Comic Books in Libraries,Archives and Media Centers

The ubiquitousness and relatively low cost of comic books, combined with their proven socio-historical, recreational, and educational value, render them a highly desirable commodity in libraries, archives, and classroom collections. The article offers practical guidelines for the evaluation and acquisition of these materials. A concise history of the field and many useful appendices (e.g., bestseller lists, a bibliography, a breakdown of currently issued titles) have been included.     

Spectacle,spectatorship, and gender anxiety in television news coverage of the 1970 women's strike for equality

This essay examines television news coverage of the August 2 6, 19 70 Women's Strike for Equality, the first major media event of the second wave offeminism in the U.S. It explores three levels on which the news reports on the three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), rely on notions of women and visual pleasure: first, in their positioning of the Strike as sheer spectacle; second, in their verbal and visual framing of the Strike as absurdist entertainment rather than reasoned protest, and third, in their emphasis on the issue of femininity under attack, an emphasis in which femininity is largely represented by women's bodies. I conclude with a discussion of the ways in which the framing of the events functions both to assert and to assuage a profound sense of gender anxiety on the part of the assumed male spectator for the coverage.     

U.s. military women in world war II: The spar,wac, waves,wasp, and women marines in u.s. government publications

During World War II, the U.S. military faced a shortage of personnel that forced the services to enlist women. All branches of the armed forces eventually created women's corps, and more than 275,000 women served in these organizations. This article offers an annotated bibliography of U.S. government publications relating to these pioneering women. It serves as a documentary history of World War II's military women as well as a resource for further study. A wide range of print and electronic materials is covered, from official and commemorative histories, to primary source materials such as congressional hearings and recruiting brochures and posters.     

Review of "The Living Library: An Intellectual Ecosystem," by Patricia Steele,David Cronrath,Sandra Parsons Vicchio,and Nancy Fried Foster

This study was conducted in order to establish an objective basis for managerial decisions relating to the preservation of library books. The investigation was concerned with the operational issues underlying such decisions, focusing specifically upon the problem of accurately and efficiently assessing books in terms of their present physical condition and past utility. Its objectives were: (a) to determine if date of publication and/or measures of library use (i.e., frequency of circulation and date of last circulation) constitute reliable indices of a book's current physical condition; (b) to determine if the frequency with which a book has been circulated tends to correspond with its date of last circulation; and (c) to devise a systematic approach to the preservation of library books based upon the results of the inquiries (a) and (b).