Creating Provider-Neutral Records for E-Books

After boxes of uncataloged microforms were discovered at my library, we learned that many of the titles were available as free electronic books, so I added bibliographic records to the local catalog for the e-versions. Some bibliographic records existed in OCLC WorldCat for the electronic versions, but they were not always provider-neutral. I learned how to create the new provider-neutral record and want to share my experience. Other librarians may want to replicate my project at their institutions, weeding their microforms and supplanting those records with e-book bibliographic records, thereby providing instant online access to these resources for their patrons.     

Personalizing twitter communication: an evaluation of ‘rotation-curation’ for enhancing social media engagement within higher education

Social media content generated by learning communities within universities is serving both pedagogical and marketing purposes. There is currently a dearth of literature related to social media use at the departmental level within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This study explores the multi-voiced interactions of a UK Psychology department’s ‘rotation curation’ approach to using Twitter. An in-depth analysis of a corpus of 4342 tweets by 58 curators (14 staff, 41 students, and 3 guest curators) was carried out using a combination of computer-assisted and manual techniques to generate a quantitative content analysis. The interactions received (e.g. retweets and favorites) and type of content posted (e.g. original tweets, retweets and replies) varied by curator type. Student curators were more likely to gain interactions from other students in comparison to staff. This paper discusses the benefits and potential limitations of a multi-voiced ‘rotation curation’ approach to social media management.     

The Bedlam Academy

This article explores the polemical presentation of Oxford, the royalist capital between 1642 and 1646, in parliamentarian newsbooks. It argues that the novel seriality of the form offered opportunities for constructing political identities and identifying enemies through strategies of repetition and echoing within and across parliamentarian news media. Discussion of Oxford in these news titles suggests ways in which seriality helped establish and elaborate anti-royalist discourses by repeated reference to the corrupted centre of royalist politics. Sustained attention given to Oxford in weekly newsbooks built up a cumulative and complex picture of the city, and by extension royalism more broadly, as variously mired in Catholicism, subject to the damaging influence of female and foreign rule, riven by deviant sexualities, and possessed of a form of collective madness. The composite image of Oxford built up across parliamentarian news media helped construct a journalistic shorthand in which ‘Oxford’ came to denote a wealth of polemicised meanings readily accessible to comparatively humble readers. The article thus argues for a better recognition of the ways in which civil war news authors adopted the opportunities of serial publication for the elaboration of novel political stereotypes.     

The Impact of Information Technology on Public Libraries

In the real world of library service, librarians have to keep up with change by answering specific questions. They need training because technology, the character of populations, and local economics all are changing. Recognizing that technology is a catalyst of change, the author shows how librarians can and do work to help libraries harness the power of technology to navigate the changing reading and information needs of their communities. This article examines useful behaviors as librarians approach their work tasks, relying on new technology to help meet customers’ reading and information needs.     

Improving paddling efficiency through raising sitting height in female white water kayakers

The study compared female white water paddlers over two conditions: with seat raise and with no seat raise. The aim was to determine whether raising the sitting height would improve paddling efficiency. Sitting height of each participant was recorded in order to calculate the seat raise height required and three-dimensional kinematic data was collected for six participants over both conditions. Twelve measures of efficiency were utilised. The efficiency of all participants improved on the seat condition for ≥4 of the measures, with three participants showing improvement for ≥6 of the measures. The stern snaking measure had the highest value of significance (P = 0.1455) and showed an average of 11.98% reduction in movement between no seat and seat conditions. The results indicate that improvements were seen although these were individualistic. Therefore it can be concluded that it is worth experimenting with a seat raise for a female kayaker who is lacking efficiency, noting, however, that improvements might depend on anthropometrics and the seat height selected, and therefore could elicit differing results.