To argue for the consideration from an historical perspective of technology‐enabled changes in higher education.
Abstract
Purpose
To argue for the consideration from an historical perspective of technology‐enabled changes in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
Uses examples from the author's history of JSTOR as a case study.
Findings
That the case of JSTOR offers evidence that technology‐enabled changes in higher education will have historical interest.
Research limitations/implications
Although the author presents only examples from JSTOR, historians should begin to give attention to the overall changes taking place in scholarly communications and higher education.
Practical implications
Suggests further areas of research for historians, information scientists, and graduate students.
Originality/value
This work should be of interest to library and information professionals, business historians, and perhaps economic historians interested in the information industries.
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This article explores the recent turn within academic publishing towards ‘seamless access’, an approach to content provision that ensures users do not have to continually…
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores the recent turn within academic publishing towards ‘seamless access’, an approach to content provision that ensures users do not have to continually authenticate in order to access journal content.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a critical exploration of Get Full Text Research, a service developed collaboratively by five of the world's largest academic publishers to provide such seamless access to academic research, the article shows how publishers are seeking to control the ways in which readers access publications in order to trace, control and ultimately monetise user interactions on their platforms.
Findings
Theorised as a process of individuation through infrastructure, the article reveals how publishers are attempting an ontological shift to position the individual, quantifiable researcher, rather than the published content, at the centre of the scholarly communication universe.
Originality/value
The implications of the shift towards individuation are revealed as part of a broader trend in scholarly communication infrastructure towards data extraction, mirroring a trend within digital capitalism more generally.
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How can academic libraries unlock staff capacity for new initiatives as they transition their collections from print to digital? The following are four strategies for recapturing…
Abstract
How can academic libraries unlock staff capacity for new initiatives as they transition their collections from print to digital? The following are four strategies for recapturing staff time as libraries adopt new formats while still supporting older ones at a smaller volume. First, librarians should employ strategic collection development that takes into consideration opportunities for efficiencies as they make the print to digital transition. Second, libraries should implement creative reorganizations in order to scale down print services and effectively manage new digital formats. Third, libraries should rightscale their infrastructure, that is, choose the appropriate level – local, consortial/regional, national, or global – where collection management activities should take place. Fourth, libraries, library software vendors, and publishers should develop purchasing and resource discovery infrastructures that harness shared data to enable network level electronic resource management.
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Abstract
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Roger Bennett and Sharmila Savani
The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of readiness of large UK based retailing companies for the introduction of ubiquitous computing (U‐computing) retailing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of readiness of large UK based retailing companies for the introduction of ubiquitous computing (U‐computing) retailing applications.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was distributed to a sampling frame of large British retailers, leading to 255 responses. The document contained items concerning, inter alia, a firm's level of preparedness, managerial attitudes towards and support for U‐computing applications, strategic fit and pre‐existing IT capacities.
Findings
A third of the respondents reported the existence of a “good fit” between U‐computing retail applications and their companies' products, activities and core competencies. However, only 20 per cent of the sample appeared to be well‐prepared for the introduction of U‐computing. There was little evidence of the sample enterprises adopting strategic approaches to implementation.
Research limitations/implications
Only a minority of the firms in the sampling frame participated in the research and the sample size was modest. Data were self‐reported and only a single country was considered. The study concerned just large businesses.
Practical implications
The outcomes suggest a widespread “wait and see” approach towards U‐computing among the sample businesses and a distinct lack of strategic thinking regarding implementation.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study to explore the prospective introduction to British retailing of a new technology that possesses the potential to revolutionise the operations of UK retailing firms.