bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The "Nation's Conscience:" Assessing Bioethics Commissions as Public Forums
Authors: Dzur Albert W , Levin Daniel Lessard
Published: January 2007

As the fifth national bioethics commission has concluded its work and a sixth is currently underway, it is time to step back and consider appropriate measures of success. This paper argues that standard measures of commissions' influence fail to fully assess their role as public forums. From the perspective of democratic theory, a critical dimension of this role is public engagement: the ability of a commission to address the concerns of the general public, to learn how average citizens resolve moral issues in healthcare, and to monitor public opinion on the topics addressed in the commission. Such a public forum role is supported by the critical literature within bioethics, which has deemed some commissions successful, supported more generally by the history of bioethics as a reform discourse that has brought socially important values into the medical domain, and supported more generally still by the example of the great social issues commissions of the 1960s.
Ethics, Regulation, and Biomedical Research
Authors: Weed Matthew
Published: January 2007

Controversy has surrounded the institutions that facilitate discussion and regulation of American biomedical research for years. Recent challenges to the legitimacy of the President's Council on Bioethics have been focused on stem cell research. These arguments represent an opportunity to reconsider the legislation under which stem cell research is regulated, as well as to consider preexisting bodies like the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and National Bioethics Advisory Commission. This paper proposes a Federal Life Sciences Policy Commission, a novel commission with advisory and regulatory powers that would benefit from the positive and negative lessons learned under the legislation that currently shapes the formation and institutional characteristics of advisory bodies in the United States. The Federal Life Sciences Policy Commission would have institutional independence not present in previous advisory bodies, while maintaining the tradition of broad societal representation and thoughtful discourse that has developed in the United States.
Genetic Enhancement and the Fate of the Worse Off
Authors: Mwase Isaac M. T
Published: January 2007

When reflecting on arguments in the debate about genetic technologies, decision makers must try to be empathetic to those who are worse off. Disparities in health and health care in the U.S. pale when global facts are considered. Although U.S. citizens ought to be concerned about the worse off in the U.S., such concern ultimately must be balanced against the urgent imperative to address the plight of those in poor countries. It is a matter of fairness that care and concern be directed to those who are truly worse off in global terms.
Germ-Line Enhancement of Humans and Nonhumans
Authors: Loftis J. Robert
Published: January 2007

The current difference in attitude toward germ-line enhancement in humans and nonhumans is unjustified. Society should be more cautious in modifying the genes of nonhumans and more bold in thinking about modifying our own genome. I identify four classes of arguments pertaining to germ-line enhancement: safety arguments, justice arguments, trust arguments, and naturalness arguments. The first three types are compelling, but do not distinguish between human and nonhuman cases. The final class of argument would justify a distinction between human and nonhuman germ-line enhancement; however, this type of argument fails and, therefore, the discrepancy in attitude toward human and nonhuman germ-line enhancement is unjustified.
Germ-Line Genetic Enhancement and Rawlsian Primary Goods
Authors: Allhoff Fritz
Published: January 2007

Genetic interventions raise a host of moral issues and, of its various species, germ-line genetic enhancement is the most morally contentious. This paper surveys various arguments against germ-line enhancement and attempts to demonstrate their inadequacies. A positive argument is advanced in favor of certain forms of germ-line enhancements, which holds that they are morally permissible if and only if they augment Rawlsian primary goods, either directly or by facilitating their acquisition.
Justice in the Genetically Transformed Society
Authors: Farrelly Colin Patrick
Published: January 2007

This paper explores some of the challenges raised by human genetic interventions for debates about distributive justice, focusing on the challenges that face prioritarian theories of justice and their relation to the argument advanced by Ronald Lindsay elsewhere in this issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. Also examined are the implications of germ-line genetic enhancements for intergenerational justice, and an argument is given against Fritz Allhoff's conclusion, found in this issue as well, that such enhancements are morally permissible if and only if they augment primary goods.
Last Word: Imagining the Future
Authors: Green Ronald Michael
Published: January 2007

H. G. Wells warned, in 1895, not to allow economic injustices to become to so acute that they ultimately transform human biology. Wells's warning is all the more pertinent today as society contemplates the use of biotechnologies to manipulate or "enhance" the human genome.
Buddhism and Polity in Early Sixth-Century Paekche
Authors: Best Jonathan W
Published: January 2007

Using written and material evidence to criticize the Samguk sagi's relatively static depiction of Paekche's past, this study examines the importance of Buddhism in the early sixth-century political and cultural transformation of the kingdom, a subject that passes virtually unnoticed in Kim Pusik's early history of Korea. Prior to the end of the fifth century, court life in Paekche was similar in notable respects to that of contemporary Koguryo, which, in turn, was partly influenced by earlier Chinese forms. At this early time, Buddhism was acknowledged by Paekche's kings but neither held a prominent place in the court nor played a significant role in policies of state. This changed after the loss of the Han River valley to Koguryo in 475. Paekche's early sixth-century kings Muryong and Song evidently recognized that if the dynasty was to survive, a fundamental restructuring of the government and its policies had to occur. The court intensified diplomatic and cultural ties to China. Accordingly, not only did they intensify diplomatic and cultural ties to China, but further the example of the ardently Buddhist Liang emperor Wu Di evidently inspired these monarchs to enhance their patronage of Buddhism and to use the religion as a force to help centralize and strengthen royal authority.
Taoism and East Asian Literary Theories: Chuang Tzuis Theory of Selflessness and the Poetics of Self-effacement
Authors: Shin Eun-kyung
Published: January 2007

This article examines several East Asian literary theories that emphasize self-effacement, self-abandonment, and self-surrender and explores Chuang Tzu's ideas of self-forgetting or selflessness as part of the philosophical background of the theories. Examples are drawn from the works of Ssu-K'ung T'u, Yi Kyu-bo, Yi I, Yi Sang-jong, Zeami, Matsuo Basho, and Wang Fu-chih.
Western Attitudes toward the Korean Language: An Overview of Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Mission Literature
Authors: Silva David J
Published: January 2007

Descriptions of Korea's linguistic situation written by Westerners during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only reveal native and foreign attitudes toward the Korean language but also provide insight into language-focused evangelization tactics embraced by Christian missionaries. Upon their arrival in Korea during the 1800s, Westerners encountered a long-standing system of diglossia: socio-historical relations between China and Korea gave rise to the use of various Korean "lects" in which the degree of Chinese elements differed. Moreover, the nation's indigenous writing system, han'gul, was widely regarded by Koreans as culturally subordinate to Chinese script, an attitude that garnered much attention from Western observers. These sorts of language attitudes were further reinforced by Westerners' deterministic interpretations of Korea's linguistic situation; believing the Korean language to be linguistically defective, many Westerners concluded that the Korean people suffered from corresponding deficiencies of intellect, education, and morality. In a campaign to "educate" the Korean populace, Christian missionaries worked to raise the status of the native language and orthography as part of what would prove to be a highly effective evangelization strategy.
Keeper of Histories: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library and Its Cultural Work, 1860-1910
Authors: Laugesen Amanda
Published: January 2007

Historical society libraries have remained a largely neglected area of
library history. In this article, I examine the particular story of the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin through the first two generations of
its leadership to illuminate broader issues about the role and function
of historical society libraries, both in their contribution to the story
of the development of American libraries in the period 1860-1910 and their
role in shaping historical consciousness and identity. Historical society
libraries sought to create a usable past in the form of the material
texts of state history that could inform and instruct. Alongside the
emerging historical profession, with which they established a vital and
symbiotic relationship, historical society libraries played an essential
part in shaping the American nation's historical sensibilities.
African Bibliophiles: Books and Libraries in Medieval Timbuktu
Authors: Singleton Brent D
Published: January 2007

The West African city of Timbuktu flourished as a center for Islamic
scholarship from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. The
social structure of the city was based on wealth, with further
stratification by degree of literacy and expertise in interpreting
Islamic legal texts. As a consequence, books and libraries evolved into
blessed symbols of scholarship, wealth, and power. This essay explores
the history of books and libraries during the Golden Age of Timbuktu
(1493-1591), followed by a discussion of the divergence of library
practices in Timbuktu from those in the greater Islamic world of the time.
Edmund Janes James Builds a Library: The University of Illinois Library, 1904-1920
Authors: Solberg Winton U.
Published: January 2007

Edmund Janes James was one of the most effective American university
presidents of his generation in building an excellent university
library. He had gained a strong reverence for German institutions,
especially the ability of universities to advance the public welfare,
while taking a doctorate at the University of Halle. As president of the
University of Illinois from 1904 to 1920, James worked with three head
librarians—Katharine L. Sharp, Francis K. W. Drury, and Phineas
L. Windsor—to build up library collections adequate not only to
the needs of undergraduates but also to the task of training graduate
students and providing the faculty with the research materials needed to
discover new truth. James took a passionate interest in the library. When
Sharp retired, he made a sustained and thorough effort to
recruit an outstanding librarian to replace her. Drury and Windsor
were both highly competent librarians who contributed significantly to
building the collection and making the library useful to readers and
research scholars. James, a demanding president, expected much of his
librarians and drove himself hard. He envisioned the creation of "one
of the great libraries of the world" at the University of Illinois and
laid the foundation for the realization of his vision in later years.
"The Whole Tragedy of Leisure in Penury": The South Wales Miners' Institute Libraries during the Great Depression
Authors: Baggs Chris
Published: January 2007

From the late 1860s, the mining communities of South Wales developed a distinctive form of general library linked to well over a hundred miners' institutes. These libraries were genuine working-class facilities, largely funded, run, and managed by the communities in which they were located. As the economic depression of the late 1920s exacerbated the slump in the British coal-mining industry, these miners' institute libraries experienced increasing financial difficulties and turned to external bodies, including public libraries, social service agencies, and government-funded schemes, for assistance. This prolonged their existence but undermined the very independence that made them so unique.
The Genesis of the Modern Academic Library in China: Western Influences and the Chinese Response
Authors: Liao Jing
Published: January 2007

From early antiquity through the end of the nineteenth century, the primary missions of Chinese imperial and private libraries were to collect and preserve books and documents. Except for a few isolated historical periods, these libraries rendered no service to the public. The Metropolitan University Library in Beijing, founded in 1898, was China's first modern academic library with a clear goal of serving a burgeoning program of public higher education. The tale of the founding of this library reveals an intriguing story of tension between the modern Western and traditional Chinese concepts of what a library should be. This article examines the changing patterns of Western influences and Chinese responses in the sociopolitical and cultural arenas in the nineteenth century and considers how, amidst this intense Western and Chinese engagement and confrontation, the debate on library reform emerged and eventually led to the birth of the modern Chinese academic library.
Welcome Guests or Representatives of the “Mal-Odorous Class”?: Periodicals and Their Readers in American Public Libraries, 1876–1914
Authors: Johanningsmeier Charles
Published: January 2007

This article documents the extensive debate between 1876 and 1914 about the role of periodicals in American public libraries as well as how libraries accommodated the ever-increasing flood of periodicals during this period. It argues that millions of periodical readers played a major role in transforming public libraries from relatively elitist book depositories to democratic institutions that made available a great number and variety of periodicals. These readers as well as the changes they effected challenge a number of scholarly assumptions about who was using public libraries and controlling their policies during this time.
Classification and the Definition of a Discipline: The Dewey Decimal Classification and Home Economics
Authors: Fields Anne M. , Connell Tschera Harkness
Published: January 2007

Few not directly involved with the history of home economics may be aware of Melvil Dewey's close involvement with that discipline's early development. Early leaders in home economics attempted to have the subject subdivided between its original placement in the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in the 600s (Useful Arts) and a complementary placement as a subdivision of the 300s (Sociology). The failure of this attempt illuminates Dewey's well-known resistance to tinkering with the DDC, internecine struggles within the discipline, and the discipline's gender-driven place within American culture.
"To make the people of South Africa proud of their membership of the great British Empire": Home Reading Unions in South Africa, 1900-1914
Authors: Dick Archie L
Published: January 2007

This article examines the regulation of reading by two home reading unions operating in South Africa from 1900 to 1914. It challenges the view that reading is primarily regulated to sustain and support a particular economic order. The emphasis falls on cultural, gender, and political factors that mediated imperial and colonial views of guided reading during a fluid period in South African history.
"She speaks as one having authority": Mary E. Downey's Use of Libraries as a Means to Public Power
Authors: Stauffer Suzanne M
Published: January 2007

The history of women in the West includes little about women as librarians. Librarians who came West were looking for professional and administrative opportunities away from the established centers of library authority in the East. Western states hired state library organizers to oversee library development. The women who accepted these positions enjoyed professional autonomy, responsibility, and power unavailable to other professional women. Mary Elizabeth Downey was one such librarian. This study gives a voice to these women and provides insight into the western American social and cultural environment that permitted them to attain this level of public power.
Daniel Alexander Payne Murray (1852-1925), Forgotten Librarian, Bibliographer, and Historian
Authors: Walker Billie E
Published: January 2007

Daniel Murray, well-known librarian, bibliographer, and historian, was one of the first Afro-Americans to work as a librarian at the Library of Congress in 1871.1 Although not formally educated in the profession, he rose to the position of assistant librarian before he retired in 1923. In 1899 Murray organized an exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition on Negro authors. Under his direction his award-winning exhibit became the core of the Library of Congress's Colored Author Collection. Although Murray's attempt to publish an encyclopedia of Afro-Americans' achievements was not successful, it laid the groundwork for others to eventually publish multivolume encyclopedias about the Negro race. Murray was also a prolific author and a frequent contributor to Afro-American journals. This essay seeks to illustrate the historical and sociopolitical contributions of Daniel Murray as they reflect the path toward an Afrocentric consciousness.
Reopening the Book on Arcimboldo's Librarian
Authors: Elhard K. C
Published: January 2007

The Librarian (ca. 1566) is a well-known painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a court artist for the Hapsburg emperors Ferdinand I, Maximilian II, and Rudolf II. Arcimboldo's "composite portrait" of a librarian cleverly assembled from a pile of books has been interpreted narrowly as a parody of librarianship and of intellectualism in general, due in part to Sven Alfons's identification of the librarian as the court historiographer, Wolfgang Lazius. This reevaluation of The
Librarian attempts to broaden the conventional view held by art historians and librarians. Considered within the context of late Renaissance book culture (particularly, Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools), Arcimboldo's humor takes on a new signification. The Librarian may have targeted not those who love learning but rather materialistic book collectors more interested in acquiring books than in reading them.
The Prosecution of War Crimes for the Destruction of Libraries and Archives during Times of Armed Conflict
Authors: Zgonjanin Sanja
Published: January 2007

The twentieth century witnessed some of the worst destruction of libraries and archives during armed conflicts. Ad hoc tribunals created to try war crimes have made some progress in establishing individual criminal responsibility for crimes against cultural property. However, crimes that involve the destruction of libraries and archives are not prosecuted as separate incidents due to the courts' failure to specifically list such crimes as separate counts of indictment. The lack of the prosecution of the individuals responsible for crimes of library and archive destruction is one of the reasons why the assault on the documentary heritage of the world continues.
The Library as Clinic: A Foucauldian Interpretation of British Public Library Attitudes to Social and Physical Disease, ca. 1850-1950
Authors: Black Alistair
Published: January 2007

Characterized by the pursuit of enlightenment and progress, the municipal public libraries that began to appear in Britain after 1850 were notable cultural ingredients of modern society. Yet public libraries also displayed less liberal dimensions of modernity, as places where scientific rationality was at times mobilized to counter perceived "social" diseases, broadly constituted by disorder, deviancy, poor discipline, irrational recreation, and economic and political radicalism. The public library's role as a meaningful clinic for the eradication of social diseases, to which the masses were seen to be prone, necessarily required the attraction of a mass clientele, which, ironically, generated fears of physical disease arising from the spatial mixing of users and the sharing of printed materials. Just as Foucault employed the "birth of the clinic" as a metaphor for the emergence of modern medicine and its expert discourse in the setting of the scientific hospital around the turn of the nineteenth century, so also the notion of "library as clinic" can be seen to encapsulate later discourses of control associated with public librarianship.
Southern Librarianship and the Culture of Resentment
Authors: Carmichael James Vinson, Jr
Published: January 2007

The development of library service in the southern states occurred in a supposedly reconciliatory period of American history following the Civil War, but the reforms of Reconstruction, the indigenous remnants of "southern culture," and feelings of isolation from larger professional affairs bred dissent and feelings of estrangement between natives and outsiders. This article relates "the southern problem" to early key events in southern library development and current fractures in American cultural politics.
The Library of Congress Becomes a World Library, 1815-2005
Authors: Cole John Young
Published: January 2007

Established as a legislative library in 1800 to support the U.S. Congress when it moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress—retaining its original name and primary legislative purpose—has subsequently become the largest and most international of the world's major libraries. The principal reason is that Librarians of Congress since Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–97), but especially Herbert Putnam (1899–1939), Luther H. Evans (1945–53), and James H. Billington (1987–), have affirmed and expanded Thomas Jefferson's concept that the Library of Congress is a national institution that should be universal in scope and widely and freely available to everyone.
Assessing What We Wrote: A Review of the Libraries & Culture Literature Reviews, 1967-2002
Authors: Goedeken Edward A
Published: January 2007

Biennial literature reviews, somewhat rare in library and historical scholarship, have become integral to the scholarly apparatus of American library history since their inception in 1967. This essay surveys the history and structure of the reviews, tracing trends in our specialized culture and making observations about some of the more significant historiographical debates. The reviews illustrate transitions from institutional history to book culture, the rise of multiethnic and gender studies, and variations in theoretical frameworks. Suggestions for future directions appear in analyses of work by some of our most provocative and productive scholars.
Early American Imprint Bibliography and Its Stories: An Introductory Course in Bibliographical Civics
Authors: Krummel Donald William
Published: January 2007

The stories of the bibliographies that describe our country's early books are not only engaging but also helpful to remember as we use the bibliographies and plan for their successors. The stories behind Evans, Shaw-Shoemaker, Roorbach and Kelly, and the Bibliography of American Imprints explain their differences. Besides helping us measure our nation's bibliographical record, they also point to the need for study of the history of local printers, highlighted in the work of McMurtrie, detailed in the Tanselle Guide to the Study of United States Imprints, and filled with curious and useful stories of their own.
American Bookwomen in Paris during the 1920s
Authors: Maack Mary Niles
Published: January 2007

Using the lens of gender, this essay examines the lives and collective contributions of American women who participated in the book world of Paris during the 1920s. The focus is on the American Library in Paris, which inherited the American Library Association (ALA) Library War Service reference collection and the Paris Library School operated by ALA from 1923 to 1929. Working in each of these settings, women found innovative ways to make American books and print culture more widely known in France.
From Libraries & Culture to the Bibliotheque nationale
Authors: Oliver Bette Wyn
Published: January 2007

In her work as the assistant editor of Libraries & Culture, the author has had the opportunity to learn about the value of library history as an area of scholarly research. This accumulated knowledge has contributed greatly to her continuing interest in and research on French cultural institutions during the revolutionary period, from 1789 to 1815, notably, the Bibliothèque nationale and the Louvre. In the process she has gained a deeper appreciation of the sometimes heroic efforts of French librarians and curators to preserve and enrich the collections that comprise their national heritage.
History in the Library and Information Science Curriculum: Outline of a Debate
Authors: Pawley Christine
Published: January 2007

Only a small minority of Library and Information Science (LIS) schools now schedule courses with a historical focus, and LIS faculty whose research specialty is history seem to be a vanishing breed. Yet some educators are committed to finding ways to preserve historical perspectives in the master's degree curriculum. At the 2004 conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) the Historical Perspectives Special Interest Group (SIG) discussed strategies and subsequently carried on the debate in an online forum. Theoretical justifications for including history in the curriculum appealed to both generalist and specific rationales that argued for "history as story" as well as "history as process," while practical suggestions included focusing on the preservation of documents, adopting the principles and methods of public history, and creating stronger avenues for collaboration among all historians of libraries and information science, no matter what their disciplinary affiliation. Overall, participants felt that in the current economic climate modestly scaled efforts stood the best chance of success.
Fides et Historia: Christian Sources for the Professional Contributions of Donald G. Davis, Jr.
Authors: Tucker John Mark
Published: January 2007

The faith commitments and historical impulses of Donald G. Davis, Jr., provide distinctive foundations for his contributions to the library profession. Convinced of the authenticity of core elements in the Christian message, he has sought to integrate faith into the circumstances of his life, a process complemented by a longitudinal perspective that informs current practice. Don has developed a highly personalized, well-defined theology that he has applied to academic librarianship, intellectual freedom, collection management, and teaching and research. One sees this theology worked out in his pronouncements on controversial topics and in his relationships with students and colleagues.
Collecting Contested Titles: The Experience of Five Small Public Libraries in the Rural Midwest, 1893-1956
Authors: Wiegand Wayne A.
Published: January 2007

This essay is an analysis of the history of how, when, and if five small public libraries in the rural Midwest acquired ten controversial books published between 1885 and 1951. My research is extracted from a database that records all titles obtained by these five libraries over an eighty-year period. It also incorporates analysis of when these titles appeared (or did not appear) in acquisitions guides like Fiction Catalog and Standard Catalog for Public Libraries and notes which of these guides were purchased by the five libraries. I conclude that the collections of each of these five libraries tended to reflect the cultural values systems of the local elites who ran them.
Recasting the Debate: The Sign of the Library in Popular Culture
Authors: Tancheva Kornelia
Published: January 2007

This paper is an investigation of the hermeneutic possibilities in the semiotic image of the library represented in three movies—The Name of the Rose, The Wings of Desire, and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. It looks at the visual semiotization of the library of the past, present, and future utilizing Charles Peirce's semiotic model, in which a sign becomes a sign only because there is an interpreter for it, and argues that from the perspective of cultural semiotics a sign has no inherent/intrinsic meaning, that is, its meaning is contingent on context and, consequently, can be recast.
Publicizing Domestic Piety: The Cultural Work of Religious Texts in the Woman's Building Library
Authors: Brown Candy Gunther
Published: January 2007

The Woman's Building Library at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 included many texts that could be classified as "religious." In bringing a large body of women's publications together in one place, the Woman's Building's organizers called attention to women's past achievements in order to carve out a larger space for women's public participation. Yet the project of expanding women's sphere coincided imperfectly with the domestic model of piety that most religious publications embodied. This essay explores tensions between the Woman's Building's goals of advancing women's power to shape the public sphere and the library's religious contents.
Illinois Women's Novels at the Woman's Building Library
Authors: Gallagher Bernice E.
Published: January 2007

This article analyzes the fifty-eight novels by Illinois women selected for the Woman's Building Library and reveals their significance within the larger cultural context. The Illinois fiction provides an important example of the way a culture thinks, speaks, and plans for itself at a particular historical moment. The novels are especially relevant to understanding the religious beliefs, social practices, and economic and political environment that produced them. Yet the Illinois fiction is not a mere artifact that reflects its period. It is also serious literary work that calls the assumptions of the later nineteenth century, and our own assumptions about it, into question.
Little Pilgrim's Progress: Literary Horizons for Children's Literature
Authors: Lundin Anne H.
Published: January 2007

The Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition highlighted works by women authors, many of whom wrote for or about children, in the decade before children's literature was institutionalized by publishers and librarians. This noncanonical, eclectic assortment of children's literature exists within an interpretive framework—the horizons of expectations—by which children's books were received by late Victorian America. Drawing on reception theory, I construct the cultural climate of reception by which the art and commerce of children's books were idealized and realized. The books on the shelves of the Woman's Building Library function as mirror and lamp, reflecting American culture but also constructing that culture, a pilgrimage into literary romanticism and the cultural work of Victorian women writers in their "sensational designs" to move human hearts and change the world.
Afterword: The Woman's Building Library and History
Authors: Todd Emily B
Published: January 2007

This afterword reflects on the articles in this special issue on the Woman's Building Library and observes that each article argues that the books held in the library speak to tensions in women's roles and shifts in women's writing in late-nineteenth-century America. These same tensions evident in the library were also evident in the presentation of history and progress in the Woman's Building and throughout the fair. Seen against this backdrop of the Columbian Exposition and the Woman's Building, the historical fiction included in the library reveals how, in the years leading up to the fair, women themselves participated in presenting narratives of the nation's history.
Mapping Activities of Artists in the Past: A Bibliometric Study of the Library of the Scandinavian Association in Rome until 1870
Authors: Ãstrom Fredrik , Pettersson Lennart
Published: January 2007

The purpose of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the library collection at the Scandinavian Association in Rome. Data were gathered from the library catalog and then submitted to frequency and co-occurrence analyses. By examining keywords, authors, and the language of the books found in the library, we were able to draw conclusions about its role as a social rather than an academic institution, with the additional function of helping the SAR members find their way around in the city of Rome and to its historical sites. The bibliometric analyses proved useful in analyzing the function of the library and, to some extent, the general context of the library and the association. At the same time, they cannot be said to be useful for creating cognitive maps such as those being made in analyses of scientific fields.
"One Cathedral More" or "Mere Lounging Places for Bummers"? The Cultural Politics of Leisure and the Public Library in Gilded Age America
Authors: McCrossen Alexis
Published: January 2007

This article contextualizes the history of public libraries during their formative periods, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, within U.S. cultural history. It argues that the triumph of consumer capitalism, the dominance of hierarchy as an organizing principle, and the process of sacralization shaped public libraries' policies and procedures. The essay explores some of the ways that public libraries gave leisure an institutional form, helping to spatially and temporally particularize the abstract concept of the public through their policies related to access—to the buildings, collections, and people.
Growing up with Books: Fanny Seward's Book Collecting, Reading, and Writing in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York State
Authors: Stam Deirdre Corcoran
Published: January 2007

During her short life (1844–66) Fanny Seward, daughter of Lincoln's secretary of state, William Henry Seward, spent considerable time and energy on her personal library, her diaries, and her creative writing. Fanny Seward's reading was, she suggests in her writing, her dearest pleasure. In her diaries she included lists of books acquired and read, critical remarks on them, and fragments of prose and poetry reflecting her deepening knowledge of literature. This case study of a privileged girl in New York State during the American Civil War years explores interconnections among the many bookish strands in her life and social circle.
Latin American Development and the Globalization Imperative: New Directions, Familiar Crises
Authors: Keeling David J
Published: January 2007

Globalization has emerged as the defining conceptual and contextual socioeconomic framework of analysis for the early 21st century. Throughout Latin America, globalization has become a buzzword for profound structural change, as well as the focus of vociferous and rigorous criticism by those sectors of society disadvantaged, damaged, or bypassed by the forces of global restructuring. This article examines the theoretical and practical implications of globalization for Latin America development, analyzes key regional and local conditions, discusses 'glocalization,' and argues for a policy approach that rethinks the extant framework and restructures the analytical context in a more proactive manner.

La globalizaci�n ha surgido como el marco anal�tico, conceptual y contextual definitivo para el siglo XXI. En todas partes de Am�rica Latina, la globalizaci�n ha llegado a ser un clich� para el cambio estructural, como tambi�n el foco de una cr�tica vociferante y rigorosa por aquellos sectores en desventaja, da�ados, o evadidos por las fuerzas de la re-estructuraci�n global. Este art�culo examina las implicaciones te�ricas y pr�cticas de la globalizaci�n para el desarrollo de Am�rica Latina, analiza las condiciones locales y regionales, discute "glocalizaci�n", y argumenta por una pol�tica que reconsidere el marco existente y reestructure el contexto anal�tico de una manera m�s proactiva.
Phonological Variation in Child-Directed Speech
Authors: Foulkes Paul , Docherty Gerard J , Watt Dominic
Published: January 2007

Segmental features of child-directed speech (CDS) were studied in a corpus drawn from thirtynine
mothers living in Tyneside, England. Focus was on the phonetic variants used for (t) in
word-medial and word-final prevocalic contexts since it is known that these variants display clear
sociolinguistic patterning in the adult community. Variant usage in CDS was found to differ
markedly from that in interadult speech. Effects were also found with respect to the age and
gender of the children being addressed. Speech to girls generally contained more standard variants
than speech to boys, which, by contrast, contained higher rates of vernacular variants. The differentiation
by gender was most apparent for the youngest children. The findings are assessed in
comparison to other studies of CDS. It has previously been claimed that modifications made in
the CDS register help children to learn linguistic structures and also to learn that speech is a
social activity. Our findings suggest that CDS may play an additional role, providing boys and girls
as young as 2;0 with differential opportunities to learn the social-indexical values of sociolinguistic
variables.
The Real-Time Status of Island Phenomena
Authors: Phillips Colin
Published: January 2007

In parasitic-gap constructions an illicit gap inside a syntactic island becomes acceptable in combination with an additional licit gap, a result that has interesting implications for theories of grammar. Such constructions hold even greater interest for the question of the relation between grammatical knowledge and real-time language processing. This article presents results from two experiments on parasitic-gap constructions in English in which the parasitic gap appears inside a subject island, before the licensing gap. An off-line studyconfirms that parasitic gaps are acceptable when theyoccur inside the infinitival complement of a subject NP, but not when they occur inside a finite relative clause. An on-line self-paced reading studyusing a plausibility manipulation technique shows that incremental positing of gaps inside islands occurs in just those environments where parasitic gaps are acceptable. The fact that parasitic gaps are constructed incrementallyin language processing presents a challenge for attempts to explain subject islands as epiphenomena of constraints on language processing and also helps to resolve apparent conflicts in previous studies of the role of island constraints in parsing.
Argument-Head Distance and Processing Complexity: Explaining both Locality and Antilocality Effects
Authors: Vasishth Shravan , Lewis Richard L
Published: January 2007

Although proximity between arguments and verbs (locality) is a relatively robust determinant of sentence-processing difficulty (Hawkins 1998, 2001, Gibson 2000), increasing argument-verb distance can also facilitate processing (Konieczny 2000). We present two self-paced reading (SPR) experiments involving Hindi that provide further evidence of antilocality, and a third SPR experiment which suggests that similarity-based interference can attenuate this distance-based facilitation. A unified explanation of interference, locality, and antilocality effects is proposed via an independently motivated theory of activation decay and retrieval interference (Anderson et al. 2004).
Abortion in Late Imperial China: Routine Birth Control or Crisis Intervention?
Authors: Sommer Matthew H.
Published: January 2007

In late imperial China, a number of purported methods of abortion were known; but who actually attempted abortion and under what circumstances? Some historians have suggested that abortion was used for routine birth control, which presupposes that known methods were safe, reliable, and readily available. This paper challenges the qualitative evidence on which those historians have relied, and presents new evidence from Qing legal sources and modern medical reports to argue that traditional methods of abortion (the most common being abortifacient drugs) were dangerous, unreliable, and often cost a great deal of money. Therefore, abortion in practice was an emergency intervention in a crisis: either a medical crisis, in which pregnancy threatened a woman's health, or a social crisis, in which pregnancy threatened to expose a woman's extramarital sexual relations. Moreover, abortion was not necessarily available even to women who wanted one.
Libraries Like No Others: Evaluating the Performance and Progress of Joint Use Libraries
Authors: Bundy Alan L , Amey L. J.
Published: January 2007

The published and research literature on joint use libraries relates mostly to school community libraries, which are normally combinations of high school and public libraries. That literature often still emphasizes the susceptibility of joint use libraries to dysfunctionality or even failures, although the record of successful combinations is improving because of informed planning and consideration of the requirements for success. Evaluation of joint use library performance and progress is one requirement that is still given little attention in planning and formal agreements. The uniqueness of most joint use libraries also militates against general evaluation criteria and benchmarking. Difficulties in a joint use library, therefore, tend to be unrecognized by its institutional partners until there is a crisis.
Continuous self-evaluation and a commitment to transparent periodic external evaluation will minimize these difficulties and foster joint use librar y synergies. A joint use librar y evaluation methodology is outlined. The methodology is focused on internal ongoing formative evaluation using critical success factors. This should be complemented by external five-to-seven-year reviews commencing within three years of a library's establishment.
Joint Use Libraries as Successful Strategic Alliances
Authors: Dalton Pete , Elkin Judith , Hannaford Anne
Published: January 2007

A joint use library provides an example of a strategic alliance between two or more stakeholders. The planning and implementation of such a venture can be a complex undertaking. This article draws on the example of the proposed joint use library and history center in Worcester in the UK, which promises to be the largest such undertaking in the UK. Some of the potential challenges that other joint use university and public libraries have faced are explored. The article argues that lessons can be learned from other sectors where the factors contributing to successful strategic alliances are well researched and documented.
What Makes a Joint Use Library a Community Library?
Authors: McNicol Sarah
Published: January 2007

Although the majority of joint use libraries in educational establishments provide at least an adequate level of service for their school, college, or university users, the standard of service they provide for members of the public is more questionable in many cases. This article considers the benefits and problems of joint use libraries from the perspective of their public users, providing examples from the UK and elsewhere to demonstrate how these occur in practice. A number of success factors are identified that need to be considered if a joint use library is to be successful as a community library, perhaps the most important of these being the need to involve the local community in the development of the library from its earliest stage. Gaining the support and active involvement of the local community is crucial; only then can the true benefits of joint use libraries, as locations for intergenerational activity and lifelong learning, be realized.
Enacting Texts: African American Drama, Politics, and Presentation in the African American Literature Classroom
Authors: Wood Jacqueline
Published: January 2007

In African American literature, political connection with the audience is intensified by the radical nature of black drama as it both expresses protest and embodies acts of communal resistance and reaffirmation. The purpose of this article is to impart to students of African American literature distinguishing qualities of African American drama, with the hope that this often understudied, if not ignored, segment of African American literature can enhance students' appreciation of African American literary accomplishment. With this goal in mind, Part I of this article explores teaching African American drama from within a theoretical framework of the African concept of Nommo and from within African American historical experience. Part II demonstrates how this framing can be effectively conveyed to students through classroom experiences that develop and reaffirm students' understanding of black drama through presentation experiences uniquely available in working with texts written-to-be-performed.
Desire on Ice: The Menace of Albertine's Mimicry in La Prisonniere
Authors: Brown Stephen Gilbert
Published: January 2007

Albertine's discourse on the ices in La Prisonniere has proven fertile ground for Proustian criticism. Some critics have interpreted this passage as "homosexual discourse in the guise of a lesbian discourse" (qtd. in Gray, 111). Others have cited its architectural tropes as a prophetic allusion to the narrator's imminent masterpiece. A few have interpreted the passage as a "fantasy of fellatio" amply supported by the proliferation of phallic images. Finally, a body of criticism has interpreted this passage as evidence of a self-parodying, authorial mastery. Reading against the rain of this tradition, Margaret Gray develops a provocative reading that asserts the precise opposite: that Albertine's discourse on the "ices" evidences the loss of authorial mastery to the emergence of a "feminine ecriture." In this paper, I develop the subversive elements of Albertine's discourse on the "ices" while contesting Gray's assertion: if Albertine's discourse evidences the loss of Marcel's mastery over her, it leads to the recuperation of his authorial mastery by virtue of the suffering it inflicts on him.
Comment peut-on etre Peruvienne?: Francoise de Graffigny, a Strategic Femme de Lettres
Authors: Hilger Stephanie M
Published: January 2007

This article uses postcolonial theory to analyze Francoise de Graffigny's Lettres d'une Peruvienne (1747). Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's concept of "strategic essentialism" sheds light on the ways in which this ancien regime author crafted her writings in mid-eighteenth century France. While an aristocrat, she was an outsider to the literary circles of her time. As a result, Graffigny's writing is characterized by, what the author of this article calls, "strategic aristocratism." Rather than openly questioning the social and literary status quo, Graffigny embeds her criticism within popular literary forms such as the epistolary novel, the roman philosophique, and travel narratives. Consequently, Graffigny's criticism of class and gender perceptions is wrapped within accepted social and literary discourses, which enabled her to publish her work in those circles.