‘So near while apart’: Correspondence Editions as Critical Library Pedagogy and Digital Humanities Methodology

The following case study describes two library-led text encoding projects involving correspondence collections. The first, a documentary edition of personal papers held by Peter Still, a former slave, was conceived as an independent research project involving the participation of two undergraduate research assistants; the second, based upon letters to and from the Rutgers College War Service Bureau (1917–1919), has been designed as a two-week text encoding unit in a proposed undergraduate course on data and culture. These two projects, both featuring the letter as their object of study, are compared and contrasted as models of data and process, affording reflections on the overlapping concerns of the library instruction and digital humanities communities of practice. I propose viewing text encoding projects, particularly those that focus on lesser known creators or on life documents such as letters, as a means of accessing both critical library pedagogy and digital humanities methodology. By developing such projects, librarians address a number of collection and instruction related objectives of the library, while offering a valuable introduction to a set of methods that are of increasing importance to undergraduate education. Furthermore, these projects may be conducted at smaller scales, by reusing and adapting methods and software shared by the digital humanities community, thereby limiting reliance on institutional partners for technology and infrastructure support, which may not be forthcoming in under-resourced institutional contexts.     

Predictors of Library and Information Science Undergraduates’ Participation in the Online Discussion Forum

The study examined predictors of Library and Information Science undergraduates’ participation in a discussion forum. Through a total enumerative sampling technique, the entire 115 students in (2010/2011) academic session in the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Ilorin, Nigeria were selected to represent the sample for the study. A questionnaire was used to gather data on the study. Three research questions were developed to guide the study. The results demonstrate that computer and Internet search efficacy together with emotional intelligence significantly correlate with and predict users’ participation in an online discussion forum. Similarly, the results suggest that computer and Internet self-efficacy and emotional intelligence constructs are good predictors of participation in the online forum. Based on these findings, the study recommended that LIS students need to be more Internet and computer self-efficacious, as it has been proved that these will promote their participation in the online discussion forum.     

“Where Are the Bathrooms?”: Academic Library Restrooms and Student Needs

This article investigates bathrooms, paying specific attention to those in academic libraries. The authors describe how bathrooms have been considered in the library literature for the past century and challenges to changing the status quo. Finally, this work sets the stage for future inquiry. Research materials come from a range of sources: historical library literature, building codes, social science theory and research that address the issues around bathroom taboos, and checklists for assessing bathrooms. The authors propose librarians and library administrators reconsider all aspects of their own bathrooms: location, features, equity/inclusiveness, and maintenance in service to their patrons.     

Downloads or Outcomes?: Measuring and Communicating the Contributions of Library Resources to Faculty and Student Success

How can libraries proactively demonstrate, quantitatively and qualitatively, return on investment in an academic environment that is increasingly concerned with tangible results? As speaker for Mississippi State University Libraries' 9th MidSouth eResource Symposium, Dr. Rachel Fleming-May, Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences, articulated the need for libraries to communicate their true value and indispensability to campus communities, particularly through the measurement of electronic resource usage. The concept of “use,” however, is complex and must be fully understood for meaningful incorporation into assessment measures. A brief summary of this session, also authored by Amanda Price, appeared in the “E-Resource Roundup” column of the Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, Volume 23, Issue 1 (2011: March).     

Library anxiety: Characteristics of ‘at-risk’ college students

Library anxiety is a psychological barrier to academic success among college students. This study of 493 university students examined factors which predict library anxiety. A setwise multiple regression analysis revealed that eight variables (age, sex, year of study, native language, grade point average, employment status, frequency of library visits, and reason for using the library) contributed significantly to the prediction of library anxiety. Analysis of variance, which included trend analysis, revealed that freshmen reported the highest level of library anxiety, and that this level declined linearly as a function of year of study. Based on these findings, both librarians and teaching faculty should be aware of the characteristics of high-anxious students, and increase the availability of anxiety-reducing interventions for students.     

Re-imaging and re-imagining the past after ‘memoricide’: intimate archives as inscribed memories of the missing

This paper discusses a number of stories about loss, grief and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the attempts by the survivors to construct intimate archives about their shattered lives. In addition to the loss of human lives, the deliberate destruction of documents, photographs, books and official records has been deeply felt by the genocide survivors and other victims of ‘memoricide’ in Bosnia as a very personal loss, an aggravated trauma and a metaphor for annihilation of their personal, family and communal existence. Subsequently, for them, the recreation of personal records and communal archives ultimately becomes an attempt to reclaim their own past and, in the process, to reaffirm their identities and recreate and sustain a sense of continuity in a post-genocide context. Using a series of ethnographic vignettes from Bosnia and the Bosnian refugee diaspora, the paper highlights the importance of the survivors’ emotional (and embodied) attachment to various forms of records and archival material. It also demonstrates the potential for research in memory and archival studies to actively engage in the creation of historical narratives about violations of human rights, thus contributing to truth-finding, social healing and reconciliation processes in post-conflict and post-genocide communities.     

‘Terrible Panizzi’: Patriotism and Realism of the ‘Prince of Librarians’

Abstract

This article deals with the figure of Antonio Panizzi, considered as an Italian patriot and English librarian. It highlights the constant attention he devoted to the Italian political events throughout his life: from his arrival in London (1823) as a political exile, to his informal ambassador in United Kingdom, a role that allowed him to lobby the political class and the press on behalf of the cause of Italian patriots forced in the prisons of Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The article describes the multifaceted library activity carried out by Panizzi at the British Library, of which he became Principal Librarian in 1856. Panizzi is considered to be the first Promethean Librarian of the 19th century, a great reformer with new ideas on library services, innovative methodologies, and working practices in librarianship. Panizzi rigorously carried out the activity of librarian at the British Library without ever forgetting the need for a free, unified, and democratic Italian state.     

Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructors’ Compulsive Communication and Student Communication Satisfaction in the College Classroom

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) from a dialogic pedagogy perspective, to determine the possible negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction; and (b) using Expectancy Violations Theory as a framework, to test the extent to which instructor credibility mediated the negative association between compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction. We found that students’ perceptions of instructors’ compulsive communication is linked to lower levels of student communication satisfaction. Importantly, results also showed that instructor credibility tempers the negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction.     

The Constables and the ‘Garage Girl’

In the summer of 1928, the arrest on a disorder charge of a young woman in north London who gave her name as Helene Adele led to a press sensation after she claimed that the officers had falsely accused her in order to discredit her claim that one of them had sexually assaulted her. The constables were ultimately prosecuted, convicted and discharged from the Metropolitan Police. This article considers the Adele case in the context of intense concerns about the possible abuse of police powers—particularly in cases involving women—in the late 1920s. Adele was catapulted onto the front pages of Britain's sensationalist press: her serialised memoir appeared in a newspaper and was reprinted in a women's magazine. However, her case was more than just a tabloid spectacle. Contributing to historians' reconsideration of the sensationalist inter-war press, this article shows how the coverage of the case fit into the press's interest in young working-class women's lifestyles and sexuality, highlighting how ‘human interest’ journalism could be intermixed with social critique.     

From ‘poison’ to ‘seeder’: the gap between propaganda and xuanchuan is cultural*

Propaganda has been perceived as ‘poison’ in the field of communication study. Xuanchuan, propaganda’s counterpart in China with a master metaphor of ‘seeder,’ however, has different histories and traditions that do not fit into the ideology-charged theoretical framework. Drawing upon Chinese thought and scholarship on xuanchuan/propaganda, the author demonstrates a deep conceptual and perceptual gap, rooted in culture, between propaganda and xuanchuan. Revelation of the gap is of paramount importance for studying China’s propaganda, both theoretically and empirically.     

Recording ‘a very particular Custom’: tattoos and the archive

This paper investigates the describing, dissemination and archiving of records, which have previously not been well described by archives. It asks if new methods of accessing the archive may be used to improve understandings of such records. Specifically, this paper will investigate the records created about tattoos in the nineteenth century following the European exploration of Polynesia, and the transmission of tattoos to the West. The ways in which this indigenous cultural practice was interpreted and recorded are discussed with reference to the records created. Tattoos are inherently physical records, which do not survive beyond the lifespan of their owner. The archiving process for tattoos has thus relied on preserving representations of the tattoo. This paper will ask what these representations of tattoos actually provide evidence of and will use two case studies to examine how records about tattoos have been archived. Finally, it is suggested that a more holistic understanding of tattooing records may be achieved through new ways of describing and classifying records, such as folksonomy.     

‘Tales of Japan’: a travelling exhibition of Japanese art from the New York Public Library

Abstract

Acrylic polymer dispersions, regularly used as artists' media or varnishes, were monitored for the development of yellow discoloration under natural aging conditions for a period of two years. Films of a number of water-based acrylic artists' media were kept under visible light of either moderate (150 lux) or low (50 lux) intensity (cycled on 10 hours per day) and were compared to films kept in dark storage, which have been observed to yellow. Results after two years show that exposure to visible light at 150 lux effectively prevented film discoloration in a number of products, and seemed at least to slow the rate of yellowing in others. Exposure to low-intensity (50 lux) lighting was found to be less effective in preventing this yellowing.     

Instructor Privacy Management in the Classroom: Exploring Instructors’ Ineffective Communication and Student Communication Satisfaction

The aim of this investigation was twofold: (a) drawing from communication privacy management theory, we wanted to examine the associations between instructors’ ineffective communication (i.e., inappropriate conversations, amount of disclosures) and student communication satisfaction; and (b) we wanted to determine if students’ positive perceptions of instructor nonverbal immediacy mediated the negative influences of instructors’ inappropriate conversations and amount of disclosures on student communication satisfaction. Overall, students reported lower levels of communication satisfaction when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations and frequent disclosures. Based on results, we also concluded that instructor nonverbal immediacy maintains students’ communication satisfaction even when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations or disclose too frequently.     

Understanding the context of records creation and use: ‘Hard’ versus ‘soft’ approaches to records management

Current records management methodologies and practices suffer from an inadequate understanding of the ‘human activity systems’ where records managers operate as ‘mediators’ between a number of complex and interacting factors. Although the records management and archival literature recognizes that managing the active life of the records is fundamental to their survival as meaningful evidence of activities, the context where the records are made, captured, used, and selectively retained is not explored in depth. In particular, the various standards, models, and functional requirement lists, which occupy a vast portion of that literature, especially in relation to electronic records, do not seem to be capable of framing records-related ‘problems’ in ways that account for their dynamic and multiform nature. This paper introduces the idea that alternative, ‘softer’ approaches to the analysis of organizational functions, structures, agents, and artifacts may usefully complement the ‘hard’, engineering-like approaches typically drawn on by information and records specialists. Three interrelated theoretical and methodological frameworks—namely, Soft Systems Methodology, Adaptive Structuration Theory, and Genre Theory—are discussed, with the purpose of highlighting their contributions to our understanding of the records context.