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Microcomputers are rapidly becoming commonplace in libraries today and will become even more so as prices fall and capabilities increase. Microcomputers can provide a wide range of services, from being an integral part of a circulation system to serving as terminals to access online databases and information utilities such as the Source or CompuServe. Software can be purchased or developed to assist in online literature searching (record keeping or standardization of database commands). Database packages, or even word processing programs, can be used to help compile local newspaper indexes or other local information files. Statistical packages can be used to analyze library usage. Even the laborious task of writing reports or letters can be greatly aided by word processing programs. Even though the availability of software is a determining factor in choosing a microcomputer, this paper will concentrate on meeting the hardware needs of individual libraries.

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical appraisal of predictions of a jobless future due do rapid technological change, as well as provide evidence on whether the rate of occupational change has been increasing. The authors critique the “task replacement” methodology that underlies the most powerful and specific predictions about the impact of technology on employment in particular occupations. There are a number of reasons why assuming a correspondence between task replacement and employment declines is not warranted. The authors also raise questions about how rapidly the development, acceptance, and diffiusion of labor-displacing technologies is likely to occur. In the empirical portion of the chapter, the authors compare the current rate of employment disruption with those observed in earlier periods. This analysis is based on an analysis of occupation data in the US covering the period 1870–2015. Using an index of dissimilarity as the metric, the authors find that the rate of occupational change from 1870 to 2015 does not provide evidence of a sharp uptick in the rate of occupational shifts in the information age. Instead, the rate of occupation shifts has been declining slowly throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, the issues and results discussed here suggest that imminent massive employment displacement is not a foregone conclusion.

Continuing policy initiatives at both National and European levels emphasise the need to increase participation in higher education (HE) through more flexible delivery. One of the key elements of flexible delivery is seen to be the use of communication and information technologies (C&IT). These technologies clearly have the potential to reach a much wider student body, irrespective of geographical and/or social limitations. We briefly explore the role of C&IT in Universities and argue that its use is far less ubiquitous than predicted. We then explore the impact of C&IT on pedagogy in HE as well as on the organisation of teaching and learning, with a particular emphasis on delivery to small companies. We conclude that the current use of C&IT in HE is likely to continue to confirm the already existing gap between those with and those without access to these technologies and predict that the role of multinational corporations in education is likely to increase.

The purpose of this paper is to draw out the lessons learned from the implementation of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach to supported employment in two contrasting adult mental health teams; one “standard” CMHT, and one early intervention in psychosis (EIP) team.

These inferences are based on the evidence from a four-year study of IPS in one mental health care provider in the UK, which began by setting up a new service, and went on to run a RCT looking at the impact of psychological input as an adjunct to IPS alone.

In attempting to introduce IPS to mental health teams in Nottingham the authors came across numerous barriers, including service reorganisation, funding cuts and the wider context of recession. Differences were observed between mental health teams in the willingness to embrace IPS. The authors argue that this variability is due to differences in caseload size, recovery priorities and client profiles. The authors have learnt that perseverance, strenuous efforts to engage clinical staff and the use of IPS fidelity reviews can make a positive difference to the implementation process.

The experience suggests that setting up an IPS service is possible even in the most challenging of times, and that EIP services may be a particularly fertile ground for this approach. The authors also discuss potential barriers to implementing new services in mental health teams.

This paper will be of value to service development and the science of implementation in mental health.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Finns’ labor market development predictions for the next ten years and shed light on preferred policy responses to the digital economy.

Nationally representative survey data employed in this paper were collected in autumn 2017. The data collection utilized a multiphase sampling, and the interviews (n=1004) were carried out on telephone to minimize selection-bias and produce demographically balanced data.

Over two-thirds (71 percent) of Finns do not expect technological unemployment to constitute a permanent problem in the digital economy. Nevertheless, 74 percent assume that technological unemployment will increase at least temporarily. A considerable majority (85 percent) also believe that future jobs will be more precarious. Younger generations, despite their currently weak position in the labor market, are surprisingly more optimistic in their predictions. Analysis of preferred policy responses support this paper’s main thesis that the Finnish view on the future of work is rather optimistic: education reforms and streamlining the current social security gather dedicated support, whereas more unconventional ideas such as basic income or work-sharing remain contested.

To predict possible barriers to labor mobility stemming from digital economy discourses and to anticipate possible political fluctuations, studies on the public view are needed. This research aims to provide a solid framework for further comparative explorations of the public view.

This concluding chapter discusses how the unfurling of the Writers in the Schools (WITS) Collaborative took place against a backdrop of four pandemics: COVID-19, the movement against racial injustice, climate change, and the inevitable economic despair that spills over into the field of education. The work looks backwards on the chapters in this book and their findings. It also looks forward to the lessons that the WITS Collaborative has taught – and will teach – as it moves toward a future unknown, yet much anticipated.

This paper aims to examine the coming of robots to libraries and the readiness of their hosts who are the librarians in welcoming and accommodating them.

A conceptual and review analysis of documents was adopted to determine the types of robots used in libraries along with their duties, the librarians’ readiness and the likes.

There is the fear that the coming of robots to libraries is to take the librarians job; contrarily the arrival of robots to the library is not to replace the librarians but rather to complement their efforts.

The paper is the original idea by the authors, and it is to get the librarians with limited skills in libraries prepared for up-skilling if they do not want to be replaced by the robots.

The purpose of this paper is to explore insights methodology and technology by using behavioral to create a mind-set change in the way people work, especially in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

The approach is to examine how AI is driving workplace change, introduce the idea that most organizations have untapped analytics, add the idea of what we know future work will look like and look at how greater, data-driven human behavioral insights will help prepare future human-to-human work and inform people’s work with and alongside AI.

Human (behavioral) intelligence will be an increasingly crucial part of behaviorally smart organizations, from hiring to placement to adaptation to team building, compliance and more. These human capability insights will, among other things, better prepare people and organizations for changing work roles, including working with and alongside AI and similar tech innovation.

No doubt researchers across the private, public and nonprofit sectors will want to further study the nexus of human capability, behavioral insights technology and AI, but it is clear that such work is already underway and can prove even more valuable if adopted on a broader, deeper level.

Much “people data” inside organizations is currently not being harvested. Validated, scalable processes exist to mine that data and leverage it to help organizations of all types and sizes be ready for the future, particularly in regard to the marriage of human capability and AI.

In terms of human capability and AI, individuals, teams, organizations, customers and other stakeholders will all benefit. The investment of time and other resources is minimal, but must include C-suite buy in.

Much exists on the softer aspects of the marriage of human capability and AI and other workplace advancements. What has been lacking – until now – is a 1) practical, 2) validated and 3) scalable behavioral insights tech form that quantifiably informs how people and AI will work in the future, especially side by side.