Quality Management and Innovation in Information Services - The case study of the Documentation Services of the University of Minho

[The present paper is based on a curricular traineeship, part of the Degree in Information Science, under the theme of the implementation of Quality Management Systems, occurred at the Documentation Services of the University of Minho (SDUM).] The SDUM have their main purpose in providing the best resources, services and easy access to all the community of the University of Minho (formed by students of several areas, teachers, collaborators and investigators). In order to fullfil the users’ needs, it was essential for SDUM to grow and mature as an organization. The main objective of this paper is to give a general vision of all the work executed at SDUM, emphasizing this project, pioneer in Portugal: the implementation of Quality Management Systems, based on ISO 9001:2000 and Balanced Scorecard, in order to obtain the services’ certification. Between the amount of steps needed for a complex process as this one is, it is important to have the perception that Libraries are now dealing with a new “generation” of users and it’s important, not only to understand their needs, but knowing how to satisfy them and supplant what their expecting. The Quality, allied, most of the times, to Innovation, is a new opportunity to change what is not working the way it was supposed to but, more important than that, to involve and motivate all the collaborators, making them feel as a real team. And it will surely reflect in the services rendered to the users. From mapping processes, to documental management, passing through the Quality Manual, Benchmarking and the issues related to the human side of this question, the present paper aims to be an example of what is Quality applied to this area and also encourag

Explicit Euler method for solving time dependent Schr\H{o}dinger equation

Using an explicit Euler substitution it was obtained a system of differential equations, which can be used to find the solution of time-dependent 1-dimentional Schr\H{o}dinger equation for a general form of the time-dependent potential.Comment: 1 page. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Housing Demand in Portugal

In a former study (Carvalho 1995) we modeled the housing market in Portugal in a classic cross section framework and did find that housing construction was dependant from income, population and sensitive to location. Nevertheless we couldn t find the extent of this sensitivity in such a framework. This paper is an upgrade of that study, using a spatial econometric model. Comparing the results, there are some slightly different estimates in the coefficients, but a lot more of precision once we incorporate the spatial interaction between the counties, changing the magnitude and significance of the coefficients.housing market;spatial econometrics;Portugal

Housing Market in Portugal revisited. A spatial analysis for 275 counties

In a former study (Carvalho 1995) we modeled the housing market in Portugal in a classic cross section framework and did find that housing construction was dependant from income, population and sensitive to location. Nevertheless we couldn’t find the extent of this sensitivity in such a framework. This paper is an upgrade of that study, using a spatial econometric model. Comparing the results, there are some slightly different estimates in the coefficients, but a lot more of precision once we incorporate the spatial interaction between the counties, changing the magnitude and significance of the coefficients.Housing Market; Portugal; spatial econometrics

Keystone sector methodology:a network comparative study

Within neoclassical economic growth approaches there is no fully satisfactory explanation for regional asymmetric growth. More recent extensions of the neoclassical model (new endogenous growth theories) recognise the possible influence of a set of intangible factors, which, nevertheless, do not allow a treatable empirical formalisation. Neo- institutional and evolutionary theories highlight the complex nature of economic growth, recognising the difficulty of non-linear dynamic modelling; however, both theories highlight the influential role played by innovation and technology diffusion processes. Missing from these theories is any appreciation of the social network characteristics of regions and the interaction between social and economic systems in conditioning the growth and development processes. In the present PhD thesis, we take the institutional network in small towns as the unity for analysis where information, money and support flows among them are studied. We apply a social network analysis framework, which allow us to find numerical indicators for the whole network as for each individual institutional role in it. Applying this framework in two case studies (in Portugal and in the USA) we found a set of interesting differences about the institutional mediation roles. While in the US, the private sector leaded by banks plays the keystone sector role, in Portugal, we still have public institutions as the main players. After the identification of the significant variables and attending to the different results in the two studies, we built a testable cross-section model that, controlling for proximity from urban centre, transportation costs, local factor endowments, amenities and so forth, can be tested using a broader database, to correlate town economic performances with the network identified variables. The deep understanding of the relational structure within these small towns makes it possible to quantify a set of crucial intangible variables that, acknowledged in a regional policy design, will contribute to increase its efficiency. Without a complete understanding of these social network structures, it is possible that current EU criteria used to define regions eligible for assistance may be inadequate. At the present time, the criteria for receipt of regional development funds are based on relative (to EU average) per capita levels and do not explore differences in economic potential or the capacity for regions to develop. Part of this capacity is rooted in the social network structure. Further on-going research will contribute to the deepening of neoclassical growth models, complementing considerations that evolutionary economics uses to explain the complexity of modern socio-economic life.Network methodology; regional development