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The article presents the results of a survey of library assistants who work in Western New York conducted by the Western New York Library Assistants (WNYLA) organization and funded by the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC). The attitudes of 139 Western New York library assistants towards training, support from management for training, and topics for training were measured. The author and members of WNYLA and WNYLRC collaboratively wrote an eight-page survey instrument that was mailed to all library assistants on the WNYLA member mailing list, along with a stamped, addressed, return envelope. Release time, funding, and specific training suggestions by supervisors were found to correlate with training participation. The results indicate that library assistants have significant interest in training, especially in topics related to technology, computers, and software. They also perceive value in training due to the demands of technology, continuing education, career advancement, and professional development.

The author explores the strategies of fund-raising for a nonprofit organization to maximize net income. The giving pattern of members is modeled as a Markov chain. The alternatives are evaluated using Howard's value-determination policy-improvement method and an optimum strategy is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a section abstracts related to advertising and sales promotion. They include "The Mass Media and Young People," "Research in Public Relations," and "Pointers on Mailing Lists."

This paper aims to show the potential of mailing list archives as primary sources for studying recent history of science. In order to focus on the debates regarding software within the computational chemistry community in the 1990s, the corpus we rely on consists in a scholarly mailing list, a typical corpus from its time, conceived, constructed and maintained by a community. The threaded conversations of the list also constitute a unique rhetorical form in its organisation which is technically bound to the Internet-based media of that time. We first present the issues at stake within our research topic and show how relevant is such a corpus to address them. We then discuss the "ethnographic" characteristics and the structure of the corpus. Its most interesting parts are the "flame wars", that is outbursts of heated, short and dense debates, in an ocean of evenly distributed polite messages. We unveil how the relevant flame wars are located and extracted by producing a graphical representation of the number of messages per day over time. Once flame wars are isolated, the messages exchanged by practitioners are studied precisely to comprehend the argumentative structure of the debates and the different viewpoints of actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the specialist information forum H-Soz-Kult is one of the most popular and most used information services in historical sciences and beyond. Founded as a "bottom-up" project by a few scientists, H-Soz-Kult is supported today by the society "Clio-online historical specialist information system" („Clio-online Historisches Fachinformationssystem e. V.") and provides access to current specialist information offers across disciplinary borders. The project's development is characterised by being fixed in the subject, new technologies, but most of all the orientation towards the information and communications needs and behaviour in historical sciences which have shaped the change from mailing list to online community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document analyzes the evolution of policy-related discussions in open source software by using several projects' policy mailing list archives and focusing on the Debian Project. More specifically, it utilizes approximately 70,000 pieces of mail exchanged since the end of the 1990s, investigating the rise and fall in activity and what sort of topics was discussed. The results of this paper's inquiry suggest that mail volumes peaked in 2005, that policy discussions were led and mainly contributed to by a relatively small subset of persons who only posted related to policy, and that overall mailing list traffic (not only related to policy) declined after 2006, possibly due to a transfer of discussion to Wikis, chats, and other such platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the study was to explore how marketing of LIS jobs is done through Mailing list/Portal. Content analysis method was applied considering job advertisements for Library and Information professionals that appeared from January 2014 to December 2014 in mailing lists & Portal. The analysis of jobs were done by considering pointers such as number, month-wise, state-wise, nature of appointment, job description etc. It was observed that maximum number of job ads were posted during first half of the year, January receiving high number of job ads. The maximum number of ads posted was of General category. It was observed that more than half of job ads posted were of temporary/contractual nature. It was noted that almost 3/4 job ads were posted for Academic Libraries. It was found that half of the job ads came with full job description whereas half mentioned a link to the original ad appearing in respective universities website/newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a report of the executive secretary and treasurer for the American Finance Association for the year ending September 30, 1985. The article states that the subscription services at Waverly Press encountered problems that affected apparent revenues but did not affect the mailing list. The article states that memberships were up slightly in 1984-85, but that membership revenues were almost unchanged. The article states that costs went up about six percent, and that the association will be looking into ways to increase revenues.

Direct mail is the second largest advertising medium in the United States. The author of this article describes a market-research program which enables his company to select consumers on the basis of social and economic characteristics. The program, called "The 9,500 Plan," is one of the largest research and statistical tasks ever undertaken in the direct-mail field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the use of reflection by library and information staff to support practice and continuing development. A questionnaire was sent to library and information mailing lists. A total of 424 responses were received, though the response rate varied for each question. Of 423 respondents 92% identified themselves as reflective practitioners, and 52% of 363 respondents engaged in reflective writing. A number of benefits and barriers were identified. It is concluded that reflective practice and reflective writing are valuable tools for library and information staff, particularly for professional development. Employers and professional bodies have a role in facilitating reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends niche theory to develop an intraorganizational conceptualization of the niche that is grounded in the activities of organizational members. We construe niches as positions in a mapping of individuals to formal and informal activities within organizations. We posit that positional characteristics in this activity-based system are critical determinants of members' access to information and relationships--two of the vital resources for advancement in organizations. Because activities are difficult to observe, we propose a novel empirical strategy to depict niches: we exploit a census of memberships in electronic mailing lists. We assess three niche dimensions--competitive crowding, status, and diversity--and show that these attributes affect the allocation of rewards to employees. Propositions are tested in two empirical settings: an information services firm and the R&D division of a biopharmaceutical company. Results indicate that people in competitively crowded niches had lower levels of attainment, whereas those in high status and diverse niches enjoyed higher attainment levels. We conclude with a discussion of email distribution lists as a tool for organizational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct marketing is an important tool in the promotion mix of companies, amongst which direct mailing is crucial. One approach to improve direct mail targeting is response modeling, i.e. a predictive modeling approach that assigns future response probabilities to customers based on their history with the company. The contributions to the response modeling literature are three-fold. First, we introduce well-known statistical and data-mining classification techniques (logistic regression, linear and quadratic discriminant analysis, naïve Bayes, neural networks, decision trees, including CHAID, CART and C4.5, and the k-NN algorithm) to the direct marketing community. Second, we run a predictive benchmarking study using the above classifiers on four real-life direct marketing datasets. The 10-fold cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristics curve is used as evaluation metric. Third, we give managerial insights that facilitate the classifier choice based on the trade-off between interpretability and predictive performance of the classifier. The findings of the benchmark study show that data-mining algorithms (CHAID, CART and neural networks) perform well on this test bed, followed by simplistic statistical classifiers like logistic regression and linear discriminant analysis. It is shown that quadratic discriminant analysis, naïve Bayes, C4.5 and the k-NN algorithm yield poor performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes of architecture changes can tell about why architecture changes, and this knowledge can be captured to prevent architecture knowledge vaporization and architecture degeneration. But the causes are not always known, especially in open source software (OSS) development. This makes it very hard to understand the underlying reasons for the architecture changes and design appropriate modifications. Architecture information is communicated in development mailing lists of OSS projects. To explore the possibility of identifying and understanding the causes of architecture changes, we conducted an empirical study to analyze architecture information (i.e. architectural threads) communicated in the development mailing lists of two popular OSS projects: Hibernate and ArgoUML, verified architecture changes with source code, and identified the causes of architecture changes from the communicated architecture information. The main findings of this study are: (1) architecture information communicated in OSS mailing lists does lead to architecture changes in code; (2) the major cause for architecture changes in both Hibernate and ArgoUML is preventative changes, and the causes of architecture changes are further classified to functional requirement, external quality requirement, and internal quality requirement using the coding techniques of grounded theory; (3) more than 45% of architecture changes in both projects happened before the first stable version was released. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers news briefs related to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) as of May 1, 2015. The NFB Camp will be available to provide activities and games for children at the 2015 Annual Conference of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) in Orlando, Florida. Braille books and volunteers for the Braille Book Fair 2015 are needed. A mailing list was launched by the NFB Cancer Survivors.

Objective: Our aim was to determine the views and experiences of carers of people with severe mental illness in regard to Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). Method: Questionnaires were posted using the mailing lists of two well-established carer support organisations in Victoria. The questionnaires included information about the person with a mental illness, the carer and their experience of care (ECI) and knowledge of recovery (RKI). Results: In total, 278 questionnaires were sent and 63 returned, of which 62 provided valid data. Those who responded were predominantly female (90%) and older (mean age 63 years), and were the carer of a person with a severe and recurrent mental illness. Some 60% had experience of caring for a person on a CTO. Most felt the CTO had been of benefit, and in 89% the person relapsed and needed further treatment when the CTO was stopped. Conclusion: Mental health legislation is shifting to bring a greater focus on rights, individual choice and autonomy in line with recovery-oriented care. This study describes the impact of severe mental illness and decisions in relation to CTOs on carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent years have been marked by a rapid growth in the World Wide Web 2.0 applications such as blog posts, forums, mailing lists, and product-review websites. As a result, a special sentiment analysis field has sprung up relevant to the issue of people's responses to the diversity of available subjects. Hence, one might well wonder: how do people feel and react when dealing with certain topics? In this paper, a new automatic sentiment-processing model has been advanced, whereby the current problems faced by the prevalent existing models can be deciphered and more properly treated. The suggested approach consists in developing a multi-agent system based on a thorough linguistic analysis, meanwhile highlighting the major contributions provided by such a study in combination with the syntactic, semantic, and subjective analyses. Actually, the newly-devised framework enables to resolve the ambiguities and complexities of the natural evaluative language and to strengthen, as well as consolidate, the results achieved at the various analysis stages thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive Open Online Courses based on the principles of connectivist educational pedagogy known as connectivist MOOCs (c-MOOCs) have been carried out with great success during the last years with hundreds of registered participants. Examples are CCK08 (2008), PLENK2010 (2010), MobiMOOC (2011), EduMOOC (2011), Change11 (2011/12), and LAK12 (2012). Their implementation required conceptual changes in perspective from both "facilitators" (tutors) and learners. They are so novel that much research needs to be done for their understanding and improvement. Basically two very distinct delivery formats have been used: * Those that use what's referred to as an aggregator, an emailed daily newsletter, called "The Daily" that captures contributions from tutors and participants mainly from their blogs: Format A. * Those where all events go through a "centralizing" web page or wiki and discussions happen with the use of a mailing list, in most cases using Google Groups: Format B. In this paper we study in detail representative courses. From their comparison we establish that connectivist MOOCs delivered with formats A and B share many common features but that their differences are such that the learner's experience and the outcome of the courses are very different depending on the format used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying customers who are likely to respond to a product offering is an important issue in direct marketing. In this article, we propose a new approach based on repeat buying theory. We argue that the mailing list could be divided into two groups for separate model developments: repeat buyer model and new buyer model. We name this procedure two-group-forecast-and-selection method. Empirical study shows that the new method performs better than the traditional one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that examines the effectiveness and costs of three direct-to-patient outreach strategies. Strategies include direct mail outreach using a third-party mailing list, electronic mail message outreach using a third party list, and email outreach through iGuard.org, a Web-based medication monitoring service that offers a social network of members interested in sharing feedback on their medications. It assesses the ability of these strategies in clinical trials.

Objectives: Critical care medicine (CCM) is of growing interest among emergency physicians (EPs), but the number of CCM-trained EPs and their postfellowship practice is unknown. This study’s purpose was to conduct a descriptive census survey of EPs who have completed or are currently in a CCM fellowship. Methods: The authors created a Web-based survey, and requests to participate were sent to EPs who have completed or are currently in a CCM fellowship. Responses were collected over a 12-month period. Physicians were located via multiple whom electronic mailing lists, including the Emergency Medicine Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, Critical Care Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association. The authors also contacted CCM fellowship coordinators and used informal networking. Data were collected on emergency medicine (EM) and other residency training; discipline, duration, and year of CCM fellowship; current practice setting; and board certification status, including the European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC). Results: A total of 104 physicians completed the survey (97% response rate), of whom 73 had completed fellowship at the time of participation, and 31 of whom were in fellowship training. Of those who completed fellowship, 36/73 (49%) practice both EM and CCM, and 45/73 (62%) practice in academic institutions. Multiple disciplines of fellowship were represented: multidisciplinary (39), surgical (28), internal medicine (16), anesthesia (14), and other (4). Together, the CCM fellowships at the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and the University of Pittsburgh have trained 42% of all EM-CCM physicians, with 38 other institutions training from one to four fellows each. The number of EPs completing CCM fellowships has risen: from 1974 to 1989, 12 EPs; from 1990 to 1999, 15 EPs; and from 2000 to 2007, 43 EPs. Conclusions: Emergency physicians are entering CCM fellowships in increasing numbers. Almost half of these EPs practice both EM and CCM. ACADAEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:325–329 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed needs, knowledge, and interests of agricultural professionals who were likely to enroll in an online extension course in sustainable agriculture. The objectives of the study were: to (1) describe their demographic characteristics, (2) identify their concerns and interests related to farming, (3) evaluate participants' knowledge and adoption of sustainable farming practices, and (4) use the evidence to implement a distance education program in sustainable agriculture. A questionnaire was distributed electronically through mailing lists and Web sites. Responses were analyzed using a text analysis and a Chi-square test to evaluate the existence of associations between interests and knowledge in sustainable agriculture. Despite the study participants' diverse professions and backgrounds, they identified similar constraints impeding the adoption of sustainable farming practices. They further proposed solutions, many of which are supported by current agroecological research, indicating a vast knowledge base regarding sustainable farming. The findings were used to develop and deliver an online extension program in sustainable agriculture. This study highlights the importance of understanding the levels of knowledge, concerns, and interests of the targeted audience. Incorporating this understanding into an extension program through peer-to-peer collaboration in discussion forums and electronic mail could facilitate the dissemination of innovate education approaches to teach sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mailing lists are an excellent method for sending information to clientele about research, field days, or upcoming educational events. The objective of the project described here was to determine if bubble plot mapping could be used to analyze a mailing list to maximize the impact of future educational programs. Latitude, longitude, city, and the number of clientele in each city were used to create a bubble plot with overlays of Arkansas boundaries. The bubble plot overlay provides an easy way to interpret the mailing list, which aids in selecting locations to plan future events in areas where clientele impact will be greatest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines whether mailing list sellers, when faced with additional competitors, are more likely to try to segment consumers by offering additional choices at different prices (second-degree price discrimination) and/or offering different prices to readily identifiable groups of consumers (third-degree price discrimination). We utilize a dataset that includes information about all consumer response lists derived from mail order buyers (i.e. lists derived from catalogs) available for rental in 1997 and 2002. Our results indicate that increased competition leads to an increased propensity to price discriminate along each of the dimensions we investigate. These results hold for both second-degree and third-degree price discrimination. Further, list owners offer menus with more choices in more competitive markets. These results, taken together with results from other empirical studies, suggest that the connection between competition and increased price discrimination is a result that applies broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opportunity for users to participate in design and development processes has expanded in recent years through such communication and information technologies as mailing lists, bug trackers, usage monitoring, rich interactions between users and service-center staff, remote usability testing, and so on. A key question, therefore, is deciding how to engage users in design and development through such technologies. This paper addresses this question by reviewing literature on end-user programming and open source development to develop a framework concerning user roles and discourse. The framework makes two claims: (1) user roles and a social structure emerge after the introduction of a software application (role differentiation); and (2) different roles demand different kinds of discourse for deciding what to do and for reflecting upon intended and unintended consequences (role discourse demands). To show its application, the framework is used to analyze the development of del.icio.us, a breakthrough application for social bookmarking. This development process is notable because it is a characteristic of open source software development in some respects, but the code is not made available publicly. This hybridization appears to be widely applicable and suggests how design and development processes can be structured as a service where the design and development of the system proceeds simultaneously with the formation and nurturing of a community of users. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this research is to analyse how design and use are mediated in Open Source Software (OSS) design. Focusing on the Python community, our study examines a “pushed-by-users” design proposal through the discussions occurring in two mailing-lists: one, user-oriented and the other, developer-oriented. To characterize the links between users and developers, we investigate the activities and references (knowledge sharing) performed by the contributors to these two mailing-lists. We found that the participation of users remains local to their community. However, several key participants act as boundary spanners between the user and the developer communities. This emerging role is characterized by cross-participation in parallel same-topic discussions in both mailing-lists, cohesion between cross-participants, the occupation of a central position in the social network linking users and developers, as well as active, distinctive and adapted contributions. The user championing the proposal acts as a key boundary spanner coordinating the process and using explicit linking strategies. We argue that OSS design may be considered as a form of “role emerging design”, i.e. design organized and pushed through emerging roles and through a balance between these roles. The OSS communities seem to provide a suitable socio-technical environment to enable such role emergence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the findings of the four national surveys of patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDD) in the United States which was conducted by the Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF). The survey, which aims to estimate the characteristics and experiences of patients with primary immunodeficiency disease, made used of the IDF mailing lists which provided the sampling frame for the surveys.

This chapter discusses collection plans in the context of the current information environment with its mix of formats and its accelerated migration towards digital resources; and identifies problems with regard to the development of useful plans. The authors present the results of an informal mailing list survey of collection development and electronic resources (ER) librarians; questions pertain to collection plans and, also, to professional preparation and continuing education, patterns of collaboration, and additional topics related to the work of the plan and management of collections that include digital resources. The authors provide suggestions for the improvement of the long-term value and immediate usefulness of collection plans in the digital environment and speculate about the qualities of the individuals who might bring about these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study examining the effect on direct mail response rates of two different types of enclosures or premiums included in a fund raising packet. Also, the effect of audience involvement combined with the effect of varying enclosure types was examined. A field experiment was conducted on individuals from two mailing lists of recent charitable donors. Managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]