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Oregon Graduate Institute reports a laboratory experiment that compared three different communications modalities (face‐to‐face, audio‐only, and audio and video) across two co‐operative tasks, which can be characterized as visual and non‐visual. In each task, effectiveness varied as a significant function of modality. However, the directions of these functions were opposite. That is, for the visual task conversants were more effective in the face‐to‐face and audio and video modalities than in the audio‐only modality; for the non‐visual task, conversants were more effective in the audio‐only modality than in the face‐to‐face modality. Additional analysis of the non‐visual tasks suggests that modality affects the extent to which asymmetry of knowledge results in asymmetry of influence between conversants.

This paper describes a dialogue modelling approach to information access. We apply this approach to the design of software used by management professionals for whom technology should be seen and not learnt. From dialogue data we identify context and mutual coverage as key dialogue features for this class of interface. We compare the handling of these features by existing systems, describe a novel query mechanism called Query By Format and conclude with the results of an evaluation study noting its strengths and weaknesses.

This report examines the function of experience in the role of vice‐principal as preparation for the school principalship, proposing that a dysfunctional socialization outcome of this career entry pattern is the development of a role orientation that emphasizes managing rather than leading the school. The authors differentiate these two dimensions of the administrative role by suggesting that the managerial function emphasizes organizational stability and maintenance of the day‐to‐day operation, and that the leadership function emphasizes improvements in instructional and organizational arrangements facilitating teaching and learning. While a balance in functions is the preferred orientation implicit in theoretical as well as prescriptive models of the principalship, and principals themselves espouse the desirability of an instructional leadership emphasis, most empirical studies of the principalship indicate a substantial skewing of emphasis in the direction of managerial activities. The paper offers an empirically grounded theoretical explanation of this occurrence. Based on data from the studies of the enculturation process and the work activities of vice‐principals, and guided by socialization theory, the report discusses role‐learning implications of experience in the vice‐principalship role and concludes with seven propositions for further study.

The topic of personal archives has mainly been discussed by two research traditions in information science: archives and records management, and personal information management. The purpose of this paper is to compare a corpus of the archival literature written by the archival community with the concepts and challenges posed by Catherine Marshall, who exemplifies the personal information management approach. Many of the personal digital archiving challenges that Marshall identifies are related to discussions within the archival community.

In order to demonstrate the similarities between Marshall's work with the archival discussion about personal archiving, Marshall's challenges, tasks and attributes of personal digital archiving were compared with a total of 33 articles from two library and information science databases.

Many of the personal digital archiving challenges that Marshall identifies are related to discussions in the archival community. The author suggests that certain aspects of the archival literature may be utilized to address Marshall's identified challenges. Lastly, future collaborations between members of the archival community and members of the personal information management community may prove useful in addressing the challenges of personal digital archiving

The paper demonstrates that two areas of information science share ideas about how to address the issues related to personal archives, but rarely consult one another when writing about personal digital archiving. The author highlights the archives and records management tradition in an attempt to introduce the literature to the broader discussion on personal digital archives being had by the personal information management tradition.

Although support exists for the effectiveness of treatment for personality disordered offenders there is limited knowledge about the processes underlying the therapeutic change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the treatment experiences of six male psychopathic offenders who attended a social skills treatment component implemented within a high-secure personality disorder treatment service.

Interview transcripts were analysed by the lead researcher (first author) using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) who compared and contrasted findings to develop superordinate themes across the group. External auditing analysis was conducted by the second author.

Several themes were identified that may indicate the unique ways this client group experienced treatment. These related to the importance of “group cohesion” with treatment progression and shared learning experiences, the significance of “therapeutic alliance” with treatment providers and perceived effectiveness of treatment, and the conflict participants experienced when acquiring and applying skills from their engagement in treatment. Participants identified aspects of the treatment component that facilitated the effectiveness of treatment and were effective in meeting their needs and some that would benefit from improvement.

Positive group dynamics are important. Operational staff inclusion within the facilitation team is beneficial. Attentiveness to participants’ specific responsivity needs is required. Supporting skill application post-treatment is important.

These findings add to the evidence base in relation to factors that support personality disordered offenders’ engagement within treatment. Areas that validate treatment delivery are highlighted, as are suggestions for change to maximise treatment gain for psychopathic and personality disordered offenders.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

Writing in 1995, what seems from our vantage point an almost primitive moment in technological evolution, hypertext theorist, and fiction writer Catherine Marshall, with her colleague David Levy, presciently described modern libraries;The academic and public libraries most of us have grown up with are the products of innovation begun approximately 150 years ago. We would find libraries that existed prior to that time largely unrecognizable. It is certain that the introduction of digital technologies will again transform libraries, possibly beyond recognition by transforming the mix of materials in their collections and the methods by which these materials are maintained and used. But the better word for these evolving institutions is “libraries,” not digital libraries, for ultimately what must be preserved is the heterogeneity of materials and practices. As library materials and practices of the past have been diverse—more diverse than idealized accounts allow—so they no doubt will remain in the future (Levy and Marshall, 1995, p. 77).By reminding us that libraries were always much more than repositories of collated pages of print, Levy and Marshall highlight the characteristics of modern libraries that mark them not as something new and different, but as something wholly in keeping with the diversity of “traditional” library holdings. “Our idealized image of a library imbues it with qualities of fixity and permanence. This is hardly surprising, since the library is considered to be the Home of the Book, and books are by and large one of the more fixed, more permanent types of documents,” the authors write, but “libraries have always contained materials other than books. Special collections and archives are filled with unbound and handwritten ephemera—correspondence, photographs, and so on … [And] traditional libraries have long contained a diversity of technologies and media; today these include film and video, microfilm and microfiche, vellum and papyrus” (p.77). Now that libraries contain various forms of digital media as standard parts of their collections (electronic journals, electronic catalogs, digital images, digitized sound files), the distinction between “traditional” and “digital” libraries has lost much of its original use, and so has the distinction between traditional and new types of librarians, the stewards of the libraries in any and all forms.

THE news that our royal President has been promoted to the command of a frigate sugges an increase rather than a relieving of naval duties. Our pleasure in the announcement is qualified by the fear that the further demands may make his presence with the Library Association in September even more difficult than it seemed to be a month ago. This is pure speculation on our part, but we are aware of the eagerness with which librarians look forward to the central event of the Centenary Year. We are assured that the matter is in good hands and at the right levels.

This paper considers the East India Company’s emergence as a territorial power from the 1760s until the revocation of most of its commercial functions in 1834. While this period has been a key episode for historians of the British Empire and of South Asia, social scientists have struggled with the Company’s ambiguous nature. In this paper, I propose that a profitable way to grasp the Company’s transformation is to consider it as a global strategic action field. This perspective clarifies two key processes in the Company’s transition: the enlargement of its territorial possessions; and the increased exposure of its patrimonial network to intervention from British metropolitan politics. To further suggest the utility of this analytic perspective, I synthesize evidence from various sources, including data concerning the East India Court of Directors and the career histories of Company servants in two of its key administrative regions, Bengal and Madras, during this period of transition.