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The purpose of this paper is to review the global history of library consortia from ancient times until the present and propose further development of consortia to address journal costs and research distribution.

The global history of consortia is reviewed, with a concentration on the early years of the American Library Association.

Consortia have proved their value in making libraries more efficient and in advancing research through combined efforts in developing indexes and catalogues.

The paper encourages libraries to build on their history of cooperation and extend it by linking their repositories, using their own strengths to battle excessive subscription fees, and become publishers in their own right.

Consortia are encouraged to work together to build a global repository, to stand firm against predatory pricing and to take the lead in the dissemination of scholarship.

This paper proposes that libraries join in broad regional consortia to oppose unjustifiable prices imposed by the major publishers and that libraries, with their institutions, work regionally and internationally to take control of the distribution of research.

The purpose of this paper is to present the experiences of three western librarians in adapting their management styles for working and living in a new culture.

Three university library directors who have been working as expatriates in Hong Kong for 2 to 18 years were asked to comment on their own personal experiences in moving to a new culture, a new language environment, and new management challenges.

Moving to a new culture can be difficult for the expatriate and his family but work environments have many similarities. Developing an understanding of the local professional culture and working within is vital to success.

The paper presents some guidelines for librarians who may be seeking a career abroad.

There is very little literature on librarians, particularly those in management, who have chosen to continue their careers abroad. This paper provides first‐hand experiences and demonstrates that librarianship shares a certain commonality and that management skills can be adapted to new cultures.

This paper aims to present a critical review of “Web 2.0” and “Library 2.0” applications and proposal of a redirection of resources towards semantic web developments.

This paper is based on a historical review of library development and new technology.

The paper finds that acceptance by the public of “Library 2.0” applications has been low and that social networking tools do not contribute to the core mission of libraries.

The paper proposes that the concept of a second era of libarianship and the term “Library II” should apply to the revolution in library services that occurred with the development of the MARC format in the 1960s and that librarians should be looking towards “Library III” by developing new linkages with semantic web tools.

The purpose of this study is to determine what proportion of books were checked out in an academic library over a 15‐year period and what pattern of use occurs over the years and among various subject groups and between purchased and donated books.

Check‐out counts were obtained for each year over a 15‐year period and the results analysed by year, language, and Library of Congress classification.

Book check‐outs rise each year during the first five to seven years of a book's arrival in an academic library and stabilise after that period. Books that are checked out in their first year tend to continue to be checked out, while books that are not checked out in the first or second year will still not be checked out after 15 years. While overall check‐outs are generally about 70 per cent, some subject areas show almost 100 per cent use. As expected, books acquired as direct purchases had more use than books acquired as gifts. Although a third of the collection has not circulated over a 15‐year period, it is believed that the lack of use does not necessarily imply a lack of value.

This research covers a longer period than earlier studies and has been conducted in a non‐Western library using both Chinese and English texts. It supports the conclusion of earlier studies that approximately one‐third of book acquisitions will not be checked out and that circulation within the first few years of a book's acquisition is a good predictor of future circulation. For libraries considering remote storage, books not circulated within five to seven years could be removed to storage with little inconvenience to users.

This paper aims to examine the role of marketing to new generations of library users.

The paper reviews classical marketing texts and current user studies for applicability to library service.

The paper finds that libraries can apply classic marketing principles to attract and better serve new generations of users. Although libraries no longer have a monopoly on information sources, libraries do offer value‐added services.

By understanding the users and their contexts, the paper proposes various strategies of value to market librarians and library resources.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how national and regional authorities in south-east Europe in a period of crisis perceive and set in motion research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) and the options that these strategies offer to overcome the current fiscal and development crisis.

The paper starts with a literature review on the guiding principles of smart specialisation strategies and the differences from previous rounds of regional innovation strategies. Evidence on smart specialisation efforts is provided by cases studies in Greece, Slovenia, and Cyprus, focusing on the elaboration of such strategies in three countries with precarious innovation systems under severe conditions of crisis. The case studies are organised around key aspects of the smart specialisation logic, such as the selection of specialisation priorities, bottom-up governance, private sector leadership, and engines of innovation and competitiveness.

The paper explores the obstacles encountered in running effective RIS strategies under crisis conditions. The paper highlights the main challenges to address, such as the readiness and credibility of public authorities to design and implement sound RIS3 strategies, the willingness of companies to be involved in strategic planning, the availability of private investment funds, innovation and diversification during a crisis, and the drivers of specialisation that could lead to competitiveness and growth. In the conclusions the paper identifies three routes towards smarter productive diversification and five critical stages in the entrepreneurial discovery process.

The paper has both practical and theoretical significance. It focuses on the main challenges of smart specialisation and offers guidance in the elaboration of RIS3 in peripheral EU economies. On the other hand, it proposes a model for the entrepreneurial discovery process, based on the assessment of areas and futures of productivity and added-value increase, as productive diversification and crisis exit route.

Entrepreneurial activity is currently a primary concern of many developed economies that struggle with changes in their industrial structures. Many of the traditionally strong industries are encountering strong global competition and declining markets, and national competitiveness is often said to be built on new entrepreneurial firms that are able to grow in global markets. The facilitating national systems for these firms are covered in the emerging start-up ecosystem discussion. This chapter aims to contribute to this discussion by incorporating an analysis of the variety of actors and activities needed in start-up industries that rely on competence bloc theory. Furthermore, inspired by cultural-historical activity theory, the study specifies the contextual-, temporal- and renewal-related determinants of the activity of start-up ecosystems. As a result, a framework for examining start-up ecosystems as platforms for high-growth entrepreneurship is proposed in terms of its core constituencies that influence the emergence and non-emergence of high-growth firms.

For many years now food and drugs authorities (and the public) have been complaining about the low meat content of meat pies on sale and the need of a standard is self‐evident. The pie filling is not visible to the purchaser and often consists of a mixture of meat and cereal from the appearance of which it is impossible to assess the amount of meat present. The sale of made up cooked foods has increased among all such products in recent years, but for meat pies the increase has been phenomenal.