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In this article, we survey experiments that are directly related to monetary policy and central banking. We argue that experiments can also be used as a tool for central bankers for bench testing policy measures or rules. We distinguish experiments that analyze the reasons for non-neutrality of monetary policy, experiments in which subjects play the role of central bankers, experiments that analyze the role of central bank communication and its implications, experiments on the optimal implementation of monetary policy, and experiments relevant for monetary policy responses to financial crises. Finally, we mention open issues and raise new avenues for future research.

This paper aims to present a methodology, early findings, possible applications of results and lessons learned from the research study “Public libraries: value, trust and satisfaction”, which has been conducted within the public library development project ‘Father's Third Son’ in Latvia.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used (although the findings reported here are largely drawn from the quantitative study) drawing on various theories of information behaviour and use‐oriented information service evaluation.

The study gives a good picture of user information needs in Latvia, the sources they use to fulfil them and the role of public libraries within this picture, especially in relation to cultural and recreational interests and public support for public libraries in terms of potential funding. The public library influence on people's leisure hours and their support for education are highlighted. The advocacy implications of this work are reviewed.

Although this report is confined to the early stages of the study, the work was conducted on a substantial scale.

The work reported here provides new evidence of library use and appreciation in Latvia. The later results of this study, combined with evidence gathered by other participants in the Global Libraries initiative, will provide a commanding view of the significance of public libraries across a range of countries.

With the worldwide open government data (OGD) movement and frequent public health emergencies in recent years, academic research on OGD for public health emergencies has been growing. However, it is not fully understood how to promote OGD on public health emergencies. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the factors that influence OGD on public health emergencies.

The technology–organization–environment framework is applied to explore factors that influence OGD during COVID-19. It is argued that the effects of four key factors – technical capacity, organizational readiness, social attention and top-down pressure – are contingent on the severity of the pandemic. A unique data set was created by combining multiple data sources which include archival government data, a survey of 1,034 Chinese respondents during the COVID-19 outbreak and official COVID-19 reports.

The data analysis indicates that the four factors positively affect OGD, and pandemic severity strengthens the effects of technical capacity, organizational readiness and social attention on OGD.

This study provides theoretical insights regarding how to improve OGD during public health emergencies, which can guide government efforts in sharing data with the public when dealing with outbreak in the future.

Under the background of coexistence of information overload and information fragmentation, it is of great significance to identify influencing factors and reveal the evolution logic of public opinion for public opinion governance.

Taking 24 hot social events as research cases, firstly, the evolution process of public opinion was divided into initial stage and response stage. Secondly, eight antecedent variables were extracted for qualitative comparative analysis of fuzzy sets. Finally, the configuration path of public opinion evolution results was summarized.

The research showed that compared with the initial stage, the influencing factors in the reaction stage played a key role in the continuous evolution of public opinion. The influencing factors in the initial stage and response stage played an indispensable role in promoting the evolution of public opinion to calm down.

This research can provide reference for regulators to timely grasp the initiative, discourse power and leadership of public opinion development.

Research on the two-stage configuration path of public opinion evolution is helpful to clarify the key factors affecting the evolution trend of online public opinion of hot events.

This paper aims to research the reforms toward International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) implementation and the perceptions about the use and usefulness of accounting information in the context of local government in the Iberian Peninsula. The paper focuses on the perspective of chief financial officers (CFOs).

The paper uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Beyond the study of the context of the reform in both countries through the consultation of legislation and official documents, the authors collected primary data through a survey addressed to the local CFO to catch both countries' perceptions and beliefs toward the topic under research.

The authors' findings evidence that both countries have made strong efforts to adapt IPSAS to both countries' national standards. The coercive and mimetic isomorphism and the private accounting normative were important determinants in the reform. Looking at perceptions, budget information continues to be perceived as the king information for public management and decision-making. In a comparative way, the Portuguese CFO seems to be more optimistic concerning the use and usefulness of the new accounting system. The strong orientation of CFO to cash-basis and budgeting information is an important explanation of the lower use and usefulness, essentially in the Spanish context. The regression results show that individual perceptions and beliefs on the accounting reform influence the opinion about the usefulness and use of financial information.

The use of the survey method has some limitations very discussed in the literature that are also applied in this study.

The paper has the potential to contribute to the academic, political and practitioner discussion of the core purposes of financial accounting information in the public sector and financial accounting information's impacts on the European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS) framework.

The recent adoption of the new accounting system in local governments of both contexts contributes to knowledge on the public sector accounting reforms toward the transition to accrual accounting and the IPSAS. The innovative character of the paper contributes to better clarify how the perceptions of the accounting reform influence the usage level of public financial information.

Many countries aim to improve public services by use of information and communication technology (ICT) in public service supply chains. However, the literature does not address how inter-organizational ICT is used in redesigning these particular supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to explore this important and under-investigated area.

An explorative multiple-case study was performed based on 36 interviews, 39 documents, extensive field visits and observations providing data on digital transformation in four European criminal justice supply chains.

Two different design approaches to digital transformation were found, which are labelled digitization and digitalization. These approaches are characterized by differences in public service strategies, performance aims, and how specific public characteristics and procedures are dealt with. Despite featuring different roles for ICT, both types show the viable digital transformation of public service supply chains. Additionally, the application of inter-organizational ICT is found not to automatically result in changes in the coordination and management of the chain, in contrast to common assumptions.

This paper is one of the first to adopt an inter-organizational perspective on the use of ICT in public service supply chains. The findings have scientific and managerial value because fine-grained insights are provided into how public service supply chains can use ICT in an inter-organizational setting. The study shows the dilemmas faced by and possible options for public organizations when designing digital service delivery.

Reports the findings of research conducted for the Library Action Committee of the Book and Periodical Council, Canada, into the importance of public libraries to library users, suppliers, publishers, retailers and other businesses; as well as to Canadian culture. Analyses the effects of reduced funding to public libraries on the economy and society at large.

This work was originally commissioned during 1982, the year that was designated Information Technology Year; the year that the personal computer replaced the space invader machine as a focus for teenage obsession; the year of the library symbol, the Hunt Report on cable TV; the year the US Post Office issued two stamps celebrating American libraries, and the British Post Office issued a stamp for IT year suggesting that libraries were a thing of the past. The work was intended to look at “the background to the IT revolution, the benefits of applying technology to library services and the reasons for its relatively slow progress”. It was envisaged at the time that what would have been effectively a state‐of‐the‐art report on the technology available to libraries, and who was doing what with it, would be a useful tool for library managers introducing or extending library technical services. It might usefully have complemented the LA publication, The impact of new technology on libraries and information centres (LA, 1982). However, for a variety of reasons it was not possible to produce the publication in 1983 as intended; the person commissioned to write it was unable to do so; and eventually, in 1984, it was realised that the speed of development and availability of technology was such that any such work would be useless as a practical guide within months of publication. The growth, during the period, of journals on the subject of library applications of IT of all kinds; the appearance of regular updates in the generalist professional press; the formation of, for example, the Library Association IT Group: all these developments clearly offered better opportunities of current awareness to the library manager than could be achieved by a single monograph.

In this session I want to take the conference theme — ‘Information for decision‐making’ and attempt to examine how the development of community information provision in public libraries in Great Britain can and does assist improved decision‐making both by the general public, including certain groups of people in particular, and library staff. I am conscious, in talking to an audience which I suspect is, in the main, comprised of colleagues from special and academic libraries, that there is a view amongst some of you at least, that ‘community information’ is one of those ‘harebrained schemes’ which are nothing to do with ‘real’ librarianship and are contributing to the decline in standards of public library services. I hope to convince those people, and indeed all of you, that community information is one of the most significant developments that public libraries have ever undertaken.

Public access to European Union information has become an issue in European Union information policy. The Public Information Relay has been established in the United Kingdom in order to facilitate access to European Union information for the general public. This research project aimed to assess the effectiveness of the new Relay in facilitating public access to European Union information by interviewing some of the key personnel involved as well as other relevant individuals. Several criteria were set against which the potential effectiveness of the Public Information Relay was measured: the general public's opinion of the information they received; the Public Information Relay structure; the Relay members' commitment of resources to the Relay; the Relay members' participation in regional and national networks and the European Commission's commitment to the Public Information Relay. The research explored issues which are particularly relevant to an information provider catering to the needs of the general public.