Ball State University Research Articles

Student Service Learning – Obstacles and Opportunities

Service learning is a key component of the graduate education program at the Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Every time a graduate student is accepted as a Graduate Assistant into the Applied Gerontology Program, the student is trained on their responsibilities which include outreach to community-residing older adults. Outreach includes program planning to ensure delivery of programs both at the Community Center for Vital Aging in downtown Muncie and at various types of senior citizen establishments. Students each month reflect on their experiences through a Monthly Report form. Analysis of Monthly Report forms for the time period May to November, 2012 indicates that the students have learned skills, indicate better understanding of well and disabled older adults, lessened fear of working with and on behalf of older adults, and have a better understanding of what the older adult consumer desires.

Review: Henry Ives Cobb’s Chicago: Architecture, Institutions, and the Making of a Modern Metropolis, by Edward W. Wolner

Edward W. Wolner Henry Ives Cobb’s Chicago: Architecture, Institutions, and the Making of a Modern Metropolis Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011, x + 384 pp., 139 b/w illus. $45, ISBN 9780226905617 Henry Ives Cobb (1859–1931) was well-born and well-educated in Boston. Following European travel and his employment at the well-regarded Boston architecture firm of Peabody and Stearns, Cobb seemed set for a promising career in his hometown. Yet, instead Cobb moved to Chicago, where he developed an extensive practice and a large office. This period was followed by a move to Washington, D.C., and a diminished practice, and a final move to New York, with even less work. This reversal of the usual pattern of career development from modest beginnings to final successes plays a role in Cobb’s diminished place in the history of American architecture. However, Cobb suffers from two additional disadvantages. First, in 1896, when Montgomery Schuyler published the monograph A Critique of the Work of Adler & Sullivan, D. H. Burnham & Co., Henry Ives Cobb , drawn from his Great American Architects series in Architectural Record , Cobb suffered from Schuyler’s assessment that Cobb’s work, while fine, was not characteristic of the distinctive commercial and suburban work of Chicago. This drift into critical irrelevance was reinforced by the emergence of a canonical Chicago School. Second, compounding our ignorance of the architect whose career began in prominence and distinction but ended in obscurity, Cobb’s archive is lost. Cobb’s reputation only began to be reversed after 1976, when the exhibition and publication Chicago Architects , edited by Stuart Cohen, appeared as an explicit rejoinder to Chicago’s official bicentennial publication, 100 Years of Architecture in Chicago , edited by Oswald Grube and others. More importantly for Cobb’s status is the recent book Henry Ives Cobb’s Chicago, in which the author, Edward W. Wolner, …

From the Bedside to the Glossy Pages: Coaching Direct Care Nurses in an Authoring Experience

From the Bedside to the Glossy Pages: Coaching Direct Care Nurses in an Authoring Experience

The American Dream: A Cultural History by Lawrence R. Samuel (review)

Reviewed by: The American Dream: A Cultural History by Lawrence R. Samuel Tess Evans (bio) The American Dream: A Cultural History. By Lawrence R. Samuel. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Pp. 241. $24.95 cloth) James Truslow Adams coined the term, “American Dream” in his book, The Epic of America (1931), which explores how the concept of “American” evolved throughout our history and argues for a vision of what the American Dream should be. In The American Dream: A Cultural History, Lawrence R. Samuel takes up where Adams left off to present a myriad of perspectives that have shaped and reshaped the definition of the American Dream over the past eighty years. Samuel acknowledges not only the existence of the American Dream prior to 1931 but also its tenacity, arguing “that the term ‘American Dream’ was created in the darkest days of the Great Depression was all the more interesting given that many feared it no longer existed” (p. 13). Given that the nation is experiencing the next-worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American Dream is a timely topic to revisit. In The American Dream, Samuel has created a chronological collage of quotes and discussion on the subject, as presented by journalists mostly in print media. Between the introduction and the conclusion, Samuel has divided the years from 1931 to 2011 into roughly “six eras of mythology” covering six chapters. “The Epic of America” is the era of the Great Depression, which left Americans dreaming for some version of “Sunnyville,” a mythical place with few social or economic problems. “The Status Seekers” era is the postwar drive towards financial gain and materialism, as Americans tried to forget years of thrift and sacrifice. “The Anti-Paradise” is an era of counterculture resistance to the strains of the Vietnam War, economic recession, the energy crisis, and racial issues. “Born in the U.S.A.” is an era of renewed patriotism and optimism sparked by the Reagan years, when recessions were persistent [End Page 274] and yet expectations continued to rise. “The Anxious Society” is an era of the 1990s boom times that, ironically, left Americans feeling less in control over their lives. Finally, “American Idol” is the era that ushered in the highs-and-lows of the early twenty-first century, with the resilience of the American Dream as its theme. Samuel’s predominant use of discussions in the popular media as the barometer of the Dream clearly indicates an attempt to appeal to a mainstream audience less interested in complex analysis than in a practical synopsis of trends in American culture. Most of the citations within the work come from print sources, especially major newspapers. The New York Times dominates the discussion with more than one hundred citations. The next-most-cited source is the Los Angeles Times, with less than fifty references, followed by the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and the Hartford Courant, with less than thirty references each. Published commentary about the “American Dream” is the focus of Samuel’s study, rather than editorial and advertising content appealing to the ever-shifting Dream. By limiting his sources to these discussions, rather than analyzing more tangible manifestations of the American Dream, Samuel’s own discussion becomes at times difficult to follow. He does try to clarify abstract concepts by reverting to material symbols; for example, the achievement of racial equality is discussed in terms of whether barriers to suburban neighborhoods are removed so that African Americans can buy houses there. In his effort to take on the whole concept of the American Dream over such a long time frame in such a short work, rather than focus on one aspect or one moment in time, Samuel presents an entertaining, if surface-skimming, overview. Yet The American Dream is a timely effort to generate discussion about the future of the Dream in a nation still reeling from recent economic setbacks. [End Page 275] Tess Evans Tess Evans graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, in 2012 with a PhD in rhetoric and composition. Her dissertation, “The Persuasion of Many within a Moderate Length of Time,” examines the intersections of classical, religious, and scientific rhetoric during the rise...

Collaborating Over the Centuries: Creating the What Middletown Read Database

In 2003, library records from over a century ago were discovered in the attic of the Muncie Public Library. This finding led to a multi-year collaboration between the Muncie Public Library, the Center for Middletown Studies, and the University Libraries at Ball State University to create the What Middletown Read database, http://bsu.edu/libraries/wmr/index.php. This article describes the collaboration between various groups, focusing especially on the role of the Cataloging and Metadata Services unit at University Libraries in the project, and ends with lessons learned and recommendations for cataloging units.

California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression ed. by Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson (review)

Reviewed by: California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression ed. by Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson James J. Connolly California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression. Edited by Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. 2011. A century ago California granted voting rights to women. California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great Depression, an essay collection marking the one hundredth anniversary of that event, suggests it was less a watershed than the [End Page 159] ratification of a longstanding pattern. The contributors to this volume, all alumni of San Francisco State’s history graduate program, document a wide array of women’s civic work in California stretching from the 1850s to the 1920s. Most of the essays recount the work of middle-class clubwomen; a few explore the ideas and activism of their working-class counterparts. As the editors acknowledge, ethnic and racial minorities are mostly missing from the book. Nevertheless, the fourteen essays compiled here offer compelling evidence of the intensity and impact of women’s activism in an important state. The book makes it abundantly clear that women’s civic work mattered long before they had the vote. Their lobbying ranged from temperance efforts, to saving redwoods, to minimum wage laws, to the policing of dance halls. It seems safe to conclude activist women were key players in nearly every regulatory initiative undertaken by the state and local governments during the period covered by the book. One also comes away with a good sense of the thick web of connections among women activists. Wealthy women such as Phoebe Appleton Hearst (ably profiled by Mildred Nichols Hamilton) and Katherine Edson were at the hub of these networks, but they extended across a variety of organizations and issues. The sense of density conveyed by the essays collected here reflects the book’s principal strength and its most obvious weakness. The reader gains a clear sense of the significance of the public work undertaken by white middle-class women. But the focus on this cohort also highlights the limited circle of women featured in most of the essays. Several do an excellent job of exploring tensions between working-class and middle-class women’s agendas, particularly Rebecca Mead’s account of the campaign for the minimum wage. But the voices, interests, and efforts of women from California’s racial and ethnic minority communities are largely absent, save for Linda Heidenreich’s intriguing essay on the testimonios of indigenous California women. We know from Mary Ann Irwin’s closing historiographical essay that there has been a good deal of work on the activism of Latino, Asian, and African-American women, but little of it is reflected here. This limited attention to the distinctive racial and cultural dynamics of California is one reason the book seems to lack a strong sense of place. There are tantalizing hints of what makes the activism of California women distinctive, ranging from the campaign to save the Redwoods to battles against vice in wide-open San Francisco. But most of the essays strive to demonstrate how California women’s activism fit broader patterns evident in other states rather than what made it distinctive. Even so, they pack a punch, illustrating in clear and detailed fashion the enduring vitality, effectiveness, and importance of women’s politics in California. James J. Connolly Ball State University Copyright © 2013 Mid-America American Studies Association

Book Reviews

David N. Weil of Brown University reviews “Parasites, Pathogens, and Progress: Diseases and Economic Development” by Robert A. McGuire and Philip R. P. Coelho. The EconLit abstract of the reviewed work begins: Explores the influence of biology, parasites, and pathogens on humanity's history and the economy. Discusses biology, diseases, and migrations before the twentieth century; biology, diseases, and history -- the big picture; diseases and long-run economic growth; the colonists' choice of agricultural labor in early America; the initial location of Africans and Europeans in early America; slavery and diseases in the antebellum American South; evidence on the spread of diseases in nineteenth-century America; and the biology and disease lesson. McGuire is Research Professor of Economics at the University of Akron. Coelho is Professor of Economics at Ball State University. Index.

The Poco Field: An American Story of Place (review)

Reviewed by: The Poco Field: An American Story of Place Mark S. Myers The Poco Field: An American Story of Place. By Talmage A. Stanley. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. pp. xx, 232.) In his work, The Poco Field: An American Story of Place, Talmage Stanley masterfully weaves issues of identity with the personal story of his grandparents, C. T. and Aldah Apperson. Stanley begins his work with the observation that the idea of “place” is the result of interaction between three concepts: the natural environment, the built environment, and human culture and history. The idea of community and sense of place that is common in Appalachian identity is the result of the interaction of these three complex ideas. By evaluating the lives of his grandparents in both Keystone, West Virginia, and Newbern, Virginia, as well as their efforts to create a middle-class life for their family, Stanley is not only able to place the story of Appalachia within the context of the American story of consumerism, but to also create a framework for change and the building of stronger communities. A primary focus of Stanley’s work is the effort of his grandparents to achieve a middle-class standard of living. To depict this effort, Stanley uses the Keystone neighborhood of Westfield. Westfield was the “white” neighborhood [End Page 95] of the town, which contained the white school and church. In this area, native whites and immigrants lived in close proximity, implying that there was true diversity in Westfield. However, Stanley notes that the middle-class and elite white community of Keystone owned these homes. In other words, Westfield defined not only the values of the middle class of Keystone, and by extension the rest of the Central Appalachian coalfields, but it also depicted the rigid segregation between the different populations in the region. Stanley believes that there is more to the story of Westfield, however. He says that “owing its existence to the emergence of the Poco field as part of the American economic engine and a way of life defined in terms of industrial profit and consumer goods, Westfield is also a way of thinking and speaking with particularity about larger systems and structures of values, forces, ideas, understandings, and choices” (55). In other words, the idea of Westfield is a manifestation of American middle-class values about place, as well as a definition of the limits of middle-class desires in the Poco field. Stanley’s grandparents realized these limits, and eventually left the coalfields for Newbern in the late 1940s. Stanley also does an excellent job of connecting the Westfield concept to the modern history of McDowell County. Despite a significant production of coal and the desire for a middle-class, consumerist standard of living, McDowell County remains mired in endemic poverty and the many problems that result from economic catastrophe. Using the examples of the efforts of the Big Creek People in Action to improve their community in Caretta, the failure of the First National Bank of Keystone, the devastating floods of 2001 and 2002, and the failure of the McDowell County school system, Stanley discusses the true detachment between the values of Westfield and what he calls a citizenship of place. As Stanley notes, “a citizenship of place that moves against and across the old Westfield boundaries understands place as a dynamic, ongoing social reality expressed in all aspects of daily life. This citizenship knows that we need each other on a deep and significant level” (187). Using extensive primary sources, as well as an excellent amount of the relevant literature, Stanley has produced an important contribution to the field of Appalachian studies. His work requires scholars and students of the region to think of the modern history of Appalachia in a sophisticated and interdisciplinary way. How this notion of place will impact our history or our view of the region is an important question for scholars to consider as the region moves into the post-coal era. [End Page 96] Mark S. Myers The Indiana Academy–Ball State University Copyright © 2012 West Virginia University Press

MARCH 2012 PLACEMENT ADS

MARCH 2012 PLACEMENT ADS

John Brown's War against Slavery (review)

Reviewed by: John Brown's War against Slavery Nicole Etcheson John Brown's War against Slavery. By Robert E. McGlone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-5215-1443-9, 462 pp., cloth, $35.00. John Brown has been seen as a Christian martyr against slavery, a fanatical [End Page 182] murder, a madman, and a terrorist. He defies easy understanding because his actions were so brutal and his explanations of them so contradictory. He presided over the gory murders of five proslavery men in Kansas Territory and then seemed to evade responsibility. He led twenty-one young men into Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in a raid that failed spectacularly and whose purpose was unclear. He told his captors that he intended the raid to be "bloodless," yet his arms included hundreds of pikes as well as guns and incendiary material. Robert E. McGlone's new work is a meticulous examination of many of the controversies surrounding Brown's life and actions. Not only does McGlone carefully reread the sources to reach his conclusions, he bases much of his work on insights drawn from psychology and the study of memory. While it may be impossible to definitively answer many of the questions he addresses, McGlone comes as close as anyone has to making sense of the many contradictory things Brown said and did. McGlone's Brown is a lifelong abolitionist and sincere Christian, transformed by the violent Kansas Civil War into a terrorist. Although Brown's passionate abolitionism seemed abnormal to many, McGlone does not find that Brown displayed signs of manic depression or any classifiable personality disorder. Nor does McGlone see Brown as an economic failure, arguing instead that Brown was reasonably successful for many years. He was not driven to Kansas by his bankruptcies but came to help defend his sons in that territory's civil strife. McGlone posits that Brown was motivated to carry out the Pottawatomie murders by the climate of fear suffusing the territory and the desire to strike a blow that would show himself worthy of his abolitionist sire Owen, who was dying that spring. While McGlone presents Brown's actions in Kansas as a reaction to the threats against free staters and Brown's emotional distress at his father's last illness, the raid on Harpers Ferry was a long-considered plot. In McGlone's view, however, it was not just a conspiracy to free the slaves but also to spark a civil war with the raid as an opening terrorist provocation. The emphasis on terrorism helps McGlone make sense of Brown's strange behavior after his men had captured the Ferry. Instead of seizing the weapons and making for the mountains, Brown delayed long enough for militia and even troops from Washington to reach and surround him. In fact, he allowed a train to leave with word of the attack. McGlone argues that Brown needed to stay long enough at the Ferry for alarm to spread. Letting the train go helped to spread terror. But Brown stayed too long. In part, forces rallied to Harpers [End Page 183] Ferry more quickly than anticipated because Dr. John D. Starry rode out to give the alarm. But Brown also became carried away with his project, lecturing his captives instead of using them to protect himself and his men. Once captured, Brown made the transition from terrorist to Christian martyr. He realized the importance now of influencing northern public opinion and played down his violent intent for this new audience. McGlone's will not be the last word on John Brown. While I am persuaded by his argument for Brown's sanity as well as his stance on many other questions, I am not sure McGlone has proven Brown's intent to start a civil war, although Harpers Ferry certainly helped bring about such a conflict. But scholars henceforth will be grappling with the arguments McGlone has set forth. John Brown's War against Slavery will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand Brown's crucial role in bringing on the Civil War. Nicole Etcheson Ball State University Copyright © 2011 The Kent State University Press

Ball State University's Faculty Mentorship Program: Enhancing the First-Year Experience for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities at Ball State University have a unique mentorship opportunity—those who take advantage of it gain considerable benefits.

Table of Contents

Abstract Cover Story Be prepared to deal with worst‐case scenarios Student‐athlete deaths lead to vital lessons learned The bottom line: Handling major challenges The Two‐Minute Drill Court upholds ruling on decision to eliminate sports Notre Dame fined for student death by Indiana OSHA Title IX violations battle not over for provost Alabama community college cuts all sports programs Contracts Courts need to understand motivations for game contracts Courts should consider multiple factors Leaders & Innovators DAN GUERRERO, AD, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA‐LOS ANGELES Keeping program clean is top priority for UCLA AD Plan ahead, be creative in budgeting, prioritize Managing Your Office How do you put a lid on office gossip? NCAA Update Ohio football players must sit out first 5 games Big Ten ADs recommend adding ice hockey Division I programs: Get staffer to answer drug queries Public service ads aim to combat the ‘dumb jock’ myth You Make The Call Was a university bound by a coach's promises to student? Lawsuits & Rulings CAMPUS SAFETY Qualified immunity shields officer in shooting at game RETALIATION Mascot‐related claims solved by providing training TITLE IX Former student‐athletes can proceed with Title IX claim A Conversation With… PHIL PURCELL, VICE PRESIDENT PLANNED GIVING AND ENDOWMENT STEWARDSHIP, BALL STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION Get gift intent in writing to assure smooth negotiation Resources/Ideas Help ‘retiring’ SAs Bone up on compliance Names in the News

Universities and Climate Change – Introducing Climate Change at University Programmes

Chapter 1 Climate Change at Universities: Results of a World Survey, Walter Leal Filho . - Chapter 2 Path to the Future for Climate Change Education: an University Project Approach, Maruf Sanni, James O. Adejuwon, Idowu Ologeh and William O. Siyanbola. - Chapter 3 Australian Universities, Government Research and the Application of Climate Change Knowledge in Australian Coastal Zone Management, Laura Stocker, Bob Pokrant, David Wood, Nicholas Harvey, Marcus Haward, Kevin O'Toole, Tim Smith. - Chapter 4 Implications of the University with the Climatic Change, Javier Benayas, Inmaculada Alonso, David Alba, Luis Pertierra. - Chapter 5 University of Minnesota Water Based Nitrogen Budget, Erica K. Schram and Jim A. Perry. - Chapter 6 Sustainable Literacy and Climate Change: Engagement, Partnerships, Projects, Julie Matthews and Peter Waterman. - Chapter 7 Getting to the Heart of Climate Change through Stories, Scott Carlin, Ph.D.. - Chapter 8 Climate change education in curricula of technical and classical universities, Dagnija Blumberga, Maris Klavins. - Chapter 9 Interdisciplinary and interfaculty approaches in higher education capable to permeate the complexity of climate change, Roland Hergert, Volker Barth, Thomas Klenke. - Chapter 10 Campus as Classroom: Integrating People, Place and Performance for Communicating Climate Change, Millie Rooney and Jennifer McMillin. - Chapter 11 How to educate for a healthy climate at a university? An intergenerational cooperation (A case study from Slovakia), Alexander Feher, Martin Hauptvogl, Petra Trangosova, Lucia Svetlanska. - Chapter 12 Targeting a low-carbon university: a greenhouse gas reduction target for the Australian Technology Network of Universities, Chris Riedy and Jane Daly. - Chapter 13 Malaysian University Students' Awareness of Geographic Information Systems, Nor Rasidah Hashim and Mohd Fazlin Nazli. - Chapter 14 The changes of life style - significant contribution to GHG emission reduction efforts, DaliaStreimikiene and Remigijus Ciegis. - Chapter 15 Universities as Learning Organizations for Sustainability? The Task of Climate Protection, Florian Ludeke-Freund and Simon Burandt. - Chapter 16 Using a Spare-Time University for climate change education, Michael H. Glantz and Ilan Kelman. - Chapter 17 Embracing the Future: The Ball State University Geothermal Project, James W. Lowe, Robert J. Koester and Philip J. Sachtleben. - Chapter 18 Engaged learning for Climate Change: The Perils and Potentials of Collaborative Partnerships and Projects, Julie Matthews. - Chapter 19 Learning for climate responsibility - via consciousness to action, Anne Virtanen. - Chapter 20 CO2 Emissions Impact of Sustainable Food Procurement: Informing University Policy, Esther E. Bowen and Pamela A. Martin. - Chapter 21 Graduate Studies of Global Change at the University of Latvia, Arnolds Ubelis, Janis Abolins, Dina Berzina, Janis Blahins, Gunars Bajars. - About the Authors. - Thematic Index.

Determinates That Influence Food Comsumption among Older Members of a Midwest Community

The goal of this study was to record Muncie, Indiana residents’ change in eating habits over time. Objectives: 1) Identify key determinants that influence a change in participants’ eating habits; 2) Analyze the data for convergent themes among participants and draw patterns; and 3) Compare patterns found in this study population with existing literature and/or accepted theories within the field. Hypotheses on changes in food patterns included: 1) Socio-economic status in the middle-class population maintained daily food production to remain inside the home; 2) Women working outside the home reduced labor hours allotted to home cooking; and 3) Social norms valued home cooking resulting in home prepared meals. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional, oral-history, interview format. The study sample consisted of 25 seniors (65y - 100y old) from a convenience sample taken from one, medium-sized, mid-western town, Muncie, Indiana. The study involved use of a semi-structured, questionnaire/interview script, (approved by Ball State University’s IRB committee). Results: Economics greatly influenced, and continues to influence, food consumption patterns for depression-era born adults. Women who grew up on home-only cooked meals, but entered the workforce adjusted traditional meals in favor of convenience. Implications: Health care providers trying to change dietary habits of older residents residing in the Midwest will need to consider foods and food preparatory methods introduced in childhood; these remained key components of the diet later in life and removing them may be met with resistance.

The Usefulness of an Onesimus: The Sexual Use of Slaves and Paul's Letter to Philemon

The completion of this article was made possible by the generous support of a faculty research grant from Ball State University. 1 Unless otherwise noted, all classical references follow the available LCL translations. The translation of Horace is taken from Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Mas culinityculinity in Classical Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 32, while the Petronius and Seneca translations can be found in Moses I. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (New York: Viking, 1980), 96.

Career Tips from Top Women Leaders on Campus

Career Tips from Top Women Leaders on Campus

The Relationships Between Current and Past Physical Activity Participation and Low BMD in a Mixed Menopausal Population

The Relationships Between Current and Past Physical Activity Participation and Low BMD in a Mixed Menopausal Population

Women and Men of the Manhattan Project

In the early 1990s Ruth Howes, a nuclear physicist on the faculty at Ball State University, and Caroline Herzenberg, a nuclear physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, were asked to write a chapter on the Manhattan Project for a volume on women working on weapons development for the military.1 Realizing that they knew very little about the women who had been involved in that effort, they embarked on a mission to find out more. Howes and Herzenberg were able to document the wartime contributions of more than 1000 women in Their Day in the Sun,2 preserving this legacy for generations to come. At the 2009 AAPT Winter Meeting in Chicago, the AAPT Committee on Women in Physics celebrated the accomplishments of these women and the men who worked beside them in a session co-sponsored with the History and Philosophy of Physics and the Concerns of Senior Physicists committees. Howes presented an overview of the contributions of women to the development of the first nuclear weapon, and the session was honored with the presence of Manhattan Project veterans Ellen Cleminshaw Weaver, who worked at Oak Ridge, and Dorothy Marcus Gans, who worked as a technician in the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago.

Who wins? Who loses?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that those involved in cultural heritage preservation efforts must look more critically at how preconceived notions of “history” and “tradition” affect both the design and outcomes of preservation efforts. This paper also adds to the limited library and information science (LIS) discourse on the problematic nature of significance as it relates to selecting aspects of cultural heritage for preservation, which is of particular importance to LIS practitioners as they work to help others capture, preserve and represent their traditional knowledge and ways of life.Design/methodology/approachThe argument is based on research carried out in rural Romania in the summer of 2007. Faculty from Ball State University with students from several US universities collected qualitative data using ethnographic methods for an ongoing historic preservation effort in the community of Viscri. In addition to the community case study, the LIS literature on the problem of assigning significance to cultural objects for preservation is reviewed.FindingsCultural preservation efforts tend to rely on legitimate lay understandings of history, tradition and culture that, in turn, inform social life in a community. Such limited understandings influence the program choices and resource allocations made in cultural preservation efforts. It also tends to finesse the role the elite and powerful have over these programs. Viscri provides a real‐world example that illustrates some lessons to be learned about how the LIS community thinks about tradition and modernity and the relationship both have to cultural heritage preservation.Research limitations/implicationsThe argument rests on a single community study. However, a literature review and an in‐depth analysis of a particular historical preservation effort strengthen the paper's argument.Originality/valueIn order for preservation efforts to more equitably preserve cultural heritage, the LIS community has to ask more analytic questions about what history and tradition are in the context of the communities it serves. Those involved in cultural preservation efforts must bring to their work an awareness of the consequences of selecting certain aspects of culture and heritage over others have for preservation efforts.

Sustainability Program Profile, Ball State University expands its commitment

Sustainability: The Journal of RecordVol. 3, No. 1 Sustainability Program Profile, Ball State University expands its commitmentPublished Online:9 Mar 2010https://doi.org/10.1089/SUS.2009.9804AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 3Issue 1Feb 2010 Information©2010 by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Sustainability Program Profile, Ball State University expands its commitment.Sustainability.Feb 2010.37-40.http://doi.org/10.1089/SUS.2009.9804Published in Volume: 3 Issue 1: March 9, 2010PDF download