A regional cooperative acquisition program for monographs.

A cooperative acquisition program for monographs for the twelve resource libraries in Region IX of the Regional Medical Library Network is described. Each of the participating libraries has agreed to purchase all books of an assigned publisher which fall within a prescribed subject-format profile. It is hoped that this will help to reduce unnecessary duplication and contribute toward the development of resources in the region.     

疯狂的郁金香

在中世纪的欧洲,曾经出现被后人称为欧洲历史上最荒唐的群众狂潮之一:郁金香热.当时社会里人性盲目和疯狂的一面,既贻笑后人,又触目惊心,令人难忘.     

Book Reviews

Zuckerman: Scientist Extraordinary by Bernard Donovan BioScientifica, Bristol, 2005, 555pp. ISBN 1‐901978249 £24.95 Negotiating licences for digital resources by Fiona Durrant Facet Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1 85604 586 2 Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval By David Haynes Facet Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1 85604 4890     

Communicating Prevention: The Effects of the keepin' it REAL Classroom Videotapes and Televised PSAs on Middle-School Students' Substance Use

This study sought to determine if exposure to two communication-oriented activities, videotapes and public service announcements, accounts for changes in substance use among adolescents participating in the Drug Resistance Strategies Project's keepin' it REAL adolescent substance use prevention curriculum. Middle-school students (4,734, 72% Latino) responded to questionnaires related to these analyses. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model was fit separately to six substance use outcomes. The results suggested that intervention students who saw four or five videos engaged in less substance use in the past month than did students who saw fewer videos. Having seen the PSAs one or more times did not predict the reported change in substance use.     

Program Evaluation in Libraries: Relating Operations and Clients

Evaluators of library programs have different perspectives on why to conduct an evaluation and also how to do so. The author suggests that a minimal approach to conducting a library program evaluation is to prove that the program exists. But this perspective has expanded to include different degrees of interest in the client and operations, culminating in a combined focus that leads evaluators to conduct outcome assessments. The chapter includes speculation on what motivates managers to undertake an evaluation, a review of some ways that library evaluations are conducted, and a discussion of several examples of program evaluations. Though there are not single directives for undertaking a library program evaluation, there are a variety of tools and advice to entice librarians to do more of them as a way to improve understanding the value of a library to its clientele and in society.     

Books are silent ambassadors: The Noma award for the translation of Japanese literature

Summary Now more than ever good translations are proving to be vitally important to fulfilling Shoichi Noma’s mission of advancing good relationships between cultures. With the emergence of dozens of world-class Japanese writers, the translators of Japanese literature have acquired a new significance and a new importance. No longer are they required to simply handle the language like an exotic and precious commodity but they must prepare a writer’s work to compete with literature from around the globe and let others understand the issues at their very heart of the Japanese people. Indeed, the selection committee’s choice of Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is an apt example of how literature at its very best can span cultural divides to promote mutual understanding of very complicated and important world issues. Written for Japanese to help them understand the devastation of war, it is a rare and timely book that confronts Japan’s experience head on. Ironically, Noma’s idea that books are silent ambassadors, an idea born from agony and defeat, so many years later is helping the world come together towards a unified vision of peace and understanding. “Literature has been described as a means of exchange between the hearts of people. Literary translation, then, is the building of bridges so that all peoples of the world can interact in this way.” Ye Weiqu, Chinese Institute of Social Studies.