题目内容
Library
The library is a place where books, journals, microfilms, audio and visual materials are kept and organized to support the cultural, informational, recreational, and educational needs of the general public or specific groups of users. Recent advances in computing and communication technologies have transformed the contemporary library: it is not only a warehouse, but now also an active member in a vast network of libraries and databanks through which users have access to a world-wide store of recorded knowledge.
The most common kinds of libraries are public libraries and those of schools, colleges and universities, and government. In addition, many specialized libraries serving industry, commerce, the media, and the professions have been established during the past half century. In the United States and Canada alone more than 135,000 libraries exist, ranging in size from the Library of Congress to the smallest elementary school facilities.
Classification Systems and the Catalog
Library classification systems permit users to find a particular book or author, or to discover what books on a particular subject are held by the library. Most libraries use one of three major classification systems: the Dewey Decimal System, invented by Melvil Dewey; the Universal Decimal Classification, a European adaptation of Dewey; or a system developed by the Library of Congress. The library's catalog not only lists the library's contents but also analyzes them, so that all works by an individual author, all works on a given subject, and all works in a specific category (dictionaries, music, or maps, for example) can be easily located by readers. The modem catalog is a practical tool that is the result of the analysis of the subject, category, and contents of books, videocassettes, microfilms, compact discs, and a host of other informational vehicles.
The library's own card catalog is only one of the many forms in which catalog and bibliographic materials are available. Large libraries own the National Union Catalog, for example, a cumulative listing of the library resources of the Library of Congress and other major and specialized libraries in the United States and Canada. Specialized libraries may own or subscribe to such specialized catalogs as the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalog (ESTC), a computerized database listing every publication--book, pamphlet, or single sheet -- printed between 170l and 1800 in English or, if in a foreign language, in English-speaking countries.
Cataloging and classifying are expensive processes. Many libraries cut expenses by subscribing to a computerized bibliographic service. To locate materials that are not among its. holdings, a library may inquire the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC ) or the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), which are the two major national catalog networks. Through their computerized databases, these networks offer interlibrary loan services that can operate, if necessary, across the continent.
History
The earliest ancient libraries were clay tablet storerooms in ancient Mesopotamia, and the later papyrus scroll libraries in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Ashurbanipal's library in Nineveh (7th century BC) consisted of thousands of inscribed clay tablets recording laws, astronomical data, commercial transactions, narrative poems, and royal happenings. A 30,000-tablet library has been discovered at diggings in the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur, and other extensive libraries have been found throughout the Mesopotamian region.
The earliest large Greek library is traced to Aristotle (4th century BC), but the greatest was established (3d century BC) by Ptolemy I in the museum at Alexandria, Egypt. Scholars there copied, revised and edited works of the classical Greek writers. Their copies of ancient works became the standard editions on which other
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Richard's behavior. as death approached showed ______.
The miserable fate of Enron's employees will be a landmark in business history, one of those awful events that everyone agrees must never be allowed to happen again. This urge is understandable and noble: thousands have lost virtually all their retirement savings with the demise of Enron stock. But making sure it never happens again may not be possible, because the sudden impoverishment of those Enron workers represents something even larger than it seems. It's the latest mm in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promise of the 20th century.
The promise was assured economic security — even comfort — for essentially everyone in the developed world. With the explosion of wealth, that began in the 19th century it became possible to think about a possibility no one had dared to dream before. The fear at the center of daily living since caveman days — lack of food warmth, shelter -- would at last lose its power to terrify. That remarkable promise became reality in many ways. Governments created welfare systems for anyone in need and separate programmes for the elderly (Social Security in the U. S.). Labour unions promised not only better pay for workers but also pensions for retirees. Giant corporations came into being and offered the possibility — in some cases the premise — of lifetime employment plus guaranteed pensions. The cumulative effect was a fundamental change in how millions of people approached life itself, a reversal of attitude that most rank as one of the largest in human history. For millennia the average person's stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately I'm on my own. Now it became, ultimately I'll be taken care of.
The early hints that this promise might be broken on a large scale came in the 1980s. U.S. business had become uncompetitive globally and began restructuring massively, with huge Layoffs. The trend accelerated in the 1990s as the bastions of corporate welfare faced reality. IBM ended it's no-layoff policy. AT＆T fired thousands, many of whom found such a thing simply incomprehensible, and a few of whom killed themselves. The other supposed guarantors of our economic security were also in decline. Labour-union membership and power fell to their lowest levels in decades. President Clinton signed a historic bill scaling back welfare. Americans realized that Social Security won't provide social security for any of us.
A less visible but equally significant trend affected pensions. To make costs easier to control, companies moved away from defined benefit pension plans, which obligate them to pay out specified amounts years in the future, to defined contribution plans, which specify only how much goes into the play today. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is the 401 (k). The significance of The 401 (k) is that it puts most of the responsibility for a person's economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how much goes into the plan each year and how it gets invested— the two factors that will determine how much it's worth when the employee retires.
Which brings us back to Enron？ Those billions of dollars in vaporized retirement savings went in employees' 401 (k) accounts. That is, the employees chose how much money to put into those accounts and then chose how to invest it. Enron matched a certain proportion of each employee's 401 (k) contribution with company stock, so everyone was going to end up with some Enron in his or her portfolio; but that could be regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally covering up the company's problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enron's 401 (k) accounts were locked while file company changed plan administrators in October, when the stock was fal
A．He doesn't know when her classes started.B．He doubts she makes much money now.C．He's
Although a man of blood and violence, Richard was too impetuous to be either treacherous on habitually creel. He was as ready to forgive as he was hasty to offend; he was open-handed and munificent to profusion; in war circumspect in design and skilful in execution; in political a child, lacking in subtlety and experience. His political alliances were formed upon his likes and dislikes; his political schemes had neither unity nor clearness of purpose. The advantages gained for him by military geoids were flung away through diplomatic ineptitude. When, on the journey to the East, Messina in Sicily was won by his arms he was easily persuaded to share with his polished, faithless ally, Philip Augustus, fruits of a victory which more wisely used might have foiled the French King's artful schemes. The rich and tenable acquisition of Cyprus was cast away even more easily than it was won. His life was one magnificent parade, which, when ended, left only an empty plain.
In 1199, when the difficulties of raising revenue for the endless war were at their height, good news was brought to King Richard. It was said there had been dug up near the castle of Chaluz, on the lands of one of his French vassals, a treasure of wonderful quality; a group of golden images of an emperor, his wife, sons and daughters, seated round a table, also of gold, had been unearthed. The King claimed this treasure as lord paramount. The lord of Chaluz resisted the demand, and the King laid siege to his small, weak castle. On the third day, as he rode daringly, near the wall. confident in his hard-tried luck, a bolt from a crossbow struck him in the left shoulder by the neck. Tile wound, already deep, was aggravated by the necessary cutting out of the arrow-head. Gangrene set in, and Coeur de Lion knew that he must pay a soldier's debt. He prepared for death with fortitude and calm, and in accordance with the principles he had followed. He arranged his affairs, he divided his personal belongings among his friends or bequeathed them to charity. He declared John to be his heir, and made all present swear fealty to him. He ordered the archer who had shot the fatal bolt, and who was now a prisoner, to be brought before him. He pardoned him, and made him a gift of money. For seven years he had not confessed for fear of being compelled to be reconciled to Philip, but now he received the offices of the Church with sincere and exemplary piety, and died in the forty-second year of his age on April 6, 1199, worthy, by the consent of all men, to sit with King Arthur and Roland and
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