The Selection of a Children's Librarian: OWA (Ordered Weighted Averaging) as a New Model

ABSTRACT

This article aims to demonstrate how to objectively select the best children's librarian from all children's librarian candidates by using OWA (Ordered Weighted Averaging) technique as a new model. Firstly, we described 14 professional criteria that must be met by 4 different candidates (c₁, c₂, c₃, and c₄). Secondly, we determined ‘the importance weights of professional criteria (u)’ and ‘the extent to which the children's librarian candidates meet these criteria (b)’. In order to determine the values of u and b, we changed the linguistic values such as good, bad, or important into the numerical values. Thirdly, we calculated the final performance scores of all children's librarian candidates by using the formula OWA. Finally, we selected the candidate 4 (c₄) who earned the highest score (0,645) in total as the best children's librarian.     

Knowledge and Attitude of Women to HIV/AIDS in a Farming Community in Southwestern Nigeria: Challenges for Public Libraries

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the major setbacks to the achievement of the 2015 millennium development targets in Africa, generally, and Nigeria, in particular, where it is the leading cause of death. In terms of age and gender distribution, the most severely affected are sexually active females in their most economically reproductive years. A greater percentage of the Nigerian population lives in rural areas where there is low access to health information. This study assesses the knowledge level and attitudes of women in a farming community to HIV/AIDS, and suggests intervention strategies by the public libraries to bridge the knowledge gap on HIV/AIDS. This article suggests that public libraries as custodians of knowledge should play a significant role in transmitting information about how to prevent and control HIV/AIDS.     

Quebec's Public Libraries: An Overview of Their History and Current Situation

This article begins with a brief historical review of the establishment of the first public libraries in the province of Quebec and the difficulties and challenges they faced. The Catholic Church played a significant role in library evolution. The article then relates the situation of public libraries in Quebec today. After analyzing their current levels of performance, the article concludes that, although Quebec's libraries have improved, they continue to be held back compared to other Canadian public libraries.     

The Spaces of Children's Programming

In the competitive world of children's programming, networks are under intense pressure to build brand loyalty and increase market share. This essay examines how Fox Kids and the Disney Channel transform electronic space into “place” as a means for carving out brand identity. This transformation of electronic space into place requires strategies that encourage viewers to see electronic spaces as habitable and desirable. While the two networks employ different approaches to the creation of place, they both reproduce familiar ideologies (e.g., individuality as identity) and social arrangements (e.g., families and neighborhoods) to represent a habitable place that can inspire loyalty and even affection from viewers.     

中国图书馆事业的缄默守护者——韦棣华女士遗嘱解析

韦棣华是文华公书林和文华图专的缔造者,其遗嘱作为中国图书馆学史上的重要史料,尚有待充分揭示和探讨。本文在对韦棣华遗嘱内容揭示和文本考证的基础上,结合多方面的史料,对韦棣华遗嘱中的主要诉求进行了深入剖析。韦棣华遗嘱的核心思想在于两方面:拒绝让华中大学掌控文华公书林;坚持文华图专的独立发展。前者是由于文华公书林身负公共图书馆使命,但华中大学欲将文华公书林作为其专属的图书馆,同时这也危及文华图专的独立办学;后者是由于文华图专地位特殊,华中大学既欲对其实现全面管辖,又对文华图专的发展加以限制。韦棣华遗嘱的执行不但捍卫了公共图书馆精神,扫除了文华图专发展的部分障碍,也使韦棣华成为图书馆员职业价值观的引领者。表2。参考文献27。     

The Contradictions of Public Service and Commercialisation in Mid-century South African Broadcasting

This study focuses on the 1950 introduction of the commercial radio station, Springbok Radio, into the South African Broadcasting Corporation, a Commonwealth inspired public service broadcaster (PSB) resulting from the Schoch Commission (1948). The paper argues that the introduction of Springbok Radio was prompted by the financial crisis faced by the Corporation; the broadcaster’s attempt to broaden its appeal beyond elite audiences serviced by PSB; and the national imperative to centralise and control the broadcast sector by dominating it completely. Thus, the study examines the motifs of PSB versus commercialisation; high culture versus popular culture; and nationalism versus internationalisation.     

An Evaluation of Public Library Websites: Describing Children's Services in Japan

ABSTRACT. This study is the first to investigate the amount and type of information about children's services described in Japanese public library websites, with particular reference to the Web pages intended for children, and the extent to which usability is taken into account in the design of these websites. Further, the study analyzes what kinds of content are more prevalent in children's services as described in Japanese public library websites in comparison with the actual delivery of these services. Finally, the study considers the usability of children's Web pages from the perspectives of how easy they are to read and understand.     

Harmonious communitarianism or a rational public sphere: a content analysis of the differences between comments on news stories on Weibo and Facebook

In studying online political communication in China, many researchers apply theories generated in the West (particularly that of the public sphere) without questioning their applicability in the Chinese context. Others argue that new theories must be generated from the ground up, often basing these theories on traditional Chinese philosophies. However, the applicability of these approaches remains unproven. This research uses a content analysis to compare comments on news stories on Chinese and Western social media sites. It finds that there is little evidence to support either the use of public sphere theory in China or the use of traditional conceptions of Eastern styles of communication. Chinese netizens were no more subtle or harmonious (if anything, they were more divisive) and were less likely to talk with others, attempt to understand others’ opinions or attempt to work towards consensus or resolution. Based on these findings, I propose that future research should attempt to build more appropriate theories based on an understanding of how political ideas are actually produced, transmitted and received in society, rather than continuing to apply foreign or ancient theoretical frameworks without a critical interrogation of their applicability in their context of application.     

The Impact of the Wilson Multi-Database Access Product on ILL Requests and Current Periodical Use

With the acquisition of the Wilson Multi-Database Access (MDAS) product, the potential for efficient research processes increased the likelihood of a greater impact of interlibrary of a greater impact on interlibrary requests and current periodical usage. To measure this impact, this study was designed to gather data on ILL requests from titles in the three indexes that comprise the MDAS product. Data waz gathered for comparable time periods prior to the installation of MDAS and afterwards. Similar use data was collected for current periodical issues. This study shows that a potentially greater impact was realized.     

The present status of library services to children and young adults in Japanese public libraries and their future

ABSTRACT

Both Children’s services and Young Adult (YA) services have been recognized as essential in Japanese public libraries. This article reports on the present status of Children’s services and YA services in Japanese public libraries, based on the results of several investigations. These studies show that children’s services in Japanese public libraries already are generally popular. On the other hand, this article indicates that YA services in Japanese public libraries are gradually improving, due to the national recognition of the importance of YA library services. Examples of good practices in Children’s and YA services in Japanese public libraries are described and analyzed to identify the common themes that flow through these innovations. This article concludes with observations about the future involving library services for children and YAs, from the viewpoints of face-to-face traditional services and indirect services through their official websites.     

Changes in Public Library Youth Services: A Content Analysis of Youth Services Job Advertisements

ABSTRACT

This article investigates requirements and responsibilities for public library youth services librarians. Position advertisements were published in American Libraries in five-year increments, from 1971 to 2001. Youth services librarian positions were analyzed as to changes in position titles, education requirements, job responsibilities, and personality characteristics. Findings suggest that the number of advertised youth services positions is increasing, and job titles are changing from the specific “children's services” to the more generalized “youth services.” Advertised responsibilities of the youth services librarian have consistently emphasized collection management and administrative duties, and many advertisements place a heavy emphasis on personality traits.     

The skewness of scientific productivity

This paper exploits a unique 2003–2011 large dataset, indexed by Thomson Reuters, consisting of 17.2 million disambiguated authors classified into 30 broad scientific fields, as well as the 48.2 million articles resulting from a multiplying strategy in which any article co-authored by two or more persons is wholly assigned as many times as necessary to each of them. The dataset is characterized by a large proportion of authors who have their oeuvre in several fields. We measure individual productivity in two ways that are uncorrelated: as the number of articles per person and as the mean citation per article per person in the 2003–2011 period. We analyze the shape of the two types of individual productivity distributions in each field using size- and scale-independent indicators. To assess the skewness of productivity distributions we use a robust index of skewness, as well as the Characteristic Scores and Scales approach. For productivity inequality, we use the coefficient of variation. In each field, we study two samples: the entire population, and what we call “successful authors”, namely, the subset of scientists whose productivity is above their field average. The main result is that, in spite of wide differences in production and citation practices across fields, the shape of field productivity distributions is very similar across fields. The parallelism of the results for the population as a whole and for the subset of successful authors, when productivity is measured as mean citation per article per person, reveals the fractal nature of the skewness of scientific productivity in this case. These results are essentially maintained when any article co-authored by two or more persons is fractionally assigned to each of them.     

Comparative Evaluation of Adolescents' Use of Public Libraries in the Nigerian States of Osun and Oyo

This study compares the utilization by adolescents age 12–17 of public libraries in Osun and Oyo States in Nigeria. The study utilized interviews and a checklist as data-gathering techniques. Some 414 volunteer adolescent users were selected, with males predominating. Of the respondents, 51.7 percent were in the libraries to read their own books. Of the respondents from Oyo State Public Library, 99 percent were aware of library Internet services compared to only 22 percent from Osun State. Users specified two major problems: no good display of library materials and lack of up-to-date materials on subjects in which students were interested. The authors suggest several policy changes to improve adolescent services in the two libraries.     

The development of wireless telecommunications and local governments' policy responses: The U.S. case

The increasing popularity of wireless telephony creates a new set of challenges for local governments as the need for corresponding wireless facilities occurs in direct proportion to this growth. In particular, the influx of new wireless telecommunications providers poses significant challenges for local governments as they carry out their traditional zoning and land use functions.     

The Rise of 'Good Reading' over 'Good Writing': How and why women's magazine fiction changed in the 1950s and 1960s

This article examines the ethos and rationale of The Woman Worker, launched in Britain in September 1907 as the official organ of the all-female trade union, the National Federation of Women Workers (the Federation). As a monthly journal, it was edited and managed by Mary Macarthur, President of the Federation, moving to weekly production in June 1908 with the assistance of Robert Blatchford, founder of the successful socialist newspaper, The Clarion. Under Macarthur, the paper emphasised both the importance of union organisation for women workers and the need for parliamentary legislation to protect them from low pay, victimisation and exploitation in the workplace. It is argued here that although this paper sought to fill a gap in the market, producing a paper that appealed beyond those already converted to the cause of women's organisation was a difficult challenge for Macarthur. Her attempts to provide a readable but didactic paper on a limited budget, relying on Labour colleagues for copy, resulted in a paper that did not always have a clear target readership; it was a union journal seeking broad appeal amongst working-class women but it also reflected the interests of committed labour activists. This arguably resulted in a paper that struggled to achieve its initial aim of binding women workers together.     

读者权利的正当性基础

读者权利是被现代社会普遍确立为法律权利的新兴权利类型,对于读者权利的正当性基础,国内图书馆学界先后以法律规定说、基本权利说、信息自由说、综合基础说等几方面来加以概括,但这些论证都存在着一定的问题。对于现代社会的读者权利而言,其存在的基础主要是正当需求、福利国家、公共物品、社会功利等理论的支撑,由此形成对读者权利的正当性基础的较为完备的论证。     

浅析公共图书馆在构建和谐社会中的任务

在党提出"构建社会主义和谐社会"之后,我们公共图书馆应从自身特点出发,立足当今,依托网络环境,在构建和谐社会中做好服务工作.