Here is an accessible book containing strategies to help librarians expand their popular culture collections in an organized manner. Many publications explain why libraries should collect popular culture materials; this one explains how. Packed full of useful information, Popular Culture and Acquisitions provides numerous practical approaches to collecting this ever-expanding, often unwieldy mass of information. It aids both beginning and experienced librarians as they sort through the vast array of materials available to them. Discussions ranging from what to collect and how to collect it to what to do with the material once it’s obtained give librarians solid information on how to establish cohesive popular culture collections. Chapters provide first-hand advice on: the importance of collection development policies problems of budgets, storage, and preservation working with donors methods of resource sharing what to collect, for whom, and for what purposes the struggle for legitimacy competition from collectors and fans locating obscure acquisitions or review sources Popular Culture and Acquisitions also includes chapters on how to acquire specific types of popular culture materials, such as children’s series books, comic books, mystery and detective fiction, popular recordings, romance novels, and tabloids. Librarians attempting to collect such materials systematically will find this book to be an invaluable guide for their efforts.

This book critically approaches contemporary meanings of materiality and discuses ways in which we understand, experience, and engage with objects through popular culture in our private, social and professional lives. Appropriating Arjun Appadurai’s famous phrase: "the social life of things", with which he inspired scholars to take material culture more seriously and, as a result, treat it as an important and revealing area of cultural studies, the book explores the relationship between material culture and popular practices, and points to the impact they have exerted on our co-existence with material worlds in the conditions of late modernity.

Popular Culture: A Reader helps students understand the pervasive role of popular culture and the processes that constitute it as a product of industry, an intellectual object of inquiry, and an integral component of all our lives. The volume is divided into 7 thematic sections, and each section is preceded by an introduction which engages with, and critiques, the chapters that follow. The book contains classic writings from all the 'big names;' plenty of contemporary cultural references that will appeal to students, including skateboarding, hip hop, fashion (Tommy Hilfiger, vintage) websites, Star Trek, Disney, etc; material organized in a skills-focused and learning-focused way; strong pedagogic features throughout, making this an excellent classroom text; pieces drawing on diverse national, disciplinary and subdisciplinary contexts; and sensitivity to issues of gender, race and sexuality.

How does rock music impact culture? According to authors B. Lee Cooper and Wayne S. Haney, it is central to the definition of society and has had a great impact on shaping American culture. In Rock Music in American Popular Culture, insightful essays and book reviews explore ways popular culture items can be used to explore American values. This fascinating book is arranged alphabetically for quick and easy reference to specific topics, but the book is equally enjoyable to read straight through. The influence of rock era music is evident throughout the text, demonstrating how various topics in the popular culture field are interconnected. Students in popular culture survey courses and American studies classes will be fascinated by these unique explorations of how family businesses, games, nursery rhymes, rock and roll legends, and other musical ventures shed light on our society and how they have shaped American values over the years.

Danesi’s introduction to popular culture takes students through major forms of media to explore a vast array of cultural theories. The fifth edition features updated coverage on social media and digital cultures, including those surrounding memes, video games, virtual reality, and streaming services.

The Reformation has traditionally been explained in terms of theology, the corruption of the church and the role of princes. R.W. Scribner, while not denying the importance of these, shifts the context of study of the German Reformation to an examination of popular beliefs and behaviour, and of the reactions of local authorities to the problems and opportunities for social as well as religious reform. This book brings together a coherent body of work that has appeared since 1975, including two entirely new essays and two previously published only in German.

This unique work analyzes the crisis in modern society, building on the ideas of the Frankfurt School thinkers. Emphasizing social evolution and learning processes, it argues that crisis is mediated by social class conflicts and collective learning, the results of which are embodied in constitutional and public law. First, the work outlines a new categorical framework of critical theory in which it is conceived as a theory of crisis. It shows that the Marxist focus on economy and on class struggle is too narrow to deal with the range of social conflicts within modern society, and posits that a crisis of legitimization is at the core of all crises. It then discusses the dialectic of revolutionary and evolutionary developmental processes of modern society and its legal system. This volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary Society by a leading scholar in the field provides a new approach to critical theory that will appeal to anyone studying political sociology, political theory, and law.

Evil isn't simply an abstract theological or philosophical talking point. In our society, the idea of evil feeds entertainment, manifests in all sorts of media, and is a root concept in our collective psyche. This accessible and appealing book examines what evil means to us. Evil has been with us since the Garden of Eden, when Eve unleashed evil by biting the apple. Outside of theology, evil remains a highly relevant concept in contemporary times: evil villains in films and literature make these stories entertaining; our criminal justice system decides the fate of convicted criminals based on the determination of their status as "evil" or "insane." This book examines the many manifestations of "evil" in modern media, making it clear how this idea pervades nearly all aspects of life and helping us to reconsider some of the notions about evil that pop culture perpetuates and promotes. Covering screen media such as film, television, and video games; print media that include novels and poetry; visual media like art and comics; music; and political polemics, the essays in this book address an eclectic range of topics. The diverse authors include Americans who left the United States during the Vietnam War era, conservative Christian political pundits, rock musicians, classical linguists, Disney fans, scholars of American slavery, and experts on Holocaust literature and films. From portrayals of evil in the television shows The Wire and 24 to the violent lyrics of the rap duo Insane Clown Posse to the storylines of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter books, readers will find themselves rethinking what evil is—and how they came to hold their beliefs.

Get the tools you need to build a collection development policy that will help your library run efficiently—today and in the future! Considering the amount and variety of topics being published, effectively organizing and guiding a library in today's accelerated world is no easy task. Collection Development Policies: New Directions for Changing Collections is the contemporary librarians guide to building or revising a first-rate collection development policy. In this up-to-date book, experts in the field take you step-by-step through the publishing process from writing an initial draft to applying the official copy. Find out what did and did not work in their own practices and get the tools you'll need to tackle any obstacles you may encounter. Collection Development Policies: New Directions for Changing Collection covers a variety of topics—including pricing policies and remote storage facilities—without leaving out the traditional concerns of space and funding. This valuable book also addresses the needs of specialized collections with information on acquisition policies for contemporary subjects collections and building subject specific policy statements. Experienced professionals examine the stability of the electronic resources market and explain how the impact of technical services is redefining the access, collection, and cataloging of libraries. Collection Development Policies also provides examples of collection policies currently in use. Read about: the subject specific policy statements of Schreyer Business Library and the women's studies collection at Pennsylvania State University Berkeley's Collection Development Policy (CDPS) and the factors hindering its revision the creation and revision of St. John's University's collection development policy Simmons College's Graduate School of Library and Information Science's term project and syllabus—and how it can be applied to functioning libraries the Association of Research Libraries' Web pages—and how they have been influenced by the electronic management revolution Collection Development Policies: New Directions for Changing Collection is a valuable resource for anyone selecting and acquiring library materials, maintaining a library collection, or building a collection development policy. The information in this book will help you organize your library collection in a manner that will be beneficial not only to you, but to your clients as well.