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Traditional focus group methodology involves an individual trained moderator who manages the whole process from writing the focus group guide that directs the topics pursued, the interaction with participants, to interpretation, reporting and client feedback. Since their training, personality and orientation can vary differentially, this may lead to moderator bias. Proposes a new method that involves a series of complementary moderators that target specific areas of the guide that allows them to specialise in their particular experiences and orientations. These moderators are used sequentially on the same groups that offer the potential to avoid many of the problems associated with single‐moderator discussion groups. Moreover, the chance to moderate the moderator keeps a check on how the sessions of each focus group develops, building in feedback between moderators, and reduces the prospects of misinterpretation and side‐tracking by a single moderator.

To analyze the challenges encountered in the expansion and renovation of an academic medical library sited in an old teaching hospital administered by a government body, and the lessons learned for improving the future planning of renovation projects of medical libraries.

The experience of the Li Ping Medical Library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong is used as a case study to illustrate the challenges encountered in various stages from planning to implementation.

The challenges included funding constraints, space limitations, abbreviated planning time, stakeholder agreements, structural problems of an old building with dated infrastructure and construction restrictions of a hospital environment. Seven tips to improve future planning of renovation are provided.

While many of the challenges are typical in any renovations project, they are only discussed piecemeal in the literature. This article deals with this topic extensively and will interest other medical librarians planning renovations in future.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse an Australian commercial radio talkback show that deployed prank as a strategy to scoop royal news to entertain an Australian audience, often commodified for popularity ratings and sponsorship dollars.

Using textual analysis, the study empirically examined the crisis that followed the 2Day FM’s prank call to the Duchess of Cambridge at King Edward VII Hospital, London. The paper engages with the media-made disaster from the lens of issue and crisis management interrogating social conversations and news stories across three countries, i.e., Australia, Britain and India.

Findings reflect that the media, in this case, radio, far more than any other public entity, is subject to public scrutiny and has a moral obligation to practice with public interest at heart. Both news and social media played crucial roles in the escalation of the crisis that ignited a range of public issues. While social media narratives were abusive, condemning and life-threatening, news stories focused on legality, ethics and privacy.

The prank broadcast invited news and social media attention and raised public concern over the ethics of Australian radio entertainment. Crises, whilst often damaging, contribute to the rethinking and rejuvenation of organisational and professional values and practices.

This project is significant in that it is the first to use a radio talk show as a case to engage with issue and crisis management literature and interrogate radio practice in Australia. Further, the project identifies this crisis as media-made and develops an innovative crisis lifecycle model.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Discusses research ideas on the distinctions between data, information and knowledge, the categories of knowledge and knowledge‐processing activities in Holsapple and Whinston’s (HW’s) taxonomy (1987, 1988a, 1988b), and their application to markets and the activities of the firm. Describes a manufacturing firm’s inputs, production processes and outputs in terms of HW’s taxonomy, pointing out that management must filter the information surrounding the firm to turn it into knowledge of various types, e.g. descriptive, derived, assimilative etc. Considers the role of information for customers of and investors in the firm; and the relationship between knowledge and efficiency. Identifies three types of knowledge workers (builders, stewards and appliers) and calls for further research on the taxonomy of knowledge and standards of knowledge within the finance discipline.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Investigates the controversy surrounding the issue of empirical research productivity and quality teaching and whether or not they enhance each other or represent a trade‐off. Focuses on recent developments in Florida, where monetary incentives were provided to reward excellent teaching – the Teaching Incentive Programme (TIP). Reviews literature in the field of teaching effectiveness and research productivity. Sets out to test the results from previous studies (which found very little correlation between research productivity and teaching effectiveness) by identifying the recipients of Florida’s TIP awards, matching them with non‐recipients at the same university, gathering information on the publication record of each individual, and using sign tests to compare the recipients and non‐recipients of the TIP award. Finds that there was little significant difference in the publication records of recipients and non‐recipients. Concludes, therefore, that quality teaching and research are not mutually exclusive.