Science at Harvard University, 1846-47: a case study of the character and functions of written documents

This paper explores surviving documentation and what it reveals about the underlying social structure and relations in a historic time and place. The mid-nineteenth century is chosen as a period prior to modern bureaucracies so that documents are not found in defining filing systems. Some six hundred documents are studied individually and characterized collectively. They are examined not to tell a story, however, but for evidence of their creation and maintenance and of their physical types, functional characteristics, and relations between authors and recipients. The study reveals the fruitfulness of such an orientation to documents, which complements traditional historical uses that emphasize document content.     

Analysis of the use of reference services in an academic health sciences library

In 1991, the Reference and Information Services staff of the Alfred Taubman Medical Library at the University of Michigan gathered data on the use of the reference desk, including the frequency and types of assistance requested by different user groups throughout the year. Recommendations based on the results of this study led to improved service as well as more efficient use of staff resources.     

The literature of women and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): implications for collection development and information retrieval

The purpose of the study was to identify the pattern of publication about women and AIDS in scientific journals. Bradford zones were identified in each of six databases. The study determined that journal scatter for this subset of AIDS literature differed from the scatter in the general literature; further, the information indexed in the six electronic sources demonstrated little overlap. Consequently, key journal and newsletter titles identified by this study should form the core of any collection focusing on women and AIDS. The assurance of quality patient care management demands that librarians consult multiple resources for information retrieval that can assist health care providers, patients, and caregivers to enhance quality of life as well as to provide optimum care.     

Horizontal wires replace the vertical files

Traditionally, clippings of newspaper articles, pictures from magazines, pamphlets, charts, graphs, posters, proceedings, or copies thereof, and other miscellaneous information sources have been stored in vertical files in libraries. The practice of creating and maintaining vertical files is extremely time consuming. In a medical library, in particular, old information about diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis can quickly become incorrect, misleading, and possibly harmful. Adequately tending to the vertical files can require a librarian to create a balancing act between properly maintaining vertical files and meeting the needs of the users in other areas of the library. The maintenance of vertical files is, by nature, highly consumptive of paper and space consuming. A reasonable alternative to the traditional vertical files is the World-Wide Web. Search engines exist for locating specific information, and bookmarks and/or links which point users to particularly useful sites can be set in search software. Some methods for searching are discussed, and a variety of World-Wide Web information sources are offered.     

THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS IN BRITAIN

Controversy concerning the issue of homosexual rights and practiceshas intensified in Britain over the last decade. Despite thisincrease in intensity, however, the question of mass publicopinion in relation to homosexual rights and practices has receivedalmost no empirical investigation. In an effort to remedy thissituation, this article focuses on both the role of respondents'gender as well as their perceptions concerning the gender ofparticipants in a homosexual relationship (both sexes versusgay men) in distinguishing their attitudes toward the publicacceptance of homosexuals and the adoption rights of lesbiansand gay men. Using nationally representative data from the BritishSocial Attitudes Surveys, we found that, whereas both respondents'gender and the gender of participants in a homosexual relationshipdemonstrated a significant influence on attitudes toward thepublic acceptance of homosexuals, they were unrelated to theadoption rights of lesbians or gay men. Even in relation tothe public acceptance of homosexuals, however, gender was notthe only, or even the most important, attribute in distinguishingindividual opinion in this instance. Other stronger and moreconsistent influences were education, age, and attitudes towardeither pre-marital or extra-marital sexual relations. The implicationsof these findings for both policy makers and homosexual activistsare discussed.