Becoming a university library director

Given that a large number of university library directorships have become available in recent years, and that this trend will probably continue for the foreseeable future, it is likely that not everyone who applies for these positions and is invited for an interview knows how to prepare for the experience, or how to read organizational and institutional climates. Based on interviews with 10 first-time and seasoned directors, this study reviews the process from the perspective of those who have recently accepted a directorship.     

Understanding customer experiences in online blog environments

Blogs have recently become an influential medium and have demonstrated enormous marketing power. Consumers can freely conduct ongoing information searches through this new channel. However, the credibility of blogs plays an important role in creating opportunities for positive customer experiences that can shape consumers’ product/service purchase intentions and decisions. In light of this observation, this study proposes a theoretical framework that delineates the relationship among information credibility, customer experiences, and purchase intention in the blog environment. Data collected from 468 subjects in specific corporate blogs provide support for the proposed model using partial least squares (PLS). The results indicate that information credibility is critical for facilitating customer experiences, which, in turn, is necessary to enhance purchase intention. Additionally, greater involvement with blog significantly increases the effect of customer experiences on purchase intention. The detailed theoretical and managerial implications are presented.     

Public libraries and Nigerian cultural development

This paper has identified the ingredients of culture, especially as found in an African society such as Nigeria. It has shown the cultural missions of public libraries as enunciated in the 1995 UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. It shows the role culture in the development of a society. It has discussed some of the ways the cultures of different Nigerian ethnic groups have been negatively influenced; and the problems hindering public libraries in the country from performing their cultural functions creditably. It emphasizes that this category of libraries should be adequately supported for them to uphold, and project the good image of Nigerians through their cherished cultural activities.     

植物与人

当我们关心植物的时候,它们会茁壮成长。这就意味着要给它们浇水,照顾它们,把它们放在阳光充足的地方。如果一株植物的边缘下垂,或在阳光下让人陶醉,就需要它周围的人们关心照顾。人们对植物的关心照顾越多,它生长的就越好。     

世界高等教育研究与培训的现状与展望

本文简要回顾了世界高等教育研究与培训的历史 ;重点评述了世界高等教育研究的基础设施、信息设施、院校研究和大学管理人员培训的现状 ;展望了世界高等教育研究与培训的发展趋势     

谦卑的一课

布克·华盛顾是知名的黑人教育家,关于谦卑,他有一个突出的事例. 那时,他刚接任阿拉巴马州的杜斯凯吉大学校长不久,当他在镇里一个偏僻的地方散步时,他被一个富有的白人妇女叫住了.     

Museums, plasticity, temporality

Throughout the 28th century, numerous philosophers of history and time have questioned the most ingrained of all our beliefs: does time progress in a linear way and is the future simply the next chapter in this narrative?² This essay proposes to rethink the future of museums outside of this narrative structure, one for which the future is reduced to words such as projection, prediction and prophecy. It asks: in an age of globalisation, can the museum still think of the future as the outcome of a chronological narrative? This essay takes one recent attempt (by the philosopher Catherine Malabou) to destabilise—again—this belief, and proposes to reveal the impact that this attempt could have on the museum's understanding of time and its place within it.     

The 2004 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering presented to Robert E. Newnham

The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering to Robert E. Newnham for his invention of multiphase piezoelectric transducers and their spatial architecture which revolutionized the field of acoustic imaging. The background and significance of his research is presented. Attention is focused on the impact his research prompted in the field of medical imaging, in particular non-invasive, real-time visualization of internal tissue and organs of human body using ultrasound energy. Societal impact of Dr. Newnham's work is also pointed out.     

Neutrinos from the Sun: The 2003 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics presented to John Bahcall, Raymond Davis, Jr., and Masatoshi Koshiba

This award recognizes years of research by the laureates using elusive neutrinos to probe the internal workings of the sun. Bahcall and Davis identified an apparently fundamental problem: the fusion reactions that generate the sun's power deep in its core appeared to generate fewer neutrinos than expected. The number of neutrinos detected by Davis was only about a third the number calculated by Bahcall. Koshiba developed a new type of detector that not only confirmed the deficit but also showed that the neutrinos counted by Davis actually come from the Sun. Together the work of these three scientists prepared the way for the resolution of the puzzle, the discovery of a new property of neutrinos called “neutrino oscillations”. On the way from the sun, some neutrinos change identity and become nearly invisible in the detectors. This insight promises to open up new vistas in the fundamental physics of elementary particles.