Aiming for service excellence: Implementing a plan for customer service quality at a blended service desk

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success

MUTUAL DEPENDENCE BETWEEN QUALITY MANAGEMENT, KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

Abstract From ancient times, wealth and power have been associated with the possession of physical resources. The traditional factors of material, human, monetary production were predominant of a physical nature. Therefore, the need for knowledge was limited. The industrial revolution of past centuries was predominantly based on human physical strength and money capital. A significantly different situation is foreseen for the future. Wealth and power in the 21st century will come primarily from intangible intellectual resources, from the capital of knowledge. The knowledge revolution therefore consists precisely in this transition from the economy dominated by physical, tangible resources, to the economy dominated by knowledge. The process is particularly comprehensive and profound, generating essential changes in all components of economic activities, analogous to those produced by the industrial revolution. We are currently in the early stages of the knowledge revolution. Products and services are more knowledge intensive. Due to this, the delimitation between products and services is becoming more and more difficult. Knowledge tends to become the main feature of activities, more than the resulting products or services. The impact of the knowledge revolution becomes visible in the volatility of the market, the uncertainties regarding the direction of economic activities, the job insecurity felt by people

Water and Development Strategy: Implementation Field Guide

This document is intended to serve as a reference tool to help USAID Operating Units understand and apply the agency's 2013-2018 Water and Development Strategy. By publicly sharing the document, USAID aims to ensure coordination of their efforts with the wider water sector. The Field Guide will be periodically updated and comments from readers are welcome

E-logistics of agribusiness organisations

Logistics is one of the most important agribusiness functions due to the idiosyncrasy of food products and the structure of food supply chain. Companies in the food sector typically operate with poor production forecasting, inefficient inventory management, lack of coordination with supply partners. Further, markets are characterised by stern competition, increasing consumer demands and stringent regulation for food quality and safety. Large agribusiness corporations have already turned to e-logistics solutions as a means to sustain competitive advantage and meet consumer demands. There are four types of e-logistics applications: (a) Vertical alliances where supply partners forge long-term strategic alliances based on electronic sharing of critical logistics information such as sales forecasts and inventory volume. Vertical alliances often apply supply chain management (SCM) which is concerned with the relationship between a company and its suppliers and customers. The prime characteristic of SCM is interorganizational coordination: agribusiness companies working jointly with their customers and suppliers to integrate activities along the supply chain to effectively supply food products to customers. E-logistics solutions engender the systematic integration among supply partners by allowing more efficient and automatic information flow. (b) e-tailing, in which retailers give consumers the ability to order food such as groceries from home electronically i.e. using the Internet and the subsequent delivery of those ordered goods at home. (c) Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR), which is a strategy designed to enable foodservice industry to achieve profitable growth by looking at ways to save money for each level of the supply chain by eliminating inefficient practices. EFR provides solutions to common logistics problems, such as transactional inefficiency, inefficient plant scheduling, out-of-stocks, and expedited transportation. (d) Contracting, a means of coordinating procurement of food, beverages and their associated supplies. Many markets and supply chains in agriculture are buyer-driven where the buyers in the market tend to set prices and terms of trade. Those terms can include the use of electronic means of communication to support automatic replenishment of goods, management of supply and inventory. The results of the current applications of e-logistics in food sector are encouraging for Greek agribusiness. Companies need to become aware of and evaluate the value-added by those applications which are a sustainable competitive advantage, optimisation of supply chain flows, and meeting consumer demands and food safety regulations. E-business diffusion has shown that typically first-movers gain a significant competitive advantage and the rest companies either eventually adopt the new systems or see a significant decline in their trading partners and perish. E-logistics solutions typically require huge investments in hardware and software and skilled personnel, which is an overt barrier for most Greek companies. Large companies typically are first-movers but small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need institutional support in order to become aware that e-logistics systems can be fruitful for them as well

Discovery Tools and Local Metadata Requirements in Academic Libraries

As the second decade of the twenty-first century commences, academic librarians who work to promote collection access must not only contend with a vast array of content available in a wide range of formats, but they must also ensure that new technologies developed to accommodate user search behaviors yield satisfactory outcomes. Next generation discovery tools are designed to streamline the search process and facilitate better search results by incorporating metadata from proprietary and local collections, then by providing relevancy-ranked results. This paper investigates the implications of discovery tool use for accessing materials housed in institutional repositories and special collections, in particular, how the discovery of these materials depends on local metadata creation practices. This paper surveys current research pertaining to metadata quality issues that may put unique local collections at risk for being overlooked in meta-search relevancy rankings, and considers ways in which academic libraries can address this issue as well as areas for future research

Co-Creation: The Public Sector Perspective

This article continues to explore the partnership between the State of Connecticut, the Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy. These three entities have been working to coordinate their efforts toward a shared goal of establishing a statewide early childhood system, reducing the fragmented array of Connecticut's existing early childhood services and supports, and improving outcomes for young children and their families across the State.Independently and collectively, each partner continues to adopt new processes and working structures that enable the voluntary contribution of their diverse skills, expertise, and resources to create a new approach to early childhood in Connecticut. While clearly not the only constituencies working to improve outcomes for children and families throughout the state, this partnership between the public sector and the philanthropic community has resulted in important transformations within all entities involved. This paper highlights the role of the public sector within this public-private partnership, and, more specifically, the experience and perspectives of those working within state government

Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way and Library Partners

This 35 page report presents an analysis of, and suggestions for strengthening, collective impact for libraries that fall within the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way\u27s service counties of Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties in Pennsylvania. This report was developed by a group of Bucknell University Managing for Sustainability student researchers in a senior capstone course MSUS 400 taught by Prof. Eric Martin

Branding in the era of artificial intelligence (AI): an examination of hybrid human-AI approach in the rebranding of citizenLab

This research investigates Artificial Intelligence (AI) and branding in relation to the rebranding process at the Belgian civic tech company, CitizenLab. Using different AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, this study explores how the ability of AI to emulate and improve traditional branding phases such as interviewing stakeholders, producing brand concepts, and developing a visual identity. The significant benefits of using AI for speed and scalability are displayed and limitations are further uncovered, particularly in capturing cultural nuances and matching the creative and emotional intelligence of human experts. A hybrid model of branding presents the advantages of AI capabilities coupled with human insight to create compelling and efficient branding strategies.Este estudo investiga a ligação entre a Inteligência Artificial (IA) e o branding em relação ao processo de rebranding da empresa belga de tecnologia cívica, CitizenLab. Utilizando diferentes ferramentas de IA, como o ChatGPT da OpenAI, o estudo questiona se a IA tem a capacidade de replicar e melhorar as fases tradicionais de branding, como entrevistar as partes interessadas, produzir conceitos de marca e desenvolver uma identidade visual. O estudo apresenta as vantagens significativas da utilização da IA em termos de velocidade e escalabilidade, e revela as suas limitações, nomeadamente na captação de nuances culturais e na correspondência com a inteligência criativa e emocional dos especialistas humanos. O estudo recomenda um modelo híbrido de branding que tire partido das capacidades da IA aliadas à perspicácia humana para criar estratégias de branding persuasivas e eficientes

Intelligent Agents to Support Information Sharing in B2B E-Marketplaces

This article proposes an architecture to support information and knowledge exchange between collaborating business partners. The focus is on knowledge representation and exchange by intelligent agents to support collaborative business functions through agents that exchange problem-specific information in standardized formats. The article then shows the application of the proposed architecture in the context of an infomediary-based B2B E-marketplace