Emerging and innovating research support in academic libraries: The datametrics agenda.

As the center of gravity in scholarly communication shifts from journal papers to research datasets, academic libraries are being challenged to respond to emerging practices in cyberscholarship and research policy with expanded and specialized support services. Recent surveys of library support services for research in the new landscape of data science have been conducted in the US and to a limited extent in the UK and internationally. The present study broke new ground in its scale and scope, by comprehensively surveying academic libraries in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK, to identify current and planned service provision, constraints on service development, and workforce education and training needs. Significantly, taking account of the particular national policy contexts for the research libraries participating in the survey, the investigation included not only data management, but also bibliometric support services, anticipating future demand for libraries to lake the lead on the design, development and delivery of integrated services supporting the full scholarly knowledge cycle, including provision of dataset publishing and datametric support for academic faculty, research staff, graduate students and university administration. Our poster will provide an overview of key findings from the survey, comment on the stakeholder relationships and partnerships identified in the study, and highlight the implications for policy and practice in both research library services and data science education, concluding with an outline of the new research and development agenda emerging around libraries, librarians and datametrics

Assessing Organizational Capacity in Housing Provision: a Survey of Public Housing Agencies in Ogun State, Nigeria

Organizational capacity is essential for effective implementation of policies and programmes. Consequently, assessment of organizational capacity helps organizations to identify their strength and weakness in order to make informed decisions about how best to address challenges they face. The goal of this study was to assess the status of organizational capacity of public housing agencies in housing provision in Ogun State Southwest Nigeria. It was motivated by a gap in literature on the specific areas that contribute most to organizational capacity of public agencies in housing provision in Nigeria. Using questionnaire as the principal data collection instrument, primary data were collected from randomly selected 90 staff members involved in the design, planning, implementation and management of public housing projects in four public housing agencies in the study area. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and the result showed that most respondents felt that the overall organizational capacity of the agencies in housing provision was adequate. Management capacity was found to be slightly higher than resource capacity with the agencies having most strength in leadership style and weakness in the methods of administration of funds for housing projects. Substantial need and capacity building was found in critical areas such as funding, staff motivation and methods of dispensing of funds for housing projects. The paper suggests that partnerships with private sector organizations, robust staff well-fare schemes and re-training of staff can enhance organizational capacity of public agencies in public housing provision in Nigeria and other developing countries

Post-bureaucracy and reanimating public governance: A discourse and practice of continuity?

Purpose 'Seeks to examine changes in the environment in which public policy and public management operate and the claim that bureaucracy has been replaced by post-bureaucracy as a result of these changes. Design/methodology/approach – It proposes reanimated public governance as a concept that occupies the space between public administration and restructured public governance (including reinvented government and New Public Management (NPM). Rather than accepting the existence of post-bureaucracy, per se, the paper argues that there has been a process of extending bureaucracy that cuts across public and non-public boundaries rather than the development of post-bureaucracy per se. Findings – In examining the claims for post-bureaucracy, we are witnessing a discourse and practice of continuity rather than difference. The need for economies of scale and scope, standardisation and the existence of indivisibilities in public services suggest that public sector reforms and proposals for new governance models establish extended or flexible forms of bureaucracy rather than post-bureaucratic organisational forms. Attempts to introduce ICT-based services and the need for regulatory agencies to oversee the contracts with private and non-profit service providers reinforce these findings. Research limitations/implications – The arguments in this paper are based on marshalling the literature and debates surrounding public sector reform to advance a central thesis. It draws on real world examples but does not advance direct empirical evidence. There is scope for internationally comparative case-studies of different public service functions and discourses and practices in different countries Practical implications – Policy makers and managers should treat the clarion call of post-bureaucracy as a way of liberating public services from a lack of creativity, innovation and accountability with healthy scepticism. In particular, the view that public sector reforms through post-bureaucratic re-organisation will lead to efficiencies is one to be challenged. Reforms in any service driven organisations are not zero-cost and any implied operational cost saving should be considered against increased transaction costs. Originality/value – There have been heroic claims made for post-bureaucracy in many organisations enabled by developments associated with the concepts of information society and knowledge society. By locating public sector reforms under the rubric of 'restructured public governance' a deeper investigation of the implications for the discourses and practices associated with public sector reform is advanced

Enhancing IT investments productivity: Integrating network QOS and it indirect costs

Increasing productivity is considered one of the major driving factors for a successful business. From an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure perspective, obtaining an optimised performance of resources is expected to improve productivity. From a technical viewpoint, the introduction of Quality of Service (QoS) models have been perceived to optimise the performance of the organisation network backbone. These models aim to provide an acceptable level of service assurance to the newly introduced applications and services such as voice and video. From a management viewpoint, the proper management of IT investments indirect costs can lead to a reduction of the overall cost portfolio. Consequently, both benefits and productivity increase are likely to be realised. This paper introduces network QoS strategy within the hierarchy of business infrastructure. In addition, it aims to identify the relationship between network QoS and IT indirect costs. Such integration demonstrates how network QoS strategy can be used to control IT indirect costs as well as enhancing network performance

Leadership and structure in the co-production of public services

This paper aims to initiate a debate about the utility of the concept of co-production in developing a better understanding of contemporary challenges to leadership and management in the provision of public services. The central argument made here is twofold: First, leadership must be shared to some extent for co-production to take effect, which supports current conceptual developments but also points to the need to focus future research more on relational dynamics and on institutional structures. Second, to develop models of leadership which reflect the nature of the co-production process, institutional concepts based on hybridity and blurred boundaries are likely to provide a useful starting point.Final Published versio

Auditing culture : the subsidised cultural sector in the New Public Management

This article explores the effects of the spread of the principles and practices of the New Public Management (NPM) on the subsidised cultural sector and on cultural policy making in Britain. In particular, changes in the style of public administration that can be ascribed to the NPM will be shown to provide a useful framework to make sense of what has been felt as an “instrumental turn” in British policies for culture between the early 1980s and the present day. The current New Labour Government, as well as the arm's length bodies that distribute public funds for the cultural sector in Britain, are showing an increasing tendency to justify public spending on the arts on the basis of instrumental notions of the arts and culture. In the context of what have been defined as “instrumental cultural policies”, the arts are subsidised in so far as they represent a means to an end rather than an end in itself. In this perspective, the emphasis placed on the potential of the arts to help tackle social exclusion and the role of the cultural sector in place‐marketing and local economic development are typical examples of current trends in British cultural policy making. The central argument purported by this article is that this instrumental emphasis in British cultural policy is closely linked to the changes in the style of public administration that have given rise to the NPM. These new developments have indeed put the publicly funded cultural sector under increasing pressure. In particular, it will be shown how the new stress on the measurement of the arts' impacts in clear and quantifiable ways – which characterises today's “audit society” – has proved a tough challenge for the sector and one that has not been successfully met. The article will conclude by critically considering how the spread of the NPM has affected processes of policy making for the cultural sector, and the damaging effects that such developments may ultimately have on the arts themselves

Linerboard made from Soda-Anthraquinone (Soda-AQ) treated coconut coir fiber and effect of pulp beating

The performance of coir fiber in the production of linerboard made from soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ) pulp was evaluated. Based on chemical analysis, the composition of coir fiber is suitable for the pulping process. Out of nine pulping conditions characterized, a pulping condition of 18% active alkali for 90 min cooking time was chosen. These conditions provided the highest screened yield (48.99%), a low rejection yield (0.27%), high viscosity (11.73 cP), and a kappa number (41) that is acceptable for unbleached linerboard production. Beating strengthened the coir pulp. Analyzing the beating revealed that coir pulp was optimized at 1000 to 2000 revolutions, based on a graph of freeness vs. burst index. For all beating conditions (1000 to 8000 revolutions), FESEM micrographs showed the presence of internal and external fibrillation of the fiber, which gradually increased fiber conformability and improved the inter-fiber bonding within the paper formation. Based on its burst strength of 4.57 kPa.m2/g and ring crush test of 1.76 Nm2/g, which complies with the minimum requirement of the industry standard, coir fiber can be considered an alternative fiber source for linerboard production

Social enterprise in health organisation and management: hybridity or homogeneity?

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on social enterprise as an organisational form in health organisation and management.\ud \ud The paper presents a critique of the underlying assumptions associated with social enterprise in the context of English health and social care.\ud \ud The rise of social enterprise models of service provision reflects increasingly hybrid organisational forms and functions entering the health and social care market. Whilst at one level this hybridity increases the diversity of service providers promoting innovative and responsive services, the paper argues that further inspection of the assumptions associated with social enterprise reveal an organisational form that is symbolic of isomorphic processes pushing healthcare organisations toward greater levels of homogeneity, based on market-based standardisation and practices. Social enterprise forms part of isomorphic processes moving healthcare organisation and management towards market “norms”.\ud \ud In line with the aim of the “New Perspectives section”, the paper aims to present a provocative perspective about developments in health and social care, as a spur to further debate and research in this area.\ud \u

The Administration of Public Assistance

This Essay discusses the problems of implementation and administration of proposed welfare reforms. It gives a brief historical background on such reforms, describes the nature of their administration, discusses current and proposed reforms and the public perceptions of them, and compares welfare to other government expenditures. It concludes by recommending that social services be integrated at the local rather than federal level