A model for budget allocation in multi-unit libraries

This article addresses the problem of allocating funds for acquisition of periodicals among several interrelated units of an academic library. The paper outlines an optimization model for the problem with an objective of maximizing the usage of periodicals over all library units subject to a single collections budget. It further gives an insight into a decision support system in MS Excel based on this model, and it illustrates its successful application to the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.     

Sträuli Arslan,Leseknick — Lesekick. Leseförderung in vielsprachigen Schulen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

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.