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The purpose of this paper is to establish whether or not asking price can provide a reliable indication of the impact of a negative externality when transaction data are scarce.

Until recently, transaction data within the UK were either unobtainable or expensive. Subsequently, an analysis of the value impacts of living near negative externalities (such as high voltage overhead power lines (HVOTL)) relies almost entirely on valuer expertise. Since behavioural research suggests that valuers often anchor to asking price which, in theory, is based on the selling agent's opinion of the likely transaction value of a property, the argument is made that “asking price” provides a reliable indication of the impact of a negative externality when transaction data are scarce. This theory is tested through an analysis of the real versus perceived impacts of an HVOTL on proximate house prices.

The results, whilst providing additional evidence to support the relationship between value diminution and the presence of an HVOTL near residential homes, suggest that agents' marketing price does not capture the true impact of this type of negative externality and should therefore be treated with caution by practitioners seeking to establish the value of this type of property.

The results of this article add additional evidence to support the findings from previous studies in this field.

Global trends in higher education are calling now for public university reforms which aim to increase the competitiveness of the university on the world markets, enlarging its role in the economy and in society by making it more entrepreneurial, more efficient, and closer to practical life. In order to achieve these goals, universities should be managed in a different way. The principles of New Public Management (NPM), which are being actively introduced in Russian universities, substantially transform educational and scientific practices. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the growing crisis of NPM-based university institutional reforms in terms of legitimisation, to reveal which factors shape legitimacy, and to show why legitimacy as such cannot be achieved within the framework of NPM.

The productivity and efficiency of the NPM-based strategy are mainly defined by the attitudes of all actors, or stakeholders. As such, it is very important to investigate local responses on a workplace level, in order to understand how insiders – lecturers and researchers – view the structural changes taking place within Russian universities. In order to do so, an empirical research of lecturers in four national research universities (NRUs) in St Petersburg has been organised. Using a self-designed questionnaire, the authors assessed the academic perceptions and evaluations of certain changes which have taken place in Russian universities over the last few years. In all, 126 teachers of four St Petersburg NRUs took part in the survey, which was conducted between January and February 2015 and consisted of questions measuring resources of legitimacy and legitimacy markers.

Legitimacy markers were revealed such as acceptance of goals, positive perception of results and emotional state. A serious conflict between the existing cognitive culture of universities and the new managerialistic approach was diagnosed. The legitimacy of NPM-based reforms in Russian NRUs was proven to be low for the following reasons: the objectives of reforms are unclear or even unknown to employees; the results of the reforms are either not seen or negatively evaluated; and the reforms provoke stress and professional burnout. The following factors influencing the process of legitimisation were proven to be significant: the agreement of personnel with reforms and the changes they bring, positive perception of changes, opportunity to participate in decision making (engagement), and, to some extent, influence. Remuneration has only a slight effect on legitimacy.

The findings of this study are not free from limitations. The data were collected within only four research universities in St Petersburg. Furthermore, the authors’ findings are based on self-reported data, which can be biased. Increasing the volume of the sample and the number of NRUs could be one solution. In the future, research could be developed by enhancing the sample, by making international comparisons, and by providing a more detailed questionnaire.

Higher education systems in many countries in the world are going through similar reforms and are facing similar issues: increasing competition for funds, students and teachers, massification and commercialisation of education, a new managerialistic approach to governance, research valorisation, and effective contracts. New managerial ideology is having a big impact on university culture and can cause passive resistance to reforms, along with disappointment, frustration and professional burnout. These are important issues which cannot be ignored if a successful “third generation” entrepreneurial university is to be built. This study provides important insights into the perceptions of reforms and requires us to pay more attention to university as a social and public value.

The research is original. It is interesting and new because it discusses the NPM-based reforms in higher education in the Russian Federation, a country which was earlier quite well-known for the quality of its education and richness of its university traditions, and empirically tests the factors influencing their legitimacy. Prior research on legitimacy applies the concept mainly in politics. Otherwise, legitimacy is still a concept which is difficult in terms of both theoretical interpretation and empirical validation. The results of the study have practical implications for providing and developing more effective governance in public organisations.

As part of my on‐going investigation into the ways library planners are integrating learning technologies into their buildings’ architecture and facilities, I visited the libraries of four professional/technical universities in the UK. All of these institutions have only become fully fledged universities within the past ten years and all of them have opened libraries within the past four. In each instance, the buildings modify the traditional understanding of a “library” as an information resource by integrating technology training labs, multimedia resources, and other support services. The British consider these to be “hybrid” libraries, although these buildings are also indicative of the future of information resource accessibility for academic institutions across the board. This article will analyze the features of each of the four libraries and seek to demonstrate how their “hybrid” qualities are fitting into developing trends of library design and technology design already identified by this author in previous articles.

Saskatchewan school, special, public and academic libraries have created digital collections to serve their user communities better. The digital projects cover a wide range of topics from sports history to First Nations art and artifacts. While some of the projects are short‐term, other projects span a number of years and have a number of phases. The various digital collections and some of the challenges faced by the early digital project initiatives are described in this article.

SO much controversy has raged around the subject of newsrooms in the past two years, that librarians are, as a rule, utterly tired of it, and the appearance of still another article upon the subject is not calculated to tone down the general spirit of vexation. It requires no little courage to appear in the arena in this year of Grace, openly championing those departments of our institutions which were originally intended to convey the news of the day in the broadest manner.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has drastically affected the public discourse on tourism in news reporting and on social media, potentially changing social perceptions of travel and its utility for conspicuous consumption. Prestige enhancement is a common tourist motivation, yet, as tourists have been portrayed as irresponsible and even dangerous during the pandemic, the benefits of travel for personal prestige may have been affected. The purpose of this study is to monitor changes in tourists’ personal prestige during the early pandemic in 2020.

The authors developed an innovative study design implicitly measuring the personal prestige of tourists shown on experimentally manipulated social media posts. Three measurement waves were issued to compare the personal prestige of tourists just before, during and after the first lockdown situation in Germany.

Differences regarding evaluations of tourists’ prestige were found for prestige dimensions of hedonism, achievements, wealth and power, suggesting that prestige ascription to tourists has been affected by the changing discourse on leisure travel.

This study contributes to the discussion of the socio-psychological effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on customer benefits of leisure travel. It exposes possible impacts of the pandemic on tourisms’ value for conspicuous consumption and prestige enhancement.

SOMEWHERE BEFORE the end of this two‐part article I shall mention one library and at least one book. That should justify reminiscences of a brief holiday in the Soviet Union appearing in a library journal. The July and August issues have been chosen in order to achieve a gripping contrast between British high summer and deep Russian winter and hence, to gain maximum sympathy for the conditions we endured.

The Hertfordshire Association of Leisure Officers (HALO), the Eastern Arts Association, and the Hertfordshire College of Building at St Albans have got together to arrange what is thought to be the country's first NEBSS day release course for leisure supervisors in which the syllabus covers the arts as well as recreation and sport.

The purpose of this paper is to consider why Richard Dawes (1793-1867) academic, college business manager and Church of England priest developed a curriculum in a nineteenth century English village school with which he sought to modify differences in social class and achieved outstanding results in student engagement and educational attainment.

The approach is documentary. It uses books and internet scans of original documents. It locates Dawes's work in the social movements of early nineteenth century Britain and associates Dawes's activities with those of Kay-Shuttleworth who was administrator of the British government's first move to provide education for poor children.

Dawes emphasised tolerance and secular teaching within a school system devoted to instilling Church of England doctrine. He based classroom teaching on things familiar to children and integrated subject content. He used science to encourage parents of “that class immediately above that of labourers” to send their children to his school to overcome class differences. For his system to be widely adopted he needed science teachers trained in his practical teaching methods. Initial government support for science in elementary schools was eroded by Church of England opposition to state intervention in education.

Dawes's pedagogic achievements are well known in the history of science education; his secular teaching in a church school and his valiant attempt to use science as an instrument of social change, perhaps less so.

PROPERLY administrated, the reading room—displaying newspapers, magazines, and ready‐reference books—may, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, become an important contributory factor in the educational work of our libraries. Let us examine the position closely. It is admitted, even by intemperate opponents, that the reading room is one of our most frequented departments. How, then, may the librarian make it of real educational value to the frequenters? This is a significant question, and, in the limited space available, we propose to indicate a few directions in which much might be done to enhance the utility of this department, and, within certain limits, to systematize its work on the lines of the policy governing the circulating departments. First of all, there is the important question of planning the room; and, although the size and arrangement must, to a large extent, depend upon the local requirements, a few general observations, applicable under almost all circumstances, may here be made. The room should be so designed as to facilitate supervision—glass partitions being more desirable than solid walls. Wherever practicable, the exit should be within view of the staff. For passages between tables, ample space should be allowed—six to eight feet being a reasonable width where movable chairs are used. The accompanying plan obviates the necessity for further comment, and will, perhaps, convey a clearer idea of what is required.