Friday, September 30, 2016

Just Released | World Social Science Report 2016 | Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World

World Social Science Report 2016 | Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World
by International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and UNESCO. UNESCO Publishing, Paris, 2016, ISBN: 9789231001642.

Foreword
The world is converging around high levels of inequalities. And they matter.
Inequalities in individual living standards have, on average, declined between countries. Sustaining this progress and extending it to those countries that have not yet benefited is crucial. But this should not come at the cost of neglecting inequalities within countries, the level and progression of which undermine economies, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.
The international community is committed to meeting this challenge, which we see expressed in demands for greater equity and inclusion rising all over the world – and which is embodied in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and specifically Sustainable Development Goal 10 to reduce inequalities.
For this, resources are needed, and so is political will. The world also needs improved understanding, which the World Social Science Report 2016 is designed to provide.
Inequalities are multi-dimensional, multi-layered and cumulative. The Report makes clear that understanding and acting effectively upon inequalities requires looking beyond income and wealth disparities to capture their political, environmental, social, cultural, spatial, and knowledge features. Untangling such complexity is a challenge we must fully take on – if we are to develop policies and solutions that are feasible and sustainable. The Report also emphasizes that the costs of inequalities are very high and borne by all – not just by the deprived and the excluded, but collectively, by current and future generations, in the form of heightened conflict and instability, economic and fiscal losses, environmental degradation, and political tensions. Reducing inequalities is thus everyone's concern.
Countering inequalities requires robust knowledge – but knowledge alone is not enough. The challenge is to improve the connection between what we know and how we act: to mobilize the knowledge of the social and human sciences to inform policies, underpin decisions and enable wise and transparent management of the shift towards more equitable and inclusive societies. In this sense, investment in knowledge is a down-payment for informed change.
And in some respects, even the knowledge we have is not fully adequate. Social science research agendas equally require revisiting. The Report calls for a step change towards a research agenda that is interdisciplinary, multiscale and globally inclusive, creating pathways for transformative knowledge.
Inequalities are a major concern for social science today. That is reflected by a fivefold increase in studies of inequality and social justice in academic publications from 1992 to 2013. However, the Report highlights two major knowledge divides in research into inequality. Firstly, too many studies are too narrow in focus. There is too little attention to the overlapping inequalities that go beyond income and wealth, such as health, knowledge, and gender. Secondly, the Report shows that the focus of social science research into inequality tends to be concentrated in the countries of the North, where a reliable knowledge base already exists, to the detriment of the countries of the Global South without similarly robust data. Over 80 per cent of publications on inequalities come from the North.
To overcome these knowledge divides, we need more cooperation across disciplines and across borders to help governments develop more effective and inclusive policies, North and South. International networks, open data sources, co-creation of knowledge, open access to publishing and software – these are all vital to achieving this.
UNESCO's longstanding cooperation with the International Social Science Council stands at the heart of our efforts to promote social science to address the world's problems. The World Social Science Reports are a cornerstone of this collaboration, and I wish to thank the Council for its intellectual and editorial efforts to produce the 2016 Report, in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, based at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
This Report is a wake-up call. Let there be no doubt: investing in and closing the knowledge gap in social science research into inequalities will be vital to achieve the cross-cutting ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Let's work together now – to 'leave no one behind' tomorrow.
Irina Bokova | Director-General of UNESCO
Table of Contents
Part I | Current Trends in Inequalities
Chapter 1 | Inequalities: many intersecting dimensions
Chapter 2 | Inequalities in different parts of the world
Part II | The Consequences of Inequalities
Chapter 3 | Consequences and interactions of multiple inequalities
Chapter 4 | Inequality futures
Part III | Transformative Responses, Transformative Pathways
Chapter 5 | Changing the rules
Chapter 6 | Mobilizing for change
Part IV | Transformative Knowledge for a Just World




FDP on The Art of Paper Writing and Publishing | Reading Materials

FDP on The Art of Paper Writing and Publishing

Held at IMI-Kolkata on September 23, 2016

Suggested Readings
  • The Writing of the Social Sciences | by Sundar Sarukkai. Download
  • Democracy, Inclusion, and Prosperity | speech by Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, at the D.D. Kosambi Ideas Festival, 2015. Download
  • How I Learned To Do Incorrect Research | by Donald W Attwood, Economic & Political Weekly, 2010, 45(37), 37-44. Download
  • Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination | by Arjun Appadurai, Public Culture, 2000, 12(1), 1–19. Download

Thursday, September 29, 2016

New Book | Health, Nature and Quality of Life: Towards BRICS Wellness Index

Health, Nature and Quality of Life: Towards BRICS Wellness Index
Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), 2016, ISBN 8171221203.

About the Book 
Economists and philosophers have expended time and energy to develop measurements for economic growth and development. One of the most prominent ones is the GDP based index, which does not account for the developmental aspects of human beings and income inequality. The Human Development Index was developed to overcome the limitations of GDP based measurements. This index, however, failed to fully reflect impact of structural factors on human development. A more comprehensive way was thought to be evolved in terms of the concepts of happiness, well-being and wellness. Though statistically robust, many such indices perhaps miss the wood for the trees.
This volume is an attempt to develop a holistic wellness index that accounts for human development, material progress, and environmental sustainability. It is a new way of looking at development, but based on the ancient wisdom and traditions. With the global consensus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that focus on comprehensive development, there is an widened window of opportunity for the BRICS countries, themselves storehouses of ancient wisdom and home to the rich biodiversity, and as emerging economies of the world, to cut a new way of looking at measuring economic progress in its entirety, viz. the Wellness Index. 

About RIS
Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) is a New Delhi-based autonomous policy research institute that specialises in issues related to international economic development, trade, investment and technology. RIS is envisioned as a forum for fostering effective policy dialogue and capacity-building among developing countries on global and regional economic Issues. The focus of the work programme of RIS is to promote South-South Cooperation and collaborate with developing countries in multilateral negotiations in various forums. RIS is engaged across inter-governmental processes of several regional economic cooperation initiatives. Through its intensive network of think tanks, RIS seeks to strengthen policy coherence on international economic issues and the development partnership canvas.

Table of Contents
Preface | Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS
Introduction
Section I
Ideas of Wellness in Brazil: A Concept under Deliberation | Helena Ribeiro, Maria da Penha Vasconcelos and Deisy Ventura
Traditional Medical Systems in the Wellness Strategy in Russia | A. Karilio-Arkas
Wellness, Health and Ayurveda | Bhushan Patwardhan
Chinese View on Subjective Well-being: Traditions and Current Trends | Ruijie Li and Yandong Zhao
Wellness within China's Context | Han Bing
Wellness and Well-being Research in South Africa | Rajen Govender, Rasigan Maharajh, Aquina Thulare, and Yosuf Veriava
Section II
Biological Resource Base for Traditional Medicines | T. P. Rajendran
Traditional Medicine: Regulations, IPRs and Trade | T.C. James
Section III
Measuring Well-Being: A Survey of Literature and Initiatives | Amit Kumar, Sabyasachi Saha and Deepti Bhatia
Framework for a BRICS Wellness Index | Sabyasachi Saha
Conclusion and Recommendations 

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Call for Submissions: ICEGOV2017 Doctoral Colloquium | New Delhi, India; 7-9 March 2017

ICEGOV2017 (International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance) in New Delhi, India during 7-9 March 2017

Theme: Building Knowledge Societies: from Digital Government to Digital Empowerment

ICEGOV2017 Doctoral Colloquium


Friday, 10 March 2017 | 09:00 - 15:20 | New Delhi


Description


Submissions to the Doctoral Colloquium are welcome from doctoral students who would like to present their research work on any topic related to the theme of the conference. Each submission should explain the research problem addressed and why the problem is important, the research questions pursued and the research methodology adopted to pursue them, what kind of scientific and technical challenges were encountered in the course of the research, and obtained or emerging research results. Presentation of student work at the Doctoral Colloquium aims at providing feedback from academic experts and building students' peer-to-peer and professional networks.

Agenda


The day will be split into distinct morning and afternoon sessions, with a networking lunch in between. The morning session will feature discussions and presentations from peer-reviewed and accepted doctoral student papers (maximum of four pages) based on their ongoing or completed research. The afternoon session will feature open discussions with doctoral student paper presenters, faculty, researchers, and doctoral students interested in the topic of digital government who are at the beginning stages of their research programs. We welcome applicants from a broad range of research areas relevant to digital government.

The morning session of the colloquium will encompass three kinds of activities:

  • Presentations of individual student research based on their accepted submissions. Submissions should explain the research problem addressed and why the problem is important, the research questions pursued and the research methodology adopted to pursue them, what kind of scientific and technical challenges were encountered in the course of the research, and obtained or emerging research results;
  • Discussion, question and answer, and engagement around research methods, approaches, and next research steps led by faculty mentors and participants;
  • Informal discussions and networking activities.

The afternoon session will focus on:

  • Lightning talks based on submissions by emerging PhD students at the beginning of their studies that focus on their research areas of interest, research problems and significance, key research questions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies;
  • Feedback from faculty mentors and doctoral student participants;
  • Brief plenary presentations by senior faculty on digital government research themes as well as on planning and managing dissertations and careers.

Scholarships

The authors of accepted papers will be able to apply for scholarships to partially cover the costs of attending the conference, including registration and accommodation but not travel. The preference will be given to the authors whose main affiliation is based in a developing or transition country. At most one application will be considered per accepted paper. The online application form for scholarships will be available soon.

Submission Procedure

All accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings on the condition that at least one author registers by the 12 December 2016 deadline and presents the accepted paper at the conference. As in previous years, electronic proceedings will be published by the ACM Press and selected papers will be invited for submission to the special issue of Government Information Quarterly. Best paper awards will also take place.

The submission procedure includes five main steps:

1. Preparation: all papers should be written in English and prepared using the ACM Word Proceedings Template. Each paper must be within the page limits set for the corresponding submission categories (references included): 10 pages for completed research or experience papers, 4 pages for ongoing research or experience papers or for doctoral research papers, and 2 pages for poster papers.

2. Submission: all papers should be submitted through EasyChair – ICEGOV2017 by 3 October 2016 deadline in PDF format. Each paper must be submitted without any means of identifying the authors in terms of names, affiliations, email addresses, references, etc.

3. Review Process: all submitted papers will undergo a double-blind review by the Programme Committee and the authors will be notified about acceptance or rejection decisions by 21 November 2016.

4. Revision and Final Submission: all accepted papers must be revised to address reviewer comments and to remove all blinding measures, i.e. add author names, affiliations, email addresses, references, etc. The final version of the paper must then be resubmitted through EasyChair – ICEGOV2017 in Word format (.doc or .docx) by 19 December 2016 deadline.

5. Editorial Revision and Copyright Form: once the final papers are submitted, an editorial review will take place to ensure that the papers are formatted strictly according to the ACM Word Proceedings Template and are within the page limits within the category they were accepted to. Afterwards, a rights management form and complete instructions on how to fill it will be sent by the publisher to the authors. After completing the form online, the authors will be emailed a copy of the form.

You may also submit your papers in General Track.

Further Details

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Tomorrow at JNU | PC Joshi Memorial Lecture on Right to Education and Deepening of Democracy by Prof Shantha Sinha

Archives on Contemporary History
Jawaharlal Nehru University

Cordially invites you to​

The 18th PC Joshi Memorial Lecture on

Right to Education and Deepening of Democracy:
BalBandhu Scheme in Turbulent Tribal Areas

by
Prof. Shantha Sinha
Eminent Social Scientist and Social Activist

Presided over by
Prof Shyam B. Menon
Vice Chancellor, Ambedkar University, Delhi

September 29, 2016 @ 3:15pm
Lecture Hall-I, Convention Centre

All are welcome

Today's JNU Conference on Economic Empowerment through Innovation and Entrepreneurship




Tuesday, September 20, 2016

CSIR-NISTADS Vitarka/Policy Debate on India needs to improve its water efficiency | 28th September | IIC New Delhi

Vitarka: A CSIR-NISTADS Outreach Programme for Inclusive Policy Debate

Topic: "India needs to improve its water efficiency"

Date: 28th September 2016 at 6:00 PM (Tea: 5:45 pm)

Venue: India International Center, Seminar Hall 1, New Delhi


NISTADS is organizing a small group discussion comprising maximum 30 participants from various section of the society. Participation in Vitarka is by invitation based on direct invitation or selection from requests received through web registration. Kindly register on NISTADS website for participation by 26th September 2016. Email from NISTADS will be sent by 27nd September 2016 to the participants whose participation is confirmed.

About Vitarka
An active and inclusive public debate can make significant contribution to policy formulation and policy advocacy. CSIR National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) is launching a public discussion forum Vitarka. The primary goal of Vitarka is to engage the public in policy debate for techno-socio-economic transformation, especially through S&T intervention.
Vitarka is planned as an open environment platform for informed and participative discussion. Vitarka sessions will be organized at India International Centre (IIC).
CSIR-NISTADS invites public and all stakeholders for their views, contribution and participation in this techno-socio-economic developments initiative. Vitarka will greatly benefit from your contribution and participation. The topics planned under Vitarka can range from Clean Water, Carbon Taxes, Energy, GM Crops, and Stem Cell Research to Space Mission and Nuclear Policy.
 
Further Details
Dr. Mohammad Rais
Coordinator: Vitarka-NISTADS Outreach Programme (NOP)
CSIR-NISTADS, Pusa Gate, K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012, India
T: +91-11-25843052 (office)
E: mohammad_rais[at]hotmail.com; rais[at]nistads.res.in

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

CfPs: "Managing Special Libraries and Innovative Services" Special issue call for Library Management

Managing Special Libraries and Innovative Services


Special issue call for papers from Library Management

LM has a higher SNIP and SJR than 50 per cent of its ISI-ranked competitors

About the Special Issue

This special issue will focus on all aspects of the managerial challenges facing Librarians in Special Libraries and Innovative Services, but especially on increasing value and reducing vulnerability.

The special issue could deal with, but not limited to, the following interrelated library management issues:

  • Societies and economies around the world will benefit by the development of special Libraries and/or thematically focused information services within broader purpose Libraries such as the public Libraries.
  • Library management interventions are required in order to deal with the vulnerability in societies around the world which is rapidly increasing due to the deepening economic crisis as well as the immigration/refugee humanitarian crisis.
  • Studies for the skills and the knowledge of the Librarians and Information Professionals that will manage and develop these special Libraries. 

Each of these could be assessed in the context of Digital Disruption and its impacts on the total environment.

These topics are examples only and you as an author should choose what you would like to explore.  It is such an important and crucial issue for all of us.

Guest Editors

Dr Petros Kostagiolas, Assistant Professor - Ionian University, Faculty of Information Science and Informatics, Dep. Archives, Library Science and Museology
Steve O'Connor, Director, Information Exponentials, Adjunct Professor, Charles Sturt University, School of Information Studies

Important Dates

  • Submission due: 31 December 2016

Submissions

The papers should be around 4,000 words in length, all papers must be submitted online.

Submissions to Library Management are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access are available here. Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre.

Each paper is reviewed by the Editor and, if it judged suitable for publication, is evaluated using a double-blind peer review process.

The full author guidelines are available here.

CfPs: "Managing Bigger Online Data" Special issue call for The Electronic Library

Managing Bigger Online Data


Special issue call for papers from The Electronic Library

Write for a journal with an Impact Factor of 0.535

About the Special Issue

Massive data are available on the social web, sensor networks, online databases of business, in science, and government records, leading to the so called big data problem. The global Internet added 4.1 zetabytes of data in 2014; if that amount of data were turned into audio files, it would take 8 billon years to play them all – a time longer than that of the Earth's existence. A recent report from Digital Universe shows that new and duplicated information by the year 2020 will be more than 40 zetabytes, 12 times the amount of information than that produced in 2012. Facebook has more than 1 billion registered users and produces more than 300 terabytes of log data every day; Taobao has more than 370 million members and generates more than 20 terabytes of transaction data every day; Sina Weibo has more than 300 million users and hundreds of millions of microblogs are created in one day during peak periods;and the amount of global mobile terminal data has reached 6,300 petabytes in 2015. These are but a few examples. We are living in an era of big data issues everywhere.

Big data issues are common in academics too. Researchers worldwide continue to produce large numbers of scholarly documents – including papers, books, technical reports – and the associated data, such as tutorials, proposals, lab note books, and course materials. For example, PubMed has over 20 million documents, 10 million unique names, and 70 million name mentions.
At the same time, the big data problem does not always mean the amount of data has to be at the petabyte or zetabyte level. The literature often states that the problem of big data should more accurately be called the "bigger data" problem.
All of these make "bigger data" one of the hottest research topics in the academic field.  This means that researchers in the library and information science field are in the forefront in support of big data processing, analyzing, and mining, and, therefore, able to explore the best approaches of managing knowledge discovery and organization of complex data. Therefore, it is important for the field to understand the latest development in big data related theories, technologies and practices for data analysis, visualization, personalized service, privacy protection, and complex network modeling, as well as data preservation, data sharing, reusing, and other stewardship activities. All these requirements bring great challenges for the support and management of online bigger data.

The Scope

We invite submissions exploring various "bigger data" management and support-related issues. The topics specifically of interest, but not limited to, are:

1.    Theory and Methodology of Bigger Data Management

  • Fundamental theory of big data management
  • Capture, collection, storage and processing of bigger data
  • Information and knowledge organization in the big data environment
  • Information extraction and mining in the big data environment
  • Academic data management in the big data environment

2.    Bigger Data Management and Online repositories including various digital libraries

  • Innovation of online repositories in the big data environment
  • Sharing and reusing data in online data repositories in the big data environment
  • Community repositories in the big data environment
  • Modeling users and their access to online repositories in the big data environment

3.    Bigger Data Management

  • in response to emergencies
  • in smart cities
  • in decision support(including Think Tank)
  • in social computing applications

Submissions

Potential authors are asked to submit to the guest editors by emailing a tentative title and short abstract (which can be revised for the actual submission) to assist in the formation of a panel of appropriate reviewers. Each actual submission of manuscript should note that it is intended for the Special Issue on Bigger Data Management. Submissions to the special issue should follow the journal's formatting guidelines, and be submitted through the journal's online submission system.

Review Process

Submissions will undergo the normal review process, and will be reviewed by three established researchers selected from a review panel formed for the special issue. Barring unforeseen problems, authors can expect to be notified regarding the review results within three months of submission.

Guest Editors

Prof. Xinning Su, School of Information Management, Nanjing University Email: xnsu@nju.edu.cn
Prof. Chengzhi Zhang, Department of Information Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology Email: zhangcz@njust.edu.cn
Prof. Daqing He, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh Email: dah44@pitt.edu

Important Dates

Deadline for submission of title and abstract: 1 October 2016
Deadline for paper submissions: 1 November 2016
Notification to authors: 1 February 2017

CfPs: "Human Behavior Analysis for Library and Information Science" - Special issue call for Library Hi Tech

Human Behavior Analysis for Library and Information Science


Special issue call for papers from Library Hi Tech

Write for a journal with an Impact Factor of 0.798

This special issue will investigate human behavior analysis and situation-aware technology in library and information sciences. The interaction between librarians and technology has been a popular research topic. The rapid growth of the Internet of Things and big data technology, along with the public's embracing of wireless sensor networks generates new opportunities for situation-aware library systems and services. The realization of big data covers the core issues of database technology, giving rise to the development of raw data collection, data preprocessing, storage structures, and data mining for the efficient management of very large data volumes. Compared to traditional library systems and services, a situation-aware, computing-based library application has the advantage of changing from the on-spot mode to in-mobility and in-ubiquitous modes.

However, many challenges must be addressed if we are to develop consistent, suitable, safe and flexible real-time library and information systems. Deficiencies in human behavior analysis and situation-aware care can cause issues in the collection of streamed data. The analysis and use of such data is referred to as social mining, web mining and sentiment mining, the last of which has recently become highly popular. Situation-aware technology involves the creation of smart spaces and location-based service applications that integrate information from independent systems which autonomously and securely support human activities. This technology can be applied to systems that handle information retrieval, recommendations, trust and security, etc., and the surrounding issues have important implications to library and information science.

This special issue of the journal will explore the use of information technology to perform human behavior analysis in library and information science. We encourage the submission of original works based on interdisciplinary research (e.g., computer science and humanistic disciplines such as sociology and anthropology). This issue will cover both technological and non-technological issues related to these rapidly growing and evolving areas.

Thus, we invite authors to submit papers related (but not exclusive) to the following topics:

Application Areas

  • e-Learning, m-Learning, u-Learning
  • Information Centers
  • Libraries and Digital Libraries
  • Museums
  • Virtual Learning Environments

Techniques

  • Ambient Intelligence
  • Context-Aware Computing
  • Data Mining and Big Data Mining
  • Evolving Soft Computing Techniques
  • Human-to-Computer Interfaces
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Machine Learning and Vision
  • Modeling Environments and Human Behavior
  • Security, Privacy and Trust
  • Sentiment Mining
  • Situation-Aware Systems
  • Social Mining Computing
  • Text Mining

Important dates

Submission due: 30 November, 2016
Notification of final acceptance: 31 March, 2017
Final papers: 30 April, 2017

Submission

Submissions to the special issue will be screened by the Special Issue Editors to insure that they conform to the quality standards of Library Hi Tech Journal. Papers that do not pass this initial screening will be immediately returned to the authors. Reviewers will apply those standards in forming recommendations for acceptance, revision, or rejection. A maximum of two revisions will be invited. Papers should be formatted with Library Hi Tech Journal style, please see the author guidlines here. The submission deadline is November 30, 2016.

The prospective contributors should submit their papers directly to the online submission system. In addition, Authors please note the Special Issue (Human Behavior Analysis for Library and Information Science) and Guest Editor Name (Dr. Mu-Yen Chen, Dr. Edwin Lughofer, Dr. Neil Yen, and Dr. Chia-Chen Chen) in the cover letter with submission.

Guest Editors

Mu-Yen Chen, Ph.D, Department of Information Management, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, E-mail: mychen@nutc.edu.tw
Edwin David Lughofer, Ph.D, Department of Knowledge-Based Mathematical Systems, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria, email: edwin.lughofer@jku.at 
Neil Y. Yen, Ph.D, System Intelligence Laboratory, The University of Aizu, Japan, E-Mail: neilyyen@u-aizu.ac.jp
Chia-Chen Chen, Ph.D, Department of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, EMail: emily@nchu.edu.tw

CfPs: "Future Roles of Librarians" - Special issue call for Library Management

Future Roles of Librarians


Special issue call for papers from Library Management

LM has a higher SNIP and SJR than 50 per cent of its ISI-ranked competitors

About the Special Issue

Users of libraries can be academic staff, students, the general public (that is quite complex in terms of the user groups involved), depending on the focus (e.g. academic, public, special). The contributors to this Special Issue should address the necessary librarians' skills created by new user needs, training strategies as well as how attitudes towards our own professional development should develop.  Exploring future studies that examine the ways in which librarians are given an opportunity to define and assert new and significant roles would also surely be on this agenda.

Walters (2013) for instance, asserts that academic librarians are well-positioned to offer guidance to eBook vendors for the development of meaningful e-book licenses and usable platforms for the academic environment and this implies that they "have an important role to play in shaping the e-book environment, especially since publishers have yet to agree on the best ways of providing and marketing e-books to academic libraries" (p.2014).

This issue supports a range of questions  around the new roles for librarians and how they can be empowered to shape the future of the profession. What are the current and future needs of users in a complex technological and open access environment and on what basis are the current and future skills required of librarians for these new roles and how can they can develop them more effectively? 

The Guest Editors seek submissions presenting new insights into the following (but not limited to) topics:

  • The modern library landscape requires librarians to stay up-to-date with the external fast changing technological environments, the constantly evolving digital landscapes of  librarians' own working contexts and the complexity of their emerging roles.
  • how to develop digital literacy as library services are offered through a range of media, including social network sites, mobiles phones, discovery services that harvest information from a wide variety of publishers and open-access repositories and even virtual words;
  • how to establish a culture of openness and sharing that challenges the traditional controlled realm of library work and controlled, mediated information access;
  • how to develop more user-centred library services, signifying a transition in the way in which services are delivered to library users, e.g.  how to involve user participation and feedback at the core of the evaluation process of library services and how librarians and their user communities can be 'co-developers' of library services.
  • Inherent in all of this is the abandonment of more traditional roles and positions and the impact which this does have on users management and librarians alike


These topics are examples only and you as an author should choose what you would like to explore.  It is such an important and crucial issue for all of us.

Guest Editors

Dr Konstantina (Dina) Martzoukou, Senior Lecturer, iSchool - Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University

Steve O'Connor, Director, Information Exponentials, Adjunct Professor, Charles Sturt University, School of Information Studies

Important Dates

•    Submission due: 31 December 2016

Submissions

The papers should be around 4,000 words in length, all papers must be submitted online.

Submissions to Library Management are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access are available here. Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre.

Each paper is reviewed by the Editor and, if it judged suitable for publication, is evaluated using a double-blind peer review process.

The full author guidelines are available here.

Listen to the Online Audio Record| 2nd Christopher Freeman Lecture "Intellectual Property Rights through the Lenses of a Discourse on Development" by Prof Amit S. Ray

Second Annual Christopher Freeman Lecture


 "Intellectual Property Rights through the Lenses of a Discourse on Development"

                                                                            

by

Prof. Amit S. Ray

 
delivered on 14th September 2016 at JNU, New Delhi.


Listen to the Online Audio Record.


Photo Album




New Book | Naturally: Tread Softly on the Planet | by Vikram Soni

New Book

Naturally: Tread Softly on the Planet

By Vikram Soni. Harper Collins Publishers India, 2015, ISBN: 9789351770640.

Preface| A Survivors' Guide for the Planet

If we stop all emissions today will the Arctic and the glaciers stop melting? The answer is no. Will the sea rise that is submerging the coral Eden of the Maldives stop? No. The reason is simple. Even if we change the profile of the atmosphere to be greenhouse friendly, the time for changing the temperature of the air and sea, from the present rise to a decline, will be at least another 50 years. It is foregone that a third of the Maldives, most or all of the Arctic and a large part of the glaciers will recede, but may come back if we behave for the next 100 years. However, the species that have gone extinct will not come back. While global warming and carbon emissions made up much of the sky in Copenhagen, dwindling rivers, disappearing lakes and vanishing forests are all on hold, just waiting to be unleashed. It is a much larger angle than will be seen from the window of Copenhagen. The landscapes, the seas and even the air that we breathed as children are fading into memory. Since the trouble is on the planet, we have to really start by finding how the living planet works. We have to dig deeper into the past, to the evolution of life on the planet, to find out where we are coming from. This book sets the direction by placing human interventions in the matrix of life on earth. From there it gathers wisdom to walk in symbiosis with the planet. In fact, the 'Green' technologies that are in currency are only about mitigation of the harm we have already caused, yet very far from an encompassing answer. We need a radical shift from invention and production into 'preserve and use' non-invasive technology. The book is about our future, about a holistic scheme of living. Both the human being and the planet are evolutionary beings, as are plants, seeds and geological formations that make our rivers, aquifers and forests. They are all symbiotically linked by evolution.. They all enter into natural cycles that keep the planet stable. It is biodiversity that repeatedly makes the waste of one species the food for another, to close the chain and make a natural cycle. In the first part of the book we start by understanding these fundaments of the life process that hold the planet in a steady state. In the following part we focus on how the human being has invented for the sake of invention and more recently, the global market. We have dumped enough waste to make waste of the planet, from an endless list of over-indulgent inventions. All of them come with good science and technology but end up being no good for the planet. We have strayed away from the natural wisdom in nature where invention is integrated into cycles to banish waste. The entire evolutionary network of life on the planet, created by millions of years of evolution, is being taken out. We have to act now. That is exactly what the book does – look for enlightened solutions that are not injurious to the planet. The next part of the book goes beyond the present, to a template for a change to a non invasive scheme of living. It has symbiotic solutions that build into natural cycles, is about understanding evolutionary resource and how to preserve and use it and guarding nature's resource for human survival. Finally, none of this can work unless it comes from deep within our consciousness. It is about our ethos, the values of conservation, the ideology of living. We conclude by recalling the ancient idea of Ahimsa, which is non-violence toward all living things. The ancient philosophy of respect for all life has suddenly transformed into an essential for preserving biodiversity.



Table of Contents

I History of the Planet | Who We Are and How We Got There | Natural Wisdom from the Evolution of life on the earth and the Dialectic of Nature

1. The Creation of Natural Cycles

2 How the planet maintains a Steady State with respect to atmosphere composition and temperature, salt content of sea water etc. Homeostasis Cycles, zero waste production and a Steady State are maintained by Biodiversity

3. A model of how biodiversity is necessary to stabilize evolutionary networks

Including a model network for interested students

4. Nature's Canvas - Biodiversity and Locality

II A Recent history of Human Intervention | What We Have Been Doing

5 Human Intervention: Chronology and Technology

6 The Dialectic: Ideology and Technology

7 The Global and the Local | Disturbing The Earth - Contemporary Dilemmas

8 Threshold Loss - Species and Habitat

9 Climate Change and the Homosapien | A simple climate model for interested students

10 Population Up and Megacities

III What We May Need to Do | The Known & the Unknown | A Living Scheme based on Natural Wisdom | Working the Future Transition - How Technology Can Work

11 Solutions - Building into the natural cycle with examples | Including how we decontaminate ground aquifer system for interested students

12 Energy Mitigation: The Energy Landscape | A full discussion of the energy in totality including cost and environmental costs – wastes, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Wave and Tidal and Biofuels

13 Evolutionary Resource: Seeds, Plants, Rivers and their floodplain aquifers, ground aquifers Forests etc. | Preserve & Use of Evolutionary Resource - The new non invasive technology with examples. The River floodplains as a large scale non invasive source of water that has natural storage and recharge, worth ~ a billion dollars a year just in Delhi. How each city can source mineral water from its forest areas – the Delhi ridge , Banergatta forest, Bangalore …in a non invasive way worth a ~ billion dollars a year.

14 Nature's Rights - for Human survival

15 Conservation: Ethos, Values and Practice

16 Wisdom, Full Circle

Commentaries on the Book

"The author has for many years been a leader in the fight against the destruction of the natural environment in his home country, India, and elsewhere throughout the planet. In this book he describes some of the exquisite balances which nature has evolved in the course of Earth's 4-billion year history, and makes an eloquent plea for a kind of technology much more respectful and symbiotic with them than what we have to-day". Antony J. Leggett (Mc Arthur Professor, University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign), Nobel Prize in Physics 2003)

"In an age characterised more than ever by extremes of opinion ranging from techno-euphoria to doomsday catatonia, with little in between that is credible, this book presents a refreshingly sane and practical path for humanity to carve out a modus vivendi with Nature and to design a future that is fulfilling for all and destructive for none." Ashok Khosla, President, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) President, The Club of Rome, Co-Chair, The United Nations Resource Panel, Chairman, Development Alternatives.

More About the Book


JNU TRCSS Course on Science in the Public Interest Non-Invasive Solutions for the Planet | Starting Tomorrow | Enroll Now

Course on Science in the Public Interest Non-Invasive Solutions for the Planet

The course is about finding solutions and redefining our living scheme to be in symbiosis with nature.

An Interdisciplinary Course on Planet Science and Non-Invasive Technology, being taught for the first time at any University.

by

Vikram Soni

20 Lecture course starting on 15/09/2016

Days and Time: Tuesday & Thursday (15:30 pm)

Venue: CSRD Lecture Hall 202, JNU

If we want to work with the planet we have to understand how the planet works. The course is about designing a non-invasive scheme of living. How? By understanding how the planet works and how our production practice has been destroying it for 200 years. By moving technology to a new level to avoid this. Commentary on the main text "Naturally: Tread Softly on the Planet", by Vikram Soni, Harper Collins, 2015. A non-credit course, School of Social Sciences and Transdisciplinary Research Cluster on Sustainability Studies, JNU Contact: Vikram Soni Email: vsoni.physics@gmail.com Mobile: +91-9899821135.

 

Course Outline

The first part is about what we are and how we got here. The course will look, with new perspective, at how nature works. How it provides a scheme of living and a production system that has no waste, is self-sustaining and integral. In the part we look at what we have done. We look into the production system we have invented through technology that is contrary to nature's and find that the scale of consequence of this technology has grown beyond the planet's capacities. This derives strongly from the market driven ideology that fuels consumption. We suggest reform and deal with contradictions in the Local versus the Global. Next, the course will walk you through the major contemporary problems of threshold loss, climate change and population growth. The latter part of the course is about finding solutions and redefining our living scheme to be in symbiosis with nature. Transition suggests moving to natural cycle technology, with explicit examples. Next, the energy landscape is assessed with some natural wisdom – looking not just at renewable source for energy, but renewable apparatus and non-invasive waste. The final part is about the living natural resource bequeathed to us by evolution and the great value in using it non-invasively. Here we give new and operational solutions on sourcing water and drinking water for cities. Last, we consider nature's rights as a must for human suvival; placing values in line with preserving nature and the progress on this front. Simple Scientific models for evolutionary networks and biodiversity and on climate will be given for the interested students. Further new, non-invasive solutions using local nature resource, particularly for water in cities, will also be given .

 

About Vikram Soni

Prof. Soni is presently UGC Professor at the Centre for Theoretical Physics, at Jamia Millia Islamia. He was awarded a PhD in Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1976. He has been faculty at Sussex University, UK from 1976 to 1978, after which he was at the University of Madras till 1983. In 1983 he went to the Institut de Recherche Fondamental at Saclay in Paris, followed by two years at the University of Regensburg in Germany at UC Berkeley. He then worked at the Institut du Physique Nuclaire at the University of Paris in Orsay, as a visiting Professor, before returning to India as UGC Professor at the National Physical Laboratory in 1989, where he worked till 2009. He has worked mainly in High Energy Physics and Astrophysics. In Physics, he has made seminal contributions in our understanding of phenomena ranging from the nucleon to neutron stars and from the matter-antimatter puzzle to evolutionary networks. More significantly he has produced a body of work in public interest science that deals with non invasive, 'Preserve and Use', solutions to contemporary problems, particularly the water problems. This work is published in prestigious science journals. Acting on his convictions, he has worked tirelessly to protect living natural resource both with the courts and government. The Aravalli biodiversity park in Delhi exists thanks to these efforts. The protection and moratorium on building on the floodplain of the river Yamuna followed from the novel natural water storage scheme proposed by him and co-workers.

Text for the course

Naturally: Tread Softly on the Planet

By Vikram Soni. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2015, ISBN: 9789351770640

Preface

This book is about what we are and how we got here, about what we have been doing and where do we go from here.

A Survivors' Guide for the Planet

If we stop all emissions today will the Arctic and the glaciers stop melting? The answer is no. Will the sea rise that is submerging the coral Eden of the Maldives stop? No. The reason is simple. Even if we change the profile of the atmosphere to be greenhouse friendly, the time for changing the temperature of the air and sea, from the present rise to a decline, will be at least another 50 years. It is foregone that a third of the Maldives, most or all of the Arctic and a large part of the glaciers will recede, but may come back if we behave for the next 100 years. However, the species that have gone extinct will not come back.

While global warming and carbon emissions made up much of the sky in Copenhagen, dwindling rivers, disappearing lakes and vanishing forests are all on hold, just waiting to be unleashed. It is a much larger angle than will be seen from the window of Copenhagen. The landscapes, the seas and even the air that we breathed as children are fading into memory.

Since the trouble is on the planet, we have to really start by finding how the living planet works. We have to dig deeper into the past, to the evolution of life on the planet, to find out where we are coming from. This book sets the direction by placing human interventions in the matrix of life on earth. From there it gathers wisdom to walk in symbiosis with the planet.

In fact, the 'Green' technologies that are in currency are only about mitigation of the harm we have already caused, yet very far from an encompassing answer. We need a radical shift from invention and production into 'preserve and use' non-invasive technology. The book is about our future, about a holistic scheme of living.

Both the human being and the planet are evolutionary beings, as are plants, seeds and geological formations that make our rivers, aquifers and forests. They are all symbiotically linked by evolution.. They all enter into natural cycles that keep the planet stable. It is biodiversity that repeatedly makes the waste of one species the food for another, to close the chain and make a natural cycle. In the first part of the book we start by understanding these fundaments of the life process that hold the planet in a steady state.

In the following part we focus on how the human being has invented for the sake of invention and more recently, the global market. We have dumped enough waste to make waste of the planet, from an endless list of over-indulgent inventions. All of them come with good science and technology but end up being no good for the planet. We have strayed away from the natural wisdom in nature where invention is integrated into cycles to banish waste. The entire evolutionary network of life on the planet, created by millions of years of evolution, is being taken out. We have to act now.

That is exactly what the book does – look for enlightened solutions that are not injurious to the planet. The next part of the book goes beyond the present, to a template for a change to a non invasive scheme of living. It has symbiotic solutions that build into natural cycles, is about understanding evolutionary resource and how to preserve and use it and guarding nature's resource for human survival.

Finally, none of this can work unless it comes from deep within our consciousness. It is about our ethos, the values of conservation, the ideology of living. We conclude by recalling the ancient idea of Ahimsa, which is non-violence toward all living things. The ancient philosophy of respect for all life has suddenly transformed into an essential for preserving biodiversity.

Table of Contents

I History of the Planet

Who We Are and How We Got There | Natural Wisdom from the Evolution of life on the earth and the Dialectic of Nature

Chapters

1. The Creation of Natural Cycles

2 How the planet maintains a Steady State with respect to atmosphere composition and temperature, salt content of sea water etc. Homeostasis Cycles, zero waste production and a Steady State are maintained by Biodiversity

3. A model of how biodiversity is necessary to stabilize evolutionary networks

Including a model network for interested students

4. Nature's Canvas - Biodiversity and Locality

II A Recent history of Human Intervention | What We Have Been Doing

Chapters

5 Human Intervention: Chronology and Technology

6 The Dialectic: Ideology and Technology

7 The Global and the Local | Disturbing The Earth - Contemporary Dilemmas

8 Threshold Loss - Species and Habitat

9 Climate Change and the Homosapien | A simple climate model for interested students

10 Population Up and Megacities

III What We May Need to Do | The Known & the Unknown | A Living Scheme based on Natural Wisdom | Working the Future Transition - How Technology Can Work

Chapters

11 Solutions - Building into the natural cycle with examples | Including how we decontaminate ground aquifer system for interested students

12 Energy Mitigation: The Energy Landscape | A full discussion of the energy in totality including cost and environmental costs – wastes, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Wave and Tidal and Biofuels

13 Evolutionary Resource: Seeds, Plants, Rivers and their floodplain aquifers, ground aquifers Forests etc. | Preserve & Use of Evolutionary Resource - The new non invasive technology with examples. The River floodplains as a large scale non invasive source of water that has natural storage and recharge, worth ~ a billion dollars a year just in Delhi. How each city can source mineral water from its forest areas – the Delhi ridge , Banergatta forest, Bangalore …in a non invasive way worth a ~ billion dollars a year.

14 Nature's Rights - for Human survival

15 Conservation: Ethos , Values and Practice

16 Wisdom, Full Circle

Reviews of the Book

"The author has for many years been a leader in the fight against the destruction of the natural environment in his home country, India, and elsewhere throughout the planet. In this book he describes some of the exquisite balances which nature has evolved in the course of Earth's 4-billion year history, and makes an eloquent plea for a kind of technology much more respectful and symbiotic with them than what we have to-day". Antony J. Leggett (Mc Arthur Professor, University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign), Nobel Prize in Physics 2003)

"In an age characterised more than ever by extremes of opinion ranging from techno-euphoria to doomsday catatonia, with little in between that is credible, this book presents a refreshingly sane and practical path for humanity to carve out a modus vivendi with Nature and to design a future that is fulfilling for all and destructive for none." Ashok Khosla, President, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) President, The Club of Rome, Co-Chair, The United Nations Resource Panel, Chairman, Development Alternatives.

More About the Book

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

CfPs: Pathways to SDG: Macro to Micro Perspectives | World Toilet Day Conference | A UNU-MERIT External Event | at IHC New Delhi

Pathways to SDG: Macro to Micro Perspectives | World Toilet Day Conference

Technology, Innovation and Governance for attainment of the SDGs

A UNU-MERIT External Event in collaboration with Friend In Need India

20th November 2016

India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

 

Call for Papers

In a general sense, technology refers to a practical application of science to address a particular product or manufacturing need in the form of a specific process that produces a product or service. Innovation refers to novelty in terms of quality, product, design, process or organizational routine.

Exploiting technology and promoting innovation for economic growth as well as socio- economic development is a challenge for all developing countries. Here governance is key. The national system of innovation of any country comprises a complex mesh of actors such as the State, firms, public laboratories, institutions, NGOs, civil society and consumers and even nature. Governance involves setting the rules of the game, with monitoring and incentives – so that collective welfare may be maximized. As with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for astute exploitation of existing technologies, promotions of useful innovations and efficient governance designs for attainment.

Thus, we call for papers addressing any issues related to the following that touch upon attainment of one or more SDGs:

  • Technology usage or redesign
  • Innovation creation, adoption, diffusion
  • Governance of delivery platforms, multi-stakeholder consortias, public private partnerships, sanitation drives, government programmes.

Papers must validate their arguments through evidence. Qualitative, quantitative or theoretical methodology can be deployed but final arguments must be validated by evidence. Six papers will be selected for conference presentations. Authors selected for conference presentation will be paid domestic air fare and 1 night of hotel stay. There will also be selection of papers for poster presentation (without airfare and hotel stay). Please send your papers to Rushva Parihar parihar@merit.unu.edu.

Key Dates:

  • Deadline for submission: September 30
  • Email confirmation of result: October 15

Title Page should include full contact details. Selected Papers will be published as part of the UNU-MERIT working paper series and/or as a Special Issue of an international journal.

Between 10.00 AM – 12.00 noon and between 3.00 PM to 5.00 PM – there will be an information desk manned by Sueli Brodin to answer all your questions on UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University for those interested in higher studies.

 

Organization Committee

Prof. Shyama V. Ramani and Rushva Parihar, UNU-MERIT (Netherlands)

Enquiries: Write to Rushva Parihar parihar@merit.unu.edu

Attendance is free but Registration is required to register – Click on this link – Fill the form and submit http://goo.gl/forms/7G2agTsJOX.


Children understand more…: A workshop for illustrators, graphic artists and authors on creating new and different books for children | 5-15 Dec, Santiniketan

Children understand more… !
A workshop for illustrators, graphic artists and authors on creating new and different books for children

5th to the 15th December 2016
at Kolkata/  Santiniketan, West Bengal

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Zubaan are organizing a workshop for illustrators/graphic artists and writers of books for children in December 2016 (from the 5th to the 15th). The workshop will be conducted by a well-known writer from India and two illustrators from Germany and will be held near Kolkata.

INTRODUCTION: Single parenthood, patchwork families, the relationship to one's body, disabilities, sex education, sexuality, same-sex love, trans- and intersexuality, death, (religious) fanaticism, environmental issues – these are all realities we live with every day of our lives. And yet, there seems to be an unspoken pact among adults, no matter what class, region, country or religion they belong to, that children must be protected from these 'difficult' realities. Children prove themselves to be more resilient than adults give them credit for, and remain curious about everything. Whom does it serve, then, to shield them from these realities? Is it time to begin thinking of how we can address such issues in sensitive, accessible, responsible ways?
This workshop aims to make just such a start by bringing together illustrators, artists, writers and resource persons over a period of a week, to create stories, discuss and distill them with peers, and to begin the process of publishing a body of work that engages with difference, with the 'othered', and with the many difficulties of reality.
The Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, together with its partner Zubaan, New Delhi, would like to show, in a literature project with childrens' books authors and illustrators, how childrens' questions in these areas can be answered comprehensibly and engagedly in an Indian context.

PROJECT PROGRESSION: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, in cooperation with the publishing house Zubaan in New Delhi and the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), will organize a 10-day workshop in/near Kolkata with 10–16 Indian children's book authors and illustrators in December 2016. The workshop will offer the opportunity to develop stories, and to discuss ideas and questions of how to create narratives for graphic stories/novels.
Three experts – a renowned children's book author from India and illustrators from Germany – will conduct the workshop. Extensive discussions, hands-on exercises and detailed feedback will offer participants the possibility to work in a collaborative way and to expand
and deepen their knowledge about art, aesthetics, design and networking. Participants and workshop leaders will be located on-site.
The workshop will start with an introduction to the (social) situation of children in India and child psychology, as well as the position of children's books in India. In the following days the authors and illustrators will decide which topics they would like to tackle and start developing the stories in illustrator/writer teams, in close collaboration with each other. The Indian and German workshop conductors will guide the discussions during this process and offer professional advice.
The project partners will present selected works produced during the workshop to publishing houses in India which might be interested to publish them. Selections will be made by a panel consisting of representatives from Zubaan, SCBWI and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, in consultation with the workshop leaders, on the basis of work submitted.
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan will provide accommodation, three meals/day and a travel subsidy.

WORKSHOP DATES:
The workshop will take place from 5th to 15th December 2016 (inclusive).

WHO CAN APPLY:
Only artists in their final year of study, or who have graduated, or are accomplished authors/ illustrators can apply. Ideally, a mix of all three groups would create an inspiring atmosphere for all participants. Participants are required to spend the full 10 days at the workshop and to live on-site, arriving the day before the workshop begins and departing the day after it ends. Accommodation can be on a twin-sharing basis. The workshop will be conducted in English.

HOW TO APPLY:
Up to 16 participants (5-8 authors, 5-8 illustrators) will be selected via this call for applications. Submissions should include a curated selection of their works and potential story ideas. All applications must be sent to applications@kolkata.goethe.org, containing:
- a brief CV;
- representative samples of your work (as .pdf or .jpg attachments);
- suggestions for relevant topics; and
- a brief idea for a story on one of these relevant topics presented in text or illustration, which you would like to work on during your stay

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 20 SEPTEMBER 2016
We look forward to hearing from you.

Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Zubaan Books