Library Book Collection Research Articles

Application of Bradford′s law to the evaluation of book collection of library of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Evaluation of the collection is a very important step toward the development of good and balanced collection in the library. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) library is a special scientific research library, which provides exhaustive information in the field of nuclear science and technology and allied fields. In this study, we have used Bradford's law to evaluate and analyze the book collection of BARC library. A total collection of 94,450 books was considered for the study. The collection was divided into 27 main subject headings with the help of Universal Decimal Classification class numbers. These headings were then considered for analysis of application of Bradford's law to the collection. The analysis shows that nuclear physics with 14,937 (15.81%) books topped the list followed by nuclear engineering with 12,543 (13.28%) books, chemistry with 11,447 (12.12%) books, medical sciences with 8545 (9.05%) books, and mathematics with 5174 (5.48%) books. These subject headings are then arranged into three Bradford's zones to find the core subjects of the collection. It shows that nuclear physics and nuclear engineering are the I st zone that is, core subject areas of the collection, which are actually of a major interest to the parent organization that is, BARC. The subject areas when arranged according to the Bradford's zones the ratio of zones was observed as 2:5:20 (1:n:n 2 ). This ratio shows that BARC library book collection almost obeys the Bradford's law. In this analysis, we also tried to draw the Bradford's curve for the book collection, which almost matched to the 'S' shaped Bradford's curve.

Prose not Prozac? The role of book prescription schemes and healthy reading schemes in the treatment of mental illness in Ireland

Book prescription schemes and healthy reading schemes are public mental health initiatives that are inspired by the bibliotherapeutic principle of ‘the guided use of reading, always with a therapeutic outcome in mind’ (Katz & Watz, 1992). These initiatives were originally developed in the UK as an example of care in the community for the treatment of mild to moderate mental health problems. This involves the creation of a collection of self-help books in a local library which members of the public can access free of charge to help with their recovery from mental illness. Ireland’s first Book Prescription Scheme was established in Dublin City in 2007. This article presents a critical assessment of the contribution that these reading schemes offer the treatment of mental illness in Ireland. While advocates commend this new service, a critical discourse analysis of Irish self-help reading schemes reveals that offering guided reading for the treatment of mental illness provides an individualistic and neo-liberal construction of mental illness and well-being.

Prose not Prozac? The role of book prescription schemes and healthy reading schemes in the treatment of mental illness in Ireland

Book prescription schemes and healthy reading schemes are public mental health initiatives that are inspired by the bibliotherapeutic principle of ‘the guided use of reading, always with a therapeutic outcome in mind’ (Katz & Watz, 1992). These initiatives were originally developed in the UK as an example of care in the community for the treatment of mild to moderate mental health problems. This involves the creation of a collection of self-help books in a local library which members of the public can access free of charge to help with their recovery from mental illness. Ireland’s first Book Prescription Scheme was established in Dublin City in 2007. This article presents a critical assessment of the contribution that these reading schemes offer the treatment of mental illness in Ireland. While advocates commend this new service, a critical discourse analysis of Irish self-help reading schemes reveals that offering guided reading for the treatment of mental illness provides an individualistic and neo-liberal construction of mental illness and well-being.

KNYGŲ KOLEKCIJOS IN CORPORE LIETUVOS BIBLIOTEKOSE

A book collection in corpore is usually used to describe a historically formed, indivisible collection of books having a historic, scientific and cultural value. Specialized research on this topic in Lithuania has been scanty, if any, with the exception of research conducted on acquiring and storing book collections in libraries as well as similar topics. The article aims at investigating the theoretical aspects of using the term book collection and providing the analysis of existing practices and trends with regard to book collections both in Lithuanian and foreign libraries. To achieve this objective, the following methods of literary analysis and empirical research have been used: analysis of library websites, expert survey, interviews with the library staff taking care of book collections at their disposal. The objects of research are the book collections in corpore, acquired and stored in the National Library of Lithuania, libraries of state-level and county libraries. The libraries which decide to store and preserve book collections in corpore, undertake a museum function, that is, the inherent function pertinent to a memory institution. This function is not characteristic of public libraries. However, it is among the core functions of the libraries having the national and state status.Based on the criterion of the former owner, collections in corpore can be grouped as follows: personal libraries (the libraries of outstanding statesmen, public figures, science and culture mak­ers) and book heritage of various institutions (institutional libraries). It turned out that currently 144 collections in corpore are being stored in the National Library of Lithuania, state-level and coun­ty libraries, with personal libraries identified as the prevailing group among them (137). The seven remaining collections in corpore are institutional libraries.The analysis of the information available in library websites on the collections in corpore revealed that the material presented is rather scarce and the websites do not contain comprehensive infor­mation about the scope of the respective collections. Thus, the user’s access to information is rather restricted. Today, the acquisition of collections in corpore has been reduced in scope, reflecting the current situation in librarianship. The status of some of the libraries which have acquired a great many book collections in corpore (for example, Vilnius University Library) have to be reviewed. Hav­ing established whether we are dealing with a collection in corpore or whether it is merely a donated collection of books, we can integrate the books in question into the library holdings, marking book provenance indicators in a bibliographic description in the online catalogue. Due to their exclusiv­ity, book collections in corpore are becoming book monuments. Such a status puts their custodians under an obligation to treat them as the sets of documents having special value, that is, as book monuments.

Digital Renaissance Editions

Few scholars, students, and members of the public have ready access to the rare book and manuscript collections of the world 's elite research libraries and museums. Fewer still have digital access to these collections through expensive commercial database subscriptions. To study, teach, or perform a play requires access to its text; but access alone to the original-whether in facsimile, transcription, or in situ-is not enough: to make centuries-old plays intelligible to modern readers requires the dedicated work of expert scholars to establish authoritative texts and provide necessary annotations and commentary. While over eight hundred English plays survive from the early modern period, the vast majority remain inaccessible to modern readers. Many did not appeal to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sensibilities or conform to antiquated notions of modesty, while literary critics dismissed others as unpoetic without consideration of their value as theater or as social documents. As a result, there are few, if any, modern editions of these plays.Shakespeare's works account for less than five percent of the surviving early English plays, and yet modern editions abound, catering to a dizzying variety of readers in multiple languages and media formats. As only one out of some two hundred, Shakespeare represents less than one percent of the dramatists (amateur and professional) active during this period. The drama of Shakespeare's immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors remains undervalued, under-taught, underperformed, unread, and unknown. It is time to stand up for the ninety-nine percent.This is the call-to-arms of Digital Renaissance Editions, a project to publish multimedia scholarly editions of early English drama and make them freely available online to a worldwide audience for reading, teaching, and performance. To complement and enrich the editions, the project also includes a Performance Database comprising a growing collection of multimedia performance materials related to early English drama as well as a Critical Companion comprising freshly commissioned peer-reviewed essays on topics relevant to the study of the plays and their contexts. In so doing, the project aims to facilitate greater global access to and appreciation of early English drama and its historical, cultural, and theatrical contexts.To achieve these ambitious goals, Digital Renaissance Editions relies upon the expertise of dedicated international scholars, theater professionals, and software developers working with the highest standards of scholarship and usability in mind. An ongoing partnership with the critically acclaimed Internet Shakespeare Editions plays a crucial role, as the projects share the same publishing platform, virtual infrastructure, and future vision.The project publishes editions of early English plays by dramatists other than Shakespeare-some for the first time-prepared specifically for the electronic medium by a team of international scholars and editors. Editions typically include photo-facsimiles (in color, where available) and diplomatic transcriptions of early textual witnesses (whether print or manuscript) as well as modern-spelling texts with full critical apparatus (e.g., annotations, commentary, collations of textual variants and historical editions). Editions also include critical and textual introductions, supplementary and supporting materials in various media, and support for integration with other digital projects, such as DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, Lexicons of Early Modern English, Lost Plays Database, and the Map of Early Modern London. The Critical Companion of essays on topics relevant for a deeper understanding of the drama and its various contexts complements the editions, covering a range of topics in depth and including multimedia content (where appropriate) to serve the needs of scholars and students alike. The Performance Database similarly provides a global record of current and historical performances of early English drama, with multimedia performance materials offering a dynamic view of the interpretation of the plays in different times, cultures, media, and spaces. …

Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? by D. Bar-el & R. Maté

Bar-el, Dan, and Rae Maté. Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? Vancouver: Simply Read Books, 2011. Print. In this superbly illustrated book, the pussycat of the classic nursery rhyme continues from his royal visit in London on to more distant and exotic adventures. He sails down the Seine in France, visits with “one of a kind” animals in Australia, kayaks with a pod of whales in the North, and discovers the mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids. North American geography is subtly evoked as he meets a fisherman in a coastal community and takes shelter from a Prairie thunderstorm in a “soft golden” wheat field. Many elements of the book convey nostalgia and the simple joys of childhood. It features a storybook-like font and extra-large capital letters at the beginning of each stanza. The hand-painted illustrations are magnificent and have a vintage fairy-tale like appeal. However, the complexity of the ideas conveyed in the simple rhyme scheme hints at more mature life lessons and ideas. For example, when the Pussycat encounters a parade of pageant performers, his owner asks, “Did you join in?” he responds with: “If life is a circus/ Why wait to begin?” The sense of adventure is tempered with reality; he is, on occasion, fearful, sad, or in need of assistance in his travels. He always reveals to the reader what helped him through those times: “What stopped your sorrow?” “I sang to the stars as I rode to tomorrow”. He also explains that he was able to take the “road less travelled” due to the generosity of fellow travelers: ‘…Did you get lost?’‘I strayed from the pathAt whatever the cost.’‘Pussycat, PussycatBut were you alright?’‘The kindness of strangersGave warmth to my night.’ Pussycat also talks about missing loved ones back home, in this case his owner. The adventure concludes with him inviting her to join him on his next series of imaginary adventures: “Come travel with me/ My partner, my friend.” According to the publisher’s website, this book is recommended for ages to 4-8. It would be an excellent addition to any home, library, or school book collection. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Kim Frail Kim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children’s literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her two-year old.

The Franciscan Missionary Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

This essay is in large part inspired by Fr. Antonine Tibesar OFM, whom I had the privilege to meet in 1982 just after I returned from my doctoral research sojourn in Bolivia. Fr. Antonine was for many years the director of the Academy of Franciscan History when that institution had its beautiful campus in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. I had corresponded with Fr. Antonine earlier and during my visit enjoyed discussing with him the many facets of Franciscan missions in Latin America. He proudly showed me the large collection of books in the academy library. What impressed me about both Fr. Antonine and the friars I had met in Bolivia during my research was their selflessness and willingness to help a budding scholar—one who at that point had little of scholarship to show. These characteristics got me thinking about the Franciscans and their worldviews and how those must have affected the missions. Although I was determined to write mainly about the indigenous population on the missions (after all, they constituted the vast majority of the mission population and were the ones most profoundly affected by the mission experience), I realized that it was important not to ignore the missionaries. Though few in number—most missions had just one or perhaps two friars—it was their desires for the native population and the overall goals and local organization of the missions they founded that profoundly shaped the human settlements they supervised.

The Franciscan Missionary Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

This essay is in large part inspired by Fr. Antonine Tibesar OFM, whom I had the privilege to meet in 1982 just after I returned from my doctoral research sojourn in Bolivia. Fr. Antonine was for many years the director of the Academy of Franciscan History when that institution had its beautiful campus in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. I had corresponded with Fr. Antonine earlier and during my visit enjoyed discussing with him the many facets of Franciscan missions in Latin America. He proudly showed me the large collection of books in the academy library. What impressed me about both Fr. Antonine and the friars I had met in Bolivia during my research was their selflessness and willingness to help a budding scholar—one who at that point had little of scholarship to show. These characteristics got me thinking about the Franciscans and their worldviews and how those must have affected the missions. Although I was determined to write mainly about the indigenous population on the missions (after all, they constituted the vast majority of the mission population and were the ones most profoundly affected by the mission experience), I realized that it was important not to ignore the missionaries. Though few in number—most missions had just one or perhaps two friars—it was their desires for the native population and the overall goals and local organization of the missions they founded that profoundly shaped the human settlements they supervised.

Books as Expressions of Global Cultural Diversity

A number of bodies have been jointly interested in book publication data as measures of cultural diversity. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics is especially interested in global patterns in book publication as expressions of cultural diversity and heritage. Such data, however, are not widely collected by national publishing organizations and library statistics agencies. The increasingly global reach of the WorldCat database, on the other hand, makes it an obvious source for data mining. This paper presents results from an OCLC Research project that produced a rich data portrait of global book publishing, with emphasis on collection analysis by country. Researchers were able to compare the annual publishing for every country of the world (as reflected in WorldCat), the libraries that collect and import a country's works, the monographs their libraries import from other countries, and the proportion of publications in various official and native languages. The results provide a global overview of book publishing and a wealth of case studies in single countries’ practices in book publishing and the preservation of their literary heritage. The present paper compares the book publishing and book collections in libraries in six countries around the world and demonstrates the power of data mining within this sphere .

Mass Management of E-Book Catalog Records

Electronic book collections in libraries have grown dramatically over the last decade. A great diversity of providers, service models, and content types exist today, presenting a variety of challenges for cataloging and catalog maintenance. Many libraries rely on external data providers to supply bibliographic records for electronic books, but cataloging guidance has focused primarily on rules and standards for individual records rather than data management at the collection level. This paper discusses the challenges, decisions, and priorities that have evolved around cataloging electronic books at a mid-size academic library, the University of Houston Libraries. The authors illustrate the various issues raised by vendor-supplied records and the impact of new guidelines for provider-neutral records for electronic monographs. They also describe workflow for batch cataloging using the MarcEdit utility, address ongoing maintenance of records and record sets, and suggest future directions for large-scale management of electronic books.

Citation Analysis Shows Promise as an Effective Tool for Monograph Collection Development

A Review of:
 Enger, K. B. (2009). Using citation analysis to develop core book collections in academic libraries. Library & Information Science Research, 31(2), 107-112.
 
 Objective – To test whether acquiring books written by authors of highly cited journal articles is an effective method for building a collection in the social sciences.
 
 Design – Comparison Study.
 
 Setting – Academic library at a public university in the US.
 
 Subjects – A total of 1,359 book titles, selected by traditional means (n=1,267) or based on citation analysis (n=92).
 
 Methods – The researchers identified highly-ranked authors, defined as the most frequently cited authors publishing in journals with an impact factor greater than one, with no more than six journals in any category, using 1999 ISI data. They included authors in the categories Business, Anthropology, Criminology & Penology, Education & Education Research, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology/Anthropology, and General Social Sciences. The Books in Print bibliographic tool was searched to identify monographs published by these authors, and any titles not already owned were purchased. All books in the study were available to patrons by Fall 2005. The researchers collected circulation data in Spring 2007, and used it to compare titles acquired by this method with titles selected by traditional means.
 
 Main Results – Overall, books selected by traditional methods circulated more than those selected by citation analysis, with differences significant at the .001 level. However, at the subject category level, there was no significant difference at the .05 level. Most books selected by the test method circulated one to two times.
 
 Conclusion – Citation analysis can be an effective method for building a relevant book collection, and may be especially effective for identifying works relevant to a discipline beyond local context.

Heritage book collections in Australian libraries: what are they, where are they and why should we care?

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all library sectors. While planning for our digital future is a priority at both state and national levels, there is less evidence that the heritage value of many of our book collections has been properly identified, let alone managed. Current practices, policy approaches and the influence of the academy are explored and suggestions for how we could identify and manage this important cultural heritage are put forward.

Using citation analysis to develop core book collections in academic libraries

Collection development in college and university libraries most often occurs using longstanding traditional selection methods, such as favorable book reviews or local user needs. This study uses citation analysis as a tool to select books for the social science book collection in one academic library and compares the circulation of books using traditional methods to those books using citation analysis. The journal impact factor was used to determine those journals and authors cited the most in the disciplines of business, anthropology, education, political science, psychology, and sociology. If those authors published books, the books were purchased and circulation data on the books were tabulated and compared to books chosen using traditional methods. Findings indicate that books purchased using traditional methods of selection circulated more, except when individual disciplines were measured. In the areas of business, political science, and psychology, there was no significant difference in circulation statistics, and together both the traditional and citation analysis methods accounted for circulation of nearly 95% of the social science collection. Since it is based on scholarly activity, citation analysis is a collection development method that could be used in all academic libraries.

A Dental Library Book Collection Intervention: From Diagnosis to Cure

ABSTRACT This article summarizes the rationale, resources, and process used by Indiana University School of Dentistry Library (IUSDL) staff to undertake a comprehensive book collection intervention (a.k.a. book weeding project). The process of diagnosing, developing, and executing a comprehensive book weeding project can be challenging, labor intensive, and time-consuming, but space scarcity and the need to update several collection areas compelled staff to undertake the project. Like the dentist, staff took a patient (i.e., collection) history, made diagnoses, then developed and executed a treatment (i.e., action) plan. Also, like the dentist who depends on appropriate knowledge and instrumentation, so did the library staff select and utilize appropriate bibliometric strategies, measures, and resources to effectively facilitate the process.

IT’S ALL ABOUT ACCESS

MORE AND MORE scientific journal articles, books, and data are flowing into online archives and databases, potentially broadening access to the material for both scientists and the public. This trend raises issues such as who should have access to what material, what should be saved for the long haul, and how best to preserve the information. Without proper precautions, a disastrous loss of access to old data could occur. Just think how hard it is to find equipment to play an eight-track tape. Even accessing the data on a 5.25-inch floppy disk is problematic. Skip ahead a century or two, through multiple transformations in software and hardware, and you’ll get a sense of the nightmare bedeviling data preservationists. Other stakeholders are more concerned with providing current access. Google, for instance, is scanning the book collections of several major libraries so readers can view the books online and then buy or borrow them. The National Institutes ...

Evaluating a cross-cultural children’s online book community: Lessons learned for sociability, usability, and cultural exchange

The use of computers for human-to-human communication among adults has been studied for many years, but using computer technology to enable children from all over the world to talk to each other has rarely been discussed by researchers. The goal of our research is to fill this gap and explore the design and evaluation of children’s cross-language online communities via a case study of the International Children’s Digital Library Communities (ICDLCommunities). This project supports the development of communities for children (ages 7–11) that form around the International Digital Children’s Library (ICDL) book collection. In this community the children can learn about each others’ cultures and make friends even if they do not speak the same language. They can also read and create stories and ask and answer questions about these. From this evaluation study we learned that: (i) children are very interested in their counterparts in other countries and a remarkable amount of communication takes place even when they do not share a common language; (ii) representing their identity online in many different forms is particularly important to children when communicating in an online community; (iii) children enjoy drawing but representing stories in a sequence of diagrams is challenging and needs support; and (iv) asking and answering questions without language is possible using graphical templates. In this paper we present our findings and make recommendations for designing children’s cross-cultural online communities.

"I Am Nobody": The Haiku of Richard Wright

When Richard Wright's typescript Haiku: This Other World was first published in 1998, it seemed logical to expect fair amount of critical attention to be focused on the volume. After all, the dramatic shift that Wright makes from writer of realistic and naturalistic fiction to haikuist is so unusual that it seems to beg for explication. Moreover, Wright is the first noteworthy American minority writer to produce the highly popular poetic form. Such, however, has not been the case. To this point, Wright's collection has received even less notice than did the twenty-three haiku that were published during the author's lifetime and collected in The Richard Wright Reader. This neglect is unfortunate because examining the whole collection allows us to see how Wright radically reinvents the haiku form, making of it revolutionary poetry that offers and then savagely undercuts the possibility of Zen oneness; in the process, the haiku serve as vehicle that articulates the author's anti-colonial position. Because number of biographers have chronicled Wright's relationship with the haiku, only brief summary is required here. While suffering from relapse of amoebic dysentery in 1959, Wright picked up volume of haiku, which he read repeatedly and with fascination. Finding the form irresistible, Wright began composing in August 1959 and, within few months, he had written four thousand haiku. By March of 1960, Wright had typed the poems; by the middle of April, he had selected 817 that he hoped to publish. After devoting the next month to rearranging the sequence of these haiku, Wright submitted them in June to editor William Targ of World Publishers. The eighty-page typescript was rejected and, following the author's death and the disbursal of his estate, the typescript remained in the Rare Book Collection of Yale's Beinecke Library until its publication under the auspices of editors Yoshinobu Hakutani and Robert L. Tener. (1) Because haiku in the United States grew in popularity following World War II, Wright had at his disposal number of major critical treatises on the verse form. (2) However, little question exists as to the work that most influenced him. That work is R.H. Blyth's four-volume Haiku. From Blyth, Wright learned the history of the haiku form from its beginnings as the opening stanza in thirteenth-century Heian court poetry contests to its inception as single, three-line, seventeen-syllable poem with Buddhistic, impressionistic, and/or realistic overtones. Attempting to capture the exact form of haiku, Wright reproduced the three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables and sought to include seasonal reference, sometimes implicit, other times explicit. He also learned that haiku are classified by seasons and subjects. From Blyth, Wright also learned that haiku are loosely syllogistic because they present by step in each line, an independent but related image although these relationships may not be overtly signaled (Kodama, Japanese Influence 66-67). In addition to the external characteristics of haiku, Wright learned from his encounter with Blyth that concepts taken from Zen Buddhism often underlie the poems. Specifically, Wright became familiar with such Zen concepts as mu, a state of nothingness that is absolutely free of any human-centered thought or emotion; sabi, quiet beauty or lonely grace; wabi, an aesthetic appreciation of beauty stemming from poverty; and yugen, the mystery and inexplicability, which surround the order of the universe (Hakutani 276-77, 280, 290), as well as the proper state of mind required to write haiku: state of selflessness, condition of rest and ease (Kodama, Japanese Influence 67). Relying on this Zen foundation to contextualize Wright's haiku, number of important Wright scholars seek to connect the haiku with flight, escape, and transcendence. An overview of the commentary will demonstrate what I feel has been an erroneous or at least misleading approach. …

Holdings of Books Related to Russia and Eastern Europe Among Japanese Academic Libraries: An Analysis Based on the NII Union Catalog

ABSTRACT Using numerical methods and list-checking on the national electronic union catalog, the author surveys the Russian, Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian book collections in Japanese academic libraries.

The Preservation Context

As we move to incorporate various types of digital technologies into our menu of reformatting options for library and archival materials, we need to undestand changing roles and directions in key areas, especially in our preservation operations. This kind of taking stock is timely because we must understand how to select materials for conversion to digital media and begin to devise formal selection procedures that responsibly serve our institutions and collections. In large part, may comments will draw on experiences with the preservation reformatting of retrospective book and paper collections in libraries and archives, since this is where standards and infrastructure are in place. My remarks may not apply to all preservaton operations nor to all institutions since approaches to preservation selection and treatment vary form institution to institution

Auditing an academic library book collection

Librarians may use attribute sampling to estimate the maximum portion of a population having an attribute of interest. Advantages of the technique are that the user may examine a very small portion of the population and make an estimate with very low but measurable risk of misstatement.