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This paper aims to investigate how public libraries in Ireland are using their websites to present local studies collections online.

All the websites of public libraries in Ireland were evaluated against a checklist of 50 criteria by one of the authors. An analytic description was provided of the four highest‐ranking websites and semi‐structured interviews were held with staff in these library authorities.

Several interesting trends in Irish local studies and their online presentation were identified. Overall the websites were well‐presented and had a strong sense of branding. Users of these websites typically come from the Irish diaspora in Europe, the US and Australia. Library 2.0 “tools” had been adopted by three of the four authorities investigated, adding value to their websites. Recommendations for future developments are included.

This research should add to the relatively sparse literature available on local authority local studies websites.

The empirical research of e-government at the local level has been the subject of many studies in the last two decades. The evidence collected by those studies constitutes a relevant opportunity toward the development of a theory of local e-government implementation. However, several synthesis efforts are needed before such a theory can be developed. The purpose of this article is to contribute to that endeavor by proposing an empirical model of the determinants of e-government implementation by local governments.

The empirical model results from the systematic revision of 59 primary studies published in scientific journals, between 2002 and 2018. As a starting point, a conceptual map relating concepts such as readiness, diffusion, adoption, implementation and institutionalization is presented.

There is a common set of determinants that explains local e-government implementation in general, and three other sets of determinants that contribute to differentiate each one of three e-government dimensions: e-participation, e-transparency and e-services.

Because it was found that different determinants are associated with different e-government dimensions, future empirical studies should differentiate between those dimensions when studying local government.

This is the first study to attempt a synthesis effort on the determinants of e-government implementation by local governments.

The growth of interest in local history shows no sign of dying down. Public libraries have clearly been affected by the increasing number of people who use them and by the foundation of new societies and journals. Equally great, but perhaps less obvious, is the impact made by certain specific developments. Local history is now integrated into the educational curriculum at all levels, it is the subject of radio and television programmes and has grown in popularity with publishers of monographs. The ways in which local studies libraries have been affected by these factors are examined. Public libraries are concentrated on, though there is some reference to local collections in academic libraries. In conclusion, it is suggested that staff should be specifically allocated to an education service and to media liaison work, and that one librarian should specialise in acquisitions.

Most studies in electronic government (e-government) sustainability focus on the role of specific actors (stakeholders such as government employees or citizens) in sustaining an e-government project. However, such actors may not have sufficient resources to support e-government sustainability by themselves and must collaborate across different departments and stakeholders to sustain e-government projects. This paper aims to take a social systems theory perspective on sustainable local e-government, where actors cooperate and coordinate in a social system to leverage resources for e-government sustainability in local government contexts in developing countries.

This paper is an interpretive study of two local e-government case studies based on in-depth interviews with local government information technology (IT) managers, local leaders and staff. Data analysis based on constructivist grounded theory is used to understand the role of a social system in sustaining e-government systems in local governments in developing countries.

The original social system theory was developed for industry initiatives and adapted for public organisations in this paper. The unique characteristics of the public sector and e-government innovation are used to identify new components of the social system related to local e-government. Local e-government is sustained through a collaboration between actors in a social system to leverage resources and reduce challenges.

While this is an exploratory study, the cases show that the use of a social system theory consisting of institutional, management, social and economic components requires multiple lenses for investigation. This is a challenging process because it requires different areas of knowledge to carry out the research. The challenges may influence the overall outcome of this study. In addition, the two cases may generate limited insight and experiences as this study was carried out within two local governments in Indonesia. The findings may not provide a strong basis for generalization to other contexts.

This study offers guidance to local government IT departments to improve collaboration in a social system between local actors (such as political, managers and staff) while implementing and using e-government systems.

Sustainable local e-government requires all actors to coordinate and cooperate in a social system to reduce financial, political and technical challenges.

This paper offers new insight into how a local government collaborates in a social system to realize sustainable e-government systems. Collaborating in a social system reduces common challenges and leverages resources to support e-government sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theory of institutional isomorphism to investigate how Mississippi’s centralized cash management policy affects the cash management practices in the state’s rural and urban counties.

The study uses a sequential exploratory mixed methods design involving a qualitative documentary analysis and a quantitative analysis of a survey of Mississippi counties.

The study finds that institutional isomorphism drives cash management practices in the counties by influencing how they follow state and agency mandates. Moreover, while urban counties have superior socio-economic indicators compared to their rural counterparts, no differences exist regarding standardized financial indicators, which suggest that local governments in the state may be imitating the practices of one another.

First, states should consider the different financial and economic conditions of their local governments when prescribing cash management policies because uniform policies could stifle local innovation and reduce efficiency in cash management. Second, when there is pressure from a higher-level government or a state agency, local governments may end up imitating one another rather than exploring opportunities for innovation within state policies. Third, state policies should consider requiring education and training in cash management practices that help identify strategies to add value to public funds within the scope of local fiscal capabilities.

The study uses one state to investigate a unique case of centralized cash management practices. The lessons learned can apply to other states seeking to develop a policy for their small local governments without placing the larger ones at a disadvantage.

In recent years, one of the most important and active research areas has been local food. This study aims to examine the evolution and trends of local food research in several disciplines or fields in the 50 years, highlighting emerging research themes, collaborations such as authors, institutions, journals and co-citations such as documents, authors and journals.

A total of 869 local food-related articles from the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1970 to 2020 were analyzed by several bibliometric analyses using CiteSpace II software.

The findings indicate that the number of studies in the local food field has increased rapidly and it is an interdisciplinary subject. Moreover, the results indicate that there is partly collaboration among authors, institutions or countries that conduct research on local food. For example, the most productive authors in this field are in USA, India, Brazil and European countries. Another remarkable result of this study is that tourism and hospitality discipline has focused on local food subject, especially in the last five years.

This is one of the first attempts by using network analysis to directly understand and visualize the interrelated structures of the local food research. Furthermore, the results of this study may provide researchers a reference guide to better evaluate and monitor local food research.

This paper aims to investigate whether the amount of local governments’ debt can be predicted by the level of political competition.

The study uses the artificial neural network (ANN) to test whether ANN can “learn” from the observed data and make reliable out-of-sample predictions of the target variable value (i.e. a local government’s debt level) for given values of the predictor variables. An ANN is a non-parametric prediction tool, that is, not susceptible to the common limitations of regression-based parametric forecasting models, e.g. multi-collinearity and latent non-linear relations.

The study finds that “political competition” is a useful predictor of a local government’s debt level. Moreover, a positive relationship between political competition and debt level is indicated, i.e. increases in political competition typically leads to increases in a local government’s level of debt.

The study contributes to public sector reporting literature by investigating whether public debt levels can be predicted on the basis of political competition while discounting factors such as “political ideology” and “fragmentation”. The findings of the study are consistent with the expectations posited by public choice theory and have implications for public sector auditing, policy and reporting standards, particularly in terms of minimising potential political opportunism.

Financial stress features frequently as an explanatory factor in research into decisions concerning the contracting out, or decentralisation, of local public services, though existing empirical studies are not unanimous in their conclusions. The understanding of how financial crises influence these processes could be enhanced by the use of a dynamic methodology that takes into account the following three aspects: the duration of the financial stress, the effectiveness of the action taken and the time‐lag between the crisis and the response. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study introduces three important innovations in the methodology employed to study financial stress: the consideration of the duration of a financial stress episode as a key factor in promoting changes in the provision of public services; the effectiveness of the measures taken; and time‐lag, which takes into account the extended time horizon over which the local authority may implement business‐like and organisational changes.

To date, the techniques used to measure the effects of changes in service delivery methods implemented to alleviate financial stress, have not reflected the true nature of the phenomenon. The results obtained when the new approach proposed in this paper was used to examine Spanish local government responses to financial stress during the period 1999‐2007 confirm that the methodology is well‐judged and effective.

This study reveals that local authorities facing financial stress of two, three or four years’ duration present percentages of decentralisation and contracting‐out that are significantly higher than is the case for local authorities that implement the same processes in response to crises of one year. These findings confirm the need to carry out studies that include the duration of financial crises as a determinant factor in change processes.

El estrés financiero como factor explicativo es una característica recurrente en la investigación sobre la privatización/descentralización de los servicios públicos locales, aunque los estudios empíricos previos no son unánimes en sus conclusiones. Nuestro conocimiento de la influencia de las crisis financieras en estos procesos se podría mejorar mediante el uso de una metodología dinámica que tenga en cuenta los tres aspectos siguientes: la duración de la tensión financiera, el tiempo que transcurre entre la crisis y la respuesta hecha, y la eficacia de esta acción. Al aplicar esta nueva metodología, se demuestra que, hasta la fecha, los métodos utilizados para medir los efectos de los cambios en las formas de prestación de servicios, como un medio de aliviar la tensión financiera, no han reflejado la verdadera naturaleza del fenómeno. Los resultados obtenidos con esta nueva propuesta confirman que la metodología aplicada es la correcta y efectiva en los gobiernos locales españoles para el período 1999‐2007.

The purpose of this study is to explore potential reasons that might explain why locally owned tourism firms cheat the use of backward economic linkages that (when used) might otherwise maximize the economic benefits of the tourism industry for locals.

For this exploratory qualitative case study research design, 25 face-to-face interviews were conducted with various tourism business owners and managers in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

The findings indicate that while the participants felt that tourism business' economies of scale could be improved if all locally owned businesses purchased within the tourism supply chain they themselves were purchasing outside of the supply chain. This behavior was characterized as a result of a non-cooperative market.

The major implication from the study is a trend that emerged from the data that seems to detect a tragedy of the commons scenario that is rooted in game theory. This scenario provides insight into a problem where tourism business owners and managers indicate an understanding of the value of using local network linkages, but instead cheat the system. A limitation of the study is that case studies may only be generalized to theoretical propositions and not to similar contextual situations.

Mainstream tourism literature has provided quantitative assessments that determine the direct, indirect, induced, and multiplier effects of local links between industries, sectors, and different producers that are used in the tourism supply chain. Findings from these studies indicate that local areas economically benefit when these links are actively used. However, not extensively addressed is identification of why (when most individuals know they may all benefit from the use of said linkages) cheat the system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect that government austerity policies has had on local studies in Devon and suggest a possible alternative means of maintaining local studies’ collections.

This paper presents an historical survey of local studies provision in the county since the nineteenth century and outlines the present local studies’ landscape.

The findings show that local studies’ provision has been severely affected by eight years of progressive cuts to public library funding and that present publications, both printed and digital, are no longer being adequately recorded.

This paper suggests that in Devon, the museum sector may be a more appropriate home for local studies’ library provision than are archive services.

Volunteers in libraries, museums and archives across Devon will be involved in maintaining a union catalogue and a bibliography of local publications.

While this is a suggested solution for Devon, it may not be applicable in regions with different traditions of heritage provision.