Custom Written Term Papers: The Numerous Themes in Othello :: Othello essays

The Numerous Themes in Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚   The Shakespearean tragedy Othello contains a number of themes; their relative importance and priority is debated by literary critics. In this essay let us examine the various themes and determine which are dominant and which subordinate.    A. C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the theme of sexual jealousy in Othello:    In the second place, there is no subject more exciting than sexual jealousy rising to the pitch of passion; and there can hardly be any spectacle at once so engrossing and so painful as that of a great nature suffering the torment of this passion, and driven by it to a crime which is also a hideous blunder. [. . .] But jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this reason it is generally hidden; if we perceive it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyes away; and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs contempt as well as pity. Nor is this all. Such jealousy as Othello’s converts human nature into chaos, and liberates the beast in man; and it does this in relation to one of the most intense and also the most ideal of human feelings. (169)    In the essay â€Å"Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello† Robert B. Heilman discusses the ancient’s instinctive reaction to the love-theme of the play:    Before coming directly to the forming of the love-theme that differentiates Othello from other Shakespeare plays that utilize the same theme, I turn arbitrarily to Iago to inspect a distinguishing mark of his of which the relevance to thematic form in the play will appear a little later. When Iago with unperceived scoffing reminds Roderigo, who is drawn with merciless attraction to the unreachable Desdemona, that love effects an unwonted nobility in men, he states a doctrine which he â€Å"knows† is true but in which he may not â€Å"believe.† Ennoblement by love is a real possibility in men, but Iago has to view it with bitterness and to try to undermine it. (333-34)    The theme of hate is the theme on which the play opens. Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes indicates this hate in the opening scene:    It is then on a theme of hate that the play opens. It is a hate of inveterate anger.

The Moon and Sixpence Summary

THE MOON AND SIXPENCE Topic: The theme revealed in the novel â€Å"The  moon and sixpence† Outline: I. Summary about  writer  and the  novel â€Å"  The moon and  sixpence† II. Two  themes  revealed  in  the  novel  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The  moon  and  sixpence† 1. The revolt of an individual against the well- established conventions of  Ã‚  bourgeois society 2. No rooms  for trivial and  ordinary  pleasures of  life  in  Great Art III. Conclusion Summary about the writer and the novel â€Å"  The moon and sixpence† 1. William  Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) W. S.Maugham is famous English writer, well-known as a novelist, playwright and shortstory writer. In his writings he kept to the principles of Realism, but his method of writing was also influenced by Naturalism, Neo-romanticism and Modernism. W. S. Maugham was born in Paris where his father worked as solicitor for the English Embassy. At the age of 10, Maugham was orpha ned and sent to England to live with his uncle, thevicar of Whitstable. Before becoming a writer he was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham then studied six years medicine in  London.William worked in a hospital of Saint Thomas, which placed in a poor block of London the experience  found its  reflection in  the 1st novel. During World War, Maugham volunteered for the Red Cross, and was stationed in France for a period. There he met Gerald Haxton (1892-1944), an American, who became his companion. Disguising himself as a reporter, Maugham served as an espionage agent for British Secret Intelligence Service in Russia in 1916-17, but his stuttering and  poor health hindered his career in this field. In 1917 he married Syrie Barnardo, an interior  decorator; they were ivorced in 1927-8. On his  return from Russia, he spent a  year in a sanatoriumin Scotland. Maugham then set off with Haxton on a series of travels to eastern Asia, th e Pacific Islands, and Mexico. In many novels the surroundings also are international. Maugham's most famous story such as â€Å"Ashenden: or the British agent ’’Maugham died in Nice, a small French town from pneumonia on December 16, 1965. During the war, Maugham's best-known novel, Of Human Bondage(1915) was published. This wasfollowed by another successful book,The Moon and Sixpence(1919).Maugham also developed areputation as a fine short-story writer, one story,Rain, which appeared in The Trembling of a  Leaf  (1921), was also turned into a successful feature film. Popular plays written by Maugham include The Circle(1921),East of Sue(1922), The Constant Wife1926) and the anti-war play,For Services Rendered   (1932). In his later years  Maugham wrote his autobiography,Summing Up (1938) and works of fiction  such as The Razor's Edge (1945),Catalina (1948) and Quartet   (1949). After the 1930s Maugham's reputation abroad was greater than in England.Maugha m once said,†Most people cannot see anything, but I can se what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness;the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. † His literaryexperiences Maugham collected in The Summing Up, which has been used as a guidebook for  creative writing. William Somerset Maugham died in 1965 in a small French town from  pneumonia. â€Å"I have never pretended to be anything but a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I  have told a great many.It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the sake of the  story is not an activity that is in favor with theintelligentsia. In  endeavor  to  bear  my  misfortunes  with  fortitude. † (from  Creatures  of  Circumstance, 1947) The novel â€Å"The  moon and sixpence† Charles Strickland, a good, dull, holiest,  plain man who is  a conventional stockbroker. He is  probably a worthy member of so ciety, a good husband and father, an honest broker, but he abandoned his wife and two nice looking and healthy children, a boy and a girl. A supposition is putforth: Charles walks out upon his wife to  run after some woman.A friend of Strickland is sent to Paris to find out who the woman is and if possible to  persuade him to come back to his wife. After a long talk with Strickland, the man understands that the real reason that inspires him to run away is not woman. He decided to be a painter. Living in Paris,  Strickland  comes into  contact with  a  Dutch  painter, Dirk  Strove . Strove  is presented  as an antipode to Strickland. Strove is a kind hearted man but a bad painter. He is the first to discover the real talent of Strickland. When Strickland falls seriously ill, it is Strove who comes to help.Strove  persuades his wife to let him bring the  artist home to look after him. To  his surprise, his wife falls inlove with Strickland who she holds in disgust. Later his wife, a housemaid rescued by Strove, kills herself by drinking acid after Strickland leaves her. What Strickland wants from Blanche is not sexual relation but the nude picture of her beautiful figure. Leaving France for Tahiti, Strickland is in search of a world of his own. In Tahiti, he marries a native girl Ata and he  has about three years of happiness. He has two children. Strickland contracts leprosy and later becomes blind.He wants to leave the family but Ata doesn’t let him do it. His eyesight gets worse but he continues painting. Ata couldn’t go to the town and buy canvases; he uses the walls of his house. Strickland gets rid of some strong irresistible obsession imprisoning his soul with the help of those paintings. He has achieved what he longs for  on this land. He has painted his masterpiece. Knowing that he is going to die, he makes his wife  promise to burn down his masterpiece after his death in fear that it will be contaminated by the commercial world of money.Two themes  revealed in the  novel â€Å"The moon and sixpence† 1. The revolt of an  individual against the well- established conventions of bourgeois society In many of his stories, Maugham reveals to us the unhappy life and the revolt against the set social order. The  Moon and Sixpence was  written  in this  line. It  is a  story of the  conflict between the artist and the conventional society based on the life of a painter. The revolt of an individual against the well-established conventions of bourgeois society was shown in the following two aspects: 1. 1. Money worship societyThe bourgeois society with its vices such as: snobbishness money worship, pretense, self-interest†¦made their profit of the frailties of mankind. To them, money was a useful tool to dominate both economics and politics. Money also helped the bourgeois maintain their regal life and it connected the members in family, on the other hand, husban d had obligated to support his wife and children for whole his life. Therefore, the last generations of the bourgeois forced the young generation to continue their domination. It was mentioned in the conversation betweenStrickland and his friend. I rather wanted to be a  painter when I was a boy, but  my father made me go into  business because he said there was no money in art†. In this society, art was non-profitable. Therefore, it must be looked down upon. In their  Ã‚  point of view, art was nothing more than just a job to earn money. They did not see the beautiful things that art brings. When Strickland decided to follow in his father's footsteps, his dream and aspiration were hidden on the bottom of his heart. After working hard for ages, he became a  prosperous stockbroker. He is probably a worthy member of society.However, there is in streets of the poor  quarters a thronging vitality which excites the blood and prepares the soul for  the unexpected. It w as actually happened in Paris, because Strickland gave up the luxury life and got acquainted with hard life just only wanted to fulfill a long-cherished dream. He had to give up his dream to follow his father’s wishes. â€Å"I want to paint. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’ve got to paint. † The brief answer expressed his willingness to get out of ideology ties which were imposed  by his father. And his hand and mind would express his big dream by painting masterpieces. I couldn’t get what I wanted in  London. Perhaps I can here. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I tell you I’ve got to paint. † The author said that â€Å"I seemed to feel in him some vehement power that was struggling  within him, it  gave me the sensation of  something very strong, overmastering, that held  him† And Strickland cannot have a comfortable life any more. â€Å"I haven’t any money. I’ve got  about a  hundred pounds. † We could probably see it  through St rickland’s appearance when he came to Paris. â€Å"Sitting there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers were baggy, ishands were not clean; and his face, with the red stubble of the unshaved chin, the little eyes, and  the large, aggressive nose, was  uncouth and coarse. † 1. 2 Family and social responsibilities Painting is not only a ‘dreamy moon’ of Strickland but also of many progressive people in  bourgeois society. According to bourgeois concepts, all the men have to be responsible for hisfamily and children. He’s forced to have a strong connection with what is considered to belong tohim. Strickland’s life is tied tightly down to family’s contract. However, all that sort of thingsmeans nothing at all to  him.He doesn’t let those reasons impact on  his way chasing his passion any longer. It can be obviously proved through the conversation between two men, Strickland and the author, in ch apter II of the  novel. ‘Hang it all, one can’t leave a  woman without a bob. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhy not? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœHow is she going to live? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœI’ve supported her for seventeen years. Why shouldn’t she support herself for  a change? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœLet her try. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœDon’t you care for  her anymore? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a bit’   When Strickland talks about his children, his attitude is revealed to be heartlessly scornful. ‘They’ve had a good many years of comfort. It’s much more than the majority of children have. Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. † On the nature of art â€Å"Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the ch aos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination. Besides, somebody will look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrews will pay for  their schooling. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœI like them all right when they were kids, but now they’ve growing up I haven’t got any particular  Ã‚  feeling for them. ’     He totally gives up on his own family, children and thinks  that they could live by themselves without his care. Even if they can’t make arrangement for their life, his relatives might come to help. Strickland also doesn’t mind what  people loathe and despise him. ‘Everyone will think you a  perfect swine. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœLet them. ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWon’t it mean anything to you that people loathe and despise you?   Ã¢â‚¬ËœNo’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœYou don’t care if  people think you an utter  black-guard? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a damn. ’  Ã‚  He really doesn’t care any longer. ‘You won’t go back to your wife? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNever’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœYou don’t care if she and your children have to beg their bread? ’  Ã¢â‚¬ËœNot a damn. ’     He does everything: abandoned wife and children; left his successful career behind just  because he totally hates that gloomy  society and its old  customs. Only by a short conversation between two men, the author already describes the strongly reactive mind of Strickland, a man who dares to stand up and fight over the old customs of that  boring society and bourgeois.Regarding to Strickland’s point of view, his escape is the only decision; it’s also the solution to release his imprisoning mind. He doesn’t regret or be ash amed of  what he’s done. He accepts the eyes of society because he doesn’t care. Actually, it’s never ever  meant anything to him. The only thing that he really cares is  his mind right now freely to follow anddo everything he ever dreams of in his own ‘dreamy moon’. 2. No rooms for trivial  and ordinary pleasures of life in  Great Art 2. 1  Sacrifice everything to be an artist. At the beginning, the stockbroker Strickland had a stable life with happy family.However,when he started to chase his path as an artist, he had to experience a poor situation. Moreover, he was  willing  to  get  rid  of  everything  to  be  an  artist. Great art  don’t depend  on age  as long  as you have real passion. Even though at the age of fortyâ€Å"the chances are a million to one†, Stricklandstill wants to be a  painter. â€Å"I can learn quicker than I could when I was eighteen†, said he. He wanted to be a painter when he was a boy but his father didn’t allow him. His father  consumed that there was money in art. Therefore, he had to give up his passion for such a long time. However,  his fire for art wasn’t  stamped  out.And this  was  the perfect  time  for him to implement his dream again. On  his way chasing that dream, he had to  sacrifice everything. He  passed by the material and the sensual to fulfill spiritual needs. He got rid of a happy family with acomfortable life to go to Paris  and lived in destitute life there Although he knew that his family needed him and they had to suffer difficulties in life without him, he didn’t intend to change his mind and he accepted to be considered as a selfish man. He understood that his action weren’t highly appreciated; however, he still wanted to pursue art in his own way.Strickland accepted to live in a bad condition, without money, job, food and at last he found a Shelter at a hot el. Afterward, despite the fact that he got a serious disease and became  blinded; he still  tried to  fulfill  his masterpiece  on the  walls of his  house. During the  first daysstaying in Paris, he only found a cheap hotel to live. He appeared with such a miserable, untidy image. â€Å"He sat there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers werebaggy, his hands were not clean; and his face, with the red stubble of the unshaved chin, the littleeyes, and the large, aggressive nose, was uncouth and coarse.His mouth was large; his lips wereheavy and sensual. †He desired to paint. He repeated his speech many times when answering his friend. â€Å"I want to paint. †Ã¢â‚¬Å"I’ve got to paint†Ã¢â‚¬Å"I tell you I  have to paint†. 2. 2. Strickland protects Beauty and Art. Art is very  pure. It can not be  measured by the value of money or sexual relation. Stricklandstruggled to abandon his appetence for art. â₠¬Å"Let me tell you. I imagine that for months the matter never comes into your head, and you’re ableto persuade yourself that you’ve finished with it for good and all.You rejoice in your freedom, and  Ã‚  you feel that at last you can call your soul your own. You seem to walk with your head among the  stars. And then, all of a sudden you can’t stand it any more, and you notice that all the time your  Ã‚  feet have been walking in the mud. And you want to roll yourself in it. And you find some woman,coarse and low and vulgar, some beastly creature in whom all the horror of sex is blatant, and you  fall upon her like a wild  animal. You drink till you’re blind with rage. † He assumed that as an artist he shouldn’t have trivial fun such as desire of  women.For Strickland, woman is like an invisible rope tightening his life. It is very hard to escape from  them. Therefore,  he  tried  to  avoid  it. He  was  willing  to  give  her  up  as  well  as  his unsatisfactory painting. He did everything to be a true artist even though it made him become acruel man. Finally, he achieved what he wanted. He created a masterpiece. It was worth what he’d spent. He devoted all his life to pursue art. As an artist, he didn’t care about fame or wealth. He  painted pictures only to satisfy his love to art. He never sold his pictures to get money.He did not toaccept his masterpiece to be contaminated by the commercial world of money. His dream was very  beautiful III. Conclusion Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, â€Å"The Moon and Sixpence†is W. Somerset Maugham'sode to the powerful forces behind creative genius. Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of  wealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his artistic vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes sacrifices that lea ve the lives of those closest to him in  tatters.Through Maugham's sympathetic eye Strickland's tortured and cruel soul becomes a  symbol of the blessing and  the curse of transcendent artistic genius, and the cost in human’s lives it sometimes demands. Topic 2: Impression of  characteristic THE ANALYSIS  OF STRICKLAND CHARACTER 1. Strickland as an ordinary man 1. 1 Strickland is irresponsible inconsiderate toward his wife Strickland used be a good husband to his wife. Actually, he owns a happy family and goodeconomic condition. For many people, Strickland is good businessman and has good status insociety.However, he suddenly abandoned his wife and  went another place. Strickland leaved his wife and children behind without a word. His leaving makes her very miserable and she had asuspicion that he run  away with other women. His wife- Army is a pleasant hospital woman. Strickland can’t find any reasons which belong to Arm to leave her. When Army sends him many letters to persuade him to come back, Strickland doesn’t read any letters from her. It  meansthat he doesn’t concern anything related to his wife. When making conservation with friend sent to persuade him, Strickland expresses a coollyattitude to his wife. I can not describe the extraordinary callousness with which he made this reply†Although Strickland acknowledged his action, he still  does like that. Has she deserved that you should treat her like that? NoThen, isn’t it monstrous to leave her in  this fashion after seventeen years of married life withouta fault to find with her  Monstrous†Abandoning wonderful wife is faulty. However, letting a woman without a bob is more pitiless. He also knows before that his wife and children will have to suffer difficulties in life withouthim. But he still leaves them to  pursue his aim. Hang it all, one can’t leave a woman without a  bobWhy not? Don’t you care for her any more? N ot a bit†Strickland does not try thinking whether a weak woman can live without support from man;especially she has to nurse two children. They don’t know what they should do in order to support their life and what will wait for them in the future. He supposed that he no longer haveany responsibility to his family and all things that he  did before be enough. 1. 2 Strickland is irresponsible selfish father Strickland does not want to take any responsibility to his children. His children are very youngand innocent.They have never done any harm to  Strickland. â€Å"Damn it all. There are your children to think of. They’ve never done you any harm. They didnot ask to be bought in to the world. If you chuck everything like this, they’ll be thrown on thestreet. They have had a good many years of comfort. It’s much more than the majority of childrenhave. Besides, somebody will look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrewswill pay for t heir schooling†. How can children live without support from their father? He did not care about his children anymore, even though they could be thrown out in the street. Read also:  Moon By Chaim PotokFor many people, rearing children isvery holly duty and happiness. For children, father is the material and spiritual favor. It is very  poor for children when he entrusts them to the care of  Mac Andrews. Especially, Strickland thought that he did not have any special feeling to  his children. For many men, children are always very special and take really important part in their emotional life. Strickland only had special feeling to his children when they were small. When they grow  up, heno longer loves them. It seems that the nature of a father in Strickland has disappeared. He  became an unemotional father. 1. Strickland is ungrateful to his friend Dirk Strove is a very kind- hearted person. Dirk Strove is the person who recognizes the talentof Strickland and helps him everything in bad days. When Strickland falls seriously ill, it isStrove who comes to help. Strove persuades his wife to let him bring the artist home to look  after. St rickland must have gratitude all the things that Strove had done for him. On the other  hand, Strickland has an adulterous affair with his best friend’s wife. Moreover, Strickland justwants to take use of her body for  the nude picture and causes the death of Strove. 2. Strickland  as an  artist . 1 Strickland is a  really passionate painter .He compares his passion to paint is like the desire to breath. He abandoned his wife andchildren to pursuit his dream of painting. He gives up a happy life to go strange place to learn painting. He gets divorced with his wife without any reasons and lets his children alone to devotefor art. â€Å"I have got to paint† is repeated four times in conservation with the friend. It means thatthe desire to paint is full  of in his head all the  time. When family’s friend is sent to persuade Strickland, he used all the tactics and arguments tochange Strickland’s decision.However, Strickland still expresses a con sistent attitude to allarguments. Strickland believes that his wife could take care of herself and also is ready to  provide all necessary background for her to divorce. His children can grow without his support. Strickland reckons that it is the high time for him to realize his dream. For Strickland, painting is the air of life, an interest. The painting is all. He does not concernabout all the worst things people can think about him. â€Å"Everyone will think you are perfect swineLet themWon’t it mean anything to you to  know that people loath and despise you?No†Short answers contain a terrible determination. It seems that the art  is the only meaningful thingto him now. The passion of painting is covering all his body and  will. Behind the dull appearance, Strickland has the true passion to art. Strickland- a man with old  Norfolk jacket, unnourished bowler, his trouser was bagging, his hand were not clean, his facewith red stubble of the  unsaved chin, little eye, the large aggressive nose, his mount large and hislip were heavy and sensual. On the surface, he was not born for art. The rude and sensualappearance is completely contrary to deep passion on art and artist soul.The narrator feels  powerful desire to paint in his voice and vehement power. There is strong struggle between willand passion inside this man. Strickland decides to leave all his family and material values, loveand lust behind to scarify for art. Strickland accepts a poor life to devote for art and passion. From a prosperous stockbroker,Strickland became a poor man for only reason of being a painter. He  can live in cheap hotel withabout hundred pounds to learn painting. When coming Tahiti, Strickland marries with a nativegirl and lives in forest far away from town. They live in misery. When there was no food to behad, he seemed capable†. It seems that he â€Å"lived a life wholly of the spirit† . All the materialvalues do not have any meaning t o him. He wants to spend the rest of the life painting. He couldsuffer the poorest conditions to draw. Strickland decides to paint at the age of 40. â€Å"Do you think it is likely that a man will do any good when he starts at your age? Most people  begin painting when they were eighteen. I can learn quicker than I could when I  was eighteen†. The age is one of the most important barriers for Strickland to overcome. People mainly paintwhen they were eighteen.In spite of acknowledging this, Strickland still decides to paint by allmeans. In fact, there is no limitation of age in art. However, Strickland must have had the trulystrong desire to art because it is very difficult and unusual for people to start learning painting atthis age. Strickland had dream of painting when he was very small. At his time, the values of  man are measured in terms of money. His father said that there was no money in art and obligedhim to do business. Obeying his father’s speech, Stric kland became a prosperous stockbroker. He owns a happy family and good social status.Strickland does not satisfy with the current life. He feels the life is so boring and not meaningful. After 40 years, the dream of childhood stillobsesses him and wins other things. It seems that the man is cut for painting. At the age of 40,after many years of empty soul, he realizes clearly what he wants, what is important to his life. Panting is the job which he really wishes to do and  succeed. 2. 2 Strickland understands the rotten society and he is very brave man who sacrifices for the real art   When Strickland abandons his wife and spends all the rest of life for painting, many peoplewould think he is not usual.His action is different from the normal people in society. In the  bourgeois society, money is highly appreciated and most of people live for money. They supposethat there is no money in art and artists are not highly evaluated in social order. In contrary,Strickland can give up everything to pursue art. Strickland wishes to paint because of true  passion, but not for money. He never sold a single picture and he was never satisfied with whathe had done. In the end, Strickland obliged his wife to burn all his picture and house so that allhis products are not survived for commercial purpose.He has the great art concept and is acourageous man who devotes everything to art. With the endowed talent and passion, Strickland creates the wonderful pictures which containthe great content and perfect beauty. Strickland can go anywhere to find inspiration for his  picture. He decides to move from London to Paris, after that he came to Tahiti and live in aforest. Strickland is in search of a world of his own. When he contracts leprosy, he still draws. As he becomes blind, he continues painting until he died. Strickland is worth to  be great and realartist. 3. Conclusion For Strickland’s family, he is a bad father and husband.In term of the normal concepts in the society, Strickland is considered to be a selfish person who can abandon all important things to  pursue his own passion. Strickland is a real artist  and brave man in bourgeois society. He abandons all the normal thingsincluding family, money, social status, moral values to sacrifice for the real art. With deep enthusiasms, Strickland creates the great product and paints until his the last breaths. Hesupposes that the true art should not be contaminated by the commercial world of money. He isthe typical artist who can scarify for the  real art in the bourgeois society. Some comments:This is a fictionalized account of the life of artist Paul Gaugin. It's the best fictionalized biography I've ever read. From the moment I learned he's left his wife and children to the death of his mistress, I've been captivated by this intense personality. I'm reminded of Steve Jobs, a heartless man obsessed by work, by a vision. But the most interesting thing so far is the art itself. Th e narrator, a writer, admits that the first time he sees â€Å"Charles Strickland's† paintings, he's disappointed. The oranges are swollen and lopsided. He doesn't have the craftsmanship of the old masters. (And no wonder. He's only been painting for five years. Yet he says to himself, it's because it's a new style. This is key. Would anything ever make it in art if it weren't new? It goes through a couple of stages. Total rejection, then wild acclaim. The narrator is disappointed in himself for not recognizing genius. Only later, after he's seen these works in museums, acclaimed by others, is he able to recognize the hand of a master. It brings to mind Tom Wolfe's â€Å"The Painted Word. † Nothing is art until a story makes it so. And yet†¦ A major character in â€Å"The Moon and Sixpence† is a hackneyed artist who has great technical skill yet paints for the vulgar masses, making a comfortable living.He sees the genius of Gaugin (or in this case â€Å"Ch arles Strickland†) as no one does. He tries to get dealers to take the works though Strickland is uninterested in selling them. This character is the polar opposite of Strickland. He thinks only of others. If it weren't for him, Strickland would have died. Yet he gets no respect. He's other-directed in a world where the inner-directed rule. Yet he's a great judge of art. I can't help concluding that nearly every new style offers something, however turned off we may be initially. But I still prefer representational work to most modern art. The Right TimeThere are some books that walk into your life at an opportune time. I'm talking about the books that send a pleasant shiver down your spine laden with â€Å"Man, this is meant to be! † as you flip through its pages cursorily. Or those that upon completion, demand an exclamation from every book-reading fibre of your body to the effect of â€Å"There couldn't have been a better time for me to have read this book! † N ow, I come from deferred-gratification stock. So books like these, you don't read immediately,. You let them sit there on your table for a while. You bask in the warm expectant glow of a life-altering read.You glance at the book as you make your way to office, take pleasure in the fact that it'll be right there on your table when you open the front-door wearily, waiting to be opened, caressed, reveled in. And when that moment of reckoning arrives, you don't stop, you plunge yourself straight into the book, white-hot passionate. The Moon and Sixpence was just that kind of a book for me. I had just completed (and thoroughly enjoyed) a course on Modern Art in college and could rattle off the names of Impressionist painters faster than I could the Indian cricket team.I was particularly intrigued by Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist painter, after reading one of his disturbingly direct quotes. â€Å"Civilization is what makes me sick†, he proclaimed, and huddled off to Tah iti to escape Europe and â€Å"all that is artificial and conventional†, leaving behind a wife and five children to fend for themselves, never to make contact with them again. This struck me as the ultimate expression of individuality, a resounding slap to the judgmental face of conservative society, an escapist act of repugnant selfishness that could only be justified by immeasurable artistic talent, genius, some may call it.My imagination was tickled beyond measure and when I discovered there was a novel by W. Somerset Maugham (the author of The Razor's Edge no less! ) based on Gauguin, my joy knew no bounds. I was in the correct frame of mind to read about the life of a stockbroker who gave up on the trivial pleasures of bourgeois life for the penury and hard life of an aspiring painter without considering him ridiculous or vain. Supplied with the appropriate proportions of awe that is due to a genius protagonist, I began reading the book. I have to admit I expected a whol e lot from it.I had a voyeuristic curiosity to delve into the head of a certified genius. I was even more curious to see how Maugham had executed it. At the same time, I was hoping that the book would raise and answer important questions concerning the nature of art and about what drives an artist to madness and greatness. The Book The book's title is taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist, Philip Carey, is described as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet. † I admired Maugham's narrative voice.In his inimitable style, he flits in and out of the characters' life as the stolid, immovable writer who is a mere observer, and nothing more. His narrator defies Heisenberg's uncertainty principle as in observing his characters, he doesn't change their lives or nature one bit. He has a mild disdain for the ordinary life of a householder and relishes his independence. â€Å"I pictured their lives, troubled by no untoward adventure, honest, decent, and, by reason of these two upstanding, pleasant children, so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station, not without significance.They would grow old insensibly; they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason, marry in due course – the one a peretty girl, future mother of healthy children; the other a handsome, manly fellow, obviously a soldier; and at last, prosperous in their dignified retirement, beloved by their descendants, after a happy, not unuseful life, in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the patter of life it offers has a homely grace.It reminds you of a placid rivulet, meandering smoothly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees, till at last it falls into the vasty sea; but the sea is so calm, so silent, so indifferent, that you are troubled suddenly by a vague uneasiness. Perhaps it is only a kink in my nature, strong in me even in those days, that I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognized its social value. I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights.In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously. I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous shoals if I could only have change – change and the excitement of the unforeseen. † In Maugham's hands, Gauguin becomes Charles Strickland, an unassuming British stockbroker, with a secret unquenchable lust for beauty that he is willing to take to the end of the world, first to Paris and then to remote Tahiti. He is cold, selfish and uncompromising in this quest for beauty. â€Å"The passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. It urged him hither and thither.He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, an d the demon within him was ruthless. There are men whose desire for truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world. Of such was Strickland, only beauty with him took the place of truth. I could only feel for him a profound compassion. † However words such as these serve to romanticize Strickland's actions which at first glance, remain despicable. (view spoiler)Maugham paints him as a rogue loner, an unfathomable apparition, compelled to inhuman acts by the divine tyranny of art. He lived more poorly than an artisan. He worked harder. He cared nothing for those things which with most people make life gracious and beautiful. He was indifferent to money. He cared nothing about fame. You cannot praise him because he resisted the temptation to make any of those compromises with the world which most of us yield to. He had no such temptation. It never entered his head that compromise was possible. He lived in Paris more lonely than an anchori te in the deserts of Thebes. He asked nothing from his fellows except that they should leave him alone.He was single-hearted in his aim, and to pursue it he was willing to sacrifice not only himself – many can do that – but others. He had a vision. Strickland was an odious man, but I still think he was a great one. † In these beautiful words he describes Strickland's strange homelessness and suggests a reason for his subsequent escape to Tahiti. â€Å"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strange surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not.They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men f ar and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels he belongs.Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scnes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest. † By the end of the book, Maugham's narrator somewhat loses his grip over the reader and I could picture him in my mind floundering around the island of Tahiti, interviewing the people who came in contact with Strickland, trying to piece together a story. He finds himself in the â€Å"position of the biologist, who has to figure out from a bone, not only a creature's body, but also its habits. The reader is promised the ineffable, a study of genius and is only delivered an admission of its elusive nature. Also the tone of the novel tends to get slightly misogynistic in places. But I suppose that is more a failing of the protagonist rather than the author. As compensation, Maugham offers delicious crisp cookies of wisdom throughout. In simple lyrical language, he penetrates to the core of the human condition and offers invaluable advice to the aspiring writer, the hopeful lover and the wannabe genius.For its unpretentious, sympathetic and humane portrayal of a deeply flawed protagonist, its quotable quotes and its ironic humour, this book shall rank as my one of my favourite books on the life and development of an artist in search of the unknowable. My Master Maugham I strongly believe that the adjectives one throws around are a barometer of one's sensitivity or at the minimum, one's desire to be accurate. Both of these qualities are indispensable to the aspiring writer because honestly, what is there to writing exceptfresh verbs, evocative adjectives, searing honesty and an unbounded imagination.Also, that it's easier said than done. In this context, there are moments when I feel utterly stupid and unimaginative. My inner monologues resemble the chatter of teenage girls in their lack of content and use of worn-out adjectives. I mean, awesome and amazing, like seriously? Bleeuurghh!! During such exasperating times, my inner world aches to devour a mouthful of good-looking words in the Queen's English. I head to my dusty book-closet and roughly displace its contents until I find a book either by one of the barons of British literature, a W. Somerset Maugham/PG Wodehouse or a laid-back satire along the lines of Yes Minister.The book usually serves its purpose admirably. It manages to extract me from my predicament by either making me split my sides laughing or by drowning me in a stream of sentences so beautifully constructed that I completely forget my insecurities and start shaking my head ponderously at the writer's virtuosity instead. Coming to the to pic of the writer himself, W. Somerset Maugham is one of my favourite writers in the English language. Being an aspiring writer who's yet to find his voice myself, his novels never fail to stab me with a hopeful optimism. My premature belief, that I can write well, is reinforced when I read Maugham.He never intimidates me or bores me, commonplace sins many writers will have to go to confession for. While reading his prose, he possesses the singular ability of making the difficult art of writing seem pretty doable. This, I've realized with the passing of time, is due to one simple reason. It is because W. Somerset Maugham never shows off! Never! Never does he ramble pointlessly. Never does he merely graze the point instead of hitting it fair and square because he was too busy fooling around with the language. Never! He hits bulls eye with eloquence and a kind of frugal, flowing lyricism.There is always a single-minded purpose behind his writings. It is to spin a mighty good yarn by g etting the point across without making his readers consult a dictionary. He even propounds profundity in a manner that typically makes me re-read the paragraph(and underline it) to admire the economy and ease with which the thought was expressed in words. I find the writing styles of Hemingway and Maugham similar in form, but while Hemingway's writing is austere to the point of being skeletal, Maugham clothes his words until they can be considered passably pretty.For his remarkable abilities, Maugham's opinions about his own writing were always modest. He believed he stood  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in the very first row of the second-raters. †Ã‚  Asked about his method of writing, he simplified it to a matter of keen observation and honest reproduction. â€Å"†Most people cannot see anything,†Ã‚  he once said,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"but I can see what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness; the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. † My f avourite excerpts Advice to aspiring writers I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed. But there is in my nature a strain of asceticism, and I have subjected my flesh each week to a more severe mortification. I have never failed to read the Literary Supplement of The Times. It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them.What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. And if I may judg e from the reviews, many of these book are well and carefully written; much thought has gone to their composition; to some even has been given the anxious labour of a lifetime.The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts; and indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success. † â€Å"Until long habit has blunted the sensibility, there is something disconcerting to the writer in the instinct which causes him to take an interest in the singularities of human nature so absorbing that his moral sense is powerless against it.He recognizes in himself an artistic satisfaction in the contemplation of evil which a little startles him but sincerity forces him to confess that the disapproval he feels for certain actions is not nearly so strong as his curiosity in their reasons. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. † On the ironic humour of life â €Å"Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. † On the nature of art â€Å"Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly?Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination. † B? kh? n kh? ? nha c? a chu c? a minh va ? tru? ng, chang trai Maugham b? t d? u phat tri? n m? t cai tai kheo dua ra nh? ng nh? n xet gay t? n thuong cho nh? ng ngu? i ma c? u khong ua. Cai tai nay doi khi du? c ph? n anh trong cac nhan v? t van h? c c? a Maugham

Education and training for digital repository manager - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 18 Words: 5469 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR DIGITAL REPOSITORY MANAGER Abstract: The need of an active and continuous partnership between the informational profile organizations, scientific community and general public must be ensured to the extent that it includes the user-guiding paradigm and researchers support as well. There are several important questions the future digital management is asking concerning the professional profile of those who will work in different specialized structures that are mandated to preserve cultural and scientific heritage: Which are the core competencies going to be and based on which set of skills will they be built? How will these institutions look like? How will the frame look like and especially will there be a common area of knowledge exchange for those who manage considerable sized informational bodies? Which are the policies dedicated to informational management and knowledge requirements?. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Education and training for digital repository manager" essay for you Create order This research article will try to solve these questions by the objectives below: -Study concerning the state-of-art of the universities digital repositories; -Analysis of quality management in digital repositories procedures and development.   Procedures of uploading, conservation, preservation and copyright legality implemented for digital deposits; -Analysis of staff competencies involved in digital repository management, manners of professional training for such personnel, existing Life Long Learning training offer. -TransilvaniaUniversity proposal and students reaction about this new educational offer. 1. Study concerning the state-of-art of the universities digital repositories 1.1 General aspects of the institutional repository (Institutional Repository IR) The digital institutional repository represents an open database, namely internet accessible, where the entire scientific production of the university is archived: bachelor degrees, master degrees, PhD theses of the universitys members, teaching material, scientific papers, conferences proceedings organized by the university, research projects and other materials which the university considers valuable and can be made available for the members of the university or of other universities. The digital institutional repository represents the entire value of the university and increases visibility, and national and international appreciation. It can be constituted and maintained by each faculty separately, or by the informatics department, or by a group of specialists in information technology from each faculty, or by the library. The digital institutional repositories (IR) are digital collections which stock and preserve the academic communitys intellectual production. They are the main component in the reform of academic communication by stimulating innovation in a disaggregated publishing structure and are intangible indicators of the quality of institutions by increasing visibility, prestige and public value. The digital repositories present the following characteristics: they offer a critical component in the reformation of the academic communication system a component which extends the access to research, reiterates academic control, increases competition and reduces the monopoly of journals. They bring an economic ease and are relevant for the institutions and libraries which maintain them; they have the potential of serving as intangible indicators for the quality of the university and demonstrate the scientific, social and economic relevance for each research activity. A digital institutional repository represents: Organization and management of digital materials; Web-based archive open; A service offered to the community members by the university; Material created by the institution and its members; Academic content; It includes long-term saving. The reasons for publishing in an institutional repository are: The institution research will be valid in a single Internet database accessible to anyone from anywhere; The increase of visibility and the impact of the institution research. 1.2 Research projects developed to create instruments and services for the open access to scientific information SHERPA-Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access.The major objective of the project was opening the access to research in England, creating a digital open access environment for the scientific research of the greatest universities in the United Kingdom. By this project, the absolutely necessary services and instruments for the creation of the open access digital environment had been made available to the academic community respecting the copyright and relationships between universities, authors and publishers (Sherpa, 2011). The management of the project was ensured by the team of the digital repositories local managers of the institutions involved in the project. The services developed by the project are: RoMEO Publishers copyright archiving policies JULIET Research founders archiving mandates and guidelines OpenDOAR worldwide Directory of Open Access Repositories SHERPA Search simple full-text search of U.K. repositories The most useful and used services offered by this project are henceforth presented. 1.3 The OpenDOAR Project The Directory of Open Access OpenDOAR is the database with open access academic repositories. Each repository was analyzed by the ones authorized by the project to check the documents enrolled there. A list of the repositories which observe the standards of academic quality was made up. Besides the simple list of repositories, OpenDOAR equally allows the access to the repositories content. Additionally, instruments and support are offered for sharing experience and good practices in order to improve the quality of the repositories infrastructure. All the continents have developed institutional repositories. In Europe institutional repositories have developed in 36 countries.   OpenDOAR offers a graph service with reference to the world situation regarding digital repositories, the selection being able to generate data concerning many identification elements: continent, country, institution, language of documents, and type of documents. Most of the institutions that have developed digital repositories are in Europe 46.5%, namely 737 institutions of a total of 1952. North America is registered by this service with 324 institutions representing 20.4% from the total. Then there is Asia with 300 institutions 18.9%, Australia with 54 institutions 3.4%, South America with 109 institutions 6.9%, Africa with 43 institutions 2.7%. Although Europe is represented by most institutions, the country with the most digital repositories is the United States with 395 repositories out of the total of 1952 digital repositories from the whole world, representing 20.2% from the total. The United Kingdom has 190 digital repositories representing 9.7%, followed by Germany with 145 digital repositories 7.4% from the total. Then, there is Japan with 133 digital repositories, representing 6.8%, Australia with 64 3.3%, the Netherlands with 49 3%, Italy with 59 3%, Canada with 53 2.7%. In the United States 269 institutions develop digital repositories representing 17% from the total of 1585 institutions. 37.6% of the digital repositories, namely 734 use Dspace. 17% use Eprints followed by: Digital Commons 4.3%, OPUS 2.8%. 82.2% of the digital repositories are cross-disciplinary, 11.3% disciplinary, 4.1% aggregator which selects data from other repositories, 2.3% governmental. The highest percent of archived documents in digital repositories is represented by scientific articles, 1277 articles representing 62% from the total number of documents (OpenDOAR, 2011). 1.4 The DOAJ Project Directory of Open Access Journal The DOAJ repertoire is a database with open access journals. This service enrolls free of charge full text qualitatively checked academic journals. The database contains 42079 journals, out of which 2864 are full text articles. There are 568183 articles included (DOAJ, 2011). 1.5 The ROAR Project Registry of Open Access Repository This service is offered to community. All the 2270 repositories can be visualized. The service contains 2270 digital repositories loaded January 1990 May 2011 (ROAR, 2011). 1.6 The DRIVER Project: Networking European Scientific Repositories. The DRIVER project Networking European Scientific Repositories represents a network of European digital repositories. The DRIVER project is considered the most important initiative for the development of a digital repository. DRIVER I accumulated a range of efforts in the development of digital repositories and it was intended to offer a European infrastructure providing services for researchers, administrators and public. Thus, a network of field experts and digital repositories was achieved. DRIVER II consolidated the previous achievements and developed the initial platform in a confederation of repositories. The GEANT network was created within the European project FP7 with the purpose of stocking knowledge, of adding value to primary researches, to data and information and creating much more effective, profitable for industry secondary research, of consolidating the link between research and education. Thus a portal of the European information for open access publications was cre ated having more than 2.5 million documents, from 33 European countries, 248 repositories in 25 languages (DRIVER, 2011). 1.7 Existing informational technologies for digital repository constitution The universities and research centers worldwide are very active in planning and implementing digital repositories. A help guide has been published for the organizations which plan to implement IR, offering a presentation and a selection of the software systems that best satisfy the needs of the respective institutions. All the presented systems satisfy three criteria: They are available free of charge by an Open Source license, that is they are available for free and can be modified, updated and redistributed. They are compatible with Open Archives Initiative-OAI and by any implementation participation to the global network of the institutional inter-operable repositories is possible. They have recently been made and are available to the public. The presented systems are Archimede, ARNO, CDSware, Dspace, Eprints, Fedora, i-Tor, MyCoRe and OPUS. We have at our disposal a lot of models of digital repositories, handbooks, open sources in order to build digital repositories. The field is being in full development. There must be established what management of quality in digital repositories means. 2. Analysis of quality management in digital repositories procedures and development.   Procedures of uploading, conservation, preservation and copyright legality implemented for digital repositories A very important instrument of assessment in the economy of a digital repository is DRAMBORA-Digital Repository Audit Method Based On Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA, 2011) which was developed under the cooperation DCC Digital Curation Centre and DPE Digital Preservation Europe, being the result of an audit period of a pilot repository carried out between 2006 and 2007. The result became concrete in a methodology of self-assessment, encouraging organizations to be fully aware of objectives, activities and resources before identifying, assessing and managing the risks within the organization. In DRAMBORA case, the digital processing is characterized as an activity of assessing the risk and the role of data curator is that of rationalizing uncertainties and dangers which prevent operations of maintaining authenticity and intelligibility and turn them into risks which can be managed. Within the process there are described six stages.   The initial stages need, if we speak about auditors, the development of an organizational profile in which there are described and documented the repository mandate, objectives, activities and resources. Subsequently, the risks are derived on their basis and assessed in terms of potential impact and probabilities. At last, auditors are encouraged to conceive answers in accordance with the risks management that were identified. The process allows an efficient allocation of resources, thus permitting the managers to identify and categorize the areas where the shortcomings are most obvious or where they have a great potential of being dis ruptive. The process itself is an iterative one. The goal of the set of DRAMBORA instruments is to ease the auditors work in: defining the area of repository functions and mandate identifying the repository activities and resources identifying the risks and vulnerability associated to mandate, activities and resources assessing and calculating the risks defining the measures of risk managing reporting in the case of self-auditing OAIS is an archive consisting in persons and systems that have accepted to take the responsibility of preserving information and of making it available to a Designed Community (ISO 14721, 2003). What presents interest is the descriptive attribution trustworthy which actually implies a level of auditing. Strictly speaking, the purpose of this document is that of presenting an instrument which covers strategic planning with everything it implies for a digital repository. The document content is mainly based on the processes through which an organization initializing a digital repository has in view in order to manage the contained objects. The described processes are concentrated around a group of Strategic Objective Plans (SOP) through which a repository specifies its objectives, goals and key indicators of performance (Kosson, 2011). NARA- National Archive and Records Administration of United States (NARA,2010) has recently hosted a meeting of the Working Group which elaborates ISO standards (International Organization for Standardization) in order to use them in certifying trustworthy digital repositories. The two proposed standards are ISO/DIS 16363- Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories and ISO/DIS 16919- Requirements for the persons who offer auditing and certifying the candidate trustful digital repositories.ISO/DIS 16363 is mainly based on Criteria and Checklist for Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Repositories, shortly TRAC (Trustworthy Repositories Audit Certification: Criteria and Checklist). On the whole, the TRAC document was elaborated in accord with the requirements ofISO 14721- Open system of information archiving Reference model. NARA has actively involved in developing both of them. Why is such a standard, as ISO 16363, necessary? The substantiation of standard proposal based on the following grounds: Long time ago before it had become an approved standard in 2002, many sides of the cultural heritage community adopted OAIS as a model in order to better understand what is asked from the digital preservation systems. The institutions started to self-declare in accordance with OAIS just to underline the trust degree of the digital repositories. Anyway, there was no agreed understanding regarding what in accordance with OAIS meant beyond the possibility of applying terminology in order to describe the own archives despite the fact that there was a segment targeted to conformity in OAIS, which specified the requirements necessary to support the information model and the responsibilities that were compulsorily achieved. Declaring the attribute of trustworthiness is made easily but it is more difficult to try it on and to justify it objectively. Setting up some clearer criteria to detail what is and what is not a tr ustworthy repository has become essential. While ISO/DIS 16363 mentions the criteria which should be fulfilled for a trustworthy repository, ISO/DIS16919 offers the requirements necessary to the persons who will do audits and certifications of digital repositories ( Kosson, 2011). According with international standard: Space data and information transfer systems à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬  Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/DIS 16363, we are trying to define trustworthy digital repositories (ISO, 2011). The main purpose of this document is to define a CCSDS Recommended Practice on which to base an audit and certification process for assessing the trustworthiness of digital repositories. The scope of application of this document is the entire range of digital repositories. At the very basic level, the definition of a trustworthy digital repository must start with a mission to provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its Designated Community, now and into the future (RLG-OCLC, 2002). Table 1: Components of a trustworthy digital repository Component of a trustworthy digital repository Procedures that: A mission statement reflects a commitment to the preservation of, long term retention of, management of, and access to digital information (ISO, 2011) Preservation Strategic Plan defines the approach the repository will take in the long-term support of its mission, collection,   policy or other document that specifies the type of information it will preserve, retain, manage and provide access to (ISO, 2011) Organization of structure and staff identified and established the duties that it needs to perform and shall have appointed staff with adequate skills and experience to fulfill these duties, the appropriate number of staff to support all functions and services, in place an active professional development program that provides staff with skills and expertise development opportunities (ISO, 2011) Procedural accountability preservation policy framework identified and established the duties that it needs to perform and shall have appointed staff with adequate skills and experience to fulfill these duties, the appropriate number of staff to support all functions and services, in place an active professional development program that provides staff with skills and expertise development opportunities (ISO, 2011) Contracts, licenses, liabilities mechanisms for review, update, and ongoing development of its Preservation Policies as the repository grows and as technology and community practice evolve, a documented history of the changes to its operations, procedures, software, and hardware, commit to transparency and accountability in all actions supporting the operation and management of the repository that affect the preservation of digital content over time, define, collect, track, and appropriately provide its information integrity measurements., commit to a regular schedule of self-assessment and external certification., have short- and long-term business planning processes in place to sustain the repository over time, have financial practices and procedures which are transparent, compliant with relevant accounting standards and practices, and audited by third parties in accordance with territorial legal requirements, have an ongoing commitment to analyze and report on risk, benefit, investment, and expenditure (including assets, licenses, and liabilities) (ISO, 2011) Digital object management, acquisition of content maintain appropriate contracts or deposit agreements for digital materials that it manages, preserves, and/or to which it provides access (ISO, 2011) Infrastructure and security risk management, technical infrastructure risk management identify the Content Information and the Information Properties that the repository will preserve (ISO, 2011) There are a lot of handbooks, sources in order to build digital repositories, to ensure conservation, preservation, development, there are standards of accreditation and audit of trustworthy digital repositories. The documentation is at hand for everybody who is interested in the issue. Who will be the specialists working in these repositories and will they achieve all the presented desiderates? Will they be specialists in science of information, IT staff, technical staff? Who will be attracted to getting specialized and running a career in this field? Will they need a special training? Who will be their trainers? 3. Analysis of staff competencies involved in digital repository management, manners of professional training for such personnel, existing Life Long Learning training offer. 5.1 Situation in international context The synchronization of educational offer with the present necessities for aggregation, dissemination and preservation of digital information represents the concern of many universities (Zuccala, 2008). The programs which offer an answer to these necessities have led to the transformation of the domains that traditionally deal with informational management such as science of libraries, science of archives and science of museums. Thus, under the concept of sciences of information, there have been initiated, by higher education institutions of tradition from Europe and the United States of America, the so-called iSchools Schools of Information, which reunite, under the same curricula, elements   specific to LAM (Libraries-Archives-Museums). The most visible examples are: master degree program of Illinois University with data processing specialization: The Data Curation Education Program (DCEP); master degree program of Syracuse University The Master of Science in Information Management with Data Management Specialization program of thorough studies which is offered by WISE consortium Web-based Library science Education Leif Kajberg, Leif LÃÆ' ¸rring (2005). European curriculum reflections on Library and Library science education. Copenhagen: Royal School of Librarianship and Library science. available at https://www.library.utt.ro/LIS_Bologna.pdf SCONUL Task Force on Information Skills (1999). Information Skills in Higher Education. London: Society of College, National and University Libraries. available at https://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/papers/Seven_pillars.html -Kings Royal College, London (Jacobs) (Cockburn) (Jones) ( 2011) Digital Asset Management, available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/details/name/digital_asset_management/alpha/d/header_search/ Analysing the educational offer and taking into account the Romanian specific, especially the situation of Transilvania University of Brasov, there has been proposed a program of specialization in the field which is developed within the Faculty of Mechanic Engineering, Mechatronics specialization. 5.2 Description of the program proposed by TransilvaniaUniversity of Brasov Mission: The complementary master program ADVANCED SYSTEMS FOR LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS, ASLAM, aims at developing some formative programs and research programs in order to obtain in-depth information in the trans-disciplinary subfields of Mechatronics engineering in accord with the modern tendencies of technique and ensuring a synergetic combination between mechanics of precision, electronic systems of command and control, and computer science, which serves to projecting, achieving, putting into function and exploring intelligent automated systems. The disciplines proposed in the education plan for ASLAM specialization have in view completing the fundamental knowledge the students gain during their undergraduate studies (specializations Mechatronics, Sciences of Libraries and Information, Sciences of Archives and Museums, Computer Science, Marketing and so on) ( Table 2). Table 2: Objectives and competences for master degree students Specific objectives of training Specific competences Disciplines For didacticactivities Studying thoroughly and completing the knowledge   previously gained, necessary to obtaining a higher level of training, so that the graduates will be able to act in decisional jobs as well; Building skills and abilities which should allow the graduates to apply their knowledge and to achieve professional activities in fields and subfields specific to Mechatronics engineering with applications in LAM;   Building a systematic thinking on functioning and behavior in exploiting some other types of systems assimilable to mechatronic systems with applications in LAM. Studying thoroughly the latest methodologies and technologies used in Mechatronics engineering or which have clear perspectives to be used in the near future. Capacity of applying theory in specific situations of economic and institutional environment. Using methods of experimental analysis in Mechatronics engineering. Competences regarding measurements, automated data gathering, results analysis. Competences regarding the principles that are at the basis of quality management of production, projection and research. Competences regarding conception and improvement of the machines and equipments specific to the field. Using various settings of programming in order to solve the issues of Mechatronics engineering with applications in LAM. Factors of information   support degrading Apparatus used in publications repositories Apparatus and security systems used in LAM Archives management Conservation through digitization Informatics technologies for managing documents in LAM Processing contemporary documents Informatics technologies applied in documentary structures Databases used in managing LAM Treatments of conservation Management of info-documentary structures for preserving publications Systems and technologies applied in LAM automation Calibration and maintenance of the apparatus destined to publications conservation Patrimony values from archives, libraries and museums Achieving web pages Management of the projects in LAM Systems of cultural animation used in LAM Multimedia equipments used in LAM Optic systems of documents recognition Marketing research with applications in LAM Software products of archiving and conserving information Copyright in informational society Management of digital repositories It is to be done by approaching some complementary themes that aim to domains of science with high performances in the implementation of new technologies, usage of technologies of traditional and digital conservation, usage of RFID technology in the systems of patrimony security and inventory, in the management of documents and vending machines for checking and borrowing, usage of the software products for archiving, stocking and management of documents and displayed objects. The graduates should finally be able to organize, access and disseminate databases, to organize digital repositories, to archive collections of traditional documents observing the legislation, to make marketing research surveys in order to identify the users and clients needs, to organize cultural events, to promote institution, to preserve the traditional and electronic documents. They should also be able to develop their theoretical knowledge in the field and to develop their competences regarding the usage of apparatus that are destined to measure the variables of factors that are noxious to documents conservation under good circumstances, to maintain these apparatus, to calibrate them and to measure variables, to maintain variables, conditions, treatments applied to damaged documents, to archive documents and ensure optimal conditions for the preservation of traditional and electronic documents. 5.3 Qualitative marketing research survey on the options of engineering and library sciences graduates, class 2011, regarding the educational offer The survey was carried out in March-April 2011 and addressed to the graduates class 2011 from specialization Sciences of Libraries and Information, day and distance learning courses, as well as to the graduates of Mechanics engineering, day courses, Mechatronics specialization. The research promotion was made on the email addresses of students groups, by sending them the following message: We are kindly asking you to answer the following questions of the online questionnaire in the above link. Your contribution is important in the university decision of starting to make the steps for establishing this new specialization: MASTER DEGREE OF SPECIALIZATIONIN ADVANCED SYSTEMS FOR LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES and MUSEUMS LAM, at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3PMSGVJ. Hypothesis of research: Any company, institution, library, museum has a digital archive (documents that are stocked and archived electronically) There must be trained specialists for forming, conserving and preserving digital archives or digital repositories. There must be trained specialists for traditional conservation of the documents in repositories using technical apparatus of measuring and maintaining constant temperature, admitted luminosity, relative humidity of the environment etc. There must be trained specialists for projecting, launching and functioning of equipments and software products specific to digitization, securing, RFID, vending machines of documents transport. MANAGER OF DIGITAL REPOSITORY should be introduced in jobs classification book and there should be observed the standards stipulations regarding the audit and quality of digital repositories. The questionnaire had 10 questions, out of which one represented the respondents characterization. The graduates who answered were 40 out of 75 from engineering, therefore 51% and 42 out of 69 from the science of libraries, therefore 61%. The research is validated from the point of the number of respondents and gender issues. Results of research: We are presenting the questions and graphics of answers for the students from engineering ENG and of those from Library Science- LIB, excepting the questions of characterization. 1. Have you ever accessed digital libraries in your personal activity or for studying necessities? Only digital libraries Traditional and digital libraries I have never accessed them Concerning the libraries accessing for study necessities, 84.2 % of students from engineering and 90.2% of students from science of information accessed these libraries which were both traditional and digital ( Fig.1, Fig.2). 2. Do you think that the profession of manager of digital platforms represents a future profession and may it be frequent on labor market in the future? 1. Yes 2. No 3. I do not know 4. It is no need to specialize in this job 78% of students from engineering and 90.2% of students from science of information think that the Manager of digital repository represents a job for the future (Fig.3, Fig.4). 3. In which of the subjects proposed for this master degree are you interested to study? 1- Great interest, 2- Medium interest, 3- I am not interested 1 2 3 Factors of degrading the information support Apparatus used in publications repositories Security apparatus and systems used in LAM Archives management Conservation through digitization Computer technologies for managing the documents in LAM Processing contemporary documents Computer technologies applied in documentary structures Databases used in managing LAM Conservation treatments Management of info-documentary structures for preserving publications Systems and technologies applied in LAM automation Standardization and maintaining the apparatus destined to conserving publications Patrimony values from archives, libraries and museums Achieving   web pages Projects management   in LAM Systems of cultural animation used in LAM Multimedia equipments used in LAM Optical systems of documents recognition Marketing research surveys with applications in LAM Software products of archiving and conserving information Copyright in informational society Management of digital repositories The students interest in the disciplines proposed for the future curricula, resulted from research, is the following: Table 3: Students opinions regarding disciplines to be studied to master degree The disciplines that represent the highest interest for the students from engineering are: Optic systems of recognizing characters 71.1% Conservation by digitization -   68.4% Software products of archiving and conserving information 65.8% Patrimony values in LAM 51.4% Achieving web pages 51.4% Management of digital repositories 50%. The disciplines that represent the highest interest for the students from library science are: Archiving software products 75% Management of digital repositories 73.7% Conservation by digitization- 69% Achieving web pages- 66% Projects management in LAM 65.7% 4.What other subjects would be of interest to you? The students from engineering proposed the following disciplines as well: Techniques of security against electronic theft. Architectural and managerial design of modern libraries Appreciation and promotion of publications A course about the ways of archiving, stocking and maintaining records, photos, processed or non-processed films (other sources of information than books). The students from library science   proposed the following disciplines as well: Informatics technologies applied in documentary structures, Achieving web pages, Software products of archiving and conserving information Factors of information support degradation Methods of press monitoring, Legislation on culture Marketing, Writing appearance (discoveries) Restitution of patrimony values   A course on the old book Modern methods of readers drawing towards library; Digital repositories- easy access Practicing on the elaboration of projects for financing libraries and museums. School psychology Research methods and methodologies in sciences of communication Open access to information through digital repositories Disciplines connected to archives. 4. The teaching staff who will teach these subjects will belong to the following fields: Letters LT, Sociology SO, Engineering ENG, Law L, Computer Science CS. Allocate 100 points to these fields in accord with   the weight of the disciplines that you think are more useful in this specialization Regarding the weight of disciplines field from the proposed curricula, the students from engineering want that the disciplines in the computer science field should have a weight of 28.06%, the ones in the engineering field 21.86%, the ones in the field of letters 21.37%, those in the field of sociology 14.57% and those in the field of law 12.1%. The students from sciences of information answered completely inexactly as they did not succeed in distributing 100 points in four fields (Fig.6, Fig.7). 5. Do you think that TransilvaniaUniversity has expertise and facilities in the field and do you trust that it will be a specialization with a high level of teaching and learning? 1- No, 2- Poor, 3- Medium, 4- Good, 5- High Concerning university expertise, 58% of the students from engineering and 63.4% of the students from sciences of information think that there will be held courses of quality and at the wanted level of technology (Fig.8, Fig.9). 6. If these courses can be carried out online and seminars can be web-seminars through direct online interaction with the teaching staff, then would the specialization become more attractive? Yes No I do not know 65.7% of the students from engineering and 62.5% of the students from sciences of information think that this specialization could become more attractive if there were held web seminars and online courses (Fig.10, Fig.11). 7. Would you like to attend this specialization? Yes No I do not know Only 8.3% of the students from engineering will attend this specialization, while 75% of the ones from sciences of information are interested in becoming master degree students (Fig.12, Fig.13). 8. If you did not choose this specialization, what would be the reasons?   I want to attend another specialization I do not have financial resources I do not like the oferred structure Other Out of the ones who do not want to attend this specialization 70% of the students from engineering wish another specialization and 55% of the ones from sciences of information do not have financial resources (Fig.14, Fig.15). Conclusions The majority of students accesses traditional and digital libraries for their study necessities and think that the profession of manager of digital repositories represents a job of the future. Both ENG and LIB students are interested in the following courses: Conservation by digitization and Achieving web pages. The students from ENG are interested in Techniques of security against electronic theft, while the LIB students are interested in Methods of press monitoring, Legislation on culture. Most of them prefer the master degree should carry out through web seminars and online courses. The LIB students want to attend this specialization while very few ENG students are interested in this specialization because they want to attend another specialization. All the students agree at and like the offered structure. From my didactic experience, teaching at both Library Science specialization and Engineering, Mechatronics specialization, I can state that the graduates of Library Science are not prepared for such a responsibility and do not possess IT competences in order to master the problems. The Engineering graduates are capable to develop these repositories, to further train and to build trustworthy repositories but they do not have abilities regarding information organization, indexation elements, thesaurus, bibliographic description, and they are not attracted by this domain. What is to be done? Involving all the decisional factors to make educational decisions for training the basic specialty staff in informational society; Offering post-university courses, i-courses, to which all the graduates can have access whatever the profile they attended but who are involved in developing digital repositories; Offering training courses for the persons who have already been working in the field; Involving professional associations in promoting and carrying out these courses; Making all responsible factors aware of the future of this profession.