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Organizational development and change may be initiated from two different starting points. A diagnostic approach begins with an examination of problems to assess and correct dysfunction. In contrast, the Appreciative Inquiry approach begins by identifying an organization’s strengths as resources for change. An experimental study was conducted to compare the processes and outcomes that arise during the first phase of each approach. Results show that both approaches lead to different but favorable and complementary outcomes. Both participant gender and the gender construction of the dyads in which individuals participated moderate these effects in unexpected ways. The implications for understanding the processes by which both methods work, and the potential for combining them, are discussed

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information about each source is provided. The paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely held that less use is made of these databases than could or should be the case, and that one reason for this is that potential users find it difficult to identify which databases to search, to use the various command languages of the hosts and to construct the Boolean search statements required. This reasoning has stimulated a considerable amount of exploration and development work on the construction of search interfaces, to aid the inexperienced user to gain effective access to these databases. The aim of our paper is to review aspects of the design of such interfaces: to indicate the requirements that must be met if maximum aid is to be offered to the inexperienced searcher; to spell out the knowledge that must be incorporated in an interface if such aid is to be given; to describe some of the solutions that have been implemented in experimental and operational interfaces; and to discuss some of the problems encountered. The paper closes with an extensive bibliography of references relevant to online search aids, going well beyond the items explicitly mentioned in the text. An index to software appears after the bibliography at the end of the paper.

This paper aims to consider decisions by administrators about how to open US campuses for the 2020–2021 academic year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposed course delivery method is considered in relation to the political environment of the respective university/college’s state.

Data were collected on 451 public institutions. H1 and H3 were tested using multinomial logistic regressions. H2 and H4 were tested using moderated binary logistic regressions with Hayes’s PROCESS model.

Results suggest that states with liberal governments were more likely to promote online openings for fall 2020, with the strength of the voting electorate moderating the relationship. Further, state appropriations moderated the relationship between the political party in control of the state legislature and method of opening.

This paper advances work on the relationship between politics and administration by considering political pressures exerted on decision makers.

Results suggest that political forces may influence university administrators’ decisions for how higher education institutions may open for the fall 2020 semester.

This paper addresses one of the numerous social changes caused by COVID-19. It considers the short-term practical implications as well as the long-term theoretical ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic on decision-making in higher education.

IN the meridian of the year the librarian, like other people, turns his back upon his work, and with gleeful heart hies him away to sea or mountain side, there to forget for a brief season book and pen and general public, and all the worries which vex the soul of the servant of these three mighty taskmasters. A little before the happy time of freedom a sudden and deep disgust for his work and everything connected with it will seize upon his soul. He feels the need of a wider horizon than that of five by three—the catalogue card. The neatness and order of his classified shelves in which he was wont to take such delight and pride appear to him now but a vanity and a vexation of the spirit. Oh, for something unclassified, like nature, where rock and tree and water and air and sky are not parcelled out and separated one from another, in the trivial sortage of the laboratory or shop, but all are piled together in grand and sharp confusion, or subtly blended in exquisite harmonies which defy the namer and confound the analyst. Then do the days drag slowly along until the curtain of the roll‐top desk is finally shut down, and the wearied labourer goes forth—free.

Mr E. W. Jones has been appointed Chairman and Dr J. Shields Managing Director of A.E.I. Thorn Semiconductors Ltd. This new company, formed to combine the semiconductor interests of A.E.I, and Thorn, is managed by A.E.I, through its Electronics Group.

Building on the upper echelons theory and sustainability orientation (SO) literature, this paper aims to examine the possibility that the relationship between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) SO and venture growth might be mediated by levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation.

The authors used data obtained from 211 new ventures operating in Ghana. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The authors found that CSR implementation mediates the relationship between SO and venture growth. In addition, the authors found that, at higher levels of financial slack, the effect of SO on CSR implementation is attenuated. However, the results show that, at higher levels of CEO power, the influence of SO on CSR implementation is amplified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the mediating role of CSR implementation in the relationship between SO and venture growth and also examines two internal contingency factors (i.e. CEO power and financial slack) on this association.

This article adopts Ray Oldenburg's definition of third places and argues that the eight characteristics of third places are demonstrated in the tea houses of Masulih. In many vernacular communities, participating in informal public gathering places, or third places, is one of the daily routines of local inhabitants. The male inhabitants–including seniors and shopkeepers, as well as the shepherds who migrate seasonally with their herds from plateau of Gilan to Masulih–regularly visit and socialize in Masulih's tea houses. Recently, tourists also have become regular visitors of the tea houses. Qualitative research methods were conducted during extended field work in Masulih during 2008 to 2015. In-depth interviews with local inhabitants placed them as local experts. This allowes for a deeper understanding of the use of the tea houses as third places. In addition, research was conducted through visits to the tea houses at various times of the year in order to record their seasonal usage. While not every vernacular settlement in Iran is a tourist destination, Masulih, with its tea houses integrated in the bazaar, sees regular and steady tourist visitation. Masulih's rich cultural, architectural, and tourist landscape generates a complex research ground. This article suggests that tea houses, as third places, are vital for informal regular gathering of local Masulih residents, seasonal visitors, and tourists.

This study sets out to replicate Garbarino and Johnson's paper, where the effects of trust, commitment and satisfaction towards service provider loyalty were examined. However, whereby Garbarino and Johnson tested their model in a relationship prone environment, i.e. a theatre company, this study was set in a retail context where transactional customers are more likely. Personality traits as a means to identify customers who are prone to forming relationships with their service providers were also investigated.

In total, customers of two fast food independent stores in Melbourne, Australia completed 202 questionnaires.

The findings in the paper showed that in this transactional context, only trust and commitment had a significant direct effect on store behavioral loyalty. Satisfaction did not offer any unique explanatory power but was a significant predictor of both trust and commitment. Further, trust, commitment and satisfaction all had significant direct effects on store attitudinal loyalty, with satisfaction displaying the strongest effect. There was little evidence to support the claim that certain consumer personality traits are more conducive to relationship formation in this low involvement retail context.

The paper shows that retailers need to be aware that even in a transaction prone retail environment, trust and commitment and not just satisfaction, play a significant role in both store behavioral and attitudinal customer loyalty.