Library decision making informed by customer values

“Customer value” is a much used and, in a number of cases, a misunderstood term, with emphasis placed on a priori categories of what provides value for the customer, rather than an effort to understand value from a customer perspective. The research presented in this thesis spans more than ten years in two academic library services, (one in Australia and the other in the United Kingdom), using a methodology that does not use pre-determined value dimensions but, rather, dimensions identified by the customers themselves. This action research was carried out with different customer segments in the university libraries to identify customer values and irritations. By longitudinal tracking of student satisfaction in the UK university, changes in customer satisfaction were noted and related to interventions agreed by library management based on the research data gathered. The thesis answers four specific research questions. By focussing on customer-defined dimensions of “value” and the concept of “customer irritation”, through use of the Customer Value Discovery methodology, this research has been able to identify a set of core academic library customer values that traditional library benchmarking instruments have not previously highlighted. The attendant results of the application of the methodology to discern these values, and their use to inform subsequent change management processes, show that customer satisfaction is improved if changes are made to services and resources to both deliver customer-defined values and reduce customer-defined irritations. Further, they show that library staff assumptions regarding customer expectations and customer perceptions of service are not always accurate. Therefore, management should seek input from customers and base decisions regarding service changes and improvements to meet customer expectations on customer-derived evidence. At the same time, the active engagement of library staff in the Customer Value Discovery process, their engagement in modelling potential interventions to add value and reduce irritation, and then in the decision-making and implementation of agreed actions, encourages greater staff “buy-in” to the change management process, as the changes are customer-led, and staff driven, rather than being management imposed. The research supported the awarding of the UK Cabinet Office’s Customer Service Excellence accreditation, attesting to the usefulness of the methodology to ensure customer-focussed services. Taken together, these findings fill a number of gaps in the professional literature, and make a series of contributions to the extant knowledge base, by providing details of the Customer Value Discovery methodology and its usefulness in an academic library context; by presenting the application of a methodology that enables easy and precise identification of value dimensions from the perspective of the customer; and by providing practitioners with case studies of actions that improved customer satisfaction of the library services. As such, the research constitutes a significant contribution, not only to evidence-based library and information practice, informing library management decision-making, but also to the wider field of customer service management

Search Engine Optimisation in UK news production

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journalism Practice, 5(4), 462 - 477, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17512786.2010.551020.This paper represents an exploratory study into an emerging culture in UK online newsrooms—the practice of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which assesses its impact on news production. Comprising a short-term participant observational case study at a national online news publisher, and a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with SEO professionals at three further UK media organisations, the author sets out to establish how SEO is operationalised in the newsroom, and what consequences these practices have for online news production. SEO practice is found to be varied and application is not universal. Not all UK news organisations are making the most of SEO even though some publishers take a highly sophisticated approach. Efforts are constrained by time, resources and management support, as well as off-page technical issues. SEO policy is found, in some cases, to inform editorial policy, but there is resistance to the principal of SEO driving decision-making. Several themes are established which call for further research

Leveraging mobile health technology and research methodology to optimize patient education and self-management support for advanced cancer pain

Funding: National Institutes of Health [R21 NR017745, PI, Enzinger]; Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Availability of data and material: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.Peer reviewedPostprin

Leveraging mobile health technology and multidisciplinary methodology to optimize self-management education for advanced cancer pain : Development of stamp

Publisher PD

Fall Prediction and Prevention Systems: Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions.

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In addition, these systems lack efficient user interfaces and feedback for preventing future falls. Recent advances in internet of things (IoT) and mobile technologies offer ample opportunities for integrating contextual information about patient behavior and environment along with physiological health data for predicting falls. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in fall detection and prediction systems. It also describes the challenges, limitations, and future directions in the design and implementation of effective fall prediction and prevention systems

Compliance advisory service feasibility study

This report identifies areas or methods of regulatory compliance information and advice to SMEs in the region that are inadequate or deficient. It recommends additional services that will benefit SMEs in the region taking into account the business support simplification agenda, state aid, legal liability, environmental and equality issues