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In 1994, the author presented the inaugural LOEX‐of‐the‐West keynote entitled “Glacier or avalanche? Shifts in the electronic, educational, and library landscape”. She outlined the forces shaping the instruction landscape: changing users; information technology; social frameworks; educational change; and economic realities. She posited that libraries would find opportunities in the shifting landscape including: user‐centeredness; using technology to transform; alliances and partnerships; experimentations; collaboratories; self‐sufficiency; inclusiveness; and value‐added librarians. In this 2004 keynote, she reflects on what has transpired in academic library instruction over the decade and speculates on the forces and opportunities that will shape the next ten years.

One of the library’s most enduring roles has been information provision. It remains especially important today as libraries transition from passive storehouses of books into active community living rooms that offer not just information but a variety of different user experiences. Some libraries have responded by implementing new approaches to information provision that appear to fit this new vision. One such approach is roving information service. Using portable forms of information technology for assistance, librarians now roam the library floor, meeting users where they are rather than the other way around. Its advocates laud its flexibility and user-centeredness. But do roving models support this new, user-centered vision of the library? The answer lies in a deeper understanding of the library floor as a social space and how roving models of service affect perceptions of “centeredness” within it. This report reviews the results of an exploratory, qualitative study involving three libraries: two that use a hybrid model of roving service and one library that uses a fully roving model. The study’s findings indicate that indeed roving service can help create user-centered forms of library space, but a library’s method of implementation will matter.

The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are told to focus on users and adapt standards to meet users’ needs while following standards in order to be efficient in their jobs. This study describes three academic cataloging units as they negotiate both the demands to follow and adapt these standards to meet users’ needs. New institutional theory served as a framework for the study. The results suggest that standards and users are pressures that cataloging units negotiate in their jobs, along with demands for work efficiency and professional legitimacy. While negotiating these pressures, catalogers and cataloging units redefine their work jurisdiction and maintain legitimacy to remain relevant in a complex work environment. Understanding how catalogers negotiate the normative institutional pressures of standards and users leads to an understanding of the complex nature of work in areas that deal with issues of standards and users, shows how an area within a profession maintains legitimacy when the profession no longer values that work, and, finally, shows the limits of the user-centered focus in LIS practice.

Several healthcare quality assessment tools measure the processes and outcomes of the care system. The actual physical infrastructure (buildings and organizational) aspects are, however, rarely considered. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of validation and weighting of an evidence-informed framework for the quality assessment of hospital facilities from social, environmental and organizational perspectives to complement other assessments.

Sustainable High-quality Healthcare version 2 (SustHealth v2) is the updated version of an existing framework composed of three domains (social, environmental and organizational quality). To validate and establish a relevant weighting, interviews were conducted with 15 professionals within the field of healthcare planning, design, research and management. The study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews and the application of the Simon Roy Figueras (SRF) procedure for the elicitation of weights criteria. The data collected have been processed through the DecSpace web platform.

Among the three domains, the organizational qualities appear to be the most important (W = 49%), followed by the environmental (W = 29%) and social aspects (W = 22%). Relevant indicators such as future-proofing, wayfinding and users’ space control emerged as the most important within each macro-area. Those results are confirmed by the outcome of the interviews that highlight user/patient-centeredness, wayfinding strategies and space functionality as the most important concepts to foster in existing healthcare facilities improvement.

The study highlights important structural and organizational aspects that hospital managers and planners can consider when dealing with healthcare facilities’ quality improvement.

The use of the SRF multicriteria method is novel in this context when used to weight an assessment tool with a focus on hospital built environment.

This review aims to provide a snapshot of digital library research of the past 11 years (1997‐2007) that focuses on organisational and people issues, including those concerning the social/cultural, legal, ethical, and use dimensions.

The review covers articles published in mainstream peer‐reviewed library and information science/studies journals. The analysis was done by drawing on a sample of 577 articles published in both academic and professional LIS journals.

The analysis reveals that there are several topics that are dominant in the sample. There are significant research streams into one or more aspects of digital library use and usability, organisational and economical issues, as well as legal issues. In comparison, there is very little research in the sample that addresses ethical issues and social/cultural issues. D‐Lib Magazine tops the list as the journal with the highest number of articles published and in spite of some fluctuations, there was an overall upwards trend for journal publications in these research areas. The years with the largest numbers of works published in these areas in the study sample were 2004, 2005 and 2006.

It would be inaccurate to claim that the literature searches conducted in this study include every relevant journal article. They provide an extensive but not comprehensive sample. Also, to account for inconsistencies in indexing, a range of descriptors related to “digital library” was used in the searches in conjunction with other descriptors representing the various topics related to organisational and people issues. Nevertheless, this does not take into account journal articles that do not mention any of the digital library terms and yet, may discuss digital library themes. Hence, certain issues might have been under‐represented in this study.

This review and meta‐analysis is the first that focuses on analysing digital library research that has a focus on organisational and people issues. Given the manifestos that digital libraries are to grow into socio‐technical systems that function within an organisation and society, the subject area as a whole has also evolved over the years, with a move away from purely technical issues towards the application, use and effectiveness issues. Therefore, it is highly likely that research into these emerging issues will continue to grow and this review provides a preliminary overview of this important development as well as a point of departure to highlight gaps in the literature.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in developed countries have started using social media for the provision of quality education and the production of valuable research; however, the picture is not very bright in case of many developing countries. Web 2.0 services and applications like social and professional networking systems, wikis, and blogs can facilitate in fostering discussion, improving online interaction, and enhancing collaboration among stakeholders of HEIs in developing countries. This process can lead toward resolving quality issues in the higher education sector of developing countries. Information Technology Alteration – Design and Management – Framework proposes that if intercultural variations of values exist between the technology producing country and technology consuming country then, Information and communication technology systems – for example, Web 2.0 systems-should be customized, redesigned, and altered in cross-cultural implementations.

Only recently has physical space design become more widely recognized as playing a critical role in delivery of care, with an emerging body of literature on the application of human factors approaches to design and evaluation. This chapter describes the use of human factors approaches to develop and conduct an evaluation of a proposed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit redesign in a Midwestern children’s hospital. Methods included observations and knowledge elicitation from stakeholders to characterize their goals, challenges, and needs. This characterization is integral to informing the design of user-centered solutions, including physical space design. We also describe an approach to evaluating the proposed design that yielded actionable recommendations specific to hospital-driven design goals.

The purpose of this paper is to report on research that examined librarians’ perception and acceptance of use of Facebook and Twitter in promoting library services in Oyo state, Nigeria.

The survey design and interview were used to collect data from librarians in Oyo state. The questionnaire contained questions that are pertinent to the issues being investigated. The 81 responses (81 per cent) received were processed, analysed and results presented.

The paper reveals that majority of the libraries in Oyo state, Nigeria, have Facebook profiles, though minority have Twitter accounts. Librarians in Oyo state, Nigeria, have high perception and acceptance of using Facebook and Twitter to promote library services. Findings also reveal that librarians in academic and special libraries in Oyo state, Nigeria, are more highly receptive to use of Facebook and Twitter to promote library services. Findings revealed further that younger librarians showed more positive perception and higher acceptance.

While the research was limited to librarians in Oyo state, Nigeria, it has applications to librarians and libraries all over Nigeria.

This research provides information on the perceptions and acceptance of social media tools (Facebook and Twitter) in promoting library services. The findings may help provide information to library heads on adopting new and popular technologies to bring the library closer to the user and attract more users and on why it is not being used where they are provided.

At the time of completing this study, research had mainly been on librarians’ use of social media for personal issues not on librarians’ perception and acceptance of using it to promote library services. This research also focuses on libraries in Oyo state having a presence on Facebook and Twitter to promote library service and direct and prompt communication with their users.

The aim of this paper is to focus on the formulation of a Library 2.0 program that will guide the realization of a “user‐centered” service pattern.

In‐depth user investigations are the first step toward a successful Library 2.0 program, which will reflect what users really hope to achieve through Library 2.0. Three user investigations were carried out with the purpose to get users' opinions and suggestions about Library 2.0 services. Then the target was formed on the basis of analysis and evaluation of users' needs. The Library 2.0 programming was analyzed in four tiers of management ideas, service patterns, technical support, and content development.

User investigations are of primary importance in programming Library 2.0, and a program formulated on such investigations will not miss its aim, and be more realistic.

The paper does not dwell on technical particularities of Library 2.0, but focuses on the key role of a program in realization of the concept of Library 2.0, and the methodology of programming.