This book frames the undeniably copious 21st-century performances of stupidity that occur within social media as echoes of rhetorical experiments conducted by humanist writers of the Renaissance. Any historical overview of humanism will associate it with copia-abundance of expression-and the rhetorical practices essential to managing it. This book argues that stupidity was and is a synonym for copia, making the humanism of which copia is a central element an inherently stupid philosophy. A transhistorical exploration of stupidity demonstrates that not only is excess still the surest way to eloquence, but it is also just the kind of spammy, speculative undertaking to generate a more generous and inventive comprehension of human and nonhuman relationships. In chapters exploring the rhetorics of memes, attack ads, public shaming blogs, clickbait and gifs, Stupid Humanism outlines the possibilities for a humanism less invested in the normative logics that enshrine knowledge, eloquence and linear development as the chief indicators of an active, articulated selfhood and more supportive of a program for queer knowledge, trivial pursuits, anti-social ethics and the curious relationships that form around and in response to abundance of expression.

This book provides a comprehensive review of complex networks from three different domains, presents novel methods for analyzing them, and highlights applications with accompanying case studies. Special emphasis is placed on three specific kinds of complex networks of high technological and scientific importance: software networks extracted from the source code of computer programs, ontology networks describing semantic web ontologies, and co-authorship networks reflecting collaboration in science. The book is primarily intended for researchers, teachers and students interested in complex networks and network data analysis. However, it will also be valuable for researchers dealing with software engineering, ontology engineering and scientometrics, as it demonstrates how complex network analysis can be used to address important research issues in these three disciplines.

This volume presents international research and exhaustive reviews of literature on a range of issues related to the evolving digital environment. Topics addressed include: the educational impact of the digital environment on LIS education curricula and delivery mechanisms; information representation and learning in video games; social semantic corporate digital libraries; the use of E-texts in research projects in the humanities; and information access in e-government environments. Issues surrounding the improvement of library catalogues by emulating web-based search engines, and the extent to which collaborative information seeking is/is not enabled by existing search engines and tools are also explored. With the growing trend for digital-only access to information, this text makes an important contribution in both highlighting problems and challenges, and pointing to pathways for future solutions. Part of the Advances in Librarianship book series, it is a key resource for practitioners, researchers, students and faculty members seeking in-depth literature and solutions to current and emerging issues in library and information science and related fields.

This edited volume explores different meanings of media convergence and deconvergence, and reconsiders them in critical and innovative ways. Its parts provide together a broad picture of opposing trends and tensions in media convergence, by underlining the relevance of this powerful idea and emphasizing the misconceptions that it has generated. Sergio Sparviero, Corinna Peil, Gabriele Balbi and the other authors look into practices and realities of users in convergent media environments, ambiguities in the production and distribution of content, changes to the organization of media industries, the re-configuration of media markets, and the influence of policy and regulations. Primarily addressed to scholars and students in different fields of media and communication studies, Media Convergence and Deconvergence deconstructs taken-for-granted concepts and provides alternative and fresh analyses on one of the most popular topics in contemporary media culture. Chapter 1 is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

This innovative collection explores uses of Shakespeare in a wide variety of 21st century contexts, including business manuals, non-literary scholarship, database aggregation, social media, gaming, and creative criticism. Essays in this volume demonstrate that users' critical and creative uses of the dramatist's works position contemporary issues of race, power, identity, and authority in new networks that redefine Shakespeare and reconceptualize the ways in which he is processed in both scholarly and popular culture. While The Shakespeare User contributes to the burgeoning corpus of critical works on digital and Internet Shakespeares, this volume looks beyond the study of Shakespeare artifacts to the system of use and users that constitute the Shakespeare network. This reticular understanding of Shakespeare use expands scholarly forays into non-academic practices, digital discourse communities, and creative critical works manifest via YouTube, Twitter, blogs, databases, websites, and popular fiction.

This volume unpacks an intriguing challenge for the field of media research: combining media research with the study of complex networks. Bringing together research on the small-world idea and digital culture it questions the assumption that we are separated from any other person on the planet by just a few steps, and that this distance decreases within digital social networks. The book argues that the role of languages is decisive to understand how people connect, and it looks at the consequences this has on the ways knowledge spreads digitally. This volume offers a first conceptual venue to analyse emerging phenomena at the innovative intersection of media and complex network research.

This book focuses on the almost entirely neglected treatment of empire and colonialism in videogames. From its inception in the nineties, Game Studies has kept away from these issues despite the early popularity of videogame franchises such as Civilization and Age of Empire. This book examines the complex ways in which some videogames construct conceptions of spatiality, political systems, ethics and society that are often deeply imbued with colonialism. Moving beyond questions pertaining to European and American gaming cultures, this book addresses issues that relate to a global audience - including, especially, the millions who play videogames in the formerly colonised countries, seeking to make a timely intervention by creating a larger awareness of global cultural issues in videogame research. Addressing a major gap in Game Studies research, this book will connect to discourses of post-colonial theory at large and thereby, provide another entry-point for this new medium of digital communication into larger Humanities discourses.

This book proposes a novel approach to classification, discusses its myriad advantages, and outlines how such an approach to classification can best be pursued. It encourages a collaborative effort toward the detailed development of such a classification. This book is motivated by the increased importance of interdisciplinary scholarship in the academy, and the widely perceived shortcomings of existing knowledge organization schemes in serving interdisciplinary scholarship. It is designed for scholars of classification research, knowledge organization, the digital environment, and interdisciplinarity itself. The approach recommended blends a general classification with domain-specific classification practices. The book reaches a set of very strong conclusions: -Existing classification systems serve interdisciplinary research and teaching poorly. -A novel approach to classification, grounded in the phenomena studied rather than disciplines, would serve interdisciplinary scholarship much better. It would also have advantages for disciplinary scholarship. The productivity of scholarship would thus be increased. -This novel approach is entirely feasible. Various concerns that might be raised can each be addressed. The broad outlines of what a new classification would look like are developed. -This new approach might serve as a complement to or a substitute for existing classification systems. -Domain analysis can and should be employed in the pursuit of a general classification. This will be particularly important with respect to interdisciplinary domains. -Though the impetus for this novel approach comes from interdisciplinarity, it is also better suited to the needs of the Semantic Web, and a digital environment more generally. Though the primary focus of the book is on classification systems, most chapters also address how the analysis could be extended to thesauri and ontologies. The possibility of a universal thesaurus is explored. The classification proposed has many of the advantages sought in ontologies for the Semantic Web. The book is therefore of interest to scholars working in these areas as well.

Cataloging standards practiced within the traditional library, archive and museum environments are not interoperable for the retrieval of objects within the shared online environment. Within today's information environments, library, archive and museum professionals are becoming aware that all information objects can be linked together. In this way, information professionals have the opportunity to collaborate and share data together with the shard online cataloging environment, the end result being improved retrieval effectiveness. But the adaptation has been slow: Libraries, archives and museums are still operating within their own community-specific cataloging practices. This book provides a historical perspective of the evolution of linking devices within the library, archive, and museums environments, and captures current cataloging practices in these fields. It offers suggestions for moving beyond community-specific cataloging principles and thus has the potential of becoming a springboard for further conversation and the sharing of ideas.

This collection of specially commissioned articles aims to shed light on the Early Modern printer's mark, a very productive Early Modern word-image so far only occasionally noted outside the domain of book history. This collection of 17 specially commissioned articles aims to shed light on the European printer's mark, a very productive Early Modern word-image genre so far only occasionally noted outside the domain of book history. It does so from the perspectives of book history, literary history, especially emblem scholarship, and art history. The various contributions to the volume address issues such as those of the adoption of printer's devices in the place of the older heraldic printer's marks as a symptom of the changing self-image of the representatives of the Early Modern printing profession, of the mutual influence of emblems and printer's marks, of the place of Classical learning in the design of Humanist printer's marks, of the economic factors involved in the evolution of Early Modern printer's marks, the pictorial topics of the Early Modern printer's mark, and the printer's mark as a result of the 'Verburgerlichung' of the device of Early Modern nobility. Special care was taken to account for the similarities and differences of the printer's marks produced and used in different regional and cultural contexts. The printer's mark thus becomes visible as a European phenomenon that invites studying some of the most significant shared aspects of Early Modern culture. Preface/ Beginnings and Provenances: A. Wolkenhauer: Sisters, or Mother and Daughter? The Relationship between Printer's Marks and Emblems during the First Hundred Years/ A. Bassler: Ekphrasis and Printer's Signets/ L. Houwen: Beastly Devices: Early Printers' Marks and Their Medieval Origins/ H. Meeus: From Nameplate to Emblem. The Evolution of the Printer's Device in the Southern Low Countries up to 1600/ Regions and Places: K. Sp. Staikos: Heraldic and Symbolic Printer's Devices of Greek Printers in Italy (15th-16th century)/ A. Jakimyszyn-Gadocha: Jewish Printers' Marks from Poland (16th-17th centuries)/ J. A. Tomicka: Fama typographica. In Search of the Emblem Form of Printer's Devices. The Iconography and Emblem Form of Printer's Devices in 16th- and 17th-Century Poland/ P. Hoftijzer: Pallas Nostra Salus. Early-Modern Printer's Marks in Leiden as Expressions of Professional and Personal Identity/ D. Peil: Early Modern Munich Printer's Marks (and Related Issues)/ K. Lundblad: The Printer's Mark in Early Modern Sweden/ S. Hufnagel: Iceland's Lack of Printer's Devices: Filling a Functional and Spatial Void in Printed Books during the Sixteenth Century/ Concepts, Historical and Systematic: B.F. Scholz: The Truth of Printer's Marks: Andrea Alciato On 'Aldo's Anchor', 'Froben's Dove' and 'Calvo's Elephant'. A Closer Look at Alciato's Concept of the Printer's Mark./ V. Hayaert: The Legal Significance and Humanist Ethos of Printers' Insignia/ J. Kilianczyk-Zieba: The Transition of the Printer's Device from a Sign of Identification to a Symbol of Aspirations and Beliefs/ Judit Vizkelety-Ecsedy: Mottos in Printers' Devices - Thoughts about the Hungarian Usage/ M. Simon: European Printers' and Publishers' Marks in the 18th Century. The Three C's: Conformity, Continuity and Change/ B.F. Scholz: In Place of an Afterword: Notes on Ordering the Corpus of the Early Modern Printer's Mark/ Research Bibliography: The Early Modern Printer's Mark in its Cultural Contexts/ Index (Names, Places, Motti).

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2017, held in Saint Malo, France, in September 2017. The 84 revised papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 358 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics in the field of information literacy and focus on information literacy in the workplace. They are organized in the following topical sections: workplace information literacy, employibility and career readiness; data literacy and research data management; media literacy; copyright literacy; transliteracy, reading literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, search engine literacy, civic literacy; science literacy; health information literacy; information behavior; information literacy in higher education; information literacy in K-12; information literacy instruction; information literacy and libraries; and theoretical framework.

The demand to decolonise the curriculum has moved from a protest movement at the margins to the centre of many institutions, as reflected by its inclusion in policies and strategies and numerous initiatives in libraries and archives that have responded to the call, and are critically examining their own historic legacies and practices to support institutional and societal change. Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries explores the ways in which academic libraries are working to address the historic legacies of colonialism, in the context of decolonising the curriculum and the university. It acknowledges and explores the tensions and complexities around the use of the term decolonisation, how it relates to other social justice aims and approaches, including critical librarianship, and what makes this work specific to decolonisation. The book is international in scope, and considers the contextual nature of decolonisation, with discussion of the impacts of settler colonialism, and post-colonial contexts with authors from Canada, the United States and Kenya, as well as universities and the British Library in the UK. Split into two sections, the book first addresses experiential contexts, discussing the environment in which the academic library is enmeshed: legacy knowledge systems, the neo-liberal university, the pervasive Whiteness of the higher education sector, the global publishing industry – how these structures are constitutive of coloniality and how they can be challenged. It then brings together theory and practice featuring case studies interpreting what it means to 'decolonise' in information literacy, collection management, inclusive spaces, LIS education, research methods and knowledge production through the lens of critical pedagogy, critical information literacy and Critical Race Theory (CRT). The book also addresses the impact and implications of the Whiteness of university library staffing. Bringing together the theory and practice of an area of critical concern to the academy, this book is an important reference for academic librarians, educators and researchers in LIS, education and sociology.

This book examines the semiotic effects of protocols and algorithms at work in popular social media systems, bridging philosophical conversations in human-computer interaction (HCI) and information systems (IS) design with contemporary work in critical media, technology and software studies. Where most research into social media is sociological in scope, Neal Thomas shows how the underlying material-semiotic operations of social media now crucially define what it means to be social in a networked age. He proposes that we consider social media platforms as computational processes of collective individuation that produce, rather than presume, forms of subjectivity and sociality.

This 2nd edition of the highly successful Global Library and Information Science presents an up-to-date review of international librarianship and library science through insightful and well written chapters contributed by experts and scholars from all regions of the world. The role of public, academic, special, school libraries, as well as library and information science education are presented from the early development to the present time. Its lively, readable approach will help the reader to understand librarianship in Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. Edited by Ismail Abdullahi, Professor of Global Library and Information Science, this book is a must-read by library science students and teachers, librarians, and anyone interested in Global Librarianship.

This collection of essays breaks new ground in archival studies in the UK where professional archival texts have traditionally concentrated on the how, not the why, of archival work. Studies of the theoretical role of, for example, the archive and the text or the archive and political power, have meanwhile been undertaken in other academic disciplines where there is an established forum for the discussion of related issues. This book invites the archivist to join that arena of debate, whilst appealing to all those interested in archives from other disciplines; the authors encourage archivists to step away from the practicalities of keeping archives to consider what it is they actually do in the cultural context of the early 21st century. The wider context of technological innovation and the internet form the backdrop to this collection. The book explores change and continuity in the archival paradigm, the textual nature of archives and asks if views of manuscripts and personal papers are changing; it looks at specific developments in community archives, at concepts of identity and culture in archives and it presents the fruits of innovative studies of users of archives. Taken together, these essays, written by leading experts in the field, provide a new understanding of the role of the archive today.

Libraries in today's global world have emerged as key players in building a culture for reading in communities while enhancing the literacy development of children, youth, adults and seniors. Whether one lives in a modern city with sophisticated library services or in a remote region of the world where access to books and literacy services may be limited, librarians and libraries are contributing to the development of learning communities. This book captures some of the essence of this work in libraries in order to inspire and support all those who value the role of libraries in building global communities. The authors highlight the emerging role of libraries and community partners in literacy development and provide concrete examples via case studies drawn from global communities, demonstrating how libraries are working to support local literacies. They also suggest recommendations for supporting the critical role for libraries in supporting global literacies. The book will become essential reading for all those interested in literacy and libraries throughout the world.

General directors who have all made their marks in the field of librarianship report from a variety of perspectives, including economic, social, educational, cultural developmental, and political. This information could increase the understanding of the managerial decisions, and other factors that affect the decisions and determine the library's overall policy and operations.

Not only does the library have a long and complex history and politics, but it has an ambivalent presence in Western culture - both a site of positive knowledge and a site of error, confusion, and loss. Nevertheless, in literary studies and in the humanities, including book history, the figure of the library remains in many senses under-researched. This collection brings together established and up-and-coming researchers from a number of practices - literary and cultural studies, gender studies, book history, philosophy, visual culture, and contemporary art -with an effective historical sweep ranging from the time of Sumer to the present day. In the context of the rise of archive studies, this book attends specifically and meta-critically to the figure of the library as a particular archival form, considering the traits that constitute (or fail to constitute) the library as institution or idea, and questions its relations to other accumulative modes, such as the archive in its traditional sense, the museum, or the filmic or digital archive. Across their diversity, and in addition to their international standard of research and writing, each chapter is unified by commitment to analyzing the complex cultural politics of the library form.

Librarians must now work at a different level from that required 20 years ago, but the training available is not always appropriate or accessible to all. The authors of this volume have responded to this significant and continuing change within the profession by offering a much-needed guide to best practice for staff training and development in library and information work. This handbook addresses new aspects of service provision both in the UK and abroad, and provides an up-to-date review of the current developments that are becoming increasingly important to librarians through the influence of the electronic age and the widening of areas of professional involvement. The Handbook of Library Training Practice and Development will be invaluable to those responsible for the development of staff and line managers as well as providing a crucial insight into the information profession for anyone new to this career path or looking to develop their knowledge within it.

The multiplicity of tourism encounters provide some of the best available occasions to observe the social world and its making(s). Focusing on ontological politics of tourism development, this book examines how different versions of tourism are enacted, how encounters between different versions of tourism orderings may result in controversies, but also on how these enactments and encounters are entangled in multiple ways to broader areas of development, conservation, policy and destination management. Throughout the book, encounters and controversies are investigated from a poststructuralist and relational approach as complex and emerging, seeing the roles and characteristics of related actors as co-constituted. Inspired by post-actor-network theory and related research, the studies include the social as well as the material, but also multiplicity and ontological politics when examining controversial matters or events.

"To read is to fly; it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience, and the fruits of many inquiries. A life thus equipped might not be happier – might sometimes be less so, indeed, for to know more can be to feel more, and the ground note of history is a long cry of pain – but it is vastly richer . . .As is inevitable with so self-reflexive an enterprise, much has been written about books and reading. Little of it has been better than this wonderful account, 'A History of Reading', by Alberto Manguel, a judicious magpie of a literatus who has collected a trove of fascinations on the subject, and arranged them brilliantly . . . .almost every page bristles with interest"
A C GRAYLING 'Financial Times'

"Wonderful stuff . . . A rich and savoury casserole of learning, Manguel’s 'A History of Reading' at first refreshes and soothes the jaded palate and ends with delicious titbits from the lives and works of great authors. "
VICTORIA NEUMARK ' Times Educational Supplement'

"What Alberto Manguel has given us is his personal response to books and reading in the form of an anthology comprising mythology, anecdote, theology, history and autobiography . . . in lucid and elegant prose . . . highly enjoyable. I finished 'A History of Reading' with a sense of gratitude to have shared this journey through time in the company of a mind so lively, knowledgeable and sympathetic. "
P D JAMES'Sunday Times'

"A charming, old-fashioned, up-to-date, belletristic tribute to the art of reading."
KARL MILLER 'Observer'

"Delightful, written in a lively and lucid prose. "
ROGER SCRUTON 'The Times'

"A passionate book . . . .highly entertaining. "
MICHIKO KAKUTANI 'New York Times'

Manguel’s erudition is awe-inspiring"
D J ENRIGHT 'Times Literary Supplement'

"A delightfully wide-ranging, beguiling study of a small daily miracle. "
PAUL BAILEY ' Daily Telegraph'

The high degree of internet penetration and its social (and linguistic) effects evidently influence how people, and especially the highly susceptible younger generations, use language. The primary aim of the book is not only to identify the characteristic features of the digital language variety (this has already been done by several works) but to examine how digital communication affects the language of other mediums of communication: orality, handwritten texts, digitally created but not digitally perceived, that is printed texts, including in particular advertisements (which quickly respond to linguistic change). Naturally, the book presents the characteristics of the digital language variety (and coins the term digilect) but only to give a framework to the impact analysis. It is important to document changes in progress and thus direct attention to potential outcomes. The current linguistic change is different from previous ones primarily in its speed and form of spreading, and it not only brings innovative grammatical forms and writing/spelling solutions but may also have far-reaching cultural and educational consequences in the long run.

The emerging present is a fast-changing context for incumbent organizations, especially in market segments where online behavior is replacing physical proximity, and users engage with digital platforms for the acquisition of products and services. These are platforms that allow users to behave, to leave a mark, and to participate in the community of others, which are the values people now seek. Transforming Organizations for the Subscription Economy: Starting from Scratch aims to prepare executives for a world in which everything is social, augmented and autonomous; objects and spaces will have multiple purposes, capabilities and meanings. This is a new territory full of opportunity which is generally discussed only at the level of technology involved instead of the intellectual level, where the real understanding of the need for transformation resides. The book reveals ideas about what is possible if we transform the present. The narrative is organized around what is actual and what is potential; what is the probable future that we can arrive at through change, and what is the possible future that we can build through transformation. When engaging in transformation, the following strategic question develops: if you were designing your organization today, how would you design it? In other words, how would you go about it starting from scratch? This book provides the intellectual framework that empowers organizations to understand and navigate the emerging present, and to develop and deliver products and services of intrinsic value to users.

Many consider libraries to be immutable institutions, deeply entrenched in the past, full of dusty tomes and musty staff. In truth, libraries are and historically have been sites of innovation and disruption. Originally presented at the Library History Seminar XII: Libraries: Traditions and Innovations, this collection of essays offers examples of the enduring and evolving aspects of libraries and librarianship. Whether belonging to a Caliph in 10th-century Spain, built for 19th-century mechanics, or intended for the segregated Southern United States, libraries serve as both a reflection and a contestation of their context. These essays illustrate that libraries are places of turmoil, where real social and cultural controversies are explored and resolved, where invention takes place, and where identities are challenged and defined, reinforcing tradition and commanding innovation.

This book presents the current state of the art in the field of e-publishing and social media, particularly in the Arabic context. The book discusses trends and challenges in the field of e-publishing, along with their implications for academic publishing, information services, e-learning and other areas where electronic publishing is essential. In particular, it addresses (1) Applications of Social Media in Libraries and Information Centers, (2) Use of Social Media and E-publishing in E-learning (3) Information Retrieval in Social Media, and (4) Information Security in Social Media.