E-books in academic libraries

This paper provides an analysis of the current state of the art in e-books, and attempts both to set the scene and provide reasons for their low uptake. Publishers, e-book providers and aggregators, academics and intermediaries (i.e., librarians and information specialists) should concentrate on raising awareness of what is available and what are the advantages related to e-books for specific categories of users. At the same time e-book suppliers should make e-books easier to find and purchase

Measuring the impact of digitized theses: a case study from the London School of Economics

This study tests the assertion that the online dissemination of theses has a positive impact on the research profile of the institution and sets out to gain a greater understanding of how digital theses fit into the scholarly resources landscape. The year-long study combined primary and secondary research and was undertaken with the London School of Economics, based on its programme of theses digitization. The paper outlines the types of metrics an institution may use to measure the impact of its corpus of digitized dissertations and examines how these metrics may be generated. Findings included: a higher volume of theses attracts more traffic; Google’s strong indexing capabilities make it the most frequentlyused tool for discovery of digital theses; primary conclusions are that there is little correlation between downloads and citations of digitized theses; having a digital thesis collection enhances the reputation of the institution; although they recognize that digital theses are a valuable research tool, postgraduates and academics widely believe that making them available affects future publication opportunities; building and maintaining a digital thesis collection makes considerable ‘hidden’ work for librarians in terms of training about copyright and permissions. Some conclusions: better statistics are needed, especially of citations; institutions need to promote digital thesis collections better; more work needs to be done on whether digitizing theses impairs authors’ chances of traditional publication and on how digital theses affect and are affected by the open access movement

The Connection, Volume 6, Issue 01, Summer 2007

The Connection is published by the Prevention Research Center (PRC), Prevention & Population Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The purpose of The Connection is to provide reports and updates on programs of the PRC and those of its Community Advisory Council and other partners.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hsc_prc_newsletters/1030/thumbnail.jp

The Connection, Volume 6, Issue 02, Spring 2008

The Connection is published by the Prevention Research Center (PRC), Prevention & Population Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The purpose of The Connection is to provide reports and updates on programs of the PRC and those of its Community Advisory Council and other partners.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hsc_prc_newsletters/1029/thumbnail.jp

Creating the New Normal: A Historical Approach to Understanding Marketing Agility and its Implications Across Business, Healthcare, and Social Welfare in a Post Pandemic World

The purpose of this article is to expand our understanding of how marketing agility shapes business, healthcare, and social welfare policy and societal responses to global pandemics. We set the stage for this discussion by presenting an historical exemplar case of marketing agility during the 1918 Influenza pandemic in the US. Next, we outline a necessary conceptual revision and update to previous treatments of marketing agility relative to historical pandemics considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Our novel conceptualization focuses on a firm’s (business, healthcare, social welfare) prompt response to dynamic and turbulent circumstances beyond the control of the firm (Araújo et al., 2018) through marketing practices that include adapting, adopting, and innovating. We then discuss how using our new model of marketing agility advances our understanding of changes in business, healthcare, and social welfare, policy and societal responses using the COVID-19 pandemic as a recent exemplar. The implications of our approach for developing a deeper understanding of how firms respond to contemporary pandemics relative to domains such as management are discussed

Plymouth University goes digital for better access to textbooks

This paper describes the first part of a resources provision experiment that is currently taking place at Plymouth University; it involves the free provision of all recommended texts to first year Psychology students in digital format, supplied via the Vital Source electronic delivery platform. The university is paying a discounted price for the service by subtracting the sum negotiated from course fees. The paper draws on student feedback collected from Dr Philip Gee, the Course Director, after the first term. It places the initiative within the wider context of changes in academia and academic publishing. It is an interim account, to be followed up with a more detailed report when the project has been completed in 2014. Broadly, initial reactions from students were favourable, though some said that they would have preferred print if it had also been available free and a small minority did not like the e-book format at all

The Connection, Volume 5, Issue 01, Summer 2006

The Connection is published by the Prevention Research Center (PRC), Prevention & Population Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The purpose of The Connection is to provide reports and updates on programs of the PRC and those of its Community Advisory Council and other partners.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hsc_prc_newsletters/1032/thumbnail.jp