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Stephen H. Aby is professor and education bibliographer at The University of Akron. He has an MLS from Kent State University, a Ph.D. in Foundations of Education from SUNY-Buffalo, and a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Texas and the University of Houston, respectively. He is past president of the University of Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), chair of the Ohio Conference AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom, and a current member of the AAUP national Council. His books include The Academic Bill of Rights Debate: A Handbook (Praeger, 2007).

Faculty unionization is growing, and library faculty members are included in many collective bargaining units. Yet there is a dearth of information on how well collective bargaining contracts address the sometimes unique nature of library faculty work. This article explores contracts in a number of Ohio universities and from selective institutions around the country to see how well they accommodate the professional and work-related needs of librarians. Major contractual issues addressed include governance, academic freedom, workload, salary, and the retention, tenure, and promotion (RTP) of faculty, among others.

From the beginning, Advances in Library Administration and Organization has sought to develop a body of research literature that could, at once, contribute to the base of organizational theory upon which library administrators rely. The intention is to bring to light good scholarship that strengthens and reinforces the base of knowledge library administrators have on hand. Librarians are very good at working pragmatically to solve difficult problems, but they have been less good at explaining to themselves and to others how and why they do what they do and what they contribute to the common good. That was why I jumped at the chance to provide an article for Volume 2 of the series, agreed to help edit ALAO beginning with Volume 13, and now, along with my co-editors, present to you Volume 28. Through these many years, I have enjoyed the opportunity to help make this series what it has become, in addressing the challenge it has presented to find people who think about how libraries and library administrators work and to bring their ideas to the public. This volume follows a pattern to which you have become accustomed. It includes seven studies from the United States and Canada on topics relating to problems library managers face and strategies that might be of value in addressing those challenges. As always, we the editors hope that you find them interesting and as thought-provoking as we have.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), as part of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (DoLS, 2007), was established to provide a legal framework for decision-making in respect of adults who lack capacity to make decisions in relation to their care and residence in England and Wales. The purpose of this study was to explore the DoLS decision-making process from the perspectives of health and social care practitioners when working with individuals with an acquired brain injury (ABI).

A total of 12 health and social care practitioners were interviewed in 2019–2020 about their experiences of using and making or supporting decisions in the DoLS framework with ABI survivors. Data were analysed, and a tentative explanation of variations in DoLS decision-making was developed.

Three distinct approaches emerged capturing different decision-making styles (risk-averse, risk-balancing and risk-simplifying) which appeared to influence the outcome of DoLS assessments. A range of mediating factors seemed to account for the variability in these styles. The wider contextual challenges that impact upon practitioners’ overall experiences and use of DoLS processes in their ABI practice were noted.

The findings highlight a need for changes in practice and policy in relation to how DoLS or similar processes are used in decision-making practice with ABI survivors and may be relevant to the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards that are replacing the DoLS system.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore accounts of DoLS decision-making practices in ABI service.

NEXIS and DIALOG both offer full‐text online coverage of the magazine Business Week, while ABI/INFORM Global Edition on CDROM provides abstracts. A comparison of all three systems shows mixed results. DIALOG had the most records for two narrow topics, while NEXIS was superior when the search topic was broader. Although retrieving fewer items than the full‐text systems, ABI/INFORM had a considerable amount of material. With the difficulty of choosing between costly full‐text systems, settling for abstracts on CDROM may be an alternative for the researcher.

The sequelae of acquired brain injury can lead to a complex array of risks. This research explores professionals' perspectives on those risks, focussing on how psycho‐social risks are assessed and managed.

A self completion questionnaire was designed, and distributed to a range of professionals working in brain injury services.

A total of 177 participants completed an anonymous questionnaire. Principal components analysis produced three factors, which were given the labels “User‐friendliness”, “Person‐centeredness” and “Coherence”. Inconsistencies were identified in approaches to risk assessment and management. Participants also reported particular beneficial approaches, such as multi‐disciplinary discussions, and using assessments to guide rehabilitation.

The convenience sampling approach limits the generalisablity of the findings. However, the study was adequately powered, reliable, and valid.

The findings of this research, existing literature, and clinical experience are drawn together in a proposed model for managing risk. This model, which incorporates the three factors identified through statistical analysis could guide effective risk management, documentation and associated procedures. The model presents a framework for service design and provision, as well as providing a focus for future research.

It is likely that more active engagement in risk assessment on the part of professionals, services, and those who access services, will be engendered if the process is able to become more user‐friendly, person‐centred, and coherent, across and within service provision.

Despite legislative calls for regular training and effective communication in relation to risk, this is not the routine experience of professionals working in brain injury services. The findings of the present research offer a new, structured process, for overcoming the challenge for embedding legislation and research findings into practice.

‘Marketing information’ is one of the litanies of electronic publishing in the 1990s. But who really knows how to market electronic information?

Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered devices is being used increasingly frequently in consumer-facing situations (e.g., AI Assistants such as Alexa, virtual agents in websites, call/chat bots, etc.), and therefore, it is essential to understand anthropomorphism in AI both to understand consequences for consumers and to optimize firms' product development and marketing. Extant literature is fragmented across several domains and is limited in the marketing domain. In this review, we aim to bring together the insights from different fields and develop a parsimonious conceptual framework to guide future research in fields of marketing and consumer behavior.

We conduct a review of empirical articles published until November 2021 in Financial Times Top 50 (FT50) journals as well as in 41 additional journals selected across several disciplinary domains: computer science, robotics, psychology, marketing, and consumer behavior.

Based on literature review and synthesis, we propose a three-step guiding framework for future research and practice on AI anthropomorphism.

Our proposed conceptual framework informs marketing and consumer behavior domains with findings accumulated in other research domains, offers important directions for future research, and provides a parsimonious guide for marketing managers to optimally utilize anthropomorphism in AI to the benefit of both firms and consumers.

We contribute to the emerging literature on anthropomorphism in AI in three ways. First, we expedite the information flow between disciplines by integrating insights from different fields of inquiry. Second, based on our synthesis of literature, we offer a conceptual framework to organize the outcomes of AI anthropomorphism in a tidy and concise manner. Third, based on our review and conceptual framework, we offer key directions to guide future research endeavors.