Citation
Thornton, S. (2007), "Editorial", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/pmm.2007.27908caa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
I am pleased to welcome Dr Judith Broady-Preston as a new member of the editorial board. Three years ago, Judith and Tegwen Williams presented a paper in this journal on the use of information to create business value. Our first paper, by Ingo Forstenlechner, was inspired by that paper, and presents here his own findings on how lawyers in several major firms perceive knowledge is turned into value. Who knows: in a few years time we may get more papers inspired by Ingo’s work?
The 7th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in South Africa has come and gone. With over 200 attendees from all around the world, and over 40 separate papers and workshops, it seems to have been the most successful for many years.
Set in the Spier Wine Estate, just outside Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, not only was the conference well organised, but we were treated with splendid meals and drink (well, it was a wine estate). On top of all that, we had the opportunities to stroke cheetahs and hold eagles.
There is a danger at international conferences, which attract the greatest minds in a particular discipline, to assume that all attendees and all presenters are of a similar stage of sophistication and expertise. The Conference Board this year decided to include several workshops aimed at both introductory and intermediate levels. This ensured that the whole Conference proved to be a useful learning experience for all the attendees, regardless of their experience.
Following tradition, the first issue of this journal after the biennial conference carries a selection of the papers. This time I have chosen papers from all around the world, that give a flavour of the worldwide and eclectic ambience of the conference. From the US, Croatia, Japan, England and South Africa; they look at public libraries, academic libraries, joint public/academic libraries, workplace libraries and national library systems. These in turn vary from well-established and sophisticated services, through steadily developing ones, to newly created ones and those, which have never bothered to consider what they are doing.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Steve Thornton