History of Library and Information Sciences

The following paper will trace the recently established field of Information Ethics through it’s various evolutions, from it’s origins in Librarianship to it’s role as a global player in areas as diverse as technology, media, global humanitarianism, and the philosophy of information. The praxis of the field will be outlined for the uninitiated reader, followed by an intimate history of the founding players and their continued contribution to this ever-evolving field. The current evolutions of Information Ethics will then be explored in the context of their application to the viral global phenomena of Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE), and finally, the paper will conclude with projections towards future evolutions in Information Ethics, as well as an exploration of potential definitions for the field.

In this article, using a brief historical excursion investigated the role of the medieval (XIII-XIV centuries) the first research institutions in Azerbaijan – the Maragha observatory and its library in the development of Azerbaijan culture and library science in the period of their activity.

В этой статье  с использованием короткого экскурса исследована роль периодического фонда Национальной библиотеки Азербайджана имени М.Ф.Ахундова в развитии Азербайджанской культуры и науки в период 85 летней деятельности.
In this article, using a short digression, the role of the periodical fund of the Azerbaijan National Library named after M.F.Akhundov in the development of Azerbaijan culture and science during the period of 85 years of activity has been studied.

In questo saggio sono illustrati alcuni documenti presenti in Italia, nella speranza che possano essere di stimolo agli studiosi per una ricostruzione organica dell'attività di Giuseppe Praga come bibliotecario, da inquadrarsi nella fervida vita culturale che caratterizzava la città dalmata di Zara prima della Seconda Guerra Mondiale.
Draft of the paper "Giuseppe Praga bibliotecario" published in Atti e Memorie della Società Dalmata di Storia Patria (Roma), 2, 3a serie (vol. XXXV), 2013, pp. 117-151 [ISSN 2281-6348]. Giuseppe Praga was an Italian librarian and scholar, who worked in Zara and (after the Second World War) in Venice.

Alberto Petrucciani. Una "scuola romana" anche per i bibliotecari? Domenico Gnoli tra collaboratori e "allievi".  In: Al regno di Romolo succede quello di Numa: Domenico Gnoli direttore della Biblioteca nazionale centrale (1881-1909), atti a cura di Silvana De Capua. Roma: Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma, 2017, p. 45-78 (Quaderni della Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma; 21). Atti del convegno tenuto presso la Biblioteca il 15 marzo 2016.

Biography of the librarian Pietro Zorzanello, director of the Marciana Library, by Stefano Trovato, published in "Dizionario biografico dei soprintendenti bibliografici (1919-1972)", Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2011, pp. 622-627 [ISBN 978-88-7395-659-4]

Diversity residency librarian programs are post-MLIS programs aimed at providing recently graduated professionals with real work experience, with the expressed goal of recruiting and retaining a more-diverse workforce in professional librarianship.
This mixed-method study is one of the first empirical studies examining diversity residencies, which – at the time of this writing – have existed for over 30 years. The study identifies concerns raised in the mostly anecdotal literature about diversity residencies, and 102 individuals identified as current or former diversity resident librarians participated in the quantitative portion of the study. In the quantitative portion of this study, there were four factors derived from the literature that correlated positively and significantly with the residents’ overall views of their residency experiences. Those four factors were:
1. Quality of effort as perceived by the resident that administration and/or residency coordinators dedicated to garnering support for the residency from library faculty and staff.
2. Perceived quality of assessment practices of the residency program.
3. Level of professionalism of job duties expected of the diversity resident.
4. Perceived effectiveness of the residency in preparing the diversity resident for his or her next professional appointment.
In the qualitative portion of this study, 11 current or former diversity residents were interviewed and six emergent themes arose wherein diversity residents encountered satisfaction or dissatisfaction when certain elements were present in the residency experience. 
The six emergent themes were:
1. Knowledge of who the residents are, what the residency is, and why it was established combats institutional hostilities and confusion, reducing resident dissatisfaction. 
2. Diversity residents can avoid dissatisfaction with appropriate guidance and support from coordinators, supervisors and administrators. 
3. Opportunities to perform meaningful, challenging, and innovative work can generate satisfaction in diversity residents. 
4. Job dissatisfaction occurs with lack of assessment, unpreparedness, and failure to communicate residency intent to residents. 
5. Satisfaction emerges when a resident achieves growth and “advancement” during the term that appears to improve future job outlook. 
6. Effective Mentorship Practices Can Remove Job Dissatisfaction During the Residency Appointment.

The attempt to establish a unified taxonomy for the field of Information Ethics is both unattainable and unwarranted. The categorization of Information Ethics as a defined discipline, an applicable practice, a philosophy and a worldview remains constantly in flux due to, what Luciano Floridi terms, ‘philosophical naturalism’. As such, a broadening understanding of the field will only serve to further collapse categorization. The following paper will outline, using a discourse analysis methodology, how the nature of the field of Information Ethics at a foundational level must necessarily defy classification. The assumptions behind the current classifications of the field will be questioned. Beginning with the history of the inception of the field through Librarianship and Cybernetics and questioning the yet unresolved ontological debates between information philosophers such as Rafael Capurro and Floridi, this paper will explicate how any such attempt to develop an agreed upon taxonomy will and should always remain incomplete.

L'articolo studia le politiche di acquisto dei libri d'arte e d'architetteura da parte delle due Biblioteche nazionali, quella parigina e quella milanese di Brera, durante il periodo rivoluzionario e imperiale. Partendo dal dato materiale e quantitativo, l'analisi si sviluppa cercando di cogliere la portata politica e culturale di tali acquisti, in particolare rispetto all'uso dell'antico. 

L'articolo è volutamente incompleto per rispettare i diritti di autore

Discoveries in high energy physics have led to new understanding about the nature of that which exists. We use the metaphor of the particle collider to accumulate components of a theory of knowledge that underlies the science of knowledge organization. We outline the concepts of a knowledge universe, the central role of concepts, and the intertwining roles of works, instantiations and documents. This thought experiment provides a different epistemological reading of “knowledge” by demonstrating a semantics that is based on structure and on related forces between components, rather than on content, so as to enable the development of mechanisms for linking related knowledge entities with so-far undiscovered similarities.

Past & Present has uploaded all audiorecordings of our conference on Transforming Information: Record Keeping in the Early Modern World, 9-10 April 2014, British Academy: http://bit.ly/1wakqVW. All papers from the two days are now online, so I’ve uploaded the programme again for reference.

This article addresses an unexamined facet of the institutional history of James Joyce's Ulysses: its accession in the closing months of 1922 into the holdings of the United Kingdom's six copyright libraries. It charts when and how these accessions were made, and what they reveal about the marketing, circulation, and readership of Joyce's novel in the United Kingdom at the height of its suppression. By examining the legislative conditions which rendered the legal deposit of Ulysses possible and desirable for Joyce in 1922, it offers a more nuanced sense of how Joyce and his contemporaries sought to infiltrate (and found themselves willingly assimilated into) a crucial institutional stronghold of Britain's dominant cultural order. In doing so, it complicates traditional narratives of the clash between an autonomous avant-garde and a nebulously-conceived ‘censor’ by exploring the mediating role the copyright libraries and the mechanisms of legal deposit played in such disputes.

Access via: https://academic.oup.com/library/article/18/2/131/3872275/Illegal-Deposits-Ulysses-and-the-Copyright?guestAccessKey=9d1263a5-932c-4a30-9078-570701db5498

Presso la sede della start-up New Digital Frontiers ospitata all’interno del Consorzio ARCA (costituito tra l’Università degli Studi di Palermo e un gruppo imprenditoriale privato per l’applicazione della ricerca e la creazione di aziende innovative votate alla ricerca scientifica) si è svolto un esperimento di digitalizzazione applicato a un prezioso libro manoscritto.
La start-up New Digital Frontiers è stata recentemente creata con la volontà di sperimentare in modo concreto l’approccio innovativo delle tecnologie informatiche al mondo della ricerca storica e umanistica in generale. Nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca BookAlive, della partnership con InformAmuse s.r.l. e della collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Culture e Società, la start-up New Digital Frontiers si è dotata di una particolare tipologia di scanner appositamente scelta sul mercato per le sue caratteristiche: si tratta dello scanner “ScanSnap SV600” della Fujitsu, un modello che rappresenta un buon compromesso tra caratteristiche hardware e costi. Trattandosi di un compatto scanner a sviluppo verticale, esso offre l’essenza di uno scanner planetario (presenta, infatti, l’unità ottica di acquisizione delle immagini e le sorgenti di illuminazione a luce fredda LED all’interno di una particolare testa mobile posta al di sopra dell’area di scansione) in un connubio senz’altro positivo tra costo d’acquisto e dimensioni del dispositivo.
Il dottor Fabio Cusimano - specializzato in studi medievali, sul libro antico e in Digital Humanities, collaboratore del Dipartimento di Culture e Società nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca BookAlive - ha realizzato la riproduzione digitale integrale di un prezioso volume manoscritto databile intorno al XV-XVI secolo e appartenente al patrimonio librario (Fondo Fitalia) della Biblioteca della Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria di Palermo: si tratta del manoscritto di cui alla segnatura “Mss. I.D.9”, cc. 1r-199r, catalogato con il titolo Faccius. De rebus gestarum Alphonsi regis.
Dopo un attento esame del volume, delle caratteristiche meccaniche della legatura (una legatura di restauro risalente approssimativamente al XIX secolo) e dello stato di conservazione dell’intero corpo delle carte (che, nelle fasi del restauro, ha subito un intervento di rifilatura sui tagli di testa, davanti e di piede, tutti spruzzati in verde), si è proceduto all’avvio del processo di digitalizzazione, nel corso del quale si sono potute apprezzare le caratteristiche positive dello scanner: l’area utile di scansione (libera e fruibile con semplicità fino al formato A3) ha permesso un ottimale posizionamento in piano del volume, nel pieno rispetto delle caratteristiche meccaniche della legatura; la qualità delle riproduzioni digitali (settabile in ogni parametro, come la risoluzione ottica in dpi, la profondità di colore, il formato grafico finale, ecc.) ha concesso l’opportunità di scegliere un giusto compromesso tra qualità e fruibilità: le riproduzioni digitali – destinate a costituire una copia sostitutiva per necessità di ricerca – sono state effettuate a una risoluzione di 300 dpi, in scala di grigi, formato JPEG.
L’intero processo di digitalizzazione è stato gestito con la massima semplicità, avendo sempre cura di manipolare il volume nel modo migliore possibile: proprio in questo caso lo scanner si è dimostrato particolarmente adatto ed efficace, poiché ha consentito di non forzare mai l’apertura delle pagine e soprattutto non ha sottoposto le stesse allo stress meccanico di una pressione di un piano in vetro, come spesso accade con l’utilizzo di altri dispositivi; l’illuminazione, garantita da due lampade a luce fredda LED, ha contribuito a illuminare in modo uniforme e progressivo l’intera area di scansione, non sottoponendo le carte a un dannoso irraggiamento UV. Il risultato finale è stato ottimale: sono state rapidamente realizzate più di duecento immagini digitali (con una velocità di acquisizione di circa tre secondi per ogni singola esposizione), raggiungendo una qualità finale adeguata alle necessità di leggibilità e ingrandimento delle stesse per motivi di studio; il contrasto cromatico della modalità in scala di grigi ha reso possibile la riproduzione omogenea del corpo del testo, vergato a più mani con un inchiostro bruno, delle parti rubricate (incipit ed explicit delle parti in cui l’opera è suddivisa), delle numerose glosse e note manoscritte apposte sui margini esterni e interni delle pagine da anonimi studiosi nel corso dei secoli, così come delle capitali decorate e di alcune decorazioni.

On the history in 1913-1914 of the manuscript (now at Yale University Library) of Cotrugli's De navigatione. Draft of the article "Il manoscritto de navigatione di Benedetto Cotrugli in Marciana: cronaca di un acquisto mancato tra 1913 e 1914", published in “Studi Veneziani” n. s. 57 (2009), pp. 549-556 [ISSN 0392-0437].

In 1873 the Kingdom of Italy, after the conquest of Rome, confiscated the properties of the Church, including the Cistercian library of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: thus began the “war of codes”. The collection was really very precious: not only medieval manuscripts and rare printed books, but also modern manuscripts of considerable interest. These volumes, that are a tangible testimony of the theological and cultural interests of the monks, show traces of the life within the walls of the monastery and offer an original look at the Roman Cistercian reality during the last centuries of the papal dominion over the Urbe.

In the United States, scholars rarely see manuscripts and incunabula in their original bindings. Most texts in American rare book collections have been rebound at least once, if not many times, between the time they were created and the present day. Rebinding is therefore an important point to consider in the study of these objects. When and why did it occur? How were decisions made, and who made them? What informed the practice of rebinding? This paper attempts to contextualize the practice of rebinding in the early twentieth century in America – a time when American collectors were particularly interested in the acquisition of rare books – by using the rebinding practices at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (now the Morgan Library & Museum) as a case study. From 1908 until 1958, much of the rebinding work for the Morgan was carried out by one person – Marguerite Duprez Lahey (1880-1958). Duprez Lahey, born in Brooklyn to a well-to-do family, took up bookbinding as a hobby at the turn of the twentieth century. She studied under several French bookbinders and finishers before beginning her employment at the Morgan. Despite being widely hailed at the time as the best bookbinder in America, she did not receive formal apprenticeship training and from today's viewpoint, many of her bindings are idiosyncratic and problematic. A study of the Morgan archives reveals that Duprez Lahey was not the sole decision maker in rebinding manuscripts – John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) and his son, John Pierpont (Jack) Morgan, Jr., (1867-1943) as well as Belle da Costa Greene (1883-1950), the Morgan's first librarian and director, played active roles in the eventual fate of the books. Their decisions, in turn, were influenced by aesthetics, a possible concern for durability, and the way in which best practices were understood at the time. Conservation is a very young field, and book conservation is an even more recent development. At the time Duprez Lahey was practicing, conservation ethics were not yet codified. The practice of rebinding rare books had not received the depth of attention that it has today. As such, Duprez Lahey's work was necessarily limited by the knowledge available to the binder and her employers. While a lack of documentation makes it difficult to determine exactly why specific books were chosen for rebinding over others, or why certain books were bound in certain styles, an examination of rebinding practices at the Morgan during the first half of the twentieth century offers a glimpse into practices in a library at the forefront of the book world at the time. It provides a new understanding of the relationship between bookbinder and collector, the various influences (artistic and economic) on bookbinders, and the aesthetic values of the collectors of the era.

Drawing on his own experience as a user of oral history recordings and as an interviewer, the author reflects on the lasting value of such recordings for researchers in all kinds of fields. Examples are given of oral history interviews being used to supplement other documentary sources, as well as providing the basis for entire printed or broadcast publications. The author concludes that without the skilful harvesting of people's memories, valuable research resources will be lost. The advent of digital recordings will help make oral history resources even more accessible to researchers.

This article addresses an unexamined facet of the institutional history of James Joyce's Ulysses: its accession in the closing months of 1922 into the holdings of the United Kingdom's six copyright libraries. It charts when and how these accessions were made, and what they reveal about the marketing, circulation, and readership of Joyce's novel in the United Kingdom at the height of its suppression. By examining the legislative conditions which rendered the legal deposit of Ulysses possible and desirable for Joyce in 1922, it offers a more nuanced sense of how Joyce and his contemporaries sought to infiltrate (and found themselves willingly assimilated into) a crucial institutional stronghold of Britain's dominant cultural order. In doing so, it complicates traditional narratives of the clash between an autonomous avant-garde and a nebulously-conceived ‘censor’ by exploring the mediating role the copyright libraries and the mechanisms of legal deposit played in such ...

În anul 324 Sfântul Constantin cel Mare (306-337) este proclamat ca unic împărat al Imperiului Roman. Odată cu acest eveniment îşi va alege o nouă capitală în locule Romei şi anume: fosta colonie grecească Byzantion de pe malul Bosforului. Construcţia noii capitale a durat aproximativ 6 ani iar în ziua de 11 mai 330 a fost inaugurarea oficială. Pe lângă clădirile cele mai importante ale oraşului a fost inaugurată şi biblioteca imperială, ce îl are ca fondator pe însuşi împăratul Constantin.
Întemeierea bibliotecii imperială reprezintă incipitul celorlalte tipuri de biblioteci, care vor exista în Imperiul Bizantin până la căderea sub turci din anul 1453. Tipurile de biblioteci care au existat în Bizanţ sunt următoarele: imperială, patriarhală, monastică şi particulară. La aceste 4 tipuri de biblioteci am adăugat-o şi pe cea universitară, despre care se crede că a existat la Universitatea din Constantinopol, fondată de împăratul Teodosie al II-lea (408-450) în anul 425, fiind numită biblioteca juridică sau a şcolii de drept.
Cele 5 tipuri de biblioteci au cunoscut o evoluţie interesantă de-a lungul celor 11 secole de istorie bizantină dar au fost desfiinţate odată cu căderea Imperiului sub turci, fapt ce a avut loc pe 29 mai 1453. Din acest moment bibliotecile au fost desfiinţate iar colecţiile lor au intrat în biblioteca sultanului Mahomed al II-lea Cuceritorul (1451-1481).

Razprava obravnava prve »javne« knjižnice v Veliki Britaniji v zgodnjem novem veku (16.-19. stoletje) pred prvim pojavom pravih javnih knjižnic sredi 19. stoletja. Na podlagi kritičnega pregleda primarnih virov in sekundarne literature je predstavljen razvoj »javnih« knjižnic v zgodnjem novem veku. Avtor pokaže, kakšen je bil dostop javnosti do knjig v različnih tipih knjižnic, kdo je uporabljal te knjižnice in kakšno literaturo so brali v raznovrstnih knjižnicah. V bistvu je šlo za sočasen razvoj in vpliv: ni se najprej razvila dostopna literatura ali javna knjižnica, ampak je bil njun odnos vedno medsebojno pogojen in sorazmeren. Več poljudne literature je vodilo do večjega zanimanja za branje v javnosti in več javnih knjižnic ter obratno. Čeprav so prve prave javne knjižnice stvar sredine 19. stoletja, je zainteresirana pismena javnost tudi v srednjem in zgodnjem novem veku imela dostop do knjižnic in knjig. Problem je bil »interes« večinsko nepismene javnosti pred industrijsko revolucijo, ko tudi zaradi subsistenčne ekonomije ni bilo dovolj časa za »prostočasne« aktivnosti.

https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/76482

El libro que aquí reseñamos es una compilación realizada por Gilles Bertrand, Anne Cayuela, Christian Del Vento, y Raphaële Mouren que contiene veintidós artículos – precedidos por una introducción – sobre la historia del libro y las bibliotecas en Europa entre los siglos XVI y XIX. La obra, que aúna los esfuerzos de varios centros de investigación del sudeste francés, fue publicada con el apoyo financiero de la extinta región administrativa Ródano-Alpes y es el resultado de dos coloquios internacionales e interdisciplinarios que tuvieron lugar en la Université Grenoble Alpes, en los que participaron investigadores de la talla de Fréderic Barbier. Carlos Alberto González Sánchez, Raphaële Mouren y Pedro Rueda Ramírez. El primero se tituló “Bibliothèques, livres et lectures au XVIIIe siècle” (15-16 de diciembre de 2011) y el segundo fue “Bibliothèques et lecteurs en Europe au XVIIe siêcle. Possession, usages et circulation du livre (Allemagne, Espagne, France et Italia)” (26-27 de marzo de 2013).

https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/76482