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This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of Chinese genealogical research in the United States with major emphasis on coordination and resource sharing with a global perspective, especially between the United States and China. It starts with an overview of Chinese genealogical and immigration history and provides an introduction to current trends in Chinese American genealogical research. The paper proceeds with discussions on various research barriers while doing research on the Chinese genealogical collections. The major section of this paper contains strategies for resource sharing and cooperative collection development in Chinese genealogies and offers recommendations for the cooperation and resource sharing of Chinese genealogical materials in the United States and China. The paper concludes with concerns on administrative responsibilities and recommendations for the future on implementation issues. A bibliography of suggested readings from books, articles, and Web resources is offered at the end of this paper for further consultation and research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

OhioLINK, one of the leading academic library consortia in the US, marks its 30th anniversary in 2022. This paper, the second of two parts, reviews the organization's history through selected formative milestones and provides observations about the evolution of the consortium from its current executive director, revealing the importance of expanding cost-effective and easy access to scholarly resources, economies of scale, pushing technology, and a focus on the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the return of results (ROR) in precision medicine research (PMR) has become increasingly routine. Calls for individual rights to research results have extended the "duty to report" from clinically useful genetic information to traits and ancestry results. ROR has thus been reframed as inherently beneficial to research participants, without a needed focus on who benefits and how. This paper addresses this gap, particularly in the context of PMR aimed at increasing participant diversity, by providing investigator and researcher perspectives on and questions about the assumed value of ROR in PMR. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of investigators and researchers across federally funded PMR studies in three national consortia, as well as observations of study activities, focused on how PM researchers conceptualize diversity and implement inclusive practices across research stages, including navigating ROR. Interviewees (1) validated the value of ROR as a benefit of PMR, while others (2) questioned the benefit of clinically actionable results to individuals in the absence of sufficient resources for translating findings into health care for diverse and disadvantaged populations; (3) expressed uncertainties in applying the presumed value of ROR as a benefit for non-clinical results; and (4) and debated when the promise of the value of ROR may undermine trust in PMR, and divert efforts to return value beyond ROR. Conceptualizations of diversity and inclusion among PM researchers and investigators raise unique ethical questions where unexamined assumptions of the value of ROR inform study recruitment efforts to enroll minoritized and under-represented populations. A lack of consideration for resources and infrastructure necessary to translate ROR into actionable information may hinder trustworthy community-research relationships. Thus, we argue for a more intentional interrogation of ROR practices as an offer of benefit and for whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet surveillance has become a crucial issue for journalism. The "Snowden moment" has shed light on the risks that journalists and their sources face while communicating online and has shown how journalists themselves can be targets of surveillance operations or other forms of malicious digital attacks from different actors. More recent revelations, such as those coming from the "Pegasus Project", have underlined even more dangerous threats posed to the safety of journalists, increasingly targeted with spyware technology. Due to the sensitivity of their work and sources and given their strong "watchdog" role in democracies, investigative reporters are in a particularly dangerous position when it comes to the potential chilling effects of surveillance on their work of journalists. This paper analyzes investigative journalists' views and self-reflections on the impacts of Internet surveillance on their work by means of in-depth qualitative interviews with reporters affiliated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and working in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. The paper touches on different angles of the Internet surveillance issue by analyzing journalists' concerns about national and international surveillance players and the overall impact of surveillance on news work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Critical Making Responsibility Framework. The framework has been developed by the Critical Making consortium in order to analyze responsible innovation processes in grassroots innovation, specifically in the practice of making. The paper builds on a literature review to highlight the shortcomings of current Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) frameworks' relevance towards grassroots innovation practices, and conversely, the lack of scientific understanding on ethics and responsibility in making. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a combination of the dimensions of the Grassroots Innovation Movements (GIM) analytical framework and the RRI capacity dimensions. Finally, the outlook reflects upon how the framework will be utilized in hands-on ways to support the work of academic and non-academic co-researchers of reflexive maker practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OhioLINK, one of the leading academic library consortia in the United States, marks its 30th anniversary in 2022. This paper, the first of two parts, reviews the organization's history through selected formative milestones and provides observations about the evolution of the consortium from its current executive director, revealing the importance of expanding cost-effective and easy access to scholarly resources, economies of scale, pushing technology, and a focus on the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SMEs in post catching-up economies are assumed to possess high tech (science-based) business savvy with which to innovate new business models. Businesses operating without it are encouraged to commit and contribute to a coordinated R&D consortium – or risk missing the boat in the process of developing niches. In our view, it is fallacious to be preoccupied with coordinated joint R&D and patenting activities in construing the importance of science and leading SME growth agendas. This paper seeks to provide a rich and robust narrative, with the goal of bringing qualitative rigour to our typology and discovering contextual details that might be overlooked in proposing such development measures. We used two authoritative cases to uncover the dynamics and dilemmas of SMEs during times of change. This paper sheds light on why desirable results might not result from narrating the importance of science and intellectual capital for SMEs, or from seeding a routine for patenting and science-related business venturing. The inherent characteristics highlighted for traditional and IT-software based SMEs in Taiwan lead us to dwell deeper on what led to emergence of SMEs – and what could result from different industrial migration rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to break new ground by empirically investigating the relationship between cooperating entities, local government institutions and transaction costs and its effect on cost efficiency for water services through consortia in Brazilian local government. Drawing on an institutional and transaction cost framework, our results show that the institutional arrangements employed in water service provision have had a significant effect on cost efficiency, measured by total expenditure per user, between 2011 to 2019. Through a Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE), we found that cost efficiency increases slowly for those units performing under bureaucracies and faster under public enterprises. In all instances, dedicated asset specificities and contract management complexity explained differences in water service provision cost efficiency. These findings have theoretical significance as well as significant public policy implications for intermunicipal cooperative agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American Medical Association formed the Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium through grants to effect change in medical education. The dissemination of educational innovations through scholarship was a priority. The objective of this study was to explore the patterns of collaboration of educational innovation through the consortium's publications. Publications were identified from grantee schools' semi-annual reports. Each publication was coded for the number of citations, Altmetric score, domain of scholarship, and collaboration with other institutions. Social network analysis explored relationships at the midpoint and end of the grant. Over five years, the 32 Consortium institutions produced 168 publications, ranging from 38 papers from one institution to no manuscripts from another. The two most common domains focused on health system science (92 papers) and competency-based medical education (30 papers). Articles were published in 54 different journals. Forty percent of publications involved more than one institution. Social network analysis demonstrated rich publishing relationships within the Consortium members as well as beyond the Consortium schools. In addition, there was growth of the network connections and density over time. The Consortium fostered a scholarship network disseminating a broad range of educational innovations through publications of individual school projects and collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population-based prevalence surveys are essential for decision-making on interventions to achieve trachoma elimination as a public health problem. This paper outlines the methodologies of Tropical Data, which supports work to undertake those surveys. Tropical Data is a consortium of partners that supports health ministries worldwide to conduct globally standardised prevalence surveys that conform to World Health Organization recommendations. Founding principles are health ministry ownership, partnership and collaboration, and quality assurance and quality control at every step of the survey process. Support covers survey planning, survey design, training, electronic data collection and fieldwork, and data management, analysis and dissemination. Methods are adapted to meet local context and needs. Customisations, operational research and integration of other diseases into routine trachoma surveys have also been supported. Between 29th February 2016 and 24th April 2023, 3373 trachoma surveys across 50 countries have been supported, resulting in 10,818,502 people being examined for trachoma. This health ministry-led, standardised approach, with support from the start to the end of the survey process, has helped all trachoma elimination stakeholders to know where interventions are needed, where interventions can be stopped, and when elimination as a public health problem has been achieved. Flexibility to meet specific country contexts, adaptation to changes in global guidance and adjustments in response to user feedback have facilitated innovation in evidence-based methodologies, and supported health ministries to strive for global disease control targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study will discuss the impact pathways associated with a practice-led impact and engagement project based in the Pacific through the establishment of The Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium. The project aims to support community-based and participatory media production as a creative and credible approach to influencing policy and communities in relation to gender inequality and gender-based violence in the region. The project commissioned and produced a slate of eight films, Film4Gender, by Pacific filmmakers on the theme of gender-based violence, gender inequality and Pacific responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The project aims to give visibility to and build capacity amongst a network of Pacific community-based filmmakers and organisations whose work with communities addresses gender inequality in vernacular terms, with local participation and frames of reference. Supporting their work opens up alternative routes to understanding and influencing gender inequality in the Pacific. The Consortium's approach to practice aims to foreground the potential impact of processes of production and distribution of Pacific-made films on individuals, institutions and communities. Drawing on interviews with the filmmakers, this paper demonstrates how some of the project's first-year impact pathways reflect broader concerns of sustainability of practice and development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, several key works in medical education predicted the changes necessary to train modern physicians to meet current and future challenges in health care, including the standardization of learning outcomes paired with individualized learning processes. The reframing of a medical expert as a flexible, adaptive team member and change agent, effective within a larger system and responsive to the community's needs, requires a new approach to education: competency-based medical education (CBME). CBME is an outcomes-based developmental approach to ensuring each trainee's readiness to advance through stages of training and continue to grow in unsupervised practice. Implementation of CBME with fidelity is a complex and challenging endeavor, demanding a fundamental shift in organizational culture and investment in appropriate infrastructure. This paper outlines how member schools of the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium developed and implemented CBME, including common challenges and successes. Critical supporting factors include adoption of the master adaptive learner construct, longitudinal views of learner development, coaching, and a supportive learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study to assess the Orbis Cascade Alliance's print collection for material supporting the Black experience. It covers descriptions of general methods used for collection assessment as well as those used to assess the Alliance including Brief Tests, List Checking, and Comparison Studies. Each method is described with its strengths and weaknesses as well as their application to a consortium of libraries with Black experience being the subject matter of the material collected. These methods can be used for other multidisciplinary topics. Issues with subject headings, publishing, acquisitions, and racism emerged during the study and are covered in the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the materials acquired during a consortial PDA pilot; which of the books are still being used, by which institutions, whether the size of a participating institution or the subject of a book have impact on the continued use of the books, and if there is a relationship between the schools that triggered a PDA purchase and the schools that have gone on to use a given title. Findings suggest that models involving some library mediation may be more effective in meeting the various needs of participating institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project ReShare is a community-driven effort to build an open-source, highly scalable resource sharing platform that supports the research lifecycle from discovery through fulfillment. The project's initial focus will be on designing tools to facilitate reciprocal borrowing agreements within library consortia, including a shared index, request management system, and workflows for unmediated borrowing. This paper introduces ReShare and describes how the project partners are working to improve the resource sharing experience for library users and staff. It provides background about the project, describes development goals and progress, and addresses future possibilities for ReShare beyond its initial release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Libraries formed the BTAA Library E-Resource Accessibility Group. This group, which consists of members from each Big Ten library and the BTAA Library Initiatives staff, was charged with creating boilerplate accessibility license language for vendor contracts, as well as collectively funding high level accessibility testing of e-resources and posting these publicly for all libraries and users. Since the creation of the group, about 50 databases have been tested and accessibility license language has been created that can be used and adapted by anyone. In 2019, the group welcomed another consortia, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), to be partners in this work, renaming themselves the Library Accessibility Alliance. This paper examines the mission, accomplishments, and new partnership in more depth while also discussing the need for focused efforts to help ensure accessible e-resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possibilities for the recovery of non-ferrous and precious metals from Kapan polymetallic mine tailings (Armenia) were studied. The aim of this paper was to study the possibilities of bioleaching of samples of concentrated tailings by the natural microbial consortium of drainage water. The extent of extraction of metals from the samples of concentrated tailings by natural microbial consortium reached 41–55% and 53–73% for copper and zinc, respectively. Metal leaching efficiencies of pure culture Leptospirillum ferrooxidans Teg were higher, namely 47–93% and 73–81% for copper and zinc, respectively. The content of gold in solid phase of tailings increased about 7–16% and 2–9% after bio-oxidation process by L. ferrooxidans Teg and natural microbial consortium, respectively. It was shown that bioleaching of the samples of tailings could be performed using the natural consortium of drainage water. However, to increase the intensity of the recovery of valuable metals, natural consortium of drainage water combined with iron-oxidizing L. ferrooxidans Teg has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2017 the California State University system of twenty-four libraries started an unmediated interlibrary loan service for print materials, known as CSU+. This paper examines four years of interlibrary loan data, from two years before CSU+'s launch to two years after, to explore the impact of the new service on interlibrary loan usage. The data shows that CSU + dramatically increased interlibrary loan use across the California State University system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian university library members of two consortial e-journal deals were surveyed to determine how many of the corresponding print journals had been cancelled as a result of their participation in the online package purchase. The survey indicated that the number of concurrent print subscriptions held by the libraries had notably decreased. This paper considers possible effects and presents two options, with examples, for archiving of print journals: (1) distributed print archiving, and (2) back-up repositories. The questions of what this means for access services and what- if anything- needs to be done are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Managing coalition networks of organisations is gradually becoming more complex and challenging as the current trends of the market conditions are becoming more dynamic. The dynamism nature is experienced in many aspects including: advances in technologies, rising demand of resources for each opportunity, growing volatility of opportunities, and so forth. Owing to advances in digital technology, emerging breakthrough solutions responding to market needs are becoming increasingly innovative and complex. A large amount of resources, competencies, skills, etc. are required to accomplish such solutions, usually beyond capabilities and capacities of a single organisation. The emergence of coalition networks of organisations as breeding environments for creation of temporary consortiums has enhanced the possibility of success for organisations by facilitating their collaborations. One obstacle to configuration of such consortiums as well as collaboration has been the difficulty in assessing the trust level of potential partners. So far, the assessment of trust level has been performed manually by organisations and in an ad hoc manner, which is both time consuming and hardly produces accurate results. Consequently, the formation of collaborative initiatives in the form of temporary consortiums has become more challenging and organisations are reluctant to work with each other. This paper addresses the supervised automation of the assessment of trust level of organisations in coalition networks to smoothen the formation of temporary consortiums. It first presents the concepts of a system developed to support the management of long-term coalition networks of organisations. It then addresses the design and development of Trust Management system by focusing its analysed specifications, designed architectures and applied implementation aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) is a membership association with a mission "to provide enduring global access to Catholic research resources in the Americas." This article shares the history of the CRRA from its founding by eight Catholic academic research libraries through today with a membership of 45 institutions. Signature projects include the Catholic Portal, CRRA Subject Guides, the Catholic Newspapers Program, and the Catholic News Archive. The article focuses on how the mission has remained a constant anchor for the organization through projects, membership, and governance have changed overtime and in tandem to fulfill that mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research capacity enhancement is needed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for improved health, wellbeing, and health systems' development. In this article, we discuss two capacity-building projects, the African/Asian Regional Capacity Development (ARCADE) in Health Systems and Services Research (HSSR) and Research on Social Determinants of Health (RSDH), implemented from 2011 to 2015. The two projects focussed on providing courses in HSSR and social determinants of health research, and on developing collaborations between universities, along with capacity in LMIC universities to manage research grant submissions, financing, and reporting. Both face-to-face and sustainable online teaching and learning resources were used in training at higher postgraduate levels (Masters and Doctoral level). Design: We collated project meeting and discussion minutes along with project periodic reports and deliverables. We extracted key outcomes from these, reflected on these in discussions, and summarised them for this paper. Results: Nearly 55 courses and modules were developed that were delivered to over 920 postgraduate students in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Junior researchers were mentored in presenting, developing, and delivering courses, and in preparing research proposals. In total, 60 collaborative funding proposals were prepared. The consortia also developed institutional capacity in research dissemination and grants management through webinars and workshops. Discussion: ARCADE HSSR and ARCADE RSDH were comprehensive programmes, focussing on developing the research skills, knowledge, and capabilities of junior researchers. One of the main strengths of these programmes was the focus on network building amongst the partner institutions, where each partner brought skills, expertise, and diverse work cultures into the consortium. Through these efforts, the projects improved both the capacity of junior researchers and the research environment in Africa, Asia, and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its beginnings in the 19th century, the liner shipping industry has shown specific peculiarities characterized by close collaboration between sea carriers. This cooperation has materialized through various types of inter-firm agreements that have been exempted from the key principles of competition law. Recently, strong criticism has emerged against strategic alliances and related agreements that rule a concentrated market where operators are strongly interrelated and increasingly integrated. However, the maritime management literature so far has given little attention to the concrete provisions of these agreements, which still appear as 'black boxes.' To fill this gap, we collected 61 enforced cooperative agreements registered with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission from 1973 to 2020 using a three-way comparison through legal, linguistic, and business lenses of the differences between older and newer types of agreements. We underline the key temporal evolutions of these contracts and show how ocean carriers have incorporated new legal constraints and strategic needs driven by structural market changes toward greater logistics integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychiatric disorders tend to be developmental, and longitudinal settings are required to examine predictors of psychiatric phenomena. Replicating and combining data and results from different birth cohorts, which are a source of reliable data, can make research even more valuable. The Finnish Psychiatric Birth Cohort Consortium (PSYCOHORTS) project combines birth cohorts in Finland. Aim: The aim of this paper is to introduce content, plans and perspectives of the PSYCOHORTS project that brings together researchers from Finland. In addition, we illustrate an example of data harmonization using available data on causes of death. Content: PSYCOHORTS includes eight Finnish birth cohorts. The project has several plans: to harmonize different data from birth cohorts, to incorporate biobanks into psychiatric birth cohort research, to apply multigenerational perspectives, to integrate longitudinal patterns of marginalization and inequality in mental health, and to utilize data in health economics research. Data on causes of death, originally obtained from Finnish Cause of Death register, were harmonized across the six birth cohorts using SAS macro facility. Results: Harmonization of the cause of death data resulted in a total of 21,993 observations from 1965 to 2015. For example, the percentage of deaths due to suicide and the sequelae of intentional self-harm was 14% and alcohol-related diseases, including accidental poisoning by alcohol, was 13%. Conclusions: PSYCOHORTS lays the foundation for complex examinations of psychiatric disorders that is based on compatible datasets, use of biobanks and multigenerational approach to risk factors, and extensive data on marginalization and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contamination of soil by petroleum products is a global concern. Microbial-based bioremediation strategies could be cost-effective alternatives to other remediation methods; however, they should be sitetailored to guarantee effectiveness and success. The present paper illustrates data on autochthonous microbial communities in a hydrocarbon pollute soil, considering not only bacteria, but also yeasts and filamentous fungi as strains with pollutant degradation capability. The interesting strains were identified as members of the genus Pseudomonas, Rhodotorula, Yarrowia, Penicillium and Aspergillus. Preliminary tests for consortium assemblage were carried out to evaluate the selected strains as possible inoculum in biotreatment via autochthonous bioaugmentation (ABA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the decision-making processes of young people aged 13–14 years in 30 consortia across England as they chose their options for Key Stage 4 at a time when a new qualification, the 14–19 Diploma, was being introduced. It draws on data collected as part of a longitudinal national study (January 2008–August 2011) of the introduction and implementation of the 14–19 Diplomas. Few studies of young people’s decision-making have considered in detail the role played by the careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) provided in schools. High quality, impartial school CEIAG provision has historically proved elusive, yet this is often the main source of information for young people and their parents. The introduction of the 14–19 Diploma provided a critical test of the quality of CEIAG in schools delivering that qualification for the first time from September 2008. Through a series of questionnaire surveys of Year 9 learners in 30 Diploma consortia and in-depth case studies in 15 consortia, we investigated young people’s decision-making in relation to this new qualification and examined how this was influenced by their school’s CEIAG. We found variations in the quality of school CEIAG about the Diploma qualification and, amongst some groups of students, a lack of knowledge and understanding of the Diploma programme of study, and the potential progression pathways. There was also evidence that inaccurate or incomplete CEIAG affected students’ levels of satisfaction with their Diploma course. Only 46% of 477 Diploma students surveyed towards the end of their course believed they had made the right choice in Year 9. Although the 14–19 Diploma has now largely been withdrawn, the findings of this study highlight the issues and challenges facing schools as they take over responsibility for the provision of CEIAG from local authorities in September 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The time dimension has become increasingly important in organisational management studies. Various concepts have been developed: temporary work, temporary systems, projectification and temporary organisations. Many aspects have already been studied; for example, relationship structures, the characteristics of projects that temporary organisations (TOs) intend to implement and develop, legal forms, the different sectors in which TOs have been disseminated, and the degree to which they have been formalised. However, one aspect that has still not been studied in depth is the specificity of their temporariness and the specificities of the organisational, social and learning systems that this encourages. In this paper, we consider a temporary organisation as an organisation composed of teams belonging to two or more non-temporary organisations (NTOs) collaborating to achieve a certain objective and giving themselves a precise structure and roles and a set timescale established ex ante. The paper seeks to answer the following questions: What were the characteristics of the Reflect-OR project, as 'read' through a TO lens? What type of relationships take shape in TOs between the two qualities of persistence and temporariness, and what effects do these have on individual and organisational learning? In what way does the ex ante limited timescale affect participants' empowerment? How does the specificity of the TO affect social processes and the results achievable? What characteristics should a participatory and appreciative, action and reflection (PAAR) TO have, i.e., a TO that helps generate systems of activity within which learning and reflection can be appreciative, democratic, participatory and ethical? What type of project management do TOs require? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of participation in government-sponsored R&D consortia on the R&D productivity of firms in the case of robot technology in Japan. We attempt to provide a new empirical analysis and discussions on the issue of government project evaluation by investigating the impact of the evolution of government programs, and to compare government-sponsored R&D consortia with collaborative R&D among firms. Using indicators of the quality of patents, which enables us to provide an estimation of quality-adjusted research productivity, we find that participation in government programs has a positive impact on the research productivity of participating firms. Moreover, the impact of participation became much higher after the design of government programs in this field changed in the late 1990s. Also, we find that participation in government-sponsored consortia has a greater impact on research productivity than participation in collaborative R&D among firms. This may support government involvement in R&D as a coordinator of R&D collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first sight, the "big deal" seems an excellent value for academic libraries. A more thorough-going evaluation, however, exposes dangers. This paper examines the roles and strengths of the players in the information supply chain: creators, publishers, intermediaries, libraries. Traditional hard-copy procurement is analysed in terms of these roles and the concepts of authority, branding, and monopoly, and contrasted with the procurement of electronic resources. The advantages and dangers of the big deal are discussed. The latter arise mainly from tile publishers' position as monopolists. Means of minimising these dangers-consortia, alternative publishing methods, new economic models to promote competition-are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of travel agency consortia, a form of collective organization, in the relative economic performance of travel agencies. Fifty percent of the nation's agencies seek to leverage their bargaining position by aggregating their resources within a consortium. Consortia use this strength in numbers to obtain advantages for their members that are primarily associated with economies of scale. The virtually even split in consortium affiliation raises two questions as to the benefit of membership: first, whether membership in the consortium increases returns to the member travel agency, and second, does any increase in return outweigh the cost of membership. Using travel agencies within California as the subjects of this study, the paper reveals that consortium membership does indeed increase returns to the travel agency. These returns exceeded costs by a factor of almost 3 to 1. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2012 the Marmot Library Network implemented the Douglas County Library Model of ebook collection and circulation. By 2014 Marmot had loaded 838 ebooks purchased direct from publishers and independent authors to an Adobe Content Server, and made them available in an open source discovery layer based on VuFind. In late 2015, after 3 years of disappointing circulation and tedious acquisition processes, Marmot decided to move some of this collection to OverDrive and abandon the local ACS. This article reports lessons learned from that experiment. Column Editor’s NoteThis column focuses on formal collaboration and networking among libraries through consortia. It offers in-depth examinations of issues facing modern library consortia including (but not limited to) e-resource licensing, ebooks, next generation integrated library systems, shared print programs, shared digital repositories, governance, cooperative services and other relevant topics. Contributions are accepted for this column and must be submitted to George Machovec (george@coalliance.org). Contact the column editor for suggested topics, deadlines and formatting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Concern was voiced by Elders, teachers, and parents that and playtime activities of the Head Start preschool programme were not aligned with the local Alaska Native culture in their communities. Methods: The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium partnered with 12 Head Start preschool programmes, administered by Rural Alaska Community Action Program in rural Alaska, to explore with community members Alaska Native value-based solutions to the concerns they raised. Local input was gathered via focus groups, interviews, and surveys. Results: We worked together with communities to create a physical activity guide specific to preschool-age children in the region. The guide includes activity descriptions, lesson plans, flash cards, and photos of traditional Alaska Native physical activities and games specific to the region. This manuscript details the community engagement process foundational to the physical activity guide's adoption and implementation. Conclusions: The processes by which the guide was developed were strength-based and participatory. Widespread community engagement and participation led to a guide that was readily adopted because the community had taken ownership of the content. The lessons learned have been invaluable in developing long-term community-based partnerships and in setting the precedent to further incorporate local/regional culture into rural Alaska Head Start programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: University-based child development laboratory programs have a long and rich history of supporting teaching, research, and outreach activities in the child development/early childhood education fields. Although these programs were originally developed in order to conduct research on children and families to inform policy and practice, this mission has yet to be fully achieved. Practice or Policy: This paper provides an overview of the potential for 21st-century child development laboratory schools to be places that generate and disseminate new knowledge and understanding of children, families, teachers, curriculum, and classroom processes. An overview of the current context for laboratory schools is presented, outlining the challenges that limit schools’ ability to actively support comprehensive teaching, research, and outreach/engagement activities. An overview of applied developmental science is presented as a framework that can play a critical role in the future as laboratory schools strive to continue and enhance their important roles in the generation of new knowledge into the 21st century. A laboratory schools consortium is proposed as a mechanism to support knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors describe the incremental approach to the marketisation of the English National Health Service (NHS) since the introduction of an 'internal market' in 1990 until the 2010 White Paper, 'Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS', and the subsequent Health and Social Care Bill published in January 2011. The introduction of a competitive market for a universal, tax-financed health system requires fundamental changes in regulation in order that market bureaucracy can be substituted for direct management. The components of reform are insufficiently captured by the framework of hierarchies and networks in new public management theories of decentralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Carolina Information and Library Services Consortium (SCILS) began with three public two-year college libraries in 1995. Since then, nine other public two-year college libraries have joined SCILS. In 2004, Sirsi's buyout of Data Research Associates (DRA) in 2001 was the impetus for SCILS to migrate to Sirsi. Migration to a more dynamic ILS resulted in many comprehensive technical services policy and procedural changes within SCILS. This paper traces the founding of SCILS through its subsequent growth within the context of ILS migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Practicum Partnership Program (PPP), an innovative field education model developed and implemented by six demonstration sites over four years (2000-2004), uses a structured university-community partnership, or consortium, as the foundation for designing, implementing, and evaluating internships for graduate social work students specializing in aging. This paper describes the site consortia and PPP programs, presents evaluation findings, and identifies future directions for the PPP. Student learning outcomes were positive and both students and consortia agencies reported positive PPP experiences. The PPP model underscores the value of the community agencies as equal partners in educating future geriatric social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a plethora of different security standards proposed by a range of standards consortia, including the IETF, W3C, and OASIS. There are also sometimes multiple configuration settings for a given security specification. In a heterogeneous open service environment, the variety of security standards and possible settings used can hinder security interoperability, because a common security configuration may not be able to be agreed upon in advance. In this paper, we have developed a generic security model expressed in an XML extension (DAML) and have investigated how to ground this in order to reuse the security specifications from various standards consortia. We have applied this model to support security discovery and dynamic security reconfiguration for use within open service infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research consortia have played an important role in the economic success of several East Asian countries. This paper looks at the ways these consortia - which are created for strategic rather than cost-saving purposes - have evolved over time. Three models for institutional learning are suggested, and three case studies are presented of research consortia in each model. The cases demonstrate the centrality of learning in facilitating the development then transition from innovation diffusion capabilities to innovation generation capabilities in East Asian firms. Cases are provided of the Samsung Electronics in Korea, the clusters of firms that are associated with ITRI in Taiwan, and the technological development of Ericsson China. Reference is made to the use of institutional innovations in the East Asian context such as patent pools that supplement more conventional forms of R&D collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional and/or small off-campus academic libraries are seeking effective collection development practices in order to serve their diverse students and faculty needs. Should materials requested by users carry a significant weight in the selection process of the library's collection? This paper describes a collection development study conducted at the Shady Grove Library, a branch of the University of Maryland Libraries. A "Hold Shelf Study" was used to gauge the incoming books by subjects, thus measuring the user demand by subject categories. This article reports the outcomes of the study, which include some predicted trends as well as unpredicted results for high demand in minor subjects/discipline areas. This research project may assist regional and/or off-campus education center libraries in designing a more "customized" collection development plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As electronic journals, or e-journals, have become more prevalent, publishers, libraries, and users have all had to adapt to a new paradigm, to new methods for publishing, acquiring, providing access to, preserving, and searching for research articles. Publishers offer new and constantly changing subscription and pricing models, and the prices of many commercial journals have been increasing at rates far exceeding the rate of inflation. The resulting budget crunch has driven significant changes in the way libraries develop their collections as they strive to reformulate their traditional role as provider and preserver of information. Some libraries are working more in consortium with other libraries to purchase large bundled journal packages now offered as one of the new subscription models developed by publishers. While this appears to be a win-win situation for libraries and users in the consortium, potential drawbacks to e-journals and the big bundled packages may impact libraries and researchers alike. This study investigates some of the potential effects of a move toward e-journal only collections, large bundled journal packages, and consortial purchasing including archival, economic, content, and research impact issues. Future predictions are difficult in the current, rapidly changing scholarly publishing environment, but a number of initiatives provide hope for the future of academic libraries and their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general term biomineralisation refers to biologically induced mineralisation in which an organism modifies its local microenvironment creating conditions such that there is chemical precipitation of mineral phases extracellularly. Most usually this results from an oxidation or reduction carried out by some microbial species, with the formation of a recognised biomineralised product. These reactions play a major role in microbial physiology and ecology, and are of central importance to such engineering consequences as microbial mining and microbially influenced corrosion. This paper will examine metal microbe interactions, both in naturally occurring microbial ecosystems and in two particular cases of biocorrosion, with the objective of putting forward a unifying hypothesis relevant to the understanding of each of these apparently disparate processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict sensitivity/Do No Harm (DNH) in development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding practice - reflections and emerging trends [special issue editorial] This special issue focuses on the understanding and application of two closely related concepts, "do no harm" (DNH) and "conflict sensitivity", and their critical engagement in the academic literature. These are the questions that motivated us, as three guest editors, to devote a special issue of I Development in Practice i (DIP) to exploring the extent of implementation and success of conflict sensitivity/DNH. From this perspective, conflict sensitivity/DNH is a success story that is recognised as a good practice to which all actors in the development, humanitarian and peacebuilding fields should adhere. [Extracted from the article]

This practice note seeks to explore how an indigenously-led consortium of national and international organisations has engaged conflict sensitivity in its triple nexus programming, with a special focus on advancing durable solutions for internally displaced people and how the consortium leverages partnerships to ensure conflict-sensitive programming. It will use the Durable Peace Programme, an EU-funded initiative in northeast Myanmar as a case study. The note shall provide reflections on learning to date about conflict-sensitive practices and tools, especially in light of the Myanmar Military's seizure of power in February 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aligning technological innovation with societal needs is a key concern for knowledge economies. Integrating ethical, legal, and social inquiry into research and development consortia that drive innovation processes has thus become common practice. Ethnographic research in consortia is one such practice. Here, these cover three cases of open ethnographic engagement within R&D consortia in the field of medical and rehabilitation technology. Rather than executing a preconfigured plan, these ethnographic intraventions explored emerging frictions that arose from observant participation within the fast science of dominant workflows in technological R&D. Curating these emerging frictions within the consortia produced what Ludwig Fleck called 'Widerstandsavisos', or signals of resistance. Widerstandsavisos disrupt dominant workflows by introducing methodological openness, fostering critical reflection on sampling approaches, placing the focus on actual practices, and engaging in anthropological concept work. The curation of Widerstandsavisos fosters reflexive awareness among members of consortia and opens a space for mutual learning: to produce new knowledge, alter problem framings, and reshape devices. Advancing ongoing discussions on midstream modulation, situated interventions and multimodal anthropology, such ethnographic intraventions present a different means of generating the capacity to address societal needs as well as responsibilities and relevance from within such consortia rather than as strategic interventions from the outside. Intraventions are, however, a risky practice as they produce ethnographic excess that is not easily controlled or directed within the bounds of R&D consortia. This uncertainty is a form of creativity that should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the way firms participating in R&D consortia can benefit from the outcome of common R&D. More specifically, it is suggested that R&D consortia, which are part of the European EUREKA initiative, provide appropriate organizational structures for the creation of new knowledge and competencies. This qualitative research shows that both the function provided to the consortium and in-house capabilities help partners to create resources thanks to co-operative R&D. The links between R&D co-operative outcomes and both the organizational design of the consortium and the internal capabilities of member firms are of general interest for all companies involved in comparable types of consortia and, more generally, in technological partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SMEs of perishable product supply chains (PPSCs) are critical to sustaining fresh food supply and global economy. However, they face immense challenges given the nature of their operations. Surprisingly, the literature lacks research on the distinct intra- and inter-organisational factors intertwined to build resilience in these firms. From the semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 managers of a PPSC in Australia, we developed a holistic framework to build resilience in SMEs of PPSCs. The findings offer novel insights into research and practice including an optimal portfolio of enablers, barriers and risks towards building resilience. The analysis reveals that most risks stem from the factors that are internal to the supply chain, thus necessitating a strong supply chain collaboration. The level of resilience, barriers and risks varies considerably within SMEs depending on their size (small vs. medium) and location of nodes in the supply chain. Interestingly, the SMEs with consortium support demonstrate better resilience and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-site reciprocal access to libraries is a valuable benefit of consortial membership. This article details its advantages, offers a sample of some ways in which consortia facilitate such access and reviews the work of the authors, within the SHARES consortium, in this area. Relevant challenges to creating policies, as well as suggestions about how to determine best practices, will also be offered for librarians and their partners to consider and build upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the current expansion of vector-based research and an increasing number of facilities rearing arthropod vectors and infecting them with pathogens, common measures for containment of arthropods as well as manipulation of pathogens are becoming essential for the design and running of such research facilities to ensure safe work and reproducibility, without compromising experimental feasibility. These guidelines and comments were written by experts of the Infravec2 consortium, a Horizon 2020-funded consortium integrating the most sophisticated European infrastructures for research on arthropod vectors of human and animal diseases. They reflect current good practice across European laboratories with experience of safely handling different mosquito species and the pathogens they transmit. As such, they provide experience-based advice to assess and manage the risks to work safely with mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit. This document can also form the basis for research with other arthropods, for example, midges, ticks or sandflies, with some modification to reflect specific requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Nanotechnology applications are fast-growing in many industrial fields. Consequently, health effects of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) should be investigated. Within the EU-Life project NanoExplore, we developed a harmonized protocol of an international multicenter prospective cohort study of workers in ENM-producing companies. This article describes the development of the protocol, sample size calculation, data collection and management procedures and discusses its relevance with respect to research needs. Within this protocol, workers' ENM exposure will be assessed over four consecutive working days during the initial recruitment campaign and the subsequent follow-up campaigns. Biomonitoring using noninvasive sampling of exhaled breath condensate (EBC), exhaled air, and urine will be collected before and after 4-day exposure monitoring. Both exposure and effect biomarkers, will be quantified along with pulmonary function tests and diagnosed diseases reported using a standardized epidemiological questionnaire available in four languages. Until now, this protocol was implemented at seven companies in Switzerland, Spain and Italy. The protocol is well standardized, though sufficiently flexible to include company-specific conditions and occupational hygiene measures. The recruitment, to date, of 140 participants and collection of all data and samples, enabled us launching the first international cohort of nanotechnology workers. All companies dealing with ENMs could join the NanoExplore Consortium, apply this harmonized protocol and enter in the cohort, concieved as an open cohort. Its protocol meets all requirements of a hypotheses-driven prospective study, which will assess and reassess effects of ENM exposure on workers' health by updating the follow-up of the cohort. New hypothesis could be also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]