A period of transition: Foundation publications of the u.s. national military establishment

Through an examination of the scope and arrangement pattern of the federal government’s publications issued by the Army, Navy, and Air Force during the period of the so-called National Military Establishment, 1947–1949, one can gain an understanding of the workings of the Superintendent of Documents classification scheme. U.S. government depository libraries hold copies of many of the publications identified in the article. However, the article’s focus is on the record copies held by the National Archives within Record Group 287, Publications of the U.S. Government. An integral feature of the article is an appendix that lists more than 100 series with their respective SuDocs identification numbers. The author discusses the most significant of these series and introduces the lay reader to search methodologies for locating specific publications.     

OCLC in Europe,the Middle East and Africa, 1998–2008

ABSTRACT

This article is a continuation of the article of the same name by Christine Deschamps who described the evolution of OCLC in Europe 1981–1997. This article continues the story for the period 1998–2008 and covers the expansion of OCLC services to the Middle East and Africa. It also includes the organizational, governance and product portfolio developments for this period under the global leadership of Jay Jordan.     

The skewness of scientific productivity

This paper exploits a unique 2003–2011 large dataset, indexed by Thomson Reuters, consisting of 17.2 million disambiguated authors classified into 30 broad scientific fields, as well as the 48.2 million articles resulting from a multiplying strategy in which any article co-authored by two or more persons is wholly assigned as many times as necessary to each of them. The dataset is characterized by a large proportion of authors who have their oeuvre in several fields. We measure individual productivity in two ways that are uncorrelated: as the number of articles per person and as the mean citation per article per person in the 2003–2011 period. We analyze the shape of the two types of individual productivity distributions in each field using size- and scale-independent indicators. To assess the skewness of productivity distributions we use a robust index of skewness, as well as the Characteristic Scores and Scales approach. For productivity inequality, we use the coefficient of variation. In each field, we study two samples: the entire population, and what we call “successful authors”, namely, the subset of scientists whose productivity is above their field average. The main result is that, in spite of wide differences in production and citation practices across fields, the shape of field productivity distributions is very similar across fields. The parallelism of the results for the population as a whole and for the subset of successful authors, when productivity is measured as mean citation per article per person, reveals the fractal nature of the skewness of scientific productivity in this case. These results are essentially maintained when any article co-authored by two or more persons is fractionally assigned to each of them.     

Center for Czechoslovak Exile Studies in Olomouc: Survey of the Past Twenty Years of Activity (1993–2013)

The article describes activities of the Center for Czechoslovak Exile Studies in Olomouc particularly for the period 2004–2013. During this period the center acquired many significant archival collections.     

Archives du Maroc? The official and alternative national archives of Morocco

The 2004 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that investigated human rights abuses in Morocco under King Hassan II cited the ‘deplorable state of national archives’ as a major obstacle to its work. In 2013, in accordance with the findings of the TRC, the National Archives of Morocco opened with a colonial fonds, primarily holding records from the period of French colonisation (1912–56). This article seeks to understand the late establishment of a national archives, positing that part of the delay was caused by the focus of Moroccan nationalists on the location of indigenous records and their rejection of colonial archives and historiography.     

Collection Development Patterns of Fiction Titles in Public Libraries: The Place of Independent and Small Presses

Recent scholarship has identified increased corporate control of the news and book publishing industries as a worrisome trend insofar as it has meant a decrease in the sites where diverse public expression is allowed to occur. Public libraries are major buyers of fiction titles, yet mainstream commercial publishers owned by large conglomerates now publish a large portion of all available fiction despite the proliferation of small, independent presses. This article looks at the fiction purchases of public libraries in the United States which are members of OCLC by type of publisher in the period 1994–1997, and then compares these purchases with those of Barnes & Noble bookstores. While Barnes & Noble seems to have significantly increased its purchases from small, independent presses during this four-year period, public libraries have not done so. Yet, in general, public library fiction purchases do reflect both the availability of independent titles and their rate of appearance in popular collection development review tools.     

The presuperhighway politics of U.S. government printing and publishing, 1917–1960

This article examines the practices of, and the policies governing, U.S. executive agency publishing and printing for the period covering 1919–1950s. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the congressional Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) of the 67th Congress, as well as advancements in the graphic arts. Attention is also paid to the inherent, and sometimes bitter, institutional tensions that resulted from the publishing activities of the executive branch. This article further examines the emergence of the Printing Industries of America (PIA) as a player in the sphere of U.S. government printing.     

Rhetoric versus reality: a reexamination of access to U.S. government information during the presidency of Ronald Reagan

This article examines information policies implemented during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. Of special interest is an analysis of OMB Circular A-130 and the assumptions that underlay its mandates. In addition, a rhetorical analysis of articles from the period is undertaken to examine the assumptions authors used in their defense of or arguments against U.S. federal information policy of the time. Finally, an analysis of the budget of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the number of items distributed to depository libraries, and the sales of the Government Printing Office (GPO) is made to determine changes as a result of the implemented policies.     

On the training of highly qualified scientific staff in the field of information security

This article considers the dynamics and specifics of training highly qualified scientific staff (philosophy doctors and doctors of sciences) in the field of information security and data protection in a 10-year period of 2004–2013 in basic research specialties as classified by the Higher Attestation Commission (VAC) of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.     

Big Macs/Peanut Butter and Jelly: An Exploration of Dialectical Contradictions Experienced by the Sandwich Generation

Grounded in relational dialectics theory, this article reports a study exploring the influence of internal relational dialectic contradictions of women who are in the “Sandwich Generation,” or simultaneously providing some kind of care for generations of family both older and younger than them. Two hundred twenty-five female multi-generational caretakers (MGCs) reported their perceptions of the autonomy–connection, predictability–unpredictability, and openness–closedness of the relationship they have with an older adult for whom they provide care, as well as their current satisfaction level with this relationship. The data indicate communication between MGCs and their care recipient is more satisfying when the caretaker believes she has a high level of autonomy in the relationships and when there is a high level of openness within the relationships. These findings are interpreted using dialectic contradiction, change, and totality. This article also discusses practical implications of these findings for members of the Sandwich Generation.     

J. Podber,The Electronic Front Porch. Macon,Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2007

This article discusses the development of radio broadcasting in the new Russia that emerged in the years 1991–2011. Changes in radio were part of the larger, complex and controversial process related to major economic, political and social changes in the Russian Federation after the Soviet Union dissolved. Radio programming developed to reflect the new political, social and public lives of the Russian people. The analysis examines the functioning of state, public, and private radio, and their competition for audience, the role of radio advertising, and programming broadcast content. The article shows that there has been the formation of a new type of free, uncensored journalism with experienced radio journalists experiencing a new environment.     

Evaluating Strategic Approaches to Competitive Displacement: The Case of the U.S. Newspaper Industry

The concept of competitive displacement is central to theories of media evolution, and the threat that the Internet has posed to printed newspapers provides an ongoing case study on the topic. In particular, this situation offers an opportunity to examine the strategic efforts of print newspapers to prevent competitive displacement, as well as the effectiveness of these strategies. This article addresses these issues through an analysis of a unique data set, constructed from 20 years of newspaper circulation data, as well as data on local market characteristics, newspaper staffing and content variety, and state-level Internet penetration. Specifically, this article examines whether, and to what extent, these competitive strategies impacted local print newspaper circulation trends over this 20-year time period. This analysis focuses on the following strategic responses: (a) newspapers’ launching of online versions (a diversification strategy within the language of media evolution literature); and (b) newspapers’ efforts to cover a greater variety of subject areas, as measured by the number of editors and special editorial sections produced. (The authors characterize these as a “mimicking” strategy from media evolution literature, as this strategy essentially represents an effort to simulate the much greater content variety that readers can find online). This article examines the relationships between these circulation, strategic, and Internet penetration variables over a 20-year time period, while also taking into account relevant characteristics of local newspaper markets.     

Transformations of basic publication–citation matrices

Basic publication–citation matrices are used to calculate informetric indicators such as journal impact factors or R-sequences. Transforming these publication–citation matrices clarifies the construction of other indicators. In this article, some transformations are highlighted together with some of their invariants. Such invariants offer a rigorous mathematically founded way of comparing informetric matrices before and after a transformation.     

Measuring the inefficiency of Chinese research universities based on a two-stage network DEA model

This paper investigates the inefficiency and productivity of 64 Chinese research universities and their evolution over the recent period of 2010–2013, where the production process of each research university is described as a general two-stage network process. We first develop a general two-stage network directional distance framework with carryover variables to gauge the universities’ inefficiencies. Second, to study the evolution of the universities, we develop a Luenberger productivity indicator to measure the productivity changes over time, as well as decompositions. The empirical results show that the Luenberger productivity indicator increased significantly over the examined period. The productivity gains were primarily driven by improvements in efficiency. In other words, the efficiency increased on average over the period of 2010–2013. However, technical changes for many universities were below zero, which led to technology deterioration on average. Finally, based on the estimates, we propose several policy suggestions for improving efficiency and productivity.     

Reading Among Young Russians: Some Modern Tendencies

This article is a preliminary summary of the results of a huge study of reading among urban high school students (ages 14–17) in many regions of Russia. It considers such aspects of the topic as: the place of reading in the structure of high school students' life plans and leisure activities; their motives for reading, their preferences, and the amount they read; the level of their culture of reading and information seeking; and the influence of family, peers, libraries, and the Internet on their reading habits.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Information Needs and Uses Literature

This investigation used content analysis to examine the information needs and uses literature published 1984–1989, and 1995–1998. Comparisons are made with similar analyses previously published for the period 1990–1994. Analyses measured degree of interdisciplinarity evident in references cited and identified subject areas cited, determined whether this literature was concerned with users' cognitive processes and with system design and use, and identified research methods used. Secondary analyses included journal type, author type, article type, whether the literature was grounded in theory, and user groups considered. This study extends results published previously, and demonstrates longitudinal development of research in this subfield of library and information science.     

The Net Effect

This study introduces the term "travelers" to describe programs that move from one broadcast network to another. Travelers represent a form of television recycling common to the television industry, which has used over three times as many travelers as spin-offs. This article examines and accounts for the history and use of travelers over a fifty-year period: their initial popularity with networks and sponsors in the 1950s their decline in the 1970s and 198Os, and their resurgence in the 1990s. Travelers have become an increasingly important television programming tool as broad- cast networks compete for market share.     

我国图书情报期刊的十年发展实证--对4种图书情报期刊的抽样引文调查分析

本文选取我国4种有影响、有代表性的图书情报期刊,对其1995-2004年第一季度的论文进行引文分析。分析结果表明,十年来,我国图书情报期刊的办刊质量、学术水平以及出版周期等,都有了可喜的飞跃,已经与国际同类型期刊处于同一层次水平。