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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.

  • Enterprise Content Management, Records Management and Information Culture Amidst E-Government Development

    • 1st Edition
    • April 13, 2017
    • Proscovia Svärd
    • English
    This book identifies key factors necessary for a well-functioning information infrastructure and explores how information culture impacts the management of public information, stressing the need for a proactive and holistic information management approach amidst e-Government development. In an effort to deal with an organization's scattered information resources, Enterprise Content Management, Records Management and Information Culture Amidst E-Government Development investigates the key differences between Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Records Management (RM), the impact of e-Government development on information management and the role of information in enhancing accountability and transparency of government institutions. The book hence identifies factors that contribute to a well-functioning information infrastructure and further explores how information culture impacts the management of public information. It highlights the Records Continuum Model (RCM) thinking as a more progressive way of managing digital information in an era of pluralization of government information. It also emphasizes the need for information/records management skills amidst e-Government development. Ideas about records, information, and content management have fundamentally changed and developed because of increasing digitalization. Though not fully harmonized, these new ideas commonly stress and underpin the need for a proactive and holistic information management approach. The proactive approach entails planning for the management of the entire information continuum before the information is created. For private enterprises and government institutions endeavoring to meet new information demands from customers, citizens and the society at large, such an approach is a prerequisite for accomplishing their missions. It could be argued that information is and has always been essential to all human activities and we are witnessing a transformation of the information landscape.
  • Empowering Knowledge

    The Story of Elsevier
    • 1st Edition
    • April 1, 2017
    • Sjors de Heuvel
    • English
  • Media and Information Literacy

    An Integrated Approach for the 21st Century
    • 1st Edition
    • March 31, 2017
    • Marcus Leaning
    • English
    Media and Information Literacy: An Integrated Approach for the 21st Century provides a novel rationale for the integration of media and information literacy and gives direction to contemporary media and information literacy education. The book takes a synthetic approach to these two areas, presenting critical histories of both. The book explores the influence of political forces and educational practice on media literacy and the contemporary media environment, focusing on computing and mobile technology as a platform for existing and non-computational media. The final section considers a new rationale for the adjustment of content and activities into a combined project, building on a range of skills from contemporary media, reconsidering the mission of media literacy, and advocating that media and information literacy be expanded out of the classroom and positioned as a ‘public pedagogy'.
  • Inherent Strategies in Library Management

    • 1st Edition
    • March 31, 2017
    • Masanori Koizumi
    • English
    Inherent Strategies in Library Management describes general and specific strategies for libraries based on core library values, and does so through concrete research. Many strategic management books for libraries introduce concepts of business management to the library world, but often neglect traditional library culture and core values. This book reexamines management through the lens of libraries themselves, rather than relying on strategies borrowed from the business world, in an attempt to bring to light the factors and decision-making processes behind how librarians have run their libraries over the past fifty decades. In other words, their decisions can be regarded as inherent management, born naturally from the core foundations, considerations, and operations of libraries. In addition, this book investigates the broad influences of business management theories on libraries, including a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of their use.
  • Digital Disruption and Electronic Resource Management in Libraries

    • 1st Edition
    • March 28, 2017
    • Nihar K. Dr. Patra
    • English
    Digital Disruption and Electronic Resource Management in Libraries identifies issues in the management of e-resources. The paradigm shift from Electronic Resources to Electronic Resource Management (ERM) has meant significant change for libraries and their users. One of the most important functions of a library is to provide information in electronic format. Libraries provide access to a wide variety of resources. A major challenge for libraries and librarians is therefore the management of this diversity of e-resources. ERM has emerged in this context. This book gives theoretical and practical information to assist librarians with ERM. It discusses broad trends and specific topics in the current landscape. It is devoted to theory, history, lifecycle, ERM systems, and the management of e-resources.
  • Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education

    Effective Teaching and Active Learning
    • 1st Edition
    • March 22, 2017
    • Mariann Lokse + 4 more
    • English
    Why do we teach information literacy? This book argues that the main purpose of information literacy teaching in higher education is to enhance student learning. With the impact of new technologies, a proliferation of information sources and a change in the student demography, information literacy has become increasingly important in academia. Also, students that know how to learn have a better chance of adapting their learning strategies to the demands of higher education, and thus completing their degree. The authors discuss the various aspects of how academic integrity and information literacy are linked to learning, and provide examples on how our theories can be put into practice. The book also provides insight on the normative side of higher education, namely academic formation and the personal development process of students. The cognitive aspects of the transition to higher education, including learning strategies and critical thinking, are explored; and finally the book asks how information literacy teaching in higher education might be improved to help students meet contemporary challenges.
  • Lifestyle Medicine

    Lifestyle, the Environment and Preventive Medicine in Health and Disease
    • 3rd Edition
    • March 18, 2017
    • Michael Sagner + 3 more
    • English
    Lifestyle Medicine: Lifestyle, the Environment and Preventive Medicine in Health and Disease, Third Edition, is an adjunct approach to health practice that seeks to deal with the more complex modern determinants of chronic diseases—primarily lifestyle and the environments driving such lifestyles—in contrast to the microbial ‘causes’ of infectious disease. Our lifestyle choices have a profound effect on our health. As we live longer, one thing is clear: many of us will spend time living with injury and chronic illness due to our own choices. Changes in health patterns typically follow shifts in living conditions. Disease patterns have changed worldwide, from infectious to chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. This change has been so emphatic—nearly 70% of all presentations to a doctor in modern western societies are now chronic disease related—that medical services are being forced to change to accommodate this. New chapters in this third edition explain the link between energy intake and expenditure; consider how modern technology are determinants of chronic disease; show how environmental influences, such as endocrine disruptors, influence our health; and summarize recent research on early childhood experiences and chronic disease.
  • Digital Forensics Trial Graphics

    Teaching the Jury through Effective Use of Visuals
    • 1st Edition
    • March 9, 2017
    • John Sammons + 1 more
    • English
    Digital Forensics Trial Graphics: Teaching the Jury Through Effective Use of Visuals helps digital forensic practitioners explain complex technical material to laypeople (i.e., juries, judges, etc.). The book includes professional quality illustrations of technology that help anyone understand the complex concepts behind the science. Users will find invaluable information on theory and best practices along with guidance on how to design and deliver successful explanations.
  • Staff-Less Libraries

    Innovative Staff Design
    • 1st Edition
    • February 28, 2017
    • Carl Gustav Johannsen
    • English
    Staff-Less Libraries: Innovative Staff Design considers the challenges of this approach, its pros and cons, identifies international experiences, and discusses best practices. It presents a step-by-step approach to implementing a staffless library and/or services, and seeks to inspire professionals to share experiences and optimize their library. Staff-less public libraries, enabled by technological developments, represent a significant and innovative aspect of the development of public libraries. The concept radically enlarges the availability of user access to public libraries. Some Danish public library branches have, for example, increased their weekly opening hours from 20 to 80 hours per week. In Denmark, the concept has been quite successful, increasing the number of staff-less libraries from 81 public library units in 2011 to 260 in 2014. From a longer view, however, the staff-less library concept contributes to the modernization of public libraries by further opening the library. Many library professionals have been surprised by the near absence of vandalism through the staffl-ess opening hours. According to the latest trend, the staffless library model is gradually moving from thinly populated rural areas and suburban neighborhoods to urban contexts. This book explores the concept, hence furthering the debate.
  • Collective Action 2.0

    The Impact of Social Media on Collective Action
    • 1st Edition
    • February 28, 2017
    • Shaked Spier
    • English
    Collective Action 2.0 explores the issues related to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in detail, providing a balanced insight into how ICTs leverage and interact with collective action, which will have an impact on the current discourse. Recent events in different authoritarian regimes, such as Iran and Egypt, have drawn global attention to a developing phenomenon in collective action: People tend to organize through different social media platforms for political protest and resistance. This phenomenon describes a change in social structure and behavior tied to ICT. Social media platforms have been used to leverage collective action, which has in some cases arguably lead, to political revolution. The phenomenon also indicates that the way information is organized affects the organization of social structures with which it interoperates. The phenomenon also has another side, which is the use of social media for activist suppression, state and corporate surveillance, commodifi cation of social processes, demobilization, or for the mobilization of collective action toward undesirable ends.