Volume 70, Issue 2 -

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which parents of children aged 10–12 are aware that cyberbullying is a widespread phenomenon, how they deal with acts of cyberbullying performed by or toward their child, whether they take active steps toward preventing cyberbullying by and/or toward their child, and to what extent they are willing to invade their child’s privacy to this end. The study employs a quantitative methodology. One hundred and thirty-three parents were selected from a convenient sample of parents of children in grades 4–6 in a number of public elementary schools. It was found that most parents have heard about cyberbullying, mainly through the various media and not as a result of communicating with their child. Although parents understand that there are psychological effects on victims and criminal consequences for aggressors, most do not deepen their knowledge on the issue. Most parents assume that they can control the phenomenon and distance their child from it and that their child was not involved in cyberbullying. These findings contrast with findings from other studies indicating that most children were involved in cyberbullying to a certain degree. Identifying the reason behind this gap and ways to decrease it requires further investigation. Many studies have focused on cyberbullying among adolescents (ages 13–17) and less so on children aged 10–12. In this study, we chose to focus on children aged 10–12 because evidence indicates that children in this age group are more exposed to the phenomenon.

In this study, we explore a strategy to strengthen the library’s role of enhancing the quality of life for residents by identifying relationships between user satisfaction with library services and their quality of life. Questionnaires were distributed to public library users and normal distribution (skewness and kurtosis) and reliability of the measurement tools were validated. The results of this study show that satisfaction with the library staff has a positive influence on the participants’ living satisfaction, self-efficacy, and emotional stability. Second, an evaluation of their satisfaction with the library overall showed a significantly positive influence on their living satisfaction as well positive thinking. In conclusion, investment in libraries leads the public to be satisfied with their overall life, think of their future positively, have confidence to perform their roles successfully, and gain a sense of freedom with continuing stability.

The Japanese government has initiated lifelong learning policies to promote lifelong learning to a super-aging society. It is said that lifelong learning contributes to a richer and more fulfilling life. It is within this context that public libraries have been identified as ideal facilities for promoting lifelong learning. To support lifelong learning successfully, libraries must accurately grasp citizens’ needs, all while working within limited budgets. To understand citizens’ learning needs, this study uses public library circulation data. This study is significant because such data use is often unavailable in Japan. This data was used to clarify citizens’ learning interests. Circulation data was compared from two libraries in Japan: Koto District Library in Tokyo and Tahara City Library in Aichi Prefecture. The data was used to identify general learning needs while also accounting for regional differences. The methodology and results of this research are significant for the development of lifelong learning policy and programming.

This paper aims to examine how librarians construe organizational culture based on employees’ satisfaction, good leadership, and organizational support with knowledge sharing practices relationships. The quantitative research method, using a structured questionnaire comprised of three constructs of Organizational Culture (OC), including employees’ satisfaction, good leadership, and organizational support, and six constructs of Knowledge Sharing (KS) (innovation, collaboration, communication channel, trust, loyalty, and ethics), was considered as the most suitable for this study. Correlation research design and Pearson correlation test were used for examining the relationships between OC and KS with respect to academic librarians. The findings disclosed significant relationships between OC and KS among the study participants. Organizational support followed by good leadership style and employees’ satisfaction are the strong predictors of knowledge sharing practices in the context of this study. This study has some practical implications for academic library administrators to consider the role of effective organizational culture in promoting knowledge sharing practices among LIS professionals. This paper is the first attempt to explore the relationship between OC and KS in library perspective.

Studies have shown that Nigerians have a poor reading culture which could be as a result of several factors including unavailability of print resources. Literature has revealed that the quality of reading by secondary school students in Edo State was regrettably on the decline and that inadequate use of print resources was a major factor. The descriptive survey design of correlational type was adopted for the study. Stratified multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in selecting participants for this study. Fifty percent was used to select nine local governments, 10 % to select public and private secondary schools from the already selected nine local governments, making a total of 65 schools. From each of the selected 65 schools, a sampling fraction of 11 % was used to select a total of 895 students for the study. A questionnaire was used for students while an interview checklist was used for school principals in justification of the students’ responses. Regression analysis (at 0.05 level of significance) was used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that secondary school students in Edo State have print resources readily available, while secondary school students had a poor reading culture with the weighted average of 3.06. The effect of print resources (β = 0.141; p < 0.05) in predicting students’ reading culture was significant. Conclusively, the study showed that secondary school students in Edo State have a poor reading culture irrespective of the availability of print resources.

There appears a change in reading trends in the growing digital culture around the globe. The current research intended to identify the influence of this culture on the reading behaviour of young adults. A survey of final year Masters students from public and private sector universities in various knowledge domains (sciences and technology, social sciences, and arts and humanities) was conducted. The findings revealed a number of significant differences in both reading patterns and preferred reading formats among students of three knowledge domains. The findings suggest that all subjects should be treated separately when deciding on collection development and library services. This exploratory study proves that the digital environment creates a significant impact on individuals’ reading behaviour which needs to be considered by academics and library practitioners. It is a baseline study and opens many potential directions for future research.