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The purpose of this paper is to analyse privacy and interaction preferences in the social dimension of individual learning students and how the spatial configuration affects individual learners’ choices of learning spaces.

This empirical survey study was conducted in an Australian university’s informal learning spaces. Space syntax theories are applied to construct a four-quadrant theoretical framework.

The research findings indicate that based on the differences between students in their individual characteristics, there are significant differences in their needs for privacy and interaction. This study reveals that the spatial configuration affects individual learners’ choices of learning spaces.

This study could assist universities in providing students with more effective and diverse informal learning spaces.

Physical environments, especially the sound environments of ILSs on a university campus, have become increasingly important in satisfying the diverse needs of students. Poor sound environments are widely acknowledged to lead to inefficient and underutilised spaces and to negatively influence students' learning outcomes. This study proposes two hypotheses to explore whether students' sound environment perceptions are related to their individual characteristics and whether students' preferences for the type of ILS are related to their sound environment sensitivities.

An investigation through a questionnaire survey has been conducted on both students' individual characteristics affecting their sound environment perceptions in informal learning spaces (ILSs) of a university campus and their sensitivities to the sound environments in ILSs affecting their preferences for the type of ILSs.

The research findings indicate that students' sound environment perceptions are associated with some of their individual characteristics. In addition, the results show that students' sound environment sensitivities affect their preferences for the type of ILS they occupy.

This study could help architects and managers of university learning spaces to provide better sound environments for students, thereby improving their learning outcomes. The article contributes valuable insights into the correlation between students' individual characteristics, sound environment perceptions and preferences for ILSs. The research findings add to the existing knowledge in this field and offer practical implications for enhancing design and management of university learning environments.

Heritage buildings are a crucial part of the UK built sector. They perpetuate a sense of identity, prestige and community. Many heritage buildings however tend to be energy inefficient and the scope for retrofitting such buildings is paramount. Heritage buildings require ratification from planning bodies in order to undertake any alteration on the building. This tends to create a bottleneck in the retrofitting of heritage office buildings. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study utilises a case study building in Scotland to evaluate the potential for retrofitting in a UK heritage office building. Building energy simulation software is used to generate the energy data in different retrofit options. A scenario analysis on the heritage status of the building is also undertaken.

The costs, energy consumption and carbon emission levels are evaluated and compared. It was found that the differential in annual energy savings achieved, based on the proportion of capital cost to operational cost, is 14.6 per cent in the heritage building, compared to 24.6 per cent in the non-heritage building.

The study suggests that government and other stakeholders should seek for ways of incentivising retrofit investments in heritage buildings. This will provide an effective way of minimising the contributions of the built environment to global warming and climate change.

Lester and Wolff (2013) find little empirical support for the Austrian business cycle theory. According to their analysis, an unexpected monetary shock does not alter the structure of production in a way consistent with the Austrian view. Rather than increasing production in early and late stages relative to middle stages, they find the opposite – a positive monetary shock typically decreases production in early and late stages relative to middle stages. We argue that the measures of production and prices employed by Lester and Wolff (2013) are constructed in such a way that makes them inappropriate for assessing the empirical relevance of the Austrian business cycle theory’s unique features. After describing how these measures are constructed and why using ratios of stages is problematic, we use a structural vector autoregression to consider the effects of a monetary shock on each stage of the production process. We show that, with a clearer understanding of what is actually being measured by the stage of process data, the results are consistent with (but not exclusive to) the Austrian view.

This introduction summarizes each of the papers in Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics. It begins with a brief overview of the core ideas and development of modern Austrian macroeconomics, focusing on its theory of the business cycle. The papers are then discussed by parts, starting with the papers on Austrian monetary and business cycle theory, followed by those addressing the relationship between the US and Canadian economic performance, and concluding with the three papers on the political economy of regulation and crisis.

“The issue we confront today is not primarily one concerning a special day for an individual. The issue is in reality whether our nation can summon the will and vision to recognize a great and historic period in its history by designating the birthdate of one who made major contributions to the period a national public holiday.”

Discusses the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library in San Jose´, California, which will house the collections of the San Jose´ Public Library’s main branch and the San Jose´ State University’s Library system in one new building. Outlines the conception of the project, the site selection and the planning process. Considers the communities served, usage patterns and services. Focuses on the management structure and operations in light of a, perhaps controversial, aspect of mixing city and university library staff under the same roof, some performing similar functions, but with different supervisors and employing agencies. Discusses the new library in the context of other joint‐use libraries and in the context of economies of scale and future trends. Evaluates the arising challenges and opportunities.

During the many years of peace perhaps the most depressing thing about libraries was the absence of public interest in them. The newspapers, public men, writers on education, amongst whom were many people who made daily use of libraries, in their public utterances completely ignored them or confined their mention to the mendacious archaism that they were merely purveyors of poor fiction. This was most unsatisfactory, for no institution can rise to its full possibilities unless it is the subject of encouragement and healthy criticism. Now affairs are different. The war has been a crucible in which most things have been tested, and libraries are proving to be no exception.