Four Bookshelves and a Microphone: Maximizing Collections in a Minimal Space

OSU-Cascades opened a two-building campus in 2016, following several years of co-housing programs and student services (including library services) at Central Oregon Community College. Tykeson Hall was designed to be the first strictly academic building on the new site, with lab space, classrooms, and—tucked away at the end of the second-floor hallway— the library. With the main library area—containing stacks, seating, and computers—only measuring 830 square feet, it’s easy to understand why students are often surprised when first walking into the snack-sized space. With a 20-year background in public libraries, I have experience with both collection development and space management, skills which serve me well as I work on the puzzle of maximizing our limited resources

Beads in the Lives of the Peoples of Southern Togo, West Africa

Beads are objects of infinite diversity among the Mina-Guen of southern Togo. They accompany the people in all the material and spiritual aspects of their existence. However, while the beads serve such varied functions as ornaments, currency and emblems of wealth and prestige, they find their principal use in voodoo

From the Guest Editor

The theme of this issue of the OLA Quarterly, “Collections: New Challenges, New Solutions,” was chosen to reflect the tension between an ever-changing library landscape and the ongoing obstacles that continue to affect the ways in which library collections are built, managed, and marketed. In many ways, library work related to collections looks significantly different today than it did even in the very recent past. Whether it’s responding to record-high levels of book challenges or making collections decisions against a backdrop of rapidly evolving information needs, library workers have been presented with a number of new challenges in their efforts to connect the communities they serve with resources that inform, entertain, and inspire. In spite of these developments, there are some areas of concern related to collections that remain evergreen. These include making impactful use of limited resources, working to provide equitable access to communities that have been historically underserved, and staying up to date on trends in the publishing industry and in the broader field of librarianship. The articles in this issue address these ideas and more, and showcase the creativity and innovation of the people working in Oregon's libraries.&nbsp

Gold-Glass Beads: A Review of the Evidence

The study of gold-glass beads was given a considerable boost in the 1970s by Weinberg's report on their manufacture in Hellenistic Rhodes and by Alekseeva's and Boon's studies on finds from southern Russia and Britain, respectively. Nothing comparable has been published in the intervening years, but scattered new information has appeared. This paper aims to survey and review the available data on manufacturing technique, style, provenience and chronology. An attempt is also made to fit gold-glass beads into the general framework of glass history. The main focus is on the finds of the Mediterranean and related regions in pre-Islamic times. Note is taken of the continuation of the use of gold-glass beads in Medieval Europe. Conclusions drawn are usually only tentative - if not hypothetical - as sufficiently well-documented source material is scarce

Pop-Ups & Pictures: Collections for Cognitive Decline

There is a unique and growing population which is often ignored in public libraries: the elderly, especially those who may be suffering some cognitive decline. They need books, but not just any book. Finding appropriate materials that are easy to follow, comfortable to read, and yet still geared towards adults can be challenging, but it is possible and can really make a difference for this often-overlooked group of patrons

The Beads of Tenth- to Twelfth-Century Hungary

An examination of the beads recovered from three Hungarian cemeteries in use during the 10th-12th centuries resulted in the identification of 61 distinct bead types. Seven of these were found to be significant on the basis of frequency analysis, and represent the beads most used by the local population. The study is enhanced by comparative material from a number of other contemporary archaeological sites in and around the country. The classification system developed for this study is applicable to other geographical areas and time periods, and may be expanded or otherwise modified to suit the needs of other researchers

Lun Bawang Beads

The Lun Bawang and related peoples of east Sarawak, west Sabah and Brunei have a long tradition of using beads for personal ornamentation and as value objects. They share in the general Borneo bead heritage, but follow their own tastes and fashions. Some Lun Bawang have started reproducing their favorite opaque beads from clay to sell as well as to wear on informal occasions. This new cottage industry brings a satisfactory income to the beadmakers, and helps to preserve their heirloom property

Ceramics and Glass Beads as Symbolic Mixed Media in Colonial Native North America

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Native Americans rarely adorned ceramic objects with glass beads, despite the millions of beads introduced by Europeans through trade. Bead-decorated ceramics have been reported from only nine sites in North America, perhaps due to a tendency for archaeologists to overlook or misclassify bead-inlaid pottery. The 40 artifacts represent widely divergent ethnic groups separated from each other culturally, as well as by great distances in space and time. Yet they display a remarkable consistency in the pattern of bead arrangement and use of color. Colored glass beads stand in for human eyes in effigy smoking pipes and white beads encircle the mouths of pottery vessels. Rather than examples of idiosyncratic coincidence, crafters of these objects communicated broadly shared ideological metaphors. These rare artifacts speak to the interconnectedness of ancient Native Americans and to related worldviews developed over centuries of intercommunication involving mutually intelligible symbolic metaphors

The Beads of Cameroon

Glass beads have long played an important role in the art and culture of Cameroon, a country situated on the east side of the Gulf of Guinea in West Central Africa. This article reviews the different kinds of drawn and wound glass beads that have found broad acceptance in west-central Cameroon and discusses their diverse applications. Beads of other materials, as well as cowries and buttons, are also dealt with