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The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the proximity of study centres to the students of College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast (CoDE/UCC) and whether further studies of distance learners who were teachers and employees could lead to absenteeism in their workplaces.

A sequential explanatory strategy was used. A self-administered questionnaire and unstructured interviews as well as observation guides were employed to collect data from 2,077 students pursuing business and education programmes of CoDE in all study centres across Ghana. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and pattern matching of content analysis.

The study found that few teachers and other workers pursuing the distance education do absent themselves from the workplace or classroom on Fridays preceding their face-to-face session because they embarked on their journey to the study centres on Friday morning. Some teachers also absented themselves from work on Mondays after face-to-face sessions for a lack of means of transport on Sunday after lessons. The absenteeism of these respondents directly and indirectly affected their employers, students and customers.

It was therefore recommended that management of CoDE/UCC should open more study centres in all the regions especially Western, Ashanti, Upper East, Northern and Upper West Regions to reduce number of hours spent by students to their study centres and consider introducing the business programmes at the existing district centres to reduce average distance covered by these students to commute from their places of work to their respective centres in the regional capitals. It was also recommended that online/electronic learning and audio versions (impersonal communication) of the study modules should be introduced so that students would not necessary have to travel to the study centre to participate in lectures/face-to-face sessions.

The findings of this study will help managers and administrators of both public and private distance educational providers. In addition to providing basis and areas for establishing study centres for geographical proximity, findings of the study should prove helpful for designing and delivering electronic and audio versions of distance education modules to reduce the level of absenteeism in workplace for the students.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the reason for faculty and staff (N=657; 35 percent males; M _age=45.20) at a large Southern university, for either using or not using the free fitness facilities on campus.

Participants identified themselves as either current (n=306), former (n=213), or never-users (n=138) of the facilities, and completed an on-line self-report qualitative questionnaire asking them to describe their reasons for using or not using the campus fitness facilities.

Thematic coding revealed that motives fell into three broad categories for all user types: personal (i.e. cost, location, social support), facility-specific (i.e. quality and amount of equipment, class variety, hours of operation), and motivational climate (i.e. feeling valued, welcomed, best effort was emphasized). Current users highlighted positive aspects of each category whereas former and never users described each category as a barrier to their exercise routines.

The identified themes offer campus administration specific suggestions to entice more non-users and former-users to exercise in the fitness facilities available on campus.

While researchers have considered barriers to exercise in past studies, the barriers identified were not specific to fitness facilities. The current work not only examines individuals’ reasons for choosing or not choosing a campus fitness facility for their exercise, but also compares the perspectives of former- and never-users to current-users.

Provides the first exploratory analysis of the use of NHS touch‐screen information kiosks located throughout the UK. It examines, through a one month snapshot of the transactional logs of the kiosks, their use and makes comparisons between the types of organisation in which the kiosks are housed. Details of over 120 kiosks and nearly 47,000 user sessions and 310,000 page views were used for the comparison. The kiosks are proving popular, although some use appears to be of a cursory and seemingly unproductive kind. Surprisingly significant differences between kiosk locations were found. This early research reported here is part of an ongoing study of how users obtain health information by interacting with different digital platforms: kiosks, the Internet, and digital television. Comparisons are made between the results of this study and a similar study conducted by the authors on commercial health kiosks, those of InTouch With Health.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study which describes reference and instruction outreach programs promoted by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Library. Direct‐2‐U Reference, Crash Courses, and Drop‐In Tours reached out to students in innovative ways to encourage non‐library users to see what they were missing and to give current library users even more choices. Direct‐2‐U Reference provided opportunities for students to get research help on their own turf. Librarians offered assistance at several locations across campus, combining the benefits of face‐to‐face reference with the convenience of getting help without going to the physical library. Library Crash Courses promoted subject‐specific assistance without the formality of in‐class instruction. Drop‐In Tours allowed curious students to figure out the layout of the library and get answers to their questions.

This case study describes researching alternative services, and includes practical information on how services were implemented. Information is presented about ongoing evaluation of the outreach programs that improved the direction, marketing, and overall success of the programs.

The outreach programs promoted by the library reached additional users, provided more options for patrons, and improved the visibility of the library campus‐wide.

This case study will be of interest to other academic librarians wanting to provide library services outside the library. It builds on the existing literature regarding library outreach services.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.