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The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the development of bibliotek.dk (library.dk) – how to open a union catalogue to the public.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the development of bibliotek.dk (library.dk) – how to open a union catalogue to the public.
Design/methodology/approach
bibliotek.dk – the end‐user web interface to the public union catalogue is described and challenges in these features are examined: the user interface, end‐user loan requests, cooperation with Google, library 2.0 characteristics etc. Usage statistics are presented.
Findings
It was found that it is possible to make requesting library material (almost) as easy and fast as searching Google.
Originality/value
The paper will be of interest to librarians working with opening their services to the public.
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Keywords
Eva Cyhlarova, David Crepaz-Keay, Rachel Reeves, Kirsten Morgan, Valentina Iemmi and Martin Knapp
– The purpose of this paper is to establish the effectiveness of self-management training as an intervention for people using secondary mental health services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish the effectiveness of self-management training as an intervention for people using secondary mental health services.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-management and peer support intervention was developed and delivered by secondary mental health service users to 262 people with psychiatric diagnoses living in the community. Data on wellbeing and health-promoting behaviour were collected at three time points (baseline, six, and 12 months).
Findings
Participants reported significant improvements in wellbeing and health-promoting lifestyle six and 12 months after self-management training. Peer-led self-management shows potential to improve long-term health outcomes for people with psychiatric diagnoses.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the lack of a control group, the positive changes cannot definitively be attributed to the intervention. Other limitations were reliance on self-report measures, and the varying numbers of completers at three time points. These issues will be addressed in future studies.
Practical implications
The evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of self-management training for people with psychiatric diagnoses, suggesting self-management training may bring significant wellbeing gains for this group.
Social implications
This study represents a first step in the implementation of self-management approaches into mental health services. It demonstrates the feasibility of people with psychiatric diagnoses developing and delivering an effective intervention that complements existing services.
Originality/value
This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of a self-management training programme developed and delivered by mental health service users in the UK.
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Anne‐Mette Hjalager, John Houman Sørensen and Rasmus Juul Møberg
This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a…
Abstract
This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a comprehensive picture of the job categories that particularly attract men. We find a polarisation of men in the upper and lower positions in the job hierarchy. In the metropolitan area, men tend to be discouraged from taking jobs in the health and care sector, as opposed to the peripheral region, where alternative job offers may be more scarce. A logistic regression analysis shows that (young) age is the major explanatory factor for leaving the health and care sector to find occupation elsewhere. However, gender (male), wage levels (low), marital status (single) and education (none) are also significant. The study discusses seven theoretical perspectives for male and female careers in the health and care sector: The need for flexibility. Destandardising of jobs. Devaluation of feminised work areas. Human capital as a stabiliser. Feminisation. The prospects of boundaryless careers. The spatial dimension.
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Carina Ren and Kirsten Thisted
The study aims to explore the concept of the indigenous and how Greenlandic and Sámi indigeneities is expressed, made sense of and contested within a Nordic context by using the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore the concept of the indigenous and how Greenlandic and Sámi indigeneities is expressed, made sense of and contested within a Nordic context by using the Eurovision Song Contest as a branding platform.
Design/methodology/approach
Initiating with an introduction of the historical and political contexts of Sámi and Greenlandic Inuit indigeneity, the study compares lyrics, stage performances and artefacts of two Sámi and Greenlandic contributions into the European Song Contest. This is used to discuss the situated ways in which indigenous identity and culture are branded.
Findings
The study shows how seemingly “similar” indigenous identity positions take on very different expressions and meanings as Arctic, indigenous and global identity discourses manifest themselves and intertwine in a Greenlandic and Sámi context. This indicates, as we discuss, that indigeneity in a Nordic context is tightly connected to historical and political specificities.
Research limitations/implications
The study argues against a “one size fits all” approach to defining the indigenous and even more so attempts to “pinning down” universal indigenous issues or challenges.
Practical implications
The study highlights how decisions on whether or how to use the indigenous in place or destination branding processes should always be sensitive to its historical and political contexts.
Originality/value
By focusing on the most prevalent European indigenous groups, the Sámi from the Northern parts of Norway and Greenlandic Inuit, rather than existing nation states, this study expands on current research on Eurovision and nation branding. By exploring the role of the indigenous in place branding, this study also contributes to the existing place branding literature, which overwhelmingly relates to the branding of whole nations or to specific places within nations, such as capital cities.
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Goodness C. Aye, Rangan Gupta and Peter Wanke
The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of agricultural production in South Africa from 1970 to 2014, using an integrated two-stage fuzzy approach.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of agricultural production in South Africa from 1970 to 2014, using an integrated two-stage fuzzy approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution is used to assess the relative efficiency of agriculture in South Africa over the course of the years in the first stage. In the second stage, fuzzy regressions based on different rule-based systems are used to predict the impact of socio-economic and demographic variables on agricultural efficiency. They are compared with the bootstrapped truncated regressions with conditional α levels proposed in Wanke et al. (2016a).
Findings
The results show that the fuzzy efficiency estimates ranged from 0.40 to 0.68 implying inefficiency in South African agriculture. The results further reveal that research and development, land quality, health expenditure–population growth ratio have a significant, positive impact on efficiency levels, besides the GINI index. In terms of accuracy, fuzzy regressions outperformed the bootstrapped truncated regressions with conditional α levels proposed in Wanke et al. (2015).
Practical implications
Policies to increase social expenditure especially in terms of health and hence productivity should be prioritized. Also policies aimed at conserving the environment and hence the quality of land is needed.
Originality/value
The paper is original and has not been previously published elsewhere.
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Martina Kirsten Schmidt, Nicole Forbes Stowell, Carl Pacini and Gary Patterson
The purpose of this paper is to discuss financial fraud and exploitation against seniors relating to wills, trusts and guardianship. The paper describes how this fraud affects its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss financial fraud and exploitation against seniors relating to wills, trusts and guardianship. The paper describes how this fraud affects its victims, points out red flags and makes recommendations that may help control this pervasive type of fraud.
Design/methodology/approach
Information from a range of different sources, such as journal publications, law textbooks, law enforcement websites and estate planning cases are used as a basis to provide information about how fraudsters are committing this type of fraud, which red flags to watch out for and how to prevent this fraud from occurring.
Findings
Fraud relating to wills, trusts and guardianship is oftentimes difficult to detect and continues to be a grave threat to its victims. While this fraud will likely never be eradicated, specific efforts have been put into place to track financial exploitation. Further steps presented in this paper can be deployed to help rein in these fraud schemes.
Practical implications
The paper provides useful information about frauds related to wills, trusts and guardianship for stakeholders. This includes, but is not limited to, anyone whose work is related to seniors, such as accountants, lawyers, regulators, bankers, financial planners, law enforcement personnel, academics, medical professionals, caregivers, family members and ethicists. These stakeholders can use this information to help combat this fraud and prevent not only financial losses of seniors but physical harm as well.
Social implications
Decreasing financial exploitation of seniors will not only improve their financial position and may reduce their reliance on Medicaid but will also improve their mental and physical well-being and save lives.
Originality/value
Research in the area of maltreatment and exploitation of older adults is still in its early stages, as knowledge of effective prevention, intervention and remediation practices are limited. This paper adds to the research in this arena by drawing on a unique set of resources that shed light on financial fraud commonly committed against seniors. This study also makes much needed recommendations that are aimed to prevent this threat related to wills, trusts and guardianship.
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This introductory paper aims to offer a rudimentary model that describes the antecedent recipes for creating native-visitors. The paper describes what is unique and valuable about…
Abstract
Purpose
This introductory paper aims to offer a rudimentary model that describes the antecedent recipes for creating native-visitors. The paper describes what is unique and valuable about the seven articles that follow in their descriptions and explanations of the behavior of native-tourists. This special issue is to honor the originality and value of the contributions of tourism research’s leading critic, John Urry.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a paradigm that includes eight profiles of tourists identified by low/high conjunctions of knowledge, training and authentication of performances of tourism places. The study calls for a normative stance that tourists should develop a sense of obligation to learn before visiting to enrich understanding of what they are seeing and to reduce the negative outcomes of the tourist gaze. The method includes describing the unique and valuable contributions in each of the seven following articles in the issue.
Findings
The analysis and outcomes are viewable best as propositions from a thought experiment. The seven articles that follow the introduction are appropriate data for a meta-review of the development of new meanings of tourism generated from the concept of native-tourist.
Research limitations/implications
This study may spur necessary additional work to confirm that native-tourists do interpret performing tourist places differently and more richly than naïve tourists.
Originality/value
The article is high in originality in establishing the benefits from studying native-tourists as unique contributors to clarifying and deepening the meanings of tourism drama enactments.
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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an unexploited conceptual pragmatic sociological framework for analyses of action strategies among social assistance recipients, who…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an unexploited conceptual pragmatic sociological framework for analyses of action strategies among social assistance recipients, who are affected by contemporary politics of retrenchment.
Design/methodology/approach
Noting that existing literature on resistance and coping is mostly concerned with either collective public resistance or sub-public individualised coping strategies, the paper turns to theoretical insights from newer French pragmatic sociologist Laurent Thévenot, enabling the researcher to dissolve the stark boundaries between private/public and coping/resistance. The use of the concepts is demonstrated through a case study analysis of the various actions of Danish social assistance recipients, who were recently affected by a harsh workfare initiative.
Findings
The empirical demonstration points to a plurality of individualised strategies of action, taken on by the affected social assistance recipients. Thereby it points to some advantages of the proposed framework, as it makes visible the versatility of the contemporary “welfare client”, as he or she dynamically changes the scope of action and moves between the private and the public and between coping and resistance.
Originality/value
The paper applies hitherto unexploited concepts from French pragmatic sociology to strategies of action among welfare recipients in times of welfare retrenchment.
Details
Keywords
Aira Maria Pohjanen and Terttu Anna Maarit Kortelainen
The purpose of this paper is to explore information behaviour and the information barriers transgendered people encounter. This study produces new information about the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore information behaviour and the information barriers transgendered people encounter. This study produces new information about the information needs in the construction of the transgendered identity, the changing of the information needs during this phase, utilized information sources, information sharing and barriers encountered in the information behaviour displayed by transgendered people.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the information behaviour of 12 transgendered participants. This study represents a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. A qualitative content analysis was used in analysing the data with categories derived from previous research and research questions.
Findings
Serendipity played an important role at the beginning of the participants’ information seeking phase: the young individual would not have terms corresponding to his or her experience because of the invisibility of the transgender phenomenon in the culture. The barriers to seeking information were psychological, demographic, role-related or interpersonal, environmental or source characteristic. Fear was apparent as a barrier in the surrounding culture often caused by expectations, attitudes in the family environment and people around. Source characteristic barriers were related to the lack of terms and vocabulary required to seek information and also the lack of the information itself. Information about transgender and gender minorities was essential in building up a clear gender identity, and the most relevant information sources of this sort of information this were other transgendered people and the experience-based information they had shared.
Originality/value
The information behaviour of transgendered people has not been previously studied. In this study a model of information behaviour and information barriers was made. The model includes individual’s information practices, sources of information and also the barriers affecting information behaviour.
Details