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The use of performance measurement systems and the balanced scorecard has been on the increase, and there is now a trend amongst practitioners and academics to prescribe that rewards should be linked to the measurement system. However, little research has been done in this area. This paper reports the results of a recent survey of executive reward practices in large companies based in the UK. Senior HR professionals and reward specialists were approached to provide details of performance measurement and reward practices in their own organizations, and to give their opinions on the benefits of such an approach.

To quantify the usage of electronic journals as an aid to making judgements on the use of document supply.

A detailed analysis was made of the use of OHIOLink as well as the Blackwell Synergy, ScienceDirect, emeraldinsight, and OUP databases by CIBER at University College London.

Many more people are accessing electronic journals than was previously the case in a print environment. Users are searching more widely as linking becomes easier and abstracts are becoming increasingly popular.

More research could be done on the use of abstracts together with further evaluation of usage at article level by title.

Massive usage of the databases analysed is significantly affecting the use of information by researchers.

This article presents an example of “deep log” analysis that sheds valuable light on the actual as distinct from perceived use of electronic full text databases

The purpose of this paper is to propose an alternative method for individuals to obtain documents using credits supplied by their institution to purchase at article level.

The paper draws on the experience and knowledge gained from the extensive work that CIBER has done in analyzing the usage of large‐scale journal databases.

It was found that such an approach has many advantages over the current librarian‐driven process.

Digital content is variously neglected, abused, free, and expensive. This paper is as much about stimulating some new thinking in this important area as about setting out a new scholarly communication market model.

Aiming to ensure that everyone obtains the rich rewards available in today's information‐centred society, this paper sets out to explore how the curious problem of “information malnutrition” in an era of plenty might be overcome to bring about the true information enfranchisement of today's enthusiastic digital consumer.

Based on the insights gained from research projects involving hundreds of thousands of people, the paper first analyses the whys, wherefores, implications, effects and challenges of the “information malnutrition” problem and then proceeds to investigate the ways and means for its holistic solution.

Although in today's information‐saturated world people have vast amounts of information at their beck and call, their myriad information needs often go unmet. Fortunately, changing this picture of ineffectual information consumption is quite feasible. The key to it all is achieving a nuanced understanding of people's idiosyncratic needs through ongoing assessment, utilising the analytical framework offered up for the purpose by the authors. It falls to information professionals, then, to see to the true information enfranchisement of the digital consumer, for it is their proclaimed mission to ensure that people's information needs are handled effectively. This can be done directly, via the proficient planning and delivery of information provision, but also indirectly, by spreading professional thinking and practices to those who insist on sorting out their information needs on their own.

The paper offers a new approach to the much‐debated problem of ensuring that people really benefit from the information abundance that is available to them, which is firmly grounded in theory, but, nevertheless, highly practical.

This paper provides a high‐level overview of some of the main research themes and preoccupations that are reported in this special ciber issue of Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives. The research activities of ciber are drawn together in the quest for a better understanding of the policy implications of large‐scale knowledge production systems against the backdrop of profound technical change, uncertainty over business models, and new forms of consumer behaviour. The paper presents a series of conceptual frameworks that aim to contextualise ciber’s work in bibliometrics, cybermetrics, research evaluation, scholarly communication, user studies, publishing strategies and policy analysis. The transparency that metrics can bring to the evaluation debate and the pivotal role of human information behaviour in determining those metrics, are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the most recent literature concerning document supply and related matters.

Includes the reading of over 140 published works, including journals, monographs, reports and web sites.

Finds that usage statistics are still not giving a clear indication of the importance of document supply but it is confirmed that the large proportion of demand comes from a small number of titles. Institutional repositories are here to stay and expanding. Experience of e‐journals is appearing in the published literature with greater frequency with some interesting conclusions. Copyright and digital rights management (DRM) remain fraught areas.

Provides a useful source of information for librarians and others interested in document supply and related matters.

With the proliferation of electronic information via the web a further distension of the unique characteristics of information has been witnessed. With seismic developments occurring in such a short period of time, it seems prudent to consider the very nature of information and to assess whether this accelerated growth has implications for the work of the informatics community and the information society.

The paper begins by revisiting and refreshing the unique characteristics of information via a reappraisal of the relevant literature. These characteristics are then contextualised within the new economy and traditional economic theory. Once these unique characteristics have been examined, the author discusses how the nature of information in the twenty‐first century presents the informatics community with new and difficult challenges.

The challenges posed by the unique nature of information demand a definite response on the part of the informatics community, including the creation of innovative new models to accommodate information's inherent characteristics. Additionally, as the nature of information evolves yet further and ICT innovations accelerate, ever more adaptable skills will be required by the end user in order that value be derived from information.

Outcomes and conclusions addressed in the paper may inform the informatics community generally, but will specifically inform the practice of information managers and librarians, and offer ways of assisting them in arriving at holistic decisions with respect to service provision.

The paper is a contribution to the debate on the precise nature of information and offers new perspectives on how the informatics community should view information in the twenty‐first century.

Aims to focus on research and findings relating to the Z‐server response times and the performance of Z39.50 for parallel searching.

This paper begins by briefly outlining the evolution of Z39.50 and the current trends, including the work of the JISC CC‐interop project. The research crux of the paper focuses on an investigation conducted with respect to testing Z39.50 server (Z‐server) response times in a broadcast (parallel) searching environment. Customised software was configured to broadcast a search to all test Z‐servers once an hour, for 11 weeks. The results were logged for analysis.

Most Z‐servers responded rapidly. “Network congestion” and local online public catalogue usage were not found to influence Z‐server performance significantly. Response time issues encountered by implementers may be the result of non‐response by the Z‐server and how Z‐client software deals with this. The influence of “quick and dirty” Z39.50 implementations is also identified as a potential cause of slow broadcast searching.

The paper indicates various areas for further research, including setting shorter time‐outs and greater end‐user behavioural research to ascertain user requirements in this area. The influence more complex searches, such as Boolean, have on response times and suboptimal Z39.50 implementations are also emphasised for further study.

This paper informs the library and information science (LIS) research community and has practical implications for those establishing Z39.50 based distributed systems, as well as those in the web services community.

The paper challenges popular LIS opinion that Z39.50 is inherently sluggish and thus unsuitable for the demands of the modern user.