Holocaust Autobiography

Summary

Students have a need to go beyond their assigned texts when studying the events of the Holocaust. Autobiographies are often the most moving, personal accounts of these horrific times. Reference librarians can offer much assistance for research on specific autobiographies, working in concert with faculty. This article reviews the state of Holocaust education in general, an academic reference department's role in student projects, and an overview of the wide variety of autobiographies that exist.     

Overlooked Reference Tools for Researching the Holocaust

Summary

General reference tools can be valuable sources of information for conducting research on the Holocaust. In addition to the articles in general encyclopedias, several specialized encyclopedias contain lengthy articles on this subject. Several sources for bibliographical essays are identified. Other publications discussed in this article are Gale's Literary Criticism Series and the thc Biography Index.     

Holocaust Denial and the Internet

Summary

The Holocaust denial movement began with Nazi officials and continues today. The term revisionism rather than denial is used by the movement's proponents. They do not deny the Holocaust, but are skeptical of the claims of six million dead, gas chambers, and an extermination policy. The Internet has made revisionist ideas and research more widely available than ever before. This article examines the major revisionist and refutation sites and documents available on the Internet today.     

Holocaust Resources on the Internet

Summary

Due to the wealth of information available on the Internet, using it for research is often difficult and time consuming. These barriers can be traced to the Internet's mystic appeal. This misplaced focus often leads users away from the very thought process that directed them to this resource tool. The following article stresses a research process rather than the delivering technology. It details the use of an established evaluation criteria that helps identify quality Net resources. The process also involves locating Net information based on resource type (museums, research centers, oral testimonies, library catalogs, etc.). Although this survey focuses on the Holocaust, the process is universal.     

Closing Circles,Opening Pathways

Summary

The reference librarian in the setting of a Holocaust library serves several unique functions. Together with survivors and their families the librarian assists in reaching closure in their search for information about relatives who perished in the Holocaust. The reference librarian also serves as facilitator for future generations in learning about the Holocaust and coming to terms with the past. The paper also describes the tools and sources that enable these processes to be accomplished.     

The Impact of the Internet

Summary

The Internet has brought great changes to reference services in academic libraries. One significant impact has been the growth and evolution of the reference librarian's role as teacher. This article reviews the literature on the librarian's increased teaching role with the emergence of the Internet, discusses the changing student populations who require a librarian's instruction and the skills that students need to achieve information literacy, and reviews how the Internet has affected current teaching strategies including classroom instruction, Web-based instruction, and efforts to integrate information literacy instruction into the curriculum. In addition, it also introduces emerging Internet technologies with their potential impact on teaching and instruction. The authors conclude that the reference librarian's teaching role will further increase with the development of information technologies.     

Communicating the Value of Cartoon Art Across University Classrooms: Experiences From the Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

ABSTRACT

This article is an exploration of the varying applications of comics and cartoon art as primary resources and pedagogical tools within the university setting. Following some background information on cartoon art forms including early American newspaper comics, nineteenth century humor serials, political cartoons and manga, the article explores how the perception of comics has changed and suggests ways librarians can work with academics to better utilize comics and cartoon art as educational resources. Drawing on the literature and the author's experience of working with Faculty and students at The Ohio State University, this article highlights ways to embed comics and cartoon art into the curriculum in disciplines ranging from Women's Studies to Psychology, ESL, History, Fashion, and more. The article aims to serve as a springboard for “thinking outside of the box” to maximize the value and use of library collections.     

Librarians and the Holocaust: Research-Related Issues

ABSTRACT

After learning and teaching about the Holocaust for the past 16 years, the author advocates that librarians join Holocaust scholars, historians, teachers, and others in ensuring that this horrific and catastrophic event of the twentieth century is correctly understood, taught, and, most importantly, never forgotten.     

Blogging for the Distance Librarian

Abstract

Based on user lookups, Merriam-Webster Onlineproclaimed “Blog” the word of the year for 2004.¹ Distance librarianship, until mid-way through 2004, was a subject that was underrepresented in the blogosphere. The inception of a blog called The Distant Librarian: Comments on the World of Distance Librarianshipis chronicled in this article, along with suggestions for how and where to get started, as well as how to incorporate blogs that support library services for distance students.     

Historical Fabrications on the Internet

Summary

Although the Internet provides access to a wealth of information, there is little, if any, control over the quality of that information. Side-by-side with reliable information, one finds disinformation, misinformation, and hoaxes. The authors of this paper discuss numerous examples of fabricated historical information on the Internet (ranging from denials of the Holocaust to personal vendettas), offer suggestions on how to evaluate websites, and argue that these fabrications can be incorporated into bibliographic instruction classes.     

The Enhanced and Changing Role of the Specialist Librarian

Summary

Much like the role of other academic librarians, the education librarian's responsibilities are in a constant state of transition. Major factors contributing to these changes are demands being placed on teacher training programs in colleges of education, demands placed on teachers and administrators in the nation's schools, demographic shifts, globalization, declining accessibility of resources along with the digital divide, and, most of all, greater demands for accountability of student achievement at all levels of education.

The work of the education librarian has become more integrated in the creation and access of knowledge both in the library profession, and education itself. Education librarians not only have close ties to school curriculum being taught but also with the preparation of preservice teachers, students enrolled in advanced graduate studies, and the education researcher. This article will review the literature on the role of the education subject specialist in librarianship, and how that role has been changed due to a variety of reasons. Findings will be discussed from an informal survey on how education librarians perceive their roles in their institutions.     

Locating Holocaust Information on the Internet

Summary

The Internet, being a global tool capable of supporting multi-media format, can provide a venue for information in ways that traditional resources cannot. There is an abundance of information on the Internet regarding various aspects of the Holocaust. Responding to the broad disparity of the quality of information, political agendas of information providers, and the multi-disciplinary nature of the topic, this article is designed to provide an overview of available resources, and a spring-board for further research using the Internet as a medium.     

Going the Distance (and Back Again): A Distance Education Course Comes Home

Summary

University 300, a course on research and Internet skills, was originally developed at Washington State University for the distance education program. Using a critical thinking approach to the contemporary information environment, the course has grown, evolved, and been transformed into a general education course for the main campus at the university. The course's history shows how strong administrative support and beneficial collaborations across the university transformed the course into an emerging key component of the university curriculum.     

Identifying Holdings Unique to Your Library's Collections Using WorldCat

ABSTRACT

Having a good understanding of the variety and concentration of rare holdings in our libraries is becoming more and more important, not only for preservation and access purposes, but also for collection management and marketing. This article details how WorldCat's standard search interface can be used to identify holdings unique to particular institutions, or to compare the holdings of one or more institutions based on the relative rarity or ubiquity of the materials in their collections.     

Getting on the Fast Track,or How to Get an MLIS Through Distance Education,with a Specialization in Medical Librarianship

Abstract

The article describes an innovation in MLIS education for medical librarianship, with an introduction to the FastTrack, the distance education program at the University of Pittsburgh's library and information science school, together with an overview of a model program linking the biomedical library at Vanderbilt University with the School of Information Sciences in Pittsburgh. Admissions requirements and specific curriculum for the distance education master's degree are detailed in an FAQ format.     

Programmer's choice: Eight factors in program decision‐making

In the introduction to Charles Woodliff's “Catch Me if You Can” in the Fall, 1965 issue of the Journal it was, prophesied that it would be not “the last that will be published on the question of the proper curriculum for training professional broadcasters.” In this issue, on the preceding pages, is an article by Professor John Pennybacker answering Professor Woodliff's article disagreeing with the one that started it all, Pennybacker's “Working with Universities.” The following comment by Woodliff is intended only as a brief comment upon Pennybacker's “Leadership and the Educator: The Middle Way” and does not, of course, attempt to make full reply in this brief form. Professor Woodliff (Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio‐Television‐Film at the University of Denver) hopes that the dialogue between him and Dr. Pennybacker represents their respective points of view fairly—and that other positions will be heard from in the future. The airing of these points of view is not just another rehash of the old “liberal arts vs. professionalism” debate. Recent surveys have shown that broadcasting education has not yet made its mark on the industry—if it is to do so in the future, teachers of broadcasting must constantly reassess their goals and the means to achieve these goals.     

Chandler v. Florida: Cameras get probation in courtrooms

The article traces the history and conflicting policies of the camera in the courtroom debate, analyzes the United States Supreme Court's decision in Chandler v. Florida, and concludes that Chandler is fundamentally a victory for states’ rights.     

A Holocaust Resource Center Becomes a Beehive

Summary

This contribution describes the beginning years of a Holocaust Resource Center and its collection development in a four-year public institution, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The authors argue that, with such preconditions as strong institutional leadership and commitment and with good “town-gown” relationships, Holocaust and Genocide Studies can be placed central to the liberal arts experience. Such centrality is particularly important given the repeated occurrence of genocide in this century. In view of uncertain fiscal support for public higher education, multiple ways must but can be found to develop Holocaust and Genocide book and media collections.     

Engaging Students in Searching the Literature

Abstract

In 2014, the library curriculum for the College of Pharmacy was revised, with the number of sessions increased from one per term for two terms to one per term for three terms, instruction was scaffolded, and the flipped classroom model was employed, with active learning and assessments used throughout. This article will describe how the active learning portion of one session was gamified: why a “serious game” was the correct tool to use to improve student learning, how the game was created, and what was the theory underlying this transformation.