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The purpose of this work is to present an alternative way of considering evidence‐based librarianship (EBL) through an examination of the data that makes up studies used for EBL.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to present an alternative way of considering evidence‐based librarianship (EBL) through an examination of the data that makes up studies used for EBL.
Design/methodology/approach
This piece starts with the standard evidence‐based librarianship definition and deconstructs it down to the level of the individual user, and that data is considered in a different context.
Findings
The bibliomining process, or the combination of data warehousing, data mining, and bibliometrics, is used as a framework to build a different path to EBL. Bibliomining‐based evidence‐based librarianship is not appropriate for all topics; however, when the artifacts of library use can be gathered and explored, this method can provide a different path to reach the goals of EBL.
Originality/value
As the quantity of studies needed for traditional EBL are not currently available, this alternate method provides a way to achieve the goals of EBL through data already in the library systems.
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Water‐borne coatings continue to be of importance owing to widespread concern about the potentially harmful effects associated with the release of organic solvents into the…
Abstract
Water‐borne coatings continue to be of importance owing to widespread concern about the potentially harmful effects associated with the release of organic solvents into the atmosphere. This concern is reflected in their relative growth as a share of the total market. In the UK, for example, the proportion of paint (by volume) that was water‐based rose from 46 per cent in 1970 to 60 per cent in 1990, and the trend still appears to be upward.
– The aim of this paper is to explore the marketing strategies and tools used by W&R Jacob & Co. in the first four decades of the twentieth century.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore the marketing strategies and tools used by W&R Jacob & Co. in the first four decades of the twentieth century.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on close analysis of W&R Jacob & Co. labels and other primary material supported by secondary sources.
Findings
The paper explores the company's initial focus on the development of an export market and their competition with similar firms in England for that business. It reveals the ways in which the firm contributed to the development of product naming and labelling conventions within the biscuit industry in this period. Labelling and product presentation strategies are examined to show methods of origination that coped with a prolific rate of introduction of new lines. Political change in Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s imposed limits on Jacob's markets and precipitated a reorientation of labelling strategies.
Originality/value
The paper is based on extensive original research and makes a solid contribution to the understanding of new product development and marketing strategies within the biscuit industry in the first four decades of the twentieth century. It also furthers understanding of the effects of Irish Free State policies on export industry.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop some baseline data about games in libraries in North America. The term games is taken broadly in this piece to mean all types of games from…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop some baseline data about games in libraries in North America. The term games is taken broadly in this piece to mean all types of games from card and board games to video games. The focus is primarily on public libraries, but there is some discussion of school and academic libraries as well.
Design/methodology/approach
There were two surveys done. The first was a phone survey of 400 public libraries, selected at random. The second survey was a Web‐based convenience sample of libraries of different types. In both studies, we asked questions about the support of gaming in the library, the types of gaming programs run in the library, and the goals and outcomes of those gaming programs.
Findings
Around 78 per cent of public libraries support gaming of some type. About 40 per cent run formal gaming programs, and about 20 per cent circulate games. The larger the library, the more likely they are to support gaming. The primary goals of gaming in libraries are to attract the underserved, attract current library patrons, and to create a space for social interactions between members of the community.
Research limitations/implications
The first study is a random sample and therefore is a statistically significant representation of the population. The second study, being a Web‐based convenience sample, is not statistically representative of a population.
Originality/value
This type of baseline data is not available. Understanding how libraries are supporting games is valuable to researchers in asking appropriate questions. In addition, it helps libraries considering adding games to their services to learn how other libraries are doing it.
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This conceptual piece presents a framework to aid libraries in gaining a more thorough and holistic understanding of their users and services. Through a presentation of the…
Abstract
This conceptual piece presents a framework to aid libraries in gaining a more thorough and holistic understanding of their users and services. Through a presentation of the history of library evaluation, a multidimensional matrix of measures is developed that demonstrates the relationship between the topics and perspectives of measurement. These measurements are then combined through evaluation criteria, and then different participants in the library system view those criteria for decision making. By implementing this framework for holistic measurement and cumulative evaluation, library evaluators can gain a more holistic knowledge of the library system and library administrators can be better informed for their decision‐making processes.
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Gurprit S. Kindra, K.L. McGown, Devinder Gandhi and Georges Benay
The degree of interest in the subject of a survey has no effect on response rates from samples of the general public, and short questionnaires yield substantially higher response…
Abstract
The degree of interest in the subject of a survey has no effect on response rates from samples of the general public, and short questionnaires yield substantially higher response rates than lengthier ones. Two questionnaires of identical length but covering two different topics were used in a survey of 240 people drawn at random from a Montreal telephone directory; the results concluded that an offer of survey results to participants does not affect response rate significantly, but persistence alone represents the crucial factor in securing good returns.
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Kenneth C. Gehrt and Ruoh‐Nan Yan
Most research related to consumer choice of retailers emphasizes retailer attributes and/or consumer characteristics. Since many retail formats, including online retailing, have…
Abstract
Most research related to consumer choice of retailers emphasizes retailer attributes and/or consumer characteristics. Since many retail formats, including online retailing, have emerged in recent years, knowledge of how consumers select retail formats must be updated. A source of influence that has been examined to a very limited extent for store retailers but not for emerging retail formats is situational influence. From a modern interactionism perspective, this study investigates the influence of situational as well as consumer and retailer factors on preference for online, catalog, and store formats. Key results show that situational factors have significant influence on online and catalog format selection and perceptions of attributes that are crucial to that selection.
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Henrich R. Greve and Seo Yeon Song
Industry platforms can alter relations among exchange partners in such a way that the industry structure is changed. The focus of much industry platform research has been on how…
Abstract
Industry platforms can alter relations among exchange partners in such a way that the industry structure is changed. The focus of much industry platform research has been on how platform creation and leadership offers advantages to the most central firms, but platforms can also be advantageous for small specialist firms that compete with the most central firms. We examine book publishing as an example of an industry in which the central players – large publishing firms – are losing power to self-publishing authors because the distributor Amazon has a powerful platform for customers to communicate independently, and the non-publishing platform Twitter also serves as a medium for readers to discuss and review books. Our empirical analysis is based on downloaded sales statistics for Amazon Ebooks, matched with Amazon reviews of the same books and tweets that refer to the book or the author. We analyze how Ebook sales are a function of publisher, Amazon reviews, and tweets, and we are able to assess the importance of each factor in the sale of book titles. The main finding is that Amazon reviews are powerful drivers of book sales, and have greater effect on the sales of books that are not backed by publishers. Twitter also affects book sales, but less strongly than Amazon reviews.
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