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The current goal of many US firms is to become the highest quality and lowest cost leaders in their markets. Achieving this goal requires major changes in how products and services are produced. Many systems have been developed to assist firms in accomplishing this goal; they include such diverse areas as Just‐in‐Time manufacturing (JIT), Material Resource Planning II (MRP II), Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), CAD/CAM, Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), and Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). One key element in the success of these systems is that accurate data concerning plant operations must be immediately available to those who need it. More and more frequently, this requirement is being addressed through the use of automatic data collection systems (ADC). Seeks to provide insights into the application of ADC systems in US industries. Considers the type of data collection system installed, the implementation and operational problems encountered, and the degree of success enjoyed by the firm using ADC. Data were gathered via a survey instrument administered to the membership of a national organization, the Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM).

This paper hypothesized that ratees who share their multisource feedback with raters and ask for suggestions would improve more than other ratees. The participants were 5,335 ratees in a large, global corporation who received multisource feedback. Nine months after the initial survey, there was a follow‐up survey in which raters indicated whether the feedback recipient had shared the feedback and asked for suggestions. One year after the initial survey, there was a second multisource feedback survey. It was found that sharing feedback and asking for suggestions accounted for only a very small (albeit statistically significant) proportion of variance in improvement over time. This paper discusses factors that may affect the impact of sharing feedback and asking for suggestions following multisource feedback.

The purpose of this paper is to report research undertaken in developing improved understandings of players' interaction and emotional experience of electronic gaming.

The research explores a variety of techniques designed to explore user/player insights into interaction, through consideration of user satisfaction, engagement or immersion. Non‐invasive eye tracking technology is used to augment data derived from these more traditional approaches to the assessment of emotional responses. It is postulated by the authors that from this exploration of insights related to usability, improved games level learning and recognition of new inherent revenue opportunities based around in‐game advertising, will be better understood.

As the number of participants in this pilot study is small it is perhaps too early to draw firm conclusions from the data collected. However, the study does establish that it is technically possible to configure the eye‐tracker and ancillary equipment to record the eye movements of game players. The study has uncovered further areas worthy of investigation such as the influence on eye movement of, player skill and experience, the nature of activities within the game, and the best ways to indicate the importance of key objects within a game.

The methodology presented within this paper shows that the application of eye‐tracking solutions can be used to evaluate engagement in games. The findings provide interesting and innovative ways for the games designers and in‐game advertisers to improve their performance.

From an academic perspective, this research is innovative in the way it has developed a methodology for analysis of player engagement within electronic games. This methodology offers valuable insights into game design improvement and in‐game advertising opportunities.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

IT IS QUITE a few years ago that we reported cases of university graduates forced to take jobs as labourers or suchlike because no other work was available. Indeed, our editorial last month dealt with such a case although that one had a much happier outcome.

THERE IS NO LACK of pundits who are ready to tell the government how their plan will reduce the massive figure of people who cannot find work. Our own contributor, Angus Downie, elsewhere in this issue provides his own plan — to force job sharing and make up the sum then earned by each of the ‘partners’ by a contribution from oil revenues.

Increasing use of the Internet has heightened awareness among the information community of the need to provide user friendly searching and navigation tools that lead to quality information. An essential part of gaining effective access to Internet resources is to provide an index of available items in order to save users time and network overload. Discussions on metadata are focused on the format of the record used as the basis for the index. Control of the vast number of resources of the Internet requires an appropriate record format (or formats) which will enable the resource to be adequately described and easily located; records must be compatible with an appropriate search engine which in turn would ideally be compatible with a search and retrieval Internet protocol and all components should conform to international standards. At present there are a number of formats which meet at least some of these criteria, each of which has its own strengths.

In this column, I'd like to deviate from the normal focus on the mechanics of network tools and instead take some time to step back and reflect on the culture of network navigation.

The purpose of this paper is to review how real estate students perceive and define commercial awareness, which is one of the most important employability skills. This paper also examines students’ perceptions about how their courses support and develop their commercial awareness. In addition, it compares students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness and identifies whether there are any gaps.

This paper presents the research findings of a questionnaire survey and e-mail discussions with students who are currently studying Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)-accredited real estate courses in the UK. The questionnaire aimed to gather students’ views on the definitions and components of commercial awareness and identify what skills and attributes are required for its development. It also evaluates how commercial awareness has been embedded in the real estate courses. The aim of each discussion was to gain deeper insight on how components of commercial awareness are embedded in real estate courses, and 17 discussions were conducted. The contents of the e-mail discussions were analysed and similar themes were identified and coded. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees is presented. The findings from students’ views have been compared to published research reporting UK RICS-accredited real estate course providers’ views on commercial awareness. In addition to descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test was used to identify the statistical significance between the academics’ and students’ views on commercial awareness.

The UK real estate students agreed that the most important definition of commercial awareness is a “person's ability to understand the economics of business”. They agreed that “financial” component is the most important component of commercial awareness and it is the largest portion of their courses. The most important skill and attribute for commercial awareness development are “critical thinking” and “ability and willingness to update professional knowledge”, respectively. Although the descriptive analysis shows students and academics have different views on the definition and components of commercial awareness and its incorporation within real estate courses, the Fisher exact test shows that only a few elements are different enough to be statistically significant. This analysis shows that while students and academics have slightly different views on commercial awareness they are not very different. Commercial awareness is an important employability skill, thus, it is still necessary for real estate academics to re-visit the curriculum and to ensure learning outcomes related to commercial awareness have been clearly explained and communicated to students. Furthermore, it is vital for students to obtain practical experience in order to fully develop their commercial awareness.

This paper is a pioneer study focused on reviewing real estate students’ views on commercial awareness, including identifying its definition, components and evaluating the extent to which commercial awareness has been embedded in their courses. It also identifies the skills and attributes that students thought were required for the development of commercial awareness. Furthermore, it discusses students’ preferred ways of enhancing their commercial awareness as part of the course they are studying. It is the first study identifying the statistical difference between students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness. The understanding of students’ views on commercial awareness, their preferred delivery method and the divergence between students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness can provide useful insights for course directors on the development and renewal of real estate course curriculum.