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This research investigates Hong Kong academic librarians' attitudes toward robotic process automation (RPA) and their willingness to learn this technology.

This qualitative study collected data through one-on-one semi-structured interviews conducted with video conferencing software. After participants received basic RPA information and three existing library application cases, they answered questions based on the interview guide. This research used the inductive thematic analysis method to analyze the collected data.

Regarding Hong Kong academic librarians' attitudes towards RPA, 19 themes were identified. Although all participants did not have previous knowledge of RPA, most showed positive attitudes toward implementing RPA in their libraries and some willingness to learn it. Besides, among all identified themes, negative attitudes mainly comprised “Affect” and “Cognition” factors, hindering RPA deployment in academic libraries.

This research helps librarians and RPA vendors make better decisions or strategies for implementing RPA for libraries, which has not been explored, especially in East Asia.

This paper discusses why the MARC21‐based authority format has failed in a global setting and details the use of XML and its related technologies to achieve global name access control.

The purpose of this paper is to document Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's (HKUST's) experiences in developing its Institutional Repository and to highlight its programming developments in full‐text linking and indexing, and cross institutional searching.

This paper describes how HKUST Library planned and set up its institutional repository, how it acquired and processed the scholarly output, and what procedures and guidelines were established. It also discusses some new developments in systems, including the implementation of OpenURL linking from the pre‐published version in the repository to the published sources; the partnership with Scirus to enable full‐text searching; and the development of a cross‐searching platform for institutional repositories in Hong Kong.

The paper reveals what and why some policy issues should be adopted, including paper versioning, authority control, and withdrawal of items. It notes what proactive approaches should be adopted to harvest research output. It also shows how programming work can be done to provide usage data, facilitate searching and publicize the repository so that scholarly output can be more accessible to the research community.

The paper provides a very useful case study for other academic libraries who want to develop their own institutional repositories.

HKUST is an early implementer of institutional repositories in Asia and its unique experience in policy issues, harvesting contents, standardization, software customization, and measures adopted in enhancing global access will be useful to similar institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a collaborative project on issuing a library card for common access among all eight higher education libraries in Hong Kong.

The project was undertaken by two committees and a task force of cross-institutional membership. The new common library card adopts the “patron-record-on-demand model,” reducing the risks involved in patron data transfer across institutions. Historical narrative combined with usage analysis from the launch date of the project was outlined.

The new common library cards were well received. About 63 percent of old cards were replaced by new ones. New applications jumped 43 percent while physical access to host libraries increased by 8 percent during the reporting period.

This paper describes in detail the processes of developing a common barcode, an automated card registration system and the issuing of the common library cards. Libraries pursuing an efficient way of sharing library resources will be inspired by the level of collaboration involved in this project.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the input- and output-specific technical inefficiency of Vietnamese prawn-rice rotational crops (PRRC) and to identify the impacts of the socio-economic characteristics of farmers and farms on these technical inefficiencies.

This study first used a Russell-type (input-output) directional distance function to estimate the input- and output-specific technical inefficiency. Second, it applied a bootstrap truncated regression to analyze the factors influencing these technical inefficiencies. Data were gathered through a survey among 94 farmers, from Ben Tre and Kien Giang provinces, the two popular PRRC areas in the Mekong Delta.

Results show that Vietnamese PRRC farmers could reduce the water surface area by 3%, the use of seedlings by 15%, labor by 16%, fertilizers by 26%, and the use of others by 24%, while simultaneously increasing the revenue of farming system by 57% relative to the variable returns to scale (VRS) frontier. Farmers with more years of experience are generally better in managing the use of seedlings and in improvement of revenue. Farmers in Kien Giang province are more efficient in achieving revenue of the PRRC farming system than farmers in Ben Tre province.

Outcomes of this study are useful to identify strategies in minimizing the use of inputs while simultaneously maximizing PRRC production.

This paper relates to the comparison of two mostly different ecological zones, being the dominant production areas of PRRC, in which, Kien Giang represents the western part, while Ben Tre is in the eastern part of the Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The findings not only expand the current understanding but also suggest various meaningful research questions regarding the development of Vietnamese PRRC under the impacts of climate change. The study also contributes to the literature on examining the input- and output-specific technical inefficiencies and influencing factors.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This study aims to examine the relationship between human resource development (HRD) and the interaction between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and marketing capabilities in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry.

This research uses the extended regression model on a sample of 2,649 food SMEs in Vietnam.

This research found that CSR and marketing strategies positively influence HRD; the interaction of CSR and marketing capabilities has a negative effect on HRD; the endogenous role of network capabilities on the effects of CSR and marketing capabilities on HRD.

This research helps food companies use their resources in allocating resources for CSR and conduct marketing reasonably and effectively. This study highlights that the impact of CSR and marketing on HRD is dominated by endogenous networking.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.