Search results

This paper investigates the conceptualisation and measurement of service quality in on‐line service environments. It reports the findings from an exploratory study of consumer perceptions of service quality as they relate to an on‐line library service in a prominent public sector university in Western Australia. The results reveal the core service quality dimensions of significance to on‐line consumers and demonstrates the usefulness and relative simplicity of this measurement methodology for evaluating the service quality construct in on‐line environments. The study highlights not only how the service is perceived from a customer point of view, but also what is important to the customers in their use of on‐line services.

In a whole range of industries, from steel to printing, there is growing harmony between US management and unions, reports Keith Mayes. With the country's economic system under pressure, both sides acknowledge the futility of lengthy stoppages.

In this chapter, the authors reflect on how the criminological agenda can move towards disrupting the boundaries that exist between the academe and sex work activism. The authors do so as academics who strive to affect social change outside of the academe, but do not attempt to offer a prescriptive ‘how to guide’. Indeed, they are themselves still grappling with the challenges of, and learning to be better at, ‘academic-activism’. The chapter begins by shining light on the activist underpinnings of the sex workers’ rights movement, before outlining some of the key scholarship in sex work studies, drawing particular attention to that which seeks to bring about social change. It then explores the utility of participatory action research (PAR) to sex work studies and reflects on how a PAR-inspired approach was used in the Beyond the Gaze research project. Here, the authors cast a critically reflexive eye over the unique realities, including the challenges, of integrating sex worker ‘peer researchers’ within the research team. The chapter concludes by considering how the criminological agenda must adapt if we truly want to bring truly want to bring about positive social change for sex workers, as well as how the current system of Higher Education ultimately stymies ‘academic-activist’ approaches to research.

CANADA, until the last generation or two, has been basically a pioneer country but two world wars have changed all this and the economy has moved from an agricultural to a manufacturing community able to provide a standard of living second to that of the United States. (At the present time only 10.8 per cent of Canadians live on farms according to the 1961 census.) Natural resources, such as timber, wheat and mining, continue to play, however, an important role in the life of the nation. As in most developing and pioneer countries, learning has had to assume a secondary role compared with other enterprises and activities. This is gradually beginning to change as more people continue in school and the percentage of individuals attending university increases. Established organizations, like the National Film Board and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, catering to mass culture, have been strengthened and enlarged and new establishments, like the Canada Council and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, of narrower function and appeal, have been set up. The Library movement, not the least of learning agencies, is gaining strength every day. In this paper some of the interesting new developments of the last ten years in the latter field will be discussed. Of necessity, much is abbreviated; a lot is ignored. Data selected has been based on the most recent sources; hence the variety in dates.

The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures. Given its durability and resilience, this subculture offers an opportunity to explore subcultural development and maintenance. I employ a contemporary, symbolic interactionist approach to trace the development of deadhead subculture and subcultural identity. Although identity is a basic concept in subculture research, it is not well defined: I suggest that the co-creation and maintenance of subcultural identity can be seen as a dialectic between collective identity and symbolic interactionist conceptions of individual role-identity.

The purpose of this study is to highlight some long-term positive trends in youth detention in New South Wales (NSW) (Australia).

This paper is based on a review of major inquiries into youth detention in NSW over the last 40 years and analysis of recently published youth custody statistics.

There have been a number of positive long-term trends in youth detention in NSW, including a significant reduction in the number of young people held in custody, including the number (as opposed to the proportion) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people; the total number of youth custody beds has fallen, and there has been a significant positive change in the physical accommodation provided to young people in youth detention, with new facilities replacing unsuitable former centres; and no young person has died in custody (though there was the tragic death of an assistant teaching instructor in 1999) since 1990. These significant positive long-term trends are often lost in the criticisms levelled at the youth justice system.

This paper highlights a series of positive developments that have generally received little or no attention in the extant literature. Australia, as with other jurisdictions, has had a series of damning reviews of youth detention in recent years. While the issues raised in these reviews and inquiries are important and should necessarily be addressed, it is equally important to acknowledge significant positive trends.

Using the “Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus: Our Heritage” exhibition as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to look at how heritage exhibitions can be used to address social isolation and also serve as a way to give an identity to a community with a disability.

The paper reviews the process of creating the exhibition, some of its most significant elements and its impact.

A heritage exhibition can be an effective way to address social isolation and inclusion.

This was a unique exhibition with considerable impact on members of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus community and with the potential to have a broader value in promoting change in attitudes towards disability.

The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and realistic facets of life. Literature talks ideas, business speaks money. Writers express themselves with words, business men prove themselves through numbers. Former US President Calvin Coolidge once exclaimed, “The business of America is business. Not Art!” (West brook, 1980:1). However, this difference is, at most, on the surface. Literature and business intertwine on more perspectives than one might think. For example, there are traces of corporate capitalism in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in which workers are portrayed as “slaves to the economic system” (Watts, 1982:77). Or Joseph Heller’s Something Happened depicts the harsh rules of business by which any one who is not contributing efficiently to the success of a company will be discarded, also known as corporate Darwinism (Horner, 1992:27). Or in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with a humourous tone, medieval England is modernised with various economic measures, such as new currency, stock exchange in the court, and full‐time employment for the knights, and hence saved from financial ruins (West brook, 1980:49). In other words, literature has been drawing inspirations from the financial market. Therefore, it might not be surprising if there are major themes in literature than can be applied to the corporate world. In fact, managers at all levels can learn valuable lessons for the many areas of business from literature.

The Library Association of Ireland issued last month the first number of An Leabharlann, their new official journal. The title, for those of us who do not speak the language of Erin, means The Library. It is an extremely interesting venture which will be followed by librarians on the mainland with sympathetic curiosity. In particular our readers would be interested in the first of a series of articles by Father Stephen J. Brown, S.J., on Book Selection. The worthy Father lectures on this subject at University College, Dublin, in the Library School. It is mainly concerned with what should not be selected, and deals in vigorous fashion with the menace of much of current published stuff. No doubt Father Brown will follow with something more constructive. Mr. T. E. Gay, Chairman of the Association, discusses the need for a survey of Irish libraries and their resources. We agree that it is necessary. The Net Books Agreement, the Council, Notes from the Provinces, and an article in Erse—which we honestly believe that most of our Irish friends can read—and an excellent broadcast talk on the Library and the Student by Miss Christina Keogh, the accomplished Librarian of the Irish Central Library, make up a quite attractive first number. A list of broadcast talks given by members of the Association is included.