Chinese Students in American Libraries: A Survey of Chinese User Satisfaction with U.S. Academic Library Experience
While scholarship has addressed issues around serving international students in U.S. libraries, until recently, relatively little attention has been directly focused upon the library needs of specific ethnic groups. This study surveys 83 Chinese students and scholars after they returned from studying at universities in the United States to measure and document their satisfaction with the library services and resources they used during their study abroad. Results of the survey are analyzed with the goal of benchmarking and improving services for this growing library user population in the United States.
Strategies for Providing Effective Reference Services for International Adult Learners
Summary In their mission or goals statements, most universities declare their commitment to promoting a multicultural campus. A multicultural campus can only come about with the creation of an environment that provides the support and encouragement that allows for academic growth and success for international students. Reference librarians serve a special role as information providers and can play a significant part in ensuring the academic success of these students. To achieve this, we must first increase our basic understanding of the cultural and economic impact of international students at a national and university level. Further, recognizing the unique pressures under which these international students function will increase awareness and help us to position ourselves to effectively meet their information needs. This paper will describe obstacles and problems international students generally deal with in choosing to pursue studies abroad and then suggest practical strategies for overcoming these problems and providing effective reference services.
The Bastille: A History of a Symbol of Despotism and Freedom
This book is both an analysis of the Bastille as cultural paradigm and a case study on the history of French political culture. It examines in particular the storming and subsequent fall of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789 and how it came to represent the cornerstone of the French Revolution, becoming a symbol of the repression of the Old Regime. Lusebrink and Reichardt use this semiotic reading of the Bastille to reveal how historical symbols are generated; what these symbols’ functions are in the collective memory of societies; and how they are used by social, political, and ideological groups.

To facilitate the symbolic nature of the investigation, this analysis of the evolving signification of the Bastille moves from the French Revolution to the nineteenth century to contemporary history. The narrative also shifts from France to other cultural arenas, like the modern European colonial sphere, where the overthrow of the Bastille acquired radical new signification in the decolonization period of the 1940s and 1950s. The Bastille demonstrates the potency of the interdisciplinary historical research that has characterized the end of this century, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, and taking its methodological tools from history, sociology, linguistics, and cultural and literary studies.