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MUCH has already been said and written upon the subject of the indicator: but in view of the general trend of advanced Public Library administration a little space may with advantage be devoted again to the consideration of its value as a modern library appliance. Passing over (a) the decision of that curiously constituted committee formed in 1879 to consider and report on indicators, and (b) the support which it received in 1880 from the Library Association, it may be said that for the next fourteen or fifteen years the indicator system was the popular, almost the universal, system in vogue throughout the country. Of late years professional opinion as to its value has undergone a remarkable change. The reaction which has set in was brought about chiefly by the introduction of Open Access in 1894, with the many reforms that accompanied it, though much, doubtless, was due to the prevalence of a more exact and systematic knowledge of librarianship, and to the natural evolution of ideas. It is not, however, intended in this paper to compare the indicator with the open access system, but with others suitable to the requirements of a closed library.

In this paper, we present a proposed information environment (PROPIE) for enhanced interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents (e‐documents). The design of PROPIE was based on a thorough user needs and requirements assessment in interacting with information through well‐documented findings, and a focus group with twelve participants to elicit features that were deemed desirable in future interactions. The design was also based on an earlier work which reviewed the advancements in various user interface (UI) technologies, visualisation and interactive techniques, and a consideration of novel information structuring and organisation techniques that pose important implications for the design of more advanced UIs. Providing a suite of novel features and interactive tools that can be flexibly combined, PROPIE allows users to apply multiple novel ways to query intuitively and navigate information in an e‐document. The querying and browsing processes in PROPIE are supported by various interactive and visualisation techniques. Users work within a visually sovereign, integrated environment for information gathering and organising, based on navigable, fractional information objects that are also affiliated with rich metadata and additional layers of value‐adding information. A set of interface mock‐ups was developed to demonstrate the potential of the environment in supporting the design of a new generation of electronic journals (e‐journals). We report here empirical results from a study conducted to obtain representative users‘ feedback with regard to using PROPIE for interacting with e‐journals. Twenty‐two participants from a variety of academic backgrounds participated in the evaluation. Overall, PROPIE was found to have the potential both for enhancing the user’s interaction with information captured within e‐journals and for adding value to e‐documents in various ways.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the field of trust research with a focus on optimising this perception via electronic transactions in the banking industry. Specifically, the study aims to examine trust toward a bank and its dependability using a variety of “institution‐based” trust mechanisms, such as security of transaction, reputation and web quality.

It is expected that the manner in which the trust‐generating mechanisms are presented has different effects on the level of trust in the internet banking services. The analysis of these influences is based on an experimental design applied to internet banking users with the aim of treating the scenarios defined by combinations of stimuli. In particular, a design was used with three intra‐subject factors: the first two, manipulated a priori, combine seals and their associated clauses or arrangements, while the third considered a bank website's quality from the user viewpoint.

The analysis discovers that the mere presence of seals is not in itself important for the explanation of beliefs about trustworthiness and dependability of a website with electronic banking services. However, the manner in which the trust‐generating mechanisms are presented, either individually or in their different combinations, has different effects on trust.

The study is limited to data from one country and a single specific context (a new electronic banking website), so care should be taken when generalising to other electronic businesses. The findings contribute several recommendations for web design and optimisation of the online services and/or content offered by a bank.

This paper is the first study to evaluate the combined effects of four seals generators of trust in a bank's website and its associated arrangements or clauses as well as design quality. The study will provide greater understanding of navigation behaviour and the decisions made by users of electronic banking.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate internet-only banks’ (IOBs) adoption by French consumers and attempt to understand the factors that influence consumers’ initial trust in this type of service.

A non-probability convenience sample of potential IOBs adopters from France was used to test a structural equation model that analyzed the antecedents of initial trust and usage intentions of IOBs.

The study shows that trust is a major influencer in IOBs’ adoption in France. It has also been found that consumer familiarity with internet banking, high perceived structural assurance, perceived website quality, bank reputation and relative advantage are critical factors influencing IOBs’ initial trust formation.

This study shows the applicability of the initial trust-building model in the context of IOBs and underlines the importance of factors such as familiarity, reputation and perceived quality in the context of online banking services in France.

This paper provides e-banking companies with the most important factors that contribute to build the initial trust of customers. E-banks need to focus on making themselves known and promoting their brand more effectively through advertising and advocacy.

This study contributes significantly to the marketing research related to consumer trust and brand reputation, as well as to the electronic banking literature. The results show the importance of initial trust in the context of services and the main factors that influence it, including a key branding variable such as reputation. The paper also focuses on the IOBs’ adoption in France, a market understudied compared to the USA, and seeks to understand the mechanisms associated with the initial formation of French consumers’ trust toward it.

Varied accounts exist regarding the role of trust and satisfaction in online continuance intention and contexts within which this occurs. The purpose of this paper is to consider the moderating effect of structural assurance (SA) on satisfaction and trust and trust and continuance intention in a pure e-service context (online betting).

UK online bettors were surveyed with an instrument developed using validated variables and measurements, including continuance intention, satisfaction, trust (in vendor) and SA. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was used to evaluate the measurement and structural model simultaneously.

SA positively moderates the trust–continuance intention relationship but not the satisfaction–trust relationship. SA is positively associated with trust.

The study contributes to research focused on exploring the moderating effects of trust and satisfaction on continuance intention where institution-based mechanisms are perceived to be effective and framed to assure success.

An over-reliance on context-specific mechanisms is inadequate; strategic approaches to trust must consider contextual and institutional mechanisms interdependently.

The paper addresses the need for research relating to the institutional context within which trust mechanisms operate. This research provides a novel contribution through an exploration of the moderating effects of SA on: trust and continuance intention; and satisfaction and trust (the authors also measure the direct effect of SA on trust). This paper is one of the first studies to examine these important concepts in this context. The online betting case allows for the exploration of risk where vendor-specific and contextual risk are both high.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the current literature on trust-building mechanisms in e-commerce and provide a comprehensive view of how the perceived usefulness of three types of online trust-building mechanisms affects trust in the e-seller and trust in the e-marketplace, which, in turn, shape the customer repurchase intentions.

Survey data were collected from 193 eBay customers to test the proposed research model.

The study found that the perceived usefulness of seller-based mechanism affects both trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller. Meanwhile, the perceived usefulness of experience-based mechanism only influences trust in the e-seller and the perceived usefulness of institution-based mechanism (IBM) only affects trust in the e-marketplace. Furthermore, this study found that trust in the e-marketplace can substitute for the effect of trust in the e-seller on customer repurchase intentions.

In an e-marketplace like eBay that does not involve much in the transaction process, e-sellers should invest more resources in building attractive and informative websites about their products and organizations. Moreover, e-marketplace owners should provide guidelines and enforce policies to improve the perceived usefulness of an IBM to increase an e-marketplace’s credibility. While such e-marketplace credibility does not affect customer repurchase intentions directly, it reduces customer concerns about individual e-sellers, which makes it easier for e-sellers to retain customers.

This study delineates how the perceived usefulness of three types of online trust-building mechanisms imposes different effects on trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller. Moreover, this study reveals the intertwined relationship between trust in the e-marketplace and trust in the e-seller that is different from extant studies conducted in marketplaces like Amazon.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.

The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.

In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.

The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library; and a target against which the detractors of public libraries are constantly battering. From the standpoint of the librarian, newspapers are the most expensive and least productive articles stocked by a library, and their lavish provision is, perhaps, the most costly method of purchasing waste‐paper ever devised. Pressure of circumstances and local conditions combine, however, to muzzle the average librarian, and the consequence is that a perfectly honest and outspoken discussion of the newspaper question is very rarely seen. In these circumstances, an attempt to marshal the arguments for and against the newspaper, together with some account of a successful practical experiment at limitation, may prove interesting to readers of this magazine.