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To obtain a national picture of interlibrary lending in the UK, a survey of all libraries was carried out in February 1977, with an approximate 75% response. A third of all requests was for monographs, 56% for serials. Half the demand came from academic libraries, 16% from public libraries, and a third from other libraries. The British Library was used successfully for 73% of all requests, the regional systems for 11%–12% and direct application for 12%–13%; 3% were unsatisfied; the regional systems accounted for half of all successful public library requests. The British Library itself supplied 70% of requested items, public libraries 10%, academic libraries 9% and other libraries 8%. Satisfaction rates for different channels ranged from 94% (British Library) to 77% (regional bureaux). Median times from requesting to receipt varied between 6 days (British Library) and 14 days (regional bureaux).

Describes research into managers′ experiences of significant organizational change attempts. The research project was aimed at developing frameworks which: describe, illuminate and enable a better understanding of managers′ journeys through organizational change; serve as a template for bringing together the very diverse and fragmented literature relating to individuals experiencing change; highlight issues and pointers for the design and facilitation of effective organizational change initiatives. The first part describes the context, spirit, intentions, sample and methodology of the research. Also, reviews a broad range of literature which can inform our understanding of individuals in change. Propounds the need to open up the “real world” of organizational change, as perceived and experienced by managers, rather than any “ideal” view of how that world is desired or supposed to be. Presents and discusses research findings on the sensed and initiating “primary” triggers for change‐that is, the formal and communicated organizational change objectives; and the perceived and felt “secondary” triggers for change‐that is, the issues raised by, and the implications of, the organizational changes for individual managers. The second part presents a framework depicting the phases and components of managers′ journeys through organizational change. On the framework, the experience of managers can be located, in terms of their thoughts, feelings and behaviours, as the processes of change unfold. While each manager′s journey was found to be unique, the framework proved to be ubiquitous in enabling the mapping of all the managers′ journeys, and it also accommodates literature on phenomena as diverse as learning, personal transition, catastrophe and survival, trauma and stress, loss and “death”, and worry and grief. The findings emphasize the profoundness and deeply felt emotionality of many managers′ experiencing of change in organizations. Finally, identifies the outcomes of managers′ journeys through significant attempts at organizational change. Also presents the reported helping and hindering factors to those journeys. Implications of these findings are pursued, particularly in terms of the leadership and development roles and behaviours required, if the organization and its management are to move beyond simply requiring change towards actively facilitating its achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the transparency of European emerging real estate market dynamics and performance attributes in the wake of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis (GFC). The paper examines the extent and nature of inter-relationships between three emerging real estate markets namely, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland as well as determining the rationale for including emerging real estate markets within a Pan-European investment portfolio. The paper affords a timely update following the reinstatement of lending provision for European emerging real estate investment markets in 2014.

The paper employs lead-lag correlations and Grainger causality to examine inter and intra relationships across three emerging European real estate markets, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland over the period 2006-2014. Optimal portfolio analysis is undertaken to explore the role of emerging real estate markets within the confines of a multi-asset investment portfolio as well as a Pan-European real estate investment portfolio.

The findings demonstrate the opportunities afforded by the European emerging real estate markets in terms of both performance enhancement and risk diversification. Significantly, the findings highlight the lack of “uniformity” across the European emerging markets in terms of their investment potential, with Grainger causality confirming that the real estate markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are not endogenous functions of one-another’s performance.

This paper makes a considered contribution to the analytical interpretation of European emerging property market performance across the real estate cycle. The research demonstrates that the real estate markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland exhibit specific investment characteristics which differentiate them from the more developed real estate markets across Europe. Indeed emerging markets have the propensity to serve as both a risk diversifier as well as performance enhancer within the confines of a pan-European real estate investment portfolio. However, as the research clearly articulates, intricate understanding of the attributes afforded by the different emerging markets as well as the divergence in sectoral dynamics/performance is integral to portfolio allocation strategies.

Robust academic research on Europe’s emerging real estate markets has been hampered by deficiencies in data provision. This study makes an innovative and timely contribution to redressing the research vacuum through delineated examination of the performance dynamics of three markets namely, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, across the real estate cycle. The role and function of emerging markets is depicted within the confines of a Pan-European direct real estate investment portfolio at the all property level and in terms of sectoral specific allocations comprising retail, office and industrial. The explicit added value of the paper is the propensity to bench-mark the performance of emerging markets real estate markets on a like-for-like basis with developed real estate markets across Europe facilitating the exploration of the role and function of emerging real estate markets within a Pan-European investment context.

New Internet domains. The seven new generic Top Level Domains for the Internet, plans for which were announced in our last issue, have been approved by the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) of the Internet Society.

In Australia, the A$2.2 trillion managed funds industry including the large pension funds (known locally as superannuation funds) are the dominant institutional property investors. While statistical information on the level of Australian managed fund investments in property assets is widely available, comprehensive practical evidence on property asset allocation decision-making process is underdeveloped. The purpose of this research is to identify Australian fund manager's property asset allocation strategies and decision-making frameworks at strategic level.

The research was undertaken in May-August 2011 using an in-depth semi-structured questionnaire administered by mail. The survey was targeted at 130 leading managed funds and asset consultants within Australia.

The evaluation of the 79 survey respondents indicated that Australian fund manager's property allocation decision-making process is an interactive, sequential and continuous process involving multiple decision-makers (internal and external) complete with feedback loops. It involves a combination of quantitative analysis (mainly mean-variance analysis) and qualitative overlay (mainly judgement, or “gut-feeling”, and experience). In addition, the research provided evidence that the property allocation decision-making process varies depending on the size and type of managed fund.

This research makes important contributions to both practical and academic fields. Information on strategic property allocation models and variables is not widely available, and there is little guiding theory related to the subject. Therefore, the conceptual frameworks developed from the research will help enhance academic theory and understanding in the area of property allocation decision making. Furthermore, the research provides small fund managers and industry practitioners with a platform from which to improve their own property allocation processes.

In contrast to previous property decision-making research in Australia which has mainly focused on strategies at the property fund investment level, this research investigates the institutional property allocation decision-making process from a strategic position involving all major groups in the Australian managed funds industry.

The expansion of religious diversity in US workplaces increases the relevance of leaders' religious motivations and the impact on their organizations. This paper aims to investigate whether small company leaders' religious motivations predict their perceptions that their organization's values are directed to the welfare of others.

A survey was mailed to top executives of Midwestern US firms with 20 to 250 employees, measuring leaders' organizational values and religious motivation. The sample revealed itself to be mostly Christian.

Findings show that, as predicted, leaders higher in extrinsic religious motivation toward personal benefit were less likely than those lower in this type of religious motivation to perceive other‐directed organizational values. However, neither intrinsic religious motivation nor extrinsic religious motivation toward social ends predicted a tendency to perceive other‐directed organizational values.

Future research directions could assess the impact of beliefs associated with faith traditions on leader values and decision making. Further, a qualitative approach to data gathering may result in richer data. Limitations include a relatively low response rate and a sample skewed toward religiously motivated, mostly Christian small business leaders.

Just because small business leaders are religiously motivated does not mean that their perceived organizational values will be directed toward the welfare of others.

Little research exists about how small business leaders' religious motivations affect their organizational values. This research counters common assumptions that leaders' religious motivations will affect how they view their organizations' values.

Librarians increasingly encounter decisions related to the use and/or purchase of an expanding body of bibliographic databases. This article examines the coverage of anthropology literatures in major academic indexes widely available in electronic format. Eight databases were selected for comparison, including three subject‐specific indexes, two multidisciplinary social sciences indexes, and three general academic indexes. Indexes were compared for their coverage of a core list of 135 anthropology journals as well as journals relevant to anthropology in other social science disciplines. In addition to journal coverage, several index characteristics were also compared: years of coverage; timeliness; extent of indexing; record structure; search software; and availability of controlled vocabulary, abstracts and full text. It is concluded that each database has relative merits and weaknesses and that these multiple factors must be considered within the context of local conditions in order to determine which database products are appropriate for meeting local information needs.

This paper aims to show the results from a pioneering primary care‐based extended scope physiotherapist (ESP) led service, which placed patients directly onto the surgical waiting list of secondary care orthopaedic consultants over a two‐year period.

A retrospective data review was performed on all referrals from community‐based ESPs for direct listing at the secondary care hospital between 2 January 2008 and 31 December 2009.

A total of 130 referrals for direct listing were made by the ESP team during the two‐year period. Of these, 127 (98 per cent) went on to undergo a THR. Three patients (2 per cent) did not ultimately have a THR.

This process has continued over the two years of the direct listing service, with ongoing evaluation and refinement of the pathway, so referral criteria and clinical/administrative pathways have been changed in the light of experience.

Patients who were directly listed did not require a hospital orthopaedic outpatient appointment until attendance at preoperative assessment clinic shortly before their surgery. In addition to the reduction in inconvenience and travelling costs incurred by patients, there was an approximate saving of £145 to the primary care trust per directly listed patient.

The authors believe that this service evaluation is the first publication to show that direct listing by primary care based ESPs is a safe and effective process for some patients requiring primary THR.

An online library catalogue served as a testbed to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi probabilistic term weighting retrieval system. The facility was implemented in a graphical user interface (gui) environment using a game‐board metaphor for the search process, and allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. The take‐up of the interactive query expansion option was found to be lower, and its retrieval performance less effective, compared to previous tests featuring automatic query expansion. Contributory factors including the number, presentation and source of terms are discussed.

This paper focuses on Taiwanese‐funded manufacturing companies operating in mainland China to analyze the factors affecting funding decision‐making before and after initial public offering (IPO).

This research investigates the impact and usefulness of various paths in the data system by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine how the overall economy aspect and the basic aspect before IPO affect the initial returns (IRs) during the IPO and the debt ratio (DR) volatility after listing.

The results show that the IR, percent change of stock index, and exchange rate volatility before IPO are negative associated with the DR after IPO. The age of IPO companies is positive associated with the DR after IPO. This research also finds that the interest rate volatility before and after IPO have no direct effect upon companies' financial strategies after IPO, but may indirectly affect companies' financial strategies after IPO through the IRs, which conform with the market information feedback hypothesis proposed by van Bommel and Vermaelen.

This paper investigates Taiwanese‐funded traditional manufacturing companies in mainland China. The paper obtains the sample from the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1990 to 2005; electronic companies and samples lacking complete data are eliminated. Finally, the sample consists of 122 companies from traditional manufacturing sectors. The results may be applied to companies not from high‐tech sectors and emerging markets only. The incentive of debt financing would be lower for IPO companies with high IRs, percentage changes of stock index, and exchange rate fluctuation before listing. The paper suggests further research can investigate IRs for establishing an optimal capital structure to minimize financing costs and appreciate company value when choosing financing strategies. The new pubic companies will infer the IR and future capital structure through market interest before listing. It suggests future research may be directed at companies from financial and high‐tech sectors, and may apply the methodologies to developed economies.

It is suggested that IPO companies may closely examine to determine the performance of stock market, tendencies of exchange rate movement, as well as IRs in order to establish an optimal capital structure to minimize financing costs and appreciate company value. Besides, the new pubic companies will infer the IR and future capital structure through market interests before listing.

This research implicated that IPO companies should fully understand the stock market circumstance and exchange rate volatility tendencies. Then, the new pubic offering companies will be able to infer the IR and future capital structure through market interest to judge relative financing costs of manufacturing companies.