This book offers a practical template for training patrons to use eBook, streaming video, online music, and journal collections that is practical, adaptable, and most importantly, sustainable. In order to make your library's expanding digital collection worth having, customers need to know how to access these online resources—and it's up to your staff to show them how. This unique guide explains how to use a device-centered approach to training library patrons (rather than a system-centric approach) that will enable staff to more easily assist patrons, regardless of whether your patrons use Kindles, tablets, mobile phones, or laptops. Using this approach, staff stay current and can prepare for the next technology or interface platform to access digital collections. The book describes different patron instruction scenarios, such as drop-in, one-on-one interactions, tech petting zoos, and classroom settings, and explains how to structure and conduct specific sessions/classes. Readers will learn methods of promoting the digital collection that can be used in their entirety or a la carte, depending on your budget and locality. The final chapters address using social media, print media, and interactive displays; best practices for target marketing aimed at both in-house patrons and external customers; and how you can save money when purchasing equipment.
Emerging technologies can intimidate with their cost and uncertaintythis book provides flexible options for adopting the most popular ones. Introducing new technologies to your library can be a daunting process; they can be costly, they may be unfamiliar to many staff members, and their success is far from assured. To address these concerns, Best Technologies for Public Libraries accommodates budgets large and small, providing options for both the ambitious and the cost-conscious. Authors Christopher DeCristofaro, James Hutter, and Nick Tanzi provide a resource for staff looking to incorporate a number of emerging technologies into their library and makerspaces. Each chapter explores a new technology, including 3D printing, drones, augmented reality, and virtual reality, covering how the technologies work, the selection process, training, sample programming, best practices, and relevant policy. By describing a variety of program and service ideas across age groups, the book gives readers the ability to first evaluate them within the context of their own organization before incorporating ideas à la carte. This approach helps readers to adopt these new technologies and create policies with uses already in mind.
Decentralisation is now taking place in the public administrations of most countries of the world. This book explores the variety of methods used to ensure that fiscal decentralisation takes place alongside administrative decentralisation.
Poverty and governance are both issues high on the agenda of international agencies and governments in the South. With urban areas accounting for a steadily growing share of the world's poor people, an international team of researchers focused their attention on the hitherto little-studied relationship between urban governance and urban poverty. In their timely and in-depth examination of ten cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, they demonstrate that in many countries the global trends towards decentralization and democratization offer new opportunities for the poor to have an influence on the decisions that affect them. They also show how that influence depends on the nature of those democratic arrangements and decision-making processes at the local level, as well as on the ability of the poor to organize. The study involved interviews with key actors within and outside city governments, discussions with poverty groups, community organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as analyses of data on poverty, services and finance. This book presents insights, conclusions and practical examples that are of relevance for other cities. It outlines policy implications for national and local governments, NGOs and donor agencies, and highlights ways in which poor people can use their voice to influence the various institutions of city governance.
Unprecedented levels of government surveillance; loss of privacy through corporate data mining; centralized digital currency; behavioral tracking and control: Is this the digital future we’ve been sleepwalking towards? “Nick Corbishley has the frenetic energy of someone who has seen too much. His book is fantastic.”—Russell Brand, “Under the Skin” podcast Untold millions of people in “democracies” all over the world were barred from accessing basic services in 2021—from earning a living or traveling within their own country—because they lacked proper digital identification surrounding the vaccine. For many, 2021 will be remembered as the year that basic, long-standing bioethical principles such as bodily autonomy, bodily integrity, and the informed consent of the patient ended. In Scanned, investigative journalist Nick Corbishley examines and exposes the lies and overreach that underpin the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms that is continuing to happen at an alarming rate. In clear language supported by rigorous research, Corbishley uncovers how the rollout of vaccine passports, digital IDs and centralized digital currency not only represents an unprecedented violation of privacy and bodily autonomy, but how it perpetuates the idea that a “small” collective sacrifice will allow us to return to normality. Today, digital “health” IDs threaten to go totally global, with the World Health Organization’s tacit endorsement. On all five continents governments and corporations are quietly but quickly rolling out digital ID programs. At the same time, 90% of the world’s central banks are exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), with half of them already developing an electronic version of their fiat money. These interlocking initiatives threaten to radically reconfigure the way societies and economies function. If successful, they will facilitate the single largest expansion of totalitarian power in history, exposing citizens to unprecedented levels of government and corporate surveillance, data mining, and behavioral control. The stakes could not be higher. And if things continue on the current path, Corbishley makes clear, getting back to “normal” is never happening. Put simply, instead of a return to normality, we will see the creation of a starkly different form of existence in which most of us will have virtually no agency over our own lives.
Managerial economics, meaning the application of economic methods in the managerial decision-making process, is a fundamental part of any business or management course. This textbook covers all the main aspects of managerial economics: the theory of the firm; demand theory and estimation; production and cost theory and estimation; market structure and pricing; game theory; investment analysis and government policy. It includes numerous and extensive case studies, as well as review questions and problem-solving sections at the end of each chapter. Nick Wilkinson adopts a user-friendly problem-solving approach which takes the reader in gradual steps from simple problems through increasingly difficult material to complex case studies, providing an understanding of how the relevant principles can be applied to real-life situations involving managerial decision-making. This book will be invaluable to business and economics students at both undergraduate and graduate levels who have a basic training in calculus and quantitative methods.
This book explains how librarians can capitalize on the growing interest and need of patrons for help with technology by expanding their library's tech services to build community engagement and support. Keeping up with technology is more critical and difficult than ever. This challenge exists not only for library staff but for their patrons as well. Today's librarians are often barraged with increasingly complex questions from their patrons about technology—from loading eBooks onto their readers to helping resurrect dead laptops. Why not capitalize on this opportunity and transform your library into a first-stop, go-to resource for your community's tech needs? Raising the Tech Bar at Your Library: Improving Services to Meet User Needs demonstrates a variety of ways to expand library services to better serve your community, including how to establish tech bars and tech centers, provide tech training and one-on-one tech help, host drop-in demos, and create a coding "dojo." The book covers after-school programs, makerspaces, and embedded librarianship as well. The authors draw on their personal experience to offer a practical blueprint for launching your tech initiative, starting with the preliminary steps of evaluating community needs and getting administrative and public buy-in to obtaining funding, training non-tech staff, setting up and launching your program, and evaluating the services you've established. The book ends with a look to the future that supplies provocative and exciting ideas of how libraries with innovative, tech-focused leadership can push the edge even further. This book serves a wide audience—all public librarians as well as library administrators, those who work in IT departments as well as adult or youth services, and reference librarians who are interested in expanding into this important and exciting area.
Entrepreneurship does not occur in a vacuum. The institutions which provide the framework for economic activity matter. As countries around the world strive for economic growth, this book examines how institutional arrangements are critical in fostering entrepreneurship. Through 12 case studies drawn from Asia, Europe and America the book demonstrates how different institutional arrangements impact the nature, scope and scale of entrepreneurial activity. Each chapter highlights how the prevailing formal and informal institutional arrangements interact, and how this has consequences for the development of more entrepreneurial economies. By synthesizing empirical and theoretical insights the book explores how fostering more entrepreneurial economies is as much a question of institutional alignment as it is the creation of more supportive formal and informal institutions.
Today the debates on globalization between its evangelists and detractors are still raging. In this concise, balanced and accessible new text, Nick Bisley assesses the nature and extent of globalization, the key debates surrounding it and its impact on and significance for world politics.
People with intellectual disability often have health needs that go unrecognised and untreated; this may be because of difficulties in communication, diagnostic overshadowing, discrimination or indifference. There is concern that public health measures aimed at reducing the main health killers in the population will not address these issues for people with intellectual disability and may preferentially widen the inequality that already exists. This book is a comprehensive and systematic review of physical and mental health co-morbidities in people with intellectual disability. Such an evidence base is vital in shaping public health policy, healthcare commissioning and the development of more effective healthcare systems, as well as supporting better understanding and practice at an individual clinical level. This is essential reading for policy makers and commissioners of services, as well as individual practitioners across mainstream and specialist health and social care, in considering not only service developments but practice at the coalface.
This is a big book in more ways than one. . . a detailed and illuminating exploration of leadership qualities, attributes, skills and competencies. . . the mixture of theory, reflective questions, stories, tools and practical exercises demand a level of thoughtful engagement and self-reflection rarely required by books on leadership. . . the Australian content is refreshing, as is the lack of evangelistic promises of immediate transformation. . . this book is firmly grounded in supporting the learning and skill development needed for maximum performance. (Boss magazine, August p.55). The Australian Financial Review AFR Boss If we were giving a graduate-level class in leadership and people management skills (I m a UCLA Business and Management Program instructor) I would choose this book as the text. If a client asked for a great book to enhance his/her leadership skills, (we consult in organization, compensation and performance management) this would be one of first books I would suggest. It s that good! The book offers a comprehensive guide for developing leadership and people management skills. It s a powerful, broad-spectrum leadership toolkit with a wealth of information about skills and practices, and hundreds of suggestions and opinions from business and political leaders, consultants, and academics. This book is an outstanding resource for leaders and aspiring leaders. It is filled with an abundance of insights: the distinction it makes between a leader and a manager is one of the best, if not the best, we ve read. Just a few of the subjects covered are: the leadership-as-servant philosophy; leaders as coaches and mentors; communication; motivation; leading and managing teams; women as leaders; managing power, politics and conflict; leading organizational and cultural change; creating an innovative organization; leadership and people management in high-tech, networked; and virtual organizations. Throughout the book are bullet-point lists, exercises, and to-the-point conclusions. It is clearly written and superbly organized. An excellent bibliography and subject index top off this outstanding work. We highly recommend this book. Yvette Borcia and Gerry Stern, Stern s Management Review Maximum Performance is a comprehensive business tome. Although it is designed for students, busy executives who use the chapter summaries or chapter sections to focus on topics that interest them will find the book useful. Organizations with large collections on management or leadership will want to buy it. Business researchers with limited library space or who are looking for a good summary of current management topics may also find the book of value. . . The strength of Maximum Performance is its breadth. Forster touches on everything from whether leaders are born or made to Machiavellian strategies for dealing with toxic work environments. Anyone interested in ideas on leadership will likely find several sections of interest. Those sections that are particularly strong include the discussions on the different roles and organizational context of leadership, key issues in motivating employees, the team development process, and best practices in leading organizational change. Scott R. Jenkins, Business Information Alert Nick Forster s large text is for MBA students. He writes in a clean, clear style and frankly admits that leadership and people-management skills cannot adequately be learned from books. He knows however that good books can help, and also that clichés of management can be inspirational and will be used widely though they call for close analysis of substance or context. He is in this a modern-day Samuel Smiles, equipped with a variety of diagnostic tools. The Australian In my experience a major shortcoming of most how to books on leadership and management is that they purport to offer Silver Bullets magical solutions that, once revealed, will enrich and transform the reader and his or her organisation. Regrettably
One third of the world's population today lives under governments that consider themselves to be Marxist-Leninist. In many of these places, severe poverty was endemic in the years before Communist authorities came to power. Communist governments claim to have a special understanding into and effectiveness in dealing with problems of poverty. Marxist-Leninist rulers have been in power for nearly thirty years in Cuba, nearly forty years in China, and over sixty-five years in the Soviet Union. How do the poor fare in such places today? Western intellectuals often assume there is an inevitable tradeoff between bread and freedom under communism. What populations lose in the way of civil and political rights, they gain in social guarantees that protect them against material hardship. In "The Poverty of Communism, "Nick Eberstadt challenges this assumption and shatters it. He shows that Communist governments in a wide variety of settings have been no more successful in attending to the material needs of the most vulnerable segments of the populations they govern than non-Communist governments against which they might most readily be compared. Indeed, measured by the health, literacy, and nutrition of their people, Communist governments may today be less effective in dealing with poverty than are non-Communist governments. "The Poverty of Communism "is a pathbreaking investigation. In a series of separate studies, Eberstadt analyzes the performance of Communist governments in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba. This is the first scholarly effort to assess the record of Communist governments with respect to poverty in a detailed and comprehensive fashion. Well written, carefully argued, and reflecting a sweeping range of knowledge, "The Poverty of Communism "will be of interest to specialists in the countries investigated as well as those concerned with comparative economic and political development. Above all, it gives testimony to the plight of voiceless populations about which all too little has been written from an objective standpoint.
This is the first work to take a comprehensive look at the application of Magnetic Resonance (MR) techniques in the diagnosis, follow-up and therapy monitoring of dementing illnesses. The authors present an overview of MR findings in neurodegenerative and vascular disorders leading to dementia. In doing so, they also discuss other diseases that lead to cognitive and/or behavioural deterioration, such as infectious inflammatory disorders, toxic encephalopathies, inborn errors of metabolism of adult onset and post-traumatic, post-radiotherapy and post-chemotherapy conditions. This authoritative, well-written and richly illustrated reference work is indispensable for anybody working in the field.
Seeking improved health and increased income have long been common goals. Those who make the case that free trade will help everyone argue that the growth from increased trade will be shared and will improve people's lives. But they have not answered the fundamental question of how to formulate trade policy to simultaneously achieve growth and benefit health. Trade and Health answers this question by exploring the entire array of avenues through which trade affects health, and examining a number of case studies on how best to achieve policies that integrate health objectives. The contributors represent the full range of stakeholders in the trade-health debate - medical professionals, civil society representatives, academics from a range of disciplines, and negotiators and policy-makers at the national and global levels. Contributors include Bijit Bora (WTO), Rupa Chanda (IIMB), Diana Chigas (Tufts), Carlos Correa (U of Buenos Aires), Eric Dagenais (Industry Canada), Alison Earle (Harvard), David P. Fidler (Indiana), Anabel González (WTO), Ronald Labonte (Ottawa), Cha-aim Pachnee (MOPH-Thailand), Pedro Roffe (UNCTAD-ICTSD), Nancy Ross (McGill), David Sanders (Western Cape), Ted Schrecker (Ottawa), Anna Shea (McGill), Elisabeth Tuerk (UNCTAD), David Vivas-Eugui (ICTSD), Johanna von Braun (ICTSD), and Suwit Wibulpolprasert (MOPH-Thailand).
This book offers a practical template for training patrons to use eBook, streaming video, online music, and journal collections that is practical, adaptable, and most importantly, sustainable. In order to make your library's expanding digital collection worth having, customers need to know how to access these online resources—and it's up to your staff to show them how. This unique guide explains how to use a device-centered approach to training library patrons (rather than a system-centric approach) that will enable staff to more easily assist patrons, regardless of whether your patrons use Kindles, tablets, mobile phones, or laptops. Using this approach, staff stay current and can prepare for the next technology or interface platform to access digital collections. The book describes different patron instruction scenarios, such as drop-in, one-on-one interactions, tech petting zoos, and classroom settings, and explains how to structure and conduct specific sessions/classes. Readers will learn methods of promoting the digital collection that can be used in their entirety or a la carte, depending on your budget and locality. The final chapters address using social media, print media, and interactive displays; best practices for target marketing aimed at both in-house patrons and external customers; and how you can save money when purchasing equipment.
IT had rained in torrents all the way down from Schenectady, so when Jack Duane glimpsed the lights of what looked to be a big house through the trees, he braked his battered, convertible sedan to a stop at the side of the road. Mud lay along the fenders and running boards; mud and water had spumed up and freckled Duane’s face and hat. He pulled off the latter—it was soggy—and slapped it on the seat beside him, leaning out and squinting through the darkness and falling water. He was on the last lap of a two weeks’ journey from San Francisco, his objective being New York City. There he hoped to wangle a job as foreign correspondent from an old crony, J. J. Molloy, now editor of the New York Globe. Adventurer, journalist, globetrotter, Duane was of the type that is always on the move. “It’s a place, anyway, Moses,” he said to the large black man beside him, his servitor and bodyguard, who had accompanied him everywhere for the past three years. “Somebody lives there; they ought to have some gas.” “Yasah,” said Moses, staring past Duane’s shoulder, “it’s a funny-looking place, suh.” Duane agreed. Considering that they were seventy miles from New York, in the foothills of the Catskills, with woods all around them and the rain pouring down, the thing they saw through the trees, some three hundred yards from the country road, was indeed peculiar. It looked more like a couple of Pullman cars coupled together and lighted, than like a farmer’s dwelling. “Fenced in, too,” said Duane, pointing to the high steel fence that bordered the road, separating them from the object of their vision. “And look there—” A fitful flash of lightning in the east, illuminating the distant treetops, showed up the towering steel and network of a high-voltage electric line’s tower. The roving journalist muttered something to express his puzzlement, and got out of the car. Moses followed him. “Well,” said Duane presently, when they had stared a moment longer, “whatever it is, I’m barging in. We’ve got to have some gas or we’ll never make New York tonight.” MOSES agreed. The two men started across the road—the big Negro hatless and wearing a slicker—the reporter in a belted trench coat, his brown felt hat pulled out of shape on his head. “It’s a big thing,” Duane said as he and Moses halted at the fence and peered through. Distantly, he could see now that the mysterious structure in the woods was at least a hundred yards long, flat-topped and black as coal except from narrow shafts of light that came from its windows. “And look at the light coming out of the roof.” That was, indeed, the most peculiar feature of this place they had discovered. From a section of the roof near the center, as though through a skylight, a great white light came out, illuminating the slanting rain and the bending trees.
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