Information Resources in the Humanities and the Arts


Book Description

This familiar guide to information resources in the humanities and the arts, organized by subjects and emphasizing electronic resources, enables librarians, teachers, and students to quickly find the best resources for their diverse needs. Authoritative, trusted, and timely, Information Resources in the Humanities and the Arts: Sixth Edition introduces new librarians to the breadth of humanities collections, experienced librarians to the nature of humanities scholarship, and the scholars themselves to a wealth of information they might otherwise have missed. This new version of a classic resource—the first update in over a decade—has been refreshed to account for the myriad of digital resources that have rewritten the rules of the reference and research world, and been expanded to include significantly increased coverage of world literature and languages. This book is invaluable for a wide variety of users: librarians in academic, public, school, and special library settings; researchers in religion, philosophy, literature, and the performing and visual arts; graduate students in library and information science; and teachers and students in humanities, the arts, and interdisciplinary degree programs.




The Reference Collection


Book Description

Stay up-to-date with the growing amount of reference resources available online How important is the World Wide Web to information retrieval and communication? Important enough that information professionals have seen students exit from their libraries en masse when Internet service was lost. Internet providers dominate the indexing and abstracting of periodical articles as major publishers now offer nearly all of their reference titles in digital form. Libraries spend increasing amounts of funding on electronic reference materials, and librarians devote an increasing amount of time to assisting in their use. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential guide to collection development for electronic materials in academic and public libraries. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web tracks the continuing evolution of electronic reference resources-and how they’re accessed—in a variety of settings. Librarians representing university, elementary school, and public libraries in the United States and Australia examine how reference collections have evolved over time (and may soon be a thing of the past); how public and school libraries have dealt with the changes; why library research assignments have become more difficult for teachers to make and for students to complete; how to organize online reference sources; and why the nature of plagiarism has changed in the electronic era. The book also examines the use of electronic references from a publisher’s perspective and looks at the most important Web-accessible reference tools—both free and subscription—in the areas of humanities, medicine, the social sciences, business, and education. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web also examines: issues of authority, accessibility, cost, comfort, and user education in evaluating electronic resources the formation of purchasing consortia to facilitate the transfer of reference materials from print to online formats current literature and research findings on the state of digital versus print reference collections what electronic publishing means to smaller reference books (dictionaries, almanacs, etc.) the need for increased information literacy among students the nature, extent, and causes of cyber plagiarism the use of federated search tools and includes a selected list of the top 100 free Internet reference sites The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential resource for all reference and collection development librarians, and an invaluable aid for publishing professionals.




Methods, Methodologies, and Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences With Particular Reference to Islamic Studies: A Critical Rationalist Interpretation


Book Description

This book presents the first comprehensive introduction to methods and methodologies in the humanities and social sciences in general, and Islamic Studies in particular, from a critical rationalist point of view. The book aims to be a self-sufficient theoretical and practical guide to the topics that it introduces. It contains a large selection of fully worked out review activities and review questions plus topics for further discussion which are devised to assist readers to better understand the issues which are discussed in the book. Last but not least, all efforts have been made to make sure that most (if not all) of the reading materials which are recommended in the book are not only of the highest quality but also freely available on the internet.




Annual Review of Information Science and Technology


Book Description

ARIST, published annually since 1966, is a landmark publication within the information science community. It surveys the landscape of information science and technology, providing an analytical, authoritative, and accessible overview of recent trends and significant developments. The range of topics varies considerably, reflecting the dynamism of the discipline and the diversity of theoretical and applied perspectives. While ARIST continues to cover key topics associated with classical information science (e.g., bibliometrics, information retrieval), editor Blaise Cronin is selectively expanding its footprint in an effort to connect information science more tightly with cognate academic and professional communities.




The Reference Collection


Book Description

Stay up-to-date with the growing amount of reference resources available online How important is the World Wide Web to information retrieval and communication? Important enough that information professionals have seen students exit from their libraries en masse when Internet service was lost. Internet providers dominate the indexing and abstracting of periodical articles as major publishers now offer nearly all of their reference titles in digital form. Libraries spend increasing amounts of funding on electronic reference materials, and librarians devote an increasing amount of time to assisting in their use. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential guide to collection development for electronic materials in academic and public libraries. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web tracks the continuing evolution of electronic reference resources-and how they're accessedin a variety of settings. Librarians representing university, elementary school, and public libraries in the United States and Australia examine how reference collections have evolved over time (and may soon be a thing of the past); how public and school libraries have dealt with the changes; why library research assignments have become more difficult for teachers to make and for students to complete; how to organize online reference sources; and why the nature of plagiarism has changed in the electronic era. The book also examines the use of electronic references from a publisher's perspective and looks at the most important Web-accessible reference toolsboth free and subscriptionin the areas of humanities, medicine, the social sciences, business, and education. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web also examines: issues of authority, accessibility, cost, comfort, and user education in evaluating electronic resources the formation of purchasing consortia to facilitate the transfer of reference materials from print to online formats current literature and research findings on the state of digital versus print reference collections what electronic publishing means to smaller reference books (dictionaries, almanacs, etc.) the need for increased information literacy among students the nature, extent, and causes of cyber plagiarism the use of federated search tools and includes a selected list of the top 100 free Internet reference sites The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential resource for all reference and collection development librarians, and an invaluable aid for publishing professionals.




JSTOR


Book Description

Ten years ago, most scholars and students relied on bulky card catalogs, printed bibliographic indices, and hardcopy books and journals. Today, much content is available electronically or online. This book examines the history of one of the first, and most successful, digital resources for scholarly communication, JSTOR. Beginning as a grant-funded project of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at the University of Michigan, JSTOR has grown to become a major archive of the backfiles of academic journals, and its own nonprofit organization. Roger Schonfeld begins this history by looking at JSTOR's original mission of saving storage space and thereby storage costs, a mission that expanded immediately to improving access to the literature. What role did the University play? Could JSTOR have been built without the active involvement of a foundation? Why was it seen as necessary to "spin off" the project? This case study proceeds as an organizational history of the birth and maturation of this nonprofit, which had to emerge from the original university partnership to carve its own identity. How did the grant project evolve into a successful marketplace enterprise? How was JSTOR able to serve its twofold mission of archiving its journals while also providing access to them? What has accounted for its growth? Finally, Schonfeld considers implications of the economic and organizational aspects of archiving as well as the system-wide savings that JSTOR ensures by broadly distributing costs.




Advances in Librarianship


Book Description

Presents international research and professional issues in libraries, the information industry, education and development of information professionals. This title is suitable for practitioners, researchers, students and faculty members seeking literature and solutions to various issues in library and information science and related fields.




A Companion to Digital Humanities


Book Description

This Companion offers a thorough, concise overview of the emerging field of humanities computing. Contains 37 original articles written by leaders in the field. Addresses the central concerns shared by those interested in the subject. Major sections focus on the experience of particular disciplines in applying computational methods to research problems; the basic principles of humanities computing; specific applications and methods; and production, dissemination and archiving. Accompanied by a website featuring supplementary materials, standard readings in the field and essays to be included in future editions of the Companion.




Assessing Information Needs in the Age of the Digital Consumer


Book Description

Aiming at ensuring that everyone obtains the rich rewards available in today's information-centred society, this book seeks to provide a systematic method for the understanding, appreciation and evaluation of information needs, which alone can guarantee the value of information to the consumer. Based on the insights gained from research projects involving hundreds of thousands of people, it sets out to provide a framework, firmly grounded in theory but nevertheless highly practical, for information needs analysis. The book is written both for librarians, publishers, archivists, records managers, journalists and other information professionals, to help them in their efforts to design improved systems and monitor the effectiveness of their services on an ongoing basis, and for individual information consumers, to enable them better to meet their own information needs in the expanding sphere of virtual information.