Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library

Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries

Death masks and professional masks: community, values and ethics in legal education

This article is a case-study of simulation as a way of learning values and ethics, an approach implemented curriculum-wide within a postgraduate, professional legal educational programme, the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, in Scotland. It involves learning face-to-face using conventional print resources, and also involves online digital resources. While the use of the web to simulate a professional environment is nothing new in itself, the implementation of it (first in the Glasgow Graduate School of Law and then Strathclyde Law School) and on this scale is fairly unique. The article explores the genesis of this approach, its interdisciplinary bases, and its use in various law schools, its effects in building learning communities and facilitating ethical self-revelation

The Development Of Mutual Trust In British Workplaces Through ?Partnership?

This article examines the alleged links between 'partnership' forms ofmanaging workplace relationships in Britain, and the development ofintra-organisational 'trust'. The potential for mutually complementarylinkages between the two are clear, in theory at least: partnership,as defined here, should produce, nurture and enhance levels ofinterpersonal trust inside organisations, while in turn trust, asdefined here, legitimates and helps reinforce an organisation's'partnership'. Qualitative evidence drawn from the self-reports of keyparticipants in four partnership organisations provides considerablesupport for the claimed linkages, while also highlighting severalweaknesses, discrepancies and pitfalls inherent in the process ofpursuing trust through partnership. This research is of interest froma public policy perspective, most of all in the United Kingdom, wherepartnership is the favoured organisational model for the New Labourgovernment, most trade unions, and many employers (not to mention theEuropean Union) yet where an agreed definition of the idea has yet toemerge, and where still remarkably little is known about whatpartnership involves inside organisations. This analysis also seeks torestore the curiously neglected idea of trust to a position of centralimportance to the study of employment relations.United Kingdom;case studies;organisational change;trust;social partnership

Text Types in Personal Chronic Pain Blogs : Variation of Werlich's Text-Typical Clause Structures

Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Tutkimuksessa määritetään kroonisen kivun henkilökohtaisissa englanninkielisissä blogeissa esiintyvät yleisimmät tekstityypit. Määrittely kuvaa Werlichin tekstityypillisen lausemuodon yleisyyttä kertovana, kuvailevana, perustelevana, erittelevänä tai ohjailevana tekstityyppinä blogitekstin lauseissa sekä tekstiryhmätasolla. Lisäksi arvioidaan tekstityyppien yleisyyttä sosiolingvistisestä näkökulmasta blogikirjoittajien kolmen tilastollisen ominaisuuden vaikutuksena tekstityyppien esiintymiseen. Työssä tekstityyppi määritellään lausetasolla tiettyjä lauserakennemuotoja edustaviksi luokiksi, jotka kuvastavat kirjoittajan keskittymistä tiettyyn tapaan jäsentää havaintoja. Tekstityyppi määritellään tekstin kielipiirteitä kuvaavaksi luokaksi erotuksena tekstin käyttötapaan perustuvaan genreluokitteluun. Kroonisen kivun blogien tekstityyppejä ei ole tutkittu vaikka krooninen kipu on yleinen tila aikuisväestössä. Tutkimuksissa on todettu kirjoittajien hyötyvän kipublogeista kivunhallinnassa. Lisäksi on tunnistettu useita kipublogien kirjoittamisen tavoitteita, joiden on todettu muuttuvan ajan mittaan osalla kirjoittajista. Aiemmissa blogitekstien luokitteluissa on tunnistettu kaksi yleistä blogityyppiä, joita määrittävät kielipiirteet havaitaan osittain lausetason tekstityyppejä vastaaviksi. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin tekstilingvististä yhdistelmää tekstityyppien laadullisesta lauseanalyysistä ja määrällisestä kokotekstianalyysistä sekä määrällistä sosiolingvististä tilastollisten muuttujien analyysiä. Tarkasteltavien blogitekstien aineisto koostuu 26:sta kokonaisesta blogitekstistä. Kirjoittajia on 13 ja jokaiselta on kaksi blogitekstiä. Analysoitavia lauseita on 1068. Lähdeblogit valittiin tekstitietokantaan lumipallo-otannalla ja tarkoituksellisella otannalla, joissa valintakriteerinä olivat kirjoittajan krooninen kipu ja toimiminen blogin ainoana kirjoittajana. Tuloksissa huomataan lausetasolla tekstityyppiluokkien määritelmien osittainen päällekkäisyys. Yleisimmiksi tekstityypeiksi muodostuvat väittävän, ohjeistavan ja kertovan tekstityypin yhdistelmät, joista väittävä tyyppi on yllättävän vallitseva. Tekstityyppien osuuksien vaihtelu ei työssä selity kirjoittajan tilastollisten ominaisuuksien vaihtelulla, koska tilastollinen tarkastelu nähdään pienen otannan takia vain suuntaa antavana. Lisätutkimusta toivotaan tekstin lausekohtaisista aiheista ja tekstityypeistä yhdistämällä sisältöanalyysiä ja tekstilingvistiikkaa. Lisäksi ehdotetaan kipublogitekstien tutkimista vertailemalla tekstien hierarkkisia ja vaihemaisia rakennepiirteitä, kuten lauseen Teema-Reema aiheita.This study describes personal chronic pain blog entries written in English by defining the common text types in the blogs. Text types are defined as text-classifying tools that combine a clause-level structural perspective and a whole-text level category perspective. On the clause level, each clause is defined as representing one of five Werlich's text types that reflect author focus on cognitive processes. The study also explores the effect of author socio-demographic attributes of gender, age and duration of chronic pain on the text types identfied in the analysis. Chronic pain is a common health condition that also affects the sufferer’s focus of attention. The text types in chronic pain blogs have not been studied even though studies have found that blog writing has therapeutic effects on pain management for chronic pain sufferers. Studies have also identified several purposes for writing chronic pain blogs. The purposes have been found to change for some of the chronic pain blog writers. Previous studies on blog types suggest two common text types. A combined qualitative-quantitative analysis of text-typical clauses and blog entries was conducted on a sample of 26 whole-text entries. The sample consists of two entries from 13 authors with total of 1068 clauses. Additionally, a socio-linguistic variable analysis was conducted with text types as dependent variables and author attributes as independent variables. The data was gathered with a combined purposive-snowball method with author chronic pain condition and personal authorship as sample selection criteria. The results show some overlapping analytical criteria for clause-level text types. The most frequent text types are identified as combinations of argumentation, instruction and narration with argumentation being surprisingly high in prevalence. The text-typical variation does not seem to be an effect of a specific author variable although the socio-linguistic analysis is not proved as statistically significant because of the small sample size. Further study on text types is suggested in a combined interpersonal feature and text type analysis of chronic pain blog entries. A different approach is also suggested in identification and comparison of hierarchical and text-organizational features such as Theme-Rheme analysis of clauses

Climate-ready conservation objectives: a scoping study

AbstractAnticipated future climate change is very likely to have a wide range of different types of ecological impact on biodiversity across the whole of Australia. There is a high degree of confidence that these changes will be significant, affecting almost all species, ecosystems and landscapes. However, because of the complexity of ecological systems and the multiple ways climate change will affect them, the details of the future change are less certain for any given species or location. The nature of the changes means that the multiple ways biodiversity is experienced, used and valued by society will be affected in different ways. The likely changes present a significant challenge to any societal aspiration to preserve biodiversity in its current state, for example, to maintain a species in its current abundance and distribution. Preserving biodiversity ‘as is’ may have been feasible in a stationary climate (one that is variable but not changing), but this will not be possible with the widespread, pervasive and large ecological changes anticipated under significant levels of climate change. This makes the impacts of climate change quite unlike other threats to biodiversity, and they challenge, fundamentally, what it actually means to conserve biodiversity under climate change: what should the objectives of biodiversity conservation be under climate change? And what are the barriers to recalibrating conservation objectives?Based on key insights from the scientific literature on climate change and biodiversity, the project developed three adaptation propositions about managing biodiversity:Conservation strategies accommodate large amounts of ecological change and the likelihood of significant climate change–induced loss in biodiversity. Strategies remain relevant and feasible under a range of possible future trajectories of ecological change.Strategies seek to conserve the multiple different dimensions of biodiversity that are experienced and valued by society. Together these propositions summarise the challenge of future climate change for biodiversity conservation, and define a new way of framing conservation we called the ‘climate ready’ approach. In the near term, conservation strategies may be able to include some consideration of these propositions. However, under significant levels of climate change many of the current approaches to conservation will become increasingly difficult and ineffective (e.g. maintaining community types in their current locations). This challenge is fundamentally different from that posed by other threats to biodiversity, and the climate-ready approach is akin to a paradigm shift in conservation.The project used a review of 26 conservation strategy documents (spanning scales from international to local) and four case studies with conservation agencies to test and refine the climate-ready approach. The project found the approach to be robust and highly relevant; in the majority of situations, if adopted, it would lead to significant changes in the objectives and priorities of conservation. There were also many ‘green shoots’ of elements of the new approach in existing conservation practice. However, the project found there are currently substantial barriers to fully adopting a climate-ready approach. These include the need for: further development of ecological characterisation of ecosystem health and human activities in landscapesmuch better understanding of how society values different aspects of biodiversity, including ecosystems and landscapesdevelopment of policy tools to codify and implement new ecologically robust and socially endorsed objectives.  Anticipated future climate change is very likely to have a wide range of different types of ecological impact on biodiversity across the whole of Australia. There is a high degree of confidence that these changes will be significant, affecting almost all species, ecosystems and landscapes. However, because of the complexity of ecological systems and the multiple ways climate change will affect them, the details of the future change are less certain for any given species or location. The nature of the changes means that the multiple ways biodiversity is experienced, used and valued by society will be affected in different ways. The likely changes present a significant challenge to any societal aspiration to preserve biodiversity in its current state, for example, to maintain a species in its current abundance and distribution. Preserving biodiversity ‘as is’ may have been feasible in a stationary climate (one that is variable but not changing), but this will not be possible with the widespread, pervasive and large ecological changes anticipated under significant levels of climate change. This makes the impacts of climate change quite unlike other threats to biodiversity, and they challenge, fundamentally, what it actually means to conserve biodiversity under climate change: what should the objectives of biodiversity conservation be under climate change? And what are the barriers to recalibrating conservation objectives?Based on key insights from the scientific literature on climate change and biodiversity, the project developed three adaptation propositions about managing biodiversity:Conservation strategies accommodate large amounts of ecological change and the likelihood of significant climate change–induced loss in biodiversity. Strategies remain relevant and feasible under a range of possible future trajectories of ecological change.Strategies seek to conserve the multiple different dimensions of biodiversity that are experienced and valued by society. Together these propositions summarise the challenge of future climate change for biodiversity conservation, and define a new way of framing conservation we called the ‘climate ready’ approach. In the near term, conservation strategies may be able to include some consideration of these propositions. However, under significant levels of climate change many of the current approaches to conservation will become increasingly difficult and ineffective (e.g. maintaining community types in their current locations). This challenge is fundamentally different from that posed by other threats to biodiversity, and the climate-ready approach is akin to a paradigm shift in conservation.The project used a review of 26 conservation strategy documents (spanning scales from international to local) and four case studies with conservation agencies to test and refine the climate-ready approach. The project found the approach to be robust and highly relevant; in the majority of situations, if adopted, it would lead to significant changes in the objectives and priorities of conservation. There were also many ‘green shoots’ of elements of the new approach in existing conservation practice. However, the project found there are currently substantial barriers to fully adopting a climate-ready approach. These include the need for: further development of ecological characterisation of ecosystem health and human activities in landscapesmuch better understanding of how society values different aspects of biodiversity, including ecosystems and landscapesdevelopment of policy tools to codify and implement new ecologically robust and socially endorsed objectives. Please cite this report as: Dunlop M, Parris, H, Ryan, P, Kroon, F 2013 Climate-ready conservation objectives: a scoping study, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 102

The Spatial Historian: Creating a Spatially Aware Historical Research System

The intent of this study is to design a geospatial information system capable of facilitating the extraction and analysis of the fragmentary snapshots of history contained in hand-written historical documents. This customized system necessarily bypasses off-the-shelf GIS in order to support these unstructured primary historical research materials and bring long dormant spatial stories previously hidden in archives, libraries, and other documentary storage locations to life. The software platform discussed here integrates the tasks of information extraction, data management, and analysis while simultaneously giving primary emphasis to supporting the spatial and humanistic analysis and interpretation of the data contents. The premise of this research study is that by integrating the collection of data, the extraction of content, and the analysis of information from what has traditionally been post-data collection analysis and research process, more efficient processing and more effective historical research can be achieved

Multilingual resources for NLP in the Lexical Markup Framework (LMF)

Optimizing the production, maintenance and extension of lexical resources is one the crucial aspects impacting Natural Language Processing (NLP). A second aspect involves optimizing the process leading to their integration in applications. With this respect, we believe that a consensual specification on monolingual, bilingual and multilingual lexicons can be a useful aid for the various NLP actors. Within ISO, one purpose of Lexical Markup Framework (LMF, ISO-24613) is to define a standard for lexicons that covers multilingual lexical data

The interrupted world: Surrealist disruption and altered escapes from reality

Following Breton’s writings on surreality, we outline how unexpected challenges to consumers’ assumptive worlds have the potential to alter how their escape from reality is experienced. We introduce the concept of ‘surrealist disruption’ to describe ontological discontinuities that disrupt the common-sense frameworks normally used by consumers and that impact upon their ability to suspend their disbeliefs and experience self-loss. To facilitate our theorization, we draw upon interviews with consumers about their changing experiences as viewers of the realist political TV drama House of Cards against a backdrop of disruptive real-world political events. Our analyses reveal that, when faced with a radically altered external environment, escape from reality changes from a restorative, playful experience to an uneasy, earnest one characterized by hysteretic angst, intersubjective sense-making and epistemological community-building. This reconceptualizes escapism as more emotionally multivalenced than previously considered in marketing theory and reveals consumers’ subject position to an aggregative social fabric beyond their control