Murdo J. MacLeod

Report on the Kent study of library use: A university of Pittsburgh reply

AbstractA widely publicized study of library use at the University of Pittsburgh by Professor Allen Kent et al. has generated considerable controversy at Pitt and nationally. The Kent Study (KS) reports that Pitt libraries in particular and research libraries in general are spending too much money on books and periodicals which are little or never used. This assertion, if correct, has important policy implications. Consequently, the Pitt faculty, administration and librarians have repeatedly urged the Senate Library Committee (SLC) to undertake an evaluation of KS. The SLC accepted this charge and is reporting here on the substance of its findings.The SLC criticizes KS on numerous matters, in particular, its structure in text and footnotes, which makes careful investigation and reporting on it a difficult matter, and its experimental design, execution, and manipulation of data, in terms of holdings, use and costs. The SLC reports that KS consistently overestimates the number of books, monographs and journ...

Indian Confraternity Lands in Colonial Guatemala, 1660-1730: Some Uses and Trends

While Indian village lands held in common have received some attention there is little knowledge of lands held by Indian individuals, or by groups within Indian society, such as confraternities. The purpose of this article is to examine these little-known landholdings and to assess why Indians pieced them together and the uses to which they were put. There is evidence that they were used for subsistence, for evasion of colonial authorities, as a bank for religious expenditure, as bases for rustling, and as yet another way for parish clergy to extract village surpluses.