Intellectual Property and Electronic Theses
Dr. Theo Andrew The role of this briefing paper is to raise awareness of the main issues involved when converting paper-based theses into a digital format. This change of media has many implications for the way theses are created, stored, organised, managed and accessed. This briefing paper specifically examines the agreements required by an institution when managing and storing theses in electronic format. This includes existing theses held by institutions in paper format and those presented by students electronically (born digital). These agreements typically involve those which may need to be obtained from the author, the institution or some other third party. A number of sample agreements are presented, which are intended to be adapted to suit an individual institution’s circumstances.
Preservation Management of Digital Materials: A Handbook
Illustrating the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and the 1993 Amendments (1997), the author describes Maxwell’s Guide to Authority Work “as a manual for authority work.” (p. 85) This goal is successfully met in this volume, which contains 12 chapters. Ten of these chapters (Chapters 2-11) form the core of the volume, each discussing in detail the main aspects of authority control. Chapter 2, on the governing rules and standards of authority work, including AACR2, LCRI and MARC 21, provides a good foundation on which to build the subsequent chapters which outline procedures, control of names, uniform titles, series and terms. Each chapter is clearly written, and the material is presented in an engaging manner. The text includes many helpful examples and figures. Each chapter includes notes on references to sources and statements of elaboration by the author. The volume also includes a glossary of acronyms and an index. Perhaps what is most surprising about this volume is how well Maxwell presents the material for the non-practitioner. He offers two very compelling chapters, 1 and 12, which offer convincing arguments for the relevance and placement of authority control in userfocused information organizations, describing not only the necessity for authority control, but also its impact on other library processes, such as acquisition of material. The core chapters, while containing a plethora of specific examples and possible challenges to be encountered in the application of authority control to the library catalog, are equally rich in demonstrating the impact of authority work in all areas of user-focused information discovery. So, while this volume is a must for catalogers of all levels, it is also source for all library professionals, teaching us that “authority work is important if a library wishes its users to have full access to its collections.”
Efficacy for Dealing With Terrorism Precautionary Behavior: Laying the Groundwork for Communication Effectiveness
In order to formulate effective communication and intervention strategies to respond to the widespread lack of preparedness for public health crises resulting from natural and human-made disasters, researchers have developed models describing the interrelationships between factors associated with emergency preparedness decisions. Empirical research has generally assumed that two key elements of most health behavior theories—self-efficacy and response efficacy—additively influence the decision to prepare, despite compelling theoretical rationale for an interactive relationship. The few studies that have investigated interactions in preparedness outcomes have not tested the Social Cognitive Theory prediction that non-zero levels of both efficacy types are required before individuals will engage in any preparedness behavior. Based on the responses of 3,101 participants in the National Survey of Disaster Experiences and Preparedness, this study tested additive, interactive, and conditional main effect hypotheses about the influence of self-efficacy and response efficacy for dealing with terrorism on preparedness due to terrorism six years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A significant self-efficacy × response efficacy interaction effect on preparedness was found, in addition to a significant response efficacy effect when perceived self-efficacy was zero, contrary to the expectation from Social Cognitive Theory. These results offer insights into the cognitive processes underlying individuals’ decisions to prepare for disasters such as terrorist attacks, and highlight the importance of considering more complex theory-based cognitive interaction models in designing effective communication strategies to facilitate individual emergency preparedness.