The Handbook of Communication Science

The Handbook of Communication Science, edited by Charles R. Berger, Michael E. Roloff, and David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen was a communication resource that was mentioned in our reading this week, in the article, The Communication Journal Collection.

This handbook is published by Sage, a trusted publisher in academic publications, and it is currently in its second edition. Its 538 pages are divided into 5 parts (Overview, Communication Codes, Fundamental Processes, Functions, and Communication Contexts), and a total of 29 chapters, with both an author and a subject index to make for easier navigation of the book's contents.

Specific chapters in the book reveal the broad scope of coverage that communication is given in the Handbook of Communication Science.  The handbook begins with a broad overview, here the book explores the nature of the discipline in addition to the history of the field.  This overview does not miss the opportunity to draw out certain controversies in the discipline right from the beginning, and even the first part features two chapters explaining alternative routes to studying Communication Science.

Part two, Communication Codes, focuses on two aspects of communication, verbal and non-verbal. The third part, Fundamental Processes, outlines the process of the production of codes and messages in interpersonal communication, as well as in organizational communication. Part four, Functions, is considerably longer, featuring eleven chapters. These chapters cover topics from conflict and resolution, to negotiation and decision making, as well as a couple chapters on the effect of mass media. The final part, Communication Contexts offers seven chapters that discuss different communication contexts, such as health communications, political and campaign communication, and technological and scientific communications.

All together, these five parts produce a rather encompassing and slightly nuanced introduction for a new communication student to help them get their bearings in a complex and highly interdisciplinary field. These chapters should help to serve as a springboard for new students and will help them to know where their particular area of interest might lie for future research projects and classwork.  Each chapter features different authors, most of the chapters are collaborative efforts, and this should help to ensure that the work features arguments from different perspectives within the discipline and help to eliminate potential biases that might have arisen in any particular scholar's communication theory.

Charles R. Berger, one of the book's editors, is no stranger to writing in the communication field. His Wikipedia page states that he has published over 100 books and articles in the field, and a search in Kent Link reveals that Kent State University Library has around 21 books by Dr. Berger on communication.

Inclusive and exclusive disciplines

This week we read an interesting article about building a communication journal collection in a discipline that is at odds with itself as to what actually constitutes its boundaries.  In "The Communication Journal Collection," author Dawn Popoff explains the complication surrounding defining the new academic discipline of communication.  In many ways these difficulties might be seen of having arisen during the 1940's when the field seemed to split in two directions, with one remaining a field of the humanities and another defining itself as a more scientific approach to communication (2006, pp. 69-70).  In other ways, the field is split due to disputes between whether the field should be inclusive, that is, with equal interest in how communication works in many interdisciplinary fields such as education and business advertising; or whether communication should define itself under a more exclusive model that focuses only on articles written by those in the communications field, or at least from the perspective of  communication theories (pp. 72-3).

From a standpoint of a communication subject librarian, the mindset of a particular institution's faculty members could have a significant effect on the way in which librarians select communication's journals, as well as the way in which they offer assistance to students.  Popoff points to three lists of communication journals by large institutions, one by Mammoth University, one by the Social Science Citation Index, and the Iowa Guide, and points out that only one of the three (the Iowa Guide) is an inclusive list. Further, Popoff points out that even among the two exclusive lists, the two lists offer a surprisingly small amount of agreement between what journals actually fit the criteria as an exclusive journal (pp. 74).

If the generators of these lists disagree between the parameters that define their view of exclusive communication journals, then there is reasonable to suspect that there is likely a high degree of disagreement between different faculty and different departments, as well. Additionally, if the professors and researchers have this much disagreement about their own field, then I can imagine that it would be very difficult for a student to learn how to navigate this complicated terrain in order to find resources that their different professors would agree fall within their own framework of acceptable communication research.

Popoff attributes this disagreement to the fact that the discipline is still young and has not fully matured (pp. 76), and encourages librarians to follow the debate closely in order to know developing trends in communication research. Papoff also suggests that, "even those who represent departments that espouse an exclusive interpretation of journals must remember that communication researchers many want to review the literature of related disciplines even if they do not consider it true communication research" (pp. 77).

As we have seen in past weeks, these problems are not necessarily unique to the communication field of study. Many other fields have branched off into sub-fields. Some of these sub-fields have remained more identifiable as elements of the humanities by remaining keenly interested in classic works in their discipline, while others have attempted to establish a more modern and scientifically rigorous approach to their studies.  Many of these issues are rather political in their origins and have a lot to do with acquiring grants, resources, and the interest of attracting students by remaining relevant in an increasingly technical and scientific age.  No matter what the cause, though, librarians in these fields have the difficulty of remaining flexible and highly knowledgeable to both the inclusive and exclusive camps in their respective fields.

In the end, it is not really up to the librarian to settle (or even necessarily to take a stance on) the disagreement between inclusive and exclusive journals in communication.  A reference librarian in this field would probably be better off to remain as neutral as possible and as open to different theories communication as possible.  Retaining a flexible mindset will likely result in a more diversified collection (budget allowing), that is likely to benefit a wide range of research and disciplines.  It is important, however, for the librarian to have a good relationship with the faculty in order to properly instruct students on obtaining the proper research materials.


Popoff, D., (2006). The communication journal collection. Collection Management ent, 30(3). pp. 67-85

International Journal of Contemporary Sociology

The International Journal of Contemporary Sociology: A Discussion Journal of Contemporary Ideas and Research is published bi-annually in April and October by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Auburn University.  The Kent State University Library has the journal in print from 1996 to the current issue (April, 2014).

The journal's call for papers describes itself as interested in publishing of both quantitative and qualitative research with an emphasis on theory, including interdisciplinary research, research of an international view, and interesting scholarly studies without technical jargon (this information can be found either on the back page of the print journal, or on their website http://www.cla.auburn.edu/ijcs/).

As a contemporary journal, the International Journal of Contemporary Sociology is broad enough in scope to cover theoretical essays on contemporary issues such as the Arab Spring, American responses to recent natural disasters and crises, and recent global financial collapses.  The journal also fulfills many of the functions of an information literature resource in sociology, by which I mean that it covers issues from a theoretical viewpoint that examines aspects of social theory in real life contexts.  In addition, it does so while examining issues of accessibility, inequality, as well as other issues regarding gender and race, and how these issues shape policy and public perception.

I would consider this journal to be an excellent starting point for a student who is interested in writing an upper level research paper in sociology.  This journal is likely to give the student a lot of ideas for the direction that their research might begin, or lead to. In addition, it might show a student how a certain social theory has been used and applied in past research, that might be on a similar topic.

Contributors to the journal are professors and assistant professors of sociology from around the world, including contributors from Portugal, Mexico, Kenya, and the U.S.. The essays are exceptionally high quality and the issues are discussed at an advanced level and assume some degree of knowledge and familiarity with the issues discussed from the reader.

More on Subject Headings and Information Literacy

Our reading this week began with the essay, Information Literacy: the Partnership of Sociology Faculty and Social Science Librarians (Caravello, Kain, Kuchi, Macicak, & Weiss, 2008). This essay introduces the reader to information literacy as it applies to the sociology student, and the ways in which faculty and librarians can work together to ensure that these information literacy requirements are being met by the sociology curriculum.

Like other essays on the topic of information literacy, we learn that what is meant by IL is the ability of individuals to identify their information need, access the relevant information, critically evaluate the information, digest and incorporate the information in order to perform some specific task, and to use this information ethically and legally (pp. 9).   A sociology student's definition of IL gets more specific to their research with the addition of understanding the relationship of social structures and information.  This involves understanding social inequalities, access to technology, and the social structures that are generally responsible for the creation and dissemination of information. The reference librarian, in the field of sociology, should have an understanding of these needs and work with faculty to ensure that students are aware of these aspects of IL.

But, the library is made up of more than just liaisons, reference desks and reference librarians.  Before anyone can access a resource, it first needs cataloged so that that resource is discoverable and accessible to students.  The way in which this is accomplished will effect access to the resource and can make the difference between a resource being missed and a resource being found.

While exploring the web site of the ANSS (Anthropology and Sociology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries) I was surprised to find the way in which the ANSS addresses the problem of accessibility of library resources for sociology.  Like any other field in academia, sociology is not a static field.  Rather, it is constantly in flux. New knowledge is constantly being added. New knowledge means new theories, new research fields, new research questions, and new terminology.  In terms of access, this means that subject headings are constantly being added in order to ensure that resources are findable using up-to-date terminology.

University libraries mostly use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in order to describe the subject of a resource. Using this kind of controlled vocabulary is a way of ensuring consistency and formality to subject analysis, and gains the benefit of uniformity and predictability for the end-user. The LCSH is not a static set of subject headings, rather, it, like knowledge itself, is constantly in flux. They update in order to keep up with the changing nature of resources, experimentation, research, and discovery.  By keeping up to date subject headings, the LCSH remains relevant, and catalogers are given the tools they need to describe new resources.

But how is a cataloger suppose to keep up with a constantly changing database of subject headings that cover virtually all areas of knowledge that appear in resources from monographs to music and movies?  The answer that the ANSS has adopted on their website is to include a section on New Subject headings (http://anssacrl.wordpress.com/publications/new-subject-headings/). It is here that a catalog librarian can keep updated on what new subject headings were added to the LCSH in the fields of sociology and anthropology in order to describe new resources (or even update existing records of old resources) so that they are current as to how researchers will look for the resource.

This list benefits researchers, students, and reference librarians as much as it benefits catalog librarians. By checking the list of new subject headings, any researcher can have an idea of what new subject terms she or he may use while conducting a search.  Even by casually scanning the list, a researcher might be inspired to look into a given new heading to see if their library has any items on the subject.

Out of my own interest, I decided to test some of the new subject headings from the list on KentLink to see if Kent State University has yet made use of  any of these new headings. In a very non-scientific way, I chose some subject headings at random and ran a subject search in KentLink

2014 headings:
Jewish Morning Customs - None
Melodrama, Polish - None
Ethiopian American Art - None
Cell phone users - None.

2010 headings:
Aleut literature - none
Pets and older people - none
College student parents - none
Coming of age - 16

2007 headings:
Custodial parents - 1
Transgender prisoners - 1
Social gerontology - 3
Punk culture and art - 2
First responders - 47


This raises some interesting research questions:

• How long does it take a new subject heading to go from being added to LCSH to being widely used?
• How does attention in media effect the usage of a subject heading?

Caravello, P. S., & Kain, E. L., & Kuchi, T., & Macicak, S., & Weiss, G. L. (2008). Information literacy: the partnership of sociology faculty and social science librarians. Teaching Sociology (36). pages 8-16.

Sage handbook on human geography

This week I have the fortunate opportunity to evaluate a resource that I cataloged during my internship!

The Sage Handbook on Human Geography is a brand new, two volume set that has very recently been added to the Kent State University Library collection.  This two volume set immediately captured my interest when I first had the fortunate luck of creating it's MARC record. At the time of cataloging this resource, I had little knowledge about what human geography was, and so I spent a good amount of time looking over the table of contents and flipping through some of the essays to get a feel for its content.

The first thing that stood out to me is that this resource is not your traditional A-Z type encyclopedia.  You might expect a large number of entries with overview definitions in short entries, but that is not what you have here. Instead, the editors have chosen to collect a number of high-quality, in-depth essays of a more philosophical inquiry into the nature of human geography and its various angles and topics.  A student looking at this resource will not so much be given a dictionary definition of keywords, nor a history of the field, but rather will expect to be given entry points into more theoretical grounds that underlie the study of human geography.

Expect essays in these two volumes to run about 20 to 30 pages each, and to offer positions that might challenge a basic understanding of their topic.  Chapter titles include Mobilities, Difference, Nature-Society, Critique, Geo-historiographies, Engaging, Educating, Words, Power, and Resistance. From this list, a reader should get the impression that these essays are of a critical nature, designed to provoke critical thought and to introduce the student to a more nuanced a approach to covering topics in human geography. The first couple of sentences of the prologue reinforces this concept by stating:

"The origins of this book lie in the editors' belief in human geography as a vitally significant way of thinking and acting. We think of human geography as a body of work critically important for the analysis - and, crucially, the intended transformation and consequent improvement of - the social condition" (pp. ix).

It is from this conceptual, and critical, framework that essays have been selected for these volumes. These "conversations" are intended to introduce the reader to these critical positions that have the power to produce an urgency toward change.

This resource would be recommended for a more advanced student, and is likely not appropriate for anyone looking for an overview of the field.

Lee, R., & Castree, N., Kitchin, R., Lawson, V., Paasi, A., Philo, P., C., Radcliffe, R., Roberts, M., S., & Withers, W., J., C., (Eds.). (2014) The SAGE Handbook of Human Geography. Sage Publications, California.

Online tutorial at University of Leeds

With last week's focus on embedded librarians, and this week's peek at librarians creating tutorials for distance education students, it is becoming all more obvious just how much of an active a role that librarians are taking in creating information literate students.

In the article, Creating an Online Tutorial to Support Information Literacy and Academic Skills Development, Sara Thornes (2012) discusses the process that librarians at the University of Leeds undertook in order to develop a tutorial to help acclimate distance learners to information literacy skills.  An important theme in this article, as with articles from last week, as well, has been that librarians work very closely with faculty in other departments in order to ensure that resources are responding to needs of the actual students and professors.  This is important, so that all the departments in a university are sending the same message to students, and to ensure that actual problems that are coming up in class work are being addressed by these library initiatives.

In the case of designing this tutorial, librarians were in close contact with professors from the School of Geology, as well as learning technologists (pp. 85; 89).  The tutorial was designed to ensure that students had a one-stop resource for learning and reviewing information on topics that stressed planning searches, advanced searching tools and techniques, evaluating sources, writing and note taking for research papers, and citations (pp. 86).  These topics form the basic core of information literacy of which we have been learning the various ways in which librarians have been working to find innovative ways to instruct students on.

This tutorial was designed so that students did not have to sit through a linear lecture, but rather, could choose the sections that they felt they needed the most help on and to repeat any section as many times as they needed.  In addition, student learning was enforced and evaluated through the use of interactive quizzes and exercises during each module (pp. 87-88).  This kind of flexibility is one of the advantages that this kind of electronic learning object offers that can not be found in a typical workshop.

An important take away from the lessons of embedded librarians, librarians creating online tutorials, and LibGuides is that computer technology offers a unique challenge to librarians in an academic setting. A common fear is that Google is being too heavily relied upon, and that students no longer use print resources at the library. As a result, it is assumed that libraries are becoming only social venues where students fill up on coffee and socialize between classes.  It is important to recognize the changing environment of the library, and to realize that to some extent these observations are not entirely fabrications. However, this is not, in itself, driving librarians from their jobs. On the contrary, students still need resources to help develop their information literacy skills, both with print media and with electronic resources as well.  The librarian's job still remains much the same as it previously has been, only now with more challenges and new tools at their disposal.

Thornes, S. L., (2012). Creating an online tutorial to support information literacy and academic skills development. Journal of Information Literacy, 6(1), pp. 82-95,
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/LLC-V6-I1-2012-3

Salem Health: Psychology & Mental Health

Piotrowski, A., N. (Ed.). (2010). Salem Health: Psychology & Mental Health. (Vols. 1-5). Hackensack, New Jersey: Salem Press.

Salem Health: Psychology & Mental Health is a five volume encyclopedia published by Salem Press in 2010.  The encyclopedia itself is a revision of Magill’s Encyclopedia of Social Science: Psychology, which was published in 2003 as a three volume set, by the same publisher and editor.

This updated encyclopedia offers more than 500 entries, covering a wide variety of the field of psychology, and offers three indexes to guide navigation of the five volumes. The second index is an alphabetical subject index, while the first index is separated by category, breaking the field into about sixty different categories, like, childhood, adolescence, depression, coping, personality and women’s psychology.  This second index allows a student to see a large overhead of different focuses within psychology in order to narrow down a specific interest. In addition, there is also a personage index that lists the entries for every major person covered, and their relevant pages.

Entries in the encyclopedia cover substantial territory in researching psychology, the range of which includes the history of the field itself, as well as different disciplines within psychology, such as behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and psychoanalytic psychology.   The encyclopedia is also a good starting point for different key figures in each field which describes the individual’s life, death, and research areas.

Major entries on disorders can be up to eight pages in length, and each are broken up into different sections that include introductions, possible causes, treatment approaches, various approaches taken by different forms of relevant therapy (i.e. speech therapy for an entry on stuttering), recent technological advances (such as research conducted using MRI), see also references, and sources for further study.

The encyclopedia’s editor is Nancy A. Piotrowski, from Capella University and the University of California, Berkeley.  Piotrowksi holds a Ph. D. in general psychology and addiction psychology and has written extensively on addiction psychology.

Salem Health: Psychology & Mental Health, is a recent enough publication as to not be dated. It is also part of a series that has undergone revisions since it first appeared in 1993, this duration of revisions should be indicative that it has been considered reliable and trustworthy enough to warrant  three heavily revised sets. This encyclopedia set is expansive enough in coverage to be useful to anyone beginning their research in the field of psychology.

Embedded academic librarians

Is the future of educating health professionals, even doctors in advanced fields, intricately linked to the future of librarians in academics? Before this week’s course, I would not have thought that a librarian would be a very active role in the life learning educational practice of post-graduate medical students on their way to becoming world-class neurosurgeons, however, this week’s focus on the more active role in which a librarian can take in a university’s educational program has given me reasons to re-think the role of librarian in the academic setting.

As an undergraduate at Slippery Rock University, the library was a rather under-utilized resource for myself and many other students. It did serve as a hub for social interaction and one place on campus for liberal arts majors to refill on caffeine, however, the actual intellectual resources were not very well advertised or made explicitly known.  I did have a tendency to roam the stacks, usually on full out zombie-mode, mindlessly pursuing some brain-food in the philosophy sections, but I seldom appreciated the opportunity to gain a more thorough understanding of information literacy that the library provided.

In terms of outreach programs at the university, there was only one class on advanced research in which research habits were even discussed to any great detail. Sadly, this class was an upper-level class and was typically taken as part of the last semester course load.  Reflecting on the lessons from this module, I would strongly recommend that class be made mandatory for all freshmen.  This was the only class in which a librarian from the Slippery Rock University Library would actually address students. However, rather than giving a more individual approach to how librarians can teach better search strategies, and how those strategies can have an enormous impact on research outcomes, the librarian instead addressed the class at large, giving a brief history of information literacy in the time of computers. It was a nice attempt at getting students to think about searching strategies and database technology in research, but it did not offer practical solutions or a chance for students to gain any personal understanding of the advantageous and limits of these technologies.

Meanwhile, the Australian School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM) has recently spent a great deal of effort to address the issue of information literacy in post-graduate medical study.  ASAM offers a cutting edge program in terms of evidence based medicine that is truly based on actual patient care and outcomes.  An essay examining the role of the librarian in the program of ASAM describes ASAM’s goal as being one designed to effectively practice evidence-based medicine and to create lifelong learners by demonstrating effective independent research, based on clinical practice, that is conducted in a team based environment (Simons, Morgan, & Davidson, 2012, pp. 291).

Access to evidence-based literature is considered an absolute key to competency goals in the curriculum at ASAM, as described by the authors “gaining access to, and making use of, this literature is where information literacy becomes an important skill for learners to master” (2012, pp. 291).  After it was discovered that many of the scholars at ASAM lacked the necessary information literacy skills to show competence in this area of evidence based learning, it became a priority to incorporate librarians in developing an efficient model to improve scholar awareness and mastery of medical databases and searching the required literature.

Initial steps taken to educate scholars on information literacy included, journal meetings conducted in small groups with experts present, short personalized training sessions with librarians, and a variety of different tools on the library web site that served as tutorials for using different databases (pp. 292).  When these steps were found to be insufficient addressing specific concerns that the school had, ASAM took the steps to involve librarians more closely in the educational process.   Neurosurgeons began to set up evidence based surgery meetings with groups of scholars and advanced scholars that aimed at the scholars delivering presentations where they would discuss patient history, relevant pathology, and a literature search that must lead to a clinical conclusion based on available evidence (pp. 292-3).  University librarians were utilized in order to create performance elements in which to evaluate the development of search strategies from the start of the process to the end, including ways in which the scholar used the available functionality of the databases in order to refine the search strategy, and the effectiveness of using MeSH terminology in conjunction with keywords specific to the patient (pp. 292).

In addition to helping to develop the competency criteria for this part of scholarship, the scholar would also be required to meet with the librarian throughout the process in order to develop an understanding of information literacy.  This process was repeated until the scholar showed full competency in information literacy that “went beyond merely performing the steps” (pp. 293; 295).

If this concept of embedded librarians can be utilized to educate post-graduate advanced medical students, then there is no reason to believe that it could not be utilized in any other area of academics.  The article on embedded librarians in Capella University also makes a strong argument for the advantages of having a more integrated and involved librarian in the academic setting.  In their research, Erika Bennett and Jennie Simning (2010), found that an increased presence of a librarian early on in the student’s undergraduate work actually increases the number of reference questions received by the library (2010, pp 445-6).  Not only did they find that calls and e-mails to the reference desk were on the rise, but also the quality of questions asked were shown to be more sophisticated as students were able to complete the simpler parts of research independently and then involved a librarian when complexity arose in their research (pp. 449-50).

These studies show how librarians can be made as an integral part of the academic setting.  The initial introduction to the library as a whole, in addition to a more personal introduction to the librarians, are important steps in getting a student comfortable with approaching the reference desk in the first place.  In addition, closer, more individualized instruction can result in students mastering the tools of information literacy that are required to become lifelong learners in a complicated electronic environment, regardless of the complexity and specialization of their discipline.  The reality is that even an advanced medical student, specializing in neurology, is entering a field in which the kind of research being conducted is in many ways far removed from what they learning as a practicing doctor.  In other words, using electronic databases is not something that comes naturally to anyone and a librarian is someone who is well trained to offer lessons in this area.

Bennett, E., & Simning, J. (2010). Embedded librarians and reference traffic:  A quantitative analysis. Journal of Library Administration, 50. pp. 443-457. doi 10.1080/01930826.2010.491437

Simmons, R. M., Morgan, K. M., & Davidson, S. A. (2012). Time to rethink the role of the library in educating doctors: Driving information literacy in the clinical environment. Journal of the Medical Library Association. Oct 2012; 100(4): 291-296 doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.100.4.011
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484954/

The American Journal of Semiotics

The American Journal of Semiotics was established in 1981 as the official journal of the Semiotic Society of America (Wikipedia, The American Journal of Semiotics).  The journal publishes essays, as well as reviews of works, dealing with semiotics.  It is an international journal, and is published quarterly.  The journal’s editorial board consists of professors from mostly American universities, including Purdue, Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University, and the University of California-Berkeley.

The journal considers itself multidisciplinary, as is evident in the nature of the field itself. Its goal is to explore the nature of communication and meaning.  Defined on the back of the title page of the journal, semiotics is the study of “signs and sign systems in order to describe, analyze, and interpret the full range of communication and culture experienced as discourse codes.” The discipline explores culture experienced as different codes of discourse, this may include works of consumer goods, art, events, and social norms, as well as texts.  The field of semiotics allows a student or researcher in anthropology to explore these different events and objects as cultural codes that work to communicating explicit and implicit messages and are part of cultural experience.

Articles in The American Journal of Semiotics range from topics on phenomenology, rhetoric, and visual art analyses, as well as articles written on theorists such as Lacan, Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, and Foucault.

The American Journal of Semiotics is available both online, through the Kent State Library, and in print at the Kent Main library up until 2000.

Website: http://semioticsocietyofamerica.org/the-american-journal-of-semiotics/

The surprising(?) fun of anthropology

This week's subject of study is anthropology, and as has been the case with most of our subject so far, what stood out to me was the surprising diversity of the field.  I had previously been guilty of believing that anthropology was only the study of old, mostly prehistoric, cultures--mostly I had thought of archaeology being the profession, or area of study, for an anthropologist.  As it turns out, as discussed by Jason Paling in his introductory video-lecture here, anthropology is hardly limited to any particular time or place, but is rather far more broad and inclusive.

This better understanding of anthropology as a field of study begins to open up many avenues for research, many of which seek to examine some of the more odd and fun aspects of both our own, and others', culture.  The blog Savage Minds caught my attention this week, as this blog applies the study of anthropology to some rather interesting and fun aspects of the culture around us. The blog describes its mission as being a blog dedicated to accessible, well-written and relevant discussions on sociocultural anthropology. The blog is authoritative enough for anyone interested in the field, as the contributors range from graduate students to professors.  Among the topics covered recently are, The semiotics of bubble tea, the mystification of the economy, and a description of media archaeology, as well as a few entries on the issue of describing what it is that anthropologists do.  I found the article on bubble tea to be particularly entertaining, and insightful into trends of modernism, post-modernism, and individualism that can be identified in even a simple commodified beverage.

Apart from blogs, my research using the Anthropology Plus database this week pulled up an article about studying folklore as a means for tracking changes in attitudes and values among different cultures. The article, entitled Folklore research and the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Series, written by Christine Goldberg for The Journal of American Folklore, reveals the intersection of  archaeology with mythology, literature and a culture's memory.  The article prompts discussion on exploring the role of folklore in different cultures and the way that different attitudes and beliefs are contained and transported over time in these tales.  This brings up further questions as to how these resources could be used for various different research projects involving cultures past and present.

A quick look at the sub-Reddit for anthropology, reveals many other interesting current discussions in the field.  Forum discussions include ways in which modern technology (specifically, lasers) are being implemented in archaeology, Amazon warrior names inscribed in Greek vases, and views from a Siberian hermit on why civilization is frightening.

If at all anything, all of this reveals that a reference librarian in anthropology will have their work cut our for them, but also that they will always be encountering something new.  Anthropology is a field that engages the imagination in opening up creative ways of viewing our culture along with others, and how to further investigate popular phenomenon in a larger historic and sociological context.




Paling, J. (2013) Lecture 1 - Introduction to Anthropology [video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuwcqBOOEdE

An Economic Analysis of Democracy - Evaluation

Written by professor of American economics, Randall G. Holcombe in 1985, An Economic Analysis of Democracy gives students of economics and politics a view of the relationship between American democracy and the economy.  Professor Holcombe uses different theoretical models in order to analyze the current workings of a voter model system influenced by special interests in order to come up with insights in to forming an effective model for economic decision making based on majority rule.

The book is relatively recent enough to offer students a foundation of fairly recent economic theories that have been influential in the past several decades, as well as allowing for a student to reflect on how Holcombe’s theory might be revised in order to reflect more contemporary views and conditions. Most of all, this work would form a good grounding as to point the student in a direction for generating new ideas as to the inner connectivity of democratic principles and economic theory and policy making.

Including the index, the book is 270 pages and includes a ten page bibliography that offers readers further reading into the theories discussed in the book.  At the time of writing the book, Randall G. Holcombe had been teaching economics at Auburn University for almost ten years, in addition to having been a faculty member at Texas A&M University. He has been widely published in economic journals and has written around five other books on American economics.

An Economic Analysis of Democracy is part of the Political and Social Economy series out of Southern Illinois University Press. Other books in the series include:

• ·         Economic Thought and Social Change by J. Ron Stanfield
• ·         Origins of Economic Thought and Justice by Joseph J. Spengler
• ·         The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto by Daniel R. Fusfeld and Timothy Bates
• ·         Toward a Social Economy by Howard R. B. Owen