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THE Wanstead Library is just round the corner from the shopping centre in the High Street where the old shop branch existed for many years. The new Library is a large, single‐storey structure with floor to ceiling windows facing Christchurch Green, a charming open space with well established trees. This spacious, attractive building is in complete contrast to the cramped accommodation previously occupied and local reaction has been emphatically favourable.

This sudden disruption of work in the world due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unravelling situations hitherto unknown to researchers and therefore requires careful and thorough investigation. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between work from home (WFH) isolation, WFH loss of task identity and job insecurity amid COVID-19 pandemic WFH arrangements by focusing on information technology/information technology-enabled services (IT/ITES) sector employees in India. The study also investigated the mediating role of work alienation.

Data were collected from IT/ITES sector employees who were working from home. The sample size was 312, with 71.8% males and 28.2% females. The study used a descriptive research design. Analysis of the data was carried out using partial least square structural equation modeling. All constructs–independent and dependent–were reflectively measured. The evaluated quality parameters (discriminant validity, reliability, collinearity, common method bias) for all the constructs were found to be within acceptable limits.

Findings from the study indicate that WFH-related isolation and loss of task identity have a significant direct impact on job insecurity. These, along with the mediating construct of work alienation, predicted a 35.8% variance in job insecurity. The study found that work alienation provided complementary mediation between the independent constructs evaluated.

This study attempts to scrape the surface and gain insight into the problems that may arise in the new world of work. This paper presents an attempt to explain some of the psychological pitfalls associated with WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand their impact on job insecurity.

The idea of optical character recognition (OCR), in other words the “reading” of documents by other than human means, arose as a practical proposition during the Second World War. Wartime experience of using computers in the United States had revealed the contrasts in speeds between the transcription of documents to be processed (at that time the punching of cards or tape by operatives working from original documents) and the central processing within the computer itself. Visual output was also slower than central processing but was much speeded up by the introduction of line printers and later of xerography. This “paired” case study, part of a project sponsored by the Science Research Council to examine patterns of success and failure in industrial innovation, is confined to two attempts to innovate in the field of OCR. There were others, one or two of which were contemporary, most of which have followed, have a much more recent history and may be thought to have overtaken, in terms of market penetration, the innovation here designated a commercial success. The point of this study when it was undertaken was to extract data about the two innovations that would be suitable for general analysis by a computer programme designed to search out significant groups of explanatory factors so that the characteristics associated with innovative success might be recognised as typical within an industry, or perhaps generally. This study belongs to one of two groups, the instrument industry, the other group investigated being chemical manufacturing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the various methods available when conducting a pre‐employment screening investigation in attempt to hire honest employees, those less likely to commit fraud against their organization. While many companies perform the most basic type of background check, this paper suggests that companies need to go beyond the basics when hiring its employees.

By reviewing the existing literature and conducting interviews with experts in the area of background investigation services, the paper makes suggestions for companies to follow.

Merely relying on the most basic background check may lead to the hiring of the wrong employee, one likely to commit fraud. Companies should consider performing other screening techniques before hiring an employee.

Background checks have become a widely‐recognized method of pre‐employment screening. However, these checks are just one part of the employee selection process and companies should understand both the practical and legal implications of conducting additional testing.

The guidance provided in this paper will aid companies in the pre‐employment selection process. Both basic and more advanced techniques are discussed and companies can choose any or all of the recommended methods.

Social justice themes permeate the social studies, history, civics, and current events curricula. The purpose of this paper is to examine how non-fiction trade books represented lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals and issues.

Trade books published after 2000 and intended for middle grades (5-8) and high school (9-12) students were analyzed.

Findings included main characters’ demography, sexuality, and various ancillary elements, such as connection to LGBTQ community, interactions with non-LGBTQ individuals, the challenges and contested terrain that LGBTQ individuals must traverse, and a range of responses to these challenges. Publication date, intended audience, and subgenre of non-fiction – specifically, memoir, expository, and historical text – added nuance to findings. Viewed broadly, the books generally engaged in exceptionalism, a historical misrepresentation, of one singular character who was a gay or lesbian white American. Diverse sexualities, races, ethnicities, and contexts were largely absent. Complex resistance structures were frequent and detailed.

This research contributes to previous scholarship exploring LGBTQ-themed fiction for secondary students and close readings of secondary level non-fiction trade books.

Since the late eighteenth century, American men have supported women's equality. (see Kimmel and Mosmiller, 1992). Even before the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York heralded the birth of the organized women's movement in 1848, American men had begun to argue in favor of women's rights. That celebrated radical, Thomas Paine, for example, mused in 1775 that any formal declaration of independence from England should include women, since women have, as he put it, “an equal right to virtue.”(Paine, [1775] 1992, 63–66). Other reformers, like Benjamin Rush and John Neal articulated claims for women's entry into schools and public life. Charles Brockden Brown, America's first professional novelist, penned a passionate plea for women's equality in Alcuin(1798).

Examines the use by marketing researchers of a set of techniques, originally developed in mathematical psychology, and termed multidimensional scaling or MDS. States that MDS techniques can operate on a variety of different types of data — they have a common set of objectives and these are examined. Puts forward that MDS techniques seek to represent these relationships in a spatial configuration or model, so that the relationships between brands and variables can be used to aid product positioning and respondents' product requirements can be used as a basis for market segmentation. Proffers that identification of brand images has been approached from two broad directions — the aggregative approach and the disaggregative approach, and goes on to explain these terms and uses in full. Highlights types of scaling and relevant data involving three types of scaling: stimulus space generation; dimension identification; and joint space analysis, discussing these in greater detail. Summarises by stating there remain certain technical problems and limitations of MDS that require further investigation and that results are not always as clear‐cut as examples cited.