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1 – 10 of 495This paper seeks to position ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts that have meaning and value beyond pure functionality as a reference tool. The case study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to position ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts that have meaning and value beyond pure functionality as a reference tool. The case study aims to assert that locally created reference tools and technologies have much to offer as artifacts that encode cultural knowledge about the community, institution and profession.
Design/methodology approach
This case study consists of semi‐structural interviews with six library reference staff members about their experiences and interpretations of a collaboratively created ready reference technology that is used in their reference practice at a public library.
Findings
The results demonstrate there is value is exploring technologies as cultural artifacts in that they reveal otherwise hidden or obscured institutional values, labor practices, tensions associated with changing times in the profession, and the community culture throughout time.
Practical implications
There is benefit in exploring locally created ready reference tools as cultural artifacts to uncover hidden cultural knowledge about institutions, communities, and professional practices.
Originality/value
While there are studies of ready reference tools, they largely focus on the transition of these materials from print‐to‐digital. There was a gap in the literature about the meaning of the ready reference tools to their librarian creators/users. This study is a contribution to ready reference literature and starts to address this gap.
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The purpose of this paper is to determine what factors contributed to three universities achieving environmental sustainability.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine what factors contributed to three universities achieving environmental sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study methodology was used to determine how each factor contributed to the institutions' sustainability. Site visits, fieldwork, document reviews, and interviews with administration, faculty, staff, and students from the participating institutions were employed as primary data collection strategies.
Findings
The six factors identified in the literature as contributing to environmental sustainability were present at all three institutions: green campus operation measures; campus administration, organization, and leadership; teaching, research, and service; campus‐wide actions and activities; institutional assessment of campus sustainability measures; and established methods for overcoming barriers.
Research limitations/implications
This study was delimited to the six factors that were identified in the literature and the three institutions that participated in this study. The research will add to the literature on creating sustainable campuses and will also provide a foundation for further study on the progress and impact of campus sustainability efforts.
Originality/value
A number of individual case studies have described what certain institutions have done. A smaller number of case studies have identified what factors have contributed to certain institutions' achieved environmental sustainability.
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Sylvia C. Ng, Hui Yin Chuah and Melati Nungsari
This paper aims to provide an in-depth conceptualization of service exclusion by drawing on our exploratory research as well as thick and rich insights from the authors’…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an in-depth conceptualization of service exclusion by drawing on our exploratory research as well as thick and rich insights from the authors’ qualitative data.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research was used to explore service exclusion practices against customers experiencing vulnerabilities. A total of 28 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees residing within Malaysia. The Gioia methodology was used for the authors’ data analysis and the findings were validated by an independent moderator.
Findings
The authors’ empirical findings challenge how service exclusion is currently understood, by adding substantial depth and complexity beyond simply describing “the lack of access to services”. The authors also offer rich empirical findings describing 29 forms of exclusion, which were further reduced to seven types of service exclusion practices: discrimination, restriction, cost barriers, language and technology barriers, poor servicing, non-accountability and non-inclusivity.
Originality/value
This study conceptualizes service exclusion from a process perspective, that is, “how” customers experiencing vulnerabilities are being excluded, rather than “what” is excluded.
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Karen M. Morrison, Cynthia Szymanski Sunal and Dennis W. Sunal
Brothers at Bat describes the Acerra family and their love for baseball, providing students with insights into 1930’s family culture and community life. Students examine the…
Abstract
Brothers at Bat describes the Acerra family and their love for baseball, providing students with insights into 1930’s family culture and community life. Students examine the characteristics of the Acerras that enabled them to develop and demonstrate their team spirit. Creating a Power Point slide show displaying their own diverse characteristics and team spirit from a classroom perspective will engage students’ creativity and knowledge. A trading card created by each student uniquely representing the student and will be used in a Trading Card Collection displaying the different cultures and interests that come together to make one classroom community team.
The purpose of this paper is to describe Karen refugee women’s experience of resettlement and the factors which structured community capacity to support their mental health and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe Karen refugee women’s experience of resettlement and the factors which structured community capacity to support their mental health and well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
A postcolonial and feminist standpoint was used to bring Karen women’s voice to the knowledge production process. Data were collected through ethnographic field observation, in-depth semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with Karen women as well as healthcare and social service providers.
Findings
Three interrelated themes emerged from the data: Karen women’s construction of mental health as “stress and worry”; gender, language and health literacy intersected, shaping Karen women’s access to health care and social resources; flexible partnerships between settlement agencies, primary care and public health promoted community capacity but were challenged by neoliberalism.
Research limitations/implications
Karen women and families are a diverse group with a unique historical context. Not all the findings are applicable across refugee women.
Practical implications
This paper highlights the social determinants of mental health for Karen women and community responses for mitigating psychological distress during resettlement.
Social implications
Public health policy requires a contextualized understanding of refugee women’s mental health. Health promotion in resettlement must include culturally safe provision of health care to mitigate sources of psychological distress during resettlement.
Originality/value
This research brings a postcolonial and feminist analysis to community capacity as a public health strategy.
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In February 1991, OCLC began testing its newly developed product—the FirstSearch™ Catalog. Designed distinctly for the end‐user, FirstSearch is an online computer system providing…
Abstract
In February 1991, OCLC began testing its newly developed product—the FirstSearch™ Catalog. Designed distinctly for the end‐user, FirstSearch is an online computer system providing access to a variety of databases, most notably the OCLC Online Union Catalog. By October 1991, the system was made commercially available to all OCLC member libraries with a pricing structure different from any previously marketed system. As a test site, the Ohio State University has had experience with the system for several months, and has now made the transition from test site to customer.
Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth is set in ancient Korea. This is a tale about a girl who painstakingly learns to sew a bojagi, or wrapping cloth, in order to be reunited with her…
Abstract
Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth is set in ancient Korea. This is a tale about a girl who painstakingly learns to sew a bojagi, or wrapping cloth, in order to be reunited with her mother who has been assigned as a seamstress for the king. Students first read or listen to the story, identifying cultural elements such as food, shelter, language, religion, arts, or beliefs. Students then identify similarities and differences between Korean culture and their own using a Venn Diagram. Students ultimately demonstrate their understanding of the Korean terms used in the story through an instructional strategy called a Mingle Party. The activities in this lesson will support and build upon students’ understanding of cultural differences as well as cultural universals.
In response to the recent rapid influx of refugees from Myanmar, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (IM), a refugee resettlement agency, started to support them in June…
Abstract
In response to the recent rapid influx of refugees from Myanmar, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (IM), a refugee resettlement agency, started to support them in June 2007. The study looked at the refugees' perspectives and identified the gaps in their understanding of the US health care system, health‐seeking behaviors and challenges in using health care in the United States. The major issues identified were non‐compliance with tuberculosis prevention medication due to barriers to obtaining medication refills, barriers to accessing speciality care services, transportation issues, written and oral language barriers, difficulties in applying for and using Medicaid and Gold Card, misunderstanding of emergency health services, lack of resources for health education, self‐treatment with Western medicine and income too low to buy private health insurance. In order to transform them into healthy citizens able to contribute to the US workforce, several multi‐faceted and comprehensive approaches and better co‐ordination between agencies are recommended.
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Karen Senior and Deborah J. Yamanaka
The manual loans system previously in use at Loughborough is described and the reasons behind automation are examined. In looking at the requirements of an automated system a…
Abstract
The manual loans system previously in use at Loughborough is described and the reasons behind automation are examined. In looking at the requirements of an automated system a trapping store is found to be essential to maintain the standard of reader service if an off‐line system is to be used. The Plessey Library Pen equipment is described, followed by details of the programs making up the new system. There is an account of the change‐over period from the old to the new system and the manual processes involved in working the system are explained.
Karen Joe Laidler and Maggy Lee
This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about the conditions under which such knowledge is (or is not) produced” (Loader and Sparks, 2012, p. 6). In reviewing the core issues and concerns about crime and control from the 1980s as articulated in these research dissertations, the authors seek to be self-reflexive about academic criminology as a field of enquiry in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, 209 dissertations, completed between 1988 and 2015, are categorized on the basis of the main subject or theme of investigation carried out by each of the research paper.
Findings and originality/value
This discussion is among the first and few attempts to look at the development of criminology in the Hong Kong China region and draws from the unique perspectives of practitioners – those working on the front lines – in their attempts to understand crime and its control with a criminological imagination.
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