Assessment of KU Libraries’ Slavic & Eurasian Collection: Purpose,Process, and Potential

This paper discusses collection-related assessment projects that were conducted in 2013–2014 by the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries’ International Collections librarians in cooperation with librarians for assessment and resource sharing. While these assessment projects were undertaken in an effort to strengthen the library reports for KU’s Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) grant applications, which were submitted by KU’s area studies centers, the results also have implications for collection development work. The article begins with background about the NRC grants and explains why and how these assessment projects developed. Highlights of results from each assessment project are presented in the following order: assessment of the research needs of area studies faculty and graduate students at KU; citation patterns (2005–2013) of area studies, and more specifically, Slavic and Eurasian studies faculty at KU; and resource sharing data for the Slavic and Eurasian collection 2011–2013. The article concludes with a discussion about how the assessment data inform collection development practices and decisions.     

Teaching a transnational ethic of Black Lives Matter: an AfroCubana Americana’s theory of Calle

ABSTRACT

The material conditions of populations in the Global South are interconnected with the material conditions of Black working-class urban communities in the U.S. Through this multi-scalar construction, I put forward a theory of Calle – a transnational ethic of ethno-racial-spatial solidarity. Set within stages of dual geographies, my AfroCuban American cultural and familial history are paramount to understanding the landscapes that shaped my scholarly identity and pedagogy. As a researcher of the Ferguson movement while at the University of Missouri, I learned that Ferguson student-activists led several campus movements: Occupy SLU at St. Louis University (fall 2014), University of Missouri (MU) for Mike Brown (fall 2014), and Concerned Student 1950 (fall 2015) both at the University of Missouri. This residential foundation served as a site of liberation, inquiry, and pedagogy. In this article, I aim to disrupt the binaries of community/classroom, teacher/student, and engage in dialectics centered on the literal and figurative streets of Ferguson, Missouri. This rooting of a racial bone memory aligns with Black Lives Matter (BLM)'s tenet of globalism, which elevates a solidarity between all people of African descent on the continent of Africa and in the diaspora.     

Patterns and predictors of academic dishonesty in Romanian university students

Academic dishonesty in higher education is an increasingly visible problem throughout the world and in Romania in particular. A total of 1127 university students from six public Romanian universities were surveyed for their experiences and beliefs with 22 behaviors that might be considered academically dishonest. A five-factor solution to the frequencies of these behaviors was interpretable and accounted for more than half of the total variance. How acceptable students believed the behaviors were and how often students witnessed other students engage in these behaviors were consistent predictors of the frequency of the behaviors, with small to medium effect sizes. Demographic predictors of these behaviors, including gender, academic specialty, year in school, institution, grade average, and scholarship status, predicted very little variance in the behaviors. Implications and limitations of the study, as well as limitations of research in the field, are discussed.     

Water Supply in Medieval Middle Eastern Cities: The Case of Cairo

In spite of its location on the Nile bank, medieval Cairo suffered from serious problems of water supply because of its topography and the Nile regime that necessitated water storing. Direct canalization was not adopted to channel the Nile to inhabited quarters, either on the riverside or inland because of the dangers entailed in an uncontrolled water race during the Nile inundation. The Nile water was safely conveyed inland in canals, dammed by dikes at their mouths on the Nile before the inundation, and opened when the water level reached sixteen arms. Aqueducts and conduits carried the water from the canals to inland open reservoirs, or artificial lakes, around all of which grew residential quarters. The lake waters were transferred to cisterns and above ground tanks that were used as closed water reservoirs before distribution in the residential quarters of Cairo. Scattered in central sites within the quarters, there were the big wells and basins that received water from outside the quarter for distribution to the wells located near the houses, baths and mosque courtyards. The quarters' wells and tanks usually had a common water source and the houses' wells were interconnected by a labyrinth of underground conduits. Residences of the elite and bourgeoisie were equipped with water facilities as befitted their status. The upper middle class often rented qā‘as, exclusive residential units located on the ground floor, equipped with water systems. The lower socio-economic classes, which constituted the majority of the population, lived in standard units in residential complexes that were not equipped with running water but only with water jars. The general public regularly visited public baths for both personal hygiene and leisure, consumed commercially prepared food in the market and sent their clothes for laundering and pressing in the market.