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Elsevier

Books in Library and information systems

  • Information Literacy Landscapes

    Information Literacy in Education, Workplace and Everyday Contexts
    • 1st Edition
    • Annemaree Lloyd
    • English
    Drawing upon the author’s on going research into information literacy, Information Literacy Landscapes explores the nature of the phenomenon from a socio-cultural perspective, which offers a more holistic approach to understanding information literacy as a catalyst for learning. This perspective emphasizes the dynamic relationship between learner and environment in the construction of knowledge. The approach underlines the importance of contextuality, through which social, cultural and embodied factors influence formal and informal learning. This book contributes to the understanding of information literacy and its role in formal and informal contexts.

  • Digital Library Economics

    An Academic Perspective
    • 1st Edition
    • Wendy Evans + 1 more
    • English
    Digital Library Economics covers key aspects of the management and development of the digital library from an economic viewpoint. The work is a collection of essays by leading international authorities and provides an overview of current and future positions with regard to the economics of digital library management and development. Key contextual aspects are described, providing a history of the growth of digital libraries, with special reference to financial issues, current and possible future economic models and costing methodologies and challenges, themes and issues in the field.

  • Surviving the Future

    Academic Libraries, Quality and Assessment
    • 1st Edition
    • Gail Munde + 1 more
    • English
    Every academic library strives to make improvements - in its services, its effectiveness, and its contributions to overall university success. Every librarian wants to improve library quality, but few are knowledgeable or enthusiastic about the means and mechanisms of quality improvement. This book assists librarians to make sense of data collection, assessment, and comparative evaluation as stepping stones to transformative quality improvement. Creating value lies in a library’s ability to understand, communicate and measure what matters to users, and what can be measured can be managed to successful outcomes.

  • Never Mind the Web

    Here Comes the Book
    • 1st Edition
    • Miha Kovac
    • English
    This key book examines the role of the printed book in contemporary societies, its demographics and its relation to the other media. It analyzes the differences among various national book industries throughout Europe and the USA, and the reasons and impact of the differences. Both the effect of digital technologies and the reasons why e-books did not substitute the printed book, as predicted in mid-nineties, are explored.

  • Finding the Concept, Not Just the Word

    A Librarian’s Guide to Ontologies and Semantics
    • 1st Edition
    • Brandy King + 1 more
    • English
    Aimed at students and professionals within Library and Information Services (LIS), this book is about the power and potential of ontologies to enhance the electronic search process. The book will compare search strategies and results in the current search environment and demonstrate how these could be transformed using ontologies and concept searching. Simple descriptions, visual representations, and examples of ontologies will bring a full understanding of how these concept maps are constructed to enhance retrieval through natural language queries. Readers will gain a sense of how ontologies are currently being used and how they could be applied in the future, encouraging them to think about how their own work and their users' search experiences could be enhanced by the creation of a customized ontology.

  • Organising Knowledge in a Global Society

    Principles and Practice in Libraries and Information Centres
    • 1st Edition
    • Philip Hider + 1 more
    • English
    Organising Knowledge in a Global Society updates the successful first edition, which has been widely used as an introduction to the field of information organisation, both in Australia and overseas. The work reflects current practice and trends, paying particular attention to how libraries and other information services provide intellectual access to digital information resources through metadata. In this revision, the various information organisation components of the Web 2.0 phenomenon are discussed, including social tagging and folksonomies. The new edition also covers the latest developments in metadata standards, such as Resource Description and Access, and information retrieval systems such as the increasing support for faceted navigation. Examples and case studies have been updated throughout.

  • Information History - An Introduction

    Exploring an Emergent Field
    • 1st Edition
    • Toni Weller
    • English
    This is a pioneering introduction to the emergent field of information history. It explores how the contemporary values and concerns of our own information society have helped lead to a reconsideration of our history, and of what constitutes our historical understanding of information in the twenty-first century. In Information History, Toni Weller examines the historiography of information and asks how the key schools of thought have explored the concept in terms of its social, technological, economic and cultural understandings. Based on personal experiences, the author also proposes some practical applications of information history in research and university teaching, offering some suggestions as to how the field may develop based on its growth during the last decade.

  • Joint-Use Libraries

    Libraries for the Future
    • 1st Edition
    • Sarah McNicol
    • English
    This book examines all aspects of joint-use libraries, from the implications of government policy, to design and operational issues and evaluation. It considers all forms of joint-use library (e.g. school-public, college-public, university-public, health-university), reflecting on different models adopted around the world. Some of the main issues discussed include: partnership working, staffing and management, stock, digital resources, learning and literacy and community involvement.

  • Digital Information Culture

    The Individual and Society in the Digital Age
    • 1st Edition
    • Luke Tredinnick
    • English
    Digital Information Culture is an introduction to the cultural, social and political impact of digital information and digital resources. The book is organised around themes, rather than theories and is arranged into three sections: culture, society and the individual. Each explores key elements of the social, cultural and political impact of digital information. The culture section outlines the origins of cyber culture in fifties pulp-fiction through to the modern day. It explores the issues of information overload, the threat of a digital dark age, and the criminal underbelly of digital culture. Section two, society, explores the economic and social impact of digital information, outlining key theories of the Information Age. Section three explores the impact of digital information and digital resources on the individual, exploring the changing nature of identity in a digital world.

  • Learning Commons

    Evolution and Collaborative Essentials
    • 1st Edition
    • Barbara Schader
    • English
    This book examines successfully planned and implemented learning commons at several different academic institutions around the world. These case studies provide a methodology for effective planning, implementation and assessment. Practical information is provided on how to collaborate with campus stakeholders, estimate budgeting and staffing and determine the equipment, hardware and software needs. Also provided are memoranda of understandings (MOUs), planning checklists and assessment tools. This book reflects a unifying focus on both the evolution of learning commons to learning spaces and the collaborative aspect of co-creating learning spaces.

  • Scientific Libraries

    Past Developments and Future Changes
    • 1st Edition
    • Tomas Lidman
    • English
    Scientific libraries have undergone dramatic changes since the end of the 1960s. This book explains and characterises these changes and main trends, and describes their consequences for libraries. The book presents an overview and an analysis of long-term developments in the field. Professionals within library and information sciences, together with students, will find the book of interest, enabling them to understand the situation of the libraries today and also prepare them for decisions about the future.

  • Libraries in the Twenty-First Century

    Charting Directions in Information Services
    • 1st Edition
    • Stuart J. Ferguson
    • English
    Libraries in the Twenty-First Century brings together library educators and practitioners to provide a scholarly yet accessible overview of library and information management and the challenges that the twenty-first century offers the information profession. The papers in this collection illustrate the changing nature of the library as it evolves into its twenty-first century manifestation. The national libraries of Australia and New Zealand, for instance, have harnessed information and communication technologies to create institutions that are far more national, even democratic, in terms of delivery of service and sheer presence than their print-based predecessors.Aimed at practitioners and students alike, this publication covers specific types of library and information agencies, discusses specific aspects of library and information management and places developments in library and information services in a number of broad contexts: socio-economic, ethico-legal, historical and educational.

  • The Human Side of Reference and Information Services in Academic Libraries

    Adding Value in the Digital World
    • 1st Edition
    • Lesley Farmer
    • English
    This book examines the questions: how academic libraries provide value-added reference and information services in the digital age. It provides best practices from a global perspective. The book starts by looking at the information needs and info-seeking behaviours of university students and faculty. Then it examines the use cycle: consumer, instruction, and producer. It examines the resource cycle: collection development, instructor, maintenance. What are the essential elements of reference: orientation, instruction, collaborative planning, products?

  • Digital Information Contexts

    Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Digital Information
    • 1st Edition
    • Luke Tredinnick
    • English
    This book is an introduction to critical and theoretical perspectives on digital information. It outlines the origins of information management in nineteenth-century humanism, the adoption of scientific perspectives in the documentation and information science movements, and modern theoretical frameworks for understanding the social, cultural and political place of digital information. Digital Information Contexts is the first book aimed at information professionals to give a detailed outline of important perspectives on information and meaning, including post-structuralism and post-modernism. It explores parallels between information management and media, communication and cultural studies. Each chapter includes recommended further reading to guide the reader to further information. It is a comprehensive introduction to theoretical frameworks for understanding and studying digital information.

  • Characteristics of the Successful 21St Century Information Professional

    • 1st Edition
    • Dennie Heye
    • English
    This book is intended for professional Library and Information Services (LIS) staff and LIS students who want to be more successful as information professionals. The LIS profession is one of the most challenging in the 21st century, combining expertise in information management with information technology skills and knowledge of marketing. The author has written a practical and concise book on key characteristics, with practical tips and techniques. Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional is a guide to the diverse characteristics of the information professional, helping readers to achieve greater success in their jobs and careers.

  • The Information Literate School Community 2

    Issues of Leadership
    • 1st Edition
    • James Henri + 1 more
    • English
    This book is both an update and an extension of The Information Literate School Community: Best practice which has been used as a student textbook and practitioners guide in a number of countries. In this new book, the editors have sought to bring together an eclectic but focused group of researchers and practitioners to explore the key aspects of leadership in the information literate school community. The book provides both students and practitioners (principals, teachers, teacher librarians and researchers) with a critical analysis and evaluation of topics such as the concept of an information literate school community; the development of new literacies; research on information literacy; the implementation of an information literacy programme; the importance of reading development; leadership in information literate schools; policy formulation; knowledge management; ICT and student learning; the role of the teacher librarian; and professional development. There is an even balance of research and practice in the book that will appeal to a wide audience because of its currency and topicality.

  • Globalisation, Information and Libraries

    The Implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements
    • 1st Edition
    • Ruth Rikowski
    • English
    This book provides an overview of the World Trade Organisation; in particular, it focuses on two of the agreements being developed at the WTO, which are due to be strengthened in 2005, and are likely to have significant implications for libraries and information: the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The book argues that the library and information profession needs to be more aware of these agreements and the way in which they threaten some of the professional ethics and principles (such as the balance in copyright).

  • Weblogs and Libraries

    • 1st Edition
    • Laurel Clyde
    • English
    This book discusses the topic of ‘weblogs and libraries’ from two main perspectives: weblogs as sources of information for libraries and librarians; and weblogs as tools that libraries can use to promote their services and to provide a means of communication with their clients. It begins with an overview of the whole weblog and blogging phenomenon. The many different kinds of weblogs are outlined (including personal weblogs, community weblogs, multimedia weblogs). The problem of locating weblogs is addressed through a discussion of weblog directories, search engines and other finding tools. Chapters include using weblogs as sources of information in the library or information service, the options for creating a weblog, and managing the library’s own weblog.

  • Online Information Services in the Social Sciences

    • 1st Edition
    • Neil Jacobs + 1 more
    • English
    Information professionals are increasingly responsible not only for running traditional information and library services but also for providing an online presence for their organisation. This book shows how best practice in delivering online information services should be based on actual user needs and behaviour. A series of case studies provide real life examples of how social science information is being used in the community. The book then draws on these case studies to outline the main issues facing service providers: such as usability, metadata and management. The book concludes with a look to the future and how both technological and organisational changes will shape online information services.

  • Setting Up a New Library and Information Service

    • 1st Edition
    • Kirby Porter
    • English
    This book is intended as a guide for those people who have been charged with establishing a library or information service in their organisation. It is a practical guide to the steps that need to be taken, the people that will need to be dealt with and the procedures that will have to be adopted in order to bring the venture to a successful conclusion. The book contains many practical tips and hints from the author, based upon his ‘hands-on’, practical experience of setting up many new information services.