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The purpose of this paper is to examine eight years of quantitative and qualitative student feedback on library services collected through an institution-wide student satisfaction survey.

This paper utilizes data collected during an eight-year period from the college’s student satisfaction survey. This survey contained 40 questions which addressed topics concerning the college’s 13 major departments. Six of the questions were devoted to library services.

Over the eight years surveyed, across all divisions surveyed (undergraduate students, graduate students and graduate Saturday students), students on average tended to select “agree” or “strongly agree” with the following six questions asked: The materials in the library meet my course requirements. The library has enough laptop computers for student use. The instructional materials for using the online databases are helpful. The library hours match my schedule and needs. The library equipment is in good working order. The library is generally quiet and suitable for study.

This institutionally crafted, mixed methods survey was deployed over an eight-year period at a relatively minimal cost (in-house staff hours were used to analyze the data gathered and paper Scantron sheets were used to deploy). Furthermore, rich data were gathered from a relatively simple instrument and this information was used to make institution-wide decisions.

The hospital industry is again experiencing a wave of consolidation as formerly independent hospitals are acquired by multihospital systems. The effects of these consolidations on operating costs and care quality have been researched extensively. However, in addition to these benefits, many hospitals also hope that joining a multihospital system will improve their access to capital. Improved access to capital could be a particularly important benefit for independent, not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals because these hospitals face capital constraints since they lack access to publicly issued equity. Despite being an often-cited benefit of system membership, access to capital has received little attention from researchers. We draw on financial theory to identify several mechanisms through which system membership might improve access to capital for acquired NFP hospitals. We develop and test hypotheses using data from an earlier period of hospital consolidation during which hospitals were even more financially constrained than they are at present. Using propensity score matched control hospitals, we examine changes in leverage that occurred after independent hospitals joined multihospital systems. We find evidence that system membership allows under-leveraged hospitals to increase their debt holdings, suggesting that system membership may help NFP hospitals attain an optimal capital structure.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper compares the performance of the big four UK banks and four Australian banks between 2004‐2009. The banks are chosen according to the total assets as listed in The Banker magazine 2009. The purpose is to analyse why UK banks were more vulnerable to the financial crisis of 2007‐2009 than Australian banks. The consequence of this study is what improvements can be made in relation to liquidity, leverage, loan to deposit, asset quality and capital ratios.

The author adopts an empirical approach and gathers data from the annual reports of the big four UK banks and Australian banks and the database “Factiva” and the Financial Times. The data contains liquidity, debt, capital, asset quality and profitability ratios during 2004‐2009.

The author's data show UK banks had on average higher cash ratios, higher leverage ratios, higher loan to deposit ratios, higher capital ratios, lower asset quality, lower ROA but higher ROE than the Australian banks.

The results support the findings in the Financial Development Index 2011 of the World Economic Forum. UK banks should ameliorate its ranking on financial stability by improving the quality of loans and capital.

The analysis is of use to regulators who are contemplating the need for reforms aimed at improving financial ratios of banks. Basel III Accord has introduced some recommendations but has its limitations.

This paper's value lies in providing analysis of the top four UK and Australian banks' performances during 2004‐2009. There is room for improvement in providing a more stable financial environment in the UK.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a need to consider gender or sex differences as variables in information behaviour research and, if so, how?

A metasynthesis approach is used. A preliminary framework to categorise information behaviour research on women is developed by integrating main themes from feminist research and information behaviour research. Within each category, studies are compared and contrasted, to identify similar and divergent themes. Themes are then compared across categories, to synthesise the main concepts.

The categorisation works for most studies, apart from a group of studies on health information use, communicating risk and decision making. The meta‐synthesis indicates the importance of concepts such as situation (as mesh), intermediaries (as node with connections), and connecting behaviour. Gender‐related or, rather gender‐ascribed, constructs, such as concern for others, not gender alone are likely to be important variables in information behaviour.

The meta‐synthesis is a top‐level synthesis, as the number of studies prohibited a more detailed approach. Further meta‐synthesis of a few high quality research studies would help to confirm the findings.

The synthesis illuminates a different perspective on information behaviour: the network of information users rather than the individual information seeker.

The synthesis integrates some feminist research themes with information behaviour research, and the findings have implications for general information behaviour research.

Many child‐focused civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Africa, Asia and South America have shifted from organising their work around children's needs to promoting their rights. The rights‐based frameworks they use are informed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article explores the value of global rights. Ethnographic studies about the lives of young people and their transition into adulthood point to diversity of ideas about childhood in different parts of the world, raising questions about whether the idea of universal child rights can accommodate such varied worldviews. Yet CSOs have often failed to take account of this diversity in the way they use rights frameworks. Research by anthropologists about children in three situations ‐ at work, on the move and facing violence ‐ is used here to reveal the problems caused if rights frameworks are used without sufficient understanding of context and complexity.

In Chapter 1, a broad overview of the scope of entrepreneurialism in policing and criminal contexts which are broadly positive in nature was developed. In Chapter 2, the scrutiny to cover socio-cultural and organisational barriers to the implementation of entrepreneurial policing are extended. These include police culture, organisational traits such as ‘Machismo’ and ‘Conformism’, the restrictive nature of the police rank structure, the military model of policing, bureaucracy, risk-aversion, anti-entrepreneurialism, anti-intellectualism, the ‘Maverick’ stereotype, and the ‘Questioning Constable’. Many of these elements are of a negative nature and inhibit the implementation of entrepreneurial policing and practices. Also the entrepreneurial organisation and issues such as privatisation, commercialisation, innovation, and technology which also inhibit entrepreneurialism in policing contexts, but which also offer significant opportunities, are considered.

On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.