The audiobook, in its modern form, was created in the 1930s to assist the blind community, World War I veterans and others unable to engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). This dissertation investigates exactly how the audiobook and, to a lesser extent, the podcast have been received and celebrated by the world of library and information…[Read more]

Abstract

The audiobook, in its modern form, was created in the 1930s to assist the blind community, World War I veterans and others unable to engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). This dissertation investigates exactly how the audiobook and, to a lesser extent, the podcast have been received and celebrated by the world of library and…[Read more]

An information resource guide on the history, meaning and applicability of “Western” Shamanism for would-be clients and enthusiasts.

The fall of 2001 was a time of crisis in the analogue world. Society witnessed the World Trade Center attacks, the spectre of cultural collision, and a rapid economic downturn. The digital world was not spared. With the storied dot-com stock market peaking in March 2000 (Lowenstein, 2004), the following couple of years saw the dot-com…[Read more]

The digital divide at its heart is a social divide. The two share many of the same fault lines. If we look just at the digital divide’s technological face, we see that “computer use is related to race and ethnicity, educational attainment, gender, basic household composition, and, most dramatically, income.” (Bishop, et al., 1999, page 363). Publi…[Read more]

The “polluted infosphere,” a term coined by Luciano Floridi, the Oxford University
Philosopher of Information, describes the on-line, digital version of the Earth’s polluted
atmosphere. The 57% of the Earth’s population who are internet users are subject to a number
of mal-effects of the polluted infosphere. These mal-effects are not to be take…[Read more]

Does information behaviour change based on the setting? This paper looks at the new buildings of the Seattle Public Library, Boston Public Library and Helsinki’s Public Library, Oodi, and how design elements can help shape library usage and information behaviour.