图书馆休闲文化"核"的建设及其人性关怀扩张

论述了图书馆的起源和发展与休闲的同源性,提出了图书馆休闲文化的"核"功能,使人们进一步认识到文化休闲在人们的生活和工作中的重要地位。图书馆的休闲功能是人类文明进步的重要标志,在未来社会中会愈来愈得到发展,它不仅是权益,而且需要"物化",读者应去追求自己的休闲权益,图书馆的管理者和工作人员应转变思想,以人为本,使人真正把图书馆作为学习生活之必须的文化交流舞台。     

湖北"共享工程"资源建设若干问题探析

对“共享工程”资源建设的思路、内容、建设目标及存在的问题与对策等若干问题进行了阐述与分析。     

电视的危机

电视危机的到来无法避免,主要基于两方面的原因:一是技术进步的必然结果,任何新兴的媒体必然以自身技术上的优势对旧有媒体形成冲击,互联网与电视的关系形象地说明了这点;一是当代电视所形成的文化品格,长期以来形成的电视的观念、电视和受众之间的关系也给电视自身的发展带来了危机.     

传播图景中的制度——由英尼斯的媒介理论谈起

本文分三部分 ,第一部分认为 ,在英尼斯的媒介理论中 ,对制度层面的论述是单向和不充分的 ,需要给予补充。第二部分对审视传播媒介与制度系统关系的各种理论视角做了归纳和解释。第三部分提出传播现象的制度分析框架 ,并以舆论的形成为例进行了分析。作者认为传播制度对于传播媒介和社会生活的正常运转具有重要意义 ,并通过制度分析提供了一种可以“去魅”的解释。     

早期记者的职业意识和精神危机

早期记者产生于外人所办报馆 ,孕育于半殖民地半封建社会。从产生之初就深受西方新闻观念影响。中国最早的现代意义上的记者正是在西方文化冲击下 ,初步形成了自己的职业意识和观念。同时 ,他们又受传统文化影响 ,难以摆脱传统观念影响 ,热衷科举 ,对西方文化表现出排斥心理。本文试图通过揭示早期记者的职业认同危机、科举情结、文化认同危机 ,考察分析早期记者的职业意识和精神状况 ,以及其对新闻工作的影响     

Excluding archival silences: Oral history and historical absence

Despite our society's increasing reliance on electronic documentation, to-date archives remain, largely, material repositories of cultural memory. It is an accepted historical problematic, however, that culture is often resistant to material preservation. There exists an undeniable and profound tension between scholarly efforts to reconstruct history and interpret cultural traditions and the fragmentary, and often limited, material record. That is to say, scholarship is shaped by a sinuous negotiation around the historical silences that encompass all of material culture. Historical silences, however, can at times be marginalized (or at best excluded) by a sensitive configuration of material evidence with oral history.Excluding Archival Silences: Oral History and Historical Absence uses a historically and geographically specific example of oral history to engage in a more generalist discussion of how oral reflection, especially when shaped by material evidences, can be an especially effective tool for preserving the dynamics of culture that often remain undocumented.     

Spread or Sacrifice: Dilemma for Lighting Policies

ABSTRACT

Light sensitive objects will fade on display. Collection managers and curators face the dilemma whether to spread fading over several similar objects or sacrifice one. This paper describes an experiment in which participants were asked how they would want to pass on a collection of seventeenth century hand-coloured maps to coming generations. Results show that while colour changes are hardly visible, both public and professionals do not perceive them as damage and prefer to spread fading. Once fading becomes clearly visible in all maps, the preference shifts to sacrificing one map. The tipping point lies around five just noticeable changes. This information can be used when selecting objects for exhibition. The outcome also implies it would be prudent to assess the degree of fading of much exhibited objects and consider whether and when to choose for a sacrifice strategy.     

Institutional policy process improvement: using structurating activity theory to inform practice

Organizational communication scholars are increasingly called upon to use theoretical knowledge to address problematic processes in public institutions. This article reports a process improvement project focused on a university conflict of interest (COI) policy as an example of how scholars can engage theory to improve ongoing policy processes. The project team included communication scholars and research administration staff who designed, implemented, and evaluated the mixed-methods project guided by structurating activity theory. Baseline survey results were used to design the process improvement project. Results of the follow-up survey indicate that researchers who participated in some aspect of the process improvement project (i.e. attending a policy café, using the redesigned website, or reading the new Quick Reference Guide) reported higher levels of policy communication and knowledge and more positive attitudes toward the COI policy than researchers who had not engaged with process improvement efforts. We offer theoretical and practical implications of results for organizational communication scholars and practitioners.     

The use of information and communication technologies in public libraries in South Africa as tools for bridging the digital divide: the case of the Kempton Park public library

ABSTRACT

The information and knowledge society has resulted in the exponential growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs), thus creating a gap between those who use ICTs and those who do not; hence the emergence of the term “digital divide” in the 1990s. One of the milestones of South Africa’s National Development Plan, a policy that charts the country’s development up until 2030, is to ensure that high-speed broadband internet is universally available at competitive prices. Notwithstanding the importance of ICTs in public libraries, the provision of such is still taking place on a limited scale in South Africa. This article investigates the use of ICTs in public libraries in South Africa as a tool in bridging the digital divide. It also examines the inequalities in access and use and suggests ways in which ICTs may be used to reduce the digital divide. A qualitative research methodology was adopted. In order for public libraries to function as an important tool in bridging the digital divide, there is a need to standardize the provision of public library services with regard to the digital divide.     

The metamorphosis of medical discourse and embedded cultural rationality: a content analysis of health reporting for neurasthenia and depressive disorder in China

Neurasthenia (shenjing shuairuo) and depressive disorder are medical issues that have given rise to disputes in China for more than 20 years. Since the 1980s, the once ubiquitous diagnosis of neurasthenia in China was rapidly substituted by depressive disorder in the clinical context. Globally, the metamorphosis from neurasthenia to depressive disorder heralded the triumph of scientific rationality, which identifies neurasthenia as a categorical fallacy. In China, however, neurasthenia retained social and cultural significance; thus, it has become a contestable discourse in relation to depressive disorder. By examining the health reporting of both discourses over a decade, this study explicated how neurasthenia and depressive disorder were represented in a popular health newspaper in China. The content analysis showed that neurasthenia is a more culturally and everyday embedded discourse closely associated with Chinese medicine and laymen’s discourse, while depressive disorder is more associated with Western medicine and the professional discourse. The differentiation of two sets of medical discourse evinces that despite the ostensibly prevailing scientific rationality in media health reporting, cultural rationality is deeply embedded in communicating mental health issues with the lay public. It further suggests the significance of investigating the social and cultural expression of mental illnesses in China.