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This article describes the application of principles applied in the development of a Masters programme in Public Administration in the Netherlands fifteen years ago to the design of a very different programme for senior managers in a UK public bureaucracy. Both programmes placed heavy emphasis upon the role of the manager as learner and on the importance of practical application as the most significant part of the learning process. Rather than teach techniques the development team offered a variety of well established frameworks by means of which participants were encouraged to develop their understanding of themselves, their organisations, their roles within them and the pressures for change arising within the environment of their organisation. The objective was not only to develop areas of managerial competence but, perhaps more significantly, to encourage the higher levels of confidence necessary to managing in an increasingly uncertain and pressured environment. A significant contributor to the achievement of this end was a concentration on those frameworks which had worked effectively in a wide variety of situations and circumstances rather than on more novel and, perhaps, more fashionable approaches.

Scholars in major us research universities were surveyed to explore the normative bases of acknowledgement behaviour. Measures of agreement and divergence were established in respect of five issue sets pertaining to acknowledgement practice: expectations, etiquette, ethics, equity and evaluation. The results confirm the substantive role played by acknowledgements in the primary communication process. Although few formal rules exist, it is clear that many scholars subscribe to the idea of a governing etiquette. The findings also suggest that acknowledgement data could be mined to lay bare the rules of engagement that define the dynamics of collaboration and inter‐dependence among scholars.

ON April 23rd this year, when all countries in the world will be celebrating the Quater‐centenary of Shakespeare's birthday, the Shakespeare Memorial Library in Birmingham will have attained a majority of one hundred years. Although founded in 1864 the scope of the library was first envisaged by George Dawson, President of the local Shakespeare club in a letter to Aris's Birmingham Gazette of 1861.

DESPITE all the gloom and doom preached by so many businessmen and politicians today, there are indeed signs that the recession is itself receding and that better times may be closer than we think.

Acts of mass violence are not a new phenomenon in the United States. Law enforcement and homeland security officials prepare, prevent, respond, investigate, and assist in prosecuting offenders in these events. How then can the greater homeland security community effectively avert future acts of mass violence with its even broader mission set? Physical and technological security countermeasures are not enough to prevent these types of incidents from occurring. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly give an overview of some of the research into the indicators and traits exhibited by perpetrators of mass violence and the best practices that have evolved to intervene as a result. Recognizing the common traits and behaviors displayed by past attackers, their surrounding influences and the common traumas most of them have experienced, is an essential first step in developing effective strategies to prevent acts of mass violence.

Using data on children under three years of age from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (n=16,953), this study uses logistic regression to identify the presence of disparities in the use of habilitative therapy (physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy) among all children, strong candidates for therapy due to physical or developmental issues, and children for whom there is a parental concern about speech. Region of residence emerges as a source of disparity: (1) Children in the South exhibit consistently low levels of therapy use, and (2) children with speech concerns in all regions of the country outside the Northeast are less likely to use therapists than children in the Northeast. Other variables gaining significance include age of child, gender, race, presence in a nuclear family, and insurance status, though the influence of these variables is not consistent.

Multiple research studies show a positive correlation between library usage and student retention. At the same time, no formal research studies focusing on the effect of library usage on LGBT student persistence and retention exist. The purpose of this paper is to provide information about today’s LGBT undergraduates, their personal and academic needs, and how academic libraries may meet those needs.

The author will challenge the grand narrative perpetuated by LGBT librarians that “libraries save [LGBT] lives” through a review of existing research literature on LGBT undergraduates and their personal and academic needs, where libraries play a role in LGBT undergraduate life, and whether or not academic libraries actually meet those needs.

No formal research studies on how libraries play a role in the retention of LGBT undergraduates exist. While LGBT undergraduates share many similarities with their peers, they seek out resources and spaces that the library may be able to provide independently or through collaborations with other units on campus. The existence of campus LGBT resource centers may impact LGBT undergraduate use of libraries.

The author will provide suggestions for academic libraries to create appropriate resources, services, and spaces for LGBT undergraduates so that they persist at their institutions and graduate.

This is the first research paper to address the role that academic libraries play in LGBT student retention.

This paper aims to review and identify the major patterns and trends in learning analytics practices in higher education institutions. The review covers the characteristics of the institutions, as well as the characteristics and outcomes of the learning analytics practices.

This research collected literature published in 2011-2016 which reported learning analytics practices from Scopus and Google Scholar, covering a total of 47 institutions, and categorised the information about the relevant institutions and practices.

The results show that most of the institutions were public ones in the USA and the UK of various sizes and offering different levels of study. The learning analytics practices were mainly institution-wide, apart from a small number focusing on selected courses. The purposes of the practices were mainly to enhance the effectiveness of learning support and administration, followed by facilitating students’ learning progress. The most common types of data collected for the practices were students’ academic behaviours and their background information. Positive outcomes were reported for a majority of the practices, and the most frequent ones being an increase in cost-effectiveness and understanding of students’ learning behaviours. Other outcomes included the improvement of student retention, timely feedback and intervention, support for informed decision-making and the provision of personalised assistance to students.

The results provide an overview of the use of learning analytics in the higher education sector. They also reveal the trends in learning analytics practices, as well as future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social stigmatization of the formerly incarcerated identity and how this affects employment post-release. The authors consider the characteristics of this identity and the identity management strategies that individuals draw from as they navigate employment.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 men at various stages of release from federal institutions in Canada. Participants were actively searching for employment, intending to or would consider searching for employment, or had searched for employment in the past post-incarceration. Participant data were simultaneously collected, coded and analyzed using an inductive approach (Gioia et al., 2012).

Formerly incarcerated individuals have a unique awareness of the social stigmatization associated with their criminal record and incarceration history. They are tasked with an intentional choice to disclose or conceal that identity throughout the employment process. Six identity management strategies emerged from their accounts: conditional disclosure, deflection, identity substitution, defying expectations, withdrawal and avoidance strategies. More specifically, distinct implications of criminal record and incarceration history on disclosure decisions were evident. Based on participants’ accounts of their reintegration experiences, four aspects that may inform disclosure decisions include: opportune timing, interpersonal dynamics, criminal history and work ethic.

The authors explore the formerly incarcerated identity as a socially stigmatized identity and consider how individuals manage this identity within the employment context. The authors identify incarceration history and criminal record as having distinct impacts on experiences of stigma and identity management strategic choice, thus representing the experience of a “double stigma”.