Search results

Most academic libraries probably have in their collections, either in reference or as circulating titles, several of the works generally and rather imprecisely known as library handbooks or guides. These may include such standards as Jean Key Gates' Guide to the Use of Books and Libraries, now in its fourth edition, as well as more ephemeral efforts produced in‐house by the staffs of individual libraries and made commercially available to other institutions.

In the 1990s, North American archivists and records managers shifted some of their concern with electronic records and record keeping systems to conducting research about the nature of these records and systems. This essay describes one of the major research projects at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, supported with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Specifically, the essay focuses on the project's four main products: recordkeeping functional requirements, production rules to support the requirements, metadata specifications for record keeping, and the warrant reflecting the professional and societal endorsement of the concept of the recordkeeping functional requirements.

National Health Service cooks and trainee cooks have been competing in the 1985 Flour Advisory Bureau 60p Menu Challenge, and recently the winners of the competition were announced.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that research governance processes in the National Health Service (NHS) are having on the conduct of research that involves a national survey and to point to ways that existing processes may develop to facilitate such research.

The paper describes the experiences of a research team of seeking approval in 357 NHS organisations to carry out a national postal survey to investigate specialist services and specialist staffing for older people in England in the wake of recent policy developments. Through reflection on this experience, the team propose approaches for the development of existing research governance processes. The national survey was the first stage of the study, which was followed by a detailed investigation of the development of specialist service provision for older people in six case study sites across England. The national survey aimed to map specialist service provision for older people by identifying the range of service models, agency and professional involvements, and nature of the case load in statutory services (health and social care), independent and voluntary sector organisations.

Of the 357 NHS organisations approached for approval to carry out the survey within the organisation, this was achieved only in 247 organisations over 12 months. Many organisations were facilitative of the process; however, protracted and extensive approval processes in others led to long delays and redesigning of the research that was commissioned by the Department of Health.

The paper is of value in that it highlights processes and practices that hinder research and builds on those that work well.

This new measure of consumer law of some forty‐odd sections, a short Act by present standards but as far‐reaching as any legislation since the war, establishes a code of conduct in commerce and trade which few will be able to ignore, from the manufacturer down to the counter‐hand. Operative from November 30th of this year, traders will require to urgently consider their sales practices, advertising, labelling and their trade descriptions; sales staff will need to be instructed in their new responsibilities. The new law is not just for consumer‐retailer transactions, but extends to trade between different branches of all trades, so that a retailer will be protected against misleading descriptions and misrepresentations by a manufacturer and the latter against misdescriptions of ingredients or components.

IRRADIATED FOODS An international conference on the acceptance, control of and trade in irradiated foods was held in Geneva at the end of 1988. A new EEC directive on irradiated food was discussed and Consumers' Association food expert, Anna Bradley claimed that the UK ban on food irradiation must stay in force until there is a test that can detect whether or not food had been so treated. She also called for more information on the effects of irradiation on food before the ban is lifted.

Laurel Richardson's academic autobiography from preschool to Professor Emerita.

Purpose – Recent theoretical analyses examining the intersection of race, class, and gender have resulted in exciting new epistemological frameworks in the social sciences. However, feminist researchers have yet to articulate concrete strategies for capturing this intersectionality empirically.

Methodology – On the basis of ethnographic research conducted in Cuba, we build on previous feminist epistemological insights and begin to develop methodological strategies that can be used to capture the intersection of race, class, and gender in the context of cross-cultural research.

Findings – The major contribution of our work is the articulation of theoretical insights into methodological guidelines that can guide research both inside the United States, the site where much of this theorizing takes place, and beyond our borders.

Research limitations – The primary limitation of our research is the lack of collaboration with Cuban researchers. Given the political rancor between the United States and Cuba, and limitations on their academic freedom, is difficult to work with Cuban scholars without compromising their security. Cuban scholars who are critical of the state are fearful of potential reprisals.

Originality – Nonetheless, our work provides a unique analysis of how to capture the intersection of race, class, and gender empirically from a cross-cultural perspective.

THE CLASSLESS STATE, considered by many to be socially ideal, is only achieved in the world of books by fiction. Rivalling the marketing boards in zeal, librarians passionately mark down eggs to the fifth place after the decimal (641.665 13) and, deaf to the entreaties of geographers, callously separate Mother Earth from her children. Why, then, should the most individualistic form of writing enjoy a sequestered Stellen‐bosch? Is P. G. Wodehouse neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring that he must be denied a number—a privilege accorded him even in the concentration camp? Must Harriet Beecher Stowe rub shoulders with Gertrude Stein and James Janeway doss down with Jerome K. Jerome? It is hard luck for squares, who have moved in such different circles, to have to toe the party line, when, being immortal, they might reasonably expect to be given the freedom of the Heavenly City.