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The first novel by Frances Burney, Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World, published in 1778, has enjoyed long-standing popularity and has never gone out of print in English. A distinct cluster of its editions appeared at the end of the nineteenth- to the beginning of the twentieth-century. This period in book history was marked by the creative work of private-press book designers, printers, binders, and illustrators inspired by the aestheticism, arts and crafts, and art nouveau movements. Even though their pioneering work was destined for narrow circles of collectors and connoisseurs, it profoundly influenced the development of both industrial and artists' book design, heightening the awareness of books' aesthetic appeal. The fin de siècle was a time of nostalgia for idealized pre-industrial society, symptomatic of late Victorian and Edwardian escapism, which found its expression in lavish book ornaments and illustrations executed in the Directoire and Louis XVI styles. Late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Evelinas, illustrated and decorated by Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, and Hugh Thomson, produced by Dent, Newnes, and Macmillan, reflect a profound influence that innovative private presses had on general publishing practices and the quality of industrially produced books. These Evelinas, beautifully illustrated, bound in decorative covers, and well-printed, exemplify both the newly awakened interest in the book's physical makeup and aesthetic aspects and the late-Victorian and Edwardian escapist nostalgia characteristic of fin de siècle publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texting is a widespread mode of communication and libraries are experimenting with it to interact with users. This article presents the results of a study on virtual reference service. The authors seek to determine whether or not the texting service is filling a different information need than chat and email by examining the level of difficulty and the topic of questions using these different methods of communication. Findings indicate a marked difference between the type and complexity of questions sent via text and traditional forms of virtual reference, and suggest that texting fills a complimentary role in relation to other traditional virtual reference communication channels used within libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A translation of a book is not just a faithful conversion of its text from one language to another. The translation is a regeneration of the entire complex organism of the book which often radically alters its paratextual apparatus. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Harvard University Press, 2014) is a book that has not only challenged the current capitalist economic model but has also revolutionized the idea of a bestseller. A comparison of the paratexts of its French and English editions demonstrates how a skilful and purposeful visual repackaging of a book, deploying a different paratext, without any cuts or alterations to its text, can radically transform it, make the translation attractive to a wider audience, and ultimately be a contributing factor in its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their inception, virtual reference services have evolved considerably and are now a significant component of library services in many types of library environments. The current paper reports on a study undertaken at a research-intensive academic library that analyzed and evaluated a decade-old virtual reference service. The main goal of the study was to obtain a broad and comprehensive picture of the current service, grounded in the actual day-to-day provision, usage, and organization of the service. The group of librarians involved in the study developed a feasible, efficient, and adaptable methodology for assessing and evaluating a virtual reference service. The developed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative methods can be used and applied for a similar evaluation of the service in any type of library environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of a study of the private working library of an important French legal historian, François Olivier-Martin (1879–1952). It is demonstrated that a personal research library, being the reflection of the scholarly life, beliefs, and personality of its former owner, can be used as a source of information for historians and biographers. The article describes the process of intellectual reconstruction of the library to its original state and fills the existing gaps in the biographical information about Olivier-Martin, especially regarding his life and work during the Vichy period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines methods of selection and acquisition for European (as opposed to Canadian) French-language print monographs for a research-level law library collection in North America based on the study of the practices and techniques locally developed in the Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University. These techniques represent a combination of non–approval plan–based methods: blanket order, standing orders, online slip service in WorldCat, use of other libraries’ acquisition lists, and firm orders. The methods described in this article are not exclusive to the selection in the subject area of law and could be applied in other academic disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]