CLEAR: Community Leaders Enhancing Area Rivers, 2008

This monthly report from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is about the water quality management of Iowa's rivers, streams and lakes

Making Sense of Leased Popular Literature Collections

There is a well-publicized debate in the library field on whether or not it should be an academic library’s responsibility to collect and preserve popular culture materials. Budget constraints, space issues, and the “quality” of these materials, are all widely documented concerns as to why popular culture materials—especially popular literature titles—are still not making their way into an academic library’s permanent collection. This study describes a survey of 22 academic libraries throughout the country that use a leased popular literature collection in addition to or instead of purchasing popular literature titles for their permanent collection. The study was designed to answer the following research questions and others: Why do academic libraries choose to use a leasing plan to provide a popular literature collection for their users? What are the values/benefits these collections provide for the library and its users

Making Sense of Leased Popular Literature Collections

There is a well-publicized debate in the library field on whether or not it should be an academic library’s responsibility to collect and preserve popular culture materials. Budget constraints, space issues, and the “quality” of these materials, are all widely documented concerns as to why popular culture materials—especially popular literature titles—are still not making their way into an academic library’s permanent collection. This study describes a survey of 22 academic libraries throughout the country that use a leased popular literature collection in addition to or instead of purchasing popular literature titles for their permanent collection. The study was designed to answer the following research questions and others: Why do academic libraries choose to use a leasing plan to provide a popular literature collection for their users? What are the values/benefits these collections provide for the library and its users

The Poetics of Trash

This practice-led research is situated at the margins of human perception and the materiality of trash. I argue that trash has been culturally constructed to be marginalized, if not completely invisible, contributing to its denial and proliferation. My site-specific approach investigates trash and spatial ruin sites, seeking out the potentiality of the materiality by employing the media of sculpture, video, photography and assemblage. The Poetics of Trash is comprised of three artworks: a slow-motion video of a discarded industrial waste, a monumental pile of trash brought into the gallery, and back-lit photographs of hyper-detailed images of trash. By deploying the artistic strategies of immersion, gilding and juxtaposition, I subvert the binaries clearing a space for the viewer to reconceptualise trash and ruminate on back-end production. This thesis provides a critical analysis of garbage through contemporary theoretical discourse while revealing the contributions of artistic practice to re-imagining the possibilities of garbage