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This paper aims to contribute to the field of research that considers how artefacts and information and communication technologies (ICT) shape organizational practices. In particular, it aims at understanding how tools not only reconfigure relations in organizations, i.e. how people coordinate between each other, but also meaning, i.e. how people interpret the fundamental meaning of their work content and tasks.

The paper reports findings from a longitudinal ethnographic study which investigates the writing process of an interactive live performance written by a group of non-professional writers that was led by French video and multimedia artist Michel Jaffrennou during three months.

The paper shows how multiplying writing software induced the group members to challenge their initial understanding of the cultural and traditional genre of “theater play”. It provides an empirically based account of the capacity of tools to reconfigure meaning in organizational contexts.

The paper provides insights about how tools can be used not only as means to an end, but also as ways in which to build original strategies for exploration, especially during creative group sessions.

The paper sheds light on distinctive albeit poorly studied aspects of tools and ICT within organizations, namely their capacity to reconfigure meaning, which more empirical studies could further investigate.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the challenge of designing an interface for a virtual class, where being represented together contributes to the learning process. It explores the possibility of virtual empathy.

The challenges are: How can this feeling of empathy be recreated through a delicate staging of location and interactions? How can the feeling of togetherness be organized in a 3D environment without creating a feeling of distraction? What are the tools of empathy in a mediated situation? The authors propose to use the concept of “contradictory semiotic analysis” to describe the design process that taps into visual cultures to build a representation and tools that support users' empathetic interactions. The analysis of designers' work from a semiotic point of view shows that they do not necessarily paint after life but play with different media and representations to build “remediated” situations of use.

The paper introduces the concept of “control room” elaborated after Manovich's control panel, to describe the visual interface that supports a diversity of points of view, hence supporting mediated empathetic relationships.

The paper answers the design questions: how can the system of representation support the feeling of empathy amongst participants through a delicate staging of space, people and of interactions within this space? How can a participant get, first, a feeling of togetherness and, second, a feeling of empathy with other participants? The design methodology is explained based on a “contradictory semiotic analysis” made of the comparison with similar platforms and with other modalities of empathy in different media. Second, the design proposition is described. Third, the design challenges that this type of production entails are discussed and the difficulties faced during the design process are analyzed.

The British Food Journal has had a long and distinguished career as an information source both for those involved in regulation and those who produce within the food industry. Indeed, in 1988 the journal enters its 90th year of this service. A review of its past also provides a review of key trends and evolutions in food manufacture and control. The article highlights key issues and developments from 1899 to 1988.

By mapping-out the capabilities, challenges and limitations of named-entity recognition (NER), this article aims to synthesise the state of the art of NER in the context of the early modern research field and to inform discussions about the kind of resources, methods and directions that may be pursued to enrich the application of the technique going forward.

Through an extensive literature review, this article maps out the current capabilities, challenges and limitations of NER and establishes the state of the art of the technique in the context of the early modern, digitally augmented research field. It also presents a new case study of NER research undertaken by Enlightenment Architectures: Sir Hans Sloane's Catalogues of his Collections (2016–2021), a Leverhulme funded research project and collaboration between the British Museum and University College London, with contributing expertise from the British Library and the Natural History Museum.

Currently, it is not possible to benchmark the capabilities of NER as applied to documents of the early modern period. The authors also draw attention to the situated nature of authority files, and current conceptualisations of NER, leading them to the conclusion that more robust reporting and critical analysis of NER approaches and findings is required.

This article examines NER as applied to early modern textual sources, which are mostly studied by Humanists. As addressed in this article, detailed reporting of NER processes and outcomes is not necessarily valued by the disciplines of the Humanities, with the result that it can be difficult to locate relevant data and metrics in project outputs. The authors have tried to mitigate this by contacting projects discussed in this paper directly, to further verify the details they report here.

The authors suggest that a forum is needed where tools are evaluated according to community standards. Within the wider NER community, the MUC and ConLL corpora are used for such experimental set-ups and are accompanied by a conference series, and may be seen as a useful model for this. The ultimate nature of such a forum must be discussed with the whole research community of the early modern domain.

NER is an algorithmic intervention that transforms data according to certain rules-, patterns- or training data and ultimately affects how the authors interpret the results. The creation, use and promotion of algorithmic technologies like NER is not a neutral process, and neither is their output A more critical understanding of the role and impact of NER on early modern documents and research and focalization of some of the data- and human-centric aspects of NER routines that are currently overlooked are called for in this paper.

This article presents a state of the art snapshot of NER, its applications and potential, in the context of early modern research. It also seeks to inform discussions about the kinds of resources, methods and directions that may be pursued to enrich the application of NER going forward. It draws attention to the situated nature of authority files, and current conceptualisations of NER, and concludes that more robust reporting of NER approaches and findings are urgently required. The Appendix sets out a comprehensive summary of digital tools and resources surveyed in this article.

What is now known as the Canning Industry commenced on the 30th January, 1810, when Montalivet, the French Minister of the Interior, wrote to Francois Appert and informed him that his—Appert's—new process for preserving foods was assured of success and thereby granting to the process the official recognition of the French Government. Official recognition also carried with it a money grant of twelve thousand francs—about £500 in those days—Appert won this prize on the principle of “Delhi taken and India saved for one rupee eight annas”—and died in the year 1841 a comparatively poor man and the founder of one of the world's greatest industries. As a result of the warlike operations in which it had been engaged, multitudes of sick and wounded were thrown on the hands of the French Government, and scurvy was terribly prevalent in the fleets. Hence the French Government gave a public notice that it would award a prize to anyone who should discover a cheap and satisfactory method of preserving foodstuffs, without either drying or pickling, so that they could be kept for a long period and still retain the natural flavour and other characteristics of the fresh product. Appert had worked at and perfected his process during the preceding ten or fifteen years and had thoroughly assured himself of its practicability. He was therefore well prepared to demonstrate the details before the Board of Arts and Manufactures of which Board Gay Lussac had been a member since the year 1805. The report of this body to the Minister of the Interior was entirely favourable, as was also that of General Caffarelli, the Maritime Prefect of Brest. Caffarelli had found that soups and vegetables prepared by Appert's process had retained their goodness after three months' bottling, and he had been able to supply what seemed to the diners to be fresh vegetables in mid‐winter. It need hardly be said that Appert's process for preserving foods is the one in use now. Appert, however, knew nothing of the principles on which his process depended, nor did anyone else at that time. He supposed putrefaction to be due to the action of the air alone. In this view he was supported by the great authority of Gay Lussac who, it will be remembered, imagined atmospheric oxygen to be the cause. Appert at the request of the Minister of the Interior wrote a short book on the subject—a practical treatise explaining the methods of preserving animal and vegetable substances. This book was almost at once translated into several languages. It would seem that one of the chief advantages that Appert hoped the French people would gain by his invention was the saving of sugar. Up to that time the only means of preserving fruit other than by drying was to immerse the fruit in strong syrup made with cane sugar, and sugar was almost impossible to obtain in France at that time owing to war conditions. He also says that the French Government wished to draw “the utmost advantage from the productions of our soil in order to develop our agriculture and manufactures, and to diminish the consumption of foreign commodities” ! This is exactly what we in this country are trying to do now in the building up of a trade in canned food, a hundred and twenty years later. The English translator of Appert's work complacently observes:—

This compilation of over 500 United States Government bibliographies is the second annual supplement to BIBLIOGRAPHY OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1968–1973 (Pierian Press). Due to the Government Printing Office backlog during 1974, many 1973 and 1974 titles are included in this 1975 Supplement, which should have appeared earlier.

In these notes at the beginning of our last volume we expressed the hope that its conclusion would see at least the approach of peace. That hope has not been fulfilled, and only an unreasoning optimist could say that at present the cessation of hostilities is anywhere in sight. The year has been marked by success and tragedy; tragedy in the losses we have sustained of some of the leading young men of the profession who have died in all parts of the world for the Flag; success in the fact that the moral of the nation has grown rather than diminished, that the Empire is more determined than ever to secure a world in which free men may live, that the course of events have proven to our American brethren that our cause is and has been just. As librarians we share in all the feelings created by these facts. Perhaps the most significant social fact of the year has been the gradual awakening of the people to educational opportunities, and the need of them. There has been a wave of interest in things intellectual, from the utilitarian point of view mainly. The need of meeting German after‐the‐war competition is frankly the impetus to interest in education among many public men; but there are educationists with somewhat higher views whose voices are receiving attention; and, it is obvious, alas, that there were never so many cranks in full volubility as now. Whatever may be the causes of the new interest, it is undoubtedly the duty of librarians and library organizations to take full advantage of that interest to press the claims of libraries to a public hearing. How that is to be done is the business (theoretically) of the Library Association to determine, and we understand that of late it is devoting attention to the problem.