Lisa Gottlieb

This book presents a classification system for graffiti art styles that reflects the expertise of graffiti writers and the work of art historian Erwin Panofsky. Based on Panofsky's theories of iconographical analysis, the classification model is designed to identify the style of a graffiti art piece through its visual characteristics. Tested by image cataloguers in archives, libraries, and museums, the system assists information professionals in identifying the iconic styles of graffiti art pieces. It also demonstrates the power of Panofsky's theories to provide access to non-representational or abstract art images. The result is a new paradigm for Panofsky's theories that challenges the assumptions of traditional models. This innovative book is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn more about graffiti art and for information professionals concerned with both the practical and intellectual issues surrounding image access.

Reference librarians are no longer expected to know much about the information they find; they are merely expected to find it. Technological competency rather than knowledge has become the order of the day. In many respects, reference service has become a matter of typing search terms into a library's online catalog or a web search engine and providing the patron with the results of the search. Calling for a re-intellectualization of reference librarianship, this book suggests another approach to providing quality reference service--reading. The authors surveyed both academic reference librarians and public library reference personnel in the United States and Canada about their reading habits. From the 950 responses, the authors present findings about the extent to which librarians read newspapers, periodicals, fiction and nonfiction, and recount and analyze stories about how reading has made them better librarians. The authors also report that North American professors in the humanities and social sciences believe that the best reference librarians are those who have wide-ranging, subject-based knowledge as opposed to the type of process-based, functional knowledge that is increasingly dominating the curricula of many Library and Information Science programs.