Marketing of Information and Library Services in Nigerian University Libraries: The Way Forward

University libraries in Nigeria exist to support teaching, learning and research needs of their parent institutions. This is done through the provision of up –to-date information resources to their clientele –students, teaching and   non-teaching staff. This mission can be best accomplished through effective marketing of information and library services to their respective users. This paper examines   marketing of information and library services in Nigerian university libraries; the current situation and the way forward.  Marketing of information and library services is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.  The use of Marketing mix (the 7p’s) and other marketing strategies such as exhibition, segmentation and use of Internet were seen as means which could be used to market information and library services to various users in Nigerian University Libraries. Keywords: Marketing, users’ satisfaction, library services, information, university libraries, Nigeria

The usage of cloud services for information and analytical support of the international cooperation organization of universities

Стаття присвячена досвіду використання хмарних сервісів для інформаційно-аналітичної підтримки організації міжнародного співробітництва університетів. Розглянуто питання використання хмарних сервісів для поглиблення зв’язків освіти, науки і виробництва; розширення співпраці навчальних і наукових установ у міжнародному просторі. Проаналізованосучасний стан щодо використання хмарних сервісів для інформаційно-аналітичної підтримки міжнародного співробітництва університетів України. Визначено, що перспективами подальших досліджень щодо використання хмарних сервісів для організації підтримки міжнародної діяльності університету є проектування методики навчання науковців, адміністративно-управлінського персоналу щодо застосування цих сервісів для підвищення ефективності міжнародної навчальної та наукової діяльності у вищих навчальних закладах України.The article is devoted to the experience of using cloud services for information and analytical support of the international cooperation of universities. The issues of using cloud services for deepening the ties of education, science and production are considered; the expansion of cooperation between educational and scientific institutions in the international space is considered. The modern state of cloud services usage for information and analytical support of international cooperation of Ukrainian universities is analyzed. It is determined that the prospects for further research on the use of cloud services for the organization of the international activities of the University is to design a methodology with aim to train research, administrative and managerial personnel on the application of these services in order to increase the efficiency of international educational and research activities at higher educational institutions of Ukraine

Management education and training for librarians in Scotland.

This paper is a report on research into management education and training for librarians, which was initiated and funded by the Library and Information Services Committee (Scotland) [LISC(S)]. It outlines the origin of the proposal in the current debate about management education in the United Kingdom (UK), and in the growing concern to ensure that librarians' managerial abilities are fully developed. It provides background material on management education in Scotland, and on the provision of short courses in management for librarians in the UK. A survey of Heads of library and information services and the managers who report to them was undertaken in early 1991 to identify the management competences required by librarians. The resources available for staff development were investigated, as were the relative priorities attached to management development compared with general professional development. The review found that managerial development has clearly been identified as organisationally or personally important by some librarians. However, it appeared that the overall perception of librarians as managers is still low. There was a very considerable diversity in support for management development in Scottish libraries. The review concluded that, at the moment there does not appear to be a basis for a programme of management education and training specifically for librarians. The increase in financial allocations required to sustain such a programme would be unrealistic in present circumstances, and librarians should make more use of alternative, in-service methods of management development

The Dynamics of Information and Communication Technology in Oromia: The Case of Goro Woreda

Information and Communication Technology is making the entire world as closer as human scale and nowadays it is becoming a hot government agenda. Thus, the Ethiopian government placed ICT policy to develop, deploy and use information and communication technology to improve the livelihood of every Ethiopian, and optimize its contribution to the development of the country. The objective of this study was therefore, to determine the challenges of ICT implementation in Oromia with specific reference to Goro Woreda. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative approach through concurrent mixed method. Primary and secondary data sources were used to collect relevant data. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed, described and explained by using descriptive statistics such as cross tabs, mode and chi-square test. Hence, the finding revealed that, though, some positive changes can be cited, the main challenges of ICT implementation in the study Woreda arre lack of managerial oversight, poor organizational integration, inoperative ICT equipment, poor  network, insufficient ICT professionals, lack of sufficient computer, and poor communication structure. Above all, the poor attention given to the ICT program was the root cause for majority of the challenges. Finally, the study concluded the services given through ICT were not adequate and the implementation of the program was not successful. From this, adequate managerial oversight and support and grass root level administrative support federal and regional concerned bodies is recommended. Keywords: ICT, Video Conferencing, Server Mail Service and Rural Connectivit

Towards an interoperable healthcare information infrastructure - working from the bottom up

Historically, the healthcare system has not made effective use of information technology. On the face of things, it would seem to provide a natural and richly varied domain in which to target benefit from IT solutions. But history shows that it is one of the most difficult domains in which to bring them to fruition. This paper provides an overview of the changing context and information requirements of healthcare that help to explain these characteristics.First and foremost, the disciplines and professions that healthcare encompasses have immense complexity and diversity to deal with, in structuring knowledge about what medicine and healthcare are, how they function, and what differentiates good practice and good performance. The need to maintain macro-economic stability of the health service, faced with this and many other uncertainties, means that management bottom lines predominate over choices and decisions that have to be made within everyday individual patient services. Individual practice and care, the bedrock of healthcare, is, for this and other reasons, more and more subject to professional and managerial control and regulation.One characteristic of organisations shown to be good at making effective use of IT is their capacity to devolve decisions within the organisation to where they can be best made, for the purpose of meeting their customers' needs. IT should, in this context, contribute as an enabler and not as an enforcer of good information services. The information infrastructure must work effectively, both top down and bottom up, to accommodate these countervailing pressures. This issue is explored in the context of infrastructure to support electronic health records.Because of the diverse and changing requirements of the huge healthcare sector, and the need to sustain health records over many decades, standardised systems must concentrate on doing the easier things well and as simply as possible, while accommodating immense diversity of requirements and practice. The manner in which the healthcare information infrastructure can be formulated and implemented to meet useful practical goals is explored, in the context of two case studies of research in CHIME at UCL and their user communities.Healthcare has severe problems both as a provider of information and as a purchaser of information systems. This has an impact on both its customer and its supplier relationships. Healthcare needs to become a better purchaser, more aware and realistic about what technology can and cannot do and where research is needed. Industry needs a greater awareness of the complexity of the healthcare domain, and the subtle ways in which information is part of the basic contract between healthcare professionals and patients, and the trust and understanding that must exist between them. It is an ideal domain for deeper collaboration between academic institutions and industry

Identification of Graduate Research Students’ Resource Needs in a Malaysian Public University

The desire to pursue higher education is constantly increasing. The government and the institutions of higher learning are striving to attract more students, especially at the graduate level by making every effort to provide quality education. Some scholars proposed that the strategic success of a service organization depends on its ability to consistently meet or exceed customer service expectations. Students need information and support to cope in balancing the demands of the different environments. One of the major problems facing by the higher education nowadays is attrition and completion rates. To sustain a high completion rates, one of the most challenges role of the supervisor is to ensure effective facilitate and responsible to assist the students in their research. In most existing research literature, study on information and services and supervisory system were done separately. Moreover, most of the studies about supervisory system were done by researchers from other countries. However this study took a further step by assembling these needs together in one single research. Therefore this study was conducted in order to explore the students’ needs in both elements so that it will bring to a significant effect of either to the institutional or the students. The main objective of this research is to identify the students’ resource needs in terms of information and services and supervisory system. Questionnaires were sent to 341 graduate students in a public university determined by purposive sampling. They were Master or PhD students with thesis program. 184 (53.96%) of them were returned and usable. This study found that administrative functions, such as information on service and support in terms of bursaries and loans, and student fees may need to be improved. Meanwhile, the information about student support and welfare services also states the lowest mean among these which are 2.00. The lowest mean was International Office (IO) with a mean of 1.79. Only 44% of the respondents found access to computers very accessible, while 2.2% of the respondents indicated that the use of computer facilities did not apply to them. The same general trend applies to the internet access. Highest rank of students’ perception was the treatment from lecturer/tutor with a mean of 3.53. The lowest falls to parking area facilities and the cafeteria with mean of 2.86. The overall rank order of the services’ dimension shows that the poorest services fall to responsiveness with mean of 3.09 for science based faculty and 3.20 for social science based faculty. Empathy falls at the first rank of services’ dimension with mean of 3.30 for science based faculty and 3.51 for social science based faculty. The majority of respondents found that the supervisory aspects generally very accessible with a mean of 2.43. They also agreed that it was very accessible to contact a supervisor with a mean of 3.49. However, selection of supervisor and information on potential supervisor were perceived as moderately accessible. Respondents perceived that time management is very important to them with the highest mean of 4.31. Supervisory contributions in this research were categorized into five which are Managerial, Research, Academic, Language and Interpersonal Input. Respondents perceived that Managerial Input was at the highest priority. It is followed by Research Input with a mean of 4.26. Academic and Interpersonal Input was rating at the third and fourth rank with mean of 4.22 and 4.21. Language inputs fall at the last rank. The learning that takes place during graduate studies is a maturing, must be enhanced with timely and appropriate support. University should provide information and support to graduate students without sacrificing the coherence and generic input needed in any academic program. Further research should be expanded to investigate the students’ needs in more depth as it may have a significant influence on the enhancement of an effective resource

CROSS-CONTEXTUAL USE OF INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The international industry of engineering products and services is characterized by high complexity and competition. Corporations that expand globally have experienced that managing interdependent activities and business processes across several countries requires an effective deployment of advanced information technology. Whereas the literature has described implementation of global information systems as a means to coordinate and control the business processes, empirical studies have shown that introducing a large-scale information systems involves several managerial challenges when organizations are geographically dispersed. This paper studies deployment of a global enterprise system to support evolvement of global business processes. On the basis of a qualitative case study of a multinational corporation implementing an enterprise system across several geographical locations, we identify counteracting forces in the process of global standardization of IS and business processes and discuss how the organization try to manage these forces and challenges therein. The findings suggest that global business processes develop through diverse processes of learning and negotiation between local practices of use and infusion of the global enterprise system

Selling digital services abroad: How do extrinsic attributes influence foreign consumers’ purchase intentions?

© 2017 The Authors This article investigates, through the country-of-origin effect and value-in-use lenses, how the implementation of digital services creates opportunities for cultural industries to expand internationally. We argue that intrinsic attributes of cultural content such as the capacity to entertain are difficult to parameterize because they are somewhat experiential and subjective. This means that extrinsic cues are essential to foreign consumers when making a decision to purchase digital services. We specifically evaluate the influence of Britishness, cultural distance, exoticness, brand image, and flag-brand congruence on the purchase intentions of consumers in foreign markets. This study employs a unique consumer dataset with information on the internationalization of British cultural digital services. The depth and breadth of the survey data collected through collaboration with a UK media industry partner with a globally recognised brand is significantly richer than data used in previous studies. In particular, the study exploits a survey with 5,200 usable data points from consumers residing in fourteen geographically dispersed countries. Findings support theoretical predictions that Britishness, cultural distance, exoticness, brand image and flag-brand congruence are positively linked to the purchasing decisions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed

Development of a decision support system framework for cultural heritage management

Decision support systems (DSSs) have been traditionally identified as useful information technology tools in a variety of fields, including the context of cultural heritage. However, to the best of our knowledge, no prior study has developed a DSS framework that incorporates all the main decision areas simultaneously in the context of cultural heritage. We fill this gap by focusing on design-science research and specifically by developing a DSS framework whose features support all the main decision areas for the sustainable management of cultural assets in a comprehensive manner. The main decision-making areas considered in our study encompass demand manage-ment, segmentation and communication, pricing, space management, and services management. For these areas, we select appropriate decision-making supporting techniques and data management solutions. The development of our framework, in the form of a web-based system, results in an architectural solution that is able to satisfy critical requirements such as ease of use and response time. We present an application of the innovative DSS framework to a museum and discuss the main managerial implications and future improvements

Does Twitter matter? The impact of microblogging word of mouth on consumers’ adoption of new movies

This research provides an empirical test of the “Twitter effect,” which postulates that microblogging word of mouth (MWOM) shared through Twitter and similar services affects early product adoption behaviors by immediately disseminating consumers’ post-purchase quality evaluations. This is a potentially crucial factor for the success of experiential media products and other products whose distribution strategy relies on a hyped release. Studying the four million MWOM messages sent via Twitter concerning 105 movies on their respective opening weekends, the authors find support for the Twitter effect and report evidence of a negativity bias. In a follow-up incident study of 600 Twitter users who decided not to see a movie based on negative MWOM, the authors shed additional light on the Twitter effect by investigating how consumers use MWOM information in their decision-making processes and describing MWOM’s defining characteristics. They use these insights to position MWOM in the word-of-mouth landscape, to identify future word-of-mouth research opportunities based on this conceptual positioning, and to develop managerial implications