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Background: Libraries in the UK have evolved from traditional book-lending institutions into dynamic community hubs, This study aims to explore the potential of libraries to act as community hubs to promote mental and physical health and wellbeing of community-dwelling adults, drawing on insights from both library users and library staff in England. Design: A mixed-method, cross-sectional study using online survey and interviews with community-dwelling adults and library staff. Methods: We collected data using a 14-item electronic survey and interviews with library users and staff to gauge perceptions. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to identify key trends and emergent themes. Results: We included 605 respondents from the survey and interviewed 12 library users and staff. Libraries remain popular and are considered a 'safe place by members of the community, regardless of their frequency of service usage irrespective of whether they are frequent users of services. However, a lack of awareness among library users about community-facing services could act as a hurdle to improving community health and wellbeing. Targeted engagement with residents is needed to increase awareness of libraries' services, including community interventions to help tackle loneliness and inequalities in digital and health literacy. Library staff often did not feel involved in important decision-making. Various barriers, drivers and practical recommendations were identified to leverage libraries as hubs to promote community health and wellbeing. Conclusion: Libraries already offer a variety of resources that directly or indirectly support the health and wellbeing of community-dwelling adults and young people. However, public awareness of these services is limited. As we navigate post-pandemic recovery, libraries can serve as platforms for community engagement, fostering resilience, mental health support and reducing social isolation. Recognising libraries' untapped potential can lead to healthier communities and improved wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a historical analysis to demonstrate the connections and developmental links which emerged between cookbooks and television in Britain after World War II, focused on television broadcasts in the period 1946 and 1976. In this paper, I discuss how early presenters of British television cookery programmes, and their publishers, had vision and marketing skills which enabled links between visual and printed media, and established a pattern of connected cookbook and television production which is taken for granted today. I examine the connected television and publishing careers of three early British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television cooking pioneers: Marguerite Patten, Philip Harben and Fanny Cradock, who collectively dominated on-screen cooking programmes from the late 1940s until the mid-1970s. By analyzing their cookbooks, particularly their jackets and promotional materials, and interpreting archival research conducted in the BBC Written Archives and other documentary archives, their contributions will be discussed alongside the development of the television-connected cookbook in Britain. I conclude that these television cooks and presenters made a significant contribution on and off our screens during that period which established the connection between television cooking programmes and cookbooks in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the distinct challenges that works of art pose for those managing non-art specialist research libraries across the United Kingdom. Using analysis of survey and case-study interview data, the article demonstrates that current approaches to the management of art in non-art specialist research libraries are uneven in such key areas as collection management; cataloguing; storage and access; and librarianship and training. This article seeks to build consensus on best practices with respect to the management of art in libraries and proposes practical recommendations for libraries seeking to improve the care and use of the art in their collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: E-cigarettes are a popular smoking-cessation tool. Although less harmful than tobacco, use of e-cigarettes by non-smokers should be prevented. There is concern about the use of e-cigarettes by young people and that e-cigarettes may renormalise smoking. In May 2016, Tobacco Products Directive regulations aimed to reduce e-cigarettes’ appeal to young people. Aims: To examine the effects of the Tobacco Products Directive regulations on young people’s use of e-cigarettes, and the role of e-cigarettes in renormalising smoking. Design: A mixed-method natural experimental evaluation combining secondary analyses of survey data, with process evaluation, including interviews with young people, policy stakeholders, retailers and trading standards observers, and observations of retail settings. Settings: Wales, Scotland and England. Participants: Survey participants were aged 13–15 years, living in England, Scotland or Wales and participated in routinely conducted surveys from 1998 to 2019. Process evaluation participants included 14- to 15-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales, policy stakeholders, trading standards offices and retailers. Intervention: Regulation of e-cigarettes, including bans on cross-border advertising, health warnings and restrictions on product strength. Comparison group: Interrupted time series design, with baseline trends as the comparator. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was ever e-cigarette use. Secondary outcomes included regular use, ever and regular smoking, smoking attitudes, alcohol and cannabis use. Data capture and analysis: Our primary statistical analysis used data from Wales, including 91,687 young people from the 2013–19 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children and School Health Research Network surveys. In Scotland, we used the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey and in England we used the Smoking Drinking and Drug Use surveys. The process evaluation included interviews with 73 young people in 2017 and 148 young people in 2018, 12 policy stakeholders, 13 trading standards officers and 27 retailers. We observed 30 retail premises before and after implementation. Data were integrated using the Medical Research Council’s process evaluation framework. Results: Ever smoking continued to decline alongside the emergence of e-cigarettes, with a slight slowing in decline for regular use. Tobacco Products Directive regulations were described by stakeholders as well implemented, and observations indicated good compliance. Young people described e-cigarettes as a fad and indicated limited interaction with the components of the Tobacco Products Directive regulations. In primary statistical analyses in Wales [i.e. short (to 2017) and long term (to 2019)], growth in ever use of e-cigarettes prior to Tobacco Products Directive regulations did not continue after implementation. Change in trend was significant in long-term analysis, although of similar magnitude at both time points (odds ratio 0.96). Data from England and Scotland exhibited a similar pattern. Smoking followed the opposite pattern, declining prior to the Tobacco Products Directive regulations, but plateauing as growth in e-cigarette use stalled. Limitations: Alternative causal explanations for changes cannot be ruled out because of the observational design. Conclusions: Young people’s ever and regular use of e-cigarettes appears to have peaked around the time of the Tobacco Products Directive regulations and may be declining. Although caution is needed in causal attributions, findings are consistent with an effect of regulations. Our analysis provides little evidence that e-cigarettes renormalise smoking. More recent data indicate that declines in smoking are plateauing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature relating to education sessions in special collections has been prevalent in the field since the early 2000s. Following on from the publication of the ACRL-RBMS-SAA Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy published in the USA in 2018, this paper applies the guidelines to survey and interview responses to explore the key skills gained by undergraduates using special collections and the barriers to skills' acquisition throughout their degree programmes. Contextualizing the results through US and UK literature, this paper argues that special collections literacy can be embedded into interdisciplinary undergraduate curricula which in turn may help special collections advocate for increased resources to broaden their education programmes. It establishes a picture of current special collections education for UK universities including range, methods of delivery and assessment styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out a methodology for integrating a focus on the student voice in deliberations about the future of teaching and learning in the Arts and Humanities. Qualitative data gleaned from JISC's 20/21 Student Digital Experience Insights Survey and feedback collected from students studying on undergraduate programmes in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom (UK) is used to sketch out pedagogical imaginaries of the future that can be used heuristically by universities as they work their way through the pandemic and out the other side. The imaginaries, it argues, act as tools to kickstart debates, underpin experimentation and inform pedagogical planning and design. To address questions of credibility and plausibility, the imaginaries are rooted in the present, embody empirical trends and are consistent with practices, structures and technologies that have come to prominence during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive Care Units (ICUs) became key end-of-life spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. Many nurses were redeployed to ICU from other specialities, navigating changing roles, priorities, and risks. Limited resources including time, equipment, and staffing widened nurses' responsibilities; the virus' infectious nature restricted family visits, even at end of life. Emerging literature explores ICU deaths during Covid-19, but little focuses on nurses' experiences, especially those redeployed. Here, we explore how redeployed nurses negotiated these competing demands on their emotional and physical resources, and undertook meaning-making, by integrating a framework of 'sensemaking' with theories of coping. Drawing on interviews with six nurses from two UK-based longitudinal qualitative studies we detail profound shifts that uniquely challenged nurses' sense of identity, duty, and purpose. This included adopting untested caring protocols, de-prioritising 'non-essential' care, and establishing communication rituals with patients/families. Understanding how nurses negotiated and performed their roles when paradigms of care were dramatically destabilised is vital to supporting workforce recovery from burnout, moral injury, and moral distress. This research also provides important learning for the management of future emergency responses and extends knowledge of how lived experience maps onto theoretical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper is a thought experiment that investigates the possibilities of moving from the typical “just-in-case” model of managing legacy collections of printed monographs to a centralised “just-in-time” model. Design/methodology/approach – Reliable published statistical data have been used; the core of these are the annual library statistics for UK research libraries collected by SCONUL. From these and other sources, the costs of monograph storage across UK research libraries have been determined. Findings – Establishing a centralised collective collection would bring a large return on investment. Research limitations/implications – This is not an empirical study. Originality/value – The value of this study is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the passage of time, celluloid film degrades and valuable film history is lost, resulting in loss of cultural history which contributes to the shared sense of community, identify, and place at a local and national level. Despite the growth in digitised services for accessing cultural resources, to date no economic valuation has been performed on digital local history resources which are accessible online. Despite the recent emergence of online portals for digital cultural services in many countries (such as virtual tours of art galleries and digitisation of cultural archives) a shift which has accelerated in response to the Covid-19 epidemic, there remains a major literature gap around the value of digital culture. Failure to account for the value of digital archives risks sub-optimal allocation of resources to accessing and preserving these aspects of local cultural history. In response, we performed the first contingent valuation study to estimate willingness to pay for a free online film archive portal containing historical film footage for localities throughout the United Kingdom. Users were willing to pay an average hypothetical subscription for digital archive film services of £38.52/annum. Non-users in the general population were asked their willingness to pay a hypothetical annual donation to maintain free public access (£4.68/annum on average). The results suggest that positive social value is gained from online access to digital archive film, and from knowing that the cultural heritage continues to be digitally accessible by the public for current and future generations. We outline how this evidence aligns with a theoretical framework of use and non-use value for digital goods and services extending beyond those who currently use the portal, to those introduced to it, and those in the general public who have never directly experienced the online archive service. We also report what we believe is the first application of Subjective Wellbeing analysis to engagement with a digital cultural service. The advantage of applying methods from economics to value cultural activities in monetary terms is that it makes emerging modes of digital cultural goods and services commensurable with other costs and benefits as applied to cultural policy and investment decisions, putting it on a level footing with physical cultural assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The caring mother is one of the most recurring images of femininity in post-war advertising. We examine how mothers are depicted as knowing consumers in advertisements in Australian Women's Weekly and the United Kingdom's Good Housekeeping magazines between 1950 and 2010. Our data suggest that although visual representations of maternal consumer knowledge change over this period, assumptions about the responsibilities of mothers endure in the family-related advertisements in these women's magazines. There is a shift over time, however, from a representation of mothers as passive recipients of advice provided by external experts to a more active representation of mothers as experts themselves within both domestic and private spheres. We trace historically how the trope of the knowing mother works as a visual discursive device that helps to reinforce not just patriarchal hegemony, but a particular form of maternal hegemony. The hegemony of motherhood presents a particularly desirable/idealised femininity. However, this visual depiction also serves to gender the very way in which maternal knowledge is to be used. While maternal knowledge is depicted as changing from being merely intuitive or practical to subsuming the technique of knowledge or prescribed expertise; the purposes for which such knowledge is used remain firmly situated within the maternal/feminine realm of nurturing and caring consumption for the family. Despite shifts in discourse that appear to increasingly value mothers' knowledge—there exists an enduring assumption that mothers should use their knowledge for domestic caring and consumption, ultimately reinforcing a heteronormativity of the use of women's knowledge that subdues even expert knowledge for a domestic purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the mitigating strategies used in North American petitions to King George III in order to minimize the face threatening potential inherent in the colonists' requests for redress of their grievances. Drawing together models from speech-act, politeness and relational theories, the study aims at establishing the complex facework dynamics deriving from a clash of reality paradigms between the inhabitants of the colonies and the British government. Results reveal an ambiguous attitude on the part of petitioners who, while striving for reconciliation, venture into face attacks which ultimately reveal their contrasting views on the issue of the American dependence on Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the special acts of worship that were widely observe by the Anglo-Jewry community in Great Britain in 1700-1970. The acts were for the same purpose as the acts ordered by the Church of England. Other topics include the attitudes of the British Jewry leaders to the wider British community and its institutions and the Jewish communities worldwide, and the histories of British religion and international Jewry.

The article discusses the collaboration between the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company and the fashion industry during their first tours to North America in 1949 and 1950–51. It explores how fashion played a role in enhancing Britain's post-war international identity, focusing on the dancers being chosen as ambassadors and the collaboration with The Ambassador magazine to promote British fashion.

Genealogies of life assurance have tended to focus on the governmental possibilities of actuarial calculations of mortality, but the case of foreign residence assurance draws attention to other ways in which British companies calculated climate risk between 1840 and 1940. Drawing on archival research, this paper demonstrates that the extra charges imposed on life assurance policies for foreign residence invited conversations about the risks of climate and mortality in countries beyond Britain, drawing on both contemporary climate science and other arguments about climate pathology. Climate risks, however, had to be made to work for both life assurers and policyholders through far‐reaching social‐material networks, and firms frequently tinkered with arrangements of people, ideas, and artefacts in ways that enabled a mapping and governing of such risks. Whether ideas of climate circulating in life assurance were believed or not, they had effects and policyholders submitted to them. Drawing on archival material from several British life assurance companies, including some detailed cases of assured migrant lives, the paper explores how companies made risk calculations in ways that had consequences for ordinary decisions and practices. In so doing, the paper contributes to debates about life assurance and governmentality, showing that foreign residence policies enabled businesses to secure their risks in an era of imperial expansion. But this is no simple story of power and imperialism. Businesses constantly tinkered with their policies, drawing on climate science and medical understandings, but only as part of an always messy, changing assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To persuade the electorate to vote 'Yes' in the June 1975 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Economic Community, Britain in Europe, the pro-European campaign organization, adopted a pragmatic approach, focusing on the economic benefits of membership and warning about the potentially grave consequences of withdrawal. Importantly, they avoided discussing proposed future advances in European integration. However, this theme was of importance to pro-European youth and student campaign groups—the subject of this article. Through a detailed analysis of their campaign literature, this article further transforms understanding of the 1975 referendum and, especially, the nature of the 'Yes' campaign by demonstrating how radical youth groups' arguments for continued membership were. It argues that young activists yearned to discuss sovereignty and deeper integration in great detail as they offered idealistic visions for how the EEC could develop and benefit Britain. The article also advances knowledge of youth politics in the turbulent 1970s. Greater light is shone on the frustration pro-European youth groups felt towards the main Britain in Europe campaign. Meanwhile, it serves as a case study on the extent to which the perspectives of party-political youth groups and their superiors differed on a specific, highly salient policy issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling Research Exchange (GREO) is an independent Knowledge Translation and Exchange (KTE) organization that aims to reduce harm from gambling. GREO curates and maintains a digital library of credible gambling information, most of which is grey literature. Several stakeholder groups use this library, including policy makers, researchers, treatment providers, regulators, and gambling operators. In order to meet knowledge needs, GREO both manages and produces grey literature, and maintains a research data repository for use by the gambling studies community. In keeping with the Open Science movement, the goal of the library is to provide timely and relevant evidence in formats accessible to diverse audiences, which can be used to inform decision-making, research, treatment, and policy direction. This paper documents how GREO's digital library reorganized its search interface and document types and adopted accessible terminology so that complex research findings could extend beyond the academic community to broader audiences. Beginning in 2017, we assessed the existing library's terminology and document types for accessibility and credibility. The first step was to rename the library from "Knowledge Repository" to "Evidence Centre", a term that resonated more with non-academic audiences. Similarly, in 2018, we renamed the "Grey Literature" collection to "Specialized Resources" so that it is readily understood. Since the collection had grown considerably, we divided the single "Grey Literature" resource type into ten searchable categories to help direct users to the most appropriate resource formats. Examples include white papers, reports, visual tools, and instructional resources. A recent change in our funding model necessitated a further transition from a focus on Ontario, Canada to international audiences. Using examples drawn from a recent focus on gambling in Great Britain, this paper demonstrates how the GREO Evidence Centre has become increasingly accessible to wider audiences since 2017 to more effectively address their information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians support research in a wide variety of ways. However, librarians may not always receive recognition for the valuable contributions they make to the research life cycle or research environments. In higher education institutions (HEIs), librarians face competition from other professional support services in addition to external organizations and suppliers. This article provides an analysis of submissions made by HEIs to the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014 and demonstrates that the work of librarians is rarely acknowledged in substantive ways, particularly in STEM disciplines. It provides an overview of the multiple ways in which librarians contribute to research environments as well as how they can practically contribute to the REF 2021 submission process and other research assessment processes. Librarians have developed a wide range of responsive and innovative support services over the last decade and REF 2021 is demonstrated to be an opportunity for librarians to gain recognition for the important role they play in UK HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors use two historical case studies (UK and Costa Rica) to explore the antecedents and legitimisation of sustainable development in hospitality and tourism, demonstrating the value of historical analysis through careful consideration of motivations, context and development type under different circumstances. Design/methodology/approach: Using government and private archival materials, oral history testimonies, industry reports and secondary literature, the authors deploy careful historical analysis of developing and developed country approaches to two cases of hospitality and tourism development and how this impacts on notions of sustainability. Findings: Issues surrounding sustainability in hospitality and tourism are longstanding and impacted by their situated context. In considering "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches, this study finds that the private-sector is critical in legitimising tourism and hospitality development through addressing sustainability aims. Research limitations/implications: Issues faced in developing hospitality and tourism markets should not be taken in isolation, and, by drawing upon historical cases, scholars can better-understand how developed tourism markets shape the sustainability of developing contexts. Practical implications: This study demonstrates how sustainability can be legitimised over time and in different contexts, in both government-led and business-led approaches, providing lessons for understanding the mechanisms by which to address these issues in future. Originality/value: Historical analyses in hospitality and tourism remain relatively few. This study illustrates the theoretical and practical value of historical analysis of the pathway to legitimacy for sustainable tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how older people who are almost entirely housebound use a view from their window to make sense of the world and stay connected to the outside space that they cannot physically inhabit.Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 42 individuals were carried out who were living at home, were relatively immobile and had an interesting view outside they liked from one or more of their windows.Findings The findings suggest that immobile older people enjoy watching a motion-full, changing, world going on outside of their own mobility and interact and create meaning and sense, relating themselves to the outside world.Practical implications Findings suggest that those working in health and social care must realise the importance of older people observing the outdoors and create situations where that is enabled and maintained through improving vantage points and potentially using technology.Originality/value This study builds and updates work by Rowles (1981) showing that preference for views from the window involves the immediate surveillance zone but also further afield. The view can be rural or urban but should include a human element from which older people can interact through storytelling. The view often contains different flows, between mundane and mystery and intrigue, and between expected and random. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Katie Nicholas presents the findings of a very topical piece of research into the use of eBooks in health libraries, which she completed for a Masters dissertation. Katie graduated with an MA in Library and Information Management (Distinction) from Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2017. She would like to acknowledge the support of her supervisor, Rachel Delbridge, in helping her to gain a Distinction in her dissertation. In the article, she points out that the use of eBooks in the NHS is low compared to other sectors and she presents the findings from her research, which help to explain this. She outlines the development of an electronic tool to help library and information staff make sense of the complexity around eBooks and makes further very practical recommendations for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the career of U.S. satirist and lecturer Artemus Ward and his program on the Mormons. They mention Ward's visit to Utah and interactions with Mormons, there, his subsequent lecture series in the U.S. and Great Britain on the Mormons, and how the lectures influenced the opinion of Mormons.

This article presents an account of the “evolution of children’s nursing.” The pertinent topic was originally developed as part of a Doctorate in Education (EdD) as it was anticipated an understanding of children’s nursing would provide a more comprehensive context for a doctoral study that aims to explore the child’s experience of staying in Northern Ireland’s regional children’s hospital from the perspectives of children and children’s nurses using child-centered methodology. Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales are the 4 countries collectively known as the United Kingdom (UK). Hence the concept of “children’s/pediatric nursing” was extracted and presented as a catalogue of significant events in their order of occurrence. The article also considers the future direction of children’s nursing within the UK. Wider dissemination was thought pivotal to inform all registered nurses, inclusive of those caring for children in all healthcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Women’s ability to effect changes in welfare policy during the later workings of the new Poor Law has been presented as a ‘marginal influence’ within past historiography. This perspective is contested in recent empirical work, which argues for a more positive view of female agency. The Brabazon Employment Scheme was a charitable initiative, which occupied the poor unable to take part in the routine work of public institutions. Findings from its operation in Glasgow demonstrate how women drew upon philanthropic experience as well as elected positions in the management of institutions to secure the scheme’s introduction in these settings. While the initiative originated in the English workhouses, local women extended the Brabazon activities to address gaps in welfare provision for asylum patients. In doing so, the article shows how organised charity continued to function as an avenue of support for the poor alongside municipal relief into the early 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the ‘ontological rift’ between the digital and the material archive of political broadside ballads. It outlines the ways in which the ballad’s original diversity has been eroded and homogenised by multiple processes of remediation, including digitisation over time, and investigates the limitations of digitisation projects in delivering the multifarious and widely scattered broadside ballad archive online. Finally, it considers how far digitisation projects have unintentionally ‘concretised’ not only older interpretive practices in relation to the ballad as genre, but also outdated narratives regarding the ballad’s place in the news networks and political culture of seventeenth-century England. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight collection development activity in UK higher education libraries and to place it within both a conceptual and strategic context.Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a theoretical approach to collection development and content strategy derived from literary theory to contextualise debates. It uses current examples from collection management within UK academic libraries.Findings This paper suggests that collection development is not exclusively a library practitioner activity but needs to be considered within a wider context that takes account of multiple strands of collection selection and management. Collection development cannot be considered in isolation but alongside collection management and in relation to content strategy.Research limitations/implications This paper includes consideration of the topic of collection development that is influenced by other disciplines, notably literary theory. This suggests that research in library science should include input from other disciplines.Practical implications This paper includes implications for content development within academic libraries that suggest that a re-focus at the strategic level of content is required.Originality/value This paper introduces a conceptual register to collection development outside of traditional library science models and posits a move to strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a brief historical overview of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in Great Britain and the resources and collections available at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. The author reflects on the merging of the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society in 1932. Topics discussed include the folk-song collecting of historian Cecil Sharp and the development of the collection through bequests, donations, and purchases of literature, sound, and manuscript collections from folklorists and collectors.

Auckland Libraries' librarians provide an account of a project begun in 2014 to improve access to the Auckland Libraries zine collection through a collaborative and interdepartmental cataloguing project. The parameters of the project and some of the observed outcomes are described. This article is based on a lightning talk and accompanying zine presented at LIANZA Shout! 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the impact of the Second Reform Act, and the doubling of the electorate it delivered, on the linguistic complexity of speeches made by members of parliament in Britain. Noting that the new voters were generally poorer and less educated than those who already enjoyed the suffrage, we hypothesize that cabinet ministers had strong incentives--relative to other members--to appeal to these new electors with simpler statements during parliamentary debates. We assess this claim with a data set of over half a million speeches for the period between the Great Reform Act and Great War, along with methods for measuring the comprehensibility of texts--which we validate in some detail. The theorized relationship holds: ministers become statistically significantly easier to understand (on average) relative to backbenchers, and this effect occurs almost immediately after the 1868 election. We show that this result is not an artifact of new personnel in the House of Commons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the performance materials collection in available in British music libraries. Vocal scores; Orchestral sets; Lending and borrowing procedures.

The article examines accusations of fraud against poet George Wither when he served as steward to bishop John Howson of Durham, England between 1628 and 1632 referenced in the poem "Aquæ-Musæ" by John Taylor. It states that no biographers have discovered evidence to substantiate the claim or to prove Wither was in Durham during that time.

An essay on the interrelationship between British colonialism and Irish nationhood is presented. It explores the utopian politics and its implications for revisiting the book "Ulysses" by James Joyce, focusing on the episodes Circe, Cyclops and Aeolus of the novel. The author argues that the book with themes of empire, race, nationalism, colonialism, and orientalism, disavows cultural nationalism.

This article argues that digital media are introducing a new grassroots-based mode of ‘citizen-initiated campaigning’ (CIC) that challenges the dominant professionalized model of campaign management by devolving power over core tasks to the grassroots. After defining the practice through reference to the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama and online parties literature, we devise a measure of CIC that is applied to UK parties in the 2010 election. Our findings show that CIC is emerging outside the U.S. and adoption is associated with major party status, although it may be of particular appeal to political actors facing a resource deficit. The conclusions focus on the implications of CIC for new forms of party membership, indirect voter mobilization and the contextual factors influencing this new model of campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tontines and life annuities both insure against longevity risk by guaranteeing (pension) income for life. The optimal choice between these two mortality-contingent claims depends on personal preferences for consumption and risk. And, while pure tontines are unavailable in the twenty-first century, the first longevity-contingent claim (and debt) issued by the English government in the late seventeenth century offered a choice between the two. This article analyzes financial and economic aspects of King William's 1693 tontine that have not received attention in the literature. In particular, it compares the stochastic present value (SPV) of the tontine vs the life annuity and discusses characteristics of investors who selected one versus the other. Finally, the article examines the issue of whether high reported tontine survival rates should be attributed to anti-selection or fraud. In sum, this article is an empirical examination of annuitization decisions made by actual investors in the late seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on research into the ways that schools engage in university application processes. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 1400 Year 13 students from 18 independent and state schools in England and 15 in-depth interviews were carried out with school teacher higher education (HE) advisors. The analysis compares independent and state schools with respect to: the types of higher education institutions (HEIs) that students applied for; the way the HE application process was managed in their schools; and how teacher advisors explained and managed the processes and outcomes for their students. Informed by Bourdieu's relational sociology, our discussion focuses on how schools in the two sectors mobilise different forms of capital in the competitive processes of university application. We also use the notion of doxa to explore how these micro-institutional processes and teacher advice relate to observed differences between state and independent sector students' HE destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine a range of issues and methods in relation to measuring the impact of volunteer labour on the design and delivery of all types of library services. With the increasing use of volunteers to deliver library and information services in all sectors, managers need to assess their effectiveness and evaluate the impact of their use in relation to operational service design and delivery, and on the development of the profession and professional practice as a whole. Presented here is an initial scoping study, outlining a range of issues, methods and challenges for more detailed future investigation. Design/methodology/approach -- A number of methodological challenges and perspectives are identifiable. Contemporary libraries exhibit increasing similarities with Third Sector organisations, namely a complex stakeholder community, and increasing use of volunteers to supplement or replace services delivered by professional staff. Therefore, a starting point for the research is a systematic review and analysis of the methodologies developed by the Third Sector Research Centre, and those studies in the ESRC contemporary Developing Impact Evaluation strand. As a rich picture is required, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are necessary, with the overall study adopting a mixed methods approach. Findings -- This paper reports the findings of the preliminary documentary analysis, literature review and scoping aspects of a large-scale study. Originality/value -- Research undertaken to date (June 2014) has failed to identify any published systematic review and examination of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents updates on building projects in health sciences libraries as of July 2014. These include projects at Al Maktoum Medical Library of Mohammed Bin Rashid at Academic Medical Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Regional Library and Information Service at Dr. Steevens' Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and Denmark Hill Campus Libraries at King's College London in Waterloo, London, England.

Sebastiaan Verweij presents an analysis of a survey of surviving copies of James VI/I's Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie (1584, 1585) and His Maiesties Poeticall Exercises in Vacant Houres (1591) in public collections. His survey has unearthed many more readers and owners of the king's books than were previously known, making it possible to shore up previously tentative proposals about the cultural impact of these collections, not only in Scotland but also in England. He also transcribes and discusses in detail three previously unknown manuscript poems of praise to the king that survive in a copy of the 1584 Essayes now at Lambeth Palace Library, and via these poems offers a potential reassessment of the bibliographical makeup of this book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscapes of libraries’ print collection have changed significantly over the past decades. On an institutional level, libraries need to evaluate available resources, local researchers’ needs, and find the right balance between print and electronic material in order to support parent institutions’ development and growth. On a national level, we have seen different schemes being developed in several countries to support libraries’ activities in a time of change. When more and more libraries are adopting electronic-only policies, what impact does losing print have? This article aims to share United Kingdom (UK) Research Reserve’s experience so far and how the UK Higher Education (HE) sector dealt with challenges and uncertainties through collaboration and partnership. It also explores further opportunities within and beyond the UK borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates ways in which early modern English recipe collections constructed domestic medicine as broader and more powerful than is often appreciated. It shows that their compilers frequently selected recipes that promised to allow them to address a wide range of surgical ailments, to heal serious surgical conditions medicinally, and to avoid invasive interventions. Claims of remedies' virtues and stories of their successes imagined domestic medicine not only as a ‘first port of call’, but also as a potent counterpart to the work of practitioners; a last resort when practitioners had failed; and as an alternative to the knife. Using the writings of the surgeon John Woodall, it argues that surgeons were sensitive to the attitudes and preferences that motivated this collection. In seeking to discipline surgery, Woodall invoked the stereotypical gentleness of women's and domestic medicine in an effort to inculcate greater discernment in the use of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is based on a small oral history project which collected interviews with women who had participated in the women's liberation movement (WLM) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Britain. Using these oral testimonies, it explores the history of the WLM in Bradford and considers how involvement within this movement impacted upon women's lives. It discusses the development of an alternative political and social culture in Bradford during the 1970s and early 1980s and examines why this environment appeared to make this period ‘life-changing’ for those involved. Through the use of narrative analysis, it argues that these women perceived the WLM as a turning point in their lives and crucial to the formation of their identities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews research on livestock and landscape. It argues that farm animals have started to occupy a central position in landscape studies, opening up many new pastures for research. Using the example of cattle in the UK, we consider how livestock have been understood as text, as social constructions and as beings with their own lives. In each case, we note how the position of farm animals is contested and there is a need for a diversity of theoretical approaches to understand these differences. The article calls for academics, practitioners and policy-makers to pay greater attention to the myriad ways in which livestock and landscape are intertwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ask: What is the value and outcome of scholarly reading for academic staff? How do academic library collections support research and teaching activities of academic staff? How do reading patterns of articles, books, and other materials differ? What is the role of the academic library collections in teaching and learning? Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides insight into the values and outcomes of scholarly reading, identifies overall reading patterns, and illuminates issues academics address. Approximately 2,000 academic staff members from six UK universities completed a web-based survey. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the survey. The survey used the critical incident of last reading by academics to gather information on the purpose, outcomes, and values of scholarly readings and access to library collections. The survey concluded with open-ended comments, which is the focus of this article. Findings – The open-ended comments focused on the importance of article readings to all work activities, in particular research. They also placed emphasis on the value of the library's e-journal collections, but they had some issues with electronic access. The role of book reading was also discussed. Research limitations/implications – Open-ended comments are only one way of measuring the value of scholarly reading and library collections. Ongoing studies and examinations of the findings from the other sections of this study will add to the overall findings of the value of the academic library. Originality/value – This paper further illustrates the essential role of scholarly reading and the library's collections on the academic enterprise. This type of qualitative "story" helps libraries demonstrate their value and assess areas of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how the change to the low-value stamps was implemented in Great Britain. The Secretary and Controller of Stamps to the Board of Inland Revenue wrote in October 1910 to the Secretary of the General Post Office proposing a reduction in the printed area of the stamps, and asking for the approval of the proposal. The proposal was approved and the change was implemented, but the change seems not to have been noticed by the general public, or by collectors.

In 1878, Britain developed the first systematic intelligence collection and analysis of China by a Western nation. Undertaken in response to intelligence failure and military defeat, the British Army in India established an intelligence section in Beijing using small numbers of Chinese-speaking British military officers. Their reports reveal their struggles to understand a culture and government radically different than their own and express a strong respect for Chinese military capabilities. The intelligence reports produced are a unique window into British history, intelligence practices and Chinese strategic thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is about using archived oral histories in research. It advocates greater exploration of oral history archives in the UK in light of burgeoning research into the history of post-war society and the social sciences. Drawing on the author's experience of utilising interviews from the Millennium Memory Bank (MMB), it offers a critical reflection on the process of using this particular archive from the perspective of a social historian. Although the challenges of working with the MMB are noted, its unprecedented scale, and incorporation of the 'life history' method, demonstrate its value as a source for historical enquiry. The author highlights the importance of summaries and supporting literature attached to interviews to assist with accessibility and contextualisation, envisioning the archive as an ongoing process, whereby original and subsequent researchers ensure its legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]