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This paper aims to identify reverse flows and exchanges that support public service provision. Reverse flow literature has focused on manufacturing based supply chains using the lens of exchange (recovery, reuse, repair and recycle) to gain performance improvement in product flows. Limited research is available to support an understanding of customer-derived reverse exchange (RE) service processes. The authors contribute to the service literature through the development of RE antecedents and derive new and revised definitions with the supporting constructs of RE service processes.

This paper synthesises literature creating a framework of antecedents for RE. Antecedents reflect differences of service flow (level of service inseparability and ‘acting upon’). These antecedents are empirically tested within an illustrative pre-existing UK healthcare case study against the synthesised antecedents and existing RE definitions. Two teams of researchers reviewed the data generated from public service supply chain processes. Definitions of RE were either revised or derived from the empirical data by each team.

The service concept of ‘acting upon’ for inseparable public service supply chain flows provides a basis for examining the existence of reverse flows and exchanges. Revised and new classifications to the RE model are proposed to stimulate contextual performance improvement and innovation in public service provision. Psychological utility is an additional feature to economic, environmental and social utility in public service RE. RE offers practitioners and academics a strategic operational competence to achieve improvement and innovation in public services and further advance this concept.

Extending the literature beyond the manufacturing derived RE concept to develop an understanding of the customer’s role in preserving and co-creating value in RE and flows in public service. New RE antecedents for public services, including the potential of psychological utility, are presented.

Discusses organisation, automation and performance measurement aspects of interlibrary loan department management, and developments in charging for and the preservation of ILL items. Highlights the problems of ILL in developing countries, and changes and developments in the rest of the world. Considers electronic document delivery systems, the effect of technological advances on libraries and the “Burgundy effect”.

Racialized class formation is a process in which both racial formation and class formation shape the experiences of African Americans in the stratification system. This occurs for blacks in differing social classes. However, this chapter focuses on African Americans in the professional middle class. The professional middle class as a whole has grown substantially under postindustrialism. Racialized class formation has been greatly shaped by the nature of state policy regarding citizenship rights and has varied in the transition from the pre-civil rights era to the post-civil rights era. This chapter utilizes historical, interview, and secondary data to analyze experiences of the “first generation” of black professionals to integrate employment in mainstream institutions after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The focus is on the processes of recruitment, hiring, and promotion, as well as relations with clientele among those black professionals and how their middle class employment experiences are racialized.

The following is an annotated list of materials that discuss the ways in which librarians can provide library users with orientation to facilities and services, and instruct them in library information and computer skills. This is RSR's 11th annual review of this literature, and covers publications from 1984. A few items from 1983 have been included because of their significance, and because they were not available for review last year. Several items were not annotated because the compiler was unable to secure them.

Notes that a recent survey found many scholars who believe, incorrectly, that history is not random enough, large enough, or controlled enough for science. Reiterates why science is not dependent on randomization, size, or control, but does require comparison. Posits that the most powerful feature of scientific validation is the comparative measurement of argument (CMA). Specifically illustrates how and why comparison inexpensively elevates any history into an excellent vehicle for relevant, credible, scientific scholarship. Concludes that the best method of CMA is not always obvious, but researchers should always try CMA because they will find that any use of it will produce some recognizable value and provide discipline to unmanageable data sources such as history.