The Library of the Royal Society of Physicians in Budapest becomes today's Semmelweis Medical History Library

Objectives:

The 170-year history of the library of the Royal Society of Medicine in Budapest illustrates both that political and cultural context matter and that “medical” libraries, if they survive, in due course become primarily “medical history” libraries.

Methods:

Two of the authors are on the staff of the Semmelweis Medical History Library; the third is a US scholar who makes frequent use of the library. Together, they avail themselves of archival and published materials—and personal experience with the collection—to establish the context that produced the original library, trace its evolution, and describe its present-day incarnation.

Results:

A tale of transformation emerges that reflects how collections are likely to change. The authors present events and individuals in the life of the Royal Society''s library and paint a picture of the value of today''s Semmelweis Medical History Library. Unique treasures in the collection are described.

Conclusion:

The story told here is of how a particular nineteenth-century library became a twenty-first–century institution. The authors establish its peculiarly Hungarian context and potential value to librarians and historians from outside Hungary. The overall message is that general medical libraries everywhere are perforce likely to become medical historical libraries over time.

Highlights

• Context matters. The historical background of a library helps determine its functions and its future; shifts in modes of publishing affect and monetary concerns shape the development and preservation of an historical collection.
• Libraries evolve. Medical libraries undergo a normal and profoundly useful transformation over time into repositories of medical history.
• Books alone do not a library make: Libraries can and should be settings for continuing education, cultural affirmation, and assistance to scholars by preserving and making available for use a variety of sometimes rare archival and published materials.

Implications

• Knowing the political and cultural background of a library is essential to understanding its history as well as its present-day status.
• Preserving and expanding historical collections demands vigilance and creative management, especially under difficult fiscal and political circumstances. The loyal and diligent work of Hungarians and others who helped build and preserve this library can serve as a model for other threatened collections.
• Sharing the story of a relatively unknown library''s development brings its general assets and unique resources to the attention of a wider audience of librarians and scholars. Few outside Hungary have previously had any way of knowing about the Semmelweis Medical History Library''s rich holdings.

     

Integration und Suche in digitalen Bibliotheken: Ein logikbasierter Ansatz

Zusammenfassung.   In diesem Beitrag wird eine „digitale Bibliothek” definiert als informationelle Umgebung, in der in integrierter Form verteilte Informationsquellen zug?nglich sind. Die Suche ist normalerweise ein interaktiver Proze?, in dem verfügbare Informationen in unterschiedlichen Formaten und in unterschiedlichen Kontexten benutzt werden. Ein wichtiges Forschungsthema im Bereich digitaler Bibliotheken ist daher der Entwurf anwendungsspezifischer Methoden für den Zugang zu heterogenen Wissensquellen, die sich bzgl. Thema, Format, Verfügbarkeit, Qualit?t und vieler anderer Eigenschaften stark unterscheiden k?nnen. Um dieser Anforderung gerecht zu werden, müssen die eingesetzten Information-Retrieval-Systeme eine sehr pr?zise Suche erm?glichen. Dabei reicht es nicht aus, lediglich Dokumente und Daten nachzuweisen, vielmehr müssen die gefundenen Informationen im Kontext des Informationsbedarfs des Benutzers eingebunden sein. Für diese Aufgabe schlagen wir Retrieval-Methoden vor, die auf abduktiver Logik basieren. Eingegangen am 19. Januar 1998 / Angenommen am 28. Juli 1998     

Le Rôle des Connaissances Initiales dans l’Acquisition d’Informations Nouvelles à l’Aide de Textes

Although research on reading and comprehension indicates that subjects’ prior knowledge plays an important role in learning new information from text, several methodological (as the diversity of methods to consider subjects’ prior knowledge) and theoretical (as lack of model of knowledge representation) difficulties make hard to understand the outcomes of the studies in this area. Some researches show that prior knowledge have no effect on reading comprehension. However, most of the studies show that prior knowledge have impact on reading performances. If they can act to distord text, interfering with new information to align it with reader’s previous ideas, they have also positive impact. Often, a modification of reading time is observed when subjects have high knowledge about the topic of the text. We think that these results suggest that prior knowledge can facilitate the reader’s knowledge base activation, his inference activity and his perceptions of the importance of information. To have a complete portrait about this question, we have to examine the relationships between prior knowledge and some other related subjects as, other kinds of knowledge, text- and other reader-based factors, etc.     

Activity of periscapular muscles and its correlation with external oblique during push-up: Does scapular dyskinesis change the electromyographic response?

Scapular dyskinesis is the term used to describe changes in the positioning or movement of the scapula. Such dysfunction is associated with changes in the activation of the scapular muscles. However, the influence of the axial muscles on the scapular muscles activity of subjects with scapular dyskinesis is unknown. This study aimed to compare the electromyography (EMG) activity of periscapular muscles and its correlation with the external oblique muscle during the execution of push-up performed in different surfaces, in volunteers with and without scapular dyskinesis. Thirty-six men, divided in two groups (control and dyskinesis), performed push-up on stable and unstable surface. The EMG activity of serratus anterior (SA_5th and SA_7th fibers), upper (UT) and lower (LT) trapezius, external oblique (EO) was recorded during execution of each task condition. Statistical analyzes were performed using two way ANOVA repeated measures and Pearson correlation. It was observed effect of interaction between factors, being evidenced increased activity of UT, SA_7th and OE for the control group and decreased activity of SA_5th, SA_7th and EO for dyskinesis group during execution of push-up on unstable surface. In both groups positive correlations (r > 0.47) were observed between EMG activity of SA and EO. In the exercises tested, there seems to be an anatomical and functional relationship between the SA and EO muscles. The use of the unstable surface promotes increased neuromuscular demand, but the neuromuscular strategies appear to differ between groups.     

Canadian and US adult learning (1945–1970) and the cultural politics and place of lifelong learning

This essay examines adult learning in Canada and the USA (1945–1970). It explores this emergence in relation to moves to establish academic adult education as a cultural force that could help citizen learners to negotiate a way forward amid the collision of instrumental, social, and cultural change forces altering life, learning, and work in the emerging postindustrial society. In this regard, it focuses centrally on lifelong learning as an idea designed to have broad appeal in rapid-change postindustrial culture. In particular, it attempts to explicate a cultural politics of lifelong learning, which academic adult educators hoped would give the field a higher profile within what they perceived to be an emerging change culture of crisis and challenge. Two key factors are considered in these deliberations. First, this essay explores the relationship between public education (understood as schooling for children) and adult education. It takes up how this problematic relationship interfered with a post-war turn to lifelong learning. Second, it examines the shift in the meaning of the social in understanding adult education as social education in postindustrial society. It argues that the post-war discourse of democracy delimited this meaning, locating the social predominantly within a concern with preserving the dominant culture and society.     

Navigating Alarming Media Messages About Nutrition and Health

Science & Education - This study focuses the emerging need for young people to critically respond to alarming messages in contemporary media highlighting the potential benefits or harms of...     

Lo que no se debe hacer con mi test

RESUMEN

El artículo expone una serie de recomendaciones respecto a la Batería Predictiva de aprendizaje de la lectura. Concebida para evitar que el niño sea prematuramente introducido en el proceso de la lectura, su objetivo es evaluar la aptitud para aprender a leer. Algunos errores importantes que se cometen en su aplicación son: considerar que la batería vaya a revelar aptitudes ocultas en el niño, o predecir lo que va a ocurrir durante el aprendizaje. En este sentido, la validez de la batería dependerá de la acción pedagógica. La batería debe aplicarse íntegramente-si no no tendrá valor predictivo- en las condiciones adecuadas. A continuación se rebaten algunas de las críticas dirigidas a esta prueba y a la utilización de medidas de diagnóstico en general como, por ejemplo, no tener claro el objeto de medida, la falta de validez, y la provocación de medidas segregacionistas que perpetuarían las jerarquías sociales.     

Striking a critical pose: andragogy ‐‐ missing links,missing values

The first part of this essay, entitled ‘The Andragogy Debate: Twenty‐five Years of Deliberation’, examines the evolution of North American andragogy. It presents the changing views of researchers in a chronological dismantling of andragogy as a theory of adult learning. It provides a brief account of Knowles's influences in order to place andragogy in perspective as a set of assumptions about adult learning made fragile by what is missing. To expose the linear nature of the andragogical model, this section addresses sociological, philosophical, and other contextual weaknesses. The second part, ’Democracy and Freedom Lost in the Malcolmian Soft Sell’, elucidates the distorted view of individual freedom associated with individualism in the Knowlesian sense. It considers the impact of organizational and societal structures in shaping individual freedom and constituting democracy. While noting Knowles's support of individual freedom, it accents the inability of the andragogical model to achieve this freedom.     

Teacher training colleges in the rural areas of Angola

The Aid for the Development of the People by the People (ADPP), a non-governmental organization (NGO), in collaboration with Angola’s Ministry of Education, has set up a network of secondary schools to train teachers to work in primary schools in the rural areas of Angola. These schools, called Training Colleges for the Teachers of the Future (CTFs), are involved in training a new type of teacher. This article discusses this educational practice, the main aim of which is to train primary teachers to work in the rural areas where too few trained teachers are willing to be posted. The authors describe the measures taken to better meet the needs of the rural areas in terms of teachers who have been properly trained and are motivated to work in such an environment, and then go on to analyse the reasons underlying the success of the CTF programme, specifically the fundamental differences from the state-run teacher training colleges, the way this new practice forms part of the overall reform of the education system and its role in the Education for All (EFA) initiative, and the fight against poverty.