Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries Essay -- Knowledge Manageme

Introduction Knowledge has become a key resource in the present information and knowledge era. Knowledge management is a concept that has emerged explosively in business organizations during the 20th century. The application of knowledge management has now spread to other organizations as well including academic libraries. Knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important for organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors, to add value to their products and to win greater satisfaction from their customers. Knowledge management is as important for libraries as for business. However in academic libraries there will be the absence of competition and money making concern. As it is already known libraries have had a long and rich experience in the management of information. Much of such knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management. But unfortunately libraries with the exception of special libraries have not paid much attention to k nowledge management. However, the environment in which academic libraries operate today is changing. Knowledge management is a viable means in which academic libraries could improve their services in the knowledge economy. According to David Blair, â€Å"Knowledge management is not so much the management of tangible assets such as data or information, but the active management and support of expertise†. Expertise exists in people and much of this kind of knowledge is tacit rather than explicit. Some of it is expressible and some of it is not. Knowledge is always restricted to people and validated in the context of application. A well-known distinction in this respect is that between explicit and tacit knowledge. Basically, tacit knowledge i... .... â€Å"Knowledge Management: Hype, Hope or Help?† Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (12):1019-1028. 2. Broadbeht, Marianne (1996). â€Å"The Phenomenon of Knowledge Management: What Does it Mean to the Information Profession?† http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/broadben.html 3. Kim, Seonghee (1999). â€Å"The Role of Knowledge Professionals for Knowledge Management†. 65th IFLA Council General Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, August 20-28. http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/papers/042-115e.htm 4. Shanhong, Tang (2000). Knowledge Management in Libraries in the 21st Century. 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, August 13-18. http://cdigital.uv.mx/bitstream/123456789/6221/2/Shanhong.pdf 5. Townley. C.T. (2001). â€Å"Knowledge Management and Academic Libraries†. College & Research Libraries, 62(1): 44-55.

Cash Flow Statement vs. Fund Flow Statement Essay

There are some basic differences between the two statements as mentioned below: Meaning: Cash flow statement is a statement which reflects sources and uses of cash whereas fund flow statement is a statement that reflects changes in the working capital or fund. Scope: The scope of cash flow is limited and it is based on the narrow concept of fund. i.e. cash alone whereas funds flow statement is a broader term and it is a wider concept of fund. Component: Under cash flow statement, cash is an important factor and it is the part of working capital whereas funds flow statement is the working capital which includes cash, stock, debtors, bills and receivables, temporary investments etc. Object: Cash flow statement is prepared to disclose only changes in cash position whereas funds flow statement is prepared to depict the changes in working capital between two balance sheet dates. Conversion or adjustments of data: Adjustments for prepaid and outstanding expenses and incomes are made in preparation of cash flow statement in order to convert the data from accrual basis to cash basis whereas while preparing funds flow statement, there is no need for such conversion as this statement gives recognition to the accrual basis. Number of statements: Under cash flow statement, only one statement is prepared whereas in the case of funds flow statement, two statements are prepared and they are: 1) schedule of working capital changes and 2) statement of sources and uses of fund. Opening and closing balance of cash: In the case of cash flow statement, the opening cash balance and closing cash balance are shown whereas in the case of funds flow statement, there is no place for showing the opening and closing balance of cash and funds flow statement. Uses: The use of cash flow statement is in financial analysis and cash planning whereas in mid-term and long-term planning, funds flow statement is useful. Cash flow statement may be worked as an indicator of improved working capital whereas in the case of funds flow statement it is not necessary that an improved funds position will be an indicator for sound cash position. Impact of changes on cash; Increase in current liability or decrease in current assets brings increase in cash and vice versa whereas in the cash of funds flow statement, working capital increase in current liabilities or decrease in current assets brings decrease in working capital and vice versa. References: http://classof1.com/homework-help/accounting-homework-help/

Thoreau, New Mexico Report

Kaitlyn Willett Thoreau, New Mexico City Report Practically all residents pronounce the town's name like â€Å"thuh-roo† (similar to â€Å"through† or â€Å"threw†) and definitely not like â€Å"thorough† or â€Å"throw. † Thoreau lies along Interstate 40 and the historic U. S. Route 66. The climate in Thoreau is desert, with sparse vegetation typical of the region. Common plants include pinyon pine and juniper trees, sagebrush, tumbleweeds, and some short, sparse grasses. Summers are relatively mild, due to Thoreau's high elevation and persistently low humidity.Cold, persistent, very high winds are common in spring, usually through much of the month of March. Thoreau supports three public schools in the Gallup-McKinley County Public School District. The public school mascot is the hawk, and the school colors are green and gold. In addition to the Navajo traditional beliefs (medicine men and Native American church) the Saint Bonaventure Catholic mis sion and several Protestant denominations are also active in Thoreau, including Baptists, Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Church of Christ, Church of God, and some independent congregations.The Native American culture and history is strong in Thoreau. The Navajo Nation operates a Chapter House here, and many Navajo residents speak their native language. Thoreau is a local trading center for artisans including rug weaving, sand painting, silver making, pottery making, and turquoise jewelry making. Anasazi archaeological sites connecting with Chaco Canyon can be found in and around the town. In Thoreau, there are only 73. 7% American Indians, 13. 3% Hispanic, and 12. 9% White. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,863 people, 532 households, and 405 families. Thoreau is your typical western setting.Hot days, cold nights, and lots of sand. Rattlesnakes and lizards are commonly found just about everywhere so you have to watch your every step. Though it gets pretty hot, the wind there will knock you down. History is all throughout Thoreau. It is home to the Navajo Indians and once to the Pueblos. The Pueblo Indian ruins are found in Chaco canyon and many are still standing. But how did the Navajo make their way to New Mexico? Starting in the spring of 1864, around 9,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced on The Long Walk of over 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It was a failure for a combination of reasons.It was designed to supply water, wood, supplies, and livestock for 4,000–5,000 people; it had one kind of crop failure after another; other tribes and civilians were able to raid the Navajo; and a small group of Apaches had been moved there. In 1868, a treaty was negotiated that allowed the surviving Navajos to return to a reservation that was a portion of their former nation. I bet almost everyone in here has never in their life heard of Thoreau, New Mexico. But though it is not commonly heard of, it is full of history and culture. To the Navaj o Indians to the huge red mountains and cliffs, it is a town worth visiting.

Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay Example for Free

Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay Week-1 The linguistic ideology at work here is founded both on the concept of the ‘mother tongue’ as well as on the ‘one nation, one language’ principle. Communities on the western side of the border are not interested in learning the language of their eastern neighbors. Eastern communities, on the other hand, are strongly motivated to learn western languages. The importance attributed to English as the ‘language of globalization’ is common to both sides. We can actually say that ‘language’ is a very hot and recurrent issue for some communities: namely the German-speaking community in Bernstein (D), the Czech-speaking community in Vejprty (CS), the German-speaking and Slovenian-speaking communities in Eisenkappel/Z? elezna Kapla (A),etc. The term ‘mother tongue’ is often used – forms the ‘way of thinking’ of its speakers, and thus the different ‘mentalities’ and ‘national characters’ are connected with the use of different languages. Many informants are convinced that it is the ‘mother tongue’ which determines thought, social behavior, and exhibition or control of affection and emotions. Thus the confrontation between languages automatically becomes a clash of mentalities. For example, the German-speaking community in Ba? renstein finds there is a relation between the insurmountable difficulty in pronouncing and learning the Czech language and the incomprehensibility of the words Czech-speaking people produce. People in western communities explain this widespread knowledge by saying that ‘the Others’ need to know my language, because my language is the superior One. We can also find indices of implicit prestige in many interview quotes, like ‘my language is useful to find a job’, ‘my language is more international than theirs’, ‘it represents a symbol of upward social mobility’; ‘the importance of my language forces them to learn it, and in this way they show practical sense, intelligence and cleverness, because they well know that the knowledge of the languages spoken on both sides of the border offers more professional and economic opportunities’. People are not generally interested in learning the language of the ‘Other’, and the reason is, as we have already seen, its ‘uselessness’, or its low value on the ‘language market’. They only learn what they need in their commercial transactions. Europe is a multilingual continent in which the tension between linguistic pluralism and assimilation is quite evident at present. Week-2 The topic for this week was â€Å"Creation of a Sense of Belonging through Language†, which we found very much interesting as we have to present our own explanation, views and thoughts. The topic is about Finland, Iceland and Latvia. Firstly we discussed about Finland that Swedish-speaking people along the coastlines, spoke a non-Scandinavian language, namely Finnish. The Finnish language was to become the most effective medium in the nation-building process as well as the most important criterion in creating an awareness of a collective identity. Language became a defining characteristic towards the ‘outside’ and a communicative driving force on the ‘inside’ within the great diversity of local and regional cultures. We could say that for the process of nation-building in Finland during the 19th century two main deficits had to be overcome: sovereign state structures had to be developed and an individual Finnish national consciousness had to be formed. In the process of spreading a Finnish national consciousness – a development often associated with the term ‘awakening’ as in a religious experience – the main focus was directed towards the common people, their language and culture. Finland’s modest cultural life, Finnish had gained the status of a modern cultural and scientific language. The civil servants, scholars, and many artists, continued to use Swedish as their language of communication and publication. But Finnish steadily gained ground. Many people were already, or became, bilingual. The accusation that Finnish was ‘too primitive’ was defeated by generating new terms, which proved that the language was innovative and possessed the potential for development. In the discussion about Iceland by Halfdanarson. The text tells a story of Icelandic nationalism and the struggle for independence of Iceland under Danish rule. Halfdanarson points out the rare case of Icelandic nationalism, and it’s non-violent nature. In fact, according to the article, both Iceland’s struggle for independence and the Danish reactions to it were both surprisingly pacific in nature, partly because of the idea of shared past and cultural heritage between the two countries. There are certain elements in common with the case study of Iceland and Herder’s text, such as the idea of mystic, shared past of a nation, the role of the single language of a social group forming the nation and so on. I think especially in cases like Iceland, language and linguistic identity have essential role in formation of national identity. Iceland is isolated, both in geographical terms as an island in the middle of Atlantic ocean and in terms of language. Although Icelandic is a language related to scandinavian languages, it still differes from them quite a lot. And lastly There was a question that is it possible to have a single language in whole Europe? We think its not possible to have a single langage in the whole Europe as there are many different countries with their own languages from last hundreds of years. In Europe, People communicate with each other using the shared language of their group. The group might be as small as a couple (married or unmarried partners, twins, mother and daughter etc. who share a ‘private’ language where only they know the meaning of some words) or as large as a nation, where everyone understands the allusions in their shared language (often allusions to shared history, to contemporary events, to media people of fact or fiction etc). The ‘secret’ language of the smallest group and the ‘public’ language of the national group are two ‘varieties’ of the same language. Every social group, large or small, has its own language variety, (regional groups have varieties of the national language (as opposed to regional or minority languages) which are usually called ‘dialects’) and there is overlap among all the varieties. However there is a possibility to use English as a second language as use of English gives a considerable advantage to the 13 % of EU citizens who are native English speakers, and to speakers of closely related languages (German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish), over all other Europeans. Week-3 In the week 3, we learned about ‘Language and subjective identity’. The two articles were on Franz Kafka and Simone de Beauvoir. Franz Kafka was German though he never lived among the Germans. He was then living in Prague, Czech. Hence Kafka knew both Czech & German languages. But, he preferred Czech Language as he was of the view that one could express his/her feeling in a better way in a particular language. In this case, he thought that Czech was a better language than German to express his feelings. Franz Kafka was in love with Czech translator Milena Jesenka. He used to demand Milena to write him letters in Czech language than German. He belived in a approach â€Å"belongs to a language†. When Milena replied his letters in Czech, he believed that Czech was much more affectionate, which removes all the uncertainties, he could see his lover more clearly, the movements of her body, her hands quickly which almost resembled as they both are meeting. This shows how Kafka prefered Czech more than German. Kafka encouraged his favourite sister Ottla in her marriage to Josef David, a Czech Catholic, against the opposition of parents and relatives, and wrote affectionately to his new brother-in-law in fluent Czech. For Prague Jews of Kafka’s generation, language and identity could be painfully dissonant. In Kafka’s case, this dissonance reached deep into his own family, conferring an alien quality on the most intimate of human relationships. Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924. He is buried beside his parents in the family plot in Prague’s New Jewish Cemetery. Simone de Beauvoir is a French Women. She was French writer, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. She gave her whole life for feminine rights and equality with men in Society. Beauvoir was an outstanding student. She did her postgraduate work at the Ecole Normale Superieure, the top postgraduate program in France, where she met Jean Paul Sartre. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Sartre was called for military service. He became a prisoner of war when the French army surrendered, but he was released and both Beauvoir and Sartre participated in the resistance, and after the Vichy Regime dismissed Beauvoir from her teaching position, she began a novel about the resistance. When the war ended, Beauvoir and Sartre became part of a group of leading French intellectuals, who concerned themselves with the perceived failures of modern French society. they founded Les Temps modernes as a means to explain their social and cultural views. At the same time, Sartre suggested to Beauvoir that she undertake a book on the status of women, and she published, La deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex). This was her most famous, and influential book. It became a sourcebook of modern feminism, particularly in the United States for later feminist thinkers such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. De Beauvoir used very specific and effective and powerful words to underline her matter. She is willing to deploy language and words towards others, because she knows about â€Å"a manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself†. Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language. (2016, Oct 22). 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Research Methods Exercise Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research Methods Exercise - Assignment Example ter a lecture where some teachers purposefully used phrases like â€Å"this concept is difficult† and other teachers taught the lecture without this phrase, students completed a survey indicating their perceived level of difficulty of the content. Directions: Read the scenarios below and identify the following about each research study. One to two words or phrases are fine for answers. This exercise will prepare us for what is to come next week when we evaluate research studies! 1. Researchers wish to examine the behaviors of college students at local bars. They hire young graduate students and train them to go to local college bars every Thursday, Friday, & Saturday night for one month and record their observations of students. To be accurate, the graduate research assistants engage in conversations with the patrons and ask if they are college students. If so, they observe & record the number of drinks consumed and flirtatious behavior over the course of the night. At the end of the month, the graduate students turn in their observations which are synthesized into a descriptive summary of college student behavior at local bars. 2. Research out of the University of Washington examines what happens when students expect to be given alcohol but are actually given a placebo drink (non-alcoholic beverage that looks and tastes like alcohol but has no alcohol in it!). Students are invited to participate in the research study. Researchers then randomly assign students to one of four conditions: 1. expect alcohol/given alcohol; 2. expect alcohol/not given alcohol; 3. not expect alcohol/given alcohol; 4. not expect alcohol/not given alcohol (see the image below for clarification). Students are then instructed to come to the â€Å"Bar Lab† (a laboratory on campus designed to look like a bar; see image below) on their assigned day. Students in the expectation conditions are told that they will be given alcohol that day and then are either given the alcohol in group 1 or given

Organizatinal Culture Profile Analysis of Imperator Slovakia Ltd Essay

Organizatinal Culture Profile Analysis of Imperator Slovakia Ltd - Essay Example Currently, Imperator manufactures 120 assorted brands. It has over 90 employees and the company continues to develop from time to time. It has maintained ISO standards since 2003. The company has been successful in the development and sale of different products around the world. Imperator has won numerous awards throughout the world and it continues to maintain high performance standards in the face of high level competition from brands from Russia and other parts of the world. The organizational vision is tied with the attainment of the best results on the international front. This is because Slovakia's location makes it a geo-strategic point. The writer of this article seeks to blend his role as a manager in the industry with the internal structures of Imperator. This paper will use organizational culture profile methodologies and tools to match the corporate systems and structures of Imperator Slovakia and how it impacts on the individual activities and capabilities of the writer and other individuals in the organization. The paper will use the models of O'Reilley et al as well as Cable and Judge. This will attempt to examine the linkages between the corporate view and the individual expectations of the company. Organizational Culture Profile Models O'Reilly et al identify that there are three core themes of organizational behavior (487). First of all, research into organizational behavior has renewed focus on person-situation constraints. In other words, organizational behavior is based on the relationship between the people of the organization and what they organizational rules, regulations and culture permit them to do or not to do at different points in time. The second emphasis is on the quantitative assessment of organizational culture. This implies that the organization uses a collective approach to identify the extent to which different features exist within an organization. This is done through the attribution of values or figures to various compone nts of organizations to ascertain the important structures that define and shape up an organization. Finally, there is the use of statistical methods to aggregate and provide definitive cultural features within organizations. In their journal, O'Reilly et al identified through longitudinal data, the components of organizational culture (487). This provided the dimensions within which different organizational cultures could be defined and predicted. This model is known as the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP). The OCP provides the fit of organizations and predicts organizational commitment and job satisfaction that exists within the organization. This paper will apply the OCP to Imperator and attempt to define the organizational culture and system. Cable and Judge on the other hand, defined the relationship between individual persons and the organizational culture or system (548). In their analysis, they identified that the person-organizational fit is important. And individuals a pply to organizations based on their personal qualities. These applicants are selected based on their unique personality and how well that personality fits into the organization (Cable and Judge 551). This paper will also use the P-O model of Imperator to define my

Saving the Manatees case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Saving the Manatees - Case Study Example Moreover, Tom had to look for sponsors to fund the advertising and campaigning costs. The national environmental protection agency donated 300,000 United States dollars to assist in creating public awareness about the bill and urge more people to vote for it (Ragsdale 137-138). A linear programming (LP) spreadsheet model would play a significant role in designing how to allocate the provided funds to different advertising agents. The spreadsheet model assists in determining the total impact of using various advertising agents, the total constraints, and the optimal solution. Description of the data The data from the spreadsheet consists of 3 columns. The first column C shows the cost per unit of the advertising medium used in U.S. dollars. The following data represents the objective variables. The objective variables work in maximizing or minimizing numerical values. The value presented on the objective cell is the expected net budget value of the project. The product of C and decisi on units I give the total cost of advertisement. The second set of data is represented by E showing per unit impact rate. This column represents the constraints. Constraints define any possible variable that a linear programming problem takes. In the data E provided, constraints represent percentage impact of using a certain medium for advertising. The next data is represented by G showing the minimum value of decisions made with the smallest advertising medium. On the other hand, column K presents data of the maximum decision a product of using large advertising mediums. Discuss the results After constructing the spreadsheet and doing calculations, the following results were arrived at. What is the optimal solution? The total impact rate was $23,515. The values for impact rate were arrived at by multiplying E with I. The total impact rate was used to calculate the optimal solution in order to decide which advertising medium would be more effective. From the model, the optimal solut ion was arrived at by the following calculation. X = 300,000/A (1+2+3+4+†¦.n) + B (1+2+3+4†¦n) =300,000/ (299,800 + 23,515) = 0.927 The following results indicate that 92.7% of the total budget would be well utilized by the advertising mediums proposed by Tom. The following turn out is very pleasing and Tom was likely to receive many votes towards the policy. Of the constraints tom placed on this problem, which are preventing the objective function from being improved further? On the other hand, Tom placed some constraints that prevented further improvement the objective function. The objective function on full-page Sunday paper and 30-second radio spot are in significant because they cost a lot and serve the same purposes as the half-page Sunday magazine and 15-second radio spot respectively. In addition, long magazine advertisements are sometimes boring and time consuming and most people by pass them. The absence of such constraints would give Tom an opportunity to incor porate other advertising mediums like online ads. The marketing consultant provided short TV ads during the evening prime-time hours as the most effective medium of advertising. Suppose Tom was willing to increase the allowable number of evening TV ads. How much would this improve the solution? Improving the number of evening TV ads would cause a positive effect on the advertisement and increase the value of $23,515 into a higher level. Increased evening TV ads increases the impact rate since a high number of