The Microcomputer Catalyst

Microcomputer it is a word many of us first heard only a couple of years ago. Yet the technology this word represents holds promise of tremendous change. The changes catalyzed by microcomputing and its associated technologies may alter the fundamental nature of information handling in all its forms. This, of course, means that libraries and information centers will be profoundly affected by this new technology. This paper attempts to indicate some possible directions of the changes prompted by microcomputing technology. However, these ideas are offered only with the disclaimer that technology in this area is developing so rapidly that no one involved in computing can fully understand its implications. Hardware designers and software engineers involved in microcomputing are themselves still attempting to discern the values and possible uses of microcomputers. The only "given" most would agree upon is the recognition that microcomputers will alter the basic manner in which computers are used and viewed in our society.published or submitted for publicatio

From discussion leader to consumer guide: A century of theater criticism in Chicago newspapers

This article completes a three-part examination of theater critics working for Chicago newspapers during the twentieth century. The first article in the series covered the boomtown period leading up to World War I, and the second article addressed Chicago\u27s rise after 1960 as a regional center for theater covered by fewer newspapers and fewer critics. This article reviews those periods but emphasizes the middle, road town period, which saw a gradually dwindling band of critics functioning as quality control experts, passing judgment on New York road shows. After examining that period, this article uses commodification to consider the changing role of the critic over the entire century. It concludes that while commodification is a useful concept to understand vast changes in the critical landscape, it is neither an irresistible nor an inevitable force

Chicago Newspaper Theater Critics of the Early 20th Century

In the early years of the twentieth century, when live theater dominated the entertainment world and print media led public discourse, each without competition from electronic forms, the daily newspaper theater critic mediated ideas and values quite differently than today’s critics, whose main function has been reduced to that of a consumer guide. This article examines the corps of theater critics who served ten Chicago newspapers about 100 years ago. At a time when news editors were reluctant to cover new ideas and social movements, such as the push for women’s suffrage, theater critics were encountering radical new social ideas from European playwrights. Whether they approved or disapproved—and they did both, vehemently—their open debate with each other provided a level of public conversation of incalculable value in their own time, and largely missing today

A guide to Illiac programming.

Cover title.First ed. has title: Digital computer programming; lecture notes for Mathematics 385.Bibliography: p. 1-3, 247-248