Literary agent

A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers. They are paid a fixed percentage (ten to twenty percent; fifteen percent is usual) of the proceeds of sales they negotiate on behalf of their clients.

Advantages

Authors often turn to agents for several reasons. Quite a few well-known, powerful, and lucrative publishing houses do not accept unagented submissions. A knowledgeable agent knows the market, and can be a source of valuable career advice and guidance. Being a publishable author doesn’t automatically make someone an expert on modern publishing contracts and practices, especially where television, film, or foreign rights are involved. Many authors prefer to have an agent handle such matters. This prevents the author’s working relationship with his or her editor from becoming strained by disputes about royalty statements or late checks.

Diversity

Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in areas like foreign rights or licensed merchandise tie-ins, and clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies, especially the smaller ones, will specialize to some degree, representing authors who (for example) write science fiction, or mainstream thrillers and mysteries, or children’s books, or highly topical nonfiction. Very few agents will represent short stories or poetry.

Legitimate agents and agencies in the book world are not required to be members of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), but according to Writer’s Market listings, many agents in the United States are. To qualify for AAR membership, agents must have sold a minimum number of books and pledge to abide by a Canon of Ethics. Effective professional agents often learn their trade while working for another agent, though some cross over to agenting after working as editors.

Cost

Legitimate agents do not charge reading fees, demand retainers, bill authors for operating expenses, or otherwise derive income from any source other than the sales they make on their clients’ behalf. They also will not place their clients’ work with a vanity or subsidy press. Both these practices may indicate that the author is dealing with a scam agent. Traditionally representation agreements between agents and clients were simply verbal; however, an increasing percentage of agents are offering written contracts to make the terms explicit. Another questionable practice consists of referring the author to a so-called “professional editor” or “book doctor” who is in collusion with the agent. The ensuing edit may or may not be appropriate, or of professional quality, and is almost always expensive.

Querying

A client typically establishes relationships with an agent through querying, although the two may meet at a writer’s conference, through a contest, or in other ways. A query is an unsolicited proposal for representation, either for a finished work (fiction) or unfinished work (nonfiction). Various agents request different elements in a query packet, and most agencies list their specific submissions requirement on their Web site or in their listing in major directories. It typically begins with a query letter (1-2 pages) explaining the purpose of the work and any writing qualifications of the author. Sometimes a synopsis or outline are requested as part of the query. Often, the author sends five to ten pages of their work. Lastly, for paper queries, a self-addressed stamped envelope must be included to receive a response.

If a written query is rejected (which happens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-addressed stamped envelope. Typically the rejection is a form letter; getting a rejection which is not a form letter or has hand-written comments (especially a message to the effect of “query me for other projects”) is typically taken as a very good, even if disappointing, sign.

Literary agents of the past

The first literary agents appeared around the year 1880 (Publishing).

• Gerald Drayson Adams
• Dido Armstrong
• George T. Bye
• Barthold Fles
• Rod Hall
• Kurt Hellmer
• Morton L. Janklow
• Otis Adelbert Kline
• Harold Ober
• Larry Shaw
• Toni Strassman
• Virginia Kidd
• Stephen Slesinger
• H.N. Swanson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Why do an annotated bibliography?
One of the reasons behind citing sources and compiling a general bibliography is so that you can prove you have done some valid research to back up your argument and claims. Readers can refer to a citation in your bibliography and then go look up the material themselves. When inspired by your text or your argument, interested researchers can access your resources. They may wish to double check a claim or interpretation you’ve made, or they may simply wish to continue researching according to their interests. But think about it: even though a bibliography provides a list of research sources of all types that includes publishing information, how much does that really tell a researcher or reader about the sources themselves?
An annotated bibliography provides specific information about each source you have used. As a researcher, you have become an expert on your topic: you have the ability to explain the content of your sources, assess their usefulness, and share this information with others who may be less familiar with them. Think of your paper as part of a conversation with people interested in the same things you are; the annotated bibliography allows you to tell readers what to check out, what might be worth checking out in some situations, and what might not be worth spending the time on. It’s kind of like providing a list of good movies for your classmates to watch and then going over the list with them, telling them why this movie is better than that one or why one student in your class might like a particular movie better than another student would. You want to give your audience enough information to understand basically what the movies are about and to make an informed decision about where to spend their money based on their interests.
What does an annotated bibliography do?
A good annotated bibliography
• encourages you to think critically about the content of the works you are using, their place within a field of study, and their relation to your own research and ideas.
• proves you have read and understand your sources.
• establishes your work as a valid source and you as a competent researcher.
• situates your study and topic in a continuing professional conversation.
• provides a way for others to decide whether a source will be helpful to their research if they read it.
• could help interested researchers determine whether they are interested in a topic by providing background information and an idea of the kind of work going on in a field.
What elements might an annotation include?
1. Bibliography according to the appropriate citation style (MLA, APA, CBE/CSE, etc.).
2. Explanation of main points and/or purpose of the work—basically, its thesis—which shows among other things that you have read and thoroughly understand the source.
3. Verification or critique of the authority or qualifications of the author.
4. Comments on the worth, effectiveness, and usefulness of the work in terms of both the topic being researched and/or your own research project.
5. The point of view or perspective from which the work was written. For instance, you may note whether the author seemed to have particular biases or was trying to reach a particular audience.
6. Relevant links to other work done in the area, like related sources, possibly including a comparison with some of those already on your list. You may want to establish connections to other aspects of the same argument or opposing views.
The first four elements above are usually a necessary part of the annotated bibliography. Points 5 and 6 may involve a little more analysis of the source, but you may include them in other kinds of annotations besides evaluative ones. Depending on the type of annotation you use, which this handout will address in the next section, there may be additional kinds of information that you will need to include.
For more extensive research papers (probably ten pages or more), you often see resource materials grouped into sub-headed sections based on content, but this probably will not be necessary for the kinds of assignments you’ll be working on. For longer papers, ask your professor about her preferences concerning annotated bibliographies.
Did you know that annotations have categories and styles?
Decisions, decisions
As you go through this handout, you’ll see that, before you start, you’ll need to make several decisions about your annotations: citation format, type of annotation, and writing style for the annotation.
First of all, you’ll need to decide which kind of citation format is appropriate to the paper and its sources, for instance, MLA or APA. This may influence the format of the annotations and bibliography. Typically, bibliographies should be double-spaced and use normal margins (you may want to check with your instructor, since he may have a different style he wants you to follow).
MLA (Modern Language Association)
See the UNC Libraries citation tutorial for basic MLA bibliography formatting and rules.
• MLA documentation is generally used for disciplines in the humanities, such as English, languages, film, and cultural studies or other theoretical studies. These annotations are often summary or analytical annotations.
• Title your annotated bibliography “Annotated Bibliography” or “Annotated List of Works Cited.”
• Following MLA format, use a hanging indent for your bibliographic information. This means the first line is not indented and all the other lines are indented four spaces (you may ask your instructor if it’s okay to tab over instead of using four spaces).
• Begin your annotation immediately after the bibliographic information of the source ends; don’t skip a line down unless you have been told to do so by your instructor.
APA (American Psychological Association)
See the UNC Libraries citation tutorial for basic APA bibliography formatting and rules.
• Natural and social sciences, such as psychology, nursing, sociology, and social work, use APA documentation. It is also used in economics, business, and criminology. These annotations are often succinct summaries.
• Annotated bibliographies for APA format do not require a special title. Use the usual “References” designation.
• Like MLA, APA uses a hanging indent: the first line is set flush with the left margin, and all other lines are indented four spaces (you may ask your instructor if it’s okay to tab over instead of using four spaces).
• After the bibliographic citation, drop down to the next line to begin the annotation, but don’t skip an extra line.
• The entire annotation is indented an additional two spaces, so that means each of its lines will be six spaces from the margin (if your instructor has said that it’s okay to tab over instead of using the four spaces rule, indent the annotation two more spaces in from that point).
CBE (Council of Biology Editors)/CSE (Council of Science Editors)
See the UNC Libraries citation tutorial for basic CBE/CSE bibliography formatting and rules.
• CBE/CSE documentation is used by the plant sciences, zoology, microbiology, and many of the medical sciences.
• Annotated bibliographies for CBE/CSE format do not require a special title. Use the usual “References,” “Cited References,” or “Literature Cited,” and set it flush with the left margin.
• Bibliographies for CSE in general are in a slightly smaller font than the rest of the paper.
• When using the name-year system, as in MLA and APA, the first line of each entry is set flush with the left margin, and all subsequent lines, including the annotation, are indented three or four spaces.
• When using the citation-sequence method, each entry begins two spaces after the number, and every line, including the annotation, will be indented to match the beginning of the entry, or may be slightly further indented, as in the case of journals.
• After the bibliographic citation, drop down to the next line to begin the annotation, but don’t skip an extra line. The entire annotation follows the indentation of the bibliographic entry, whether it’s N-Y or C-S format.
• Annotations in CBE/CSE are generally a smaller font size than the rest of the bibliographic information.
After choosing a documentation format, you’ll choose from a variety of annotation categories presented in the following section. Each type of annotation highlights a particular approach to presenting a source to a reader. For instance, an annotation could provide a summary of the source only, or it could also provide some additional evaluation of that material.
In addition to making choices related to the content of the annotation, you’ll also need to choose a style of writing—for instance, telescopic versus paragraph form. Your writing style isn’t dictated by the content of your annotation. Writing style simply refers to the way you’ve chosen to convey written information. A discussion of writing style follows the section on annotation types.
Types of annotations
As you now know, one annotation does not fit all purposes! There are different kinds of annotations, depending on what might be most important for your reader to learn about a source. Your assignments will usually make it clear which citation format you need to use, but they may not always specify which type of annotation to employ. In that case, you’ll either need to pick your instructor’s brain a little to see what she wants or use clue words from the assignment itself to make a decision. For instance, the assignment may tell you that your annotative bibliography should give evidence proving an analytical understanding of the sources you’ve used. The word analytical clues you in to the idea that you must evaluate the sources you’re working with and provide some kind of critique.
Summary annotations
There are two kinds of summarizing annotations, informative and indicative.
Summarizing annotations in general have a couple of defining features:
• They sum up the content of the source, as a book report might.
• They give an overview of the arguments and proofs/evidence addressed in the work and note the resulting conclusion.
• They do not judge the work they are discussing. Leave that to the critical/evaluative annotations.
• When appropriate, they describe the author’s methodology or approach to material. For instance, you might mention if the source is an ethnography or if the author employs a particular kind of theory.
Informative annotation
Informative annotations sometimes read like straight summaries of the source material, but they often spend a little more time summarizing relevant information about the author or the work itself.
Indicative annotation
Indicative annotation is the second type of summary annotation, but it does not attempt to include actual information from the argument itself. Instead, it gives general information about what kinds of questions or issues are addressed by the work. This sometimes includes the use of chapter titles.
Critical/evaluative
Evaluative annotations don’t just summarize. In addition to tackling the points addressed in summary annotations, evaluative annotations:
• evaluate the source or author critically (biases, lack of evidence, objective, etc.).
• show how the work may or may not be useful for a particular field of study or audience.
• explain how researching this material assisted your own project.
Combination
An annotated bibliography may combine elements of all the types. In fact, most of them fall into this category: a little summarizing and describing, a little evaluation.
Writing style
Ok, next! So what does it mean to use different writing styles as opposed to different kinds of content? Content is what belongs in the annotation, and style is the way you write it up. First, choose which content type you need to compose, and then choose the style you’re going to use to write it
Telescopic
This kind of annotated bibliography is a study in succinctness. It uses a minimalist treatment of both information and sentence structure, without sacrificing clarity. Warning: this kind of writing can be harder than you might think.
Paragraph
Don’t skimp on this kind of annotated bibliography. If your instructor has asked for paragraph form, it likely means that you’ll need to include several elements in the annotation, or that she expects a more in-depth description or evaluation, for instance. Make sure to provide a full paragraph of discussion for each work.
Conclusion
As you can see now, bibliographies and annotations are really a series of organized steps. They require meticulous attention, but in the end, you’ve got an entire testimony to all the research and work you’ve done. At the end of this handout you’ll find examples of informative, indicative, evaluative, combination, telescopic, and paragraph annotated bibliography entries in MLA, APA, and CBE formats. Use these examples as your guide to creating an annotated bibliography that makes you look like the expert you are!
MLA Example
APA Example
CBE Example
©http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/annotated_bibliographies.html

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography that gives a summary of the research that has been done. It is still an alphabetical list of research sources. In addition to bibliographic data, an annotated bibliography provides a brief summary or annotation.
The annotation usually contains a brief summary of content and a short analysis or evaluation. Depending on your assignment you may be asked to reflect, summarise, critique, evaluate or analyse the source.
The purpose of annotations is to provide the reader with a summary and an evaluation of the source. In order to write a successful annotation, each summary must be concise. An annotation should display the source’s central idea(s) and give the reader a general idea of what the source is about.
An annotation should include the complete bibliographic information for the source. It should also include some or all of the following:
• An explanation about the authority and/or qualifications of the author.
• Scope or main purpose of the work.
• Any detectable bias.
• Intended audience and level of reading
• A summary comment
Ideally, an annotation should be between 100 to 200 words.
Types of annotations
Annotations may be written with different goals in mind.
Indicative annotations
This type of annotation defines the scope of the source, lists the significant topics and explains what the source is about. In this type of entry, there is no attempt to give actual data such as hypotheses, proofs, etc.
Informative annotations
This type of annotation is a summary of the source. An informative annotation should include the thesis of the work, arguments or hypotheses, proofs and a conclusion.
Evaluative annotations
This type of annotation assesses the source’s strengths and weaknesses—how the source is useful and how it is not. Simply put, an evaluative annotation should evaluate the source’s usefulness.
Combination annotations
Most annotated bibliographies contain combination annotations. This type of annotation will summarize or describe the topic, and then evaluate the source’s usefulness.
Writing styles
No matter which writing style is used for annotations, all entries should be brief. Only the most significant details should be mentioned. Information that is apparent in the title can be omitted from the annotation. In addition, background materials and any references to previous work are usually excluded.
Telegraphic
A telegraphic writing style gets the information out quickly and concisely. Maintaining clarity, complete and grammatically correct sentences are not necessary.
Complete sentences
A complete sentences writing style utilizes coherent sentences that are grammatically correct. Subjects and conjunctions are not eliminated even though the tone may be terse. Long and complex sentences are to be generally avoided.
Paragraph
A paragraph writing style utilizes a full, coherent paragraph. This can sometimes be similar to the form of a bibliographic essay. Complete sentences and proper grammar must be used.
Purpose
There are three main purposes behind writing an annotated bibliography. Each purpose can serve anyone in a different manner, depending on what they are trying to accomplish.
Learning about a topic
Writing an annotated bibliography is an excellent way to begin any research project. While it may seem easier to simply copy down bibliographical information, adding annotations will force the researcher to read each source carefully. An annotation requires the source to be critically analyzed, not simply read over.
Formulating a thesis

Any form of research paper or essay will require some form of argument. This is called a the

sis. A developed thesis needs to be debatable, interesting and current. Writing an annotated bibliography will give the researcher a clear understanding about what is being said about his/her topic. After reading and critically analyzing sources, the researcher will be able to determine what issues there are and what people are arguing about. From there, the researcher will be able to develop his/her own point of view.

To assist other researchers

Extensive and scholarly annotated bibliographies are sometimes published. The purpose of these annotated bibliographies is to provide a complete and comprehensive overview of any given topic. While a typical researcher may not have their own annotated bibliography published, a search for previously published annotated bibliographies related to their topic could prove very beneficial.
© http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annotated_bibliography

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history and development of publishing and book trade(part II)

Parchment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned; therefore, it is very reactive to changes in relative humidity and is not waterproof. The finer qualities of parchment are called vellum.

History

According to the Roman Varro, Pliny’s Natural History records (xiii.21) that parchment was invented under the patronage of Eumenes of Pergamum,^[1] as a substitute for papyrus, which was temporarily not being exported from Alexandria, its only source.

Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in his time, the 5th century BC; and in his Histories (v.58) he states that the Ionians of Asia Minor had been accustomed to give the name of skins (diphtherai) to books; this word was adapted by Hellenized Jews to describe scrolls [1]. Parchment (pergamenum in Latin), however, derives its name from Pergamon, the city where it was perfected (via the French parchemin). In the 2nd century B.C. a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivalled the famous Library of Alexandria. As prices rose for papyrus and the reed used for making it was over-harvested towards local extinction in the two nomes of the Nile delta that produced it, Pergamon adapted by increasing use of parchment.

Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history, however. Some Egyptian Fourth Dynasty texts were written on parchment. Though the Assyrians and the Babylonians impressed their cuneiform on clay tablets, they also wrote on parchment from the 6th century BC onward. Rabbinic culture equated the idea of a book with a parchment scroll. Early Islamic texts are also found on parchment.

One sort of parchment is vellum, a word that is used loosely to mean parchment, and especially to mean fine parchment, but more strictly refers to parchment made from calfskin (although goatskin can be as fine in quality). The words vellum and veal come from Latin vitulus, meaning calf, or its diminutive vitellus. In the Middle Ages, calfskin and split sheepskin were the most common materials for making parchment in England and France, while goatskin was more common in Italy. Other skins such as those from large animals such as horse and smaller animals such as squirrel and rabbit were also used. Whether uterine vellum (vellum made from aborted calf fetuses) was ever really used during the medieval period is still a matter of great controversy.

An English deed written on fine parchment or vellum with seal tag dated 1638.

There was a short period during the introduction of printing where parchment and paper were used interchangeably: although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment. In 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, because “handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper? For if …it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time.”

In the later Middle Ages, parchment was largely replaced by paper. New techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper and more abundant than parchment. With the advent of printing in the later fifteenth century, the demands of printers far exceeded the supply of animal skins for parchment.

The heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among contemporary artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used (primarily for governmental documents and diplomas) it had ceased to be a primary choice for artist’s supports by the end of 15th century Renaissance. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its unusual working properties. Parchment consists mostly of collagen. When the water in paint media touches parchment’s surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a raised bed for the paint, a quality highly prized by some artists. Parchment is also extremely affected by its environment and changes in humidity, which can cause buckling. Some contemporary artists also prize this quality, noting that the parchment seems alive and like an active participant in making artwork. To support the needs of the revival of use by artists, a revival in the art of making individual skins is also underway. Handmade skins are usually better prepared for artists and have fewer oily spots which can cause long-term cracking of paint than mass-produced parchment. Mass-produced parchment is usually made for lamp shades, furniture, or other interior design purposes.^[

The radiocarbon dating techniques that are used on papyrus can be applied to parchment as well. They do not date the age of the writing but the preparation of the parchment itself. However, radiocarbon dating can often be used on the inks that make up the writing, since many of them contain organic compounds such as plant leachings, soot, and wine.

Manufacture

"Parchment is prepared from pelt, i.e., wet, unhaired, and limed skin, simply by drying at ordinary temperatures under tension, most commonly on a wooden frame known as a stretching frame".After being flayed, the skin is soaked in water for about 1 day. This removes blood and grime from the skin and prepares it for a dehairing liquor. The dehairing liquor was originally made of rotted, or fermented, vegetable matter, like beer or other liquors, but by the Middle Ages an unhairing bath included lime. Today, the lime solution is occasionally sharpened by the use of sodium sulfide. The liquor bath would have been in wooden or stone vats and the hides stirred with a long wooden pole to avoid contact with the alkaline solution. Sometimes the skins would stay in the unhairing bath for 8 or more days depending how concentrated and how warm the solution was kept—unhairing could take up to twice as long in winter. The vat was stirred two or three times a day to ensure the solution's deep and uniform penetration. Replacing the lime water bath also sped the process up. However, if the skins were soaked in the liquor too long, they would be weakened and not able to stand the stretching required for parchment.

After soaking in water to make the skins workable, the skins were placed on a stretching frame. A simple frame with nails would work well in stretching the pelts. The skins could be attached by wrapping small, smooth rocks in the skins with rope or leather strips. Both sides would be left open to the air so they could be scraped with a sharp, semi-lunar knife to remove the last of the hair and get the skin to the right thickness. The skins, which were made almost entirely of collagen, would form a natural glue while drying and once taken off the frame they would keep their form. The stretching allowed the fibers to become aligned running parallel to the grain.

Parchment treatments

To make the parchment more aesthetically pleasing or more suitable for the scribes, special treatments were used. According to Reed there were a variety of these treatments. Rubbing pumice powder into the flesh side of parchment while it was still wet on the frame was used to make it smooth so inks would penetrate deep into the fibres. Powders and pastes of calcium compounds were also used to help remove grease so the ink would not run. To make the parchment smooth and white, thin pastes (starchgrain or staunchgrain) of lime, flour, egg whites and milk were rubbed into the skins.

Meliora di Curci in her paper "The History and Technology of Parchment Making" notes that parchment was not always white. "Cennini, a 15th century craftsman provides recipes to tint parchment a variety of colours including purple, indigo, green, red and peach." The Early medieval Codex Argenteus and Codex Vercellensis, the Stockholm Codex Aureus and the Codex Brixianus give a range of luxuriously produced manuscripts all on purple vellum, in imitation of Byzantine examples, like the Rossano Gospels, Sinope Gospels and the Vienna Genesis, which at least at one time are believed to have been reserved for Imperial commissions.

Many techniques for parchment repair exist, to restore creased, torn, or incomplete parchments.

Reuse

During the seventh through the ninth centuries, many earlier parchment manuscripts were scrubbed and scoured to be ready for rewriting, and often the earlier writing can still be read. These recycled parchments are called palimpsests. Later, more thorough techniques of scouring the surface irretrievably lost the earlier text.

] Jewish parchment

The way in which parchment was processed (from hide to parchment) has undergone a tremendous evolution based on time and location. Parchment and vellum are not the sole methods of preparing animal skins for writing. In the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14B) Moses writes the first Torah Scroll on the unsplit cow-hide called gevil.

Parchment is still the only medium used by traditional religious Jews for Torah scrolls or Tefilin and Mezuzahs, and is produced by large companies in Israel. For those uses, only hides of kosher animals are permitted. Since there are many requirements for it being fit for the religious use, the liming is usually processed under supervision of a qualified Rabbi.

Additional uses of the term

In some universities, the word parchment is still used to refer to the certificate (scroll) presented at graduation ceremonies, even though the modern document is printed on paper or thin card; although doctoral graduands may be given the option of having their scroll written by a calligrapher on vellum. The University of Notre Dame still uses animal parchment for its diplomas. Similarly, University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University use goat skin parchment paper for their degrees.

Plant-based parchment

Vegetable (paper) parchment is made by passing a waterleaf made of pulp fibers into sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid hydrolyses and solubilises the main natural organic polymer, cellulose, present in the pulp wood fibers. The paper web is then washed in water, which stops the hydrolysis of the cellulose and causes a kind of cellulose coating to form on the waterleaf. The final paper is dried. This coating is a natural non-porous cement, that gives to the vegetable parchment paper its resistance to grease and its semi-translucency.

Other processes can be used to obtain grease-resistant paper, such as by highly beating the fibers giving an even more translucent paper with the same grease resistance. Silicone and other coatings may also be applied to the parchment. One can obtain grease resistance by waxing the paper or by using fluorine-based chemicals. A silicone-coating treatment produces a cross-linked material with high density, stability and heat resistance and low surface tension which imparts good anti-stick or release properties. Chromium salts can also be used to impart moderate anti-stick properties.

Parchment craft

Historians believe that parchment craft originated as an art form in Europe during the 15th or 16th century. Parchment craft at that time occurred principally in Catholic communities, where crafts persons created lace-like items such as devotional pictures and communion cards. The craft developed over time, with new techniques and refinements being added. Until the 16th century, parchment craft was a European art form. However, missionaries and other settlers relocated to South America, taking parchment craft with them. As before, the craft appeared largely among the Catholic communities. Often, young girls receiving their First Communion received gifts of handmade parchment crafts.

Although the invention of the printing press led to a reduced interest in hand made cards and items, by the 18th century, people were regaining interest in detailed handwork. Parchment cards became larger in size and crafters began adding wavy borders and perforations. In the 19th century, influenced by French romanticism, parchment crafters began adding floral themes and cherubs and hand embossing.

Parchment craft today involves various techniques, including tracing a pattern with white or colored ink, embossing to create a raised effect, stippling, perforating, coloring and cutting. Parchment craft appears in hand made cards, as scrapbook embellishments, as bookmarks, lampshades, decorative small boxes, wall hangings and more.

©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment

Codex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A codex (Latin caudex for “trunk of a tree” or block of wood, book; plural codices) is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover.

Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement of the scroll, the dominant form of book in the ancient world, has been termed the most important advance in the history of the book prior to the invention of printing. The spread of the codex is often associated with the rise of Christianity, which adopted the format for the Bible early on.^[2] First described by the 1st century AD Roman poet Martial, who already praised its convenient use, the codex achieved numerical parity with the scroll around 300 AD, and had completely replaced it throughout the now Christianised Greco-Roman world by the 6th century.

The codex holds considerable practical advantages over other book formats, such as compactness, sturdiness, ease of reference (a codex is random access, as opposed to a scroll, which is sequential access), and especially economy; unlike the scroll, both recto and verso could be used for writing. Although the change from rolls to codices roughly coincides with the transition from papyrus to parchment as favourite writing material, the two developments are quite unconnected. In fact, any combination of codices and scrolls on the one hand with papyrus and parchment on the other is technically feasible and well attested from the historical record.

Although technically any modern paperback is a codex, the term is now reserved for manuscript (hand-written) books which were produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of these manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology, while the study of ancient documents in general is called paleography.

History

The Romans used precursors made of reusable wax-covered tablets of wood for taking notes and other informal writings. Two ancient polyptych, a pentatych and octotych, excavated at Herculaneum employed a unique connecting system that presages later sewing on thongs or cords At the turn of of the 1st century CE, a kind of folded parchment notebook called pugillares membranei in Latin, became commonly used for writing in the Roman Empire.^[7] This term was used by both the pagan poet Martial and Christian apostle Paul the Apostle. Martial used the term with reference to gifts of literature exchanged by Romans during the festival of Saturnalia. According to T.C. Skeat “…in at least three cases and probably in all, in the form of codices” and he theorized that this form of notebook was invented in Rome and then “…must have spread rapidly to the Near East…” In his discussion of one of the earliest pagan parchment codices to survive from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, Eric Turner seems to challenge Skeat’s notion when stating “…its mere existence is evidence that this book form had a prehistory” and that “early experiments with this book form may well have taken place outside of Egypt.” Early codices of parchment or papyrus appear to have been widely used as personal notebooks, for instance in recording copies of letters sent (Cicero Fam. 9.26.1). The pages of parchment notebooks were commonly washed or scraped for re-use, called a palimpsest; and consequently writings in a codex were considered informal and impermanent.

Early-Christian Gnostic text from a codex discovered in Nag Hammadi (Egypt) in 1945

As far back as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that the codex—usually of papyrus—was the preferred format among Christians: in the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum (buried in AD 79), all the texts (Greek literature) are scrolls; in the Nag Hammadi “library”, secreted about AD 390, all the texts (Gnostic Christian) are codices. Despite this comparison, a fragment of a non-Christian parchment Codex of Demosthenes, De Falsa Legationefrom Oxyrhynchus in Egypt demonstrates that the surviving evidence is insufficient to conclude whether Christians played a major, if not central, role in the development of early codices, or if they simply adopted the format to distinguish themselves from Jews. The earliest surviving fragments from codices come from Egypt and are variously dated (always tentatively) towards the end of the 1st century or in the first half of the 2nd. This group includes the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, containing part of St John’s Gospel, and perhaps dating from between 125 and 160. ^[10]

Early medieval bookcase containing about ten codices depicted in the Codex Amiatinus (ca. 700)

In Western culture the codex gradually replaced the scroll. From the 4th century, when the codex gained wide acceptance, to the Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th century, many works that were not converted from scroll to codex were lost to posterity. The codex was an improvement over the scroll in several ways. It could be opened flat at any page, allowing easier reading; the pages could be written on both front and back (recto and verso); and the codex, protected within its durable covers, was more compact and easier to transport.

The codex also made it easier to organize documents in a library because it had a stable spine on which the title of the book could be written. The spine could be used for the incipit, before the concept of a proper title was developed, during medieval times.

Although most early codices were made of papyrus, papyrus was fragile and supplies from Egypt, the only place where papyrus grew and was made into paper, became scanty; the more durable parchment and vellum gained favor, despite the cost.

Aztec warriors as shown in the Florentine Codex.

The codices of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica had the same form as the European codex, but were instead made with long folded strips of either fig bark (amatl) or plant fibers, often with a layer of whitewash applied before writing. New World codices were written as late as the 16th century (see Maya codices and Aztec codices). Those written before the Spanish conquests seem all to have been single long sheets folded concertina-style, sometimes written on both sides of the local amatl paper. So, strictly speaking they are not in codex format, but they more consistently have “Codex” in their usual names than do other types of manuscript.

In the Far East, the scroll remained standard for far longer than in the West. There were intermediate stages, such as scrolls folded concertina-style and pasted together at the back and books were printed only on one side of the paper.^[11] The Jewish religion still retains the Torah scroll, at least for ceremonial use.

Bookbinding

Among the experiments of earlier centuries, scrolls were sometimes unrolled horizontally, as a succession of columns. (The Dead Sea Scrolls are a famous example of this format.) This made it possible to fold the scroll as an accordion. The next step was then to cut the folios, sew and glue them at their centers, making it easier to use the papyrus or vellum recto-verso as with a modern book. In traditional bookbinding, these assembled folios trimmed and curved were called “codex” in order to differentiate it from the “Case” which we now know as “Hard cover”. Binding the Codex was clearly a different procedure from binding the “Case”. This terminology still in use some 50 or 60 years ago^{[citation needed]} has been nearly abandoned. Some commercial bookbinders may refer to the cover and the inside of the book instead, but a few others^[who?], attached to their traditions, still use the terms Codex and Case.

©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex

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History and development of publishing and book trade(Part II)

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©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment

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History and development of publishing and book trade(Part I)

Clay tablets of mesopotamia

Writing

Over five thousand years ago, people living in Mesopotamia developed a form of writing to record and communicate different types of information.

The earliest writing was based on pictograms. Pictograms were used to communicate basic information about crops and taxes.

Over time, the need for writing changed and the signs developed into a script we call cuneiform.

Over thousands of years, Mesopotamian scribes recorded daily events, trade, astronomy, and literature on clay tablets. Cuneiform was used by people throughout the ancient Near East to write several different languages.

©http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/home_set.html

Clay tablet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of the victories of Rimush, king of Akkad, upon Abalgamash, king of Marhashi, and upon Elamite cities. Clay tablet, copy of a monumental inscription, ca. 2270 BCE. (see Manishtushu Obelisk)

In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ṭuppu(m) 𒁾^[1]) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.

Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed. Once written upon, many tablets were dried in the sun or air, remaining fragile. Later, these unfired clay tablets could be soaked in water and recycled into new clean tablets. Other tablets, once written, were grilled in a kennal or fired in kilns (or inadvertently, when buildings were burnt down by accident or during conflict) making them hard and durable. Collections of these clay documents made up the very first archives. They were at the root of first libraries. Tens of thousands of written tablets, including many fragments, have been found in the Middle East. ^[2]

In the Minoan/Mycenaean civilizations, writing has not been observed for any use other than accounting. Tablets serving as labels, with the impression of the side of a wicker basket on the back, and tablets showing yearly summaries, suggest a sophisticated accounting system. In this cultural region the tablets were never fired deliberately, as the clay was recycled on an annual basis. However, some of the tablets were “fired” as a result of uncontrolled fires in the buildings where they were stored. The rest are still tablets of unfired clay, and extremely fragile; some modern scholars are investigating the possibility of firing them now, as an aid to preservation.

Proto-writing

The Tărtăria tablets, thought to be from the Danubian civilization, may be older still, having been carbon dated to before 4000 BCE, and possibly dating from as long ago as 5500 BCE, but their interpretation remains controversial. ^[3]

©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_tablet

Papyrus rolls of Eygpt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Papyrus (pronounced /pəˈpaɪrəs/) is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus,^[1] a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt.

Papyrus usually grow 2–3 meters (5–9 ft) tall. Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt (at least as far back as the First dynasty), but it was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Ancient Egypt used this plant as a writing material and for boats, mattresses, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.

History

A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus

Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the third millennium BCE.^[2] In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins.^[3] Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices.

Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large volume texts. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of good quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used was also limited.

Papyrus was replaced in Europe by the cheaper locally-produced products parchment and vellum, of significantly higher durability in moist climates, though Henri Pirenne’s connection of its disappearance with the Muslim overrunning of Egypt is contended.^[4] Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, though it was known in Gaul until the middle of the following century. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree (typically conservative, all papal “bulls” were on papyrus until 1022), under Pope Victor II,^[5] and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs. Papyrus was documented as in use as late as the 12th century in the Byzantine Empire, but there are no surviving examples. Although its uses had transferred to parchment, papyrus therefore just overlapped with the use of paper in Europe, which began in the 11th century.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology

The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος papyros. Greek has a second word for papyrus, βύβλος byblos (said to derive from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos). The Greek writer Theophrastus, who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses papuros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and bublos for the same plant when used for non-food products, such as cordage, basketry, or a writing surface. The more specific term βίβλος biblos, which finds its way into English in such words as bibliography, bibliophile, and bible, refers to the inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is also the etymon of paper, a similar substance.

It is often claimed^{[by whom?]} that Egyptians referred to papyrus as pa-per-aa [p3y pr-ˁ3] (lit., “that which is of Pharaoh”), apparently denoting that the Egyptian crown owned a monopoly on papyrus production. However no actual ancient text using this term is known. In the Egyptian language, papyrus was known by the terms wadj [w3ḏ], tjufy [ṯwfy], and djet [ḏt]. The Greek word papyros has no known relationship to any Egyptian word or phrase.

Documents written on papyrus

The word for the material papyrus is also used to designate documents written on sheets of it, often rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names—generally the name of the discoverer, first owner or institution where it is kept—and numbered, such as “Papyrus Harris I”. Often an abbreviated form is used such as “pHarris I”.

Manufacture and use

Papyrus is made from the stem of the plant. The outer rind is first stripped off, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm (16 in) long. The strips are then placed side by side on a hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. It is also possible that the two layers were glued together.^[6] While still moist, the two layers are hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet of papyrus is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone or seashell or round hard wood.^[7]

To form the long strip that a scroll required, a number of such sheets were united, placed so that all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll’s length were on one side and all the vertical fibres on the other. Normally, texts were first written on the recto, the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the verso.^[2] Pliny the Elder describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his Naturalis Historia.

In a dry climate like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose; but storage in humid conditions can result in molds attacking and destroying the material. In European conditions, papyrus seems only to have lasted a matter of decades; a 200–year-old papyrus was considered extraordinary. Imported papyrus that was once commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but papyrus is still being found in Egypt; extraordinary examples include the Elephantine papyri and the famous finds at Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi. The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, containing the library of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but has only been partially excavated.

There have been sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of papyrus during the past 250 years. The Scottish explorer James Bruce experimented in the late 18th century with papyrus plants from the Sudan, for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the 18th century, a Sicilian named Saverio Landolina manufactured papyrus at Syracuse, where papyrus plants had continued to grow in the wild. The modern technique of papyrus production used in Egypt for the tourist trade was developed in 1962 by the Egyptian engineer Hassan Ragab using plants that had been reintroduced into Egypt in 1872 from France. Both Sicily and Egypt have centres of limited papyrus production.

Papyrus is still used by communities living in the vicinity of swamps, to the extent that rural householders derive up to 75% of their income from swamp goods (Maclean et al. 2003b; c). Particularly in East and Central Africa, people harvest papyrus, which is used to manufacture items that are sold or used locally. Examples include baskets, hats, fish traps, trays or winnowing mats and floor mats. Papyrus is also used to make roofs, ceilings, rope and fences. Although alternatives such as eucalyptus are increasingly available, papyrus is still used as fuel.(Maclean 2003c).

Collections of papyri

• Amherst Papyri — This is a collection of Lord Amherst of Hackey. It includes biblical manuscripts, early church fragments, and classical documents from the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine eras. The collection was edited by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt in 1900–1901. It is housed at the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York).
• Bodmer Papyri — This collection was purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1955–1956. Currently it is housed in the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana in Cologny. It includes Greek and Coptic documents, classical texts, biblical books, and writing of the early churches.
• Chester Beatty Papyri — collection of 11 codices acquired by Alfred Chester Beatty in 1930–1931 and 1935. It is housed at the Chester Beatty Library. The collection was edited by Frederic G. Kenyon.
• Colt Papyri — it is housed at the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York).
• Egerton Papyrus 2 — it is housed at the British Museum
• Martin Schøyen Collection — biblical manuscripts in Greek and Coptic, Dead Sea Scrolls, classical documents
• Michigan Papyrus Collection — this collection contains above 10 000 papyri fragments. It is housed at the University of Michigan.
• Oxyrhynchus Papyri — these numerous papyri fragments were discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in and around Oxyrhynchus. The publication of these papyri is still in progress.
• Princeton Papyri — it is housed at the Princeton University^[8]
• Rylands Papyri — this collection contains above 700 papyri, with 31 ostraca and 54 codices. It is housed at the John Rylands University Library
• Washington University Papyri Collection — includes 445 manuscript fragments, dating from the first century BC to the eighth century AD. Housed at Washington University Libraries.
• Yale Papyrus Collection — numbers over six thousand inventoried items and is cataloged, digitally scanned, and accessible online for close study. It is housed at the Beinecke Library.

©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus

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©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_tablet

©http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus

online journalism

Any journalist ought to know that your stories are only as good as your sources. Start with bad information, and you’ll deliver bad information to your readers.

Running a news publication is like that, too.

If you don’t go into publishing with good information – about your market, your environment, your legal and tax requirements – you’ll soon find yourself wasting an enormous amount of time learning what you should have known from the start. And that’s time that you could have spent building your business.

A news website is a business – even if you’re running it as an official non-profit or an unofficial haven’t-made-a-profit. At the very least, you’ve invested your time in whatever you publish (or hope to publish) online. That time deserves the respect of a decent return on that investment, whether it be financial or something else.

Simple business education can help you get the most from your investment of time and money in online news publishing. You don’t need to go to graduate school for two years to earn an MBA. But you do need to talk to some folks who know what they’re doing in this space.

Like you did when you were only a reporter, as a publisher, you need some sources.

That means that you need to talk with other folks who are running news websites – whether they be small, one-person blogs or major-metro newspaper dot-coms. You know journalism. But do you know how to find a foundation to fund your start-up? Do you know how to select the most lucrative ad network? Do you know how to ask for – and close – an advertising deal for your website?

Do you know how to make a budget for your news website? How to promote your site and increase the audience and page views that you’ll need to make it attractive to either advertisers or non-profit funders?

What do you know about the business of making a living when someone else isn’t writing you a weekly paycheck?

This is what your network can teach you. And with that knowledge, you’ll have the freedom to create and publish a news website that fulfills your vision for what your journalism career ought to be.

Too often, journalists get into website publishing naively, thinking that long hours and hard work will help them get ahead. Don’t get me wrong – long hours and hard work are requirements in news publishing. But those alone won’t get you anything but frustrated and deeper in debt.

You need to plan and spend time developing and cultivating your personal network of teachers, advisers and confidants in order to have any real chance of success as a news publisher.

You want to have an impact in your community. You wouldn’t have gotten into journalism if you didn’t. And you want to make enough money in this business to keep food on the table and a roof over your head. You don’t need to have an employer to do that, though. Invest in building a network of colleagues who know the way, and you can become a successful news publisher, too.

World Library and Information Congress : 77th IFLA General Conference and Assembly 13-18 August 2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Call for Papers

Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section
& Information Literacy Section
& Indigenous Matters Special Interest Group

Theme:
Importance of Information Literacy for Multicultural Populations: Needs, Strategies, Programs, and the Role of Libraries

The Library Services to Multicultural Populations Sections, the Information Literacy Section and the SIG on Indigenous Matters invite proposals for papers to be presented at a three­hour programme.

Subjects of interest include:

• How do we identify the needs of multicultural population in the field of the information literacy?
• How can librarians, through information literacy programs, help develop understanding and tolerance for cultural diversity?
• How have you overcome obstacles to introducing information literacy strategies among cultural diverse societies?
• What are the benefits of offering information literacy programs to diverse populations and which strategies have worked best in your library?
• What unique or interesting ways have libraries reached out to diverse communities to provide information literacy?

Proposals should include:

• An abstract of paper approximately 500 words.
• Attach summary of the author(s) details (name, institution, position) and brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words.
• Submit proposals electronically to ifla2011.il.multiculturality@gmail.com no later than January 25, 2011 and indicate “IFLA proposal” in the subject line.
• Selected presenters will be notified by March 7, 2011.

Papers

Presenters will be expected to submit final versions of their papers by May 1, 2011. Papers should be in English (or in one of the official IFLA languages, with an English translation attached). The language of the session will be English. Presenters will have 15 minutes at the programme to deliver summaries of their papers, and time will be allowed for an open forum to allow audience interaction.

Please note that the Programme Committee has no funds to assist prospective authors: abstracts should only be submitted on the understanding that the expenses of the attending the San Juan conference (including travel, expenses and conference fee) will be the responsibility of the authors(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers. Some national professional associations may be able to help fund certain expenses, and a small number of grants for conference attendance may be available.

For more information, please contact Stephen Stratton (stephen.stratton@csuci.edu) or Zuza Wiorogórska (z.d.wiorogorska@uw.edu.pl)

Submissions

All proposals must be in before 25 January 2011.

Please note

All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation can be issued to authors.

© ifla.org

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IFLA Manifesto for Digital libraries

Bridging the Digital Divide: making the world’s cultural and scientific heritage accessible to all

The digital divide is an information divide

Bridging the digital divide is a key factor in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. Access to information resources and the means of communication supports health and education as much as cultural and economic development.

The dissemination of information enables citizens to participate in life-long learning and education. Information about the world’s achievements allows everyone to participate constructively in the development of their own social environment.

Equal access to the cultural and scientific heritage of mankind is every person’s right and helps promote learning and understanding of the richness and diversity of the world, not only for the present generation, but also for the generations to come.

Libraries have long been essential agents in fostering peace and human values. Libraries now operate digitally, and their digital services open up a new channel to the universe of knowledge and information, connecting cultures across geographical and social boundaries.

Digital libraries

A digital library is an online collection of digital objects, of assured quality, that are created or collected and managed according to internationally accepted principles for collection development and made accessible in a coherent and sustainable manner, supported by services necessary to allow users to retrieve and exploit the resources.

A digital library forms an integral part of the services of a library, applying new technology to provide access to digital collections. Within a digital library collections are created, managed and made accessible in such a way that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities.

A collaborative digital library allows public and research libraries to form a network of digital information in response to the needs of the Information Society. The systems of all partners in a collaborative digital library must be able to interoperate.

A digital library complements digital archives and initiatives for the preservation of information resources.

Mission and Goals

The mission of the digital library is to give direct access to information resources, both digital and non-digital, in a structured and authoritative manner and thus to link information technology, education and culture in contemporary library service. To fulfil this mission the following goals are pursued:

• Supporting digitisation, access to and preservation of cultural and scientific heritage.
• Providing access for all users to the information resources collected by libraries , while respecting intellectual property rights.
• Creating interoperable digital library systems to promote open standards and access.
• Supporting the pivotal role of libraries and information services in the promotion of common standards and best practices.
• Creating awareness of the urgent need to ensure the permanent accessibility of digital material.
• Linking digital libraries to high-speed research and development networks.
• Taking advantage of the increasing convergence of communications media and institutional roles to create and disseminate digital content.

Content creation, access and preservation

Building a digital library requires sources of content in digital form, whether digitised or born-digital content.

Many countries have created national digitisation programmes, and more will do so, as agreed by the World Summit on the Information Society¹. IFLA strongly supports and encourages both national and international digitisation strategies as well as single library and partnership initiatives. Digitisation allows the creation of virtual collections bringing together material across continents. Digitisation also has a preservation role in the case of deteriorating original documents and media.
The products of digitisation themselves must be preserved, just as born-digital material must be preserved. All digital library initiatives must include plans for digital preservation by an appropriate authority.

The digital library serves as an environment to bring together collections, services, and people in support of the full life cycle of creation, dissemination, use and preservation of data, information and knowledge.

Interoperability and sustainability are key to the vision of digital libraries able to communicate with each other. Digital libraries that conform to commonly agreed open standards and protocols improve world-wide knowledge dissemination and access.

Implementing the Manifesto

IFLA encourages national governments, intergovernmental organisations and sponsors to recognise the strategic importance of digital libraries and to actively support their development. Contributions to large-scale digitisation programmes serve to make cultural and scientific information resources more widely available, and advance national and international digital library initiatives that will be sustainable over time.

Specific legislation and financial support from national and local governments is required to bridge the digital divide and to ensure sustainable access. Any long-term strategy must aim to bridge the digital divide and to strengthen the development of education, literacy, culture – and most of all – to provide access to information.

Bridging the digital divide also implies the need for action by the appropriate authorities to incorporate information literacy into education curricula, and to raise awareness that much valuable information from the past is not in digital form.

IFLA encourages libraries to collaborate with other cultural and scientific heritage institutions to provide rich and diverse digital resources that support education and research, tourism and the creative industries.

Consultation with rights owners and other stakeholders is essential. Designers and implementers of digital libraries should consult fully with indigenous communities, whose tangible and intangible cultural heritage it is proposed to digitise, to ensure that their rights and wishes are respected. The implementation of the digital library must also support equity of access to the content by meeting the special needs of people with disabilities.

Authorities should be aware that active planning for digital libraries at any level (national, regional and local) should cover the following issues:

• Trained personnel
• Adequate buildings and facilities
• Integrated planning for libraries and archives
• Funding
• Target setting

National e-strategies, as recommended by the World Summit on the Information Society², could establish a firm basis for planning digital libraries.

Revised version endorsed by the IFLA Governing Board
2010

disclaimer: this a property of IFLA.org

FMI has the right to edit any foreign article in order to meet our ethics

Copyright Law

By Mark F. Radcliffe and Diane Brinson of DLA Piper LLP (US)

Introduction

Copyright law in the U.S. is based on the Copyright Act of 1976, a federal statute that went into effect on January 1, 1978. We’ll refer to this statute throughout the book as the Copyright Act.

States cannot enact their own laws to protect the same rights as the rights provided by the Copyright Act. For example, a state cannot pass a law to extend copyright protection on works in the state beyond the term of protection given by the Copyright Act. State “copyright” laws exist, but they are limited to works that cannot be protected under federal copyright law. (Requirements for federal protection are discussed in “Standards,” later in these materials.)

Copyright law is important for multimedia developers and publishers for two reasons:

• Original multimedia works are protected by copyright. The Copyright Act’s exclusive rights provision gives developers and publishers the right to control unauthorized exploitation of their works.

• Multimedia works are created by combining “content” – music, text, graphics, illustrations, photographs, software – that is protected under copyright law. Developers and publishers must avoid infringing copyrights owned by others.

Types of Works Protected by Copyright

Copyright law protects “works of authorship.” The Copyright Act states that works of authorship include the following types of works:

• Literary works. Novels, nonfiction prose, poetry, newspaper articles and newspapers, magazine articles and magazines, computer software, software documentation and manuals, training manuals, manuals, catalogs, brochures, ads (text), and compilations such as business directories
• Musical works. Songs, advertising jingles, and instrumentals.
• Dramatic works. Plays, operas, and skits.
• Pantomimes and choreographic works. Ballets, modern dance, jazz dance, and mime works.
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works. Photographs, posters, maps, paintings, drawings, graphic art, display ads, cartoon strips and cartoon characters, stuffed animals, statues, paintings, and works of fine art.
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual works. Movies, documentaries, travelogues, training films and videos, television shows, television ads, and interactive multimedia works.
• Sound recordings. Recordings of music, sounds, or words.
• Architectural works. Building designs, whether in the form of architectural plans, drawings, or the constructed building itself.

Standards

To receive copyright protection, a work must be “original” and must be “fixed” in a tangible medium of expression. Certain types of works are not copyrightable.

Originality

The originality requirement is not stringent: A work is original in the copyright sense if it owes its origin to the author and was not copied from some preexisting work. A work can be original without being novel or unique.

Example: Betsy’s book How to Lose Weight is original in the copyright sense so long as Betsy did not create her book by copying existing material – even if it’s the millionth book to be written on the subject of weight loss.

Only minimal creativity is required to meet the originality requirement. No artistic merit or beauty is required.

A work can incorporate preexisting material and still be original. When preexisting material is incorporated into a new work, the copyright on the new work covers only the original material contributed by the author.

Example: Developer’s multimedia work incorporates a number of photographs that were made by Photographer (who gave Developer permission to use the photographs in the multimedia work). The multimedia work as a whole owes its origin to Developer, but the photographs do not. The copyright on the multimedia work does not cover the photographs, just the material created by Developer.

Facts owe their origin to no one and so are not original. A compilation of facts (a work formed by collecting and assembling data) is protected by copyright only to the extent of the author’s originality in the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the facts.

Example: Ralph created a neighborhood phone directory for his neighborhood by going door-to-door and getting his neighbors’ names and phone numbers. The directory’s facts (names and phone numbers) are not original. Ralph’s selection of facts was not original (he “selected” every household in the neighborhood). His coordination and arrangement of facts (alphabetical order by last name) is routine rather than original. The directory is not protected by copyright.

Fixation

According to Section 101 of the Copyright Act, a work is “fixed” when it is made “sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.” It makes no difference what the form, manner, or medium is. An author can “fix” words, for example, by writing them down, typing them on an old-fashioned typewriter, dictating them into a tape recorder, or entering them into a computer. A live television broadcast is “fixed” if it is recorded simultaneously with the transmission.

Uncopyrightable Works

Works prepared by federal government officers and employees as part of their official duties are not protected by copyright. Consequently, federal statutes (the Copyright Act, for example) and regulations are not protected by copyright. This rule does not apply to works created by state government officers and employees.The design of a useful article is protected by copyright only if, and to the extent that, the design “incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article.” For example, while a “normal” belt buckle is not protected, a three-dimensional belt-buckle design with a dolphin shape qualifies for limited protection.

Uncopyrightable works and works for which copyright protection has ended are referred to as “public domain” works. (These works are discussed in “Public Domain Works,” Chapter 9.)

Procedure for Getting Protection

Copyright protection arises automatically when an original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Registration with the Copyright Office is optional (but you have to register before you file an infringement suit).The use of copyright notice is optional for works distributed after March 1, 1989. Copyright notice can take any of these three forms:

1. © followed by a date and name.
2. “Copyright” followed by a date and name.
3. “Copr.” followed by a date and name.

The Exclusive Rights

A copyright owner has five exclusive rights in the copyrighted work:

1. Reproduction Right. The reproduction right is the right to copy, duplicate, transcribe, or imitate the work in fixed form.
2. Modification Right. The modification right (also known as the derivative works right) is the right to modify the work to create a new work. A new work that is based on a preexisting work is known as a “derivative work.”
3. Distribution Right. The distribution right is the right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, or lending.
4. Public Performance Right. The public performance right is the right to recite, play, dance, act, or show the work at public place or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work’s images in sequence is considered “performance.”
5. Public Display Right. The public display right is the right to show a copy of the work directly or by means of a film, slide, or television image at a public place or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work’s images out of sequence is considered “display.”

Infringement

Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of a copyright owner is an infringer.

Example: Developer scanned Photographer’s copyrighted photograph, altered the image by using digital editing software, and included the altered version of the photograph in a multimedia work that Developer sold to consumers. If Developer used Photographer’s photograph without permission, Developer infringed Photographer’s copyright by violating the reproduction right (scanning the photograph), the modification right (altering the photograph), and the distribution right (selling the altered photograph as part of the multimedia work).

A copyright owner can recover actual or, in some cases, statutory damages from an infringer. The federal district courts have the power to issue injunctions (orders) to prevent or restrain copyright infringement and to order the impoundment and destruction of infringing copies.

Duration of the Rights

Under current law, the copyright term for works created by individuals is the life of the author plus 70 years. The copyright term for “works made for hire” is 95 years from the date of first “publication” (distribution of copies to the general public) or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first. Works made for hire are works created by employees for employers and certain types of specially commissioned works (see “The Work Made for Hire Rule” in the Ownership of Copyright materials.).

LIMITATIONS ON THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS

The copyright owner’s exclusive rights are subject to a number of exceptions and limitations that give others the right to make limited use of a copyrighted work. Major exceptions and limitations are outlined in this section.

Ideas

Copyright protects only against the unauthorized taking of a protected work’s “expression.” It does not extend to the work’s ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries.

Facts

A work’s facts are not protected by copyright, even if the author spent large amounts of time, effort, and money discovering those facts. Copyright protects originality, not effort or “sweat of the brow.”

Independent Creation

A copyright owner has no recourse against another person who, working independently, creates an exact duplicate of the copyrighted work. The independent creation of a similar work or even an exact duplicate does not violate any of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights.

Fair Use

The “fair use” of a copyrighted work, including use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. Copyright owners are, by law, deemed to consent to fair use of their works by others. The Copyright Act does not define fair use. Instead, whether a use is fair use is determined by balancing these factors:

• The purpose and character of the use.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use on the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

International Protection

U.S. authors automatically receive copyright protection in all countries that are parties to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, or parties to the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). Most countries belong to at least one of these conventions. Members of the two international copyright conventions have agreed to give nationals of member countries the same level of copyright protection they give their own nationals. Example: Publisher has discovered that bootleg copies of one of its multimedia works are being sold in England. Because the United Kingdom is a member of the Berne Convention and the UCC, Publisher’s work is automatically protected by copyright in England. When Publisher files a copyright infringement action in England against the bootlegger, Publisher will be given the same rights that an English copyright owner would be given.

Works of foreign authors who are nationals of Berne or UCC- member countries automatically receive copyright protection in the U.S., as do works first published in a Berne Convention or UCC country. Unpublished works are subject to copyright protection in the U.S. without regard to the nationality or domicile of the author

 

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what were the objectives of revising AACR1 of 1967 and show the extent to which they reflected in AACR2

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
School : Education
Department : Library And Information Science
Name : Wilson Manyuira Wanja
Reg no :
Unit name : Cataloguing 1
Unit code : Blis 102
Task : what were the objectives of revising AACR1 of 1967 and show the extent to which they reflected in AACR2
Lecturer : Mr E.M . Kibuga
Date of
Submission : 5.11.2010
Question: what were the objectives of revising AACR1 of 1967 and show the extent to which they reflected in AACR2

INTRODUCTION
A cataloguing code is basically a set of rules for guidance of a cataloguer in establishing headings and preparing entries for a catalogue. Cataloguing codes have evolved from being shallow in description- i.e. covering only a few areas- to coverage of many areas and using more detailed rules for description.
Among other cataloguing codes Anglo-American cataloguing rules(AACR) 1967 was as a result of evolving of AA(1908) and ALA 1949. the major loophole of the AACR1967 is it being published in two different texts. i.e. North American text and British text. Certain developments after the publishing of AACR 1967 pointed/prompted/necessitude the desirability for its revision.
The first development was the rapid progress toward the formulation of international standards for the description of monographs, serials and other media indicated need for revision so that the code will facilitate the effort to promote international exchange of bibliographic data. second development was the need to have rules that will cater for non book material. The third reason was to address the divergence of points between the separate north American text and the British text. Another goal was top make the code more in tune to computer capabilities. Also the announcement by the library of congress of its intention to abandon the policy of superimposition prompted for its revision.
A memorandum of agreement of 1966 between the American library association and library association provided a means of continuing revision by these two bodies of the AACR 1967 texts of publications so that appropriate action by amendment and addition may be taken, to deal with any problems encountered by users on account either of errors and ambiguities or of changing circumstances.
On initiatives of American library association and library association there took place at American library association(ALA) headquarters in Chicago march 1974, a tripartite meeting mandated to draw up a new memorandum of agreement and to complete the planning of the project for the second edition of AACR. Among others, four major principals/objectives were established in the new memorandum of agreement (tripartite meeting) and also set up Joint steering committee of AACR(JSCAACR) which was mandated the duty of revising AACR.

OBJECTIVES AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY ARE REFLECTED.

1. To reconcile in a single text the North American and British text of 1967.
During the three years before the 2nd world war, the British and Americans had started preparations for a revised AA code, but the British then became preoccupied with a rather larger international event, with the result that the revision emerged as an ALA draft. Similarly separate texts of AACR1(1967) were published. i.e. north American text and British text with notable divergence in the separate texts. In the process of reconciling the north American and the British texts, it was decided to use British spelling of words if the British spelling appears, As an alternative in Webster’s third new international dictionary of the language unabridged. In cases where terminologies differs, British usages were chosen in some case ( e.g. full stop instead of period)/ while American usages appear in other cases e.g. parenthesis instead of the British brackets.
Also chapters 6,12 and 14 of AACR north American text were revised so as to move hand in hand with the British text. i.e. rules on separately published monographs, audiovisual media& special institutional material and sound recordings.
Another change important to note was to use a firmly established English form of name rather than the vernacular from for many well known names e.g. Horace instead of its original Greek form Horiatis.

2. To incorporate in the single text all amendments and changes that has already been agreed and implemented under the previous mechanisms.
After the establishment of the joint steering committee for AACR it was considered appropriate and fundamental to incorporate in the single text all amendments and changes that had already been agreed on and implemented. One of the major changes that had already been done/ agreed on was removal of the policy of superimposition. This was after the library of congress (LC) had threatened/ announced its intention to abandon the policy as a measure towards the development of itself (LC). This eased the fear of research libraries to a great extent and also non book material authors. Among other agreements that had been agreed on include, agreement in choice of access points and necessity to base entry of work on the statement that appears on the title page.

3. To consider for inclusion in AACR all proposal for amendment currently under discussion.
Despite the many changes and amendments that had already been done on AACR, it was still necessary for the JSCAACR to sit again- on a round table-and consider for inclusion numerous proposals that had been forwarded by different library associations and also by various intellectuals/scholars. One major justification of their meeting was the fact that the universe of knowledge was experiencing information explosion. Everyday new documents/publications were released each posing a extra challenge to cataloguers considering that many/all literature released were totally different in terms of intellectual property/specific subject matter. It had already been agreed that rules for cataloguing would be relatively simple, partly because they would not attempt to cover exceptional and unusual cases. Non essentials would be given little or no attention and cataloguers will be expected to use their judgment but not to expect a rule or a precedent to guide them at all time. another major agreement was cataloguing of work based on intellectual responsibility rather than types of work or any other type of work that is used as its substitute.. i.e. classes of names rather than classes of people. Another important area of change was in the form of entry for corporate bodies.

4. To provide international interest in AACR by facilitating its use in other countries other than the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
a set of rules named “ Paris principles” had been formulated at the international conference on cataloguing principles held in Paris (1961). Also the international standards for bibliographic description (ISBD). Were written after the international meeting of cataloguing experts held in Copen Hagen, Denmark under the aegis of international federation of library associations (IFLA). Perhaps the most significant change was the application of international standards of description based on ISBD, to descriptive monographs, audio-visual media, and special instructional materials. ISBD facilitates the international exchange of bibliographic data/description, assigning an order of these elements in the entry and specifying a system of symbols to be used in punctuating these elements.
Conclusion
The AACR during its early, present and even future is considered to have been and will be a revolutionalizing cataloguing code in the world and its universe of knowledge. It has been/and is still being revised under the able hands of the joint steering committee of AACR(JSCAACR) and at the moment they are working on a new one RPD( ) which when out is thought to become the best in terms of incorporating all needs for non book material. This is targeted bearing in mind that libraries and other information materials are slowly but gradually drifting from overreliance on book material to the more modern and efficient audiovisual media/ material

Bibliography
1. Chan Lois Mai and Joan S. Mitchell. Dewey decimal classification: principles and application.(3rd ed ) Dublin, Ohio : OCLC. 2003.

2. Dewey Decimal Classification System. www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/dewey.html

3. David F ,Kohl. Cataloguing And Catalogues: A Hand Book For Librarians.California , Oxford publishers 1942.

4. Taylor G. Arlene. Introduction to Classification and cataloguing. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.2006.

5. Horner, John. Cataloguing. London: Association of Assistant Librarians.1970.

6. Chan Lois Mai. Cataloguing and classification: An introduction.(2nd ed) Singapore: McGraw hill. 1994.

7. Inlner S.Sheilab And Jean Weins. Standard cataloguing for school and public libraries.(3rd ed) Englewood.Colo: Libraries Unlimited.2001.

this work was an assignment of wilson manyuira on cataloguing. he is a student of librarianship at kenyatta university in Kenya

years books and alamanacs

Exercise 3

1. I was watching a Gomer Pyle episode the other day and I heard Gomer say to Sgt. Carter: “What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Golly – did he make that up himself?

Source: The Columbia World of Quotations at http://www.bartleby.com/66/

I searched for the words What a tangled web we weave as Full Text (other search choices were Author and Category). Three results came up and Sir Walter Scott appears to be the originator – the other two made changes or additions to the original quote.

Attribution: Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Scottish novelist, poet. Marmion, canto. 6, stanza. 17 (1808).

J.R. Pope, in A Word of Encouragement, added to this the lines, “But when we’ve practised quite a while/How vastly we improve our style.”

2. A friend of mine is thinking about entering the MLIS program at San José State. He’s currently working as an LTA (library technical assistant) but understands he can earn more as a librarian, once he has his Master’s degree. How much more can he expect to earn? What kinds of additional responsibilities should he expect to take on?

The Occupational Outlook Handbook http://www.bls.gov/oco is the place to go for this information. They offer a simple search box. When I input librarian, 8 results came up, including librarians and library technicians. The entire monographs for librarians http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm and technicians http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos113.htm are quite lengthy. I have excerpted them below.

Median annual earnings of library technicians in May 2004 were $24,940.
Median annual earnings of librarians in May 2004 were $45,900.

Nature of Library Technician Work
Library technicians both help librarians acquire, prepare, and organize material and assist users in finding information. Library technicians usually work under the supervision of a librarian, although they work independently in certain situations. Technicians in small libraries handle a range of duties; those in large libraries usually specialize. As libraries increasingly use new technologies—such as CD-ROM, the Internet, virtual libraries, and automated databases—the duties of library technicians will expand and evolve accordingly. Library technicians are assuming greater responsibilities, in some cases taking on tasks previously performed by librarians.

Nature of Librarian Work (note how much longer this section is!)
Most librarian positions incorporate three aspects of library work: User services, technical services, and administrative services. Still, even librarians specializing in one of these areas have other responsibilities. Librarians in user services, such as reference and children’s librarians, work with patrons to help them find the information they need. The job involves analyzing users’ needs to determine what information is appropriate, as well as searching for, acquiring, and providing the information. The job also includes an instructional role, such as showing users how to access information. For example, librarians commonly help users navigate the Internet so they can search for relevant information efficiently. Librarians in technical services, such as acquisitions and cataloguing, acquire and prepare materials for use and often do not deal directly with the public. Librarians in administrative services oversee the management and planning of libraries: negotiate contracts for services, materials, and equipment; supervise library employees; perform public-relations and fundraising duties; prepare budgets; and direct activities to ensure that everything functions properly.

In small libraries or information centers, librarians usually handle all aspects of the work. They read book reviews, publishers’ announcements, and catalogues to keep up with current literature and other available resources, and they select and purchase materials from publishers, wholesalers, and distributors. Librarians prepare new materials by classifying them by subject matter and describe books and other library materials to make them easy to find. Librarians supervise assistants, who prepare cards, computer records, or other access tools that direct users to resources. In large libraries, librarians often specialize in a single area, such as acquisitions, cataloguing, bibliography, reference, special collections, or administration. Teamwork is increasingly important to ensure quality service to the public.

Librarians also compile lists of books, periodicals, articles, and audiovisual materials on particular subjects; analyze collections; and recommend materials. They collect and organize books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and other materials in a specific field, such as rare books, genealogy, or music. In addition, they coordinate programs such as storytelling for children and literacy skills and book talks for adults, conduct classes, publicize services, provide reference help, write grants, and oversee other administrative matters.

Librarians with computer and information systems skills can work as automated-systems librarians, planning and operating computer systems, and as information architects, designing information storage and retrieval systems and developing procedures for collecting, organizing, interpreting, and classifying information. These librarians analyze and plan for future information needs. The increasing use of automated information systems is enabling librarians to focus on administrative and budgeting responsibilities, grant writing, and specialized research requests, while delegating more technical and user services responsibilities to technicians.

3. It’s ten minutes before closing time when a young girl walks into the library and says, “Our Spanish teacher gave everybody one English word that comes from Spanish. He said we have to figure out what word it comes from and what that means in Spanish. And my word is something like… buck-er-ooh. Can you help me? I really need this for our class tomorrow!”

It sounds like the English word is commonly known as buckaroo today. It comes from a Spanish word vaquero, or a man who works with vacas (cows). I found a detailed description of the word’s background in the online Oxford English Dictionary, with examples of how it was used. My search was simply buckeroo in the simple search and the online dictionary figured it out for me (even typing buckeroo in MS Word caused the correct spelling buckaroo to present itself).

buckaroo, buckayro
Also bakhara, buckeroo, buckhara, etc. [Corruption of VAQUERO.]
1827 W. B. DEWEES Let. 16 Jan. in Lett. fr. Texas (1852) 66 These [rancheros] are surrounded by..peons and bakharas, or herdsmen.
1889 Century Dict., Buckayro…(Western U.S.).
1890 FARMER Slang, Buckhara (American), a name given in California to a cattle-driver or cowboy.
1904 N.Y. Tribune 17 July, He was herding a big bunch of cattle there with the help of half a dozen buckayros.

vaquero
[Sp. (= Pg. vaqueiro), f. vaca cow. Cf. Prov. vaquier, F. vacher, and It. vaccaro, med.L. vaccrius.]

1. In Spanish America: A cowboy or cowherd; a herdsman or cattle-driver.

4. An older woman approaches the reference desk, looking tired and worried. She says, “My husband was recently diagnosed with dementia, but they say it’s not Alzheimer’s. What’s the difference? Also, the doctor has just put him on Desyrel; I’d like to find more information about this drug, please.”

The Physician’s Desk Reference’s PDR health website is one resource for information about drugs that are available. This website is different from the print version you might find in the library in that is specifically designed for patient use. http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/rxdrugprofiles/drugs/des1128.shtml

Typing in the drug name yields a drug monograph that describes the drug in various sections:

Why is Desyrel prescribed?
Most important fact about Desyrel
How should you take Desyrel?
Desyrel side effects
Special warnings about Desyrel
Possible food and drug interactions when taking Desyrel

5. The following message appears in your Ask a Librarian e-mail: “I need information about Mauritius for a social studies report. Thanks. Adam.” Please recommend 2 useful reference sources for Adam (and remember – he may need a bit of instruction in using them).

I LOVE the CIA World Factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ and hope to turn Adam on to it as well. They have a nifty pull-down menu where you can find a country by name and it pops up a page that is divided up into the following sections: Introduction, Geography, People, Government, Economy, Communications, Transportation, Military, Transnational Issues. It also has the country’s flag and numerous maps.

Another easy-to-use source is the freely-available Information Please Almanac http://www.infoplease.com/almanacs.html. You simply type the name of the country into the search box and select from a list of results. The results can sometimes be confusing, but for a simple search like a country name, the first result is usually pretty good.

6. A middle school student is doing a report on the musician Prince for his class and wants to know: “What’s his real name?” Oh, and his teacher says he needs several sources for this report; please identify 3 reference sources where he could quickly find biographical information about Prince.

I wanted to show the student the value of using the library’s online resources, so I first tried the online American National Biography (ANB), but it did not contain Prince. I resorted to the three easy, free, online sources below. Each allowed me to simply type in Prince and yielded the correct person with little to no scrolling. The nice thing about ANB is that it has search limits such as the person’s field (or “realm of renown”), place of birth, and range of dates for birth or death.

Biography.com http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9447278
Prince (1958– ) stage name by which Prince Roger Nelson is most widely known

Biographical dictionary http://www.s9.com/biography/search.html
Prince (orig. Prince Rogers Nelson; the Purple One, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, TAFKAP, the Artist)

Who2 http://who2.com/prince.html
Prince: Name at birth: Prince Roger Nelson

7. You get a phone call from a bar (you can hear glasses clinking and loud laughter in the background). A man’s voice slurs the following: “Hey, library person! Can you help us out with a bet here? I’m sayin’ that Australian lady, Yvonne Goolagong, was a Wimbledon champion in singles and in doubles, and my buddy here says she wasn’t. Who’s right?”

I first tried the free web sources used in question 6. After no hits in 2 of them, I did a google search to verify the spelling of the name and found it to be Evonne Goolagong. I re-searched the free resources and still came up with zero.

The Biography Resource Center (via SJ Library) gave me a record from Great Women in Sports. Visible Ink Press, 1996. The answer is “singles only at Wimbledon.”

CAREER
Won the French Open and Wimbledon singles competition, 1971; won Australian Open singles competition, 1974-77; won Australian Open doubles crown, 1971, 1974, 1975, and 1976; helped Australia to win Federation Cups, 1971, 1973, and 1974; won Wimbledon singles competition, 1980.

8. A serious looking student comes into the library and says: “I have to do a paper on Beowulf for my Honors English class, and I think I want to write about Anglo-Saxon warfare and weapons. When we were reading it I saw that they use a variation of the word ‘sword’ in there. Where does that word come from? When was it first used in the English language?”

The online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) via SJSU databases is a great place for the answer about where sword was first used in the English language. It lists the first usage as being from Beowulf in the year 971 ad.: Beowulf 2638 (Gr.) Helmas and heard sweord. 971

I’m going to give you two choices of resources for the etymology and you can choose how deep you’d like to go: Webster’s unabridged (see citation below) gives a fine, quick answer; the OED goes way in depth. Webster’s gives a great explanation of how to read the etymology. The OED is not so clear, but I’ve downloaded their entire Help pdf, so that we can try to decipher it, as needed.

Webster’s:
[ME swerd, sword, fr. OE sweord; akin to OHG swert sword, ON sverth, Av xvara wound; basic meaning: to cut, stab]
Quick translation: Middle English from Old English; related to words in Old High German, Old Norse, and Avestan (a language from Iran in the pre-Christian era).

OED:
[OE. sweord str. n. = OS., OFris. swerd, MLG. swert, MDu. swaert (Du. zwaard), OHG., MHG. swert (G. schwert), ON. sver (Sw. svärd, Da. sverd):OTeut. *swerdom.]

Gove, P.B. (1993). Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc.

In Webster’s I looked up sword alphabetically and used the Explanation and Abbreviations sections at the front of the volume. I also looked up the definition of Avestan.

In the online OED, I searched for sword and clicked on the Etymology and Date chart buttons to find the two answers.

9. An undergraduate approaches the reference desk. She is doing a paper on the year she was born (1987) and wants to know: what are two major political events, one major scientific event, and one major artistic or musical event that happened that year? Please see if you can help her locate this information using only one source.

-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Gen. Sec. Mikhail Gorbachev of the U.S.S.R. signed (Dec. 1987) the INF disarmament treaty.
-The Iran-contra affair (Oliver North’s TV testimony, July 1987) was a major political scandal.
-A vaccine for certain types of meningitis was introduced by Gordon, et al.
-Les Misérables opened on Broadway.

First I tried Britannica Book of the Year online, but it doesn’t appear to go back to 1987. I also tried Facts on File World News Digest via LexisNexis, but I was not pleased with its searching options and despite having a date range limit, it did not yield many good results.

The above results came from the World Almanac and Book Of Facts online via LexisNexis. I wasn’t in love with the results, but I was able to find them pretty easily. I first searched for 1987 (222 hits) and then refined three times by adding the keywords politics (6 hits), science (4 hits), and art (25 hits).

Either after this quick search—or likely instead of it—I would guide the student to the print edition of the various yearbooks (Britannica Book of the Year, Europa World Year Book, etc.) that the library owns where browsing is likely to yield better results than the online resources.

10. For your birthday, a friend who loves the fact that you’re in library school gives you a little book he found at a garage sale: The seven joys of reading, by Mary Plummer. As you read it, you find yourself wanting to know more about Ms. Plummer. Where might you find a brief biography of her – one that includes a bibliography of additional readings? And if you find you want to do some serious research – what archives hold material about her?

I first used the Biography Resource Center online via SJPL databases. The search is simply by author’s name. Only one Mary Plummer came up. The biography was sufficient, but the bibliography was rather scant, so I moved on to American National Biography online via SJSU. It fit the bill exactly.

Bibliography
Archives pertaining to Mary Wright Plummer are in the Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn, N.Y., which contains correspondence to the administrators of Pratt Institute as well as to her family and friends, photographs, and drafts and copies of her publications. Material concerning her management of the library school at the New York Public Library is split between the New York Public Library Archives and Special Collections of the Columbia University Library. The archives of the American Library Association at the University of Illinois in Urbana can be consulted for her work in that organization. Some biographical material, as well as an evaluation of Plummer’s contribution to librarianship, is in “Memorial Meeting for Mary Wright Plummer,” Library Journal 41 (Dec. 1916): 889-91, and in a pamphlet, Meeting in Memory of Mary Wright Plummer, Stuart Room, New York Public Library . . . (1916). A brief comment on her life is in Anne Carroll Moore, “Mary Wright Plummer, 1856-1916,” Bulletin of Bibliography 14 (1930): 1-3. An obituary is in the New York Times, 22 Sept. 1916.

11. Unabridged or desk dictionary comparison (worth 20 points!): Please compare two of the unabridged or desk dictionaries on the source list. You may find the discussion of how to compare dictionaries (B&S pp. 412-413) useful.

Gove, P.B. (1993). Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (3rd ed.). Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster.

This is a very large, unabridged dictionary whose goal is to be “a prime linguistic aid to interpreting the culture and civilization [of the English speaking world] of today.” This 3rd edition from 1993 is based on the 1961 2nd edition. It is 2662 pages long and contains over 450,000 words and 6 million examples of recorded usage, i.e., quotes of the words as used in printed works. It contains extensive explanatory notes that are useful, but are relatively complicated and require the user to dive in wholeheartedly. This includes a daunting pronunciation guide and help in reading the each part of an entry: etymologies, status labels, verbal illustrations, etc. It highlights the inclusion of taxonomic entries and scientific and technical terms, including employing specialists to prepare them. I’ve owned this dictionary for years (It was a gift) and I love it.

Plusses: It pretty much has everything, word-wise; one-page pronunciation guide is good for general use; verbal illustrations give the user context to common usage (e.g. practicing …); extensive examples of recorded use give further context and are generally pretty cool.
Minuses: No in-depth usage notes (see discussion of Random House); complete pronunciation guide is difficult to wade through; explanatory notes are complicated.

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (2nd ed.). (2001). New York: Random House.

The goal of this dictionary is “to meet the wide-ranging needs of today’s students and scholars, who study ancient documents one day and surf the Internet the next; of professional writers, who craft poems or write articles for technical journals; of businesspeople, who need to communicate clearly, whether face-to-face or fax-to-fax; and–above all–the needs of word lovers.” It is not quite as large as the Merriam-Webster (MW) unabridged, containing 315,000 entries in 2229 pages. Further dwarfing its coverage of words is that those entries include a multitude of non-word entries that are absent in the MW book. In fact, Random House (RH) takes pride in a different focus.

This dictionary has a feel that it is meant for the user, rather than just to be about the language. It contains numerous entries, sections, spot maps, and illustrations that seem more likely housed in an almanac: “Entries for important and famous people; for places, historical events; major works of literature, music and art; names and abbreviations of academic, governmental, social, and fraternal organizations; popular given names; common abbreviations; and foreign terms. Entries and definitions for current place names, reflecting recent political and geographical changes worldwide.” Endangered species are identified. A Basic Manual of Style is included in the back. Features such as “Guidelines for avoiding insensitive and offensive language in both writing and speaking” and the “List of Words Commonly Confused” make this book quite different from your average dictionary.

Plusses: Exceptional usage notes (e.g., the fact that the verb forms of impact are relatively new [it used to be only a noun]; the difference between prescriptive and descriptive uses of the words farther and further [can you tell I’m in my element?]); very user-friendly How to Use section; simple half-page pronunciation chart; excellent lengthy pronunciation guide, including discussion of the differences between the system RH uses and IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) – I’m a former linguist and I was very impressed with this section.

Minuses: New words section is rather small (1000 entries); why waste space with things such as lists of wedding anniversary gifts, birthstones, airport codes, lakes of the world? I wouldn’t go to a dictionary for these and I’d rather have more words!

Don’t tell my old Merriam-Webster, but I really like this Random House dictionary.

I did a comparison look-up of six words: impact; travesty; farther; further; pome; and expletive. I’ve gone on too long already, so I’ll keep this part brief. Generally, MW did a fine job listing traditionally accepted uses of the words, but anything additional that I was looking for was missing. The usage notes in RH fill in the gaps and puts words in the context of their histories (see above examples under RH plusses). MW sometimes had more detailed etymologies, but RH etymologies almost always contain dates, that are lacking in MW. Neither dictionary had a usage note for travesty which is very commonly misused. Despite the great usage note for farther/further in RH, the entry for further contained contradictory information.