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The purpose of this paper is to discover the criteria upon which selection decisions are made in six mobile libraries in New Zealand.

In this qualitative study data were gathered from interviews with six mobile librarians. The study is guided conceptually by the perceived need for a collection development policy and a selection procedures statement to guide selection, and the needs versus wants debate.

The data suggest that there is no universal approach to the selection of material for mobile library collections; mobile librarians achieve a balance between users' needs and wants to some extent when selecting; and there is no relationship between the nature of mobile library services and the serving of needs and wants. The researchers contend that mobile librarians' selection decisions are influenced by various criteria other than users' needs or users' wants.

This qualitative research is based on the analysis of the selection practices of six mobile librarians in New Zealand. Future research might seek to replicate this study's methodology using a larger population or investigate the lack of emphasis on reference services on some mobile libraries or the management of fixed, floating, and integrated mobile library collections.

Only a slight amount of literature exists about the selection of mobile library collections. This study will be of interest to mobile librarians in New Zealand and elsewhere who wish to obtain a better understanding of current selection practices. It will also act as guiding literature to help mobile librarians to make better informed selection decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the main and interaction effects of self-rated promotion and prevention regulatory focus on self-rated work performance, emotional exhaustion and sickness absence for managers and non-managers separately. The authors expected that promotion focus relates positively to performance and negatively to sickness absence, while prevention focus relates positively to exhaustion and sickness absence, both for managers and non-managers. Furthermore, the authors expected that promotion focus relates positively to performance but also to exhaustion and sickness absence when prevention focus is high, only for managers (i.e. a manager’s dual regulatory focus can be an effective but also exhausting leadership strategy).

The authors tested the hypotheses via moderated regression analyses among two independent groups, managers (n=241) and non-managers (n=415).

Promotion focus was positively related to managers’ and non-managers’ performance and negatively to non-managers’ sickness absence, while prevention focus did not have any main effects. As expected, managers’ promotion focus was positively related to managers’ sickness absence when managers’ prevention focus was high (i.e. dual regulatory focus). Furthermore, managers’ promotion focus negatively related to managers’ performance when managers’ prevention was high, failing to support the hypothesis.

Promotion focus should be enhanced by organizations among leaders and employees. The authors also cautiously discuss the possibility of interventions comparing a promotion focus with dual-focus training.

The authors contribute to the literature by examining the joint (rather than main) effects of promotion and prevention focus on work behavior and the authors address these links among managers and non-managers.

This study examines the effect of employing density of use data in making serial relegation decisions. It demonstrates that density of use favours the retention of used titles which occupy a small amount of shelf space compared with titles occupying a large amount of shelf space. Density of use may favour the retention of low‐use titles possessing a high density of use compared with a high‐use title occupying a large amount of shelf space. While the paper presents an easy method for identifying titles possessing a high total use but having a comparatively low density of use, the strategy fails to identify titles having a high density of use but which also have some scope for partitioning between open and closed access. It therefore outlines a simple method of partitioning these titles between open and closed access to increase the density of use of the open access collection.

The usefulness of impact factors as a substitute for conducting a costly local use study was investigated in an Australian university library. The results presented in this paper are consistent with the view that logical deselection decisions can be made only by using the results of a local use study. A number of reasons are advanced for why impact factors are poor predictors of local use.

Information literacy (IL) training for teachers in developing communities, e.g. rural areas or townships in developing countries, is expected to pose special challenges in terms of sustainability, contextualisation, life‐long learning and empowerment. Little has been reported on such training in developing countries. Based on the authors' involvement in a UNESCO‐funded IL training project for teachers in a developing community in South Africa, the purpose of this paper is to review literature and to suggest a model that can further research and training in IL that meets actual requirements and needs of developing communities.

Literature reviews on four issues are reported on: ICT skills, teachers and developing/rural contexts; IL skills, teachers and developing communities; internet usage, search skills, teachers and developing communities; and lessons from ICT for development (ICT4D).

ICT4D literature and critical social theory seem useful to further research on IL training in developing communities as it empowers researchers to take up a position of enquiry that questions the value of ICT and the underlying assumptions embedded in the ways ICT is introduced in developing contexts. It is assumed that this would also apply to IL.

The contribution is original in its attempt to combine IL and ICT training for teachers in a developing community against an ICT4D background.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for ranking authentication products. Using this method, issues such as technical performance, application/system‐specific requirements, cost and usability are addressed. The method simplifies and makes the selection process more transparent by identifying issues that are important when selecting products.

The paper used quantitative cost and performance analysis.

The method can be widely applied, allowing the comparison and ranking of an extensive variety of authentication products (passwords, biometrics, tokens). The method can be used for both product selection and the process of product development as supported by the case studies.

This is a work that demonstrates how to compare authentication methods from different categories. A novel ranking method has been developed which allows the comparison of different authentication products in a defined usage scenario.

Twenty Australian academic libraries participated in a recent survey of the use of CD‐ROM products in their acquisitions sections. While CD‐ROM technology was found to be one of the main utilities used in acquisitions, it was evident that not all available functions were fully utilised by acquisitions staff, The project focused on the following issues: the most widely used CD‐ROM products, preferred applications, searching techniques employed, preferred attributes, and desired future developments in CD‐ROM capabilities.

The paper aims to explore the overall state of information and digital illiteracy (IDL) in developing countries and how it hampers the growth of individuals and nations. The case of Pakistan is to be used as an example to illustrate the endemic state of poor information and digital literacy. It also aims to discuss the general drawbacks to effective IDL in developing Asian countries.

To achieve the objectives of the study, the literature review and result of Pakistan‐based surveys are used to indicate the state of IDL among university students and faculty in one country while integrating these findings with discussion.

It was found that in Pakistan, as elsewhere, IL/IDL practice and training are not the norm in libraries or in education; they are not operational priorities. The low level of IL/IDL among the educated classes contributes to the status quo of information illiterate citizens. It also establishes that becoming “critical consumers” of information is essential for personal and national empowerment.

The study explores the overall status of IDL in the developing countries using case of Pakistan as example. It suggests conducting local research on contextually relevant literacies and IL/IDL. The paper invokes the appreciation for making IL/IDL an integral part of learning programmes at all levels.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the independent and joint effects of regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) on the relationship between workplace resources (support and feedback) and employee resilience. It proposed that, at high levels of resource availability, a high promotion-high prevention profile would elicit the highest levels of employee resilience.

An online survey was completed by 162 white collar employees from four organisations. In addition to the main effects, two- and three-way interactions were examined to test hypotheses.

Promotion focus was positively associated with employee resilience, and though the relationship between prevention focus and resilience was non-significant, both regulatory foci buffered against the negative effects of low resources. Employees with high promotion-high prevention focus displayed the highest levels of resilience, especially at high levels of feedback. Conversely, the resilience of low promotion-low prevention individuals was susceptible to feedback availability.

Employee resilience development and demonstration are contingent not only on resources, but also on psychological processes, particularly regulatory focus. Organisations will develop resilience to the extent that they provide workplace resources, and, importantly, stimulate both promotion and prevention perspectives on resource management.

This study extends the research on regulatory focus theory by testing the joint effects of promotion and prevention foci on workplace resources, and the relationship between regulatory foci and employee resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the exploration of women farmers' information literacy (IL) in the context of rural Bangladesh within the context of an ICT-based women empowerment project.

This study uses thematic analysis of qualitative data collected during a culturally sensitive workshop on IL with a group of project participants.

The findings showed that women understood their information needs and where to find information, which indicates that participants had some basic IL skills. However, the online environment presented challenges for them to evaluate the quality of the information and its relevance to their daily activities. The cultural complexity of IL was observed with the rural women’s information practices affected by family patterns, community and religion, amongst other social factors. Collective practices are made highly evident by the women’s natural tendency to share phones and information and by the way information is maintained. While the collective practices are very useful in utilising information for daily needs, the downside is that women are potentially vulnerable to threats in an online environment when sharing confidential information.

This article shows that in the context of rural Bangladesh, women farmers’ information-seeking behaviour and practices of sharing and creating information are influenced by sociocultural characteristics. It describes how the women’s situational context of collectivity and power relations influence their ways of handling information.