Memorial Library Research Articles

Keeping Time: An Introduction to Archival Best Practices for Music Librarians by Lisa Hooper and Donald C. Force (review)

Reviewed by: Keeping Time: An Introduction to Archival Best Practices for Music Librarians by Lisa Hooper and Donald C. Force Creighton Barrett Keeping Time: An Introduction to Archival Best Practices for Music Librarians. By Lisa Hooper and Donald C. Force. (Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, no. 9.) Middleton, WI: Music Library Association and A-R Editions, 2014. [xiv, 143 p. ISBN 9780895797865. $50.] Illustrations, appendices, glossary, bibliographic references, suggested readings, index. Librarians and archivists share many common values and responsibilities, but each profession is charged with managing collections with divergent requirements for acquisition, preservation, description, and use. And yet, library and archival collections are frequently unified by institutional missions, collection mandates, administrative structures, and physical spaces. This is particularly true when it comes to music libraries, which frequently include archival materials such as manuscript scores, noncommercial sound and video recordings, photographs, and similar. In Keeping Time, authors Lisa Hooper and Donald C. Force address the colliding worlds of music libraries and archives with a comprehensive introduction to archival best practices for music librarians. The manual is the ninth volume of the Music Library Association’s Basic Manual Series, and the first full-length monograph for both authors. Hooper is the Head of the Music and Media Center in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University, and Force is Assistant Professor in the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Force was involved with the International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems Project (InterPARES) at the University of British Columbia and has written about records management and electronic records, while Hooper has written on various topics in music archives and libraries and is a regular presenter at regional and national meetings of the Music Library Association (MLA). Keeping Time is a modern and accessible introduction to archival best practices that uses practical examples and hypothetical situations to tailor the content for music librarians. The manual adopts the structure of many archives manuals and textbooks, with the content organized according to what archivists call the “core archival functions.” After a historical introduction, the chapters flow through the steps an archivist would take with a new collection: acquisition and accessioning, arrangement, description, and preservation. The manual lacks a chapter on access services, typically considered a core archival function, but reading room best practices are addressed in the chapter on preservation. Chapters on digitization and funding expand on the core archival functions and should be of wider interest to music librarians. The manual is rounded out with a series of appendices, a glossary, a list of suggested readings, and a five-page index. Hooper and Force begin with a very brief history of archives that serves its purpose well. The basic tenets of archives are easier to comprehend when they are given some historical context, and chapter one puts the core principles of archival science squarely in the context of the French Revolution. The chapter’s brevity, however, results in the exclusion of some important details. The brief section on postmodernism in archives, for example, only makes vague references to Derrida’s Archive Fever (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) and simply states that “archivists have become aware that their duties of appraisal, [End Page 674] arrangement, description, and preservation play an intrinsic role in determining whose history is remembered and how it is written” (p. 6). The second chapter focuses on acquisitions and accessioning, core functions upon which all other archival activities are based. At the beginning of the chapter, Hooper and Force comment that these functions “mark the beginning of a collection’s journey from an unprocessed collection in a private home or business to a fully processed, preserved, described, and accessible collection in a music library’s archival holdings or special collections” (p. 7). Highlights from this chapter include an excellent list of questions to be asked when determining whether an archival collection should be acquired and a list of talking points for speaking to donors. Chapter 3 introduces archival appraisal, considered by many archivists to be the most intellectually demanding archival function, and one that distinguishes archival work from other related disciplines. The chapter focuses on appraisals performed after acquisition. Pre-acquisition appraisal...

M. Voloshin’s Handwritten Notes in the Foreign Books from his Koktebel Library

M. Voloshin’s library, a literary monument of the Russian culture and spirituality, in spite of the tumultuous events of XX century, has survived virtually unchanged in the House-Museum of the poet in Koktebel. Currently, according to the inventory, there are 9254 items of printed publications, including 3981 items in the foreign languages. The article provides an overview of the most significant handwritten notes of M. Voloshin in the foreign books from his library on branches of knowledge (literature and criticism, history, philosophy, art), revealed in the process of work on the Catalog “Memorial Library of M. Voloshin in Koktebel: Books and Materials in the Foreign Languages”

The Beauty of Paper Flowers

In 1876 Francis James Child (1825–96) was appointed Harvard University’s first Professor of English. A year later he moved to 67 Kirkland Street (formerly ‘Professor’s Row’), whereupon he took charge of a rose garden. This was some place in life for the son of a local sailmaker. And it was a place Child used, most famously, to promote the study of what he considered ‘popular’ poetry: strophic songs, with or without a stated tune, and not necessarily intended for singing, which came to be grouped together as ‘ballads’. For those literary, social, and musical historians who work in this area, Child’s biography is already well known. Yet the centrality of his ideas to a recent volume of twelve essays, edited by David Atkinson and Steve Roud, suggests that the story bears repeating.2 The volume’s central call, to complicate the ‘print and oral traditions’ of its subtitle, is welcome, if long overdue, and constitutes one of the many ways in which this new body of work responds to long-running concerns. With the exception of Ffion Mair Jones’s contribution on ‘Welsh Balladry and Literacy’ all of the authors here focus on Anglophone culture, with seven of the chapters circumscribed by geography (Birmingham, Newcastle, Scotland, Wales, Dublin, America, and Newfoundland) and a further five, including Roud’s introduction, structured thematically according to issues of book history, song collecting, and mediation. Roud notes early on how Child was both dependent on published material in order to carry out his research, and ‘highly ambivalent about broadsides and other print media’ (p. 8). Atkinson backs him up by calling Child’s ‘hierarchy of media’ (p. 25) a prejudice we need no longer uphold. Nevertheless, the constitutive distinction lives on in both the last sentence of Roud’s introduction—‘we hope that this volume will set a trend in train that will help expand both folk song studies and street literature studies to the benefit of both’—and in his two Indexes, available online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library site, of ‘Folksong’ and ‘Broadsides’. There is also a telling uncertainty throughout the volume about whether or not to place terms like ‘folk’, ‘traditional’, or ‘the people’ in scare quotes. By looking again at the legacy of nineteenth-century scholarship, as well as nineteenth-century song, we might provide some context for a set of debates that continue to shape the field, more than a hundred years on from when Child passed his rose beds—and his song catalogues—into other people’s care.

Georgia Library Spotlight - Warren P. Sewell Memorial Library

Georgia Library Spotlight - Warren P. Sewell Memorial Library

Signal architectures of US public libraries: Resolving legitimacy between public and private spheres

ABSTRACTPublic library systems intersect with both public and private spheres of social life, but how they do so remains a mystery. Many believe private influences distort the public sphere in public libraries, and if so, then library legitimacy suffers, raising normative and material concerns for library systems. To better understand how libraries negotiate public legitimacy and private influence, we approached the problem using a communications system framework. We used qualitative content analysis to examine data from three US public library systems: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, New York Public Library, and Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, Massachusetts. We recorded the many ways private actors communicate with and through public library systems. Then, we analyzed the signals in terms of their components: transmitter, receiver, medium, and message. We found two dimensions: in the Public Sphere dimension, private actors govern, legitimate, and use the library, and in the Private Sphere dimension, private actors exchange personal services and exert economic power. We describe the communication channels shared by private actors and public library systems, identify signals associated with governance, influence, and legitimacy, and consider how these signals relate. This study explores the signal architectures of social life in public libraries.

Current Concepts in the Presentation, Diagnosis and Management of Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common clinical endocrine disorder. It is the most common cause of hypercalcemia in the outpatient setting. This review presents a brief summary of the new trends of presentation, diagnosis and management PHPT. Data Sources: PubMed (National Library of Medicine) articles, and Memorial Library archives of the University of Wisconsin System. Conclusions: PHPT occurs at any age, but it is most commonly seen in people over the age of 50 years and postmenopausal women. The current presentation of PHPT shifts from the classical symptomatic form to the asymptomatic form; however, parathyroidectomy is still the treatment of choice for both symptomatic and asymptomatic forms. In the past, bilateral neck exploration and intraoperative identification of all 4 parathyroid glands was the standard of treatment, nevertheless, nowadays, with the introduction of the preoperative and intraoperative localization techniques, the minimally invasive parathyroidectomy has evolved

LIETUVOS RAŠYTOJŲ ASMENINIŲ BIBLIOTEKŲ ISTORIOGRAFIJA

Personal libraries of writers may be one of possible relevant research topics of book science. The first research works of memorial libraries of Lithuanian writers that were delineated purposefully and structurally appeared in the second half of the 70-iese of the past century. Their initiator and author was the book researcher professor Vladas Žukas. He published the investigation results of studying the personal libraries of writers Antanas Vienuolis-Žukauskas (1977), Petras Cvirka (1978), Mikalojus Akelaitis (1983), Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė (1983), Maironis (1987) and Andrius Vištelis (1987). The interest was also shown in the personal libraries of writers Jonas Biliūnas, Vincas Krėvė, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Bronius Pranskus, Salomėja Nėris, Balys Sruoga, Antanas Venclova and others. Supervised by prof. V. Žukas, quite a number of Vilnius University students defended their diploma theses in the above mentioned area, naturally, more or less reflecting the attitude of the research tutor. The graduates investigated the personal libraries of P. Cvirka (1975), B. Sruoga (1977), Kostas Kubilinskas (1977), S. Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė (1977), Kazys Boruta (1978), A. Venclova (1980), Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas (1982), V. Krėvė (1984) and Ieva Simonaitytė (1989). In the said period they used methodological experience of the Soviet Russia, where, starting with the 50-ies, the libraries of famous Russian writers of 18–20th centuries were investigated, numerous articles and catalogs were written, discussion were held on the issues of compilation methodology. This article aims to reveal and characterize scientific or other professional evaluations of personal libraries of Lithuanian writers as well as to review the experience gained during over half century and the work cultivated in the area of such activities. The basis for the research consists of published and unpublished historiographic material and other sources allowing to get a deeper and broader understanding of events. Historiography of the subject matter may be divided into two stages: 1) until 1990 and 2) after 1990. The first stage was rather strenuous and productive; in a short time much has been achieved. However, after regaining the independence of Lithuania, it is obvious that scientific research in personal libraries of Lithuanian writers has noticeably slowed down. Sometimes one or another writer‘s personal library in certain cases gains more attention from workers of memory institutions than from representatives of book science, librarianship or literature studies. Therefore it is imperative that potentialities of continuing the initiated tasks and compiling catalogs of memorial libraries of Lithuanian writers are considered.

An Authentic Archival Experience for the College Classroom in the Digital Age

One of the most treasured experiences of historians is archival research, and yet university professors frequently struggle with viable ways to include archival research in their lecture courses. Further, historians, who are generally focused on the content of documents, often fail to provide students with a sense of the process by which historical documents and artifacts are gathered, preserved, and made available. This essay describes a partnership among faculty at the University of Scranton, the Lackawanna Historical Society, Weinberg Memorial Library, Scranton Public Library, and Everhart Museum to create an archival-based digital project for a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction. The students from the course uncovered uncataloged Civil War–era documents and artifacts, preserved, digitized, and transcribed them, and organized them into an online collection. The project acquainted students with local, firsthand historical accounts; introduced then to the complexity of recreating history from archival sources; exposed them to careers in archives, museum studies, and librarianship; and forged a partnership between university students and local institutions.

An Authentic Archival Experience for the College Classroom in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT One of the most treasured experiences of historians is archival research, and yet university professors frequently struggle with viable ways to include archival research in their lecture courses. Further, historians, who are generally focused on the content of documents, often fail to provide students with a sense of the process by which historical documents and artifacts are gathered, preserved, and made available. This essay describes a partnership among faculty at the University of Scranton, the Lackawanna Historical Society, Weinberg Memorial Library, Scranton Public Library, and Everhart Museum to create an archival-based digital project for a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction. The students from the course uncovered uncataloged Civil War–era documents and artifacts, preserved, digitized, and transcribed them, and organized them into an online collection. The project acquainted students with local, firsthand historical accounts; introduced then to the complexity of recreating history from archival sources; exposed them to careers in archives, museum studies, and librarianship; and forged a partnership between university students and local institutions.

An Authentic Archival Experience for the College Classroom in the Digital Age

Abstract: One of the most treasured experiences of historians is archival research, and yet university professors frequently struggle with viable ways to include archival research in their lecture courses. Further, historians, who are generally focused on the content of documents, often fail to provide students with a sense of the process by which historical documents and artifacts are gathered, preserved, and made available. This essay describes a partnership among faculty at the University of Scranton, the Lackawanna Historical Society, Weinberg Memorial Library, Scranton Public Library, and Everhart Museum to create an archival-based digital project for a course on the Civil War and Reconstruction. The students from the course uncovered uncataloged Civil War—era documents and artifacts, preserved, digitized, and transcribed them, and organized them into an online collection. The project acquainted students with local, firsthand historical accounts; introduced then to the complexity of recreating history from archival sources; exposed them to careers in archives, museum studies, and librarianship; and forged a partnership between university students and local institutions.

Book Review: Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects

Exploring Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects. By Karen Calhoun. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2014. 352 p. $95 softcover (ISBN 978-1-55570-985-3). The back cover of Calhouns book Exploring Libraries: Foundations, Practice, and Prospects declares it landmark text on digital libraries for students of LIS, educators and practicing information professionals throughout the It also states that it provides an authoritative and in-depth treatment of the digital library arena, from the fields emergence to current topics and future prospects. Calhoun is a prolific and well-respected author and lecturer on the subject of digital libraries, and is definitely someone worthy of earning such accolades. The book consists of two main themes. The first is a broad, international overview of the past twenty-plus years of digital libraries, while the second concerns the roles digital libraries play in relationship to their online communities. Chapter 1, Emergence and Definitions of Libraries, covers the first decade of this brave new world. The World Wide Web had been born, costs associated with computing had become much more affordable, and the National Science Foundation assembled a series of workshops on how to make digital libraries a reality. Projects such as the eLib Programme in the UK and the Library Initiatives (DLI-1 and DLI-2) in the US, plus Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, gave a taste of what was to come. Calhoun also uses this chapter to establish the definition of digital libraries upon which she bases the rest of the book. In her eyes, digital libraries are both a multidisciplinary field of research and practice, and the systems and services that support the advancement of knowledge and culture; contain managed of digital content; and often utilize architecture from the computer and information science/ library field (e.g., repository, resource identifiers, user interface). In chapter 2, Outcomes of Libraries' First Decade, Calhoun identifies several key results from this initial period. These include a new field of research and practice, the transformation of scholarly communication processes, open access, digitization and digital preservation, metadata and its standards, and actual working digital libraries and the they serve. Each outcome is discussed in detail, and introduces such topics as D-Lib Magazine, PageRank (Googles forerunner), the Open Archives Initiative (OAI), JSTOR (short for Journal Storage), Dublin Core, the Library of Congress' American Memory, and the British Library Online Newspaper Archive. Chapter 3, Key Themes and Challenges in Libraries, introduces the concept map that Calhoun created based on the major themes from the digital library literature of the decade 2002-12. The map consists of a collection of keywords plotted in a continuum of themes and topics arranged from collections to communities (x-axis) and from technology to social and economic aspects (y-axis). The remainder of the book is based on both this map and the four challenges that she has identified to building and for digital libraries: interoperability (providing uniform access for users to diverse information from various systems), community engagement, intellectual property rights, and sustainability. Chapter 4, Digital Library Collections: Repositories, begins with a look at traditional library and collection development in light of the web. It provides a close examination of digital repositories, including content usage and discovery (e.g., Google Scholar), the application of repository software (e.g., DSpace, Fedora), and web services such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), and concludes with examples of next-generation repositories such as Drupal and Scholar's Workbench. Chapter 5, Hybrid Libraries, wraps up the book's first theme by examining the interaction between library users and hybrid libraries (collections of non-digital, digitized, and born-digital materials). …

Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: The Adventures of a Capital Correspondent

Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: The Adventures of a Capital Correspondent

Ионно-молекулярная модель памяти. структура памяти, ее пропускная способность, коммутаторы и диспетчеры информации

This paper discusses the memory structure in its basic characteristics: bandwidth, switching and "dispatching" of information flows in the system memory organization. Bandwidth is associated with the filtering of information flows; in the radiophysics analogy – as "signal -noise". Selection of information should be made according to its energy content. For completeness and detail of the developed model of memory, the authors introduced the concept of switches and memory controllers, as the molecular, cellular and other compounds that distribute (send) useful information in the appropriate sections of the library of memory. All elements memory can evolve as structuring, filling and restructuring of library memory. Within the developed by the authors of ion-molecular memory model the real work to the greatest extent uses radio physical analogy as a universal approach in all scientific fields, where the paramount consideration are the objects of information processing. It has become a scientific axiom; the main thing is that a certain (radio)physical formalism in specific model was found as the adequacy of the studied processes. The authors have paid special attention to these issues, including in a strict sequence and hierarchy of the presented material. It was especially emphasized that the evolution of all and classifying bandwidth of the memory elements subject to overall systemic laws structuring and optimization (radio)physical interpretation.

Ионно-молекулярная модель памяти. Структурные элементы библиотеки памяти и взаимосвязь между ними

This article is a continuation of a series of works on creation of ion-molecular memory model. Structural elements of the library of memory, as well as their rather complex interaction are considered. The authors are talking about the library in anatomically formed brain. It is believed that information is stored in certain structural elements ("repository of facts"). The concept of directory information and a buffer of information systems and their capacity were introduced. The scheme of possible structure of the library of memory that includes inputs, controllers, switches, transmitters, receivers-directories, drives, and concurrently-cascaded (specialized) of the auxiliary sections of the library memory was proposed and substantiated by the authors. Structural elements of the storage of information already exist in anatomically formed brain, and actually library memory has elements of different physical sizes. Information is also distributed by the authorities, and the smallest unit patterns library memory is one where the only fact is stored. As soon hydrogen ions as carriers of information, easily contact the buffer systems, this indicates that in the system memory other structures to store facts – information are excessive, with the exception of physical and chemical buffers of protein nature. It is also clear: if more capacity information in the buffer, the more information can be stored in it. Structural elements of the library memory can be presented in sufficient functional completeness by controllers, switches, transmitters and drives. It is not excluded that controllers and switches are located within a single molecular (submolecular) structure.

The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet. Science. Culture Series. By Michael Ruse. Chicago (Illinois): University of Chicago Press. $26.00. xiv + 251 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-226-73170-4. 2013.

The aim of this section is to give brief indications of the character, content, and cost of new books in the various fields of biology. More books are received by The Quarterly than can be reviewed critically. All submitted books, however, are carefully considered for originality, timeliness, and reader interest, and we make every effort to find a competent and conscientious reviewer for each book selected for review.Of those books that are selected for consideration, some are merely listed, others are given brief notice, most receive critical reviews, and a few are featured in lead reviews. Listings, without comments, are mainly to inform the reader that the books have appeared; examples are books whose titles are self-explanatory, such as dictionaries and taxonomic revisions, or that are reprints of earlier publications, or are new editions of well-established works. Unsigned brief notices, written by one of the editors, may be given to such works as anthologies or symposium volumes that are organized in a fashion that makes it possible to comment meaningfully on them. Regular reviews are more extensive evaluations and are signed by the reviewers. The longer lead reviews consider books of special significance. Each volume reviewed becomes the property of the reviewer. Most books not reviewed are donated to libraries at Stony Brook University or other appropriate recipients.The price in each case represents the publisher’s suggested list price at the time the book is received for review, and is for purchase directly from the publisher.Authors and publishers of biological books should bear in mind that The Quarterly can consider for notice only those books that are sent to The Editors, The Quarterly Review of Biology, E-5340 Frank Melville, Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3349 USA. We welcome prepublication copies as an aid to early preparation of reviews.

Transcribing and Digitizing Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Letters for a Historical Digital Repository

In fall 2011, the Scott Memorial Library purchased 53 letters belonging to an 1841 graduate of Jefferson Medical College, John Plimpton Green. The library staff transcribed and digitized the letters, creating an online collection in the university's institutional repository, Jefferson Digital Commons. This article will detail the process of transcribing and digitizing the collection along with sharing statistics and the benefits of this project to global researchers.

Jane Hwang Degenhardt and Elizabeth Williamson, eds., Religion and Drama in Early Modern England: The Performance of Religion on the Renaissance Stage. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. xiv + 282 pages. Lowell Gallagher, ed., Redrawing the Map of Early Modern English Catholicism. Toronto: Toronto University Press in association with the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies and the

Jane Hwang Degenhardt and Elizabeth Williamson, eds., <i>Religion and Drama in Early Modern England: The Performance of Religion on the Renaissance Stage</i>. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. xiv + 282 pages. Lowell Gallagher, ed., <i>Redrawing the Map of Early Modern English Catholicism</i>. Toronto: Toronto University Press in association with the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies and the

Another English Connection: John Cowper Powys, Walt Whitman, and Percy Ives

In fall of 1880, Percy L. Ives, newly enrolled art student at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, paid historic visit to Walt Whit- man in home in Stevens Street, Camden, New Jersey, that Whit- man shared with his brother George. Ives appears not to have read any of Whitman's poems at time, although he had read Emerson and Carlyle, as noted in his Commonplace Book after visit (November 17, 1880);1 it was his grandmother, Mrs. Elisa Leggett, who suggested that I had better go across river to Camden to see him.2 With proper sense of his calling, youthful Percy-not yet seventeen-was bold enough to ask whether he could of poet and was permitted to do so. After two-hour session, this first effort significantly drew no critical comment from Whitman, just an open invitation: Sometime when you come again .. . you may be able to make another (Ives 6). The initial sketch does not appear to have survived,3 but Charles E. Feinberg reproduced two later ones, then in his collection, each dated Dec. 6. '81: one is head-and-shoulders portrait, labeled Walter Whitman and other is study of left holding an open book, labeled Walt's hand (Ives 5).4 Though Joann P. Krieg describes these as preliminary sketches for oil portrait of that Ives completed in 1882,5 differences between drawings and oil painting make this claim rather unlikely-especially since Ruth L. Bohan explicitly links oil painting with sketch made on February 12, 1881.6 The por- trait, described at time as a very strongly painted and correctly drawn portrait of Walt Whitman7 was gifted to his grandmother who had encouraged him to visit poet.8 For time painting was displayed in storefront window of Roehm and Wright, an upscale Jewelers and Silversmiths in Detroit, perhaps also through agency of his grandmother (Detroit 8).Recently long-lost third graphite (pencil) drawing from same period, with obvious affinities to sketch of December 6, 1881, and an impeccable provenance, has reappeared (see back cover).9 It is on machine-made woven paper that measures 6.25 by 8.5 inches and is mounted on gray board. Cushing Memorial Library and Archives (Texas AM unlike others, it is also signed by himself, albeit in rather shaky hand. No doubt this is version that both artist and sitter deemed most satisfactory and that therefore merited Whitman's imprimatur in form of his signature. Such explicit evidence of Whitman's approval may explain why Percy Ives kept drawing for himself so long. In any case, we can discern in three portrait drawings (February 12, 1881; December 6, 1881; December 21, 1881) marked progression away from conventional portraiture, as Ives gained confidence and learned to see Whitman-perhaps with some discreet guidance from his subject-as monumental figure, as poet-seer.Ed Folsom has demonstrated significance of Whitman's many illustrations of self in Leaves of Grass11 and makes very persuasive case for Whitman's preference for photographic over other represen- tations of self.12 He cites, for example, comment by recorded in Horace Traubel's With Walt in Camden that pho- tography lets nature have its way whereas the botheration with painters is that they don't want to let nature have its way: they want to make nature let them have their way.13 But he also documents Whit- man's doubts, even anxiety, about disconcerting revelatory powers of photography and thus his need to manipulate (a key word for Folsom) images of himself wherever possible. In particular, he points to implicit contradiction between a poet who celebrated fullness and wholeness of an endlessly diverse self and the images that he chose to have reproduced . …

Georgia Library Spotlight - Willet Memorial Library, Wesleyan College

Georgia Library Spotlight - Willet Memorial Library, Wesleyan College

Grassroots and Habermas in West Bend: Some Reflections

The West Bend Memorial Library controversy is an instructive example of how the framing assumptions—the ground—of public space have come under attack not only from the re-evaluation of social legitimacy heralded and embodied by an economics-based paradigm but equally from those who stand in opposition to what Habermas characterizes as the bourgeoisie-established criterion of political legitimacy: that is to say, enlightenment rationality. While the grassroots movement in support of the public library ethos stood with the nineteenth century’s enlightenment rationality, the group promoting censorship of LGBTQ-themed materials stood firmly in the more socially relevant, refeudalized, public sphere of the early twenty-first century—one in which the legitimating function of rational discourse has been eroded by opinion and manipulative publicity. This explains why the grassroots effort was itself largely irrelevant to the outcome of events. The library’s autonomy was kept in place not by social or political forces (both subject to refeudalization) but by the law. The grassroots movement to support the library thus illuminates the cracks, or fault lines, resulting from a change in how “public space” (and, thus, public institutions) have come to be understood during the last one hundred years, and, specifically, in the resulting change in modes of sanctioned discourse: specifically, from rational public debate to manipulative publicity.