Books on the topic 'Library’s physical environment'

Stretching back to antiquity, motion had been a key means of designing and describing the physical environment. But during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, individuals across Europe increasingly designed, experienced, and described a new world of motion: one characterized by continuous, rather than segmented, movement. New spaces that included vistas along house interiors and uninterrupted library reading rooms offered open expanses for shaping sequences of social behaviour, scientists observed how the Earth rotated around the sun, and philosophers attributed emotions to neural vibrations in the human brain. Early Modern Spaces in Motion examines this increased emphasis on motion with eight essays encompassing a geographical span of Portugal to German-speaking lands and a disciplinary range from architectural history to English. It consequently merges longstanding strands of analysis considering people in motion and buildings in motion to explore the cultural historical attitudes underpinning the varied impacts of motion in early modern Europe.

A specific computing technology is commonplace in the ecosystem of modern scientific computing. Elements of this technology, including the linux and OS/X operating systems and the C++ computing language, are introduced, and provide the student with a basis for writing and building programs to solve mathematical and scientific problems that occur throughout the text and most likely throughout a career in the physical sciences. While high-level languages may facilitate computation (or not), they often complicate the build procedure. This chapter discusses the steps involved in the build of simple and more complicated programs and program libraries, the use of external libraries or APIs, and automation of build procedures. Advice is given on mysterious problems in the build and execution of a program, and on the utilities that can be used to elucidate them. Source code management systems are also discussed.

This article strives to answer the question of whether oral history can survive the funding crisis that rages archival institutions. The cost and complexity of managing archival collections in libraries and archives are increasing at unprecedented rates. Collecting institutions are expected to do more with less, a common experience for most publicly funded repositories since the 1980s. Institutions struggling with backlogs of physical collections are now responsible for electronic collections that grow exponentially and require new formats with astonishing frequency. Archives must provide online as well as on-site services to satisfy researchers, and those who allocate funding. In some ways, oral history is well adapted to survive in this tumultuous environment. Many archival institutions have been educating local practitioners since the 1970s about the standards required by their repositories. The pragmatism required for preservation strategies will be anathema to some curators, just as the underlying principles have been to some archivists in recent years.

The chapter relates the developments in the working environment of OUP staff, concentrating on the Oxford buildings, and assessing what impact the alterations and expansions to the physical space of the Press had on the people who worked there. New buildings allowed the concentration of publishing activities in one location after the closure of the London Business and the Printing House; the redevelopment of Walton Street introduced a new staff restaurant, museum, library, and conference facilities as well as new offices, making the site a showplace for visitors and providing staff with a large democratic space. These changes were paralleled by changes to the structure of the Press, which required and were driven by the growing professionalism of the staff, particularly within administration, human resources, and marketing. OUP has always encouraged an active social life for its staff and the chapter highlights some of their sporting, musical, and dramatic activities.

The main milestones of the formation and development of astronomical science in Kharkiv during 1883–1945 are reconstructed on the example of the activities of the astronomical observatory of Kharkiv University. During this period, the outstanding worldview science in Kharkiv has achieved significant success: the works of Kharkiv astronomers have received world recognition; a well-known scientific planetary school has been established at the Observatory; the scientific community highly appreciated the research on the physics and chemistry of the Moon, the giant and small planets of the Solar System. The primary goal of the research is to inscribe the history of the university Observatory into the European and world context. Its purpose is to summarize the results of a comprehensive historical ad scientific study of the development of astronomical research in Kharkiv at the end of the 19th century – the first half of the 20th century and identification of ways of further scientific research. The completed research, which continues the problems of works devoted to the study of the history of astronomical science in Ukraine, focuses on expanding the well-known source base by attracting new retro-information resources. In particular, the monograph used a significant array of archival primary sources from almost twenty archival and library institutions of different countries. Most of them were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, which allowed to determine and specify the sequence of stages of development of astronomical science in Kharkiv during the research period, to clarify and identify the little-known circumstances of the observatory life. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of historism, objectivity and a systematic approach to studying the problem. To solve specific problematic tasks in the monograph, general scientific and specially historical methods were used which allowed to study, analyze and summarize the presented factual material in a complex manner. The main sections of the monograph represent the dynamics of replenishment of the instrumental base of the university observatory, the chronology of the construction of the observatory complex of buildings at the location of the modern Scientific Research Institute of Astronomy of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. According to the author’s periodization, the stages of formation of subjects and directions of scientific work of university astronomers have been analyzed, including: seismic observations with the help of horizontal Rebeur-Paschwitz pendulums, research of the activity of the Sun, astrometric observations on the Repsold meridian circle of for the purpose of compiling a catalog of zodiac stars, studying lunar eclipses and meteor showers. The participation of university astronomers in the creation of the plan of the city of Kharkiv and its connection with the general network of precise geometric leveling of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff; the organization of observations by an expedition of Kharkiv astronomers of the total Solar eclipse of 1914 in Henichesk; the creation of the School-workshop of precision mechanics at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University were considered; information on the participation of Kharkiv astronomers in the events of the civil war during the Ukrainian Revolution was documented. The scientific research activity of Kharkiv astronomers during 1920-1930-s which was devoted to carrying out important astrometric works on meridian observations of star declinations by absolute methods and observations of Kopf-Rentz stars according to the programs of the International Astronomical Union; the initiation of the creation of the Catalog of faint stars; research in astrophysics aimed at studying the physical conditions on the Moon and the Sun, planets and the interstellar environment; performing long series of spectrophotometric observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn under different conditions of observation; study of the kinematics of stellar systems of different order, the physical parameters and evolution of stars, the morphology of the Galaxy, the nature of the stellar subsurfaces and atmospheres, dust and gas nebulae, new stars and the variability of stars have been considered; the directions of solid works carried out in the field of celestial mechanics, devoted to the dynamics of the minor planets of the Jupiter group, the definition and improvement of the orbits of minor planets have been clarified. The development of amateur astronomy in Kharkiv, in particular, the functioning of circles and societies that directed their activities to the dissemination of astronomical knowledge, was highlighted; the participation of their representatives in astronomical observations at the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory was emphasized. Reconstructed the development of historical events in the 1930s related to the involvement of Soviet and Western astronomers in the processes of political confrontation between the USSR and the Western world; investigated the course of circumstances that prevented the implementation of the project of creating a new modern astronomical center of national importance – the central Ukrainian observatory in Kharkiv; the participation of an expedition of Kharkiv astronomers in the observation of the «great Soviet eclipse» – the total solar eclipse of 1936 – in the North Caucasus is highlighted; established the facts of political «purges» and repressions by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs ( the NKVD) in the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory. The activity of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory has been documented and authentic biographical information about its representatives during the Nazi occupation of 1941–1943, the period of the German-Soviet war, has been presented; the unpopular facts of the forced collaboration of some scientists are highlighted; the process of recovery and reconstruction of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory after the liberation of the city is characterized. With the aim of researching the personal history of Kharkiv astronomy of the studied period, the monograph presents the results of a historical and biographical study of facts of life and scientific heritage of scientists who fully devoted themselves to Science, laid the foundations for the future development of many directions of modern astronomical research, made a significant contribution to the treasury of the national and European astronomical science, whose activities were connected with the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory, in particular: Grigory Levytsky, Ludwig Struve, Mykola Evdokymov, Otto Struve, Mykola Barabashov, Boris Gerasimovich, Vasil Fesenkov, Oleksiy Razdolsky, Boris Ostashchenko-Kudryavtsev, Nicholas Bobrovnikov, Paraskovia Parkhomenko, Mstislav Savron, Boris Semeykin, Kostyantyn Savchenko and others (25 biographical essays are presented). A significant part of the mentioned factual material was also introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. A separate section of the monograph provides chronologically structured information that reflects the sequence of research work of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory employees during the period under study: from astrometric observations of stars and seismic research to spectrohelioscopic and spectroheliographic observations of the Sun and the initiation of the Kharkiv school of planetary science. It is assumed that the materials of the monograph will be used in research work devoted to the study of the process of institutionalization of astronomical research in Kharkiv at the end of the 19th century – the first half of the 20th century.