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Investigates the importance of English language sources of Friedrich Theodor Althoff (1839‐1908), a German of great influence both in his own country and, indirectly, in the United States. Explores some measures of his influence in education and international understanding. Examines a wide variety of sources. Explains how it could happen that an influential person would end up in intellectual history with almost no recognition. Challenges several conventional assessments. Althoff′s most important contributions are in print and more almost certainly exist in university archives, but the material is scattered and unorganized. Because we do not yet have the full story of this remarkable and complex man, firm conclusions about his influence are not yet possible.

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.

At each New Year we stand at the threshold of fresh scenes and hopes, of opportunities and pastures new. It is the time for casting off shackles and burdens that have weighed us down in the old year; almost a new chapter of life. We scan the prevailing scene for signs that will chart the year's unrolling and beyond, and hope profoundly for a smooth passage. The present is largely the product of the past, but of the future, who knows? Man therefore forever seems to be entering upon something new—a change, a challenge, events of great portent. This, of course, is what life is all about. Trends usually precede events, often by a decade or more, yet it is a paradox that so many are taken by surprise when they occur. Trends there have been and well marked; signs, too, for the discerning. In fields particular, they portend overall progress; in general, not a few bode ill.

Explores issues surrounding the recent evolution of benchmarking in the UK public sector with particular regard to local authorities. Argues that what is being done in the name of benchmarking in UK local authorities is fundamentally different to the current understanding of benchmarking practice in the private sector. Despite these differences, and somewhat ironically, the development of benchmarking in the public sector pre‐dates its popularity in the private sector. In the public sector, benchmarking is frequently in response to central government requirements, or is used for defensive reasons rather than striving for performance gains. These themes are captured in two new benchmarking typologies: compulsory and voluntary models of benchmarking. Concludes that: the reasons for benchmarking in the public sector are confused; pressures for accountability in the public sector may militate against real performance improvement; and an appropriate balance between the use of benchmarking for control and improvement purposes is yet to be achieved.

THERE are no motions of ultimate importance to be submitted to the Library Association Annual General Meeting this year. That which, if passed, is to provide that the President shall be installed in office at the opening of the Annual Conference in itself is merely a domestic or internal Association matter. As we have argued in THE LIBRARY WORLD such an arrangement would give a more dramatic and dignified opening to the President's year; he would be installed by the outgoing President in the presence of the largest assembly that the members can make in body; indeed on the only occasion in a normal year in which he sees and is seen by a full meeting; instead as now rising to take charge of us and to make his most important address as unobtrusively as an ordinary member at a time when his term is almost over. It is a better entry for him and for us, as a spectacle and demonstration, than a small January induction on a cold and usually wet evening at Chaucer House attended at best by not more than a hundred members.

The purpose of this study is to introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of the radical and incremental innovations and to fill the research gap by using: (1) methods that can perform complicated tasks and solve complex problems leading in creation of radical and incremental innovation and (2) a broad sample of firms across countries. The authors’ ambition is to contribute to the scientific knowledge by producing evidence about the novel usage of artificial neural network techniques for measuring European firms' innovation activities appearing in black boxes of innovation processes.

In this study, the authors incorporate an international context into Chesbrough's open innovation (OI) theory and, on the one hand, support the hypothesis that European radical innovators benefit more from foreign cooperation than incremental innovators. On the other hand, the results of the analyses show that European incremental innovators rely on domestic cooperation supported by cooperation with foreign public research institutes. Moreover, the use of decision trees (DT) allows the authors to reveal specific patterns of successful innovators emerging within the hidden layers of neural networks.

The authors prove that radical European innovators using either internal or external R&D strategies, while the combinations of these strategies do not bring successful innovation outputs. In contrast, European incremental innovators benefit from various internal R&D processes in which engagement in design activities plays a crucial role.

The authors introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of hidden innovation processes and measuring the innovation performance (affected by domestic or international cooperation) of European firms. The approach places emphasis on the novelty of innovation and the issue of international cooperation in the era of OI by designing the framework using a combination of artificial neural networks and DT.

Given the emphasis in today's environment on customer focus, stakeholders’ interests, public‐sector organisational performance and other methods of assessment are employed to address issues in the new public management and prevailing managerialism in measurement of public‐sector organisations around the world. Therefore, many public‐sector organisations have been encouraged to implement benchmarking as one way of satisfying the government's requirement that public organisations provide best‐value services. In order to achieve best‐value services in public‐sector organisations, benchmarking is considered to be a vital management tool and benchmarking has been used widely in private‐sector organisations. This paper focuses on providing a critical view of benchmarking to provide best‐value services to taxpayers and local businesses. The paper emphasises that, in order for benchmarking to be successful in public‐sector organisations, it is important to have a full commitment to continuous improvement, an ability to learn from others, and a commitment to implement improvement.

WHAT ARE ANY company's most valuable assets? There are some who would say they are its goodwill; but there are plenty of experts who go from firm to firm and from one country to another (and themselves gain an enviable living while doing so) stating without admitting any doubt that to any establishment worth anything at all a workforce is its most valuable asset.

This study aims to provide a systematic review of the existing literature on the applications of deep learning (DL) in hospitality, tourism and travel as well as an agenda for future research.

Covering a five-year time span (2017–2021), this study systematically reviews journal articles archived in four academic databases: Emerald Insight, Springer, Wiley Online Library and ScienceDirect. All 159 articles reviewed were characterised using six attributes: publisher, year of publication, country studied, type of value created, application area and future suggestions (and/or limitations).

Five application areas and six challenge areas are identified, which characterise the application of DL in hospitality, tourism and travel. In addition, it is observed that DL is mainly used to develop novel models that are creating business value by forecasting (or projecting) some parameter(s) and promoting better offerings to tourists.

Although a few prior papers have provided a literature review of artificial intelligence in tourism and hospitality, none have drilled-down to the specific area of DL applications within the context of hospitality, tourism and travel.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first theoretical review of academic research on DL applications in hospitality, tourism and travel. An integrated framework is proposed to expose future research trajectories wherein scholars can contribute significant value. The exploration of the DL literature has significant implications for industry and practice, given that this, as far as the authors know, is the first systematic review of existing literature in this research area.

In response to scholarly calls, this study aims to explore the persuasive predictors including (job security, autonomy, work-life balance, culture and climate, career growth, leadership style and support, training and development and reward, recognition and pay) of talent retention in Indian PSUs by emphasising the commonalities and differences between different category of employees from different cohorts based on their contribution in the prime function of the business.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 472 employees from selected organisations through Multistage sampling technique and Simple random sampling technique. Data were analysed using tests such as logistic regression, MANOVA, post hoc Tukey in SPSS 20.

Job security, autonomy, career growth and culture and climate are the persuasive predictors of talent retention in Indian PSUs. However, there is a significant interaction effect of age and job standard on job security. Job security and perceived employability do not relate to age for core category employees rather possess identical perception than other employee category. Findings indicate that identifying the position to be retained is more viable than a common retention strategy.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge of talent retention by exploring novel insights in comprehending the commonalities and differences of different employee category at all level from different cohorts, sharing different responsibilities in the prime function of the business that has largely been ignored. The study can succour in improving performance and cost-effective retention strategy.