Learn how libraries have risen to the challenges created by the fall of Communism and the rise of information technology! How do librarians and researchers face war, social upheaval, and other challenges after the fall of Communism and the rise of digital technology? Libraries in Open Societies offers fascinating answers to this and many other questions while providing an overview of this rapidly changing arena. An international panel of authors who know the specialized concerns of libraries in Eastern Europe and the former USSR addresses topics that include the difficulty of preserving and acquiring materials, the importance of international cooperation, and the benefits and pitfalls of electronic media. This book also discusses the rise of the Internet in Russia, the movement of international bibliographies onto the Web, and other features of the digital revolution. Libraries in Open Societies, itself an example of the value of international cooperation in the modern world, will be an important addition to your bookshelves! Other absorbing topics in Libraries in Open Societies include: reconstruction of libraries in Bosnia the role of the Polish émigré press in Great Britain guidelines for developing Slavic literature collections the creation and restoration of digital archives throughout the region electronic information delivery in the United States and abroad journals in Slavic and East European librarianship Baltic collections in North America and Western Europe the role digital technologies have played in restoring Bosnian printed heritage materials lost during the 1992–1995 war

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia, EGOSE 2021, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in November 2021. The 21 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 69 submissions, additionally one invited paper has been included in this volume. The papers are organized in topical sections on ​digital technology and design; digital Society; digital government and economy.

Put simply, there is no text about public librarianship more rigorous or comprehensive than McCook's survey. Now, the REFORMA Lifetime Achievement Award-winning author has teamed up with noted public library scholar and advocate Bossaller to update and expand her work to incorporate the field's renewed emphasis on outcomes and transformation. This "essential tool" (Library Journal) remains the definitive handbook on this branch of the profession. It covers every aspect of the public library, from its earliest history through its current incarnation on the cutting edge of the information environment, including statistics, standards, planning, evaluations, and results; legal issues, funding, and politics; organization, administration, and staffing; all aspects of library technology, from structure and infrastructure to websites and makerspaces; adult services, youth services, and children's services; associations, state library agencies, and other professional organizations; global perspectives on public libraries; and advocacy, outreach, and human rights. Exhaustively researched and expansive in its scope, this benchmark text continues to serve both LIS students and working professionals.

The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia. Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point. Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process. More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.

A detailed reference work that documents every aspect of the American public library experience through topical entries, statistics, biographies, and profiles. The American Public Library Handbook is the first reference work to focus on all aspects of the American public library experience, providing a topical perspective through comprehensive essays and biographical information on important public librarians. Based upon the author's own notes and extensive experience, as well as library periodicals, library reference books, monographs, textbooks, Internet sources, and correspondence with individual libraries, this book comprises nearly 1,000 entries addressing all aspects of public library service. Each topical essay considers terminology of the area covered, its historical context, and current concerns and issues. Biographies highlight the philosophical perspective of the individuals covered, while entries on specific libraries present timely data and interesting facts about each facility. This unique handbook also offers up-to-date statistics, historical highlights, and information about programs and events of individual libraries.

'Open', 'informal', and 'humanistic' are words used to describe new styles of education which depart from ordinary or traditional education. Too often, however, these adjectives are used in a strongly polemical or self-justifying rather than analytical way. Often too, the grounds for accepting or rejecting open education are political or moral, instead of being based on a consideration of the nature of open education and its strength and weaknesses. This collection of essays is central to the debate on open education, analyzing the important concepts in the field. The contributions, all written by authorities on the philosophy of education, deal with problems of definition, knowledge, socialization, freedom, cultural perspective, and unique meanings and metaphors.

This book shows how philanthropy can be a primary force in the transfer of technology in transitional societies. It demonstrates the necessity of retraining of people and how this endeavor is as important as the technology itself. It is essentially about Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, with somewhat smaller emphases on Russia, Romania and South Africa. It chronicles, explains, and analyzes western assistance efforts in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 2000 in the context of the political and economic events of the period, with particular emphasis on the activities of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Factors that made transfers more or less successful and the role of social institutions and human factors will be highlighted. Significant illustrations include the creation of a small enterprise sectors, MBA programs, economic programs, and new markets and financial institutions. The material provides the reader with a clear understanding of how institutions for economic education emerged in Central and Eastern Europe, what role of US foundations and academic institutions played, and what the interplay with local personalities involved.