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Knowledge, as represented in the history of ideas and in studies of knowledge paradigms and bibliographical structures, appears coherent and rationalistic. By examining the work of the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, this view is discussed. Special attention is given, in any cultural or scientific interpretation of an age, to the need to get behind the dominant or hegemonistic body of institutionalized and documented knowledge. We need to investigate the assumptions and underlying influences on the ways in which discourse embody and shape meanings. What preconceptually underpins, we might ask, what people know as knowledge. Important links between language, truth and power are examined, and these are major concerns for Foucault. It is argued that Foucault's ‘archaeological’ and ‘genealogical’ insights into the nature of warranted knowledge are crucial for an understanding of the communication process and the knowledge‐organizing activities of information specialists.

This article discusses the reasons and discourses adopted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Hong Kong SAR Government), with Mr Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief Executive, in preparing young people to become more mature and responsible. In the Hong Kong context this means they should be willing to fulfil community obligations and opt for consultation rather than confrontation should individual or community rights be sought. Confucianism, named after Confucius (551‐479 BCE), has been and still is a vast and complicated system of philosophies, morals, rituals, and ideas, which for well over 2,000 years has informed and inspired the thinking and practice of countless people in Chinese societies and Asian countries in all important areas, including the economy and the polity (Tu, 1998a; Berthrong & Berthrong, 2000; Yao, 2002). Put simply, the goal of Confucian life is to create a peaceful world, with its ethical emphasis placed on the cultivation of the self and the promotion of harmonious and respectful relations with other people in different spheres of human activities.

Much debate in the library literature has focused on the effectiveness of web‐based or online instruction versus traditional face‐to‐face library instruction. While both forms of library instruction have their strengths and weaknesses, the authors contend that a hybrid approach to information literacy instruction, by bringing the web into the classroom, offers students and instructors the greatest benefit. The authors' experience with the evolution of instruction sessions for 1,100 first‐year biology students from PowerPoint presentations to web‐based courseware (WebCT) to its current web‐based format illustrates the improvements to instruction that have accrued as the program has developed. These include the ability to address diverse learning styles, encourage active participation, provide 24/7 access, and foster increased student contact with librarians.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Using staff focus groups in the redevelopment of a library web site deploys their knowledge of user navigation issues and search strategies and addresses the unique needs of library staff. This paper seeks to describe the process of planning, recruiting, and conducting staff focus groups and provide a discussion of lessons learned.

A committee of professionals and non‐professionals from the University of Calgary Library conducted a series of five focus groups with library staff. The goals were to determine their content and service priorities for the redesigned library web site, and also to ensure that staff was included in the redesign process.

This paper makes recommendations for library staff focus group interviewing, including planning, formulating questions, recruitment, conducting sessions, and analysis and reporting.

Focus group interviews can be effectively conducted in‐house, with careful planning and adherence to established guidelines. Focus groups are a very useful method for gathering staff input for web site redesign or any other library‐planning project.

This paper will be useful to librarians interested in assessing staff needs and priorities through focus group interviews. The paper fills a void in the library literature regarding the use of library staff as both focus group leaders and participants.

This paper aims to highlight the productivity and collaborative features of Mendeley, a reference management tool, as well as recommendations on how Mendeley can be incorporated into an information literacy program.

Results from a literature review and feedback from students and faculty were used to provide background for this paper. Mendeley's features and potential benefits to librarians and researchers are discussed.

Feedback from students and faculty who use Mendeley are very positive owing to its productivity and social networking and collaboration features. The literature highlights Mendeley's usefulness in the context of citation management software.

The paper provides useful tips and best practices for integrating Mendeley into information literacy sessions and workshops for students and faculty. The paper also discusses how teaching Mendeley can facilitate scholarly communication between researchers and broaden the role of librarians on campus.

The paper shows that Mendeley enables higher level information literacy by helping users focus on locating and organizing information and spend less time on citation details. Mendeley's social networking features are compatible with emerging work practices, facilitating collaboration among researchers through group's functions and open sharing of information through groups and publication lists.

In the British social formation, especially after 1960, there has been a tendency towards an external mode of control of industrial relations which is based upon the internal regulation of labour collectivities. The article argues that corporatism and hegemony are both inextricably linked facets of the same process — the ideological control of the IR system, embodying both corporate agencies and hegemonic relations, by a state which has various forms.

In a liberal‐democracy, the legislature serves as the democratic arm of the state while the courts serve as the principal protectors of liberal values. There is the potential for conflict between the will of the majority and the rights of individuals and minorities. Legislatures may adopt a detached role, intervening on occasion to give voice to public dissatisfaction with judicial decisions designed to protect human rights, or instead decide to engage in the process of discuss ing and protecting human rights. This paper provides the results of an empirical study of legislatures in European states that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights. It employs a simple dichotomous variable of whether or not a legislature has a human rights committee. Though approximately half the legislatures studied have human rights committees, the proportion is greater among the legislatures in southern, central and eastern Europe. The paper concludes by considering the case for greater engagement by legislatures in other countries.

Anti‐reductionist social theory is a relatively ‘new’ but methodically eclectic body of theory which analyses the complexity of the tripartite theory, policy and practice. The work of Roger Sibeon (1996, 1999 and 2004) has contributed to a sensitising frame work in regard to a sociology of knowledge: generating epistemic narratives for theoretical construction and re‐construction, contrasting to a substantive sociology for knowledge based upon methodological generalisations for empirical or practical use: although the of/for distinction is not inflexible as there are circumstances when they form a process of what Powell and Longino (2001) call ‘articulation’: a united or connected analysis of/for theorising and practice.

Relativism, at least in some of its forms, is antithetical to sociology as traditionally practiced and conceived. (See, for instance, Benton and Crabb, 2001, pp.50‐74 and 93‐1006; Collins 1996a; Mann, 1998; Murphy, 1997; and Taylor‐Gooby, 1994). Hence, sociologists should consider abandoning traditional sociology or rejecting relativism. An example of the sort of relativism I have in mind is the philosophical theory that the truth and falsity of propositions is relative to the social context of their promulgation. Such epistemological relativism is expressed by Newton‐Smith when he says: “The central relativist idea is that what is true for one tribe, social group or age might not be true for an other tribe, social group or age” (Newton‐Smith, 1982, p.107).