Virtual Research Environments examines making Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usable by researchers working to solve grand challenge problems in many disciplines from social science to particle physics. It is driven by research the authors have carried out to evaluate researchers requirements in using information services via web portals and in adapting collaborative learning tools to meet their more diverse needs, particularly in a multidisciplinary study.
This is the motivation for what the authors have helped develop into the UK Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme. They illustrate generics with specific instances of studies carried out comparing portal technologies and evaluating usability. This work, and further development of collaboration and Webbased research tools has been carried out with international collaborators, in particular using the Sakai framework and other recent Java-language based portal programming frameworks and associated standards.
The book is divided into a number of chapters providing motivation, illustrations, comparisons of technology and tools, practical information about deployment and use and comments on issues and difficulties in ensuring uptake of e-Science and Grid technology by already practicing researchers.
Definition of Virtual Research Environments and e-Research with analogies to Virtual Learning EnvironmentsCompilation about how e-Research is carried out with reference to work in UK and USA on portals and services for collaborative learning, shared information services and repositories and their application for multi-disciplinary researchDescription of Science Gateways to distributed research resources (Grid computing, data and Web 2.0 style collaboration tools) and their relevance to the grand challenges facing research requiring large teams"

Reviews the current landscape of scholarly communications and publishing and potential futures, outlining key aspects of transition to best possible futures for libraries and librarians.
Explains complex concepts in a clear, concise mannerDesigned to quickly bring the reader up to speed on scholarly communicationsWritten by a well-known international expert on scholarly communications and open access

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the information profession. The series IFLA Publications deals with many of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

Hidden and Devalued Feminized Labour in the Digital Humanities examines the data-driven labour that underpinned the Index Thomisticus-a preeminent project of the incunabular digital humanities-and advanced the data-foundations of computing in the Humanities. Through oral history and archival research, Nyhan reveals a hidden history of the entanglements of gender in the intellectual and technical work of the early digital humanities. Setting feminized keypunching in its historical contexts-from the history of concordance making, to the feminization of the office and humanities computing-this book delivers new insight into the categories of work deemed meritorious of acknowledgement and attribution and, thus, how knowledge and expertise was defined in and by this field. Focalizing the overlooked yet significant data-driven labour of lesser-known individuals, this book challenges exclusionary readings of the history of computing in the Humanities. Contributing to ongoing conversations about the need for alternative genealogies of computing, this book is also relevant to current debates about diversity and representation in the Academy and the wider computing sector. Hidden and Devalued Feminized Labour in the Digital Humanities will be of interest to researchers and students studying digital humanities, library and information science, the history of computing, oral history, the history of the humanities, and the sociology of knowledge and science.

The seventh edition of this frequently adopted textbook features new or expanded sections on social justice research, data analysis software, scholarly identity research, social networking, data science, and data visualization, among other topics. It continues to include discipline experts' voices. The revised seventh edition of this popular text provides instruction and guidance for professionals and students in library and information science who want to conduct research and publish findings, as well as for practicing professionals who want a broad overview of the current literature. Providing a broad introduction to research design, the authors include principles, data collection techniques, and analyses of quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as advantages and limitations of each method and updated bibliographies. Chapters cover the scientific method, sampling, validity, reliability, and ethical concerns along with quantitative and qualitative methods. LIS students and professionals will consult this text not only for instruction on conducting research but also for guidance in critically reading and evaluating research publications, proposals, and reports. As in the previous edition, discipline experts provide advice, tips, and strategies for completing research projects, dissertations, and theses; writing grants; overcoming writer's block; collaborating with colleagues; and working with outside consultants. Journal and book editors discuss how to publish and identify best practices and understudied topics, as well as what they look for in submissions. Features new or expanded sections on social justice research; virtual collaboration, data collection, and dissemination; scholarly communication; computer-assisted qualitative and quantitative data analysis; scholarly identity research and guidelines; data science; and visualization of quantitative and qualitative data Provides a broad and comprehensive overview and update, especially of research published over the past five years Highlights school, public, and academic research findings Relies on the coauthors' expertise in research design, securing grant funding, and using the latest technology and data analysis software

1. This will be the first book to provide a true library, archival and museum (LAM) perspective, as every chapter will focus on all three types of institution and not just one of the three. 2. The book will provide a Scandinavian perspective on LAMs and convergence, but the challenges described are universal. The book will be valuable to students and academics around the world who are working in the Library and Information Science, Archival Science and Museum Studies fields. 3. The proposed book will be unique, as it will be the first to take a true LAM perspective and it will also be the first to provide a Scandinavian perspective on convergence. It will be written and edited by well-respected senior researchers working at institutions of higher education throughout Scandinavia and there is no other book out there that will compete directly with it, as a result.

1. The author explains how cultural heritage organizations, such as museums, libraries, archives and historic sites, can forgo the "best" in favor of "good" and "better" approaches to collections care. Giving examples of implementation and easy-to-follow guides, Forsko demonstrates how preservation can become a component of any collections care program - even one with little to no resources. 2. The book will be an essential tool for anyone who cares for collections, particularly collections managers, registrars, and archivists. It will be suitable for professionals working in any type or size of institution and will also be of interest to students who are learning how to become practitioners. 3. The book will be the first to take a realistic, sustainable approach to collections care, rather than a "best practices" approach. Drawing on more than a decade of experience working with over 40 libraries, museums, archives, and other historic sites, the author encourages the reader to start by taking small, manageable steps and explains that even the smallest of actions can make a difference that will ultimately help to preserve collections

This study provides heretofore unavailable information to be considered by policy makers when making these difficult decisions. The study reveals that what actually goes on in the classroom and the media center can be quite different from what school administrators think is going on. The voices of students, teachers and librarians may be heard in rich detail as they speak for themselves. Written by Wake Forest University Library Director, Dr. Lynn Sutton, this book is a required reference for all involved in education, particularly intellectual freedom. " . shows through real-world experiences how damaging filters can be for the educational process." - Marjorie Heins (J.D., Harvard Law School), author of, Introduction to Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report (Free Expression Policy Project, Brennan Center for Justice, 2006)

This book analyses: the 'dysfunctional' concept in the professional and academic LIS discourse by exposing the internal problematics of libraries, especially at the social and organizational level. dysfunctional nature of modern libraries, while simultaneously proposing solutions to reduce and alleviate dysfunction. This book will be essential reading for librarians and LIS students currently working or preparing to work in public, college, and university libraries.

This political history studies the phenomenal growth of the modern British state's interest in collecting, collating and deploying population data. It dates this biopolitical data turn in British politics to the arrival of the Labour government in 1964. It analyses government's increased desire to know the population, the impact this has had on British political culture and the institutions and systems introduced or modified to achieve this. It probes the political struggles around these initiatives to show that despite setbacks along the way and regardless of party, all British governments since the mid-1960s have accepted that data is the key to modern politics and have pursued it relentlessly.

Scientometrics have become an essential element in the practice and evaluation of science and research, including both the evaluation of individuals and national assessment exercises. Yet, researchers and practitioners in this field have lacked clear theories to guide their work. As early as 1981, then doctoral student Blaise Cronin published "The need for a theory of citing" -a call to arms for the fledgling scientometric community to produce foundational theories upon which the work of the field could be based. More than three decades later, the time has come to reach out the field again and ask how they have responded to this call. This book compiles the foundational theories that guide informetrics and scholarly communication research. It is a much needed compilation by leading scholars in the field that gathers together the theories that guide our understanding of authorship, citing, and impact.

This groundbreaking book is the first to provide a critical overview of the relationship between contemporary ceramics and curatorial practice in museum culture. Ceramic objects form a major part of museum collections, with connections to anthropology, archaeology and other disciplines that engage with the cultural and social history of humankind. In recent years museums have provided the impetus for cutting-edge artistic practice, either as a response to particular collections, or as part of exhibitions. But the question of how museums have staged contemporary ceramics and how ceramic artists respond to museum collections has not been the subject of published research to date. This book examines how ceramic artists have, over the last decade, begun to animate museum collections in new ways, and reflects on the impact that these new initiatives have had in the broad context of visual culture. Ceramics in the Expanded Field is the culmination of a three-year AHRC funded project, and reflects its major findings. It brings together leading international voices in the field of ceramics, research undertaken throughout the project and papers delivered at the concluding conference. By examining the benefits and constraints of interventions and the dialogue between ceramics and museological practice, this book will bring focus to an area of museology that has not yet been theorized, and will contribute to policy debates and art practice.

Whether the product of passion or of a cool-headed decision to use ideas to rationalize excess, the decimation of the world's libraries occurred throughout the 20th century, and there is no end in sight. Cultural destruction is, therefore, of increasing concern. In her previous book Libricide, Rebecca Knuth focused on book destruction by authoritarian regimes: Nazis, Serbs in Bosnia, Iraqis in Kuwait, Maoists during the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Chinese Communists in Tibet. But authoritarian governments are not the only perpetrators. Extremists of all stripes--through terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass violence--are also responsible for widespread cultural destruction, as she demonstrates in this new book. Burning Books and Leveling Libraries is structured in three parts. BLPart I is devoted to struggles by extremists over voice and power at the local level, where destruction of books and libraries is employed as a tactic of political or ethnic protest. BLPart II discusses the aftermath of power struggles in Germany, Afghanistan, and Cambodia, where the winners were utopians who purged libraries in efforts to purify their societies and maintain power. BLPart III examines the fate of libraries when there is war and a resulting power vacuum. The book concludes with a discussion of the events in Iraq in 2003, and the responsibility of American war strategists for the widespread pillaging that ensued after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. This case poignantly demonstrates the ease with which an oppressed people, given the collapse of civil restraints, may claim freedom as license for anarchy, construing it as the right to prevail, while ignoringits implicit mandate of social responsibility. Using military might to enforce ideals (in this case democracy and freedom) is futile, Knuth argues, if insufficient consideration is given to humanitarian, security, and cultural concerns.

This book Presents documentation as an expanded practice that is radically changing the ways in which to look at, participate in, and generate art. Brings together expertise from different disciplines and provides an in-depth investigation of the development of documentation as a set of production, circulation and preservation strategies. Illustrates how these strategies are often led by artists, audiences and museums, the contributions offer new insights into digital art and its history, curation and preservation, through documentation. By considering documentation as the main method of preserving these art forms, analyses how it can address the inherent challenges of capturing live events, visitor experiences, and evolving artworks. Will appeal to researchers and students engaged in the study of museums and curation, art and art history, performance, new media and digital art, library and information science, and conservation.

Hybrid Intelligent Systems for Information Retrieval covers three areas along with the introduction to Intelligent IR, i.e., Optimal Information Retrieval Using Evolutionary Approaches, Semantic Search for Web Information Retrieval, and Natural Language Processing for Information Retrieval. * Talks about the design, implementation, and performance issues of the hybrid intelligent information retrieval system in one book * Gives a clear insight into challenges and issues in designing a hybrid information retrieval system * Includes case studies on structured and unstructured data for hybrid intelligent information retrieval * Provides research directions for the design and development of intelligent search engines This book is aimed primarily at graduates and researchers in the information retrieval domain.

Is an intelligent building automatically a functional library? Part of a continuing work on the physical framework of the library, these proceedings reveal how libraries around the world are meeting the design challenges posed by the new priorities and dynamics of the information environment.

The experiences and expertise of library managers as well as architects and engineers are featured within papers covering specialized institutions and public libraries alike, including the Tilburg Digital Library; the Rotterdam Library; the Denver Public Library; the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library; the Venezuelan National Library; and more. (IFLA Publication. Vol. 88)

Power and Authority in Internet Governance investigates the hotly contested role of the state in today's digital society. The book asks: Is the state "back" in internet regulation? If so, what forms are state involvement taking, and with what consequences for the future? The volume includes case studies from across the world and addresses a wide range of issues regarding internet infrastructure, data and content. The book pushes the debate beyond a simplistic dichotomy between liberalism and authoritarianism in order to consider also greater state involvement based on values of democracy and human rights. Seeing internet governance as a complex arena where power is contested among diverse non-state and state actors across local, national, regional and global scales, the book offers a critical and nuanced discussion of how the internet is governed - and how it should be governed. Power and Authority in Internet Governance provides an important resource for researchers across international relations, global governance, science and technology studies and law as well as policymakers and analysts concerned with regulating the global internet.

Libraries, archives and museums have traditionally been a part of the public sphere's infrastructure. They have been so by providing public access to culture and knowledge, by being agents for enlightenment and by being public meeting places in their communities. Digitization and globalization poses new challenges in relation to upholding a sustainable public sphere. Can libraries, archives and museums contribute in meeting these challenges?

Wikis as information sources, as a form of publishing, and as tools for collaboration, are discussed in this book. The applications of wikis in library and information services, education and business are explored, with examples. Provides an overview of wikis, in the context of the increasing use of social software and the trend towards a more interactive World Wide Web. The different kinds of wikis are identified and described. The advantages and problems associated with using wikis in information work and collaboration are discussed. One of the problems is simply that of finding wikis that deal with a particular topic or activity, and this is addressed through a discussion of directories, search engines and other finding tools. Later chapters cover the options for creating wikis and the management of a wiki. The book concludes with lists of resources related to wikis.
No other book currently available, addresses this highly topical subjectWikis are becoming important sources of information on the web yet they are little understood by librarians or the general publicAlthough wikis can be useful sources of information, Internet users need to know how wikis operate if they are to be able to evaluate the information in a wiki"

Knowledge services converges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning into a single enterprise-wide discipline for the benefit of the business or organization in which it is practiced. As the acknowledged framework for strategic knowledge management, knowledge services-the responsibility of the knowledge strategist-leads to excellence in knowledge sharing and ultimately to shaping the organization as a knowledge culture. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization provides guidance for the knowledge strategist and is designed specifically to serve as a reference for that management employee, and for those seeking to become knowledge strategists.

Power and Authority in Internet Governance investigates the hotly contested role of the state in today's digital society. The book asks: Is the state "back" in internet regulation? If so, what forms are state involvement taking, and with what consequences for the future? The volume includes case studies from across the world and addresses a wide range of issues regarding internet infrastructure, data and content. The book pushes the debate beyond a simplistic dichotomy between liberalism and authoritarianism in order to consider also greater state involvement based on values of democracy and human rights. Seeing internet governance as a complex arena where power is contested among diverse non-state and state actors across local, national, regional and global scales, the book offers a critical and nuanced discussion of how the internet is governed - and how it should be governed. Power and Authority in Internet Governance provides an important resource for researchers across international relations, global governance, science and technology studies and law as well as policymakers and analysts concerned with regulating the global internet.

Human Action Recognition is a challenging area presently. The vigor of research effort directed towards this domain is self indicative of this. With the ever-increasing involvement of Computational Intelligence in our day to day applications, the necessity of human activity recognition has been able to make its presence felt to the concerned research community. The primary drive of such an effort is to equip the computing system capable of recognizing and interpreting human activities from posture, pose, gesture, facial expression etc. The intent of human activity recognition is a formidable component of cognitive science in which researchers are actively engaged of late. Features: A systematic overview of the state-of-the-art in computational intelligence techniques for human action recognition. Emphasized on different intelligent techniques to recognize different human actions. Discussed about the automation techniques to handle human action recognition. Recent research results and some pointers to future advancements in this arena. In the present endeavour the editors intend to come out with a compilation that reflects the concerns of relevant research community. The readers would be able to come across some of the latest findings of active researchers of the concerned field. It is anticipated that this treatise shall be useful to the readership encompassing students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, researchers active as well as aspiring, not to speak of the senior researchers.