Bibliographical Questions Research Articles

Current Bibliographical Questions on the Pages of a Professional Edition “Visnyk of Kharkiv State Academy of Culture”

The scientific topicality. Bibliography as a specific branch of human activity is directly included in the information and communication processes of society, which requires a theoretical understanding of its role and place in the information environment. In this sense, important thing is scientific and practical substantiation of topical issues of bibliography and bibliographic processes on the pages of professional periodicals, which are powerful means of generating and disseminating new knowledge in social and professional communication. An important place in the collection is given to bibliographic issues, among which there are publications of theoretical and practical content, and with the help of their analysis the dynamics of modern bibliographic science in Ukraine can be traced.
 The purpose is to perform content analysis of publications on bibliographic topics published on the pages of the leading professional publication “Visnyk of Kharkiv State Academy of Culture” to study leading directions in the development of bibliographic studies.
 The methodology of the research consists in the use of methods of content analysis, generalization and bibliographic method.
 The results. Content analysis, conducted on publications published in the journal, showed, that 5% of articles are devoted to the theory of bibliography, and bibliography and practical bibliographic activities, and 95% are devoted to library science.
 The scientific novelty of the article consists in summarizing the thematic characteristics and main directions of research on bibliographic topics on the pages of professional collection over the past 14 years.
 The practical significance. The research results contain a table with thematic headings that can be used in further research on the chosen topic.
 The conclusions. Bibliographic publications on the pages of “Visnyk of Kharkiv State Academy of Culture” publication are of a theoretical nature, which indicates a certain gap between the theory and practice of bibliographic activity. The presented brief review of scientific articles allows us to trace the main trends in the development of bibliography and bibliography.

Monteverdi's 'Selva Morale E[T] Spirituale' (1641): Some Anomalies Explored Through the Five Exemplars

Monteverdi’s Selva morale e [ t ] spirituale presents us with a number of intriguing bibliographical questions, of which the problem of the dual title pages in the Bologna exemplar—one dated 1640, the other 1641—is well known. This essay supports Jeffrey Kurtzman’s conclusion that the volume was actually published in 1641, after a delay. It also considers the anomalous structure of the tavole found at the end of the partbooks. Taken together with watermark evidence, these show that the first section of the book was printed later than the second. The most probable reason is that the music of the first section was still incomplete in 1640. This leads to reassessment of the dating of music in the first section, not least that of the great concertato Gloria a 7. The essay goes further by showing that the ‘1641’ title page was itself printed in 1640, and considers such other anomalies as why instrumental parts were published in place of the Alto and Basso secondo vocal parts for the first of the two Magnificat settings (SV 281); finally, an explanation is offered for the apparently rather clumsy typographical choices for the 1641 title.

Review: Speaking Ruins: Piranesi, Architects, and Antiquity in Eighteenth-Century Rome, by John A. Pinto and Piranesi, Paestum & Soane, by John Wilton-Ely

John A. Pinto Speaking Ruins: Piranesi, Architects, and Antiquity in Eighteenth-Century Rome Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012, 352 pp., 192 b/w illus. $65 (cloth), ISBN 9780472118212 John Wilton-Ely Piranesi, Paestum & Soane Munich: Prestel, 2013, 120 pp., 58 color illus. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 9783791348063 A letter of 1774 from William Chambers to a former student living in Rome draws attention to that city’s seminal importance in architectural education. “Converse much with Artists of All Countrys particularly foreigners,” Chambers wrote. “Seek for those who have most reputation. … Amongst which forget not Piranesi, who you may See in my name, he is full of Matter, extravagant ’tis true, often Absurd, but from his overflowings You may gather much information. … Form if you can a style of Your own,” he urged, “in which endeavour to avoid the faults and blend the Perfections of all.”1 Thus Chambers advocated an eclectic design process for which the Rome of Giovanni Battista Piranesi furnished the crucible. Both books discussed in this review reinforce the wisdom of Chambers’s remarks and elucidate the role played by publications of new archaeological finds. Prestel’s handsome second edition of John Wilton-Ely’s Piranesi, Paestum & Soane of 2002 definitely improves upon the original softbound version published by Azimuth Editions. Larger format, more durable binding, and higher quality color reproductions enhance the contents, notably the illustrations featured in the central section: Piranesi’s seventeen magnificent drawings of the three antique Doric temples at Paestum (Greek Poseidonia) in southern Italy. In most other respects, the editions are identical except that noted Piranesi specialist Wilton-Ely updates notes 48–74 and the bibliography to reflect advances in scholarship. Puzzlingly, nowhere except in the acknowledgments does any mention of the Azimuth first edition occur. And the dust jacket blurb describes Soane as Piranesi’s “contemporary, friend, and colleague,” belying the scant evidence of any such close personal relationship presented inside the covers. This caveat and bibliographic questions aside, the second edition makes an insightful and visually appealing contribution to the literature. Wilton-Ely’s nine chapters start with one titled “Piranesi, Paestum & Soane,” in …

To rehabilitate a theological treatise. Inqādh al-Bashar min al-Jabr wa-l-Qadar

Abstract This article deals with a theological treatise that has been wrongly ascribed to the Imāmī scholar al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (d. 436/1044). The treatise discusses the question of human agency in relation to divine decree and determining, arguing for positions that, to a large extent, resemble Murtaḍā's known views. Nevertheless, the treatise also betrays features incompatible with Murtaḍā's theology as a whole, in addition to stylistic and bibliographical questions that make a good case against the work's authenticity. This wrong ascription, however, has not been noted despite the repeated editions of the text in the Islamic world. As such, it misrepresented many of Murtaḍā's views, sometimes undermining the main pillars of his theological system. The author of the treatise establishes his ethical concepts on the basis of scriptural dictates before proceeding to rational arguments, relies on non-multi-attested reports, defers to the authority of the Prophet's companions and culls God's names and attributes from the word of revelation. While going against Murtaḍā's positions, these views – put together – are considerably closer to non-Imāmī doctrines, and could have easily been the work of a Muʿtazilī author.

Accurate Answers to Reference Queries May Be Provided Less Frequently Than Expected

A review of:
 Hernon, P., & McClure, C. (1986). Unobtrusive reference testing: The 55 percent rule. Library Journal, 111(7), 37-41.
 
 
 Objective – To determine the number of government documents reference questions that are answered correctly by professional library staff.
 
 Design – The authors utilized unobtrusive reference testing: reference queries posed to library personnel who were unaware they were being evaluated. As opposed to other designs that require the researcher’s presence in the setting, unobtrusive testing utilizes proxies to administer test questions to the subjects, reducing the possibility of reporter bias.
 
 Setting – Twenty-six public and academic libraries participating in the U.S. Government Printing Office Depository Program located in the Western, Southern, and Midwestern United States. The Federal Depository Program consisted of 1400 libraries at the time of the study. One public and one academic library were chosen for each city.
 
 Subjects – Reference and government documents librarians. These two staff types were selected in order to compare the accuracy of each group’s responses to the queries.
 
 Methods – A set of 15 predetermined factual and bibliographic questions were developed by the authors and administered to library staff respondents by proxies. Government documents were selected as the foundation for the test questions. In selecting federal depository libraries for their sample the authors could ensure all queries may hypothetically be answered using U.S. Government Printing Office documents, as all of the libraries would hold the resources in question.
 
 Graduate students enrolled in the University of Arizona and University of Oklahoma library science programs were trained by the authors to serve as proxies. The proxies posed as library users and administered the set of queries at each selected library. Reference librarians and government documents librarians were tested separately, receiving seven and eight questions respectively at each library visited. Over a four-month period a total of 390 questions were posed and their answers recorded.
 
 Main Results – The respondents correctly answered 241 of 390 queries (62 percent). Government documents librarians accurately answered 65 percent of questions, while reference librarians successfully responded to 59 percent. Hernon and McClure derived the “55 percent rule” for reference accuracy from these results and previous unobtrusive studies conducted by both the authors and other researchers. This body of research estimates the rate of accurate answers of factual and bibliographic questions to be between 50 and 62 percent.
 Data regarding the “interview and search process” (I&S), defined as the activities between the time a query was posed and when a resolution was provided, also yielded intriguing findings. Regardless of the question asked, the average I&S duration was three to five minutes. Two-thirds of the accurate answers were supplied within three minutes, and 89 percent within five minutes of the initiation of I&S. The duration of I&S did not vary significantly by library type or librarian type.
 
 Reasons for the provision of inaccurate answers included providing the wrong data (64 percent of instances), responding with “don’t know” and ending the interaction (20 percent), or claiming the library did not own a source that would answer the query (15 percent). Other findings included the fact that respondents infrequently offered referrals, which took place in 17 percent of all interactions, and that the three geographic regions studied had an even distribution of correct answers.
 
 Conclusions - Based on their research results as well as those of similar unobtrusive studies, the authors propose two rules regarding reference assistance that apply to public and academic libraries. First, reference librarians correctly answer approximately 55 percent of factual and bibliographic queries received (the 55 percent reference rule). Second, librarians spend no more than five minutes on most factual and bibliographic questions (the five-minute answer rule).
 
 Ultimately, Hernon and McClure recommend reevaluating the centrality of reference services to library operations. If trained professionals are unable to answer more than 60 percent of factual questions correctly, should reference services continue to receive such considerable staffing and funding? Or, alternatively, should libraries increase efforts to improve the accuracy of answers? The authors close by challenging the profession to address the need for strategic assessment of reference effectiveness.

A Newly Discovered Edition of William Byrd's Psalmes, Sonets & Songs: Provenance and Significance

Of all the inanimate objects, of all men's creations, books are the nearest to us, for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to truth, and our persistent leaning towards error. But most of all they resemble us in their precarious hold on life. --Joseph Conrad As material objects of immediate and lasting cultural significance, the extant music books of an Elizabethan edition, like the fictional red violin of a popular motion picture, open wide-ranging narratives of musical and cultural history. Their stories begin at a point of conception in the early modern era, when print-capitalism was in its early phases. (1) They then progress through various owners over a course that extends into our own times, when audio recording and digital technologies threaten to cast a permanent shadow over the prominence of print as the prime medium of musical transmission. Traversing the era of so-called print culture, their accounts help us to understand the roles therein played by the authors, printers, publishers, distributors, collectors, and students of the printed music book. (2) In this article I tell the story of two particular music books from the five-edition set of Psalmes, Sonets and Songs by William Byrd. (3) The catalyst for this investigation was a bibliographical discovery, one that arose when in the course of collating the extant original printed copies of this source I detected a distinct version in the Knowsley collection at the University of Liverpool. (4) At the time of this discovery the copy itself seemed so oddly dissimilar from all others as to be a true anomaly. But it turned out that it represented an otherwise unnoticed edition that was further represented in a copy that is now part of the Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears Library in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England. The unexpected appearance of a new source of Byrd's music immediately raised a number of questions pertaining to late-Elizabethan music history: Why was it reproduced? For whom? Was Byrd, the author, at all involved in the publication or distribution? Were the texts significantly altered? And--because the imprint does not furnish a date of publication--at what time was the printing completed and the copies distributed? In this particular case, however, questions also emerged that reached much further across time. These bibliographical questions--first inspired by the rarity of the edition itself, then spurred on by the chance to shed light on a hitherto unrecognized link between Byrd and various music collectors that reached all the way to Pears and Britten--focused on the issue of provenance and concerned the history of these music books themselves: How did they end up in certain collections? Where had they been before? Who were their owners? And how were they treated over the course of their history? Once investigated, these two copies ultimately presented very different stories of provenance and survival, but on two occasions they stood together. The first instance occurred at the end of their story, at the point when they were determined to be two copies of the same edition. The second was at the time when they were first produced together as part of that newly discovered set. My story will begin by recounting the first instance of their shared history and then progress backwards, treating each copy separately to a point in time when the publication of an edition that included these two books was first envisioned. THE DISCOVERY OF 'NEW' BYRD EDITION In a seminal article of music bibliography of 1963 H. K. Andrews had listed the Knowsley copy of the Psalmes as part of the set he titled the B edition. (5) In common with the many other copies he labeled B, it is quite different, typographically, from A press-settings of an earlier vintage. In 1963, the editions formed a set of three that had generally proven to be much more intrinsically interesting. …

The efficiency and success rates of print ready reference vs online ready reference searches in Canadian University libraries

An experiment, which investigated whether the format in which information is stored affects the outcomes of ready reference transactions in terms of efficiency and accuracy, found that bibliographic questions are more efficiently answered online, while factual questions are more efficiently answered with print sources. Neither mode was found to be more accurate.

The varieties of mechanics by 1800

After an exploration of some of the basic categories attending mechanics, Newtonianism, and physics, a survey is given of the range of subjects covered by mechanics at the end of the 18th century, and the three main traditions operative in the subject are stressed. A few major French figures of that time are then noted, and also some views evident in certain other countries. The appendix of the paper is concerned with bibliographical questions; and an extensive bibliography, mostly of secondary literature, is appended.

The Effects of Academic Background on Statement of Information Need

Two experiments were used to investigate how the academic backgrounds of users may influence their interaction with information systems. Sixty students with academic backgrounds in either philosophy or psychology read two articles on interdisciplinary topics and then answered questions in a simulated information retrieval task. Responses were analyzed to determine how academic background influenced the vocabulary used to describe the information need. Results showed that academic background can affect vocabulary selection, although other influences can intervene. The effect of academic background was visible in responses to open questions but not in responses to structural or bibliographic questions.

Questions on search request forms

This research took the form of an investigation into how different questions on online search request forms elicit different responses from users, and how the resulting differences in user input can influence search quality. Users of an academic library search service completed online search request forms which asked open, bibliographic and structural questions. Structural questions elicited longer responses than open questions, while bibliographic questions elicited very short responses. In some cases, the longer responses to structural questions led to the inclusion of more terms in search expressions. On average, these searches achieved lower precision. It appears that searchers who take a flexible approach to search topics are more affected by different amounts of user input than searchers who are less flexible. Because of the importance of the user‐intermediary interaction in initiating the retrieval process, online search request forms must be carefully designed. This includes selecting questions which will elicit an appropriate amount of detail about the information need.

The textual basis of rhetorical research: Some bibliographical questions

The textual basis of rhetorical research: Some bibliographical questions

Two Bibliographical Questions in Kosinski's "The Painted Bird"

first edition of Painted Bird, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1965, was heavily censored, without the author's consent. In 1966 Kosinski used the occasion of its paperback reprinting (by Pocket Books) to restore the original text, but the casual nature of the paperback industry has obscured this intention. Although the credits to the first paperback reprinting read Pocket Cardinal Edition includes every word contained in the original, higher-priced a note following the end-paper advertisements states that The Pocket Book edition of this distinguished novel incorporates some material which did not appear in the hardcover This Pocket Books edition went through five printings, and in the third a note was added to the verso of the title page: I am very grateful to Eugene Prakapas for his editorial help and reinstating of the portions of the original text, omitted by the hard cover publishers, into this Pocket Book Therefore the 1966 edition of Painted Bird is simply a restoration of the text according to the author's original intentions. For the 1970 Modern Library edition, Kosinski did make stylistic revisions, which are repeated in a subsequent edition Professor Richter does not mention, but which is the book's most popular and available state: the 1972 Bantam Books edition. A more serious error relates directly to Professor Richter's thesis, that the dropping of the italicized epilogue in the 1966 and 1970 edi-

A Pleyel Collection at UCLA

In the mid 1960's, Frederick Freedman, then Music Librarian at UCLA, acquired from a variety of sources an extensive collection of printed editions of instrumental compositions by Ignaz Pleyel. Heavily weighted towards chamber music, this collection yields from its thirty-eight separate items a total of forty-five discrete editions (174 compositions), a number sufficient to demonstrate strikingly and specifically many of the problems connected with Pleyel research, problems that have caused generations of scholars to echo Gerber's words of exasperation, His [Pleyel's] works appear in fifteen different numbers and at the same time, through arrangements, in fifteen different titles and shapes.' No other composer, Fetis observed some years later, has furnished the material for so many commercial frauds of all kinds.2 With the realization that Rita Benton's comprehensive Pleyel catalog is nearing completion,3 I have attempted in this brief survey (1 to illustrate with items from the collection some of the bibliographical questions that the arrival of Dr. Benton's catalog will answer, and (2 to list the UCLA holdings and thereby acquaint musicologists with them.4 More specifically, in the UCLA collection there are nine single works, nineteen sets of three works, sixteen sets of six works, and one set of twelve works. Of this total, fifty-one compositions alone are contained in what is perhaps the most important single item in the collection, a complete set of parts (each set bound in quarter red morocco gilt) of various London printings of eight separate string quartet opuses (one set of three works, six sets of six, and one set of twelve). Media represented in presumably original scoring, still a thorny problem, include the solo piano sonata (one item), the string duo (six items), the duet for

AN INTERESTING MUSIC COLLECTION

FRANCK THOMAS ARNOLD (1861--940) was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge. In x886 he was appointed lecturer in German Language and Literature at the University College of South Wales and Monmouth, a post he held for forty years. All his life he took a deep interest in music and was an enthusiastic amateur of the violoncello. The world has every reason to be grateful that Arnold's official duties at Cardiff left him with sufficient leisure to indulge his hobby which led him to explore minutely the subject of writing and playing from a thorough-bass. Besides contributing from time to time to many musical journals-' Bach-Jahrbuch ', 'Proceedings of the Musical Association', ' Musical Times', 'Music & Letters', 'Zeitschrift fur Musikwissenschaft ' -he suppljed the article on Thorough-bass for Grove's'Dictionary of Music and Musicians'. Years of research culminated in his writing a monumental treatise on thorough-bass which is recognized to-day as the standard authority. Ernest Newman, in 'The Sunday Times' of July 2nd I944, paid a glowing and well-deserved tribute to Arnold when he described his' Art of Accompaniment from aThoroughBass '1 as the greatest work of musicography ever produced in this country. This great book is a lasting monument of patient and exhaustive scholarship. Arnold in his search for a full knowledge of his subject was not content with drawing upon the resources of the libraries of Europe, but he also bought for himself all available literature and music from which he could absorb and note at leisure anything relating to thorough-bass. As a result of these activities, spread over a number of years, he gradually built up an important and valuable collection of music and literature of music. The theoretical works, especially those on harmony and thorough-bass, range from Zarlino's 'Le istitutioni harmoniche', I562, to Albrechtsberger's ' Kurzgefasste Methode den Generalbass zu erlernen ', 2nd ed., 1837, and include most of the recognized authorities. His other acquisitions form a remarkable collection of eighteenth-century instrumental music. Both sections contain works of great importance and rarity, indeed some editions and issues are unique. It is not intended here to describe the collection fully for, in addition to a printed list appearing in the 'Cambridge University Reporter' for February 6th 1945, a manuscript catalogue has been made containing the titles of the works, together with some notes pointing out the essential differences in some of the editions and issues, and answering (and no doubt raising) some curious bibliographical questions. Perhaps one should single out Praetorius, ' Syntagma musicum' as one of the show pieces . Complete copies of this work are very rare, and this copy is complete except for the title-page to Volume I. The curious puzzle date (I614) is given twice on the general title-page. Mersenne, ' Harmonie universelle ', is here to exasperate the bibliographer with its erratic and faulty pagination and its ever-changing order of the various sections. I have yet to see two copies bound in the same order, and indeed it must be one of the most tiresome of books to collate. What is said to be the best collation is to be found in the ' Hirsch Music Library Catalogue ', Vol. I.

William Cartwright and His "Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with Other Poems...." 1651

T HE name of William Cartwright is scarcely remembered today save by students of the lesser dramatists of the Jacobean and Caroline periods. Yet in his lifetime he was highly esteemed by some of the most eminent personages of his day, including Ben Jonson; and on lhis death more than fifty of his contemporaries, among them Sir John Berkenhead, Alexander Brome, Dr. John Fell, James Howell, Jasper Mayne, Edward Sherburne, and Izaac Walton, wrote verses praising the man and his works. Indeed, from the nature of the tributes that were paid him it can hardly be an exaggeration to say that few men can have been so lauded by their contemporaries and so forgotten by later generations.' In this fact lies one source of interest for the study of Cartwright's writings; another is certain bibliographical questions and peculiarities concerning the collected edition of his plays and poems, published by Humphrey Moseley and printed in London, i65i. William Cartwright, dramatist and divine, was born, according to the most reliable sources, in i6I I at Northway, near Tewkesbury.2 His father, an innkeeper, sent him to the free school at Circencester, from which, being chosen a king's scholar, he went to Westminster. This is the sequence of events usually given, although the Preface, To the reader, of Moseley's edition specifically states that Cart-

Positive Sciences at the International Congress of History

THE name of Rome and the favourable season gave to the congress recently held in the Italian capital an international character, evident, not so much in the numerous concourse of visitors from all parts, as in the nature of the subjects treated. The congress was interesting, not only with regard to the original communications on historical subjects, but still more so respecting the series of discussions on the necessity of collecting and putting in order the material for study so as to render it easily accessible. Bibliographical questions are of greater importance to the historian than to the man of science. The latter, who has at his disposal material in a great measure of recent date and easily accessible, has been able, with greater facility than the historian, to get up good indexes and catalogues; but the difficulties which stand in the way of those desirous of collecting historical data, and of those who have to put them in order, varying, uncertain, obscure as such data are, scattered here and there in innumerable archives and libraries, are very great indeed.