University Of Colorado At Boulder Research Articles

Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film Jennifer LynnPeterson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.

Education in School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film Jennifer Lynn Peterson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.Educational films are not a recent phenomenon. As reader will learn from this very interesting book by Jennifer Lynn Peterson, assistant professor of film studies, University of Colorado Boulder, many of earliest ones began as what author calls travelogues or scenics. These were a staple of early motion picture theaters, short films that depicted tourist destinations and exotic landscapes which were otherwise inaccessible to most viewers. Peterson's title is a play on words as the school of dreams reflects attitude of these early film-viewers to visit, if only through these short films, other parts of world. For modern traveler, social media makes it possible to show sights and sounds of a trip available to all right as visitor is in midst of site, but, right before World War I in early days of film, this was obviously not possible. Instead, early film viewer saw which were a form of virtual tourism or documentary that was often presented as lectures to supplement accompanying films and photos.Peterson attempts to bring attention to this early period in film history that she feels has been overlooked by historians. Most of emphasis of her discussion is on films and American West which was a considerable source of fascination to audiences in this period. Not surprisingly, many of early films were adventure stories and Westerns, with good cowboys and bad Indians. This book focuses on travel films exhibited in commercial US theaters during early cinema's transnational era, roughly years 1907 to 1915, when films first began to be shown in dedicated movie houses and cinema emerged as a distinct form of media with its own set of practices (2).Travelogues evolved from work of American writer and lecturer, John Lawson Stoddard, who began traveling around world in 1874; he published books about his adventures and gave lectures which he illustrated with black and white lantern slides he reproduced from his photographs. Then, in 1892, Stoddard recruited Burton Holmes as his junior associate; in 1897 Holmes succeeded his mentor then went on to become one of most important lecturers of his day. He coined term, travelogues, in 1904 when he introduced film clips to his lecture series. …

German Studies, for Example

In the famous chapter “Sense-Certainty” of the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel expends a great deal of dialectical energy to show that we make contradictory use of examples (Beispiele): on the one hand, we invoke the concreteness and distinctiveness of a singular datum; on the other, we imply that it has general significance. Examples confuse our thinking because they claim to be valid for a larger set of instances (thus approaching the validity of a concept), but unlike concepts they do not let us understand how this claim can be substantiated. I begin my contribution to the conversation “The Changing Face(s) of Graduate Studies” with this reference to Hegel for the obvious reason that our experiences with a new PhD program in German studies at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder cannot readily be generalized. We had the fortune of being able to start, in 2013, with a clean slate and very few restrictions as far as the intellectual profile and the administrative format of the program were concerned. Not only were we able to think about what kind of interdisciplinary collaborations could be built into its design, what kind of students we wanted to attract, and what we could offer these students as a significant advantage over other existing programs; we could more fundamentally ask ourselves – and would be asked by the various committees through which we had to shepherd the proposal – why a university in the United States needed a PhD program in German in the first place. The way this question was, and often still is, answered is the less obvious reason why I began with the trite and pointless reference to Hegel. It goes something like this: German philosophical aesthetics is foundational for all literary theory; literary studies without this foundation are blind. The question why a university in the United States needs a German Department must be stood on its head: without a German Department, other literature departments do not fully understand what they are doing. The first time I was involved in building a PhD program in German, almost a quarter of a century ago, that was the rationale with which we were able to convince administrators in a university without a strong tradition in the humanities. We also had the backing of faculty in other literature programs, who were relieved to send students interested in Derridean and de Manian deconstruction our way. It was already then a slightly embarrassing argument, for on the one hand it embraced the most hackneyed trope of German literary and cultural (not to mention musical) superiority, while on the other hand insinuating to administrators that universities could save money by letting one department do all the

Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Computational Thinking through Modeling and Programming in 3D

Visual programming in 3D sounds much more appealing than programming in 2D, but what are its benefits? Here, University of Colorado Boulder educators discuss the differences between 2D and 3D regarding three concepts connecting computer graphics to computer science education: ownership, spatial thinking, and syntonicity.

Science Instruction Through the Visual Arts in Special Collections

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU–Boulder) is known for strong programming in the sciences and a teaching faculty at the forefront of science education and reform. Librarians at CU–Boulder, in collaboration with science faculty, are challenged to improve undergraduate science education. Using rare, historic, and artistic works from Special Collections, the librarians employ active learning techniques that emphasize visual imagery to improve the quality of undergraduate learning in the sciences. This paper describes the fledgling program developed by CU–Boulder librarians to create a space for student-driven, collaborative learning using historic and visual scientific materials found in Special Collections.

Re-Framing the Argument: Critical Service- Learning and Community-Centered Food Literacy

As a WPA and a service-learning director and practitioner, author suggests connections between food studies, rhetoric and composition studies, and service-learning theory that involve mobilizing students to join in or help lead community efforts surrounding local, organic food movement, food justice, and food literacy. The study is framed by questions of how composition instructors can create courses around issues related to global food crisis to embed students in community-centered food literacy initiatives, and, more generally, how practitioners and WPAs can effectively promote and explain community-engaged pedagogies to higher-level administrators who question value of practice. I recently had a conversation with a dean at University of Colorado Boulder about why Program for Writing and Rhetoric made a curricular commitment to service- learning and civic engagement throughout its lower- and upper-division courses. More specifically, he wanted to understand benefits of service-learning for students. He was not interested in assessment data about personal growth and civic learning. That students become more engaged and critical citizens for a participatory democracy (Berlin 97), as has been shown in numerous large and small-scale assessment studies (Ash, Clayton, and Atkinson; Astin and Sax; Eyler and Giles; Eyler, Giles, Stenson, and Gray), did not particularly impress him. Yes, he said, but is there something about service-learning that teaches students more effectively how to think and write? As some within Rhetoric and Composition Studies argue to move beyond Paula Mathieu's public to a 1 —one that would focus more deliberately on political issues than social turn of 1990s—practitioners, scholars, and WPAs once again face a host of questions that get at heart of why we teach and what higher education's purposes are and should be. This is nothing new. These conversations have persisted through last century from John Dewey to Paulo Freire to Ernest Boyer. In Rhetoric and Composition specifically, binary viewpoints about how to teach and purposes for rhetoric and composition classes incite emotional and compelling arguments. In one camp, for example, are literacy scholars such as Henry Giroux and Ira Shor, who argue that pedagogy is an emancipatory project of transformative intellectuals (Giroux 174-175). Critical pedagogue James Berlin declares, the objectives of English Studies are many. The most significant of these is developing a measure of facility in reading and writing practices so as to prepare

A model for incorporating computation without changing the course: An example from middle-division classical mechanics

Much of the research done by modern physicists would be impossible without the use of computation. And yet, while computation is a crucial tool of practicing physicists, physics curricula do not generally reflect its importance and utility. To more tightly connect undergraduate preparation with professional practice, we integrated computational instruction into middle-division classical mechanics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Our model for integration works within the constraints of faculty who do not specialize in computation teaching standard physics courses by placing a strong emphasis on {an adaptable curriculum}. Our model includes the construction of computational learning goals, the design of computational activities consistent with those goals, and the assessment of students' computational fluency. We present critiques of our model as we work to develop an effective and sustainable model for computational instruction in the undergraduate curriculum

An Investigation on English Reading Strategy Use in Major-related Materials among Native and Foreign Language Learners

Researches on L2 learning strategy have always been focus in applied linguistics. Meanwhile, as one of the most vital ways to access knowledge, researches on L2 reading strategy attract more and more attention. However, cross-cultural comparison, especially between native learners and L2 learners, can be hardly seen in the circle of L2. This study adopts the questionnaire of the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) designed by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002) to investigate the use of strategies of 149 college students (valid questionnaires) from Beihang University (BUAA) and University of Colorado Boulder (UCBoulder) majoring in Economics while reading major-related materials in English. Results of this study reveals that, firstly, the use of reading strategy for both Chinese and the US learners fall into medium to high level, and Chinese learners report a higher use of strategy in general than their American counterparts. Secondly, except meta-cognitive strategy, there are significant differences between Chinese and the US learners in cognitive and support strategy; but both the US and Chinese learners display a similar strategy preference, in other words, all learners prefer to use cognitive strategy, followed by meta-cognitive strategy and support strategy.

Publishing the Stage: Print and Performance in Early Modern Japan Edited by Keller Kimbrough and Satoko Shimazaki (review)

Reviewed by: Publishing the Stage: Print and Performance in Early Modern Japan Edited by Keller Kimbrough and Satoko Shimazaki Michael Watson Publishing the Stage: Print and Performance in Early Modern Japan. Edited by Keller Kimbrough and Satoko Shimazaki. Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, 2011. 247 pages. Softcover gratis plus shipping; PDFs available for online reading. Publishing the Stage focuses on the complex interrelation between commercial publishing and the two major theater forms that developed in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, ko-jōruri (old jōruri) puppet theater and kabuki. This collection of papers is the result of a March 2011 conference at the University of Colorado Boulder that explored the theater and publishing in Edo- and Meiji-period Japan. Born at approximately the same time and place, the early modern publishing industry and the new theatrical genres spread from early-seventeenth-century Kyoto, to Osaka and Edo, and, finally, to other regional centers, developing and thriving together. While reading through the eleven papers in this collection (four in Japanese and seven in English, all with abstracts in both languages), I found myself returning more than once to the editors’ introduction for its very helpful overview of what Keller Kimbrough and Satoko Shimazaki call the “complicated symbiotic relationship” between early modern developments in the theater and the burgeoning trade in theater books and illustrations (p. 2). The first two papers deal, either wholly or in part, with the puppet theater. Janice Shizue Kanemitsu’s paper takes up the relatively neglected art of Kinpira ko-jōruri, named after the fierce warrior, Sakata no Kinpira. This style of puppet theater developed in Edo during the 1650s and provided a major impetus for publishing in Edo, which gradually overtook Kyoto as the center of jōruri activities. Texts of the plays were transmitted back to the Kamigata region (Kyoto and Osaka) and adapted for performance there, resulting in what Kanemitsu calls the “transregional hybridization” of the theatrical genre through print (p. 15). Next, in her study of the Chūjōhime legend, Hioki Atsuko explores the connections between sermons, printed texts, pictorial biographies, and sekkyō-jōruri. A version of this legend for the puppet theater plays a relatively minor part in the complex interplay between different genres. The paper contains a valuable analysis of the relationship between pictorial representations and literary motifs. The collection then moves on to the subject of kabuki and publishing. Katherine Saltzman-Li provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding “books on the theater” (gekisho; p. 55) by discussing Akama Ryō’s influential schema of texts for insiders (theater professionals) versus those for outsiders (fans). She identifies how the distinction was blurred later in the Edo period as supposedly secret books gradually became available for sale. For developments in the kabuki theater during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods, researchers can draw on the written comments by [End Page 130] foreign visitors and the illustrations of theater interiors in works like Aimé Humbert’s Le Japon Illustré (Hachette, 1870). Examples of both appear in the paper by Yamashita Takumi, who analyzes a variety of impressions by early spectators, beginning with Edward Sylvester Morse and Sir Rutherford Alcock in English and followed by lesser-known sources in German and French. Three papers are devoted to the different ways that actors were represented on or off the stage. Matsuba Ryōko gives a clear overview of the long tradition of yakusha ehon (actor print books) and nigao-e (portraits), well illustrated with examples of both. Yamashita Noriko analyzes an example of yakusha mitate (actor prints) from 1852 in which the poems of Japan’s thirty-six “immortal” poetic geniuses (Sanjūrokkasen) are playfully associated with particular kabuki characters and actors. Intriguingly, Yamashita finds that some actors are represented in roles in which they never actually performed. Akiko Yano shows how the artist Ryūkōsai Jokei developed techniques first in realistic portraiture and then in the representation of actors’ bodily movements through sketches that depicted them naked or in loincloths—an idea that may have been derived from Western pictorial methods. The sketches analyzed by Yano were discovered in 2010 after having been lost for eighty years...

Community Development: “EZ HEAT” Westwood Solar Furnace Project

This paper presents a humanitarian engineering project in Denver, Colorado's Westwood community. This project was a collaboration with Metropolitan State University of Denver, the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities at the University of Colorado Boulder and the non-profit community group ReVision International. This paper discusses the implementation of a helpful technology solution for the community that could alleviate an identified problem common for households in Westwood. This paper presents the project through all the steps: community appraisal, analysis, problem identification, strategy planning, implementation and a plan for monitoring and evaluation. The community analysis identified the financial burden of high energy bills on the residents of the community as a pervasive problem that could be alleviated with a simple design, the solar furnace, a box built using recycled aluminum cans, plywood and acrylic plastic that heats the house through the conversion of solar energy into warm air.To demonstrate the technology, students from MSU Denver constructed and tested 4 different solar furnace design units, and implemented a pilot test at Re:Vision's (a local NGO working in Westwood) office. held a focus group with community leaders (“promotoras”) for discussion about the pilot unit, calculated energy and cost savings for the design, and developed a plan to continue the project from pilot stage to community implementation and installed 4 demonstration units on family households.The paper addresses the capacity and risk analysis for this design, the design itself, the implementation plan, the monitoring and evaluation plan which are the natural next steps in the project.

Coca Sí, Cocaína No

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsBear GuerraBear Guerra is a photographer whose work addresses globalization, development, and social and environmental justice issues. His images, photo essays, and multimedia stories have been published and exhibited widely, and he has earned several recognitions including being named finalist for a National Magazine Award in Photojournalism in 2010. Bear was a 2013-14 Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. He’s a member of Fonografia Collective, and the award-winning non-profit journalism collaborative, Homelands Productions.

An Interview with Patricia Johanson: Seeds of Creative Vision in Childhood Memories of Nature and the City

 2014 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 24(3), 2014 An Interview with Patricia Johanson: Seeds of Creative Vision in Childhood Memories of Nature and the City Louise Chawla Environmental Design Program University of Colorado Boulder Citation: Chawla, Louise (2014). “An Interview with Patricia Johanson: Seeds of Creative Vision in Childhood Memories of Nature and the City.” Children, Youth and Environments 24(3): 92-101. Retrieved [date] from: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi. Interview by Louise Chawla October 1, 2014 This interview with Patricia Johanson—artist, architect, landscape designer—took place when she visited Boulder, Colorado as a guest speaker at the University of Colorado and Naropa University. Johanson’s canvases, sculptures, and drawings are part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., as well as many other sites; but her vision and accomplishments spill beyond the walls of museums and galleries into the living worlds of nature and cities. Johanson equipped herself for her multifaceted work through a bachelor’s degree in fine art at Bennington College in Vermont, courses in architecture and civil engineering at the Spitzer School of Architecture in the City College of New York, and a master’s in art history at Hunter College. In the 1960s, long before the terms “biomimicry” or “biophilic design” had been invented, Johanson was exploring in her drawings how patterns in nature could inspire human constructions—such as regional planning, highway design, and public works for flood control and water treatment—while connecting people to the landscape through pathways for the personal discovery of nature’s diversity and complexity. Her large-scale linear sculptures, such as William Rush and Cyrus Field near her home in Buskirk, New York, or Nostoc II at the Storm King Art Center, are routes into the landscape, in continuous processes of change as their materials reflect nature’s daily and seasonal activity and transformation. An Interview with Patricia Johanson: Seeds of Creative Vision in Childhood Memories… 93 In 1978, an exhibit of Johanson’s drawings at a New York gallery caught the attention of Harry Parker, director of the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. He asked her, “Can these be built?” and when she answered, “Yes, they can,” he commissioned her to restore Fair Park Lagoon in Fair Park, Dallas, near the city’s art museum, sculpture center, museum of natural science, and the Cotton Bowl Stadium. Using sculpted paths inspired by the patterns of a native Texas water plant and fern, she divided the lagoon into a variety of habitats for the restoration of aquatic plants. As the plants purified the water and attracted insects, native fish and turtles were introduced and water birds found homes. Now the lagoon is a magnet for visitors, who wander its paths into encounters with the water and its ecosystems. In other large projects in San Francisco and Petaluma, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Ulsan Dragon Park and Millennium Park in Korea, Johanson has shown again and again how aesthetics, function and ecology can be fused by bringing together the practices of art, architecture, cultural history, landscape architecture, ecological restoration, engineering, and urban planning and design. Like elements of nature, human creations can do more than just one thing. She is currently working on the renewal of a flood plain zone in Brattleboro, Vermont. There are many published guides to Johanson’s work, including A Field Guide to Patricia Johanson’s Works by Sue Spaid (Contemporary Museum, 2012), Patricia Johanson and the Re-Invention of Public Environmental Art by Xin Wu (Ashgate Publishing, 2013), Patricia Johanson’s House and Garden Commission by Xin Wu (a two-volume set, Dumbarton Oaks, 2007), and Art and Survival by Caffyn Kelley (Islands Institute, 2006). Images of her work can be found at http://www.patriciajohanson.com. In this interview, Johanson relates how core elements of her work can be traced to her early childhood experiences in New York parks and museums—led in the beginning by her mother, who opened the doors...

Dessler, Jimenez, Klein, and Nenes Receive 2012 Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Awards: Citation for Jose L. Jimenez

The Atmospheric Sciences section of AGU awards one of the four Ascent Awards to Professor Jose‐Luis Jimenez of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. The award is made for the development and utilization of innovative measurement technology to address critical aspects relating to the sources, transformations, and environmental fates of fine atmospheric particles.

Which Way Is Forward in Communication Theorizing? An Interview With Robert T. Craig

In this interview, we celebrate the founding editor of Communication Theory, Prof. Robert T. Craig, on the occasion of his retirement from teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder. The interview took place in Craig's office on May 28, 2013, under a framed and enlarged copy of Communication Theory's original cover design. The first part of the interview focused on the creation of Communication Theory. Next, Craig used the conversation metaphor to capture the character of communication theorizing. He then discussed recent responses to his theoretical work and elaborated his rationale for moving toward empirical work at the intersection between communication theory and practical metadiscourse. Finally, he reflected on the challenges of teaching communication theory to undergraduate and graduate students.

한국의 관학 대기과학 연구 발전을 위한 미국 협동연구 사례 분석 - 콜로라도대학 환경과학협동연구소를 중심으로

A public-academia cooperative research system is suggested to improve the level of national research on atmospheric science and to enable the National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR) to meet its overloaded demand for research and results. As a practical example of cooperative research the CIRES case was reviewed. CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, located at the University of Colorado Boulder, is one of NOAA's 18 cooperative research centers located at universities across the U.S. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as a part of government, gives clear guideline for research topics and supplies research funds to research centers and audits their research processes and accomplishments. NOAA Boulder Laboratories, as a large, well-established government research center managed by government scientists, supplies depth of experiences and major research infra-structure to CIRES. CIRES pursues innovative and challenging research with their younger and brand-new researchers who are university employees. This cooperative work between government research organizations and the university produces high level research efficiently. Not only does Boulder have a beautiful natural setting where researchers live and work but also the city is a home to many scientific agencies and research facilities. This robust scientific network provides rich opportunities for CIRES researchers to collaborate with others in their scientific fields.

Tree root mounds and their role in transporting soil on forested landscapes

ABSTRACTThe growth and decay of tree roots can stir and transport soil. This is one process that contributes to the mass‐movement of soil on hillslope. To explore the efficiency of this process, we document the mounding of soil beside Ponderosa and Lodgepole pine trees in the forests that dominate the mid‐elevations of Colorado's Boulder Creek watershed. Mounds are best expressed around Ponderosa pines, reaching vertical displacements above the far‐field slopes of order 10–20 cm, fading into the slope by roughly 100 cm distance from the trunks with common diameters of 30 cm. Positive mounding occurs on all sides of trees on slopes, indicating that the mounding is not attributable to deflection of a creeping flow of soil around the tree, but rather to the insertion of root volume on all sides in the subsurface. Mounding is commonly asymmetric even on cross‐slope profiles. Significant variation in the mound sizes results in no clear relationship between tree diameter and root volume displaced. These observations motivated the development of a discrete element model of tree root growth using the LIGGGHTS model, in which grains we specified to be ‘root cells’ were allowed to enlarge within the simulated granular matrix. Mounding could be reproduced, with the majority of the vertical displacement of the surface being attributable to reduction of the bulk density due to dilation of the granular matrix during root enlargement. Finally, we develop a previous analysis of the role of roots in transporting soil during growth and decay cycles. We find that even in shallow soils, the root‐cycle can drive significant soil transport down forested montane slopes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Alignment of Citation Behaviors of Philosophy Graduate Students and Faculty

Objective – This study analyzes sources cited by graduate students in philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB) in 55 PhD dissertations and master’s theses submitted between 2005 and 2010, to discover their language, age, format, discipline, whether or not they were held by the library, and how they were acquired. Results were compared to data previously collected about sources cited by philosophy faculty at UCB, in books published between 2004 and 2009, to identify how closely citation behaviors aligned between the two groups.
 
 Methods – Citations were counted in the PhD dissertations and master’s theses. Citations to monographs were searched against the local catalog to determine ownership and call number. Comparison numbers for faculty research were collected from a previous study. Results were grouped according to academic rank and analyzed by format, language, age, call number, ownership, and method of purchase.
 
 Results – Graduate students cited mostly books, though fewer than commonly found in other studies. Citations were almost entirely of English language sources. Master’s students cited slightly newer materials than doctoral students, who in turn cited newer materials than faculty. The library owned most cited books, and most of those were purchased on an approval plan. Doctoral students most frequently cited resources outside the discipline of philosophy, in contrast to master’s students and faculty.
 
 Conclusions – The citation behavior of graduate students in philosophy largely, but not entirely, mirrors that of the faculty. Further study of citation behavior in humanities disciplines would be useful. Understanding the behavior of philosophers can help philosophy librarians make informed choices about how to spend library funds.

Fast Hybrid Testing of Controlled Smart Dampers for Nonlinear Structures Under Earthquakes

This paper addresses the reduction of earthquake effects on nonlinear buildings. Three large-scale 200 kN magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers were implemented in a three-story nonlinear building to provide protection against severe earthquakes. Clipped-optimal and Lyapunov control algorithms were adapted to control the MR dampers. Numerical and experimental investigations were executed to examine the efficacy of the proposed controllers. The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation fast hybrid testing (FHT) facility at the University of Colorado Boulder was used. Results show that the proposed controllers were successfully applied in real-time FHT simulations and can enhance the response reduction. In addition, a dissipativity analysis is carried out to further understand the performance characteristics of the semi-active control strategy.

Daniel S. P. Yang

Daniel S. P. Yang trained in amateur jingju (Beijing opera) in Taiwan in the 1950s and studied in the Asian theatre graduate programs at the University of Hawai’i and the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1960s. His early career was marked by jingju productions and scholarly insight on post-1949 Chinese theatre, particularly revolutionary model plays. During his tenure at the University of Colorado–Boulder and as producing artistic director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, he thrived as a successful director and producer of Shakespeare and modern Western classics. Since the early 1980s, he has successfully brought Western classics and contemporary hits to the thriving urban theatre scene in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. As such, his long career represents the contribution of U.S.-educated artist-scholars from Asia to both Asian theatre studies in the West and the theatrical development of their native land.

Modernizing Artisanal Brick Kilns: A Global Need

The city of Cusco in southeastern Peru is a World Heritage Site and a tourist attraction for those drawn by the Inca ruins nearby. But anyone who lives in or visits Cusco has to contend with its heavily polluted air. Trucks and buses belch clouds of diesel exhaust, and on the outskirts of town hundreds of family-run artisanal brick kilns send plumes of oily black smoke into the sky. Brick makers near Cusco fire their traditional kilns mainly with coal, but they also have a long history of burning plastic trash, used motor oil, and discarded tires. “They produce huge air quality problems,” says Jon Bickel, a Swiss development expert based in Lima. Most of the bricks that are made in Peru and other low-income countries are fired in artisanal kilns that pump greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere, posing a health threat to brick workers, their surrounding communities, and even farther afield. And since brick production keeps pace with population growth, its environmental health impacts are likely growing throughout the developing world, says Jie Li, an energy and environmental specialist with the World Bank’s South Asia Region in Washington, DC. Workers cut firewood to light a brick kiln in Kabul, Afghanistan. The few health studies that have been conducted on kiln workers typically reveal musculoskeletal effects and health effects similar to those seen in other smoky, dusty occupations. A number of both small-scale and multinational development groups coordinated by the World Bank, the United Nations, and other organizations are now turning their attention to this important but poorly characterized industrial sector. Leading the charge in Latin America, Bickel directs a Swiss-funded group known by its Spanish acronym, EELA (for Eficiencia Energetica en Ladrilleras Artesanales) that aims to modernize artisanal brick making in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico. Bickel says EELA’s long-term goal is to reduce kiln emissions by 30–50%. But achieving that goal won’t be easy. Throughout Latin America and other countries in the developing world, artisanal kiln operators comprise an informal industry; they rarely pay taxes or obtain operating permits, and because of that, they often lack access to the financial credit and capital needed to purchase cleaner technology. Many also lack electricity (required for newer types of mechanized production) and access to roads and other infrastructure that could help in the modernization effort. Some are unwilling to change age-old manufacturing processes. Pakistani families prepare bricks at a fixed-chimney Bull’s trench kiln on the outskirts of Islamabad. Under debt bondage, an entrenched custom in South Asia, families can work at kilns for years paying off loans from the owners. Still, the associated benefits of modernization justify the effort, Li says. In addition to the environmental health impacts associated with artisanal brick kilns, these operations employ “the poorest of the poor, including, in many instances, women and children,” Li says. “So by promoting more efficient kilns and manufacturing, we can also address related development problems, such as poverty, child labor, and women’s issues.”

PDA Consortium Style

In April 2010, the University of Colorado Boulder (CUB) Libraries implemented a patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) e-book program through Ingram Content Group’s on the MyiLibrary platform. CUB’s PDAprogram expanded to include all campuses within the University of Colorado (CU) system, launching a collaborative pilot project for shared purchasing and shared cataloging of e-books among five geographically separate and diverse CU libraries in December 2011. The PDA program affects the catalogs, cataloging departments, and cataloging workflows of each library. This paper describes the CU PDA program with a focus on how MARC records are prepared and distributed to the CU libraries, both before and after titles are purchased. It covers factors that impact editing and customization of the records such as the quality of vendor-supplied data, local needs, and best practices for Prospector, a regional unified catalog in which all CU system libraries participate. In addition, the authors share their strategies for detecting and correcting cataloging errors that occur and their methods for handling PDA titles duplicated in other e-book packages available at CU libraries.