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SUPPORTING PEOPLE HAS GIVEN a new urgency to discussions of needs analysis, strategic planning and the user voice. This article explores a two‐year research project developed by Manchester City Council, Manchester Methodists Housing Association and the Housing Corporation, which aimed to design a model for identifying supported housing needs, based on a collaborative, interdepartmental approach to needs assessment.

The purpose of this action research study was to explore whether enabling work-based students to identify their information literacy (IL) needs and participate in activity design would increase their IL and enhance their academic performance.

Initially students reflected on their own knowledge, skills and engagement with IL. Next, they identified aspects of IL that challenged them. Students worked in small groups to identify tasks and activities to enhance their skills. They completed practical IL tasks during a taught session. A scoring rubric assessed student engagement with IL. Concurrently a qualitative questionnaire was developed and used to explore the student experience of the intervention.

The study found that students did engage with information literacy and there was an improvement in the pass rate from previous cohorts. The qualitative analysis demonstrated that students felt that the interaction had benefitted their engagement with IL and their learning and understanding as a result.

This study was a small study at one higher education institution and cannot therefore be considered generalizable. It does nevertheless provide valuable insights in terms of student engagement with IL.

This study influenced the delivery of the subsequent modules. It has the potential to influence the delivery of information literacy skills on health and social care apprenticeships.

This paper adds to the literature exploring the relationship between students and information literacy. Enhancing the discourse from the instructor perspective rather than that of the information professional.

What access did readers have to fiction in Britain during the Romantic period? To what extent might the fiction market have been segmented into readers who borrowed their novels from libraries ‐ sometimes stealing or failing to return them ‐ and those who bought them new or second‐hand at bookshops? Many circulating‐library proprietors would also serve the novel‐reading population in their capacity as professional booksellers. As librarians, they would promote the value‐for‐money aspect of renting fiction to readers of limited means; as booksellers, they enabled readers to purchase their particular favourites among their bookstocks as well. Purchasing a book, though, did not equate with genuinely wishing and intending to read it. Failing to return a circulating‐library novel, or stealing one, may have been a stronger indication that a title was indeed being selected to be read ‐ and then being retained to be re‐read.

This paper examines the phenomenon of mixing public floors within private development, shedding light on underlying rationales, the acceptability of integrating different uses, and the various challenges associated with the management and creation of these mixed-use, mixed-ownership buildings.

The topic is reviewed by examining the opinions and perceptions of expert planners and developers using a triangulation of qualitative interviews data and quantitative and qualitative analysis of survey results, cross-referenced with some grey literature in the form of planning tribunal decisions.

Findings suggest that the allocation of public floors is made in response to the shortage of land in high-demand areas with the aim of densifying development and making it more efficient. Experts were generally open to the concept of a private–public floorspace mix, noting that certain public land uses are better than others when combined as floorspace within private structures. Furthermore, the findings highlight managerial obstacles as well as issues with the process of allocating public floors in new plans.

The findings can be used to provide guidance for municipal authorities and developers looking to make the most of their available land, ensuring that both the public and private domains can coexist as cities continue to grow and become more densely populated in the future.

Few studies have reviewed this type of public–private mix, while highlighting challenges in their creation and management. The Israeli case-study in the paper showcases a unique context where high growth rates, increasing densification, and vertical development all spur development in this direction.

The article examines trends in the market power relationship between UK grocery manufacturers and retailers over the past 10‐15 years. It identifies the underlying causes of trends in this area, the implications for consumer welfare, and the legislative framework relating to these relations. Contributory factors to the changed market‐power relationship are relative manufacturer and retailer firm size and market share, individual manufacturing firm market dependence upon particular retailers, information technology, private label merchandise and product development activities, logistics arrangements and other vertical links between manufacturers and retailers. Aspects of welfare economics are examined as a basis for assessing consumer outcomes in this area, and past and present government legislation in the matter is considered, together with some reference to international comparisons. A case is made for some further strengthening of the relevant legislation in the UK.

Retailing has developed from independent merchants to multinational giants operating through global value chains, which has profoundly shaped consumption patterns in Western economies. This constant development currently consists of three global-scale change trajectories – climate change, online consumption, and technological development – that affect the retail industry. Based on this, this chapter concentrates on connecting the development paths of consumption and retailing and identifies various factors that affect the future of international retailing. The authors analyze the changes in institutional logics of international retailing by mapping the past, present, and future of the retail industry and consumption using content analysis of secondary data. The authors pay special attention to the effect of the current Covid-19 crisis on the future development of the retail industry. In the findings of this chapter, the authors recognize institutional logics changes in organizing the position of retailing as a connector of customers and producers, and the authors suggest blockchain to be an emerging new institutional order.

This paper aims to investigate the composition and geography of an emerging “creative digital” cluster in London, in the context of cluster theory and emerging creative cluster concepts. This argues that this cluster cannot be divorced from the wider regional creative and digital economy and that its inter-dependence with a small number of “content” industries is critical to its formation. The significance of the “creative digital” firm blending design, communications and technological development is highlighted, as is its unique position in enabling such firms to flourish.

The research combines both quantitative with qualitative methods, based on cluster analysis of firm-level business data using GIS mapping software at a regional level; location quotient (LQ) analysis to reveal firm concentration at a local cluster level; an online questionnaire survey of firms within this cluster; participant observation of firm meet-ups over a three-year period; and face-to-face interviews with a sample of firms/owners.

The evidence generated from this research confirms the distinctive nature of this digital cluster and the benefits of co-location in an industrial district with proximities to a range of advanced producer services and cultural content provision. This has revealed an emerging “techno-creative habitus” (Scott 2010), which has been able to take advantage of market fluidity through a network of communities of interest firms, which have reshaped an existing global hub locally anchored by a highly porous locale.

The research is novel in combining spatial data analysis with qualitative research into firm behaviour and place-based factors that support the growth of this cluster. This has revealed new insights into the hybrid nature of tech firms that integrate content with both hardware and software applications and who innovate and grow through inter-personal cluster networks. This contributes to cluster theory and extends the range of proximities – social, institutional and cultural – that enhance the geographic advantages of clustering in this case.

All measurements of EHD film thicknesses were carried out in simulated test machines. This study uses an actual bearing. A test rig which used a 65mm bore radial cylindrical roller bearing was constructed with a specially designed sapphire window in the outer track. Full loads, and speeds to 3000 rpm were applied. With specially polished rollers and chromic oxide coating on the window excellent interferometric film thickness measurements were found possible. A Xenon flash lamp was used and a Xenon Iaserof0–50pps,pulse half width of 150ns and peak power of 100 watts was developed for this research. A microscope and 35mm camera as well as video tape were used for recording results. Arrangements were made to study any chosen roller and the side of the bearing was also open to view. First the film measurements, when corrected for inlet zone viscous heating, agreed admirably with theoretical predictions for mid and exit film thickness. The effect of inlet boundary length on the film was then investigated in some depth. Studying the effect of the multiple roller system, a number of techniques were used to demonstrate that the inlet boundary length, which controls the lubricant film thickness, was itself controlled by the film thickness between the rollers and track in the unloaded zone. The ribs of oil, formed at either edge of the roller, are only secondary sources of oil for replenishment of the inlet film. It is in fact usual (as shown by the convex shape of the inletzone) for oil to feed out of the inlet zone into the ribs. Oil globules were sometimes observed riding on an air cushion at the entry to the roller‐track conjunction, though completely inoperative as providers of oil.

Community involvement in heritage preservation requires appropriate approaches. Sanciai (in Lithuanian: Šanciai) historic district in Kaunas (Lithuania) has long-lasting military and industrial heritage, valuable urban structure and connections to the natural frame of the city. Sanciai residents’ willingness to participate in heritage preservation and urban planning prompted the aim of this research – to develop, test and present the mapping methodology, that would be applicable in the process of community involvement into heritage identification, preservation, interpretation and creation process.

The methods of research included analysis of literature and theoretical research, development and testing of the methodology for the community involvement in heritage identification, preservation, interpretation and creation process. The workshop methodology and interactive online map are presented in this research. The memory map methodology developed and presented in this research includes the elements of mental mapping, design thinking and citizen science.

The methodology was tested in spring of 2021 in two-day online workshops with the students of pro-gymnasium located in Sanciai. Workshop participants together with workshop coordinator and moderators created different layers of the mental map, collected stories from the members of community and gathered the data for online interactive Sanciai memory map. The evaluation of the methodology and workshop results allowed concluding that memory map methodology is a functioning participant, community and research-oriented approach that can be applied in diverse heritage and community related circumstances.

The originality of the research is determined by the synergistic nature of developed memory map methodology which complements traditional mental mapping with creative hands-on techniques, empathy-oriented tasks and interactive online tool. Moreover, the research reveals the importance of local-global connections in urban studies as active local community became the stimulus for memory map methodology. The two-fold aim of the methodology – community cohesion and empowerment as well as research data collection – contributes to the originality of the research as well.