Resilience Library Futures Series Book 2

Series Editor: Miguel A. Figueroa, Director, Center for the Future of Libraries Resilience is the second volume in a new series from ALA’s Center for the Future of Libraries which focuses on emerging trends in the profession, provoking discussion on how to shape the future by sharing ideas and exploring joint solutions to the challenges facing libraries and society. Resilience (or resiliency) incorporates preparations for and rapid recovery from physical, social, and economic disruptions, including environmental disasters, terrorist attacks, or economic collapse. As city, state, and the federal governments adopt resiliency as a strategy for addressing potential disasters, libraries may need to align their facilities, services, and programs to demonstrate a resilient strategy. Additionally, libraries may find themselves competing for funding with other programs or initiatives, especially in an increasingly limited pool of government spending. A founding member of ALA’s Sustainability Round Table, and a longtime public library development consultant, in this book Aldrich discusses how resilience can align with library values of equity and access, and why libraries and information professionals may be ideal partners or providers in helping individuals and the communities which they serve adopt resilient practices. This thought-provoking treatment of timely topic offers important points of consideration for library administrators and managers, as well as scholars of urban planning, public policy, disaster recovery, and related disciplines.

This book demonstrates the ever-changing landscape of information services today and the need to re-evaluate curriculum, competency training, professional development, and lifelong learning in order to stay abreast of current trends and issues, and more significantly, remain competent to address the changing user needs of the information community.

Technology provides accessibility otherwise unavailable to the people who can benefit from it the most. As new digital tools become less expensive and more widely available, research and real-world cases that examine the union between emergent countries and information systems are essential in determining the next steps for these nations. The Handbook of Research on Managing Information Systems in Developing Economies is a pivotal reference source that explores the effects of technological data handling within developing economies. Covering a broad range of topics such as emerging digital technologies, socio-economic development, and technology startups, this book is ideally designed for software programmers, policymakers, practitioners, educators, academicians, students, and researchers.

When elections go wrong, they can contribute to political crises that undermine democratic processes and institutions, trigger violent conflicts and instability, and harm governments’ domestic and international legitimacy. Therefore, calls to protect electoral integrity against manipulation from autocratic figures, malicious foreign interferences, negative impacts from natural hazards, and technical and human errors are ever increasing. The main objective of this Discussion Paper is to outline the importance of and avenues for an increased use of risk management, resilience-building and crisis management methods to protect electoral integrity.

This thought-provoking treatment of timely topic offers important points of consideration for library administrators and managers, as well as scholars of urban planning, public policy, disaster recovery, and related disciplines.

"This book in the Library Futures Series examines blockchain technology, a concept with far-reaching implications for the future of record keeping"--

This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.

This book will show you how to harness sustainable thinking to move forward with confidence into the unknown.