Review of Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma, Hellenistic Tragedy

Review of Agnieszka Kotlińska-Toma, Hellenistic Tragedy: Texts, Translations and a Critical Survey. Bloomsbury Classical Studies Monographs. London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2015. Pp. xvi, 322. ISBN 9781472524218. $120.00. Kotlińska-Toma collects and translates the fragments of Greek tragedy of the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC); the study delivers a careful collection of the relevant texts, a descriptive overview of the nature of Hellenistic tragedy, and a summary of the stage conventions of the Hellenistic period, especially their differences from the Classical period

Review of Jessica Priestley, Herodotus & Hellenistic Culture

Review of Jessica Priestley, Herodotus & Hellenistic Culture: Literary Studies in the Reception of the Histories. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xii + 274. Hardcover, $99.00. ISBN 978-0-19-965309-6. Priestley offers a reconsideration of Herodotus’ reception in Hellenistic culture: he prefigures many of the cultural preoccupations of the Hellenistic period, he was in fact widely read and imitated, and it was within Hellenistic culture that he arrives at his Ciceronian status as the ‘father of history’

Open Access and the Humanities: The Case of Classics Journals

Since the earliest pressures to develop open access (OA) options for journal literature were in the fields of science and medicine, the predominant models reflect those origins and fit those disciplines. These models are less applicable to humanities publishing models, which have been slower to embrace open access. Current literature on OA in the humanities focuses on theoretical frameworks and end-user perceptions. This study complements those perspectives by examining current practices in the humanities, specifically, the OA options offered by journals serving the discipline of the classics

Review of Ingo Schaaf, Magie und Ritual bei Apollonios Rhodios

Review of Ingo Schaaf, Magie und Ritual bei Apollonios Rhodios: Studien zu ihrer Form und Funktion in den Argonautika. Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, Bd. 63. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. Pp. viii, 402. ISBN 9783110309485. €119.95. Ingo Schaaf offers an extensive and detailed examination of the treatment of magic and ritual in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. This study fills an important gap in contemporary research on Apollonius, and it promises to place the scholarship on magic in the Argonautica on the same level that geography now enjoys

User Preferences and Library Space at Whitworth University Library

The design of library space is undergoing significant changes in layout and focus. Knowing that understanding a specific library’s user needs is essential to effective planning, many academic institutions have undertaken user studies to establish user needs prior to embarking on redesign, or update of library physical space. Librarians at Whitworth University, a small liberal arts college, conducted an online questionnaire of currently enrolled students to appraise current library use and determine potential areas for improvement based on user needs. The survey revealed some unique characteristics of this user group: use of technology for study, and resource discovery was balanced by preferences for non-digital methods of resource access and use

Modeling the Aesthetic Axis of Information Organization Frameworks, Part 1: Theoretical Basis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework, based on contemporary philosophical aesthetics, from which principled assessments of the aesthetic value of information organization frameworks may be conducted.Design/methodology/approach – This paper identifies appropriate discourses within the field of philosophical aesthetics, constructs from them a framework for assessing aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks. This framework is then applied in two case studies examining the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Sexual Nomenclature: A Thesaurus. Findings – In both information organization frameworks studied, the aesthetic analysis was useful in identifying judgments of the frameworks as aesthetic judgments, in promoting discovery of further areas of aesthetic judgments, and in prompting reflection on the nature of these aesthetic judgments. Research limitations/implications – This study provides proof-of-concept for the aesthetic evaluation of information organization frameworks. Areas of future research are identified as the role of cultural relativism in such aesthetic evaluation and identification of appropriate aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks.Practical implications – By identifying a subset of judgments of information organization frameworks as aesthetic judgments, aesthetic evaluation of such frameworks can be made explicit and principled. Aesthetic judgments can be separated from questions of economic feasibility, functional requirements, and user-orientation. Design and maintenance of information organization frameworks can be based on these principles.Originality/value – This study introduces a new evaluative axis for information organization frameworks based on philosophical aesthetics. By improving the evaluation of such novel frameworks, design and maintenance can be guided by these principles.Keywords Evaluation, Research methods, Analysis, Bibliographic systems, Indexes, Retrieval language

Modeling the Aesthetic Axis of Information Organization Frameworks, Part 2: Case Studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework, based on contemporary philosophical aesthetics, from which principled assessments of the aesthetic value of information organization frameworks may be conducted.Design/methodology/approach – This paper identifies appropriate discourses within the field of philosophical aesthetics, constructs from them a framework for assessing aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks. This framework is then applied in two case studies examining the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Sexual Nomenclature: A Thesaurus. Findings – In both information organization frameworks studied, the aesthetic analysis was useful in identifying judgments of the frameworks as aesthetic judgments, in promoting discovery of further areas of aesthetic judgments, and in prompting reflection on the nature of these aesthetic judgments. Research limitations/implications – This study provides proof-of-concept for the aesthetic evaluation of information organization frameworks. Areas of future research are identified as the role of cultural relativism in such aesthetic evaluation and identification of appropriate aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks.Practical implications – By identifying a subset of judgments of information organization frameworks as aesthetic judgments, aesthetic evaluation of such frameworks can be made explicit and principled. Aesthetic judgments can be separated from questions of economic feasibility, functional requirements, and user-orientation. Design and maintenance of information organization frameworks can be based on these principles.Originality/value – This study introduces a new evaluative axis for information organization frameworks based on philosophical aesthetics. By improving the evaluation of such novel frameworks, design and maintenance can be guided by these principles.Keywords Evaluation, Analysis, Bibliographic systems, Indexes, Retrieval languages, Philosoph