The Internet is revolutionizing the way we live and interact with the world and is also changing the way we study. When it comes to politics we are faced with an immense volume of information which is often overwhelming, but properly harnessed can be inspiring and enlightening.This indispensable new text equips the reader with the key skills needed to cut through the mass of material the web offers and use its real power. Today’s students and scholars need new coherent strategies t...

Hannah Arendt's work has been noted for its unorthodox and eclectic style. This book aims to show that her unusual approach in fact reflects a consistent and distinctive conception of, and way of doing, political theory. This is established through close readings of her most influential works.In light of these readings Steve Buckler argues that Arendt's work is of continuing relevance in offering an important and challenging alternative to the more orthodox methods that are characteristic ...

Online and Social Networking Communities is a professional guide written for educational practitioners and trainers who wish to use online communication tools effectively in their teaching. Focusing on the student experience of learning in online communities, it addresses ‘web 2.0’ and other ‘social software’ tools and considers the role these technologies play in supporting student learning and building learning communities.The guide offers:real-world case s...

This book is open access under a CC-BY licence. Part of the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project, this book interrogates current and emerging contexts of academic books from the perspectives of thirteen expert voices from the connected communities of publishing, academia, libraries, and bookselling.

Based upon George Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society thesis and incorporating aspects of social theory, this book examines the introduction of care management to social work practice. Donna Dustin analyzes care management as an example of the managerial application of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control to social work practice. These principles, put to good use in organizations that produce tangible outputs at a profit, are being increasingly applied in non-profit public...

An Education in Facebook? examines and critiques the role of Facebook in the evolving landscape of higher education. At times a mandated part of classroom use, at others an informal network for students, Facebook has become an inevitable component of college life, acting alternately as an advertising, recruitment and learning tool. But what happens when educators use a corporate product, which exists outside of the control of universities, to educate students?An Education ...

Participatory design is about the direct involvement of people in the co-design of the technologies they use. Its central concern is how collaborative design processes can be driven by the participation of the people affected by the technology designed. Embracing a diverse collection of principles and practices aimed at making technologies, tools, environments, businesses, and social institutions more responsive to human needs, the International Handbook of Participatory Design is...

Beneficial to scholars and students in the fields of media and communication, politics and technology, this book outlines the significant role of search engines in general and Google in particular in widening the digital divide between individuals, organisations and states. It uses innovative methods and research approaches to assess and illustrate the digital divide by comparing the popular search queries in Google and Yahoo in different countries as well as analysing the various biases i...

The International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science was published to widespread acclaim in 1996, and has become the major reference work in the field. This eagerly awaited new edition has been fully revised and updated to take full account of the many and radical changes which have taken place since the Encyclopedia was originally conceived. With nearly 600 entries, written by a global team of over 150 contributors, the subject matter ranges from mobile libr...

Why do we share so much about our lives on social media when we often have little idea who might be reading or viewing? David R. Brake examines the causes and consequences of moving towards a radically open society.

The new essays on today's academic librarians examine above all their functions and responsibilities--since these have greatly changed just in recent years, especially in matters of technology. These librarians/essayists step away from yesterday's stereotypes and explain at length their new roles. From digital resources and special collections, to web development and new outreach initiatives, the topics covered by the essays in this book will reassure new librarians and stimulate prospecti...

Modern library services can be incredibly complex. Much more so than their forebears, modern librarians must grapple daily with questions of how best to implement innovative new services, while also maintaining and updating the old. The efforts undertaken are immense, but how best to evaluate their success?In this groundbreaking new book from Routledge, library practitioners, anthropologists, and design experts combine to advocate a new focus on User Experience (or ‘UX’) research m...