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Library technology has been moving towards SaaS and cloud‐based services for some time. Yet the cornerstone of the library collection, namely the ILS, remains largely on separate islands with limited capacity for interoperability, requiring alternate layers for discovery to ingest and index their content. How ILS providers react to this challenge and how libraries themselves respond to it will determine the degree to which such new technologies can take hold. Ultimately, a shift towards a more unified model is perhaps inevitable. It is the means by which that is achieved which remains debatable. This paper seeks to address these issues.

With the onset of new management solutions such as Alma, Intota and Worldshare, the prospect of moving the management of the full breadth of the library collection into the cloud has become a possibility. There is, however, no clear picture as to whether this represents the future of libraries as a whole.

Ultimately, a shift towards a more unified model is perhaps inevitable. It is the means by which that is achieved which remains debatable. This paper provides an open‐ended perspective on the possibilities and perils of the cloud in the library industry.

This paper provides an open‐ended perspective on the possibilities and perils of the cloud in the library industry.

This chapter explores the impact of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded by Cooperative Agreement AIDS education and prevention program on crack users and drug injectors. Data on the 5,789 participants were drawn from eight cities throughout the United States. Subjects were classified into three user groups: injectors only, crack smokers only, and crack-smoking injectors. They were interviewed at baseline and six months later at follow-up about their HIV risk behaviors which included needle-related behaviors, drug use patterns, and sexual behaviors. At baseline, subjects were assigned either to a two-session NIDA developed standard intervention or to a more elaborate and prolonged enhanced intervention which was independently developed in each of the sites. Analyses were conducted for the cities individually. Three major findings emerged from the analyses: (1) there is a relative lack of post intervention differences between the standard and enhanced interventions; (2) statistically significant and substantively meaningful changes occurred between pretest and posttest; and (3) despite meaningful reductions in risk behaviors among some users, a large percentage of these drug users continue to engage in all types of risky behaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed in the chapter.

On December 31, 1996, the U.S. Congress officially ended its funding of the Social Security Administration's program of supplemental security income (SSI) and social security disability income (SSDI) cash and Medicaid benefits for drug addiction and alcoholism (DA&A). This social policy change is part of the U.S. Congress welfare reform, which will impact more than 26,000 Illinois residents, thousands in Cook County alone. Our study seeks to illuminate the meaning of these benefits to a group of approximately 40 former Cook County recipients. We explored the utility and meaning of the cash and Medicaid benefits to at least three types of recipients (Good Citizens, Hustlers, and Lost Souls) that emerged from a series of focus groups. Our paper studies the differences between the three types of recipients in their use of cash (e.g., from paying for housing and living essentials to purchasing drugs) and Medicaid (e.g., medications and drug treatment) benefits. Findings and conclusions also generate important insights into how recent social policy changes impact the drug-using community and produce new health and social problems for both the former recipients and society-at-large.

Private alcohol problem treatment in the United States arose from a social movement that began after Prohibition and culminated in the founding of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 1970. Using a treatment model that incorporated much of the ideology of Alcoholics Anonymous, an isomorphic set of private treatment centers grew rapidly across the country with support and assistance from NIAAA. As this support diminished and cost containment emerged, a crisis struck the population of treatment centers, leading to many closures. Nonetheless, most of the centers have survived. This chapter uses data from a national longitudinal study of privately funded alcohol problem treatment centers to illustrate the transformation of the treatment industry during the 1990s. We argue that this transformation results from an increased difficulty in obtaining treatment funding due to the health care cost-containment practices of managed care.

The substance abuse treatment system is currently confronted with not only more clients but also clients with a complex array of health and human service needs. Existing systems often lack both resources and the institutional structure needed to manage clients with multiple and often chronic needs. Presented in this chapter is a review of a federally funded demonstration project designed to address these client management requirements in the treatment system. The project, Target Cities, focused a variety of interventions designed to improve access to assessments and treatment, client-treatment matching procedures, linkages and referrals to other health and human service providers, and client tracking. Discussed are the history, rationale, implementation, and findings produced by these system changes in one main metropolitan area. The results indicated that centralized intake improved access to treatment while maintaining client satisfaction with the intake process.

Focuses on the approach to interpreting earnings equality found in the writings of a variety of economists and in particular, technological change and its effects on the demand skill resulting in earning inequality. Argues that the evidence in favour of the technological effect is weak and presents some alternatives for further consideration.

This case describes how Varian Medical Systems, the successor to one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley, created a business with $11.6 billion in market cap by listening to dreams of its physician customers and their scientist colleagues and finding ways to fulfill them over several decades.

A key business opportunity that spurred the company was to identify the most perceptive thought-leader customers, then bring them into a long-term, system-building partnership.

If companies envision the future and work with perceptive, far-sighted customers and others who will benefit from high-value innovation, together they stand a real chance of achieving a desired future.

Establish forums where perceptive, visionary customers meet with executives, marketers and key developers to identify what you should deliver in the immediate future and in years beyond.

The case described the practical steps the company took to implement customer participation in the innovation process over many decades.