Drinking From the Firehose: The Serial's Life Cycle: The Report of its Death has been greatly exaggerated

Opinion piece about the trend of renaming or reorganizing serials units within technical services departments in librarie

Fun With Facebook

Opinion piece about the joys and pitfalls of social networkin

PRODUCING TRADITION: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND DEVELOPMENT IN JORDANIAN OLIVE OIL

This dissertation project examines how value is changed and created through organic certification and the universalizing ideas of capacity building within the olive oil industry in Jordan and how these shifts affect the social and material processes of production. I approach organic olive oil production in Jordan as one method that producers use in accessing markets and capacity building. By shifting from looking strictly at organic certified farms to examining the larger context of capacity building and international standards, I identify how organic is just one strategy in a larger effort to diversify Jordanian agricultural production and to access global markets. However, more work needs to be done to elucidate how development shapes organic and other ‘alternative’ initiatives differently than in European and North American contexts. In order to do this, I incorporate postcolonial critiques of GPN and critical development studies to further our understanding how of these certifications and standards are taken up, challenged, and sometimes abandoned in favor of other production methods in local spaces of the Global South. The local embeddedness of olive oil production and the relative recent history of export provide a unique opportunity for examining how producers, organizations, governments, and universities create new export industries. In order to trace how these capacities are built, this dissertation examines the following questions: how is value redefined as producers try to access distant consumers? What are the material and social strategies? In answering these questions, I examine three types of value: taste/sensory, organic/environmental, and gendered tradition. Through the examination of these values, I found that they were each built through a mechanism: re-asetheticizing local taste, creating a new commodity network, and pushing domestic labor into the public sphere. Each mechanism has intended and unintended consequences for the social relations of production. In summary, this dissertation explores the use (and abandonment) of organic certification within the larger context of development and capacity building in Jordan. In order to explore how value is being created in new ways, the three empirical chapters examine extra virginity, organic certification, and women’s rural organizations. By looking beyond a singular commodity chain, this dissertation examines the processes through which institutional assemblages are formed and destabilized. Therefore, each of the three empirical chapters covers a different aspect of the institutions that are defining value within the larger network of the olive industry. This approach will further our understanding of how quality and conventions function in systems under transition. (Higgins, Dibden, and Cocklin 2008a). Together these findings provide a broad picture of efforts in Jordan to improve and expand the Jordanian olive oil industry. A large aspect of this effort is to produce exportable olive oil. While only a small percentage of producers are exporting, governmental and development networks want to build the capacity of the olive industry so that more farmers are producing to international standards. Through this broad initiative, traditional ideas of quality and the best practices of production are being challenged. These shifts create new networks and products through which rural producers try to capture value. While the overall ramifications of this shift for the average farmer are small now, with further government standardizing, production and its associated social relations could be significantly changed. The traditional farmers who were able to sell within their personal networks may lose their ability to sell flexibly, and simultaneously larger irrigated producers may flourish, having larger environmental impacts

Making beautiful music: The state of the art in mobile technology and how we can make the most of it in libraries

Mobile technology is in a great state of flux and competition and the bar keeps getting set higher. What models of service are leading the pack? Should libraries be providing mobile devices or rather, should libraries be providing content for any kind of device and leave the choice of device to our patrons? This session will explore the most recent trends so that attendees can get a sense of the marketplace and what might work best in their own context. Many libraries are experimenting with handheld readers such as Kindle, Nook and iPads, and at the same time testing out various platforms to deliver e-content (such as Overdrive and 3-M Cloud Library)

Embedding information skills training on student learning: making a difference

This article was first published in the Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses (WIRE). There is no printed version.This embedding project builds on one that was delivered in 2001, headed by Oliver Pritchard, Dudley Learning Centre Manager, leading a research team with staff working from different Learning Centres in the University. In the 2001 project, sessions on information skills were run in three differing subject areas for second and third years and their impact on student learning was assessed using questionnaires and focus groups for students and in-depth interviews with academic staff. Findings were encouraging. Skills and experience gained within the sessions were taken on and applied within assignment work to good effect. Within this small study there is evidence of a progression in student awareness, confidence and skills and Information Skills sessions bring a longer-term, practical and tangible element to the learning experience and are a valuable part of helping students to become more effective learners

Literary Homecoming as Collaboration: Eastern North Carolina Libraries Connect with the Creative Sector

This article describes an academic library’s experience developing and sustaining a literary festival as a collaborative effort. The Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming (ENCLH) is a year-long program of events that celebrates the culture and literature of North Carolina. With activities in 6 counties located in the mid-coastal region of North Carolina, the program provides a rich opportunity for people of this area to learn about and meet North Carolina artists. In the past the program was restricted to artists with connections to Eastern North Carolina, but the program is expanding its coverage in 2011. The program theme for 2011 will focus on the impact of environmental literature on social change. This event has been a successful collaboration between a number of cultural institutions, with Joyner Library at East Carolina University serving as the lead. Federal, state and private grant funding has been secured for several years. Key players in the mix include the editor and staff of the North Carolina Literary Review, along with staff from the local public library and members of the ECU faculty as well as librarians from other regional schools