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While there exists a small and perhaps growing cadre of mature library managers skilled in automation, not enough new MLS holders are being educated to support and extend the potential of automation within libraries. The result in too many libraries is the hiring of a non‐librarian to cope with the myriad technical details involved with setting up equipment and interacting with academic and administrative computing, county governments, and business office operations, with the hope that in time this person somehow “will become one of us.” However, something will be lost in future interactions if the librarian‐managers themselves do not know enough to participate knowledgeably in such interactions. Developing new educational initiatives is an important challenge facing those who wish to improve our managerial competence in the automation area.

Capital matters to most corporations in free markets, but there are differences. Companies in non‐financial industries need equity capital mainly to support funding to buy property and to build or acquire production facilities and equipment to pursue new areas of business. While this is also true for financial institutions, their main focus is somewhat different. Banks actively evaluate and take risks on a daily basis as part of their core business processes. For example, the commercial lending business inherently involves weighing the credit risk of new loans and their associated mitigates. This involves analysis of the credit quality of the underlying obligor, the effectiveness of guarantees, collateral, cross‐default and other forms of credit protection. Today, however, best practice does not stop there. It also is necessary to evaluate the impact of portfolio diversification (e.g. in terms of geographical or industry concentration of exposures) and the degree of correlation among exposures on the bank's balance sheet. Another example is trading activity whereby a bank benefits from high trading volumes (by earning the bid/ask spread) and hopes to gain from proprietary net positions, but must bear some degree of market risk in the process.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the need for libraries and rural community knowledge centers using appropriate technology.

A case study discussing new ideas.

An alternative to traditional libraries is proposed for the dissemination and teaching of agriculture, literacy, health information, etc.

The paper requires the development of prototypes and grant funding.

Although the article discusses Liberia, the information represents any rural community in developing countries where often electricity, libraries, and internet connectivity do not exist.

Rethinking existing ideas and creating new ones.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of management and decision‐making styles on the job satisfaction of academic staff in a Malaysian Research University.

The sample consisted of 218 respondents. The instruments used in the study were the Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Decision Style Inventory. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the influence of decision‐making style and management style on the job satisfaction.

The findings showed that the research university had adopted an analytical decision‐making style. The hygiene factors were the predictors of job satisfaction as perceived by the academic staff at the research university in Malaysia.

This research selected a top Malaysian research university and small samples were selected from the whole population under consideration, thus, the findings can be generalized as similar to other research universities. In addition, the university management determines the decision‐making style, and the job satisfaction of the academic staff is affected by the decision‐making style of the university.

A contribution is made to the literature as the research reinforces the view that the management style and decision‐making style can predict or affect the job satisfaction of the academic staff.

Recent emergence of the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) in higher education has been the source of much debate and speculation. This article describes the results of a recent study on the roles of CIOs in research universities and discusses implications and future trends in the management of information technologies, particularly from the point of view of libraries.

A number of prominent educators, executives of professional associations, and business leaders address the positive and negative characteristics of contemporary library education. They stress the need for professionals to have a broad understanding of the field, vision, orientation to the future, and a balance of traditional and new skills. Information professionals of the future must have a broad understanding of the organization of knowledge, communication and interpersonal skills, management ability, and orientation toward problem solving and decision making. They must also be able to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate information and knowledge. Technology is mentioned by all contributors to the forum; most emphasize the need for information professionals to be able to manage and use technology as a tool—a means to an end, but not an end itself.

Many organizations in Australia, in both public and private sectors, are introducing organization structures and cultures which consolidate the major technological and structural reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s and provide a platform for ongoing micro‐reform. Outlines the processes and interim outcomes of a cultural change programme in one decentralized area of the Department of Social Security, Victoria, Australia. The change was towards teamwork rather than individual performance. The strategy was based on the Margerison‐McCann Team Management Systems model, and involved progressively training teams in the concepts and language of teamwork, systematically interlinking the teams across the area and aligning other organizational systems and structures to the teamwork model. Outcomes support the contention that the rigorous and consistent application of a well‐founded theoretical model can provide a solid platform for cultural change.

Using resource dependency theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine what elements in the business environment may be associated with the formation and continuance of cartels.

The authors employ a unique data set of 148 cartel data points from the 1970s to 2008 which have at least one American company involved to quantitatively test causal relationships. The authors also interview key class action anti-trust attorneys for their views and opinions on the impact of these environmental factors on cartel formation and continuance.

The authors find statistically significant relationships between the pursuit and maintenance of industry profits and the dynamism in the industry, and illegal behavior as represented through price fixing by business cartels. The authors find that in the attorneys’ opinion, it is also the pursuit of individual corporate profits and munificence that are associated with these cartels.

This research furthers the understanding of organizational deviance which is critical given its impact on organizations, individuals, regulators, law enforcement, and the general public.

This research is a first step in considering cartel activity in a way that encompasses external influences in a new and innovative manner and as a tool to help researchers and practitioners better understand how organizational deviance, as manifested through illegal corporate activity, can be anticipated, identified, and prevented.

The authors consider a group of commercial vendors who may be potential agents or players in electronic document supply. The group examines five potential providers of products/services: Dow Jones, Geac, OCLC, Faxon, RLG using Malone's 1989 comments on electronic markets as a framework, and using Porter's analytics to describe competition, and the role of technology in conferring advantage. The authors suggest that electronic document supply has produced an observable shift in exchange relationships between suppliers and buyers: the former are regrouping into partnerships which offer a confusing range of options to clients.

The Memex Research Institute has proposed a research project to describe in machine‐readable form all the information needed to create electronic “books” in a standard communications format. Two kinds of extended computer file formats employing the MARC structure will be defined: Access Formats that take into consideration the many existing index and abstract system formats and their associated databases; and Document Formats that provide for storage, representation, transmission, and display of machine‐readable works in text or image form. The formats that emerge can be employed by libraries, publishers, information utilities, and computer users worldwide to convert printed works to electronic forms or to create original works in electric format, and thus foment the creation of networked electronic library collections.