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Many studies, motivated by concerns for activity-based costing (ABC) implementation efforts being less than successful, have suggested that the lack of success in this area stems more from behavioral, as opposed to technical, factors. This concern for the behavioral aspects of systems implementation has also emerged from much of the more general information systems research examining determinants of implementation success. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to determine if a popular process theory of motivation, expectancy theory, would be useful in explaining the motivation of managers to incorporate ABC information into their job. Data obtained from two experiments employing a judgment modeling methodology support the relevance of both the valence and force models of expectancy theory in this context. Further, the judgments provided by the subject managers suggest they perceive improved product cost accuracy as the most beneficial outcome of ABC use, followed by an equivalent appreciation for both an enhanced ability to communicate the underlying economics of the firm and to identify non-value-added activities. Additionally, subject managers exhibited a greater concern for the possibility that obtaining the data to maintain the ABC system would be difficult and costly than they did for concerns that the ABC information would increase the level of complexity of the information that they use.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

AT the very outset of this paper it is necessary to make clear that it is not an attempt to compile an exhaustive bibliography of literature relating to special librarianship. Neither space nor time permit this. In fact, the references given can only claim to be a sample of the wealth of material on the subject and this paper is submitted in the hope that it will stimulate others to more scholarly efforts. Reference numbers throughout this paper refer to items in the ‘Select list of references to the literature of special librarianship’, section 2 onwards.

This study forces respondents to tradeoff between invasive human resource practices and salary.

Respondents evaluated 16 calibration profiles to estimate a conjoint model among four categories: pre-employment, employment at the office, employment outside the office, and salary. Each profile included one level from the four categories.

In a study of mostly full-time employees, conditions at work were paramount. Salary was second followed closely by pre-employment monitoring. Monitoring outside of the office was a distance last.

In a tight employment market, salary may not be the deciding selection factor for employment.

Employee monitoring is advancing dramatically and making human resource activities commonplace and invasive. This study forces respondents to confront these practices and determine whether salary can compensate for their acceptance.

Increasingly, universities are adopting social media as a strategy to improve their competitive advantage. However, little is known of whether or not stakeholders are actually engaging with universities in such online environments. The purpose of this paper is, first, to analyze the level of stakeholders’ engagement via social media, particularly Facebook, in European and US universities. Second, to examine the influencing factors that boost online interactions, in particular, “location,” “transparency,” “size,” “academic performance” and “activity.”

An engagement index and a multivariate regression analysis were carried out. Regarding the sample, European and US universities belonging to the “Top 100” of the Academic Ranking of World Universities were analyzed.

Despite the large online community that US universities possess, European universities attain the higher level of online engagement from its stakeholders. In particular, the greatest level of engagement is achieved by European universities of greater size, in terms of students, with lower academic performance and a lower level of online activity.

This study contributes to existing literature by identifying the actual social impact of social media to build successful relationships with the stakeholders of higher education entities.

This paper can contribute to the current scarcity of literature concerning social media to improve new models of accountability in higher education entities with different managerial models.

The news that the Ministry of Education has set up two Working Parties in connection with the proposed new Public Libraries Bill is welcome and gives further hope that such a Bill will appear in the not too distant future. From the constitutions of these Working Parties, which seem to us to be fairly representative of all interests, it would appear that the first is going to concern itself with the main aspects of the Roberts Report recommendations, while the second will be given the task of studying the problems of library co‐operation. On the first party, county libraries are represented by Miss Paulin and Mr. Budge, while Wales is represented by Mr. A. Edwards, librarian of the Cardiganshire and Aberystwyth Joint Library. Mr. D. I. Colley, the city librarian of Manchester, will be keeping a watching brief on behalf of the large libraries, but it should not be forgotten that he is also a member of the Libraries Committee of the Association of Municipal Corporations. Mr. Gardner is rightly there, perhaps not only as librarian of Luton but also as chairman of the Library Association's Executive Committee. The Smaller Libraries Group can surely have no complaints, for out of the ten members of Working Party No. I there are three librarians from smaller libraries, these being Mr. Helliwell of Winchester, Mr. Christopher of Penge and Mr. Parker of Ilkley. This Working Party is completed by two legal representatives in Mr. W. B. Murgatroyd, who is Town Clerk of Hornsey, and Mr. J. H. Oldham, who is Assistant County Solicitor for Kent.

Despite the huge potential of social media, its functionality and impact for enhanced risk communication remain unclear. Drawing on dialogic theory by integrating both “speak from power” and “speak to power” measurements, the article aims to propose a systematic framework to address this issue.

The impact of social media on risk communication is measured by the correlation between “speak from power” and “speak to power” levels, where the former primarily spoke to two facets of the risk communication process – rapidness and attentiveness, and the latter was benchmarked against popularity and commitment. The framework was empirically validated with data relating to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk communication in 25,024 selected posts on 17 official provincial Weibo accounts in China.

The analysis results suggest the relationship between the “speak from power” and “speak to power” is mixed rather than causality, which confirms that neither the outcome-centric nor the process-centric method alone can render a full picture of government–public interconnectivity. Besides, the proposed interconnectivity matrix reveals that two provinces have evidenced the formation of government–public mutuality, which provides empirical evidence that dialogic relationships could exist in social media during risk communication.

The authors' study proposed a prototype framework that underlines the need that the impact of social media on risk communication should and must be assessed through a combination of process and outcome or interconnectivity. The authors further divide the impact of social media on risk communication into dialogue enabler, “speak from power” booster, “speak to power” channel and mass media alternative.