Reggae to Rachmaninoff: How and Why People Participate in Arts and Culture

Provides the results of a telephone survey conducted to help inform those whose aim is to broaden and diversify cultural participation, and promote the role of arts and culture in strengthening American communities

Low Volume, Funding, Staffing and Technical Problems are Key Reasons for Discontinuation of Chat Reference Services

Objective – To investigate the reasons behind the cessation of 9 virtual (chat) reference services. Design – Multiple case‐study investigation Setting – Academic, public, and special libraries in the United States. Subjects – Five academic libraries, 1 public library, and 3 library consortia. Methods – The initial method used to identify discontinued chat reference services was via a posting to DIG_REF, the digital reference services listserv. From this initial posting, librarians on the list also suggested other cases, for a total of 7. Two cases later came to the authors’ attention and were added. The 9 cases included academic libraries, a public library, and consortia who used tools provided by four major software vendors, giving a good cross‐section of the types of libraries participating in VR and the major software packages available at the time. A contact person for each discontinued service was invited to participate. The participants were geographically scattered, so data were collected via e‐mail questionnaires, telephone interviews, and examination of available documents describing the services, audiences, demographics, operations, and any decision‐making processes either for starting or discontinuing the service. The authors then compared and contrasted results obtained from the 9 services. The authors analysed reasons for discontinuation of services, the decision making processes, volume of questions, service hours, marketing, evaluation, and whether the service might be restarted at some time in the future

Purchase of Journal Portfolios by Research Libraries is not Cost-Effective and May Lead to Normalization of Collections

Objectives – To determine whether the purchase of journal portfolios (i.e., packages of journals purchased as a group from publishers, such as Elsevier’s ScienceDirect) from publishers is an effective means of meeting research needs for faculty in the life, medical, physical, and applied sciences, and to determine the effects of such purchases on research library collections. Design – Citation analysis. Setting – Ohio State University libraries in the life, medical, physical, and applied sciences. Subjects – A total of 253,604 citations from 6,815 articles published between the years 2003 and 2005 by Ohio State University faculty in the life, medical, physical, and applied sciences were analyzed using the Bradford distribution (an explanation of the Bradford Distribution is provided later in this review)

Dealing with difficult colleagues when you’re the “new kid”

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss strategies for a new library employee seeking to deal with difficult people at work, when the difficult people are his/her own colleagues. It seeks to provide a description of several types of situations that may arise, and general strategies for dealing with them. Design/methodology/approach – The column is based on the author’s substantial experience dealing with personnel matters in academic, public, and special libraries, including hiring for all types of positions. It is personal opinion, based on lengthy experience. Findings – The paper addresses library personnel issues. This particular installment helps new employees of libraries identify various types of issues one may have with “difficult” colleagues, and also provides various strategies and options for addressing these issues. Originality/value – The column is intended to help people to deal with all types of personnel issues overall; this specific column is intended to help librarians deal with the challenges of working with “difficult” colleagues

Determining and navigating institutional culture

Purpose – This column seeks to address library personnel issues. This particular installment discusses the challenges of determining an organization’s culture and the culture of any parent or supporting organizations. It also discusses some strategies for navigating organizational culture. Design/methodology/approach – The column is based on the author’s substantial experience dealing with personnel matters in academic, public, and special libraries, including hiring for all types of positions. It is personal opinion, based on lengthy experience. Findings – This article discusses the challenges inherent in learning about an organization’s culture and the culture of any parent or supporting organizations. It also discusses a variety of strategies for navigating organizational culture, in order to foster success. Originality/value – The column is intended to help people to deal with all types of personnel issues overall; this specific column is intended to help librarians deal with the challenges of determining the nature of an organization’s culture, and of navigating this culture successfully

The Existence of Solutions to a System of Nonhomogeneous Difference Equations

This article will demonstrate a process using Fixed Point Theory to determine the existence of multiple positive solutions for a type of system of nonhomogeneous even ordered boundary value problems on a discrete domain. We first reconstruct the problem by transforming the system so that it satisfies homogeneous boundary conditions. We then create a cone and an operator sufficient to apply the Guo-KrasnoselâA˘Zskii Fixed Point Theorem. The majority of the work involves developing the constraints ´ needed to utilized this fixed point theorem. The theorem is then applied three times, guaranteeing the existence of at least three distinct solutions. Thus, solutions to this class of boundary value problems exist and are not unique

The interview process and beyond

Abstract Purpose – This column is designed to address library personnel issues. This particular installment seeks to discuss preparation for interviews, the interview process, and appropriate follow-up actions after an interview. Design/methodology/approach – The column is based on the author’s substantial experience dealing with personnel matters in academic, public, and special libraries, including hiring for all types of positions. It is personal opinion, based on lengthy experience. Findings – The column is intended to help people to deal with all types of personnel issues overall; this specific column is intended to assist people in the process of searching for and interviewing for a professional position. Originality/value – The column is intended to assist people with personnel issues in general, and specifically, in this instance, with finding and securing a professional position