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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the ways in which attention to programmatic vision and coherence – rather than foci on individual courses – might advance the work of justice-oriented, critical English education in important ways. The authors propose that consciously attending to the work of English education on the programmatic level can better enable English educators to cultivate democracy-sustaining dispositions in preservice teachers. Using Grossman et al.’s (2008) definition of “programmatic coherence”, the authors illustrate how one interdepartmental partnership is working to create a shared programmatic vision for English education.

Drawing on Cornel West’s call for the development of a three-piece democratic armor – Socratic questioning, prophetic witness and tragicomic hope – the authors describe their programmatic vision for cultivating democracy-sustaining dispositions in preservice teachers. They show how this shared vision constitutes the foundation for the organization, purpose and sequence of the four-semester cohort program. Finally, the authors describe how this vision helps facilitate meaningful and purposeful symbiosis between field experiences and university coursework.

In an effort to promote replicability regarding programmatic coherence, the authors share structural aspects of their program as well as pose generative questions for colleagues who are interested in approaching the work of critical, democratic English education from the programmatic level.

Addressing the challenges of teacher preparation – especially in this polarized and pitched historical moment – requires shifting the focus from individual courses to a more expansive view that might enable English educators to consider how courses within a program might collectively advance a particular vision of critical and democratic English education.

The purpose of this paper is to start exploring the possibilities for makerspaces to function as a new learning space within academic library services in higher education (HE). This original research study ask two key questions: How is learning achieved and supported in makerspaces? What can academic library services bring to the effective organisation and support of makerspaces?

An extensive literature review is followed by a template analysis (King, 2012) of data from an online forum of three professionals operating makerspaces in academic library services in the USA and a discussion incorporating relevant educational theory and philosophy.

The three overarching learning themes found were: experiential learning (Dewey, 1909; Kolb, 1984), communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and self-efficacy through social learning (Bandura, 1997).

The one-week forum of three professional library staff provided detailed and informative data. Substantial field work with students will also be required to see how far this professional lens has provided insight into how students are learning and supported in these and other makerspaces.

The wider cultural implications are examined, including the potential social value of makerspaces as transformative creative spaces empowering communities and individuals.

This is the first study to date on the potential educational value of makerspaces within HE, and the specific support academic library services can offer if they choose to host a makerspace (including teaching information, digital and critical literacies).

This article presents the semantic information theory, formulated by the philosopher Fred I. Dretske, as a contribution to the discussion of metatheories and their practical implications in the field of library and information science. Dretske’s theory is described in Knowledge and the flow of information. It is founded on mathematical communication theory but developed and elaborated into a cognitive, functionalistic theory, is individually oriented, and deals with the content of information. The topics are: the information process from perception to cognition, and how concept formation takes place in terms of digitisation. Other important issues are the concepts of information and knowledge, truth and meaning. Semantic information theory can be used as a frame of reference in order to explain, clarify and refute concepts currently used in library and information science, and as the basis for critical reviews of elements of the cognitive viewpoint in IR, primarily the notion of “potential information”. The main contribution of the theory lies in a clarification of concepts, but there are still problems regarding the practical applications. More research is needed to combine philosophical discussions with the practice of information and library science.

The paper seeks to build on a model from extant literature which utilized a similar historical analysis approach in a study of strategic decision making. Using the (unsuccessful) defence of Hong Kong in World War II as the historical case, the paper seeks first to apply Chung and McLarney's model in the analysis, and then extend the model so as to better handle the unique sequence of events that took place in 1941.

The paper employs a historical case event in an analysis of competitive strategies. The first section provides a descriptive historical account of the battle of Hong Kong. The second section describes the decision‐making model, while the third section applies the model to explain three sets of decisions: the decision to defend the colony, decisions made during the battle and the decision to surrender. The fourth section draws implications for strategic decision making in organizations, while the last section presents conclusions.

Organization theorists seem to be fascinated with planning and strategy formulation, at the expense of strategy implementation. While designing organizational strategy is often more glamorous than execution, it is the execution of strategy that ultimately determines an organization's competitive advantage. Clearly, the strategy of the Allied Forces in Hong Kong was not hard to figure out (Mintzberg). However, there is growing research on how lower organizational levels have a tremendous contribution in fundamentally changing, formulating organizational strategy and sometimes even obstructing strategy formulated at the top. The decision to defend Hong Kong in the face of the Japanese invasion, decisions made during the battle and the decision to surrender were all major, critical decisions, especially susceptible to such biases as overconfidence, problem framing, availability heuristics and confirming‐evidence. Overconfidence is particularly dangerous.

The study not only modifies and extends the model, but also contributes to the literature by augmenting the validity of previous case research.

THIS issue of The Library World marks the commencement of a new volume, and we take the opportunity of thanking our many readers for their continued good feeling and support. It is a pleasure to us to record the fact that we are able to enlarge this initial number of the volume and that we feel the time has come when we shall make such enlargement a permanency, without any corresponding increase in the subscription price.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method of information retrieval by man‐machine interaction. The dialogue supported has more symmetry than most interactive computer systems in that the machine forms an image (rather as a man does) of the view of the human enquirer, without requiring him to ask a precise question, and responds with references according to its image. Initial tests with a prototype program indicate that a performance equal to that obtainable from a more conventional on‐line retrieval system is possible without obliging the user to formulate his query.

Elsewhere in this issue we review the First (Interim) Report of the Joint Survey of Pesticide Residues in Foodstuffs, published by the Association of Public Analysts (Editor: Mr. D. G. Forbes, B.Sc., F.R.I.C.). The Scheme, planned with meticulous care and executed with the best spirit of co‐operation, sets a pattern for this type of investigation; there are other problems which could be studied in the same manner. Such a response from the bodies representing the major local authorities of the country and their food and drugs administrations—inspectors, food sampling officers, public analysts—is evidence of the concern felt over this particular form of contamination of food. It constitutes a public health problem of world‐wide dimensions. The annual reports of public analysts show that many are examining foods outside the Survey lists now that gas/liquid chromatography, spectroscopy and other highly refined methods of analysis are available to them.

THE earliest libraries in any kind of community were run by interested members of the community with enthusiasm but no special training. Their communities asked them for very little more than they could get or do for themselves but did not care to find the time for, and because the librarian was one of their own, but no longer functioning fully in their world, the members of the community tended to have, however loyally or gently, a lower opinion of the man and consequently hisoffice. For the failed academic or businessman this was little less than just, but it was quite unjust to the profession of librarianship.