Soft Systems Methodology: Its Origins and Use in Librarianship
This Web document is a reformatted version of Chapter Three of Brown-Syed, C. From CLANN to UNILINC: An Automated Library Consortium from a Soft Systems Perspective (Australia, Peter Checkland). Thesis [Ph.D.]; 1996. University of Toronto (Canada); 0779. ISBN: 0-612-11862-2. DAI, Vol. 57-08A, Page 3309, 00308 Pages. This chapter was presented with slight modifications under the title, “Soft,…
By Christopher Brown-Syed
What sorts of roles do librarians play in works of fiction? In what sorts of dramatic situations do contemporary writers involve them? How are the personalities and the working situations of these fictitious librarians described? Can we construct a tentative “literary image” of the profession, based upon scrutiny of a few recent novels involving librarians?…
Ancient and Medieval libraries
What do librarians do? What principles lie behind the profession? Librarians have traditionally gathered, organized, and disseminated information. In some ways, Aristotle can be said to be the father of librarianship in the West. His categories were a scheme for deciding what something was about. They survive today in the rules of journalism. Who, what,…
Cool librarians
Click on these pictures to learn why you should worship a librarian, or visit the belly-dancing librarian, the lipstick librarian, the laughing librarian, or the racing librarian, or the Rockin’ librarian. And if Punk Rock doesn’t appeal to you, call on the Country librarian. Then look below for “Rupert Giles”, and other librarians of fact and…
What is a Peer Reviewed Journal?
Whether it appears in print, a combination of print and electronic forms, or only in electronic form, a peer reviewed chemical journal is one in which each feature article has been examined by people with credentials in the article’s field of study before it is published. Collections of papers from conferences may be considered peer…