How much should it cost? An introduction to management use of costing information

With the introduction of the internal marketthe health service is changing rapidly and health libraries must change with it. Many libraries arerequested to cost their services. The demand comes from external customers and from their ownorganizations. This paper discusses the various reasons for costing services and howcosting information can influence our management decision making. The paper challengeslibrarians to move costing processes away from a mechanistic approach, towards a means ofdemonstrating the worth of a library resources unit in cost and qualitative terms. Using costinginformation for cost control purposes, comparison of cost with other providers, setting prices ordetermining future service delivery levels is discussed, as well as considering the question ofexternal provision of library services. Use of information on fixed and variable costs andassessing break-even levels of service provision is illustrated as a helpful guide to library survival.     

Governance and Decision–making in Smaller Colleges

A small pilot project suggests that the governance of smaller colleges differs significantly from that of large universities, including the former polytechnics which were incorporated at the same time. The differences do not only relate to size, even though small size allows greater contact between governors and academic activities in their role in relation to 'the general educational character' of an institution. Small size also creates possibilities of a 'drift' to a greater role for governors in management rather than governance, and key issues emerge of role boundaries and relationships with staff. Smaller colleges have other factors affecting governance. Some have particular specialisms – music, art, land–based industries and so on – with their own cultures, shifting employment contexts, and considerable overlap between professionals inside and outside the colleges. The history of some as church colleges also continues to have influence. In general, their size allows a more 'familial' climate in decision–making, but that, too, has strengths and weaknesses.     

Severe Learning Difficulties in Northern Ireland: Leaving School

Responsibility for pupils with severe learning difficulties in Northern Ireland was only recently taken by the education authorities. The findings of research into the school leaving arrangements are described by Dr Ian Wells, senior research officer with the Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research (NICER), Belfast.     

Scholarly communication in the digital environment: what do authors want?

This article reports on a large‐scale international survey of authors' perception and experience of the journals system conducted by ciber in association with National Opinion Polls (NOP). It explores the factors that inform authors' decisions where to publish and, in particular, which groups of readers they perceive to be most important. It probes readership behaviour and the values that underlie authors' attitudes towards copyright and emerging business models, notably open access. It is concluded that many aspects of author behaviour are highly conservative and that a significant shift towards open access is, in the short to medium term, highly unlikely.     

ENSO and Southeast Asian biomass burning modulate subtropical trans-Pacific ozone transport

Trans-Pacific transport of enhanced ozone plumes has been mainly attributed to fossil fuel combustion in Asia in spring, but less attention has been paid to vegetation fires in Asia. Here we show that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-modulated fires in Southeast Asia, rather than Asian fossil fuel plumes, dominate the interannual variability of springtime trans-Pacific transport of ozone across the entire North Pacific Ocean. During El Niño springs, the intensified fires from both the Indochinese Peninsula and Indonesia, together with large-scale circulation anomalies, result in enhanced ozone plumes that stretch over 15 000 km in both the lower-middle and upper troposphere. This enhancement is also observed in the in situ measurements of ozone concentration, with an almost 10% increase at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, a unique site to monitor the long-distance transport over the North Pacific. This study reports an unexpectedly strong influence of vegetation fires, linked with climate variability, on global tropospheric chemistry and proves once more how complex the interactions in the climate system are.     

Breaking up is hard to do: the resilience of the rock group as an organizational form for creating music

Though there is a long tradition of band members quitting the group or taking a hiatus, the rock group as an organization to produce music continues to be both popular and economically viable. The research question addressed in this paper is whether or not it is a good idea to quit or take a hiatus from the group. We begin with a discussion of the framework for understanding why groups are formed and why they may be difficult to keep together. We then discuss differences between groups in the decade of the 1960s versus today. We argue that there is something unique about the output of the group even with the changes in the structure of contracts, compensation, and consumer focus on the artist that explain the resilience of the rock band as an organizational form within which to create music. We compare the charting success of bands that have members leave the group with the charting success of the members who left the group. We identified the groups in five representative years: 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005. We then analyzed the entire Billboard Hot 100 charting careers of those groups and the artists who quit those groups. Our main finding is that when charting success is divided equally among members, going solo pays off—there is a clear economic rationale because solo acts have greater average charting success than the original bands they started in. The other ensuing side projects: duos, collaborations, and other groups are not as lucrative as the original bands. These findings are valid for members of charting groups from each of the 5 years examined. Despite the difficulties in keeping a rock band together, there are fewer band breakups today and remaining with the group generally results in a longer and more productive charting career. Thus, the rock group remains an important organization for producing contemporary music. However, there remains a compelling incentive to go solo. Superstars may benefit from solo projects, but for the average, non-superstar group member, in many circumstances it is better for the band to stay together if the income is divided equally.