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Books in Social sciences

The Social Sciences collection forms a definitive resource for those entering, researching, or teaching in any of the many disciplines making up this interdisciplinary area of study. Written by experts and researchers from both Academic and Commercial domains, titles offer global scope and perspectives.

Key subject areas include: Library and Information Science; Transportation; Urban Studies; Geography, Planning, and Development; Security; Emergency Management.

  • Juvenile Osteology

    A Laboratory and Field Manual
    • 1st Edition
    • Louise Scheuer + 2 more
    • English
    The need for a laboratory and field manual to assist with the evaluation of juvenile skeletal material is long overdue. This resource is essential for the practising osteoarchaeologist and forensic anthropologist who requires a quick, reliable and easy-to-use reference to aid in the identification, siding and aging of juvenile osseous material. While excellent reference books on juvenile osteology are currently available, no pre-existing source adequately fills this particular niche in the market. This field manual is designed with practicality as its primary directive. Descriptions of each bone contain 1) morphological characteristics useful for identification, 2) other elements with which the bone may be confused, 2) tips for siding, 3) illustrations of varying developmental phases, 4) data useful for ageing, and 5) a summary of developmental timings. Concise, bullet-style descriptions assist with quick retrieval of information.Unique to this manual is the presentation of data collected from a variety of populations, utilizing a range of observational methods, as an alternative to providing one overall aging summary that is derived from a compilation of many individual sources. This manual provides a host of data on a variety of populations to enable the user to select the reference most applicable to their needs. The final chapter combines information from each bone to provide a summary of developmental changes occurring at different life stages to act as an immediate 'ready reckoner' for the knowledgeable practitioner. It also provides forms useful for documenting juvenile material and diagrams to help with the recognition of commingled juvenile remains. The manual is a must for anyone responsible for the evaluation of juvenile osseous material through dry bone assessment, radiographs, sonograms, and or CT scans.
  • Building a Digital Forensic Laboratory

    Establishing and Managing a Successful Facility
    • 1st Edition
    • Andrew Jones + 1 more
    • English
    The need to professionally and successfully conduct computer forensic investigations of incidents and crimes has never been greater. This has caused an increased requirement for information about the creation and management of computer forensic laboratories and the investigations themselves. This includes a great need for information on how to cost-effectively establish and manage a computer forensics laboratory. This book meets that need: a clearly written, non-technical book on the topic of computer forensics with emphasis on the establishment and management of a computer forensics laboratory and its subsequent support to successfully conducting computer-related crime investigations.
  • Digital Rights Management

    A Librarian’s Guide to Technology and Practise
    • 1st Edition
    • Grace Agnew
    • English
    This book provides an overview of digital rights management (DRM), including: an overview of terminology and issues facing libraries, plus an overview of the technology including standards and off-the-shelf products. It discusses the role and implications of DRM for existing library services, such as integrated library management systems, electronic reserves, commercial database licenses, digital asset management systems and digital library repositories. It also discusses the impact that DRM ‘trusted system’ technologies, already in use in complementary areas, such as course management systems and web-based digital media distribution, may have on libraries. It also discusses strategies for implementing DRM in libraries and archives for safeguarding intellectual property in the web environment.
  • 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.
  • The Future of Post-Human Knowledge

    A Preface to a New Theory of Methodology and Ontology
    • 1st Edition
    • Peter Baofu
    • English
    Why should inquiry be possible, only if some knowledge is required to guide it, as conventionally understood? Contrary to the conventional wisdom held by many thinkers in all human history hitherto existing, there are some fundamental dialectic principles hidden behind any categories of understanding in knowing. And these principles impose some constraints, at both methodological and ontological levels, together with other levels in culture, society, nature, and the mind - on how reality is to be understood. Furthermore, the specific categories of understanding (as conventionally understood), even if valid at all (which are often not the case), are often not that important, when compared with these more fundamental dialectic principles hidden behind them. The focus on understanding the nature of knowledge has been much misplaced, in this sense, in the intellectual history hitherto existing, and much time and talent have been wasted for something less important. If true, this thesis will alter the way of how knowledge is to be understood across the board.
  • Creating Digital Collections

    A Practical Guide
    • 1st Edition
    • Allison Zhang + 1 more
    • English
    Libraries recognize the importance of digitizing archival material to improve access to and preservation of their special collections. This book provides a step-by-step guide for creating digital collections, including examples and practical tips that have never been published before.
  • Globalization, Flexibilization and Working Conditions in Asia and the Pacific

    • 1st Edition
    • Sangheon Lee + 1 more
    • English
    This book represents a unique study which reviews employment conditions in Asia and the Pacific in the context of globalization and increasing pressure towards flexibilization. It places a strong focus on the diverging experiences of individual workers in their employment conditions such as employment status, wages/incomes, working time, work organizations and health and safety. Along with thematic studies concerning the roles of workers voice and labour regulation in determining employment conditions, this book includes nine country studies which have been undertaken based on a common research framework for a more rigorous comparison in the region.
  • Information Literacy Education: A Process Approach

    Professionalising the Pedagogical Role of Academic Libraries
    • 1st Edition
    • Maria-Carme Torras + 1 more
    • English
    From a traditional role of information gatekeepers, librarians have been challenged to become pedagogues who teach and counsel students in information literacy. The aim of this book is to professionalise the educational role of academic libraries. It helps information professionals design and carry out information literacy education programmes. The book puts forward a process-oriented approach to information literacy user education. Practical ways are outlined in which librarians’ pedagogical involvement in higher education can be enhanced. By applying two general didactic models, the book meets the information professionals’ needs to make theoretically founded and independent choices in her teaching and supervisory practices as well as critically reflecting on them. Examples of best and less good practice are drawn upon to provide scenarios for reflection which can inspire and enrich the information professional’s work.
  • The Politics of Libraries and Librarianship

    Challenges and Realities
    • 1st Edition
    • V. Kerry Smith
    • English
    This book covers aspects of the political environment which surrounds and engages libraries and their librarians. It includes anecdotes on the role of the political sphere in the business of library associations.
  • New Thinking for 21st Century Publishers

    Emerging Patterns and Evolving Stratagems
    • 1st Edition
    • Joost Kist
    • English
    Written by a former vice president of Wolters Kluwer, the leading international publishing group. This authoritative book addresses the compelling question: how will the publishing profession survive and thrive in the 21st century? Publishing companies today find themselves in the midst of a sea change in the nature of the content they create; the modes of its delivery; the converging of content and service; and even in the structure of the publishing industry itself. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century we are witnessing an accelerating change in the transition from traditional printing and printing - and publishing-on-demand to online and wireless delivery of content. One of the questions that will be discussed in this book is whether new electronic publishing technologies can help to structure and organise the publishing industry in this transitional period and assist the book and the other former traditional print publications to find their rightful place in a new dynamic environment. The aim of this books is to provide the reader of a blueprint - a concept for a roadmap - that may guide him or her into the new not so level and even uncharted playing fields of the 21st century. The main themes of the book are: publishing houses have to rethink and reformulate their strategy and tactics in the information chain to recover lost ground and recapture lost positions in the information market; readers and users of information are not all the same but have very different profiles, tastes and behaviour; the value of information can be measured only in the context of the quality of tis content and its enchancements and specific applications in the market.