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Argues that the training of librarians in GDR times gives a strange picture and is difficult to understand. On the one hand it can be seen and understood as a continuation of the traditional German library training before 1933, which was closely linked to practical library work. On the other hand, there was the ideological and political influence by the communist dictators who had made various efforts to restructure and reorganize the system of professional training at that time. With the slow demise of the GDR economy, which had been noticeable since the beginning of the 1980s, general conditions of library training worsened. The fall of the GDR was therefore a release and traditional library training could be rescued. Argues that since 1990 a swift development has been going on and we can now see a similar training of librarians as in the western part of Germany. At the moment we focus our work on an internationalization of studies including joint degree courses and exchange programmes. To provide the students with a broader European feeling and work experience is a necessary challenge nowadays and helps to meet the changing requirements in information management worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to employ the meso-level theory of felt accountability to investigate the relationships among positive affect, negative affect, perceived organizational support, organizational structure and felt accountability.

To avoid common method bias, this study employed a time-lag data collection technique in collecting data from 132 participants. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among the variables.

The results show a positive association between positive affect and perceived organizational support and felt accountability, whereas negative affect and organizational structure were negatively correlated with felt accountability, in that machine structures constraint the development of felt accountability.

This research advances the meso-level theory of felt accountability and social exchange frameworks by integrating personality and organizational factors influencing felt accountability, and demonstrating that that the tangible advantages offered by an organization are reciprocated by employees’ accountability.

Surface Films in View. Studying surface films on metals optically, as the subject of a lecture, might at first seem of academic interest, but its origin is well rooted in good craftsmanship; the old‐time blacksmith or toolmaker judged the heat treatment temperature of his products by the rate of spread of interference colours across a freshly filed surface. Between the visual assessment of colours and the modern use of a polarising spectrometer lies a mass of optical theory which has deterred many a research chemist. However, Prof. A. B. Winter‐bottom of the Technical University, Trondheim, Norway, was not deterred from covering this subject in the eagerly awaited spring lecture of the S.C.I. Corrosion Group.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

With the advent of transformational and digital technologies, companies are striving to integrate digital transformation strategy (DTS) into their business models to stay competitive. However, in many cases, the implementation of DTS fails because managers lack knowledge about the opportunities and challenges associated with this strategy.

First, a bibliometric analysis was conducted with data related to DTS from the Scopus database for the period 2011–2023 to identify scientific trends in the field of DTS. Subsequently, 2,363 documents were collected and analyzed using Vosviewer software. Finally, the opportunities and challenges within the field of DTS were identified as one of the latest trends through a meta-synthesis method.

The findings of this research highlight the current scientific trends in the field of DTS. Also, the challenges of implementing the DTS are lack of instructions and rules, financial weakness, lack of alignment, inappropriate organizational structure, lack of digital organizational culture, challenges related to employees, lack of a digital leader and cyber threats. In addition, DTS implementation opportunities can be divided into three groups: improving customer experience, improving business processes and strategic renewal and creation of new business models.

The present research introduces two key innovations. The first is to offer a summary of prior research in the field of DTS. The second is identifying the opportunities and challenges associated with adopting this strategy, which is one of the latest trends.

This paper explored factors that impact insurance choices of demand (farmers) and supply (insurance companies) side, respectively.

Specially designed survey questions allow one to fully observe the demand tendency from farmers and partially observe the supply tendency from insurance companies. Using bi‐vairate probit model, a joint estimation of insurance decisions of both supply and demand sides suggested that factors perform different roles in affecting insurance participation.

Farmer's age and education have positive impacts on insurance demand, but are indifference to insurance providers. Insurance suppliers care about farmers' experience in the fields when providing insurance services, however, on the demand side, farmers' experience occasionally results in overconfidence and hence, impedes farmers' insurance purchasing. Production scales, proxy by sow inventory, are put more weight by farmers than insurance suppliers when making decisions. Production efficiency measures perform as incentives for farmers to purchase insurance. While suppliers prefer customers who use vaccine, farmers tend to treat vaccine as a substitute for insurance to prevent disease risk.

Results from bi‐vairate probit model offer deeper understandings about livestock insurance choices and provide further insights to improve policy design and promote participation.

The study designed a special questionnaire and firstly used bi‐vairate probit model to offer more understandings about demand and supply sides of livestock insurance.