EARS: Electronic Access to Reference Service

Electronic Access to Reference Service (EARS) is a front end to the Health Sciences Library's electronic mail system, with links to the online public catalog. EARS, which became operational in September 1984, is accessed by users at remote sites with either a terminal or microcomputer. It is menu-driven, allowing users to request: a computerized literature search, reference information, a photocopy of a journal article, or a book. This paper traces the history of EARS and discusses its use, its impact on library staff and services, and factors that influence the diffusion of new technology.     

From writing to publishing: A model for program development

Continuing education is becoming essential to the publishing profession. In this article, Ann Cowan describes the advantages of using university programs for noncredit education to support courses in publishing. These programs permit access to the resources of the industry and enable the university to serve publishers’ educational needs. Ann Cowan is associate dean of Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University and codirector of the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing. A graduate of the University of Toronto, she completed her master’s thesis onThe Canadian Forum at Carleton University. She was a general editor at the National Museum of Man before moving to Vancouver, where she initiated the Writing and Publishing Program at Simon Fraser University. Address for correspondence     

Access to and participation in the arts: The case of those with low incomes/educational attainment

This paper looks at the issue of access to the arts in terms of the very unequal attendance at and audiences for the high arts by educational grouping. The meaning of equal access is analysed, recent data for two countries, namely the United States and Ireland, are examined and new evidence is proffered. The constraints/barriers to, and the rationale for, more equal attendance/audiences are examined. The paper concludes by outlining a number of possible responses to this continuing problem.This paper was presented at the 9th international conference of the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Boston, May 8–11, 1996.     

IAIMS development at Harvard Medical School

The long-range goal of this IAIMS development project is to achieve an Integrated Academic Information Management System for the Harvard Medical School, the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, and Harvard's affiliated institutions and their respective libraries. An "opportunistic, incremental" approach to planning has been devised. The projects selected for the initial phase are to implement an increasingly powerful electronic communications network, to encourage the use of a variety of bibliographic and information access techniques, and to begin an ambitious program of faculty and student education in computer science and its applications to medical education, medical care, and research. In addition, we will explore means to promote better collaboration among the separate computer science units in the various schools and hospitals. We believe that our planning approach will have relevance to other educational institutions where lack of strong central organizational control prevents a "top-down" approach to planning.     

Utilization of CSR to build organizations’ corporate image in Asia: need for an integrative approach

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be a strong predictor of a favorable corporate image [Gray, 1986. Managing the corporate image: The key to public trust. London: Quorum Books]. Websites have become an essential communication platform [Dawkins, 2004. Corporate responsibility: The communication challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 108–119]. This study aims to investigate how CSR can be used in enhancing organizational corporate image. Content analyses of 150 corporate websites of organizations in Asia headquartered in Singapore were conducted, followed by in-depth interviews with public relations (PR) practitioners to examine the motivations behind their CSR engagement. Findings showed that organizations utilized CSR as a means to enhance corporate image via four ways: Engaging in two-way conversations with stakeholders, adopting an inside-out communication approach with employees, recognizing the relevance of other CSR communication channels, and communicating CSR with authenticity. However, some organizations hesitate to use CSR communication to enhance their corporate image because they wanted to avoid being seen as using CSR as a promotional tool.