Search results

For many years librarians have regarded the collection and preservation of local material as part of their responsibility to their communities. Most public libraries boast a local collection, from the odd shelf or two in the librarian's office to ambitious and elaborate departments. The small collections should not be despised, for the preservation of local material is of itself an important practice, but merely to preserve this material where there exists neither the will nor the means to exploit it, is a meaningless exercise. Those librarians who have amassed considerable and commendable local collections seek also to attract an enthusiastic clientele, usually successfully, because of the very nature of the subject and the curiosity towards its own history which is inbred in a community.

This paper aims to describe the development of an online project in East London about local history.

The approach to the paper has been to combine the experience of building and developing a live online community of practice (around the subject of local history in East London) with both established historical theory and the emergence of self‐publishing “history from below”.

The project has revealed that the classification of history at a local level requires a detailed understanding of the theory of history, issues about classification of history, and the need to create a classification scheme that is usable in the context of user‐generated content.

The online project has been live for around 18 months. In this time, over 440 people have contributed almost 5,000 original posts. They have created a strong online community presence and there has been work to classify the contributions by professional and amateur historians and local people who are recording their personal memories.

This theory-into-practice article centers on American history through the optics of one religious organization's contestations – the Elim Springs Church of Jesus Christ, or Harshmanites as they are commonly known – with state and society. Secondary students explore the history and myriad responses from citizens and the federal government, which provides insight into what it means to be an American.

Embedded action inquiry (EAI) couples investigation with informed action. This whole-class exploration of 19th and 20th century American history transforms into individual, independent inquiries about related historical and current civil liberty contestations. Students communicate newly generated, fully substantiated understandings first to an academic audience and then to the community.

Teachers direct students' historical reading, thinking and writing toward informed civic participation. Engaging primary and secondary sources spark students' curiosity and scrutiny; writing prompts and scaffolding guide students' text-based articulations.

Harshmanite history, initiated by an iconic leader and maintained by the congregation into its 3rd century, illuminates the best and worst aspects of America. Secondary social studies students can examine emergent, local tensions when citizens' religious freedoms confront civic duty and societal responses. Through EAI, a novel adaptation of inquiry, students make meaning out of the local history and contribute to civic dialogue.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether tourists in Hawaii experience the Bali Syndrome. The Bali Syndrome suggests that tourists in Polynesian destinations experience artificial cultures. To explore the syndrome, the paper investigates whether tourists are interested in purchasing Hawaiian souvenirs and memorabilia that are based on the state's history and culture, as well as the extent to which Hawaiian history and local culture motivates their Hawaiian sojourn.

This paper employs survey methodology in two studies. Both studies are based upon questionnaire responses from a convenience sample of approximately 700 tourists in Waikiki.

Although tourists in Hawaii express an interest in the state's history and local culture, the majority have no intention of purchasing historic/cultural souvenirs or memorabilia.

Marketing and tourism planners in Hawaii, Fiji, and Bali should create advertising and promotional campaigns that focus on the “escape” qualities of these destinations, rather than on Polynesian histories and cultures. Given that the study was conducted in Waikiki, researchers may want to explore the Bali Syndrome in other Polynesian destinations.

Marketing and tourism planners may respond to the Bali Syndrome from four different perspectives; these are, servicescape, ethics, cause‐related, and eco‐tourism.

The paper provides empirical evidence that the Bali Syndrome exists and then offers a range of possible responses based upon four perspectives.

This paper aims to investigate how public libraries in Ireland are using their websites to present local studies collections online.

All the websites of public libraries in Ireland were evaluated against a checklist of 50 criteria by one of the authors. An analytic description was provided of the four highest‐ranking websites and semi‐structured interviews were held with staff in these library authorities.

Several interesting trends in Irish local studies and their online presentation were identified. Overall the websites were well‐presented and had a strong sense of branding. Users of these websites typically come from the Irish diaspora in Europe, the US and Australia. Library 2.0 “tools” had been adopted by three of the four authorities investigated, adding value to their websites. Recommendations for future developments are included.

This research should add to the relatively sparse literature available on local authority local studies websites.

MUMMY AND DADDY won a gold house point the other day for junior Reid, aged seven. Helping with homework must be as old as organised education, but aiding and abetting projects is quite a new phenomenon. Being a parent, and a librarian, inevitably brings a double burden; not only do you get the dratted things thrust upon you at work, but after a weary day servicing genealogists et al one is met with ‘Dad, dad (shades of Al Read for those old enough to remember), Miss … has set us a PROJECT!!!’ Most librarians, and all local history librarians, have seen the following type of demand, which on a local scale is on a par with the totality of source material required for a full set of the Oxford history of England, the Victoria history of the counties of England, the New Cambridge modern and Toynbee's Study of history:

The purpose of this paper is to present data and discussion on history researcher development and research capacities in Australia and New Zealand, as evidenced in analysis of history PhD theses' topics.

The paper is based on two independent studies of history PhD thesis topics, using a standard discipline coding system.

The paper shows some marked differences in the Australian and New Zealand volumes and distributions of history PhDs, especially for PhDs conducted on non‐local/national topics. These differences reflect national researcher development, research capacities and interests, in particular local, national and international histories, and have implications for the globalisation of scholarship.

Thesis topics are used as a proxy for the graduate's research capacity within that topic. However, as PhD examiners have attested to the significance and originality of the thesis, this is taken as robust. The longitudinal nature of the research suggests that subsequent years' data and analysis would provide rich information on changes to history research capacity. Other comparative (i.e. international) studies would provide interesting analyses of history research capacity.

There are practical implications for history departments in universities, history associations, and government (PhD policy, and history researcher development and research capacity in areas such as foreign affairs).

There are social implications for local and community history in the knowledge produced in the theses, and in the development of local research capacity.

The work in this paper is the first to collate and analyse such thesis data either in Australia or New Zealand. The comparative analyses of the two datasets are also original.

Wine is an integral part of so‐called “Old World” nations, amalgamating with the local history and landscape, and providing a powerful “origin branding”. To date, however, these dimensions have been discussed to a very limited extent in emerging “New World” wine regions, where the lack of a traditional heritage of wine making presents special challenges in terms of origin branding. The focus of most previous research has been on the viewpoints of consumers, not those of producers. This study seeks to explore these dimensions among small wine growers.

Using a qualitative approach, 42 interviews with winery operators from several emerging Western Australian wine regions were conducted.

In the absence of historical wine pioneers and traditions, winery operators in emerging wine‐producing regions use alternative means for “origin branding” that emphasise heritage and landscape characteristics centring on the wider “rural idyll”. These associations serve to forge a “vintage” identity for their industry, which essentially masks its youth for their region.

In view of the more than 200 small wineries operating in Western Australia the number of respondents in the study may not allow for making generalisations of the state's wine industry.

The current growth in the number of wineries in the regions studied and the increasingly acknowledged quality of their wine product may help towards the establishment of their history and identity, thus contributing to origin branding over time.

The study explores the importance of history and landscape among winery operators in promoting their wineries and their wine products in the context of emerging wine regions, an area for the most part ignored in contemporary research.

THE question which Mr. Sanderson asked at the March meeting of the Home Counties Branch of the Library Association is susceptible of many answers. “Are libraries doing their job?” he asked. In general we think that they are doing their best in circumstances which are not always stimulating. He used the work they do with children as an example; describing it, if The Manchester Guardian reports him aright, as being in many places “a few juggling tricks with books and a certain amount of shop‐window dressing.” Again, “two or three shelves of books would suffice for the average student studying for a university degree, but the urgent need for those shelves was in danger of being forgotten by libraries in their craze for special stuff.” Mr. Sanderson's address had much more in it than these two excerpts would imply. They are, however, worth separate consideration. Librarians can answer if they are true or not. We know of places of which such remarks would be libellous; of others where they are mere truth.

This paper aims to examine a conflict between local élites and local forest workers in relation to the designation of Kumano Kodo in Japan as a World Heritage site. Aesthetics of landscapes are highly politicized, which creates conflicts for forest workers.

The study examines two concepts of “heritage” and “authenticity,” that World Heritage emphasizes. Types of authenticity are compared, and a post‐structuralist's model of authenticity is developed. The study uses empirical research data to show a process of authentication of tourist sites.

The value associated with World Heritage, while proclaimed as “universal value”, represents a Eurocentric hegemonic power that local élites use symbolically. The construction of Kumano Kodo as a World Heritage site entails masking local histories and memories.

Many scholars discuss heritage sites from the viewpoint of a conflict between nationalism and globalism. This paper, however, views heritage tourism from multiple perspectives, such as globalism, cosmopolitanism and localism.