Tony Willis, Rosemary Suttill, Andrea Swire, Pat Lipinski and Elisabeth Russell‐Taylor
WHEN A biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was returned to Kendal library by post from Oxford University with a stamp on the date label of 5 Feb 1916 no one considered this to be…
Abstract
WHEN A biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was returned to Kendal library by post from Oxford University with a stamp on the date label of 5 Feb 1916 no one considered this to be very startling news. There was a compliment slip inside apologising for the delay (‘It was lurking in one of our darker corners’). I sent them a brief note thanking them, and that I thought was that.
JFW Bryon, ELISABETH RUSSELL TAYLOR, HAZEL TOWNSON and RUTH KERNS
British public librarians have long been ambivalent about fiction stock, accepting its contribution to loans statistics, but reticent, even shamefaced, about its content. Once…
Abstract
British public librarians have long been ambivalent about fiction stock, accepting its contribution to loans statistics, but reticent, even shamefaced, about its content. Once there were frequent articles in the professional press on “the fiction question” as it was called: today there are fewer such, while the volume of research, and the number of conference papers on fiction is disproportionately small compared to the staff time, money and shelf space allotted to it. Whether librarians have made a conscious decision, or the climate of the times has changed, there is now less professional agonizing over novels' role in the book stock. Strangely, however, the result seems to be much the same: observation in a number of libraries suggests that there is still a residual reluctance to accept fiction as a legitimate, important part of the service, needing and deserving as much professional thought and care, and as adequate a level of provision, as the remainder. For example, do stock editors spend as much time, proportionately, to checking the quality of their fiction as they do to subject books.
Elisabeth Russell Taylor, Irene Kingston, A Maltby and Ruth Kerns
I WAS standing in a queue at the till in a department store in London, recently, when a woman in front of me, apparently unprovoked, showered racial abuse over the heads of a…
Abstract
I WAS standing in a queue at the till in a department store in London, recently, when a woman in front of me, apparently unprovoked, showered racial abuse over the heads of a crowd of lunchtime shoppers. She started with the 20th‐century cliché, ‘They should all be sent back where they came from!’, she continued by accusing the despised minority of all manner of depravity and degeneracy, and climaxed with a comparison between Black Britons and jungle beasts—to the latter's advantage.
During the past few years I have attempted unsuccessfully to publish a number of articles on subjects I regard as timely. During the same period I have had eight books published…
Abstract
During the past few years I have attempted unsuccessfully to publish a number of articles on subjects I regard as timely. During the same period I have had eight books published and at least a dozen articles on uncontentious subjects. It would, I feel, be altogether too coincidental if all the articles on socially relevant subjects were illit‐erate, and my other articles and books literate.
‘PLR is not, and was never imagined to be, a cure for the economic anomalies of contemporary authorship’, wrote a supporter in The Author in the summer of 1981. But if there was…
Abstract
‘PLR is not, and was never imagined to be, a cure for the economic anomalies of contemporary authorship’, wrote a supporter in The Author in the summer of 1981. But if there was to be a Bill for authors, that is precisely what it should have addressed itself to, and the defensive tone of the statement suggests the writer knew that was what the majority of authors sought—or, of those responsible for 40,000 titles a year, more would have registered.
Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).
Kingsley Purdam, Aneez Esmail and Elisabeth Garratt
The purpose of this paper is to present findings from research into food insecurity amongst older people aged 50 years and older in the UK.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present findings from research into food insecurity amongst older people aged 50 years and older in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses secondary analysis of national-level survey data and semi-structured interviews with older people receiving emergency food from foodbanks.
Findings
There is a forgotten care gap in the UK where a substantial number of older people are living in food insecurity. Many older people live alone and in poverty, and increasing numbers are constrained in their spending on food and are skipping meals. Food insecurity amongst older people can be hidden. Within families a number of older people were trying to ensure that their children and grandchildren had enough to eat, but were reluctant to ask for help themselves.
Research limitations/implications
The broad categorisation of older people aged 50 and above comprises people in very different circumstances. The qualitative component of the research was undertaken across various sites in a single city in England. Despite these limitations, the analysis provides important insights into the experiences of the many older people enduring food insecurity.
Practical implications
An increased public and professional awareness of food insecurity amongst older people is needed. Increased routine screening for under-nutrition risk is a priority. Policy initiatives are needed that are multifaceted and which support older people across a range of age groups, particularly those living alone.
Social implications
Food insecurity amongst older people in the UK raises questions about the present policy approach and the responsibilities of the government.
Originality/value
The research provides important new insights into the experiences of the many older people experiencing food insecurity in the UK by drawing on survey data and interviews with older people using foodbanks.
Details
Keywords
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined…
Abstract
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.
The difficulties of basing healthcare on literary warrant have been explained in different ways: busy practitioners have no time to read extensively, physical access is difficult…
Abstract
The difficulties of basing healthcare on literary warrant have been explained in different ways: busy practitioners have no time to read extensively, physical access is difficult, and adequate surrogates for texts like indexes, abstracts, systematic reviews are partial in their coverage. The author suggests that a deeper problem of domain conflict must be addressed. This paper reviews problems identified in previous research on evidence‐based nursing practice, which indicates that there are conflicts between medical and nursing domains. EBM (evidence‐based medicine, or “text”) poses challenges for nurses (proponents of “caritas”). An additional surrogate for the medical corpus, the clinical guideline, is discussed. When based on inclusive consultation, this may prove to be a hospitable epistemological bridge for groups whose domains are in conflict. Drawing on “social studies of science” literature, the author explores the provenance and status of the clinical guideline as a “translation artefact” or bridging mechanism, and presents a “snapshot” case study of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network in 1998. She suggests that the clinical guideline is a powerful documentary genre, which links several strands of information science: information retrieval, literary warrant and the politics of classification.