The development of education for medical librarians

Formal education for medical library specialization was initiated only thirty-two years ago despite the fact that medical libraries received special treatment for many years before that time. The philosophy of specialized education was developed as early as 1925, and this theory was finally put into practice beginning with the medical reference and bibliography course given at Columbia in 1939. In the late 1940s the requisites for medical librarians were formalized into a certification code by the Medical Library Association, and since that time specialized education for medical librarians has grown stronger using this code as a guideline. This education consists basically of two types-formal library school courses and internship programs which offer a working-while-learning situation. Now that the established programs have a few years of history, there is a need for evaluation and restatement of goals and methods.     

A Bourdieusian approach to academic reading: reflections on a South African teaching experience

As in many other parts of the world, ‘academic literacy’ has emerged as both a concern and a contested concept in South African universities. In this article we focus specifically on academic reading, which we argue is a relatively underemphasized aspect of academic literacy. This article is the product of reflections on academic reading during and subsequent to the development and presentation of a postgraduate module presented at Stellenbosch University. It briefly explores the literature on academic literacy; develops the Bourdieusian perspective on academic reading that we used to develop the module; and concludes with a discussion of the module. Our intention was to make ‘reading as social practice’ more visible to students. Bourdieu's concepts of ‘competence’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ set the scene for a discussion of the role of reading in different disciples and more generally within the social sciences and humanities.     

The Language of Schools: Curricular goals and classroom life

The experience of becoming a teacher involves more than learning to use the tools of the trade. Using the example of teaching questioning strategies in a curriculum methods seminar for student teachers, two teacher-educators present questions and dilemmas that arise out of the tension between the use of language as a tool, and the experience of language as an aspect of becoming teachers. Anecdotes from classrooms show how student teachers develop an awareness of the dynamic interplay of these language forms. We suggest that this dynamic interplay can be understood as aesthetic form, an aspect of teaching practice which enables teachers to sustain the pedagogical relation.     

Prisons of the mind: Lessons learned from home confinement

As conservative political ideologies have shifted U.S. correctional policies toward a justice model orientation, efforts to escalate the “pains of imprisonment” have become increasingly prevalent. Although these attempts to enhance the punishing aspects of incarceration are primarily driven by political grandstanding and emotional appeal, it is not uncommon for today's postsecondary students to enter the classroom with punitive attitudes similarly based on rhetoric and emotion. Yet correctional students cannot be expected to develop an empathetic appreciation for the intrinsically punishing nature of confinement itself through traditional classroom techniques that rely exclusively on the cognitive dimensions of learning. In an effort to broaden personal perspectives on punishment by engaging the affective domain, students in an introductory corrections class participated in a simulated 48-hour confinement exercise. The intent was to enhance empathy for the intrinsic discomfort of imprisonment through experiential learning. The results not only point clearly in that direction, but also manifest parallels with the actual pains of confinement experienced by inmates in the real world.     

The Empire Writes Back…Back: Postcolonial Studies in an Age of Autogenic War

This essay attempts to disclose a uniquely volatile nexus that implicates – and perhaps, reinvigorates – a postcolonial analytics of insurgency. This nexus includes three strands of inquiry: the first is the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), which really is – albeit in a qualified sense – revolutionary. War is doing new things with time and space through culture, media, and data technology, and in the process is mutating not only what it means to be a part of this or that national group but is also changing what it means to be human. The second strand of inquiry focuses on the legacy of postcolonial studies, particularly the notion of ‘writing back’ which, I contend, is an apposite starting point for writing critically about the RMA. Apposite though it is, there are limits to postcolonial studies in the contemporary war context. This is so because while the divisions of individual difference are shifting, the coherence of the nation state itself is undergoing radical change. Moving outward in scope to a planetary scale, the human being per se is no longer a primary category by and for which war is happening today. Thus the third strand of inquiry is focused on the residual anthropomorphic tendencies within postcolonial studies that too narrowly limit discussions of violence and collective belonging. The concept of the human being per se remains reliant on early models of technology and media (namely, writing and literature, usually novels). Therefore, in the context of an ever-expanding global war machine, ‘writing back’ is a concept that requires fine-tuning and revision.     

Creating a flexible fund structure to meet the needs and goals of the library and its users

This paper describes the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries' new and innovative approach to monograph collection development using a re-engineered internal funding structure and a process that reflects the needs and goals of the library and its users. The paper discusses the goals of the new fund structure, the experience of implementing it, and the results after one year in use.