Library Abuse in Academic Institutions

Abstract

The abuse of library materials defined in terms of theft, mutilation, unauthorized borrowing and vandalism was investigated in University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) in Nigeria and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia. The study sought to find out the ways the collections of the two institutions were abused by various classes of readers and for various reasons. By interviewing librarians, and analysis of collection use records, it was revealed that students, as well as faculty, staff and external readers indulged in abuse of library materials, motivated by situational, conceptual, attitudinal and other factors. It was observed, however, that Uniport had more problems with the misuse of library materials than KFUPM. Recommendations relating to library building design, tightening of security, generous and flexible loans policies, etc., were made for improved collection protection. Besides, public relations campaign and multilateral co-operation on book theft detection would help to discourage in particular the uninitiated or new converts from any acts of library abuse.     

How medical know-how progresses

The conventional wisdom regarding the source of progress in medical practice highlights the role of basic scientific research into the nature of disease pathologies. This perspective neglects the important role of two other sources of progress in medicine. One is the advance of technologies that have enabled the development of new modalities of treatment and diagnosis. The other is learning in clinical practice. In many cases the advance of treatment has involved the interaction of all three of these pathways to progress.     

The Social Embeddedness of Transactions: Evidence from the Residential Real-Estate Industry

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are becoming pervasive in the residential real-estate industry and their usage is affecting the work lives of real-estate agents. Drawing on data from a regional study of the residential real-estate industry in the United States, we focus on the disintermediation or, more accurately, the reintermediation of real-estate agents in the sales process. Using data collected from interviews, direct observation, and archival records, we examine how real-estate agents are (1) taking advantage of new ICT in their work, and (2) protecting themselves from others wishing to displace their position in the real-estate value chain. Our analysis of this activity draws on two contrasting theoretical perspectives to illuminate the roles of residential real-estate agents: transaction cost and social capital. The results of this study provide insights into the ways in which ICT are used to build and draw on the social relationships that underpin the actual transactions, to help guide the process of buying/selling a house, and to invoke expertise as needed.     

Noise and ethics: On Evan Parker and Alain Badiou

This essay investigates the possible relationship between noise and ethics through the music of improvising musician Evan Parker and the ‘post‐post‐structuralist’ philosophy of Alain Badiou. According to Badiou, one of the most important features of an ethical attitude is the recognition of a void in a situation, that is, the attention for something that cannot be thought, felt, or experienced within a conventional system, something that always already escapes established and existing structures. This seems to bear some resemblance to the way French thinker Jacques Attali describes noise. According to Attali, noise interrupts and disconnects. It is an aggression against all sorts of code, against all kinds of order. Noise is an evental break from the status quo or ordinary situation, which compels recognition of something new. Rethinking noise this way means that noise does not exist in and of itself, but only in relation to the system within which it is inscribed. Noise is a void in a situation and can therefore be connected to Badiou's ideas about ethics. In a relative rather than an absolute sense, the improvised music of Evan Parker – and this essay especially draws attention to one of his projects, Drawn Inward, in which electronics and acoustical instruments meet and hold a dialogue – produces noise, precisely in and through improvisation; in many ways it disrupts musical conventions. The essay thus explores the space within the triangle noise–improvisation–ethics.     

Effects of evidence-based professional development for preschool teachers in Albania

ABSTRACT

This research explores two ongoing professional development (PD) modalities for early childhood teachers and their effect to teachers’ performance. We compare training, teacher study groups and a combination of both to a control group in the Albanian preschool context. We aimed to obtain mоrе cоmplеtе understanding оf different facеts оf thе ongoing professional development оf еarly childhооd tеachеrs and its pоtеntial impact оn program quality and children’s dеvеlоpmеnt in different еarly childhооd sеttings, especially in countries of low and middle income. This study has led to policy changes in mоrе еfficiеntly planning rеsоurcеs, not only fоr еarly childhood tеachеrs’ PD, but tо tеachеrs and оthеr practitiоnеrs in thе field as well. This research has pushed for evidence-based policy reforms in teacher professionalization and career advancement in Albania.     

Kinetic and kinematic patterns during high intensity clean movement: searching for optimal load

The aim of the present study was to investigate loading effects on kinematic and kinetic variables among elite-weightlifters in order to identify an optimal training load to maximize power production for clean-movement. Nine elite-weightlifter (age: 24 ± 4years, body-mass: 77 ± 6.5kg, height: 176 ± 6.1cm and 1RM clean: 170 ± 5kg) performed 2 separate repetitions of the clean using 85, 90, 95% and 100%, in a randomized order, while standing on a force platform and being recorded using 3D-capture-system. Differences in kinematics (barbell displacement, velocity and acceleration) and kinetics (power, vertical ground reaction force (vGRF), rate of force development (RFD), and work) across the loads were statistically assessed. Results revealed significant load effects for the majority of the studied parameters (p < 0.01) and showed that typical bar-displacement, greatest bar-velocity and peak-power were achieved at 85 and 90% 1RM (p < 0.001). Additionally greater average power was shown for 90 and 95% (p < 0.01) and greater work and vGRF were shown for 90, 95 and 100% than 85% 1RM (p < 0.05). Load had no significant effect on peak-vGRF and peak-RFD (p > 0.05). The results of this study, suggest 90% 1RM to be the most advantageous load to train explosive-force and to enhance power-outputs while maintaining technical efficiency in elite-weightlifters.     

The “human side” of open innovation: The role of employee diversity in firm-level openness

The use of external knowledge for innovation (i.e., inbound or outside-in open innovation) has received substantial attention in the innovation literature. However, the “human side” of open innovation is still poorly understood. We consider the role of employee characteristics with respect to predicting firm-level openness. Drawing on the human capital, learning and creativity literatures, we theorize that knowledge diversity of the firm’s employees is positively associated with employees’ ability to identify and absorb external knowledge, which aggregates to increased firm-level openness—that is, firms’ use of external knowledge in their pursuit of innovation. Based on a combination of three data sources, namely, two survey data sources and register data, we find support for our hypothesis that employees’ educational diversity is positively associated with firm-level openness. However, we find no direct association between employees’ work history diversity and firm-level openness but rather—as also hypothesized—a conditional relationship based on educational background, which implies that diverse work history only has a positive impact at higher levels of educational diversity. To reduce endogeneity concerns, we undertake a series of robustness checks.     

The changing shape of the book: From cultural evolution to technological revolution

Electronic media would appear to offer the prime forms of communication for the future. Television, the internet, the mobile phone and any number of other innovations present an apparently overwhelming threat to the continuation of the paper‐based media with which most of the adult community is familiar.

The book, in particular, would seem an anachronism. Its production methods, its distribution systems, the physical entity itself, belong not even to the century just finished but to an earlier era altogether. It finds its provenance in a mediaeval technology, its purpose in a society that could accept a pedestrian form of communication, well suited to sharing the printed word with the few who could read it and afford it.

And yet the market for the conventional book remains buoyant. Statistics indicate decline in neither the number of titles published nor sales revenues.

In fact, the new media are indeed impinging on the book market but more slowly than might be imagined. The technologies which have brought us screen‐based devices and telephonic communication have also brought dramatic improvements in the speed and economics of book manufacturing and are beginning to offer highly competitive solutions to both the production and the distribution of conventional books.

This chapter begins with a look ahead to the alternatives shapes of the book of the future. It then accounts for the continuing presence of the conventional book in this scenario by briefly tracing the development of an ancient craft which has evolved through technological innovation into a sophisticated production process which transformed the economics of production.

These technological and economic changes in conventional book manufacturing are set against the advantages and challenges of new media to show how all future forms of the book have a competing place in the market.     

Legislation for library and information services in French-speaking Africa revisited

The aim of this article is to review the situation regarding legislation on library and information services, and in particular, the changes that have taken place over the past 20 years in French-speaking African countries. Our study concerns 24 African countries, located in North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia), West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo), as well as East and Central Africa (Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Rwanda), Djibouti, the Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles.The institutions examined in this study are primarily national libraries and documentation centres. Nevertheless, we will also look at legislative decisions affecting national information systems and public and university libraries, as well as some decisions governing the practice of the librarian profession.The main changes that took place over the past two decades concern the setting up of international Francophone institutions and the support provided to information and library infrastructures in developing countries. We also note a definite improvement in documentation systems, due largely to a greater priority placed on information and the action of professionals trained in library science faculties and colleges, who continue to promote the need for adequate legislation to ensure well-performing institutions.