An investigation of the use of cellulose-based materials to gap-fill wooden objects†

The conservation of wooden objects is complicated by their response to changes in their environment. In particular, filling voids in wooden objects can be difficult when their dimensions might be expected to alter over time. A short survey of conservators showed that a wide variety of materials have been, and are being used for this purpose. Following conservation work undertaken on a wooden coffin, the author wished to investigate the properties of cellulosic materials and their suitability in the conservation of wooden objects. This paper shares the results of experiments that were conducted to determine the way in which hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and paper pulp fills respond in various conditions, as compared to other fill materials used by conservators. The compatibility of the HPC and paper pulp fills with wood is satisfactory enough to be able to recommend their use in the conservation of wooden artefacts, but ideally further experiments would be carried out, and on a wider variety of fill materials.     

多元智能视域下的博物馆教育项目设计与思考——以上海自然博物馆“一平米博物馆”教育项目为例

博物馆作为实施校外科普教育的重要场所,一直在努力探索提升科普服务能力的手段和路径。多元智能理论为博物馆提升科普服务能力提供了不同的思路。上海自然博物馆以其独特的资源优势,打造了“一平米博物馆”科普教育项目,构建了“情境-任务-创造-反馈-持续”的教育模式。本文详细阐述了在多元智能视域下“一平米博物馆”教育项目的设计思路和实施路径,探讨博物馆科普教育实践的创新经验和对策。     

DynaMed Plus®: An Evidence-Based Clinical Reference Resource

DynaMed Plus^® from EBSCO Health is an evidence-based tool that health professionals can use to inform clinical care. DynaMed Plus content undergoes a review process, and the evidence is synthesized in detailed topic overviews. A unique three-level rating scale is used to assess the quality of available evidence. Topic overviews summarize current evidence and provide recommendations to support health providers at the point-of-care. Additionally, DynaMed Plus content can be accessed via a desktop computer or mobile platforms. Given this, DynaMed Plus can be a time-saving resource for health providers. Overall, DynaMed Plus provides evidence summaries using an easy-to-read bullet format, and the resource incorporates images, clinical calculators, patient handouts, and practice guidelines in one place.     

Critically reflexive dialogue and praxis: Academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles® USA

Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are offered based on a case study of a formative evaluation of Circles^® USA, a nonprofit organization coordinating initiatives across the U.S. working to move families out of poverty. Critically reflexive praxis is theorized as featuring several themes including acknowledging different levels of context, critical dialogue with collaborators, engaging cultural difference and intersectionalities, problematizing power relations and relationships among researchers and collaborators, and occurring throughout the research project. Examples of critical dialogic reflexivity and navigating common tensions that emerge throughout such community engagement projects are detailed during three phases: planning and design; fieldwork and interviews; and outcomes, applications, and implications.     

Determining the Key Dimensions for Evaluating Service Quality and Satisfaction in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

Offering quality services and evaluating the rate of success in providing users with target services is the pervasive importance of academic libraries. The central purpose of this study is to determine key dimensions of service quality and satisfaction through developing a new item-scale for evaluating service quality and satisfaction in academic libraries. For primary data collection the study used a 28-item instrument based on five dimensional modified version of SERVQUAL. Respondents were asked to indicate their degree of opinions in the three-columns format: desired service expectation, minimum service expectation, and perception of service performance on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The researcher initially conducted a pilot survey to clarify the overall structure of the questionnaire items to be accepted and used. The reliability of the analysis of data with distinct service attributes were taken from ten public and private university libraries in Bangladesh. Subjecting data obtained to exploratory factor analysis shows that academic library service quality and satisfaction is related to four basic dimensions: caring, competence, resources, and library as a place. Twenty-six service items were identified after extraction through exploratory factor analysis, where nine items were shown before “caring,” five items for “competence,” seven items for “resources,” and five items for “library as a place.” The result in fact provides a generic and robust instrument and recognizes a new item-scale, namely “real service expectation” for the librarians and information science practitioners in the assessment of service quality and satisfaction in academic libraries and in the related fields.     

ATR-FTIR as a tool for assessing potential for chemical ageing in Spandex/Lycra®/elastane-based fabric collections

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia houses the world's most significant and comprehensive collection of Speedo swimwear and accessories. The museum has identified a problem with the long-term storage of certain Spandex/Lycra^® items where the elastane fibre has degraded leading to oil formation. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) determined that most of these garments were manufactured using nylon-elastane fibres, and the elastane component comprises polyetherurethane or polyesterurethane polymers. Certain polyesterurethanes are known to be vulnerable to hydrolysis, and this was confirmed for a subset of the collection using two chemical testing protocols, and a thermal testing protocol that reproduced the oil formation. A polyetherurethane garment in the collection was unchanged by these tests. The oil from the thermal testing was confirmed as a breakdown product of the polyester component of the elastane fibre, using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The study demonstrates the value of ATR-FTIR for minimally invasive identification of elastane fabrics that may require specialized storage in a humidity-controlled environment.     

Original and reformulated BEVA® 371: Composition and assessment as a consolidant for painted surfaces

Abstract

Many natural and synthetic products have been used for the consolidation of paint layers, but none have been thoroughly tested for this application. This is apparent for most of the synthetic and semi-synthetic adhesives for conservation, many of which are pure polymer resins and dispersions adapted from other industries. They were not specifically formulated with the appropriate properties for conservation, nor do they take advantage of some of the more recent developments in adhesive technology. BEVA^® 371 is unique among adhesives used for consolidation treatments, as it is a multi-component mixture and was designed specifically for the conservation field using the best technology available at the time. However, the main focus of the research was its application as a lining adhesive. Thus, optical properties and stability, specifically color stability, were not thoroughly evaluated even though some lining applications that were first recommended could have benefited from this type of investigation. This paper will discuss the development of BEVA^® 371, the chemistry, and roles of each component, and address a practical concern about the tack behavior of its replacement formulation, BEVA^® 371b.     

Assessment of indoor air quality and the risk of damage to cultural heritage objects using MEMORI® dosimetry

Air pollution is one of the environmental influences that degrade cultural heritage objects situated indoors. Other essential influences, such as temperature, relative humidity, and light are often well monitored. The presence of air pollutants is less often measured or included in risk assessment. The MEMORI^® technology presented in this paper was developed as a tool for easy measurement and assessment of the general risk of degradation of heritage objects situated indoors due to indoor exposure to air pollutants. MEMORI dosimetry was performed in locations belonging to English Heritage and Tate (both located in London) and the National Archives of Norway in Oslo, to assess air quality. The related damage risk for collection objects and the protection offered by display and storage designs was assessed. A high level of acidic effect was observed inside a number of showcases, and a high level of oxidizing effect was observed in some room locations. Relatively simple mitigation measures, such as constructing tightly sealed showcases using low emitting materials, installing active carbon absorbing media inside a ‘microclimate’ frame, and using cardboard storage boxes for paper, significantly improved air quality. Overall, implementation of such measures is likely to improve the preservation of objects and reduce conservation costs.     

Informationssysteme in der Medizin

Zusammenfassung  Die Medizin ist gepr?gt sowohl durch ihren besonderen unmittelbaren und existenziellen Bezug zu Menschen als auch durch ihre zunehmende ?konomische Bedeutung. Ein Medizinisches Informationssystem ist das umfassende System aller Informationsverarbeitung einer medizinischen Einrichtung oder Region. W?hrend die Architekturprinzipien des rechnerbasierten Teils solcher Informationssysteme wenige Besonderheiten aufweist, bündelt das Management dieser Informationssysteme viele Herausforderungen und Probleme, die wegen der besonderen Bedeutung der Medizin besondere Priorit?t bei der L?sung haben müssen. CR subject classification  C.2.4 ; J.3 ; J.1 ; K.4.3 ; K.6     

Nineteenth century chrome yellow and chrome deep from Winsor & NewtonTM

The Winsor & Newton^TM (W&N) nineteenth century archive database includes digitised images of hand-written instructions and workshop notes for the manufacture of their artists’ materials. For the first time, all 183 production records for yellow lead chromate pigments were studied and evaluated. They revealed that W&N produced essentially three pigment types: lemon/pale based on mixed crystals of lead chromate and lead sulphate [Pb(Cr,S)O₄]; middle on pure monoclinic lead chromate [PbCrO₄]; and deep that contains the latter admixed with basic lead chromate [Pb₂CrO₅]; accounting for 53, 22, and 21% of the production, respectively. Production records for primrose (4%) were also included since the formulation results in mixed crystals with a high percentage of lead sulphate, which, according to the literature, leaves it more prone to degradation. Each pigment type is characterised by only one or two main synthetic pathways; process variations reveal a systematic and thorough search for a high-quality durable product. A comparison of the chemical composition of pigment reconstructions with early W&N oil paint tubes showed that their records entitled ‘pale’ and ‘lemon’ correlated with the pigment in their tube labelled chrome yellow and, ‘middle’ and ‘deep’ with the label chrome deep. Lemon and middle pigment formulations were made into oil paints to assess their relative photo-stability. The degradation process was followed by colorimetry and was studied by synchrotron radiation-based techniques. Based on the X-ray absorption spectroscopy data, the possibility for creating a stability index for chrome yellows is discussed.     

Woeginger's axiomatisation of the h-index and its relation to the g-index, the h-index and the R-index

Recently Woeginger [Woeginger, G. H. (2008-a). An axiomatic characterization for the Hirsch-index. Mathematical Social Sciences. An axiomatic analysis of Egghe's g-index. Journal of Informetrics] introduced a set of axioms for scientific impact measures. These lead to a characterization of the h-index. In this note we consider a slight generalization and check which of Woeginger's axioms are satisfied by the g-index, the h⁽²⁾-index and the R²-index.     

British Writings on Romania: From Travel Accounts to Studies

This article surveys a sample of sources of the information about Romania available to British readers in nineteenth century British newspapers and periodicals. It traces first contacts between the Romanian lands and Britain after the union of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1859, then after their independence from the Ottoman Empire. The article highlights an increased Romanian interest in British periodicals, which reported and reviewed Romanian literature and scholarship. The article concludes that nineteenth century British newspapers and periodicals offer a great variety and wealth of new material previously unavailable or unknown to researchers. It also states that only a portion of a large quantity of this material has been indexed and is therefore available via the bibliographic sources mentioned in the article. The author argues for the need of a new and updated British-Romanian bibliography, which can draw on new online resources offering access to thousands of new newspapers and periodical records.     

Slavic Approval Plans: What Works and What Doesn't

ABSTRACT

The paper looks at library approval plans for material published in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian countries from the selector's point of view. Reasons why a selector would or would not want one are examined. Success with approval plans requires monitoring receipts, as well as good and ongoing communication among the selector, the acquistions department, and the vendor. A preliminary list of vendors offering approval plans for the countries of the region appears in the appendix.     

由“资源集聚”向“需求导向”转变——对武汉科技信息服务平台建设的思考

为进一步提升武汉科技信息共享服务平台使用效率,本文从平台资源建设、资源应用、供需对接方式和供需特点等方面分析了武汉科技信息资源服务现状;基于需求和利用的角度,结合平台管理实践和走访用户、问卷调查等研究方法,从信息资源需求主体和平台自身建设管理两个维度,找出制约科技资源供需对接的主要因素;以市场化和制度化为创新理念,从政策创新、机制创新、市场化服务、环境营造、人才培养等方面提出平台建设由“资源集聚”向“需求导向”转变的对策建议.     

Politicking for the Public Library

ABSTRACT

In today's current political environment raising support for millage renewals, bond campaigns or even millage continuations for public libraries is affected by national politics, and a tendency towards tax aversion on principle across the country. The lessons we can learn from the governing boards of small and rural public libraries are worth raising up to a greater national consciousness. Board governance, community consciousness, and facilities management are clear and logical tools that elected boards of public libraries can use to politick for support of libraries.     

Architectures of Knowledge and Literary Tradition: A History of the Almanac in Croatia

ABSTRACT

The history of the almanac in Croatia is reconstructed through primary research in bibliographic and archival sources. The almanac is a vehicle for knowledge communication in informal contexts, engaging both oral tradition and literary forms traceable to medieval literacy and ways of structuring knowledge. The history of the almanac in Croatia reflects the changing context of the book trade, literacy, and the evolution of language. Four main stages are identified: (1) the beginning of the annual almanac in the seventeenth century; astrological almanacs reflecting the sensibility of the Baroque period; (2) the Enlightenment's stimulation of almanac publishing in the spirit of contemporary secular reforms in agriculture and education; (3) nineteenth-and twentieth-century almanac trade, showing complex and overlapping networks for the production, distribution and appropriation of printed almanacs;(4) roughly the end of World War II, when the almanac slowly moved out of the role of a popular mass medium and into specialized niches represented by regional, diaspora, and religious almanacs.     

基于文献时间特征的学科主题演化分析方法研究 ——以图书情报学领域为例

在分析文献在不同研究阶段用词时间特征的倾向性基础上,提出一种基于主题模型的研究发展阶段识别方法。重点阐述该方法的构建过程,包括时间特征抽取、发展阶段界定、主题冷热变化分析等步骤。为验证该方法的有效性,针对词频统计法和主题模型方法在主题演化分析中的效果进行比较分析。结果表明,该方法能在识别主题热点和发展趋势的同时,有效地区分不同主题所反映的研究发展阶段。     

How Digital Content Resellers are Impacting Trade Book Publishing

Some key questions for publishers in today’s market are: Could Amazon’s recent merger and acquisitions strategy create a disruptive or paradigm shifting business model in the publishing industry? Do their recent actions post mergers and acquisitions illustrate a predicable pattern of behaviour that publishers can strategize around? This paper will explore these questions and look at some of the possible reasons behind Amazon’s business practices and the possible consequences to publishers.