IT WAS KNOWN as the Legation Bungalow. It was single storeyed, white, and buitt to a Colonial style. It had shady verandas, it was set in pleasant grounds, and, in the…
CRUS (the Centre for Research on User Studies) started operations on 5 January 1976 as an independent research institute attached to the University of Sheffield and funded for its…
Abstract
CRUS (the Centre for Research on User Studies) started operations on 5 January 1976 as an independent research institute attached to the University of Sheffield and funded for its first five years by a grant from the British Library. From a purely utilitarian and financial aspect any library and information centre has to justify its existence from a cost‐benefit point of view, and therefore has to be responsive to the information needs of the community it serves. Thus the ‘determination of users' needs is absolutely essential to the management of an information center …. [It] exists only to provide service to user groups, and its monetary value is in terms of the service to the group[s] that it helps’.
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians who are not necessarily music specialists to four books on a subset of American popular song literature (“the American…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians who are not necessarily music specialists to four books on a subset of American popular song literature (“the American songbook” or “standards”), all of which assume some degree of musical literacy on the reader's part. This assumption sets these books apart from most writing on the subject, and the paper suggest reasons why this is the case.
Design/methodology/approach
The books are grouped into pairs. The first two books are by a single author whose previous scholarship may make his interest in the American songbook seem surprising. In the other pair the second book is both a continuation of the first and a response to it. In both pairs the earlier book breaks new ground.
Findings
All four books should be regarded as essential parts of a library's music literature collection. The first book discussed is more technical than the others, but its pioneering status makes it a landmark.
Originality/value
The author's research indicates that the oldest of the books considered was not discussed in scholarly journals until many years after its publication, while the most recent appears to have received only glancing consideration in peer‐reviewed literature.
Details
Keywords
Ancient and universal, fantasy was most likely the first mainstream literature rather than the naturalism later recognized as mainstream. Every generation of every culture tells…
Abstract
Ancient and universal, fantasy was most likely the first mainstream literature rather than the naturalism later recognized as mainstream. Every generation of every culture tells and retells tales based on psychological archetypes, the elements of fantasy. For instance, the Celtic tale “Leir and His Daughters” has been reworked and updated by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Diana Paxson (The Serpent's Tooth, Morrow, 1991). One of the old English/Scottish ballads collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century (Child ballad No. 37) has recently reappeared as the novel Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (Morrow, 1991). Similarly, retellings of the Arthurian legend are legion, from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Malory to Tennyson to such modern writers as T.H. White, Mary Stewart, Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon, Knopf, 1982), and Guy Gavriel Kay (The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road, Collins, 1986).
Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming and Allan Bunch
CLEARLY, I should have kept my trap shut last December, instead of expressing a hope for some snow over the Christmas holidays—in the month since then there has been little else…
Abstract
CLEARLY, I should have kept my trap shut last December, instead of expressing a hope for some snow over the Christmas holidays—in the month since then there has been little else descend from the skies, and my dear wife is already querying why we should spend vast sums of money on travelling to Austria in February for conditions readily available, as I write, on Hampstead Heath.
A VERY interesting winter lies ahead for all students and other librarians; for, we suppose, almost immediately attempts will be made to harmonize the practice of the Library…
Abstract
A VERY interesting winter lies ahead for all students and other librarians; for, we suppose, almost immediately attempts will be made to harmonize the practice of the Library Association with the expressed wishes of its last Annual Meeting. We publish some notes in Letters on Our Affairs on the crisis, if it may be so called, but we would add such voice as we have to that of those who plead for moderation. Violent changes are rarely justified, and violent expressions still less rarely, and as there appears to be now a disposition to bury hatchets and to get to work we hope that every advantage will be taken of it.
Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera
The purpose of this paper is to consider three types of stories: media, personal accounts and fiction, and look for plots depicting situations of fundamental shift in the framing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider three types of stories: media, personal accounts and fiction, and look for plots depicting situations of fundamental shift in the framing and basic definitions of reality. The authors examine them from the point of view of their usefulness for developing creative responses to systemic change.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a narrative study in three stages, aimed at identifying strong plots pertaining to systemic change. The analyzed material came from three different sources of narratives (fiction, media and creative stories) and was approached by the use of two different narrative methods: symbolic interpretation and narrative collage.
Findings
Currently many voices are being raised that the authors are living in times of interregnum, a period in between working systems. There is also a mounting critique of the business school as an institution perpetuating dysfunctional ideologies, rather than enhancing critical and creative thinking. The authors propose that the humanities, and, in particular, learning from fiction (and science fiction) can offer a language to talk about major (systemic) change help and support learning about alternative organizational realities.
Research limitations/implications
The study pertains to discourse and narratives, not to material aspects of culture construction.
Practical implications
Today, there is a mounting critique of business schools and their role in society. Following Martin Parker’s call to transform them into schools of organizing, helping to develop and discuss different alternatives instead of reproducing the dominant model, the authors suggest that education should be based, to much larger extent than until now, on the humanities. The authors propose educational programmes including the study of fiction and film.
Social implications
The authors propose that the humanities (and the study of fiction) can equip society with a suitable language to discuss and problematize systemic change.
Originality/value
This paper adds to narrative social studies through providing an analysis of strong plots showing ways of coping with systemic collapse, and through an examination of these plots’ significance for organizational education, learning, and planning. The authors present an argument for the broader use of fiction as a sensemaking, teaching, and learning tool for managing organizations in volatile environments.
Details
Keywords
IN THESE days, when all around us are cries of ‘woe! woe!’ because of the cuts in local government spending and the effects these are having on public libraries, it is as well to…
Abstract
IN THESE days, when all around us are cries of ‘woe! woe!’ because of the cuts in local government spending and the effects these are having on public libraries, it is as well to look back to another time of depression (and, indeed, earlier) to see what life in our libraries was like then. If it is difficult today, when establishments are cut by simply not filling vacant posts (like leaving drain covers off for people to fall down, it is so casual in effect), how much more difficult it was to keep one's chin up forty to fifty years ago! Yet chins were held high, beliefs in the worthwhileness of our job were maintained, and the service was kept going.