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This paper aims to evaluate the reception of the Amazon Kindle e‐book lending program at the Texas A&M University Libraries.

The paper presents an analysis of genre of titles requested to be loaded onto the e‐book readers as well as a general review of the e‐book lending model.

The Kindle e‐book readers were extremely popular, and users selected titles for them that were mostly of a general reading nature; academic titles were rarely selected. The Texas A&M lending service has been successful and will continue. Other libraries should investigate e‐book readers to supplement their bestseller and new book collections.

E‐book devices offer sophisticated users a reading option that fits many needs. This is a relatively new way that libraries can offer sophisticated users options for reading; libraries must continue to invest in new ways of delivering content.

This is the first study on e‐book reader lending services in libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to assess initial user perceptions and use of Amazon's Kindle e‐book reader.

Thirty‐six participants were provided with a Kindle e‐book reader and $100 to spend at Amazon. After one month of use focus groups were conducted to elicit user feedback about their experiences and overall first impressions.

Analysis of the discussions indicates overall interest in the Kindle as a basic reading device for fiction. However, its use in an academic setting is limited due to content availability and licensing issues, graphic display capabilities, organizational issues, and its prohibitive cost.

This is the first research paper of its kind to report on qualitative research conducted on user perceptions of the Kindle e‐book reader.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the further evolution of electronic resources access support at Texas A&M University Libraries with recommendations for incorporating ER support into a virtual reference (VR) service. In a previous article, the implementation of a two‐tiered electronic resources (ER) HelpDesk service was discussed. While an improvement, that service existed in parallel with the library's VR service, requiring separate staff and expertise. After considerable discussion and exploration, it became apparent that the needs of ER support could be met, with some modification, within the VR service.

A project at the Texas A&M University Libraries sought to utilize an existing VR service, staffed by reference librarians and staff, to expand and improve handling and resolving ER access problems.

VR software is effective for managing an electronic access problem reporting system. Integrating ER support into VR more broadly and equitably distributes responsibility for access and supports improved service for patrons and increased transparency and functionality for staff who respond to electronic resources access problems.

Virtual reference and electronic resources staff can merge similar responsibilities for better service to patrons.

This article offers experience‐based guidance on utilizing VR technology and staff to effectively address and resolve electronic resource access problems. Our research suggests that there has not been another report of the use of integrating electronic resource problem reporting into virtual reference services.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which youth have ready access to alcohol and the extent to which immediate family influence affects consumption.

This qualitative descriptive exploratory study undertook semi-structured peer-group interviews with 20 participants from four New Zealand high schools. The interviews centred on exploring the “general” experiences of youth related to alcohol access – but with a focus on alcohol access “at home” and the parental role.

The study confirmed that the home unit was the main source of alcohol for most youth and parents were the most common source of provision. Parents provided financial access to alcohol by giving their child money to purchase it themselves through older family members or friends. It was also found that youth used negotiation strategies with their parents to influence their consumer purchases of alcohol.

Youth frequently used strategies such as pressure tactics, exchange tactics, ingratiating tactics and consultation tactics to influence their family’s decision-making process and to pressure their parents into supplying them with alcohol.

It is important to recognise the role that family play as “gatekeepers” for readily allowing access and supplying youth with alcohol – and the reasons for doing so.

Alcohol plays an important part in many societies. It is important to understand how young people consume and access alcohol – particularly when the family plays a major role in access and consumption.

Many studies have been conducted in relation to youth and alcohol consumption. Very few, as far as we can tell, explore the role of the family from the young consumers’ perspective and especially from a qualitative narrative perspective.

In the year 1900 Koch expressed the view that human and bovine tuberculosis were distinct diseases, that the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis could not produce this disease in the human subject, and that the bacillus of human tuberculosis could not set it up in the bovine species. As is now well known. these conclusions have not received the slightest confirmation from other workers in the same field, and it may be said that the consensus of scientific opinion is now to the effect that the bacilli of human and bovine tuberculosis are identical—at any rate, so far as the effects attributed to them are concerned. The Royal Commission appointed in 1901, and consisting of the late Sir MICHAEL FOSTER, Drs. SIMS WOODHEAD, SIDNEY MARTIN, MACFADYEAN, and BOYCE, have issued a further interim report on their investigations. The first interim report was published in 1904, the conclusions stated in it being to the effect that the human and animal diseases were identical, and that no characteristics by which the one could be distinguished from the other had been discovered. The report now issued shows that these conclusions are confirmed by the results of a very large number of fresh experiments. The main conclusions set forth in the present report are as understated :—

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the Brexit referendum on the risk structure of financial asset prices. Co-movements are analysed using daily price returns of major stock and bond indices as well as commodities and exchange rates from June 2014 to June 2018. The authors used a multivariate GARCH model to study the dynamics of the conditional correlation matrix of asset returns. It was found that the conditional variances and correlations of assets spike on and after the Brexit referendum and then quickly revert to normal levels, suggesting that the effect of the referendum was transient rather than structural. The findings are of interest to investors as co-movements of financial assets can significantly impact financial portfolios and hedging strategies.

The authors used a multivariate GARCH model to study the dynamics of the conditional correlation matrix of asset returns.

It was found that the conditional variances and correlations of assets spike on and after the Brexit referendum and then quickly revert to normal levels, suggesting that the effect of the referendum was transient rather than structural.

The findings are of interest to investors as co-movements of financial assets can significantly impact financial portfolios and hedging strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, research studying the underlying asset co-movements around Brexit does not exist.

The purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations’ information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated interactions. A model of media synchronicity in organizational social exchange (MSiOSE) is proposed.

The paper has a design and review approach. The theoretical analysis is based on social exchange theory (SET) and media synchronicity theory (MST).

The authors propose that, in general, social exchange benefits from both asynchronous and synchronous communication processes. However, media synchronicity has different boundary conditions (i.e. pros and cons) in relation to the emergence of social exchange, determined in accordance with the mutually interacting patterns of trust and reciprocity predicted by SET. The authors provide testable theoretical propositions to support the analysis.

Social exchange is a critical business factor for organizations due to its well-known positive outcomes, such as the strengthening of social ties. The need for successful social exchange in remote work conditions is particularly emphasized. However, with regard to the communication and behavioral patterns that lead to social exchange via ICT, the theoretical understanding is limited. The study reveals previously unmapped heuristics between social exchange and physical media capabilities. Thus, the study's propositions can be used to study and analyze social exchange in the ever-changing media landscape. As a practical contribution, the study helps organizations to improve their communication strategies and use of ICT.

The Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Trade, presided over by LORD E. FITZMAURICE, met again on July 16th and proceeded with the Sale of Adulterated Butter Bill.

The authors investigate the durability of international entrepreneurial cognitions. Specifically, they examine how advanced business education and the Covid-19 pandemic influence international entrepreneurial orientation disposition (IEOD), and subsequently entrepreneurial intentions (EIs), to better understand the psychological dynamics underpinning the drivers of international entrepreneurship.

Against the backdrop of emerging entrepreneurial cognition and international entrepreneurial orientation research, the authors theorize that both a planned business education intervention (voluntary) and an unforeseeable radical environmental (involuntary) change constitute cognitive shocks impacting the disposition and intention to engage in entrepreneurial efforts. The authors use pre- and post-Covid-19 panel data (n = 233) and uniquely identify the idiosyncratic cognitive effects of Covid-19 through changes in the OCEAN personality assessment.

Findings demonstrate that when individuals' perceived psychological impact of Covid-19 is low, business education increases IEOD. Conversely, the effects of a strongly perceived Covid-19 impact reduce the risk-taking and proactiveness components of the IEOD scale. The authors trace the same effects forward to EIs.

This paper contributes to a greater understanding of the resilience of entrepreneurial dispositions through an empirical test of the IEOD scale and shows its boundary conditions under planned intervention as well as unplanned externally induced shock.

The study offers a first benchmark to practitioners of the malleability of international entrepreneurial dispositions and discusses the potential to encourage international entrepreneurial behaviour and the individual-level dispositional risk posed by exogenous shocks.

The study uniquely employs a baseline measure of all our constructs pre-Covid-19 to discern and isolate the pandemic impact on entrepreneurial dispositions and intentions, responding to recent calls for more experimental designs in entrepreneurship research.