Medical history for tomorrow—preserving the record of today

This paper addresses the need to recognize the importance, and the challenges, of preserving the hugely expanding record of medicine today for historians of the future. We are faced not only with an increase in traditional publishing formats, but also with the rapid growth in electronic communications. Two celebrated medical cases, one from the late seventeenth century and one from the late twentieth, are used to illustrate the differences and the difficulties. The need for active and effective professional collaboration is stressed; libraries should work together to address these issues.     

Developing a general practice library: a collaborative project between a GP and librarian

The authors report on a self‐completed questionnaire study from a North Yorkshire based general practice regarding the information needs of its clinicians. The work was carried out with a particular focus on the practice library, and the findings identified that a new approach to maintaining and developing the library was needed. The literature regarding the information needs of primary care clinicians and the role of practice libraries is considered, and compared to those of the clinicians at the practice. Discussion follows on how a collaborative project was set up between the practice and a librarian based at the local NHS Trust library in order to improve the existing practice library. Difficulties encountered and issues unique to the project are explored, including training implications presented by the implementation of electronic resources. Marketing activities implemented are discussed, how the library will operate in its new capacity, and how ongoing support and maintenance of the library will be carried out. It is concluded that although scepticism still exists regarding librarian involvement in practice libraries, collaboration between clinicians and librarians is an effective approach to the successful development and maintenance of a practice library, and recommendations are therefore made for similar collaborative work.     

Unique unto itself: The records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 1908 to 1945

This paper addresses several misunderstandings about the nature of the FBI's Central Records System. Although depicted in popular culture and much of FBI historiography as a tool for the Cold War suppression of American radicals, the FBI's records system grew out of Department of Justice systems already in place before J. Edgar Hoover became Director in 1924. The system grew in size and complexity according to the demands placed on it by the changing priorities of the FBI's criminal and intelligence missions, guided by a “progressive” drive for efficiency through centralization.     

Contesting Communities

This introductory article to the combined special issue of Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice provides an overview of some of the key contemporary approaches to studying journalism and social order. It argues the need to step beyond a functionalist framework when considering the news media’s central role in shaping social connections, community and cohesion. To advance our understandings of social order, our paper suggests a greater emphasis of the significance of journalism’s relationship to the wider social sphere along with three other key considerations, including (1) a critical focus on the relationship between media, politics and social order, especially in defining and/or negotiating “anti-social” practices and social disintegration; (2) a more refined focus on the “imagined” and geographic boundaries of news audiences in digital spaces; and (3) the changing relationship to norms and conventions of journalism practice from trust and legitimacy to the role of journalists as arbiters and connectors across social spaces.