Group Of Patrons Research Articles

Integration of Library, Museum and Archive Resources: Together or Independently?

The article deals with modern problems of integration of digital resources of libraries, archives and museums. The author identifies and describes changes in the goal-setting system of activities within the framework of joint projects, caused by the digitalization of the internal activities of cultural institutions. The vector of change in the goals is directed from general goals to more practical ones, which include: the formation of an integrated research environment of a humanitarian profile; the development of digital collections as a new information product of libraries; the usage of integrated resources as a means of training and educating various groups of patrons; the creation of a joint virtual platform of historical memory institutions for professional communication and project implementation. Creating a new information product — digital collections — will require significant efforts, primarily a scientific and methodological study of the issues of their organization, taking into account the specifics of information products and their future place in the information consumption market. The creation of such products can be carried out not only by the efforts of the keepers of cultural and historical heritage, but also with the involvement of organizations engaged in artificial intelligence and semantic networks. Among the trends, there is a consistent leveling of the degree of digitalisation of libraries, archives and museums, their self-sufficiency and the desire to develop along their own information trajectories. The article provides examples of the most successful projects in the field of creating digital resources of historical memory institutions. There are identified the basic problems: departmental disunity, the lack of a publicly accessible reliable software and technology environment for interaction, as well as the lack of a system of scientific and methodical procedures and information support for resource integration activities. It is necessary to organize interdisciplinary vocational training centers for personnel to work in an integrated environment.

The Early Patronage of the Cult of SS. Boris and Gleb

Abstract This paper examines the patronage of the cult of SS. Boris and Gleb through the reign of Volodimir Monomakh (r. 1113–1125) by using textual criticism, memory studies, and works on medieval Christian materiality. It revisits the chronology of the main texts on SS. Boris and Gleb (the Primary Chronicle, two hagiographical tales and Nestor’s Lesson concerning the life and murder of the saints); the Primary Chronicle contaminated the hagiographical works that were written under Monomakh. This textual analysis offers a new perspective on the patronage of the cult. There were many factors that stimulated the emergence of the cult in the 1070s, including the threat of nomadic raids, inter-princely conflicts, and the aspirations of clerical communities to enhance their spiritual glory, augment their wealth, and address issues of historical memory. The promotion of the cult was therefore a collective effort of the princely and clerical elites. Among the clerical promoters of the cult were the metropolitan’s see, monastic communities, and the local clergy in Smolensk and Vyshhorod. The patronage of the cult crossed institutional boundaries as different groups of patrons promoted their interests during the commemoration of the royal martyrs. Royalty sponsored the building and decoration of churches dedicated to the saints. The metropolitan’s see initiated the gathering of information on miracles performed by the saints, organised their liturgical commemoration, and used the cult for mediating princely politics. The cult was also affected by a revision of the memory of Iaroslav Volodimirovich (r. 1019–1054) during the reign of his grandson Volodimir Monomakh. As part of this revision, monastic hagiographers created stories about Iaroslav establishing and patronising the cult of the saints. The myth of Iaroslav’s patronage validated Monomakh’s commemorative activities and appealed to other descendants of Iaroslav as potential sponsors of the cult.

Study on the Uniqueness of Vessanthara Jataka Stories in Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple Paintings (1750 - 1900 A.D)

Archeological and literary sources attest that the “Jataka Stories” were subject to temple paintings from the second century onwards. The Vessanthara Jataka has featured prominently among temple painting in several eras of Sri Lankan history. Vessanthara jataka is a famous jataka story which is highlighted among other jataka stories in Buddhist shrines. The specialty given to the Vessanthara jataka in the paintings of Kandy era is particularly noticeable. This feature can be clearly observed in the temples which were built between 1750 and 1900. Some of these temples, located in the up country were patronized by royals like King Kirthi Sri Raja Singha. Other temples in the low country were built with the patronage of the rising middle class. Even with many fluctuating political and social issues, it seems the prominence given to the depiction of the Vessantara jataka was stable and unshakable. Giving priority to the Vessanthara jataka seems to have been a process carried out by a group of patrons, monks, artists and general public patrons who may have expected to achieve their political and social targets through the depiction of the vessanthara jatakaya. Buddhist monks have also attempted to convey the message of Buddhism through the depiction of Vessanthara jatakaya. Artists may have been interested in depiction of the “Vessanthara jataka” story because it was an opportunity to display their talent and attract others. It seems that the general public was also attracted to the Vessanthara jatakaya because of the characters of that jataka story and its sensitive and emotional scenes. The paper will examine the allocation of space to the Vessanthara jataka and its tactful visual techniques.

Will wonders never cease? The viola bastarda at the Ferrarese court

Abstract Music for the viola bastarda was composed over a period of approximately one hundred years, from the mid 16th to mid 17th century. Initially arising in Italy, it was later transferred to regions north of the Alps in German and Polish regions and across the English Channel. There is interesting variety to the music, with details that prove challenging to modern players and that do not easily align with the previously accepted definition. A particularly large and influential group of composers, performers and patrons coalesced in the second half of the 16th century, centred on the Este court in the Duchy of Ferrara. In exclusive and elite settings, it was sometimes women of high rank who performed this virtuosic music that was composed specially for them, in some cases using particularly large instruments. The nature of this repertory conveyed a true sense of maraviglia and was considered extremely ‘affective’.

Development of a web tool to increase research literacy in underserved populations through public library partnerships.

ObjectiveInadequate diversity in clinical trials is widely recognized as a significant contributing factor to health disparities experienced by racial/ethnic minorities and other diverse populations in the US. To address this in a scalable way, we sought to develop a web tool that could help enhance underserved minority participation in clinical research.MethodsWe used our research literacy support flashcard tool as the initial prototype for human-centered design and usability testing of the web tool Health for All in public library settings. After forming partnerships with leadership from Chicago Public Libraries (CPL), local medical libraries, and the Chicago Department of Public Health, we conducted seven iterative design sessions with focus groups of library patrons and library staff from six CPL branches serving underserved communities followed by two rounds of usability testing and website modification.ResultsBased on the qualitative research findings from Design Sessions 1–7, we enacted the design decision of a website that was a hybrid of fact-filled and vignette (personal stories) paper prototypes divided into 4 modules (trust, diversity, healthy volunteers, pros/cons), each with their own outcome metrics. The website was thus constructed, and navigation issues identified in two rounds of usability testing by library patrons were addressed through further website modification, followed by the launch of a beta version of a hybridized single-scrolling and guided module prototype to allow further development with website analytics.ConclusionsWe report the development of Health for All, a website designed to enhance racial/ethnic minority participation in clinical trials by imparting research literacy, mitigating distrust engendered by longstanding racism and discrimination, and providing connections to clinical trials recruiting participants.

Friends, not ATMs: parasocial relational work and the construction of intimacy by artists on Patreon

Subscription crowdfunding platforms, such as Patreon and Twitch, market themselves as spaces where digital creative workers can secure stable income from a loyal group of patrons, and where patrons can reap exclusive rewards and strengthen their relationship with beloved creators. Drawing on Zelizer’s concept of relational work, this study examines how digital creative workers simultaneously connect and transact with their patrons on such platforms. A thematic analysis of forty Patreon campaigns revealed that digital artists employ parasocial relational work to obscure the economic nature of crowdfunding. Artists frame monetary subscriptions as social support between two intimate parties and compensate their patrons with socially intimate rewards, such as self-disclosure and real-time interaction. In sum, digital artists encourage their patrons to support them as friends would by promising to treat their patrons as friends in return, a finding in line with current trends in creative labor and audience studies.

Christening and Veneration of the East-Slavic Saints in the Ukrainian-Russian Contact Zones in the End of the Eighteenth Century

In the end of the eighteenth century, church calendars (Menologions, “sviattsi”/ordos), which were published in Kyiv and Moscow, had nearly no difference in their contents. Kyivan calendar included a hundred of the East-Slavic saints. Moreover, two-thirds of them were Russian or Old-Russ men of faith canonized in Moscow state. The honouring of the local and Russian cults of the saints based on the newborns’ christening (choosing saint patrons) is analyzed in this article. The research is focused on the Ukrainian-Russian contact zones neighbored with the Russian borders where the two ethnic groups lived. The author suggests that the veneration of the Russian canonized men is higher in those regions, while this rate is lower in the ethnic Ukrainian places of habitance. It is impossible to examine the worship of the East-Slavic patron saints without reference to the procedure of the newborns’ christening and the level of the priest’s autonomy in using of Menologion. So, primary attention is paid to the ways of choosing the patrons for boys and girls. The analysis of Bilopillia (Sloboda Ukraine) and Kyiv-Pechersk metric books shows that newborns’ naming after the East-Slavic men and women of faith did not make more than 10 % of all given names. When priests had to select from Russian/Kyivan and other saints, they made choices on the account of the second group of patrons in most cases.Manuscript received 11.03.2020

Back to the Future: Library Book Clubs for Individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID)

This article provides context for library services for individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and then provides a case study and preliminary data on new efforts in the field for public libraries, school media centers, and academic libraries connected with the educational system. While many libraries are dedicated to serving diverse populations, they have done little to support individuals with ID who have difficulty using library services and accessing their collections. Efforts to advertise, to develop specialized collections, and to utilize assistive technology have floundered on high costs and low returns. These shortcomings are especially critical for adults with ID. While the law mandates the inclusion of individuals with ID in the public school system, there are few opportunities for education, employment, or socializing for those who age out; the library, as a fundamental public institution, is one of the few resources available to them. For the benefit of both libraries and adults with ID, it is critical that libraries develop improved services for this group of patrons. The case study in this article provides data on a book club for persons with ID held at an academic library and based on the model of the Next Chapter Book Club (NCBC) organization. By comparing data between the case study and 30 similar book clubs at public libraries throughout the nation, the article develops a profile of what these book clubs do and how to measure their successes. We conclude that such clubs represent a low-cost, effective way for libraries to support persons with ID that helps libraries fulfill their mission of serving diverse groups and provides critical support to this particular population.

Comparison of personas between two academic libraries

PurposeA persona describes a group of library patrons as a single person to better identify and describe user patterns and needs. Identifying personas in academic libraries can assist in library planning by focusing on patrons. Initially, personas were thought to be unique to each library; additional insights led the researchers to rethink this assertion. The purpose of this paper is to determine if personas, developed in one library, are unique or more universal than previously thought.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, 903 surveys were completed across two institutions asking library patrons to identify use patterns within each library. Mean score responses were analyzed using an ANOVA, principal component analysis and RapidMiner technology. All analyses were used to identify personas with common interests and places personas in groups or neighborhoods.FindingsThe findings provide evidence for the universality of academic library personas. However, differences occur in how the personas are grouped and use different library services and resources.Originality/valuePersonas allow librarians to view patrons in a more personal way as they connect personas to specific library spaces. While the personas appear to be universal, their interactions with each other depend on specific library amenities.

Cosmopolitan translation and patriotic sensibilities in German garden art

ABSTRACTMy focus in this article is on a small group of German theorists, designers and patrons who thought extensively about the relationship between national identity and garden design: Christian Hirschfeld, Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau and his wife Luise, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Prince Pückler. These garden enthusiasts knew one another through personal contact or their writings, and they responded to and developed their ideas in relation to the newly framed creative enterprise in German lands of “garden-landscape-art”. What they shared was a conviction that garden forms affect feelings, with the role of the garden artist to determine paths that would alter and diversify the visitor’s experience of place. This essay explores how spontaneous emotions, elicited by movement through the garden, were linked with a growing sense of patriotism that contrasted with cosmopolitan judgments in the writings of Hirschfeld, Pückler, and Goethe.

The Foundations of the 'Public' Organisation: Strategic Control and the Problem of the Costs of Exclusion

Henry Hansmann has argued that ownership is best allocated to only one group of homogeneous patrons, the group for which the total of cost of governance and contracting is minimized. This paper suggests a different model of governance, which is inclusive of multiple affected patrons, and which is growing especially in welfare service provision. The model considers an additional set of costs, the costs of excluding certain groups of patrons from the firm’s strategic control. The objective, which is Coasean in both spirit and formulation, is: (1) to reiterate the need to separate ownership and control by considering strategic control beyond ownership, (2) to show that the emergence of firms where control is shared among different groups of patrons can be explained as a way to economize on exclusion costs, and (3) to argue that the efficient governance structure must minimize the sum of internal costs for sharing control and the costs for contracting, and add also the costs of exclusion for all the firm’s patrons combined. The paper argues that this setup helps explain the public organisation, defined as a private organisation with public interest objectives, and further claims that this model helps justifying the recent emergence of multi-stakeholder social enterprises within the third sector.

Research Design to Evaluate an Academic Library's Orientation Program Applying Mobile Augmented Reality

Despite the continuous efforts of academic libraries to develop various user-centered outreach programs, services and new processes, library anxiety still remains a threat to university students’ full use of academic library resources. Meanwhile, a new generation of students, called the “Net Generation,” has grown up with developed information and communication technology enter university and must be persuaded to turn to the library. To serve this new group of patrons better, libraries need to adopt new technologies. However, since an initial introduction cost and labor efforts are involved in the integration of the technology, identifying the right time for introduction and the right scope of innovation is essential but difficult. The study proposes a not-yet-well-known, novel experimental design, Regression Point Displacement (RPD), to evaluate an orientation program applying Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) for STEM students. Since this RPD design requires only one treatment group, the model is expected to be the incomparable and rational way to evaluate the new MAR technology. In the context of an informal learning experience, the findings of the study will determine the effectiveness of an orientation employing the MAR technology.

Responsible gambling: Sympathy, empathy or telepathy?

This study investigates whether customer contact employees can identify difficulties in managing gambling behavior among the diverse groups of patrons that frequent gambling venues. The researchers recruited employees from non-casino gambling venues located in areas with a high concentration of residents considered vulnerable to problem gambling. The results reveal that venue employees are capable of recognizing signs of difficulties in controlling time and money spent on gambling and can distinguish differences in behavior between age, gender and specific cultural groups. Young men emerged as most vulnerable to problem gambling, however, venue employees had little sympathy for these patrons. The study contributes to the literature on how recreational gamblers manage their gambling behavior and has implications for venue management and gambling policy.

Ownership, Governance and Related Trade-Offs in Agricultural Cooperatives

Cooperatives represent a very important organizational arrangement in world food and agriculture.1 A recent, in-depth study of these organizations in all European Union (EU) Member States and selected non-EU OECD countries reveals that there exists not a single country in the world with an advanced food and agriculture system, in which agricultural cooperatives do not play a key role.2 However, a common misconception is that all agricultural cooperatives are the same.3 Yet, even a scant inspection of the extant literature reveals that this is not the case.4 Advances in the theory of the cooperative firm during the last 30 years have shown that cooperatives may differ significantly with respect to their organizational architecture.5 The term organizational architecture refers primarily to two key questions any institutional arrangement has to answer in an efficiency-maximizing way. First, which groups of patrons should be the owners of the organization and, second, how does the organization distribute ownership rights to its owners?6 Based on the single criterion of whether or not nonpatrons are entitled to become owners of the cooperative, we observe more than a few very different types of agricultural cooperatives.7 Considering also corporate governance choices in our inquiry, we find that agricultural cooperatives adopt one out of the four basic corporate governance models or any of the corresponding var-

Cooperatives and Property Rights: Hansmann’s Contribution

Hansmann’s theory explains the success of the traditional (capitalistic) firm in terms of transaction costs, asserting that the costs of ownership incurred by capitalist are lower with respect to the costs of contracting that other groups of patrons would have to incur for the acquisition of capital, through the instruments available to the market. The relatively low number of worker-owned firms, on the other hand, is mainly explained by the heterogeneity of the interests among the workers in a firm, which would lead to difficulties in taking collective decisions, thus sharply increasing the costs of ownership of this group of patrons. Although Hansmann’s theory is a step forward with respect to the Ward-Vanek model, it does not fully explain why cooperatives take on the form of quasi non-profit firms in countries where they have greater importance, and above all, it does not fully explain their success, which indicates, at least in these cases, that there are none of the problems he emphasizes regarding collective decision-making, or that the quasi non-profit feature probably represents the tool for overcoming these difficulties.

A Study on Finding Potential Group of Patrons from Library's Loan Records

Social networking services that connect a person to other people are attracting people’s attention and various types of services are provided on the Internet. Library has been playing a role of social media by providing us with materials such as books and magazines, and with a place for reading, studying, getting lectures, etc. In this paper, we present a method for finding candidates of groups of the library’s patrons who share interest areas by utilizing the loan records, which are obtainable in every library. Such a homogeneous group can become a candidate for a study group, a community for exchange ideas, and other activity group. We apply the method to a collection of loan records of a university library, find some problems to be solved, and propose measures for more detailed solutions. Even though the potential group finding problem still remains a lot of issues to be solved, its potential importance is very high and thus to be studies even more for future applications.

Playing in the Past: A History of Games, Toys, and Puzzles in North American Libraries

AbstractGames and other forms of play are used in today’s libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through chess clubs. During the Great Depression, libraries supported patrons with puzzle contests and developed circulating toy and game collections. Academic libraries built game collections for research and classroom needs, while school libraries collected and facilitated educational games to aid teachers. Video games have been used in libraries to help patrons learn to use technology and to bring groups of patrons together to enjoy shared experiences. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the different ways in which libraries have used games, toys, and puzzles over the last 150 years through both collections and services.

Canadian Academic Library Support for International Faculty: Library Experience and Information Needs of Chinese Visiting Scholars at the University of Western Ontario

International faculty constitute a relatively small proportion of the library user community in Canadian post-secondary institutions, but they are underserved when compared to other user groups on campus, particularly international students. The author obtained first hand information about Chinese visiting scholars at the University of Western Ontario, and in this paper she presents conclusions from her experience regarding the visiting scholars' use of libraries as well as some recommendations for serving international faculty. The author suggests that academic libraries carefully consider international faculty when planning relevant services for diverse user groups. Providing necessary and satisfying library services for this group of patrons is an excellent opportunity to better serve academic communities and to demonstrate that academic libraries are an important partner in supporting their university's international initiatives.

Servant of God and protector of the faithful: St. Nicholas as saint and redeemer in late medieval Burgos

During the late medieval period, non-noble merchants were an ever-growing part of Iberian society with both the money and the status to commission works of art. Yet, in studies of fifteenth-century Iberian art, this important group of patrons has been largely overlooked. This article examines the high altarpiece of the Church of San Nicolás de Bari in Burgos, which was completed in 1505. Specifically, the article focuses on the eight narrative scenes of the life of Saint Nicholas as depicted at the center of the altarpiece and considers the manner in which these scenes reflect the personal devotion of the altarpiece's merchant patron, Gonzalo López de Polanco. This article compares Polanco's version of the St. Nicholas narrative to the saint's legend as it is represented in contemporary works of art as well as in fifteenth-century devotional and liturgical texts. These comparisons, combined with analysis of Gonzalo López de Polanco's testament, demonstrate the important role that the patron's life and devotion to Saint Nicholas of Bari played in the commission and overall design of his funerary altarpiece.

The Year of John Cage

The publication of PAJ 102 coincides with the worldwide celebrations of John Cage’s birth on September 12, a century ago. We highlight his extraordinary legacy in a special section of the journal that brings together Claire MacDonald’s fascinating account of Cage’s influence in England, and the transatlantic exchanges at the experimental school Dartington Hall (Devon), among European, Asian, and American artists and thinkers. Her essay reveals the numerous groups of artists, patrons, intellectuals, and teachers drawn from the east and west coats of the U.S. and from abroad, who laid the foundation for the making of modernity in the American arts in the early decades of the twentieth century. In his commentary on the world of Cage exquisitely detailed in the new biography by Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists, George Quasha brings his own poetic gifts and understanding of the spiritual in revealing Larson’s knowing exploration of Cage’s rootedness in Buddhist principles. Her book is both an historical document and a manual for living, and in every sense a profound opening to the life and mind of Cage. I have also included in the section my own essay “The Mus/ecology of John Cage,” written shortly after his death, since it appears in the new reprint of my Ecologies of Theater (1996) as well as being timely in today’s attention to biopolitics, one of the underlying links in Cage’s work well before the concept was formulated in contemporary terms.