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The manager must take into account various human factors when introducing computers into the library. A survey of literature reveals the key fears of employees involved in library automation — to be concerned with job security, job satisfaction and health and safety. These findings are compared with data collected from a questionnaire administered to staff in four libraries, all in the process of automating various tasks. The effects of computerisation of the library service on users is also examined, with an analysis of literature and a questionnaire sent to 30 students in the College for the Distributive Trades. The author discusses ways in which the manager can interest and motivate staff by eliminating causes of dissatisfaction and by taking positive steps in appealing to employees' self‐interest in the possibilities of career advancement and the challenge of mastering something new. Staff selection procedures need to be amended to acquire the necessary skills, and training should be ongoing. The response of users to library automation is often enthusiastic but real benefits can be difficult to measure. The onus is ultimately on librarians to demonstrate that they still have a key role to play in the provision of information.

This chapter considers how social capital is evolving in the era of globalization today especially under COVID-19 pandemic conditions globally. Definitions of social capital have varied: some broad others narrow. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for example, currently has a broad research project on social capital. These researchers have defined social capital as comprising four key areas. These areas are:

• Personal relationships, referring to the structure of people’s social networks.

• Depth and breadth of social network support available to each person in their networks.

• Civic engagement activities such as volunteering and community action.

• Beliefs, attitudes, and action frames of reference such as trust and cooperative norms, of reciprocity.

Personal relationships, referring to the structure of people’s social networks.

Depth and breadth of social network support available to each person in their networks.

Civic engagement activities such as volunteering and community action.

Beliefs, attitudes, and action frames of reference such as trust and cooperative norms, of reciprocity.

Thus, there are tacit as well as explicit aspects of social capital though some of these may seldom if ever be articulated and delineated for others.

As Claridge (2020) indicates, there are distinct, but dynamically interrelated, levels of social capital. These levels range between the micro- or individual level. That is personal “habitus” – which Bourdieu (1977) describes as a person’s “taken-for-granted” – ways of being, thinking, and reacting to events and to other people. Then, the next level above the individual is the meso-level, which is “how things are done here amongst us,” that is, the level of a group’s social capital (such as a team, or an organizational or local community level). Lastly, and wider still, the top level is the macro- or cultural-societal structural level of the nation.

The social capital systems in any location encompasses sets of acceptable or culturally legitimated behavioral norms and rules of engagement between community members which include types of greetings, forms of cooperation, communications, and signaling between diverse members. Thus, social capital may be present in the tacit, or unspoken/taken-for-granted assumptions as much as in explicit or formalized codes of behavior. The forms of social interactions at each of the levels may have norms for specific types communication and address in particular sets of circumstances such as social gatherings at home or in public or when attending communal gatherings or ceremonial occasions, or between people of different social status. Social capital generates trust and social cohesion and some level of cultural and attitudinal consensus and interest, which in turn delivers a stable environment for the local community or larger society, business, or the economy.

• (1)

  Social capital is the development of relationships that help contribute to a more efficient production of goods and services as there is embedded trust, embodied in practice, that is, in behaviors regarded as trustworthy and socially helpful.

• (2)

  There are three types of social capital at each level of interaction – bonding, bridging, and linking. Bridging and linking are similar though they operate in different directions socially. Bonding social capital describes the connections between people in similar social levels or groups of people who share the same characteristic norms and beliefs, whereas linking social capital facilitates connects between different groups.

• (3)

  Social capital can therefore make or break businesses, especially small businesses or start-ups as those with the right kind and amount of social capital, such as good connections and contacts in the trade or profession, can usually thrive as they are able to get work done more quickly, effectively, and efficiently. Conversely, a lack of social capital denoting some distrust between groups can undermine social stability.

Social capital is the development of relationships that help contribute to a more efficient production of goods and services as there is embedded trust, embodied in practice, that is, in behaviors regarded as trustworthy and socially helpful.

There are three types of social capital at each level of interaction – bonding, bridging, and linking. Bridging and linking are similar though they operate in different directions socially. Bonding social capital describes the connections between people in similar social levels or groups of people who share the same characteristic norms and beliefs, whereas linking social capital facilitates connects between different groups.

Social capital can therefore make or break businesses, especially small businesses or start-ups as those with the right kind and amount of social capital, such as good connections and contacts in the trade or profession, can usually thrive as they are able to get work done more quickly, effectively, and efficiently. Conversely, a lack of social capital denoting some distrust between groups can undermine social stability.

The meso- or macro-levels of bridging type social capital ensures acceptance of established social roles locally and linking forms of social capital boost levels of acceptance of other roles such as those of leaders and followers.

All three forms of social capital and the three levels are not mutually exclusive but instead are mutually inclusive and interrelated. That is, they co-evolve, each impacting the other while dynamically interacting with the social capital anchored as it is emerging from the complex and interwoven fields of tacit and explicit norms of social interaction underpinning each of the levels of interaction over time.

IT would be quite impossible adequately to report a Dublin conference of any kind in purely professional terms. The warm friendliness of its people demands an equally personal reaction from its visitors and for public librarians certainly this is as it should be, because we are ourselves, above all, involved with people. So professional affairs at this conference were kept in their proper place—as only a part of the whole and merely providing a framework round which the business of renewing contacts and making friends could take place.

As a consequence of both limited funding and a desire to remain independent of any single supplier, the University of Lancaster Library is developing an integrated library package with software based on the Pick operating system. The first stage in the library's automation programme, an acquisitions system, went live in April 1987. This article presents an account of its implementation, and shows how wide participation in its development has resulted in various refinements and in swift acceptance by all levels of staff. A full description of the system is given, showing the day‐to‐day procedures involved and the unlimited enquiry potential provided by the Pick access language. The system is judged a great success, both on its own merits and as the First stage in the library's continuing automation programme.

Chronic unemployment is a flaw in modern capitalism that calls for reform. Unlike expansionary demand‐management programmes, public works will be non‐inflationary if they put back into the economy in government spending no more than the dollar value taken from the economy in taxes. The spending should be labour intensive while all associated taxing should target sectors and products that are capital intensive. This economic approach is not expansionary/ inflationary but structural: the reforms would shift production in a labour‐using as opposed to a labour‐saving direction, so that it would take more hours of work to produce the same GNP. The pool of workers who are under‐employed and unemployed would supply the required extra hours. First, examines the problems associated with fiscal and monetary approaches to unemployment. Then details the proposed reforms, looks at technical aspects, diagrams and macro‐economic implications, and considers the probable effects on the US balance of trade. The final section considers the critics′ view that an automation tax would be a neo‐Luddite attack on technological progress.

Ranking of retrieved documents in the descending order of their association with the inquiry has been known in theory for a very long time, but so far it has found only limited use in operational online systems, Because of the ranking, the documents that are probably relevant are concentrated at the top of the set of documents retrieved and submitted for display. This affects the practical strategy of online retrieval that differs essentially from the search strategy in the traditional Boolean‐oriented systems: the inquirer does not need to reformulate his inquiry if it yields too many documents nor to be too anxious at the selection of inquiry terms. Consequently, types of inquiry can be used that are inadmissible in Boolean‐oriented systems or in systems that rank only a limited number of documents.

While most automation suppliers are willing to follow the technology trend and build products in order to stay current with market demand, the truly innovative and entrepreneurial company is setting expectations and providing forward‐thinking solutions for its customers. Blindly shifting all development resources into a client/server solution without fully understanding the longevity and future implications of the technology will ultimately lead to accelerated obsolescence, a short‐term customer base, and, finally, failure to forge long‐term partnerships with customers. Having almost 20 years of experience providing long‐term solutions and strong partnerships with its customers, the author believes that Innovative Interfaces has been able to look beyond the current technology and anticipate the needs of the future. A current example of the foresight and evolutionary approach to the introduction of new technology is demonstrated through Innovative's client/server architecture. To ensure that every INNOPAC customer has a system that can continue to grow and remain current into the next century, Innovative has introduced INNOPAC Millennium and is redefining client/server expectations.