Accessible services in academic libraries: a content analysis of library accessibility webpages in the United States

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of current accessibility efforts and practice in librarianship by providing a broad overview of the information about services, resources and facilities on academic library accessibility pages. By compiling and analyzing data from 85 libraries, this study seeks to facilitate comparisons between current and past accessibility practice and to provide perspective on how libraries communicate to users about accessibility efforts across libraries.Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a content analysis of 85 library accessibility pages from a sample population of 98 institutions, consisting of all members institutions of four US academic library consortia. Pages were coded for content elements regarding services, facilities, collections, staffing, assistive technologies and general information. Webpage features, architecture and accessibility/functionality were also assessed.Findings Libraries have broadened and strengthened efforts to publicize/provide services and resources to functionally diverse users. Pages most commonly prioritize information about assistive technologies, services and facilities. Pages varied greatly in size, complexity and detail, but public institutions' pages were more prevalent and informative than their private counterparts. Libraries can work to foreground accessibility pages and increase transparency and evidence of currency to improve communication to their users.Originality/value This study provides a large-scale content analysis of library accessibility webpages. It allows for comparison of the features and information most commonly featured on these important online points of service.

The Role of Donations in Financing Extreme Risk Events

Globally, post-event funding needs are growing, while the material and human damage caused by extreme events is constantly growing. The 2015 United Nations (UN) Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction estimated that worldwide, these extreme events cause losses of approximately $ 250-300 billion annually. Although there are now various post-event financing options (insurance, grants, loans, donations, etc.) for the population, companies or public institutions, these instruments are often not sufficient for post-event recovery and reconstruction, so many challenges remain for post-event recovery. Thus, there is often a gap between the financing needs of companies or the population and the existing financing instruments, most often the amounts needed for financing being higher than the amounts that are available through the various existing financing mechanisms. In this article we addressed the topic of post-event funding sources such as donations and highlighted that these, although they are one of the cheapest sources of funding, the support of post-event donors is often uncertain. Also, in the elaboration of this paper I used qualitative and quantitative research based on the use of methods such as Spearman correlation indicator, data processing and analysis, documenting reports, studying reference works and other studies.

Investigative prevention of corruption crimes

Purpose The fight against corruption, which undermines the efficiency of the state apparatus and public confidence in public institutions, remains one of the critical present-day tasks. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the available possibilities and real practice of law enforcement of the norms on investigative prevention, the practical significance of this institution and its potential. Design/methodology/approach The study investigated theoretical materials on criminological prevention, legislative norms and available law enforcement practice. Findings It was discovered that, in general, the available statutory regulation is insufficient for the full-fledged practical implementation of the potential of investigative prevention. An exception is specialised prevention, assigned as one of the main tasks to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Combating Corruption. Proposals have been formulated to improve anti-corruption investigative prevention in other bodies of pre-trial investigation, considering the identified risks. Originality/value The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that the existence of the institution of investigative prevention, in fact, is limited to the post-Soviet space. The elimination of formalism in the approach to this method of crime prevention can contribute to greater efficiency in the fight against crime, including corruption.

Government strategic planning: an integrative review of academic production

Strategic planning is a deliberative, disciplined approach to producing fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it. Although strategic planning comes first from the private sector, it can, in fact, lead to successful strategy implementation in the public sector. Public institutions need to implement a performance management system in order to provide better public service to citizens, to promote sustainable public policies, to ensure a transparent decision making process, to spend the public money in an efficient and accountable way, and to achieve measurable results in implementing strategies, programs and projects. The objective of this study is to verify what is being studied in the field of government strategic planning in the past five years, considering articles indexed in the Web of Science database. The study shows that the main topics of concern are related to urban and metropolitan planning, reform and budget cuts, and studies verifying the effectiveness of strategic planning in the public sector. O planeamento estratégico é uma abordagem deliberativa e disciplinada para produzir decisões e acções fundamentais que moldam e guiam o que uma organização é, o que faz, e porque o faz. Embora o planeamento estratégico venha primeiro do sector privado, pode, de facto, conduzir a uma implementação bem sucedida da estratégia no sector público. As instituições públicas precisam de implementar um sistema de gestão de desempenho a fim de prestar um melhor serviço público aos cidadãos, promover políticas públicas sustentáveis, assegurar um processo transparente de tomada de decisões, gastar o dinheiro público de forma eficiente e responsável, e alcançar resultados mensuráveis na implementação de estratégias, programas e projectos. O objectivo deste estudo é verificar o que está a ser estudado no campo do planeamento estratégico governamental nos últimos cinco anos, considerando artigos indexados na base de dados da Web of Science. O estudo mostra que os principais temas de preocupação estão relacionados com o planeamento urbano e metropolitano, reformas e cortes orçamentais, e estudos que verificam a eficácia do planeamento estratégico no sector público.

Lifestyles and school performance of health sciences students

Introduction: Lifestyles at the college stage involve fundamental changes in human development, which may have an impact on the school performance. The present work consists of a documentary review on the lifestyles of university students Objective: To identify the information that allows the evaluation of the lifestyles that are associated with the school performance of students of health sciences. Methodology: The research was carried out by using the keywords: lifestyles, school performance and students of health sciences, through PubMed and Crossref, in addition to the websites of public institutions, governments or organizations. The results of 20 studies were analyzed, which included a student population that was intervened through questionnaires about their lifestyles in school systems Results: It was found that students have unhealthy habits, 40% of students do not exercise, 90% of students consume junk food and 1 out of 5 students have mental health disorders. All of the above is striking, since being students of health sciences, it would be assumed that they practice healthy lifestyles, however, their knowledge has been little applied. Conclusion: Lifestyles and school performance are a problem that worries students, parents, teachers and authorities, not only in our country but also in other countries of the world.

Comparison of Forest Engineering Students’ Attitudes towards Their Education and Future Jobs: Case Results from Turkey

Forestry is a complex multidimensional discipline that implies a broad job description and task variety for forest engineers. Thus, the scope of professional forestry education is expanding and diversifying. It is essential to determine the students’ attitudes towards their education and future jobs to develop focused solutions in forestry education. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the attitudes of forest engineering students towards their education and future jobs. This study evaluated and compared the students’ attitudes over a 10-year period through questionnaires administered to senior forest engineering students of the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa (IUC). It was revealed that, during job selection, non-job factors (39.5%) were nearly as influential as job-related factors (53.7%). Moreover, students’ career plans were based mainly on working in public institutions (41.4%) and simply doing their job (78.1%). The results showed that students’ views on education have improved over time; however, they have doubts about their readiness to succeed in their careers (M = 3.41) and the adequacy of their knowledge and experience level (M = 2.95). Their attitudes on their future job were not wholly positive: They have doubts about finding a job (M = 2.90), having satisfactory working conditions (M = 3.38), and income (M = 3.57). The results of this study can support decision-making in forest education and human resources in forestry.

Revisiting Zanzibari Seaweed

Well before island nations began to consider rising ocean levels, a feature of global climate change, they have been concerned with the allocation of water resources. The purpose of this chapter is to revisit the efforts of Zanzibar's academic, as well as private and public institutions, as they promote environmentally responsible entrepreneurial projects, while advancing women's economic empowerment. Analysis will examine the history of seaweed production and consider how Zanzibar's seaweed farmers have recently responded to the dislocations associated with global climate change. This discussion will also consider to what extent Zanzibari seaweed production reflects the norms enshrined in the United Nation's Rio + 20 platform, and the language of the UN's 2030 sustainable development goals.

Electronic government public value of public institutions in Jordan

Substantially, the theory of e-government public value (PV-EGOV) has been treated as a hot topic to be explored insightfully. This research comes to be considered as the launching point to empirically evaluate the creation of PV-EGOV in Jordan. The main aim of this research is to investigate the factors affecting the PV-EGOV in the context of Jordan. Information System Success Model (IS success model) was selected to determine the factors affecting the e-government public value in Jordan through the quality factors (system, information, and service) and their role in citizens' intention in use and satisfaction of the e-government. The structural Equation Model (SEM) approach was harnessed to obtain the results. The results indicated that the most critical determinant factor that affected the PV-EGOV was service quality. The current article has theoretical and practical implications for public institutions in Jordan. The future work trends are established in their specific section of this article.

Doing Research With Online Platforms

The post-API age in digital research has brought immediate consequences in research activities based on (big) data owned by online platforms. Even some initiatives made by online platforms themselves, mainly based on funding specific research projects, have not found a warm reception in the research community and have been considered not enough to do research on the most relevant phenomena of the digital public sphere. Therefore, since the access-to-data has become a relevant issue even for civil society organizations and public actors dealing with digital ecosystem, a specific brand-new issue network among public institutions, NGOs, and researches has been established. The technical expertise, the shared interests, and the fulfilment of similar goals in shaping public values in the online platforms activities seem to be crucial to the permanence and even to the institutionalization of such an issue network.