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This paper aims to consider the potential for public library policies that specifically target “the homeless” to undermine their own objectives, and seeks to suggest alternative approaches to extend inclusion and ensure that all demographics are served equally.

The paper was written for a satellite meeting of the 78th IFLA Congress entitled “The Homeless and the Libraries – the Right to Information and Knowledge For All”. Drawing on previous research detailed in Muggleton, and Muggleton and Ruthven, the author presents a discursive perspective on the impact that assumptions about homelessness might have for policymaking.

Extant prejudices and the tendency to create a homeless “other” mean that policies specifically addressing the homeless have the potential to accentuate difference and patronise and alienate the intended beneficiaries of these policies. Moreover, political opposition to more inclusive, accommodating policymaking makes it important to reject assumptions and prejudices that weaken one's own position. Grounding policymaking in the empirical experience of homeless library users is argued to be the most effective way to extend inclusion, and also avoid false dichotomies and the perpetuation of prejudice.

Insights into unconscious assumptions gathered from previous research have been applied to the conceptualisation and implementation of public library policy. The arguments presented in the paper will hopefully be of use both for developing effective policies and for defending policies relating to homeless library users.

This paper aims to explore how homelessness affects access to information serving higher‐level needs such as identity formation and social interaction.

A multi‐disciplinary literature review informed the design of 18 semi‐structured interviews as well as their subsequent analysis. The interview data were intended to be qualitative and exploratory since they addressed a perceived gap in the information and library science literature.

Findings present the ways in which interviewees managed to access information and the way such information helps socialisation and well‐being.

The study focused on individuals who were potentially more confident and resourceful. The study is also limited to Glasgow which has relatively good provision for the homeless. Further research in a different locale and among less confident individuals would be necessary to corroborate findings in this regard.

The findings confirmed a fundamental research assumption that homeless individuals would pursue higher‐level needs alongside more basic physiological needs. This has practical implications for public libraries' service provision to homeless populations, and also suggests there is greater room for collaboration between libraries and homeless service agencies.

The paper addresses a gap in the literature concerning homelessness and higher‐level needs. This has implications for the provision of information and services within both public libraries and organisations serving the homeless. Findings also challenge widespread assumptions regarding the “otherness” or distinctiveness of people who are homeless.

IT is fitting that now and again stock should be taken of the present state of the Library Profession as compared with its past, and such an occasion as the commencement of the tenth year of the Library World is as appropriate as any other.

This chapter overviews organizational neuroscience (ON), covering the past, present, and future of this growing field of inquiry. First, we define ON and clarify the boundaries of the field. Second, we describe the evolution of ON by starting with early papers that tended to discuss the potential of ON to benefit both research and practice. Throughout its development, debates have abounded about the value of ON. Such debates are often related to challenges in collecting, integrating, interpreting, and using information from the brain-level of analysis. It is time for the field to move beyond these debates to focus on applying neuroscience to further theory development and reveal more comprehensive answers to research questions of importance to both academics and practitioners. Third, we propose and describe future research directions for ON. The research directions that we propose are merely a sample of the many paths along which ON inquiry can move forward. Fourth, we outline potential practical implications of ON, including: training and development, job design, high-performance assessment, motivating communications, and conflict prevention. Finally, we draw conclusions about ON as it stands today, address challenges in developing ON, and point out opportunities. We conclude with takeaways and highlight the importance of ON for both academics and practitioners.

The concept of style is gaining momentum in organizational research. Focussing on its implications for strategy, this paper presents a conceptual and methodological framework to make the notion of style operational and applicable to both research and practice. Style is defined here as a combinatorial, socially situated and semiotic device that can be organized into typologies – recurrent combinations of stylistic dimensions exerting a normative and semiotic function within and across contexts. The empirical analysis, situated in the field of electronic music, considers the music genres and the colour dimension of artists' appearance as components of their style. Results show how coherent style typologies normatively dominate the field and how non-conformist but coherent typologies correspond to superior creative performance. Operating as unifying device, style can transform varied and potentially confounding traits into distinctiveness and shed light on competitive market dynamics that cannot be fully explained via other theoretical constructs.