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This paper examines how bonded design (BD), a participatory design methodology, was influenced by the transition to working in a virtual environment necessitated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Abiding by the participatory design tenets of creativity, learning-by-doing and mutual learning, the BD methodology was created for the specific purpose of fostering meaningful communication and interaction between two disparate groups. Previous iterations of BD are discussed, including its naissance with intergenerational teams, its adaptation to provide a framework for a university-wide initiative, the Faculty Information Technology (IT) Liaison Program that brought together faculty members and IT professional staff, and its current use in helping public librarians to develop with older adults, targeted library programming and services.

Analysis of the findings from the assessment of the BD methodology in different physical contexts demonstrates that the flexibility in the makeup and order of design techniques (discussion, evaluation, brainstorming, prototyping, consensus-building) makes BD potentially adaptable to online spaces. Recommendations for implementing the BD methodology online are outlined. It is argued that BD’s adaptability makes it an ideal method for creating meaningful and productive collaborations within both physical and virtual environments.

The proposed iteration of the BD methodology responds to a need for innovative practices to foster collaborative work in a virtual environment. BD is a unique, inclusive and cost-effective methodology to encourage meaningful interaction and communication between disparate groups in physical or online contexts.

Responding to the continuing separation of participants and researchers in LIS participatory research, a new methodology is proposed: action partnership research design (APRD). It is asserted that APRD can mitigate or remove the hierarchical structures often inherent in the research process, thus allowing for equal contribution from all.

Building on the bonded design (BD) methodology and informed by a scoping literature review conducted by the same authors, APRD is a human-centered research approach with the goal of empowering and valuing community partnerships. APRD originates from research investigating the use of participatory design methods to foster collaboration between two potentially disparate groups, firstly with adult researchers/designers and elementary school children, and secondly with university faculty and IT professionals.

To achieve this goal, in addition to BD techniques, APRD draws inspiration from elements of indigenous and decolonization research methodologies, particularly those with an emphasis on destabilizing power hierarchies and involving research participants as full partners.

APRD, which emerged from findings from previous participatory design studies, especially those of BD, is based on the premise of partnership, recognizing that each member of a design team, whether researcher or participant/user, has unique expertise to contribute. By considering participants/users as full research partners, APRD aims to flatten the hierarchies exhibited in some LIS participatory research methodologies, where participants are treated more like research subjects than partners.

Through a review of the literature, this article seeks to outline and understand the evolution and extent of user–participant involvement in the existing library and information science (LIS) research to identify gaps and existing research approaches that might inform further methodological development in participant-oriented and design-based LIS research.

A scoping literature review of LIS research, from the 1960s onward, was conducted, assessing the themes and trends in understanding the user/participant within the LIS field. It traces LIS research from its early focus on information and relevancy to the “user turn”, to the rise of participatory research, especially design-based, as well as the recent inclusion of Indigenous and decolonial methodologies.

The literature review indicates that despite the reported “user turn”, LIS research often does not include the user as an active and equal participant within research projects.

The findings from this review support the development of alternative design research methodologies in LIS that fully include and involve research participants as full partners – from planning through dissemination of results – and suggests avenues for continuing the development of such design-based research. To that end, it lays the foundations for the introduction of a novel methodology, Action Partnership Research Design (APRD).

There have been several developments during the past year that will aid biologists in their constant battle to keep up with the scientific and technical literature. The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has introduced three new online services that are designed for current awareness and retrospective searches: ISI/CompuMath — access to pure and applied math literature; ISI/ISTP&B — index to scientific proceedings and books; and ISI/BIOMED — research front specialties in biomedicine.

Botany continues to be a popular publishing area for reference books that range from manuals on experimental biochemical methods to guides for studying and identifying the flora of regions, counties, and parks. In an attempt to reduce the voluminous amount of literature to manageable size this survey will focus on botanical reference works published during 1977–78 that are suitable for academic libraries. Applied areas such as agriculture, horticulture, and forestry are not included; the numerous regional guides or keys to flora are not noted here unless they have more than provincial importance.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Shortcomings in the BRS MENTOR mainframe interface and the desirability of using the workstation capabilities of the PC were factors in the decision to develop and implement a microcomputer‐based interface to the BRS software and associated databases. The Interface Design Subcommittee's charge was to design and implement the interface components for the Library Information Workstation, a microcomputer public terminal that provides access to local and remote online catalogs, periodical index databases, campus information resources, and information files stored on the microcomputer. This article focuses on the design of the interface to the BRS/SEARCH software and ancillary periodical index databases—initially Current Contents, six Wilson databases, and ERIC.

The purpose of this chapter is to bring three recent and innovative feminist science and technology studies paradigms into dialogue on the topics of subjectivity and knowledge.

Each of the three frameworks – feminist postcolonial science and technology studies, queer ecologies, and new feminist materialisms – reconceptualizes and expands our understanding of subjectivity and knowledge. As projects invested in identifying and challenging the strategic conferral of subjectivity, they move from subjectivity located in all human life, to subjectivity as indivisible from nature, to a broader notion of subjectivity as both material and discursive. Despite some methodological differences, the three frameworks all broaden feminist conceptions of knowledge production and validation, advocating for increased consideration of scientific practices and material conditions in feminist scholarship.

This chapter examines three feminist science and technology studies paradigms by comparing and contrasting how each addresses notions of subjectivity and knowledge in ways that push us to rethink key epistemological issues.

This chapter identifies similarities and differences in the three frameworks’ discussions of subjectivity and knowledge production. By putting these frameworks into conversation, we identify methodological crossover, capture the coevolution of subjectivity and knowledge production in feminist theory, and emphasize the importance of matter in sociocultural explorations.

The aim of this paper is to confirm whether the factors that act as enablers of team effectiveness in professional context are also relevant for team effectiveness in higher education.

From a review of the factors that act as enablers of team effectiveness in professional contexts, this paper explores whether they are also relevant in learning environments, in particular, in higher education. After conducting a literature analysis, a Delphi study was conducted to obtain a consensus proposal of a set of input factors that can act as enablers of team effectiveness; next this paper explored, via questionnaire, in a specific context the perceptions of lecturers and students involved in teamwork.

A set of factors reached by consensus that seem to be enablers of team effectiveness in the specific context analyzed is presented. These factors can be the basis of future studies to generalize their validity.

There are many studies that identify the factors that act as enablers of team effectiveness in professional environments. The set of input factors that emerged in this study would be a useful starting point for making higher education institutions and lecturers aware of the importance of taking these factors into account when using teamwork as an educational methodology. Fostering these factors will help higher education institutions to generate shared team mental models (TMMs); these TMMs, in turn, influence team effectiveness.

The purpose of the present paper is to gain a first insight into the determinants of employee acceptance of, and participation in, workplace health promotion (WHP) in the German speaking part of Europe with a focus on Austria.

Being a neglected field of research so far, a qualitative approach using problem‐centred interviews was chosen. These were conducted with 19 employees in three different organizations, the four people there responsible for WHP as well as with nine health experts. These interviews form the basis for preliminary propositions.

Determinants of employee acceptance of, and participation in, WHP are shown to concern information plus offer design. As for information, crucial factors are its flow, how it is presented and how it is received by the individual. Criteria regarding offer design are found on the individual and interpersonal level as well as referring to general environmental and organizational conditions.

Further research on a broad quantitative level is required to test the propositions developed on the basis of the present qualitative study.

With their implications regarding information and offer design, the findings of the study can serve as a guideline for employee‐centred WHP and are of interest to practitioners as well as academics in the field.

Giving first insights into the employees' perspective regarding determinants of acceptance of, and participation in, WHP, this paper offers valuable suggestions for a target‐group oriented design of WHP.