Best of
Information-Science

2007

Head First SQL


Lynn Beighley - 2007
    Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory SQL learning experience, Head First SQL has a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. Maybe you've written some simple SQL queries to interact with databases. But now you want more, you want to really dig into those databases and work with your data. Head First SQL will show you the fundamentals of SQL and how to really take advantage of it. We'll take you on a journey through the language, from basic INSERT statements and SELECT queries to hardcore database manipulation with indices, joins, and transactions. We all know "Data is Power" - but we'll show you how to have "Power over your Data". Expect to have fun, expect to learn, and expect to be querying, normalizing, and joining your data like a pro by the time you're finished reading!

The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges


James LaRue - 2007
    This approach helps you understand the people who challenge library materials--as individuals and as members of various groups--turning enemies into allies and building an intellectual, freedom-friendly community. You'll learn what materials get challenged and why and how you can effectively respond to challenges while meeting diverse community needs. Here are stories from the frontlines, practical guidelines on policies and procedures as well as common-sense tips on how to maintain your cool while dealing with specific groups or individuals--all presented with common sense and humor. If you have been struggling with challenges and wonder how you can uphold your ideals while dealing with harsh realities, this is the book you have been waiting for.

Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet


Lisa Nakamura - 2007
    At the same time many scholars lauded the widespread use of text-driven interfaces as a solution to the problem of racial intolerance. Today’s online world is witnessing text-driven interfaces such as e-mail and instant messaging giving way to far more visually intensive and commercially driven media forms that not only reveal but showcase people’s racial, ethnic, and gender identity.Lisa Nakamura, a leading scholar in the examination of race in digital media, uses case studies of popular yet rarely examined uses of the Internet such as pregnancy Web sites, instant messaging, and online petitions and quizzes to look at the emergence of race-, ethnic-, and gender-identified visual cultures.While popular media such as Hollywood cinema continue to depict nonwhite nonmales as passive audiences or consumers of digital media rather than as producers, Nakamura argues the contrary—with examples ranging from Jennifer Lopez music videos; films including the Matrix trilogy, Gattaca, and Minority Report; and online joke sites—that users of color and women use the Internet to vigorously articulate their own types of virtual community, avatar bodies, and racial politics.Lisa Nakamura is associate professor of speech communication and Asian American studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet and coeditor, with Beth Kolko and Gilbert Rodman, of Race in Cyberspace.

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics


Dirk Geeraerts - 2007
    The first twenty chapters give readers the opportunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of the fundamental analytic concepts and descriptive models of Cognitive Linguistics and their background. The book starts with a set of chapters discussing different conceptual phenomena that are recognized as key concepts in Cognitive Linguistics: prototypicality, metaphor, metonymy, embodiment, perspectivization, mental spaces, etc. A second set of chapters deals with Cognitive Grammar, Construction Grammar, and Word Grammar, which, each in their own way, bring together the basic concepts into a particular theory of grammar and a specific model for the description of grammatical phenomena. Special attention is given to the interrelation between Cognitive and Construction Grammar. A third set of chapters compares Cognitive Linguistics with other forms of linguistic research (functional linguistics, autonomous linguistics, and the history of linguistics), thus giving a readers a better grip on the position of Cognitive Linguistics within the landscape of linguistics at large. The remaining chapters apply these basic notions to various more specific linguistic domains, illustrating how Cognitive Linguistics deals with the traditional linguistic subdomains (phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, text and discourse), and demonstrating how it handles linguistic variation and change. Finally they consider its importance in the domain of Applied Linguistics, and look at interdisciplinary links with research fields such as philosophy and psychology. With a well-known cast of contributors from around the world, this reference work will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in (cognitive) linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness


Patrick Lambe - 2007
    In this groundbreaking book, Patrick Lambe illustrates how taxonomies play an integral role in helping organizations coordinate and communicate effectively. Through a series of real-world case studies, decision-making frameworks, and example questionnaires, Lambe demonstrates the wide range of ways in which taxonomies help organizations leverage and articulate their knowledge, and offers a clear description of how taxonomies relate to technology application. Accessible and jargon-free, this step-by-step guide to running a taxonomy project offers practical advice for knowledge managers and business owners alike.

Geologics: Geography Information Architecture


Vicente Guallart - 2007
    He proposes, by means of his architecture, projects and writings, fresh ways for building in five distinct urban areas: the city, the periphery, the outskirts, the rural environment and cyberspace.

Business Metadata: Capturing Enterprise Knowledge


William H. Inmon - 2007
    Written by Bill Inmon, one of the fathers of the data warehouse and well-known author, the book is filled with war stories, examples, and cases from current projects. It includes a complete metadata acquisition methodology and project plan to guide readers every step of the way, and sample unstructured metadata for use in self-testing and developing skills.This book is recommended for IT professionals, including those in consulting, working on systems that will deliver better knowledge management capability. This includes people in these positions: data architects, data analysts, SOA architects, metadata analysts, repository (metadata data warehouse) managers as well as vendors that have a metadata component as part of their systems or tools.

Improving Library Services to People with Disabilities


Courtney Deines-Jones - 2007
    Whether to address concerns of an ageing population or to enable all citizens to contribute fully through meaningful education and work opportunities, more emphasis is being given to promoting library services to people who have disabilities. This book is a compendium of articles focused on serving adults with disabilities in an international setting. From this book, librarians, policy makers and constituents will understand the importance of serving all potential patrons, will be exposed to best practices and model programs, and will learn techniques and strategies for improving the services their libraries offer.   Contributing authors include: Mary Beth Allen (Applied Life Studies Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Matthew Atkinson and Jatinder Dhiensa (Loughborough University, UK); Kevin Carey (humanITy, UK); Bernadette Cassidy (Allan Bean Centre for Research and Learning in Rehabilitation, New Zealand); AnneMarie Cooke (Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, USA); Christine Wamunyima Kanyengo (Medical Library, University of Zambia School of Medicine, Africa); Youngsook Lee (National Library of Korea); Ayo Onatola (St. Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine, UK); Christine Tilley (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

Battle of Cognition: The Future Information-Rich Warfare and the Mind of the Commander


Alexander Kott - 2007
    Looking at the command and control of information-rich warfare, the contributors explore its potential new processes, techniques, and organizational structures. As they do so, they find reasons for both optimism and concerns about the limitations of human cognition and supporting technologies in commanding battles in the Information Age.Since the beginning of the Information Revolution, the military in the United States and elsewhere has been analyzing and implementing the changes driven by the rapidly advancing information technologies. Among military theorists and practitioners, many focus on the Information Revolution's impact on matters of military equipment. Far fewer, however, seem to worry about the gray matter--the mind of the commander, the place where all the information power of the new age is supposed to converge and to yield its mighty dividends.Consider that it is the human mind, particularly the minds of military commanders and their staffs that remain the pinnacle and the ultimate consumer of the rapidly growing information flows. What if the true weak link of the Information Age force is not the hardware of machines, but the software of the human mind? And if so, could it be that the entire conceptual structure of the Information Revolution theorists, at least as it applies to military affairs, is built on sand, on the notorious fickleness of human cognition? These are the questions this book strives to examine. Looking at the command and control of information-rich warfare, the authors explore its potential new processes, techniques, and organizational structures. As they do so, they find reasons for both optimism and concerns about the limitations of human cognition and supporting technologies in commanding Information Age battles.

Information Economics


Urs Birchler - 2007
    The authors provide a narrative treatment of the more formal concepts of Information Economics, using easy to understand and lively illustrations from film and literature and nutshell examples.The book first covers the economics of information in a 'man versus nature' context, explaining basic concepts like rational updating or the value of information. Then in a 'man versus man' setting, Birchler and Butler describe strategic issues in the use of information: the make-buy-or-copy decision, the working and failure of markets and the important role of outguessing each other in a macroeconomic context. It closes with a 'man versus himself' perspective, focusing on information management within the individual. This book also comes with a supporting website (www.alicebob.info), maintained by the authors.