Easy Chairs Research Articles

An investigation into the problems of easy chairs used by the arthritic and the elderly.

Groups such as the arthritic and the elderly are particularly susceptible to seating problems. An extensive questionnaire to determine the nature and extent seating difficulties was given to patients at rheumatology clinics and members of day centres for the elderly in Leeds. Forty-two per cent of subjects had some degree of difficulty in rising from their easy chair at home and of these 18% either experienced great difficulty or could not rise unaided. Only 13% had chairs designed to aid rising (e.g. high chair) and 40% of subjects thought their chair could be improved. Thirty-four per cent said that their easy chair caused them pain or discomfort. Information about subjects' body dimensions and their easy chair dimensions was also collected. Further research based on the survey results is planned in order to develop criteria for the design of easy chairs for the arthritic and the elderly.

The Next Best Thing... Shakespeare in Stereo

SINCE I BEGAN teaching Shakespearean drama nearly a decade ago, I have tried a number of different approaches-with varying degrees of success. It was clear from the very start that the key was to discover an adequate substitute for the live performance. But what? As the semesters passed and my noble experiments with theater trips, cinema adaptations, and video tapes brought more logistical and financial frustrations than I could bear, it became increasingly more apparent that the next best thing was the quality recording. At first, I used recordings in a manner familiar to most instructors. I carefully chose a few key passages or scenes (sometimes even an entire act or two) for playing in class, and followed these selections with analysis and discussion. This worked reasonably well, but consumed considerable chunks of class time. I decided to modify my approach. Instead of taking precious class time to play the records, I scheduled evening record listening sessions (RLS). Happily, this approach proved to be so successful, and popular with students, that I have been using the RLS format (with periodic modifications and refinements) for the past seven years. Although I have used it only in a college-level Types of Shakespearean Drama course, I am confident that with minor modifications it can be used with similar good effect in the secondary level Shakespeare unit or course, and in all types of drama courses on both levels. The following is a brief description of the RLS teaching approach. During the first class period I announce that Monday evening record listening sessions have been scheduled for the duration of the semester. I explain that these sessions are not mandatory, but I do urge all students to at least give them a try. For students with scheduling problems, the recordings are placed on reserve in the Media Services Center. I take a great deal of care in choosing (and scheduling well in advance) the room in which the sessions will be held. Since the average recording runs from two to three hours, students should feel comfortable and relaxed in their listening environment. Mv students' favorite setting, and mine as well, has been the Honors Lounge, a quiet and pleasant room which is carpeted and filled with comfortable couches and easy chairs. The students are required to do a certain amount of preparation prior to each

Gas Fires and Easy Chairs for the Disabled User

Gas Fires and Easy Chairs for the Disabled User

Further excerpts from a Russian diary

Sunday. We had a most amazing tour of the Kremlin today. None of our interpreters had ever been inside the Kremlin walls before, although it is possible to get tickets which allow Russians to go inside. But such tickets do not permit anyone into the buildings and rooms we visited. The normal visitor can only walk in certain places, and look inside the churches. We started our tour by entering the northeast gate under the famous clock tower, the Big Ben of Russia. We watched the changing of the guard at the Lenin-Stalin mausoleum at 10 AM and followed the men as they goose-stepped their way to the northeast gate of the Kremlin. We were taken to the large building where Lenin lived and worked. We passed down a long corridor, which reminded me of the corridor outside the Chiefs of Staff offices in the Pentagon Building. I translated one of the names on the impressive big doors as Mikoyan. We were surprised to find one of the offices open and noticed maps of Russia hanging on the wall. We soon found out, when we were taken inside, that this had been Lenin's private office where he did all his work. The office was arranged exactly as it was when he left. (He was sick for several months in 1923 and died in the spring of 1924.) This room is one of the sacred shrines of Communism and our interpreters were absolutely bug-eyed to find themselves there. Lenin worked at a small desk, sitting in a straight chair. The desk butted up against a felt covered table surrounded by large stuffed leather easy chairs. The table and chairs were for the visitors and government officials who came to talk with him. The room was roughly square and about twenty or twenty-five feet on a side. The wall behind Lenin's chair was covered with bookshelves which were filled with books in Russian, French, German, and English. Lenin read all these languages and was apparently a rather scholarly man. His private apartment, just down the hall, also was filled with books—the guide said there were 20 000 books in Lenin's private study and 2000 in his office. We walked around the room and examined the various objects on the tables. I had the feeling that Lenin might show up at any minute—the room was in such a natural state. There was a large oil painting of Karl Marx on the wall, facing Lenin as he sat at his desk. The maps had been marked by Lenin, and the calendars on the desk and on the wall were opened to a day in 1923.

Backdrop to Planning

THERE seems to be wide agreement that something needs to be done about meetings. Where agencies, institutions, and organizations have professional staff and trained personnel, meetings are generally planned and run with a high degree of efficiency. But for average meetings of small groups in big and little towns, mounting reluctance to attend is a inumber-one problem. Obviously, we have to have meetings. Nobody would argue that a free society can operate without them. Yet, for many, they have become a social burden. Sometimes an outstanding meeting provides satisfaction and enjoyment aside from the sense of virtue that rewards discharging a personal obligation. But a growing number of people attend with a hairshirt attitude or protest openly that, if they are to leave their comfortable easy chairs and favorite television or radio program of an evening or, even worse, interrupt a busy work schedule during the day for a meeting, the affair had better offer more reward in enjoyment or things accomplished. That can be dangerous. In the present state of the world, the exercise of democratic practices by the individual becomes ever more important. Careless surrender of the rights of free assembly, free speech, and communication can result in the same loss to

The Library World Volume 34 Issue 2

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.