Search results

It's not enough to simply acquire alternative and small‐press materials. They must also be made easily accessible to library users by means of accurate, intelligible, and thorough cataloging.

Where in our library collections will we find information on Jimmy Carter's membership in the Trilateral Commission? Can we answer a reference question on the effects of substitution of powdered milk for breast feeding in Third World countries? How about a question on the effectiveness of the four billion dollar anti‐cancer campaign in the United States? What about the costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants?

More subject tracings. More notes. More added entries for persons, groups, and titles. More up‐to‐date terminology. More specific topical headings. More analytics. More subject access to single literary works. That's what will make online (and most other) catalogs work better. But is our primary cataloging source doing it? Judge for yourself by comparing these Library of Congress and Hennepin County Library records for small and alternative press titles:

Partly in the unfolding course of events and partly by intention, we in the transatlantic/English‐speaking region of the world now have an established and standard bibliographic system for printed verbal media—books, serials, and microform. Among them, with some computer assistance, Bowker, H.W. Wilson, Whitaker, the Library of Congress, the British Library, the British Museum Library, and a number of supplementary publishers and collections provide major twentieth century in‐print means of access, as close to being comprehensive, reliable, and coordinated as can humanly be expected at present. You can be reasonably confident that if the information on a print medium exists, you can get it—“you” being either reference/ acquisitions staff or a user.

Homosexuality and bisexuality have existed since the beginning of life itself, yet such expressions have been repressed by many societies, from Plato's Greece to Shakespeare's England to America in the 1990s. Likewise, contraceptive devices have been in existence for over 3,200 years, but their availability has long been suppressed by religious groups and societies.

The librarian‐writer recounts through his personal narrative why writing for publication should be an important aspect of professional performance and leadership for librarians in all libraries, and how professional communication creates even greater opportunities and rewards in developing professionally ‐ from getting published in library journals, to monographs, to undertaking the editing of an international collection of coming out stories and research by gay, lesbian and bisexual librarians. The methods by which the researcher decides to write for publication are also examined.

The purpose of this article is to explore some of the biases that affect the classification of Welsh art materials and to examine how they are being perpetuated both in library classification systems and beyond.

A discourse analysis, in the loosest sense, was used to explore the research topic. Using a hermeneutic and interpretative approach facilitated an examination of some of the tacit assumptions and conceptions that shape the way in which Welsh art is spoken about, thought about, and generally represented.

The paper explores biases in the classification of Welsh art in relation to the analytical categories of dispersion, dilettantism, and depreciation. Evidence is drawn from three examples of discursive practice: the application of Library of Congress subject headings in the library in Howard Gardens; the Salisbury Collection classification scheme at Cardiff University; and the descriptive text taken from the web site of the National Museum, Cardiff. The paper concludes with a discussion of the nature of classification, and the role of the information professional as active player in the practice of representation in and through various methods of classification.

The paper contributes to the literature of classification bias. The focus on the specific rather than the more general biases both adds to Olsen and Schlegl's work and reflects a sensitivity to the subject matter itself. The paper also contributes to the literature at a methodological level in its use of a hermeneutic and interpretative analytical framework to explore representation in classification.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical framework for applying Web 2.0 technologies and design principles to the development of participatory cultures within libraries. A participatory culture is one that focusses on facilitating interaction and the creation of content by users rather than the consumption of content created or compiled by experts.

This study is a literature-based theoretical analysis that explores the role of libraries as agents of cultural hegemony and techniques for developing socially responsible library praxis. It combines insights from a variety of discourses including Western Marxist theories of hegemony, critical theories of library and information science, professional literature regarding “Library 2.0” service models, and media studies theories of participatory culture.

Libraries do not just organize knowledge; they construct it. Furthermore, these constructions tend to reinforce dominant discourses while marginalizing others. By adopting participatory technologies and design principles, libraries can support greater diversity of expression and create spaces for marginalized discourses.

This paper offers suggestions for applying principles of participatory culture to the design of library services such as collection development, cataloging and classification, reference, instruction, and institutional repositories.

This paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating the significance of Web 2.0 for library and information science by applying theoretical perspectives from other disciplines.