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1 – 10 of over 39000This chapter demonstrates how the University of Waikato in New Zealand adapted a global standard (the Library of Congress Classification) for local use by inscribing topics…
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates how the University of Waikato in New Zealand adapted a global standard (the Library of Congress Classification) for local use by inscribing topics related to and about Māori history and people.
The findings are the result of using library catalogs and classifications as primary historical documents.
The University of Waikato’s classification simultaneously uses and implicitly critiques a universal system written from a U.S. vantage point. It seems to acknowledge the benefits and necessities of using a globally recognized standard, as well as a need to inscribe local, anticolonial perspectives into that system.
The research relies on historical documents, and some aspects related to purpose and attribution are difficult to ascertain.
The local adaptation of the Library of Congress Classification may serve as a model for other local adaptations.
This may bring new dimensions to thinking about colonialism and anticolonialism in knowledge organization systems. It contributes to ongoing conversations regarding indigenous knowledge organization practices.
Although scholars have examined Māori subject headings, research on local shelf classifications in New Zealand have not been objects of study in the context of global and local knowledge organization. This chapter brings an important classification to light.
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This chapter reviews the historical tension between global and local interests in library classifications. More specifically, this chapter presents the concept and characteristics…
Abstract
This chapter reviews the historical tension between global and local interests in library classifications. More specifically, this chapter presents the concept and characteristics of the reader-interest classifications as they were reported in the literature of the past century, including its alleged advantages and detected shortcomings, in order to discuss their presence and consequences in current cases of reader-interest classifications such as BISAC. Following an implicit post-structuralist approach, issues such as the role of standardization and centralization in these projects, the focus and philosophy underlying the construction of these classifications, and the underlying global interests of the book industry are analyzed in order to determine the social consequences and viability of these local classifications. It is concluded that libraries that consider adopting a reader-interesting classification must really think of the interest of the users (in plural) and not only of the global book industry that dominates the development of the standards.
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Competition for private investment, it has been argued, is often the fiercest between neighboring cities or cities within the same region. One result of maintaining a competitive…
Abstract
Competition for private investment, it has been argued, is often the fiercest between neighboring cities or cities within the same region. One result of maintaining a competitive edge (stimulating private investment) over other localities, is that local public officials rely on tax and non-tax incentive packages. If this is true, it seems that municipal public officials in New Jersey would perceive this competition and offer incentive packages given their location near major cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. This article explores the perceptions of local public officials in New Jersey about competition and the impact of tax and non-tax incentives in the context of population, unemployment, income, geographic location, and government structure.
Becca B.R. Jablonski, Joleen Hadrich, Allison Bauman, Martha Sullins and Dawn Thilmany
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the US Secretary of Agriculture to report on the profitability and viability of beginning farmers and ranchers. Many beginning…
Abstract
Purpose
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the US Secretary of Agriculture to report on the profitability and viability of beginning farmers and ranchers. Many beginning operations use local food markets as they provide more control, or a premium over commodity prices, and beginning operations cannot yet take advantage of economies of scale and subsequently have higher costs of production. Little research assesses the relationship between beginning farmer profitability and sales through local food markets. In this paper, the profitability implications of sales through local food markets for beginning farmers and ranchers are explored.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors utilize 2013–2016 USDA agricultural resource management survey data to assess the financial performance of US beginning farmers and ranchers who generate sales through local food markets.
Findings
The results point to four important takeaways to support beginning operations. (1) Local food channels can be viable marketing opportunities for beginning operations. (2) There are differences when using short- and long-term financial performance indicators, which may indicate that there is benefit to promoting lean management strategies to support beginning operations. (3) Beginning operations with intermediated local food sales, on average, perform better than those operations with direct-to-consumer sales. (4) Diversification across local food market channel types does not appear to be an indicator of improved financial performance.
Originality/value
This article is the first to focus on the relationship beginning local food sales and beginning farmer financial performance. It incorporates short-term and long-term measures of financial performance and differentiates sales by four local food market type classifications: direct-to-consumer sales at farmers markets, other direct-to-consumer sales, direct-to-retail sales and direct-to-regional distributor or institution sales.
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This is the second in a series of three articles describing the automation system, based on McDonnell Douglas' URICA package used in the Department of Printed Books at the…
Abstract
This is the second in a series of three articles describing the automation system, based on McDonnell Douglas' URICA package used in the Department of Printed Books at the National Library of Wales. A description of the Cataloguing Module is given, including developments to respond to changing working practices and problems inherent in the original system design. The Retrospective Record Conversion procedures are described and the likely impact of CD‐ROM technology is recognised. Finally the Enquiry/Public Access and Circulation modules are described giving short‐comings of the existing system and suggested ways to improve the facilities in the future.
Peter Byrne, Cath Jackson and Stephen Lee
The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that investment decision making in the UK direct property market does not conform to the assumption of economic rationality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that investment decision making in the UK direct property market does not conform to the assumption of economic rationality underpinning portfolio theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The developing behavioural real estate paradigm is used to challenge the idea that investor “man” is able to perform with economic rationality, specifically with reference to the analysis of the spatial dispersion of the entire UK “investible stock” and “investible locations” against observed spatial patterns of institutional investment. Location quotients are derived, combining different data sets.
Findings
Considerably greater variation in institutional property holdings is found across the UK than would be expected given the economic and stock characteristics of local areas. This appears to provide evidence of irrationality (in the strict traditional economic sense) in the behaviour of institutional investors, with possible herding underpinning levels of investment that cannot be explained otherwise.
Research limitations/implications
Over time a lack of distinction has developed between the cause and effect of comparatively low levels of development and institutional property investment across the regions. A critical examination of decision making and behaviour in practice could break this cycle, and could in turn promote regional economic growth.
Originality/value
The entire “population” of observations is used to demonstrate the relationships between economic theory and investor performance exploring, for the first time, stock and local area characteristics.
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Ayman Aslam, Irfan Ahmad Rana and Saad Saleem Bhatti
Urban built-up has been increasing exponentially in the world. Urban population growth and migration are depleting the land resources and creating thermal discomfort. Cities all…
Abstract
Purpose
Urban built-up has been increasing exponentially in the world. Urban population growth and migration are depleting the land resources and creating thermal discomfort. Cities all around the world are facing urban heat island effects and increased temperatures. This study aims to map land cover and formulate local climate zones for enhancing urban resilience against disaster and climate risks.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses exploratory research to identify local climate zones for Lahore, Pakistan. Landsat 8 imagery was used to develop a land use land cover map. For mapping local climate zones, the standard World Urban and Access Portal Tool procedure was used.
Findings
Results have revealed that Lahore has grown exponentially. Compact low rise and open low rise were the two most common local climate zones prevalent in the city. In contrast, the outer regions of the city consisted of LCZ D (low plants) and LCZ F (bare soil).
Practical implications
This study highlights the need to consider local climate zones in future development plans and policies for ensuring sustainable, resilient and climate-friendly cities.
Originality/value
Local climate zone studies are missing in Pakistan. This study has empirically analyzed the ground situation of local climate zones for Lahore metropolitan city. This study will provide baseline support for future studies on urban heat island and climate change adaptation planning.
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Louise Pigden and Andrew Garford Moore
In the UK, the majority of university students specialise and study just one subject at bachelor degree level, commonly known in the UK as a single honours degree. However, nearly…
Abstract
Purpose
In the UK, the majority of university students specialise and study just one subject at bachelor degree level, commonly known in the UK as a single honours degree. However, nearly all British universities will permit students if they wish to study two or even three subjects, so-called joint or combined honours degrees, internationally known as a double major. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether educational advantage, measured by the “Participation of Local Areas” (POLAR) classification, correlated with rates of graduate destinations for joint and single honours graduates. This study focused particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed the complete data set provided from the Higher Education Statistics Agency Destination of Leavers from the Higher Education survey, and combined this with data from the POLAR4 quintiles, which aggregate geographical regions across the UK based on the proportion of its young people that participate in higher education. The data were analysed to establish whether there was a difference in the highly skilled graduate employability of the joint honours students, focusing particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities, in order to build on previous published work.
Findings
Single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination. However at both the Russell Group and the Post-92 universities, respectively, there was no trend towards a smaller highly skilled destinations gap between the honours types for the higher quintiles. For the highest POLAR4 quintile, the proportion of joint honours graduates was substantially higher at the Russell Group than at Post-92 universities. Furthermore, in any quintile, there were proportionately more joint honours graduates from the Russell Group, compared with single honours graduates, and increasingly so the higher the quintile.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on joint honours degrees in the UK where the two or three principal subjects fall into different Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) subject areas, i.e. the two or three subjects are necessarily diverse rather than academically cognate. This excluded the class of joint honours degrees where the principal subjects lie within the same JACS subject area, i.e. they may be closer academically, although still taught by different academic teams. However, the overall proportion of joint honours graduates identified using the classification was in line with the UCAS (2017) data on national rates of combined studies acceptances.
Practical implications
All Russell Group graduates, irrespective of their POLAR4 quintile, were far more likely to be in a highly skilled destination than single or joint honours graduates of Post-92 universities. Even the lowest quintile graduates of the Russell Group had greater rates of highly skilled destination than the highest quintile from Post-92 universities, for both single and joint honours graduates. This demonstrated the positive impact that graduating from the Russell Group confers on both single and joint honours graduates.
Social implications
This study could not explain the much smaller gap in the highly skilled destinations between single honours and joint honours graduates found in the Russell Group, compared with the Post-92. Why do a higher proportion of joint honours graduates hail form the upper POLAR4 quintiles, the Russell Group joint honours graduates were more disproportionately from the upper POLAR4 quintiles and the joint honours upper POLAR4 quintiles represented such a larger proportion of the Russell Group overall undergraduate population? Other student characteristics such as tariff on entry, subjects studied, gender, age and ethnicity might all contribute to this finding.
Originality/value
This study demonstrated that, averaged across all universities in the UK, there was a trend for both single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles to be more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, i.e. the more educationally advantaged, were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, as a proportion of the total from each honours type. This accorded with HESA (2018b) data, but expanded those findings to include direct consideration of joint honours graduates.
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The purpose of this research is to investigate the role and importance of the annual report as a source of information about public sector entities.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the role and importance of the annual report as a source of information about public sector entities.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a survey methodology to access users of public sector annual reports and is innovative because it has directly studied actual users across the entire public sector.
Findings
The findings of this research indicate that the annual report is an important source of information about public sector entities but it is not the most important source of information. This study also found that the annual report is not regarded as equally important across all public sector entity types. Differences in the importance attached to the annual report by different stakeholder groups were also noted.
Research implications/limitations
These findings have important implications for policy makers with respect to the information content of public sector annual reports. In particular the blanket approach to legislative requirements for annual reporting may need to be reviewed in view of the findings of this research that there are differing levels of importance attached to the annual report as an information source by users from different public sector entity types.
Originality/value
The research in this paper is original in that it has, systematically and directly accessed users of public sector annual reports to determine their information sources.
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