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For “Global”, read “USA”. Examines the relationship between dominant communication technologies, human cognition and human organization. Concludes that electronic networks have a great potential for improving the richness of human cognition and facilitating democracy. Cautions that public money needs to be spent to ensure universal access to, development of and open exchange within networks. Avers that European critical scholarship is incapable of empirical verification.

Looks at the pathfinder approach to library instruction, which was developed in the 1960s by Patricia Knapp. Knapp's system focused, not on the simple provision of answers to questions, but on the teaching of the effective use of the library and its resources– in other words, on the finding of one's “way” in the library.

A traditional theoretical model for the creation and evaluation of pathfinders (subject research guides) can be identified through study of the literature. This model, expressed in the design criteria of consistency, selectivity, transparency and accessibility, sprang from an impulse to serve the inexperienced user by emulating or facilitating the user's search process.

A gap in this model can be detected, in the form of a missing multi‐dimensional picture of the user and the user's experience of the information service via the pathfinder. In an attempt to fill the gap, literature examining information behavior, the search process, the design of user‐centered services, and the information retrieval interaction is discussed.

An experience‐centered model for online research guide design and evaluation is derived from the findings.

A discussion of the nature of information is undertaken by bringing together the views of Brenda Dervin and Karl Popper on subjectivity and objectivity as these relate to information use. It is shown that while they take different routes, they come to similar positions. From the historical development of information science, some work on the problem of information management is selected to show the relevance of the philosophical discussion to the practice. The overall purpose is to establish information as an existent with which librarians and information scientists work in a peculiar way, resulting in the acts of classification and indexing as applied in information retrieval systems (or libraries). The nature of information and its relationship to human activities is seen to be fundamental to the practice and principles of the profession as well as the science. I use the word ‘librarian’ to indicate the intermediary since the word ‘intermediary’ can carry the meaning ‘human and/or non‐human’. Here we are concerned with human problems.

Characterizations of users’ experiences on the Web are beginning to appear. Recently released research suggests that Internet use may reduce psychological well‐being, for instance by increasing loneliness and depression. Our current study implies that using the Internet may provoke enjoyable experiences through the flow state, which may in turn positively influence an individual’s subjective well‐being and improve a person’s happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect. By surveying 304 Web users through an open‐ended questionnaire, this study captures a picture of Web users’ flow experiences regarding their optimal situations on the Web. Results suggest that using the World Wide Web is an activity that facilitates flow, which generates an optimal, extremely enjoyable experience with total involvement and concentration. Symptoms and dimensions of flow states on the Web are reported directly from subjects’ responses, such as merging of action and awareness, a loss of self‐consciousness, the sense of time distortion, enjoyment, and telepresence.

Letters and opinions published in the Chronicle of Higher Education were analysed to identify metaphors relating to libraries used by faculty, academic administrators and librarians. Metaphors used in communications are assumed to reflect conceptual models held by the communicators. The qualitative methodology used in this study was built on the works of Schön, Reddy and Green. In this exploratory study, fourteen models of libraries were identified through linguistic examination of the appearance of the word stem ‘librar’ among published communications from academics. Differences were found in the conceptual models of libraries held among faculty, academic administrators and librarians. The study's findings suggest that to administrators in this case, libraries are contributors to the social structure of an academic environment, while to faculty, libraries are the repository for physical information resources to support their research. Librarians in the study tend to attribute an activist role to libraries, and to express a conceptual model of a library as a storehouse. The identification of metaphors about libraries, cited by academics, offers library managers insights into academic library users' conceptualisation of libraries.

The main goals of this study are identifying the information needs of new North American immigrants to Israel and to ascertain which channels of information are used by the immigrants before and after immigration to try to satisfy their information needs.

A qualitative research approach was used for this study. Qualitative interviews were implemented as the primary strategy for data with the application of the grounded theory method for analysis.

General information needs categories included: housing, schooling, health, banking and finances, drivers licenses, government‐related issues, legal issues and practical information. Personal information needs related to problems of “split” or prior immigration, changing over professional licenses, starting a business, children with special needs, and alternative medicine. Many of these needs were satisfied either prior to immigration or during the absorption process while others were left open leaving the immigrants with gaps in their knowledge, feelings of uncertainty and, at times, anxiety. During the preparations for immigration the greatest source of information came from the internet. After immigration, during the absorption process, word‐of‐mouth and personal contacts (social networks) were the main sources for the immigrants to satisfy their information needs.

Additional research regarding immigration and immigrants from all different backgrounds is needed. Such research will help us learn more about other specific group's information needs and information seeking behavior.

By learning and studying the information needs of immigrant's governments and immigration organizations can have a better understanding of how to assist immigrants have a successful integration into their new society.

Prospective immigrants, governments and immigration organizations can gain a deeper understanding of immigrant information needs and the channels used to satisfy those needs.

According to Sasha Alyson, collections development librarians have a responsibility to provide books that address the needs of the estimated 10 percent of the population who are homosexual. Several authors have discussed the important role that libraries can play in the lives of gays and lesbians (see for example, Alyson, 1984; Ashby, 1987; Parkinson, 1987; and Monroe, 1989). Because they afford a degree of privacy to users, libraries that house good collections are a desirable place for gays and lesbians to sift through their positive and negative images and, in so doing, find solace and hope.

Available evidence indicates that there is a growing gap between the information rich and information poor. That gap is part of a larger struggle for control of information resources and for the societal power that accompanies such control. New institutional arrangements are needed to spread the benefits of modern information technologies to all segments of the population. Achieving social equity objectives requires governmental leadership and funding. But current legislative proposals for shaping the National Information Infrastructure (NII) lack clear statements as to how the social equity objectives enunciated by the President and Vice President would be accomplished. These proposals seem to make insufficient provision for expanding the development of more than 150 computerized community information systems (CCIS) created by grass‐roots organizations over the past several years. Locally controlled information delivery systems supported by a federally sponsored system of National and Regional Institutes for Information Democracy could help meet the daily information needs of all people, regardless of economic class or community environment. The Institutes would provide sustained support for anc coordination of social equity and empowerment objectives, and could servie as the institutional structures lacking in current legislation

Describes the basic premises of three metatheories that represent important or emerging perspectives on information seeking, retrieval and knowledge formation in information science: constructivism, collectivism, and constructionism.

Presents a literature‐based conceptual analysis. Pinpoints the differences between the positions in their conceptions of language and the nature and origin of knowledge.

Each of the three metatheories addresses and solves specific types of research questions and design problems. The metatheories thus complement one another. Each of the three metatheories encourages and constitutes a distinctive type of research and learning.

Outlines each metatheory's specific fields of application.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the leadership competencies of the Z generation (born after 1997) in the VUCA business environment. In today’s scenario, the business works differently than it used to previously. The young workforce wants not just to contribute their energy to the organisation but to their colleagues and themselves too, with the leading global sceneries.

An unstructured questionnaire was prepared by testing the reliability and validity of the data. Multiples linear regression analyses were used to derive results and to check whether the competencies are dependent on the VUCA skill sets. Entrepreneurial leadership, enabling leadership, operational leadership and architectural leadership are chosen to be the independent variables for this study.

The findings reveal that the dependability is on all the four factors for the VUCA business environment and hence the need is to practice the same in the organisation.

The test has been done on a sample having 260 respondents. This study reveals data of the workspace environment only and not how Gen Z will behave to the conditions as individuals. Gender-perspective is not taken into account in this study.

The implications can be seen for the organisations’ understanding of how to deal with generation Z and empower them. The organisation-structure and processes that were developed previously will not be limited now just to making the organisations function but also impact self-development for Gen Z, the development that is focussed on work-teams of Gen Z and so the global market eventually.

The originality is in the variables that have been taken for this study. As the world is growing rapidly, the mind-set and the style in which the manager works are changing. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account what leadership style will affect the current business environment.