The role of Libraries in Cultural Centres Abroad: an insight

This research paper sets up a typology of libraries managed by cultural centres abroad. Nearly 2,200 libraries linked to a dozen of different cultural organizations provide not only traditional services such as loan and access to printed and audiovisual materials but they also approach local citizens, offering help and services in matters of education, literacy, cooperation, social issues or development. These actions may fit under the label of cultural diplomacy actions. This paper analyses the relevance of those cultural centres and offers a classification through a table including networks of institutions of the thirty most significant cultural centres worldwide.

Lastenkulttuuripoliittisesta ohjelmasta tilanvuokraustoimintaan : lastenkulttuuritarjonnan muodostuminen Helsingin alueellisissa kulttuurikeskuksissa

Then aim of this thesis is to investigate children's culture in the regional cultural centres of Helsinki, namely Stoa, Malmitalo and Kanneltalo. The main objective was to identify how the center's repertoire for children forms. Moreover, a further research question was how different fields of art as well as proposals for action defined by the Children's Culture Programme, are portrayed in the repertoire of the regional cultural centres. The Ministry of Education's missions are to plan cultural and artistic policies, to support the industry financially, and to prepare cultural legislation. The Ministry promotes children's culture with a variety of programs and projects. The basis of the thesis is formed by the Finnish Ministry of Education's Children's Culture Programme, published in 2003. The goal of the programme is to give direction to the promotion of children's culture from 2003 to 2007. The programme presented proposals for action in different fields of art that are directed towards a broad range of implementors. In addition, in the theoretical section the focus is on the research of the Ministry of Education, the Art Council of Finland and the Municipalities. The research investigates the roles in children's culture as well as the activities of regional cultural centers. The qualitative analysis has been conducted by interviewing the employees of these regional cultural centers. The factors that affect and hinder the composition of the children's programme's repertoire are analysed based on the results of the interviews. The factors that affect the composition are the supply, the facilities and the possibilities provided by cooperation. The results section examines how the Children's Cultural Programme presents different fields of art. What is also taken into account is focal points connected to them, the proposals for action when building the repertoire. The results of the interviews indicate that the repertoire of the regional cultural centres is very diverse and it often meets the propositions of the children's cultural programme. However, the contents of the program were unknown for many. Various fields of art have been catered for in the children's repertoire and the supply is of good quality. The City of Helsinki Cultural Office's upcoming change in the administration was also mentioned, as the interviewees contemplated its future effects.

Ateneo

Projecte presentat al concurs Enter Ateneo per al disseny del vestíbul de l'edifici de l'Ateneo de Madrid

Fuerza prensil de la mano asociada al grado de autonomía y riesgo de caída en ancianos

Objetivo: Determinación de la fuerza de prensión de la mano como indicador de la capacidad funcional y grado de autonomía para actividades cotidianas en personas de la tercera edad. Diseño: Se realizó un estudio observacional de diseño transversal. Emplazamiento: Medio comunitario. Centros cívicos, centros culturales y residencias de la tercera edad de la comarca del Bages (Barcelona). 2 Participantes: Se estudió a 61 personas, 40 mujeres y 21 hombres, con un rango de edad comprendido entre los 65 y 90 años, quienes no presentaban afecciones invalidantes graves. Se solicitó su colaboración y aceptación voluntaria tras informar del objetivo del estudio. Mediciones principales: El grado de autonomía funcional se valoró mediante el test de Barthel y el test de Lawton-Brody, y el riesgo de caída mediante el test de Tinetti. La fuerza muscular máxima voluntaria (FMMV) se determinó mediante el test de prensión de la mano (handgrip). Resultados: Los hombres mostraron una correlación positiva y estadísticamente significativa (p=0.001) entre la fuerza prensil de la mano y el grado de autonomía funcional y el menor riesgo de caída (p=0.037). Dicha correlación no fue observada en las mujeres respecto al grado de autonomía (p=0.232) y fue escasa para el riesgo de caída (p=0.048). Conclusiones: El test de handgrip es una herramienta potencialmente útil para estimar la autonomía funcional e instrumental y el riesgo de caídas, especialmente en varones que sobrepasan los 65 años.

Fuerza prensil de la mano asociada al grado de autonomía y riesgo de caída en ancianos

Objetivo: Determinación de la fuerza de prensión de la mano como indicador de la capacidad funcional y grado de autonomía para actividades cotidianas en personas de la tercera edad. Diseño: Se realizó un estudio observacional de diseño transversal. Emplazamiento: Medio comunitario. Centros cívicos, centros culturales y residencias de la tercera edad de la comarca del Bages (Barcelona). 2 Participantes: Se estudió a 61 personas, 40 mujeres y 21 hombres, con un rango de edad comprendido entre los 65 y 90 años, quienes no presentaban afecciones invalidantes graves. Se solicitó su colaboración y aceptación voluntaria tras informar del objetivo del estudio. Mediciones principales: El grado de autonomía funcional se valoró mediante el test de Barthel y el test de Lawton-Brody, y el riesgo de caída mediante el test de Tinetti. La fuerza muscular máxima voluntaria (FMMV) se determinó mediante el test de prensión de la mano (handgrip). Resultados: Los hombres mostraron una correlación positiva y estadísticamente significativa (p=0.001) entre la fuerza prensil de la mano y el grado de autonomía funcional y el menor riesgo de caída (p=0.037). Dicha correlación no fue observada en las mujeres respecto al grado de autonomía (p=0.232) y fue escasa para el riesgo de caída (p=0.048). Conclusiones: El test de handgrip es una herramienta potencialmente útil para estimar la autonomía funcional e instrumental y el riesgo de caídas, especialmente en varones que sobrepasan los 65 años.

Memory and power : two movements

The institutions that work with the preservation and diffusion of cultural heritage - be them archive, libraries, museums, art galleries or cultural centres - present a certain discourse about reality. To understand this discourse, composed by sound and silence, by fullness and emptiness, by presence and absence, by remembrance and forgetting, an operation is implied, not only with the enunciation of speech and its gaps, but also the comprehension of that which causes to speak, of who is speaking and of the point whence one speaks. Preservation and destruction, or, in another way, conservation and loss, walk hand in hand in the arteries of life. As suggested by Nietzsche (1999, p.273), it is impossible to live without loss, it is entirely impossible to live avoiding destruction to play its game and drive the dynamics of life on. However, by means of a kind of tautological argument, one often justifies preservation by the imminence of loss and memory by the threat of forgetting. Thus, one ceases to consider that the game and the rules of the game between forgetting and memory are not fed by themselves and that preservation and destruction are not opposed in a deadly duel, but instead they complement one another and are always at the service of subjects that build themselves and are built through social practices. To indicate that memories and forgettings can be sown and cultivated corroborates the importance of working towards the denaturalisation of these concepts and towards the understanding that they result from a construction process also involving other forces, such as: power. Power is a sower, a promoter of memories and forgettings.

Desire for memory, desire for museums: the experience of the Memory Hotspots

Considering the principles of the National Museum Policy, created in 2003, the Brazilian Museums Institute – Ibram supports and encourages the development of museum practices and processes aimed at rewriting the history of social groups which were deprived of the right to narrate and exhibit their memories and their heritage. As effective action, in 2008, the Department of Museums and Cultural Centres (Demu/Iphan) – which gave rise to Ibram in January 2009 – started the Memory Hotspots Programme, with the main goal of fostering wide popular participation in matters related to social memory and museums. The Memory Hotspots Programme was inspired in and directly influenced by the Ministry of Culture/MinC, which created the National Programme for Culture, Education and Citizenship (Living Culture). The purpose of this Programme is to contribute to make society conquer spaces, exchange experiences and develop initiatives that foster culture and citizenship, in a proactive manner. The partnership struck between civil society and the state power gave rise to Culture Hotspots, inspired in the anthropological “do-in” concept, idealized by the then Minster Gilberto Gil.

Theatre Systems Compared

This article is meant as a starting point in the process of researching how theatre systems influence the functioning of theatre. The notion “theatre system” is understood as the set of organisational relationships within and between the domains of production, distribution and reception of theatre. Because the hypothesis of the Project on European Theatre Systems (STEP) is that the differences in these organisational patterns at least partly determine the types of theatre offered to city populations and their use of the supply, the present article attempts to make a start with a comparison between the theatre systems in Aarhus (Denmark), Bern (Switzerland), Debrecen (Hungary), Groningen (The Netherlands), Maribor (Slovenia), Tartu (Estonia) and Tyneside (United Kingdom). One of the findings of this comparison is that the structures of financial support for theatre by the various authorities do not differ very strongly among the countries on the European continent. However, the so-called city theatres in Central and Eastern Europe seem to have a more dominant position than in the Western European countries. For smaller, independent theatre organisations this is the other way round. In addition, the position of Bern is remarkable, because of the exceptional number of venues and theatre performances in this city. In Debrecen and Maribor, cultural centres appear to play quite an important role in the theatre life of these cities.

Isla de Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, 1779 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Mapa de la isla de Lanzarote, por Don Tomás Lopez, geografo de los dominios de S. M., de las Reales academias de la historia, de San Fernando, de la de buenas letras de Sevilla y de la Sociedad Bascongada de los amigos del pais. It was published by se hallará este con todas las obras del autor en la Calle de las Carretas entrando por la Plazuela del Angel in 1779. Scale [ca. 1:280,000]. Covers Isla de Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain. Map in Spanish.The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the World Mercator projected coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, land cover, villages and other human settlements, roads, shoreline features, ports and anchorage points, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes note on the mapping of Lanzarote and inset map: Mapa de la isla de del Hierro.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

Access and information behaviour of European Documentation Centres users in Portugal and Spain: a comparative study

The aim of this study was to undertake a comparative analysis of the practices and information behaviour of European information users who visit information units specialising in European information in Portugal and Spain. The study used a quantitative methodology based on a questionnaire containing closed questions and one open question. The questions covered the general sociological profile of the respondents and their use of European Document Centres, in addition to analysing aspects associated with information behaviour relating to European themes. The study therefore examined data on the preferred means and sources for accessing European information, types of documents and the subjects investigated most. The use of European databases and the Internet to access material on Europe was also studied, together with the reasons which users considered made it easy or difficult to access European information, and the aspects they valued most in accessing this information. The questionnaire was administered in European Document Centres in 2008 and 2010.

Learning to live together: an exploration and analysis of managing cultural diversity in ten early childhood development centres in South Africa

This study explores how South African Early Childhood Development (ECD) Practitioners and families meet the needs of the increasing number of children from diverse cultural backgrounds in their care. Research participants were identified through ten ECD centres located in two urban communities in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. The values and attitudes held by Practitioners and families vis-à-vis cultural diversity was investigated, along with the knowledge and strategies they employ to manage cultural diversity in ECD programmes. The intercultural education model provides the necessary tools to address the challenges identified.

Proposta educativa i cultural al centre cívic i cultural de Fornells de la Selva

Proposta de projecte educatiu i cultural ubicat al centre cívic i cultural “la Sitja” de Fornells de la Selva. El projecte he estat elaborat pensant en la viabilitat per poder presentar-lo a la regidoria per desenvolupar-lo o almenys perquè prenguin consciència de la importància de desenvolupar un projecte educatiu i cultural a l'equipament de “la Sitja”. El treball està basat en l'estudi i resultats i vol incidir en la millora de les polítiques educatives i culturals del municipi i concretament en les polítiques que es porten a terme al centre cívic i cultural. Les polítiques educatives i culturals parteixen de les necessitats detectades en l'estudi i tenen per finalitat final contribuir en la millora de la vida dels seus ciutadans

Cultural events and tourist development in Catalonia (Spain)

From the point of view of local development cultural tourism events represent an opportunity since they are distributed homogeneously by the Catalan territory and are experiencing a vertiginous growth as a way to differentiate the existing supply. In our study a sample of 264 telephone surveys made to organizers of events in Catalonia has been compiled, with the purpose of characterizing the existing supply, thematic typologies, management models, commercialization inputs and economic impact. The results allow us to characterize events from the point of view of their tourist potential. Finally some recommendations are set out to develop future tourism policies based on events according to product differentiation, seasonality, competitiveness and creativity.