of libraries over the Internet's World Wide Web.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

WE live at the present time under a constant bombardment of exhortation from governments, industrial leaders, trade associations and publicists. They regularly stress the hazards of the competitive world around us. Through all the warnings of this chorus of Cassandras runs a uniform theme. It is that unless we increase productivity the economic future of this country is precarious.

Although the metaverse has been widely adopted in developed countries, there has not been any research investigating the implantation of this highly transformative technology in emerging economies and disadvantaged regions, such as Tunisia. This paper aims to critically explore the factors influencing the adoption of metaverse for cultural heritage experience and discusses how will it disrupt the future of the hospitality industry.

A total of 44 semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Tunisian hospitality industry who provided their expert opinions during in-depth interviews. The interviews were then analysed using thematic analysis.

The findings indicate that the metaverse presents benefits, success factors and challenges for offering cultural heritage experiences in the hospitality industry and that its adoption in poor and less developed countries is nuanced.

The findings of the study help hospitality managers identify opportunities and challenges in metaverse, fostering an understanding of the cultural environment and its socio-economic development as key requirements to enhance visitor experience via metaverse.

Leveraging the metaverse for cultural enrichment can be a powerful tool for the socio-economic development of underprivileged regions, provided that it is implemented inclusively to include underprivileged labour, whose work in the industry lies on the bottom of the economic pyramid.

This paper further explains the impacts of metaverse on cultural heritage experience provided in the hospitality industry rooted in the previous literature relating to technology-enhanced experience.

Describes a study of 104 CEOs in Australia′s top 500 companies. Identifies their reasons for success in times of economic downturn. These reasons and attributes contained both “hard” and “soft” management skills, such as strategic management and interpersonal relationships respectively. Compares major management challenges facing these executives with findings in the USA. These challenges included global competition, personnel matters, and continuous change. Ends with strategies for business success based on the findings, with the emphasis on international competitiveness, workplace rationalizations, and leadership paramount.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of diamond detail and gem fraud status.

The paper discusses diamonds and gem fraud in the context of global terrorism.

It was found that there is evidence of blatant fraud in diamonds around the globe.

The paper adds insight into the trade in diamonds in the context of global terrorism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine women’s reactions to celebrity endorsers holding positive and negative public images and the consequences for purchase intentions of the endorsed product.

The paper draws on the social comparison literature and applies the theory of upward and downward comparisons to the celebrity endorsement context.

Study 1 shows that exposure to celebrities holding a positive public image decrease consumers’ temporal self-esteem, while celebrities holding a negative public image increase temporal self-esteem. Study 2 suggests that this change in self-esteem transfers to the product depending upon the type of social comparison focus (similarity vs dissimilarity) which people have. Study 3 shows that for consumers low in true self-esteem, i.e. self-esteem based upon a stable foundation, celebrities holding a positive public image decrease purchase intentions. For consumers high in true self-esteem, there was no difference between exposure to celebrities holding a positive and a negative public image for purchase intentions. Study 4 focused on replicating the results found in Studies 1-3 in the context of an achievement celebrity (as opposed to a regular celebrity). The findings in Study 4 provide further support for the results of Studies 1 and 3, and identify expert celebrities as a boundary condition for the effects found in Study 2.

The results provide evidence suggesting that celebrities holding a negative public image can be used as celebrity endorsers in product categories in which it can be considered helpful to protect women’s self-esteem, such as beauty products or self-expressive products.

This research contributes to the literature on celebrity endorsement by adding a boundary condition for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. According to the results, choosing a positive celebrity can, for some groups, have negative effects on purchase intensions and that a negative celebrity might be the safer choice.

AUTOMATION is generally a process superimposed on existing plants, not exactly a thing of shreds and patches, but a compromise between the ideal and the practicable. Rarely is it possible to find it as the basic conception in the mind of the industrialist before even the blue prints of a new manufacturing process have been prepared.