Search results

The purpose of this paper is to consider the preliminary findings arising from two case study library authorities in the North East of England, examining current volunteer use in Public Libraries. Specific reference to quality and professionalism will be discussed, to identify key trends and ways forward.

This research involved a series of interviews with key staff, a staff survey, user survey and volunteer focus groups.

The early-stage results of the qualitative analysis are reported, including key emergent themes relating to quality and professionalism. Triangulation of the key stakeholder opinions will be carried out.

This research relates to an area that is a key factor of modern public library provision, and helps to illustrate the complex environment that exists.

Volunteer use in public libraries is a feature of the hybrid model of library provision in the twenty-first century, and the need to ensure quality and professionalism to improve service provision is even more critical.

This research considers current thinking amongst stakeholders within public libraries and attempts to move the debate about volunteer use in library service provision forward.

It provides initial thoughts on what features are essential for successful volunteer use in public libraries, with regard to quality and professionalism.

The purpose of this paper is to canvass debates arising from encounters between architectural and educational history and to introduce a themed section of four papers exploring aspects of the history of school design and the spatial arrangements of Australian schooling across the twentieth century.

This is an interpretive introductory essay that characterizes trends in historical and sociological studies of school space and materialities, and synthesizes the arguments and contributions of the four companion papers.

A case is made for greater exchange among educational, architectural and social historians and key insights and findings from the four papers concerning school space, design and educational ideas are summarized. Themes of community, citizenship and progressive education are highlighted.

The value of the paper lies in introducing the context and scholarly debates framing a collection of four papers that seek to open up new avenues for investigating the history of modern schooling through studying intersections between school space and design and educational purposes and aspiration.

The purpose of this paper is to explore philosophies of progressive education circulating in Australia in the period immediately following the expansion of secondary schools in the 1960s. It examines the rise of the alternative and community school movement of the 1970s, focusing on initiatives within the Victorian government school sector. It aims to better understand the realisation of progressive education in the design and spatial arrangements of schools, with specific reference to the re-making of school and community relations and new norms of the student-subject of alternative schooling.

It combines historical analysis of educational ideas and reforms, focusing largely on the ideas of practitioners and networks of educators, and is guided by an interest in the importance of school space and place in mediating educational change and aspirations. It draws on published writings and reports from teachers and commentators in the 1970s, publications from the Victorian Department of Education, media discussions, internal and published documentation on specific schools and oral history interviews with former teachers and principals who worked at alternative schools.

It shows the different realisation of radical aims in the set up of two schools, against a backdrop of wider innovations in state education, looking specifically at the imagined effects of re-arranging the physical and symbolic space of schooling.

Its value lies in offering the beginnings of a history of 1970s educational progressivism. It brings forward a focus on the spatial dimensions of radical schooling, and moves from characterisation of a mood of change to illuminate the complexities of these ideas in the contrasting ambitions and design of two signature community schools.

This article seeks to provide a perspective on a future pathway for records management that is based on taking a proportionate approach rather than striving for perfection. This approach requires a re‐interpretation of traditional principles and their application in practice and recognition of the predominance of people in successful information and records management in the digital domain.

The views are the author's based on the headline findings of a major research project (AC+erm) which investigated issues and practical strategies for accelerating positive change in electronic records management. They incorporate views on contextual developments since the project, in particular the characteristics of today's hybrid and increasingly mobile office environment such as the use of recognition technologies.

The ten headline findings of the AC+erm project are shared. Two strategic findings are highlighted, namely, articulating a vision of successful electronic records management and the approach to applying records management principles in order to realise that vision of success. The article then focuses on two of the other findings, about the need for information and records professionals to adopt proportionate and risk based approaches and to ensure they (the records professionals) are an essential part of the solution not the problem. Post the project, views on these and tactics for addressing them are discussed with reference to real examples and potential future research and development.

The research that provides the context for the article was qualitative and therefore its findings transferrable rather than generalisable. The views expressed about tactics for moving forward are intended to contribute to the debate about approaches to managing records in the democratic, digital domain.

A proportionate approach to managing records by definition implies a risk‐based approach. This may prove challenging in organizational, societal and cultural contexts that are risk averse.

The research which underpins this article was the first on the subject to be conducted in the UK and adopted a unique evidence‐based approach. Undertaken in the context of the “promise” of electronic document and records management systems, its findings are relevant in the broader systems solutions. They provide a context for this perspective on current and potential tactics for addressing strategic issues for managing records in the digital domain. This provides a significant contribution to knowledge and debate in this field.

This article shares the results of a preliminary investigation into the impact of ISO 15489, the international records management standard, conducted between January 2002 and March 2003. Attendees at a series of records management and information management events were asked about their awareness of, initial reactions to and plans for using the standard. The results show a relatively high level of awareness of the standard within and beyond the records management profession and very positive reactions to its publication, despite any imperfections. Most encouraging of all was the range of plans for using the standard. As well as using it for policy/strategy development, to underpin records management procedures and to benchmark current practice, many records professionals plan to use the standard to raise the profile of records management within their organisations.

In July 2000, eight BBC staff graduated from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle with an Advanced Diploma in Lifelong Learning (Records Management). This is the first award in a new and innovative framework aimed at meeting the needs of industry in a flexible way. Explains the model for lifelong learning awards, which focuses on the individual or group of individuals and their specific education and development needs, and evaluates its use as part of a training programme at the BBC. The evaluation, based on the views of the student participants, other BBC staff involved and staff from the university, is overwhelmingly positive. The award has had a significant impact on the roles and responsibilities of the BBC staff as well as the status of records management within the BBC. With the collaboration, support and commitment of all those involved, the model was successful in empowering participants both as learners and records professionals.