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Purpose - Alternative document models (ADMs) were created with the purpose of reducing the extent to which anomalies occur in counts of web links at the page level, and have been used extensively within webometrics as an alternative to using the web page as the basic unit of analysis. This paper seels tp carry out a longitudinal study of ADMs in an attempt to ascertain which model gives the most consistent results when applied to the UK, Australia and New Zealand academic web spaces over the last six years. Design/methodology/approach - Information science software (SocSciBot Tools, socscibot.wlv.ac.uk) was used to process hyperlink structure text files for UK, Australian and New Zealand universities and produced standard Page, Directory, Domain and Site ADMs using both inlinks and outlinks. Spearman bivariate correlation analysis was then undertaken to determine the level of correlation between these eight ADMs and a measure of site size for each university. Findings - The findings show that the Domain ADM gives the most consistent results. However, the Directory ADM also gives more reliable results than are evident when using the standard Page model. Aggregating at the site (or university) level appears to provide less reliable results than using the page as the standard unit of measure, and this finding holds true over all three academic webs and for each time period examined over the last six years. Research limitations/implications - The use of Spearman's correlation coefficient is considered to be unreliable when used with very small sample sizes and, with only eight universities, the New Zealand academic web space may not be sufficiently large to give truly accurate statistical results. Originality/value - While previous specific studies have shown that more accurate results can be obtained through the use of the Domain or Directory ADM, the paper has shown that these results are consistent over time and across different countries' academic web spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview, including methodology and preliminary findings, of a current and ongoing doctoral research study of the impact of national library associations. The study uses the impact assessment framework provided by IS016439:2014 Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries. Design/methodology/approach -- If the professional associations supporting the profession are to become sustainable we need to understand the difference they make to the individual members of the profession, to the employers of those individuals and to the profession of librarianship. This study applies the framework provided by ISO 16439:2014 to the national library association environment to explore and gather evidence of impact. To align with the ISO model, impact is differentiated into impact on individuals; social impact -- institution (library or employing organization); and social impact -- community (the profession). Preliminary findings show evidence of impact in all categories. Findings -- Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with members of national library associations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA during the third quarter of 2013. Originality/value -- This study contributes to research methodologies by testing the use of a qualitative assessment tool in a way that could be transferable to other associations both within and external to the library environment and to enable it to be adapted more broadly for other purposes within the library and information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctors are seen as key to embedding health improvement and patient safety initiatives and there has been much international debate over how best to engage doctors in healthcare leadership and management. This paper explores the current focus on leadership development programmes for doctors through taking a comparative approach to initiatives in New Zealand and the UK. It also considers the challenges to embedding leadership development programmes at all levels of training, education and continuing professional development and highlights some of the implications arising from the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to address the question: do university web sites publish the same kind of information and use the same kind of hyperlinks year on year or do these change over time? Design/methodology/approach - A link classification exercise is used to identify temporal changes in the distribution of different types of academic web links changes, using the academic web spaces of the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the years 2000 and 2006. Findings - Significant increases in "research oriented", "social/leisure" and "superficial" links were identified as well as notable decreases in "technical" and "personal" links. Some of these changes identified may be explained by general changes in the management of university web sites and some by more wide-spread internet trends, e.g. dynamic pages, blogs and social networking. The increase in the proportion of research-oriented links is particularly hopeful for future link analysis research. Originality/value - This is an important issue from the perspective of interpreting the results of academic web analyses, because changes in link types over time would also force interpretations of link analyses to change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]