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This case study describes the process of implementing assistive technology in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the UK. The introduction of dedicated ICT facilities for users with disabilities is set within the context of the UK People’s Network programme, and the social inclusion and lifelong learning agendas. An outline of the decision‐making process is provided including: choosing appropriate software and hardware; staff training and user training; plans to roll out the service to all libraries within the borough and promoting the services to disabled groups.

The purpose of this paper is to consider how researcher positionality is reconfigured by internet use.

Drawing on recent ethnographic studies conducted in Australia and Canada, the paper considers here how participant agency is symbolically and materially enacted through technology use.

The use of information communication technologies by researchers, research participants and industry partners in online information searching, and the production and dissemination of text poses challenges to conventional assumptions of unequal power relations in research sites.

The paper explores methodological, theoretical and practical implications of being a Googled ethnographer whose life, work, professional activities and networks as represented online are available for public scrutiny.

The paper argues, taking inspiration from Sarah Pink's recent work, that the author's and others’ use of information and communication technologies implicates us in shared “entanglements” of responsibility within and beyond research sites. The importance of these entanglements for contemporary thinking about researcher positionality, research relationships and researched/researching subjectivities is also considered.

The purpose of this paper is to follow up on the 2009 publication “Building a virtual branch at Vancouver Public Library (VPL) using Web 2.0 tools” and to explore the work that VPL has been doing in the social media space over the past two years.

Following the launch of its new web site in 2008, Vancouver Public Library has continued to expand its online presence, both via its own web properties and in the social media space. At the core of the library's approach to web services is the desire to take the community development model online, and engage with communities in the spaces of their choosing.

The Web Team has been active in moving into the social media space, and was an early adopter of popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The social bookmarking site Delicious also became an integral part of the new web site, being used as a management tool for the library's extensive collection of recommended web links. Since 2008 the Web Team has piloted a variety of other Web 2.0 and social media tools, pushing the library's online presence into new spaces while continuing to build on the successes experienced by its established accounts.

Libraries are very conscious of the need to leverage social media tools to engage with patrons, but are also facing the challenge of managing these tools with reduced staff and funding. VPL's success in this space offers a model of how to use these tools effectively to engage patrons, develop community, and maximize resources in a time of constrained budgets.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the work undertaken by Vancouver Public Library (VPL) in an effort to convert its website into a true virtual branch, both through the functionality of the website itself and by extending its web presence on to external social networking sites.

VPL worked with its development partners to conduct a thorough community consultation to ensure that the new VPL website would be truly user‐focused. Since the site's launch, VPL has made strategic management of both its internal and external web presence a key organisational priority, reflected in its creation of two new professional positions which include co‐ordination of VPL's internal and external web presence as part of their job specification.

VPL has demonstrated that it is possible to take a systematic, integrated, thoughtful approach to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools and technologies in order to enhance web services without sacrificing quality or control.

As many public libraries consider their options with regard to the integration of Web 2.0 tools and technologies, VPL offers an example of good practice in strategic selection and management of these tools to optimise the delivery of web‐based library services.

The last two years have witnessed what may justly be described as a revolutionary change in the packaging and marketing of goods, of which pre‐packed food constitutes a substantial part, but as far as public reaction goes, it has largely been a silent witness. There has been none of the outcry such as accompanied metrication, sufficient to call a halt to the process, and especially to the introduction of the decimal currency, of which most shoppers are convinced they were misled, “conned”. Every effort to make the changeover as smooth as possible was made; included was the setting up within the Department of Trade of a National Metrological Co‐ordinating Unit charged with co‐ordinating the work of 91 local weights and measures authorities in Great Britain in enforcing the new law, the Weights and Measures Act, 1979. This Act replaced the net or minimum system of the old law, the traditional system, re‐enacted in the Weights and Measures Act, 1963 with the average system, implementing EEC Directives and bringing weights and measures into line with Member‐states of the European Community.

Purpose – In this chapter, I examine critically the assumption in the literature that many lawyers decide to leave the practice of law, and especially large law firms, due to lawyer dissatisfaction. I take a macro focus on employee flows and networks at large law firms, particularly at the elite level.Methodology/approach – I use a large archival data set of alumni data, internal memos, and newsletters from the 1930s through the 1990s from four large New York City corporate law firms. I perform statistical analysis of 2800 cases. I also include qualitative analysis of the newsletters and firm records of comings and goings. I analyze lawyer migration as a mobility project of lawyers in conjunction with Domhoff#x02019;s class-domination theory to explain the interconnectedness of the corporate community, policy networks, governmental positions, the federal judiciary, and high-powered private lawyers.Findings – I explore the various ways that lawyer migration benefits the original firm by creating or strengthening relationships with other large law firms, corporate clients, and governmental organizations. It is clear that most lawyer departures are not meant to signal negative outcomes. Elite lawyers in large firms make both corporate and political connections through their migration, connections that have important repercussions not only for the lawyers but from their original firms.Originality/value of chapter – A fundamental question for sociological analyses of elite professions, and a more practical concern in the field of legal studies, is why do so many lawyers decide to leave the practice of law? The focus of these accounts, both journalistic and academic, is on the fact that lawyers leave – and, in particular, that they leave the practice of law entirely. The explanatory variable, in many cases, is some variation on individual lawyer dissatisfaction. Instead, I show that most lawyer departures are not meant to signal negative outcomes. Lawyer migration benefits the original firm by creating or strengthening relationships with other large law firms, corporate clients, and governmental organizations.

The purpose of this study is to explore workplace friendship in hospitality organizations and to develop an appropriate scale that combines qualitative and quantitative methods.

A mixed-methods design was selected to capitalize on the strength of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to reveal robust findings. First, in-depth interviews were carried out to determine the forms of workplace friendship. Second, an instrument was developed on the basis of the interviews, and 6 factors were extracted from exploratory factor analysis with 507 Samples-1. Third, confirmatory factor analysis with 507 Samples-2 was performed to identify the validity of the workplace friendship scale.

A 65-item, six-factor workplace friendship scale was developed. The six dimensions are trustworthiness, competency, having someone’s back, value-life interest similarity, caring personal relationships and socio-cultural similarity.

The sampling approach may limit the generalizability of the study findings as the data were collected from Turkish employees in Turkey. Cultural differences in individual relations may affect individual approaches to workplace friendship. Therefore, future cross-cultural research with samples from different populations and workplaces would be useful to explore similarities and differences with the findings of this study and to better understand the intricate structure of friendship.

This study contributes a reliable and valid measurement scale to address workplace friendship hospitality organizations.