Digital Shift or Digital Drift? Dilemmas of Managing Digital Library Resources in North American Universities

Many IT specialists take for granted the shift from paper to electronic documents as part of a digital revolution. National indicators of the growth of network usage support shifts to digital documents such as exponential increases in the number of Internet hosts, the number of electronic mail addresses and the number of World Wide Web sites. However, in our empirical studies we have found that academic administrators base their decisions on local indicators of demand such as the number of people who depend upon World Wide Web for their work, the demand for electronic mail accounts and number of information retrieval requests from bibliographic databases. Because university budgets are flat relative to inflation and the university management of information resources is dispersed at many levels, they are investing in a way that indicates a drift toward use of digital materials. Can whole industries drift into major IS investments without coherent strategies? Such a pattern is anathema in the literature about information systems as purposive strategic investments (Morton,1991). Even those who criticize the ways that organizations computerize tend to assume managerial rationality --albeit around values that they criticize (see, for example, Zuboff (1988) on automating versus informating). There has been an interesting setof studies of the ways that managerial rationality may backfire, and information systems may not be developed or used as intended (i.e., Zuboff, 1988; Kling and Iacono, 1989; Orlikowski, 1993). One interesting alternative to managerial rationality is bureaucratic drift, in which organizations (or clusters of them) develop tacit large-scale policies through balkanized management and managers playing semi- coordinated short-term games in their organizational turf (See Allison, 1971; Kling and Iacono, 1984). We know of no industry-scale studies that examine alternatives to managerial rationalism as the dominant logic behind IS developments. This study examines the organizational processes that are driving a specific form of computerization in a specific industry: the increasing investments in digital libraries in North American research universities. Our research questions include: How are university administrators making budgeting and policy decisions about information technology access for research? What are their choices? How do they pose outcomes? We do not claim that this industry or family of information systems typifies other industries. But the major research universities are highly competitive in some key terms: in attracting and retaining productivefaculty and promising students, in justifying fees (tuition) to parents and state legislatures, and in attracting research grants and gifts from public agencies, corporate donors, foundations, and individuals

Introduction: Perspectives from the Radical Other

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introduction perspectives from the radical other

No abstract (available)

Individual and country-level variables associated with the medicalization of birth: Multilevel analyses of IMAgiNE EURO data from 15 countries in the WHO European region

Objective: To investigate potential associations between individual and country-level factors and medicalization of birth in 15 European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Online anonymous survey of women who gave birth in 2020–2021. Multivariable multilevel logistic regression models estimating associations between indicators of medicalization (cesarean, instrumental vaginal birth [IVB], episiotomy, fundal pressure) and proxy variables related to care culture and contextual factors at the individual and country level. Results: Among 27 173 women, 24.4% (n = 6650) had a cesarean and 8.8% (n = 2380) an IVB. Among women with IVB, 41.9% (n = 998) reported receiving fundal pressure. Among women with spontaneous vaginal births, 22.3% (n = 4048) had an episiotomy. Less respectful care, as perceived by the women, was associated with higher levels of medicalization. For example, women who reported having a cesarean, IVB, or episiotomy reported not feeling treated with dignity more frequently than women who did not have those interventions (odds ratio [OR] 1.37; OR 1.61; OR 1.51, respectively; all: P< 0.001). Country-level variables contributed to explaining some of the variance between countries. Conclusion: We recommend a greater emphasis in health policies on promotion of respectful and patient-centered care approaches to birth to enhance women's experiences of care, and the development of a European-level indicator to monitor medicalization of reproductive care

Regional differences in the quality of maternal and neonatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: results from the IMAgiNE EURO study

Objective: To compare women's perspectives on the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC) around the time of childbirth across Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 (NUTS-II) regions in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Women participating in the cross-sectional IMAgiNE EURO study who gave birth in Portugal from March 1, 2020, to October 28, 2021, completed a structured questionnaire with 40 key WHO standards-based quality measures. Four domains of QMNC were assessed: (1) provision of care; (2) experience of care; (3) availability of human and physical resources; and (4) reorganizational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Frequencies for each quality measure within each QMNC domain were computed overall and by region. Results: Out of 1845 participants, one-third (33.7%) had a cesarean. Examples of high-quality care included: low frequencies of lack of early breastfeeding and rooming-in (8.0% and 7.7%, respectively) and informal payment (0.7%); adequate staff professionalism (94.6%); adequate room comfort and equipment (95.2%). However, substandard practices with large heterogeneity across regions were also reported. Among women who experienced labor, the percentage of instrumental vaginal births ranged from 22.3% in the Algarve to 33.5% in Center; among these, fundal pressure ranged from 34.8% in Lisbon to 66.7% in Center. Episiotomy was performed in 39.3% of noninstrumental vaginal births with variations between 31.8% in the North to 59.8% in Center. One in four women reported inadequate breastfeeding support (26.1%, ranging from 19.4% in Algarve to 31.5% in Lisbon). One in five reported no exclusive breastfeeding at discharge (22.1%; 19.5% in Lisbon to 28.2% in Algarve). Conclusion: Urgent actions are needed to harmonize QMNC and reduce inequities across regions in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality of health care around the time of childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the IMAgiNE EURO study in Norway and trends over time

Objective: To describe maternal perception of the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC) in facilities in Norway during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Women who gave birth in a Norwegian facility from March 1, 2020, to October 28, 2021, filled out a structured online questionnaire based on 40 WHO standards-based quality measures. Quantile regression analysis was performed to assess changes in QMNC index over time. Results: Among 3326 women included, 3085 experienced labor. Of those, 1799 (58.3%) reported that their partner could not be present as much as needed, 918 (29.8%) noted inadequate staff numbers, 183 (43.6%) lacked a consent request for instrumental vaginal birth (IVB), 1067 (34.6%) reported inadequate communication from staff, 78 (18.6%) reported fundal pressure during IVB, 670 (21.7%) reported that they were not treated with dignity, and 249 (8.1%) reported experiencing abuse. The QMNC index increased gradually over time (3.68 points per month, 95% CI, 2.83– 4.53 for the median), with the domains of COVID-19 reorganizational changes and experience of care displaying the greatest increases, while provision of care was stable over time. Conclusion: Although several measures showed high QMNC in Norway during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a gradual improvement over time, several findings suggest that gaps in QMNC exist. These gaps should be addressed and monitored

Tool or Sign? Negotiated Learning and Socialization Process in the Students' Perceptions of Technology in the Digital Library Classroom

This article is published in a thematic issue of Information Technology, Education and Society - on Social Informatics.This study explores the learning process in a group, focusing on novice users of technology, by observing how they build frameworks for deep and strategic learning, the role of the communities of practice and the role of existing learning style as a context for learning. A group of LIS students in a digital library classroom was selected for the study. A pre- and post-test questionnaire and a recorded interview (where students described their experiences of achieving technological proficiency in the course) provided the data for the study. We observed that students provided narratives in which they negotiated the role of technology as tool for digital librarianship. The learning process involved interpretation and repositioning of the learning subjects. The loci of control provided the perceived membership in librarianship as a community of practice and their personal experience. The discourses created by the students emerged in relation to regulative contexts that they perceived from their position, notably the expectations of the marketplace and the profession. The personal experience involved the language of the learning contexts (music, art) that students were familiar with

Digital Libraries and the Practices of Scholarly Communication

Indiana Universit

Digital Shift or Digital Drift?: Conceptualizing Transitions From Paper Media to Electronic Publishing and Digital Libraries in North American Universities

Indiana Universit