A Field Guide to the Information Commons


Product Description
Our sources of information, and the practices we use to find it, are in a period of rapid flux. Libraries must respond by selecting, acquiring, and making accessible a host of new information resources, developing innovative services, and building different types of spaces to support changing user behaviors and patterns of learning. A Field Guide to the Information Commons describes an emerging library service model that embodies all three spheres of response: new information resources, collaborative service programs, and redesigned staff and user spaces.Technology has enabled new forms of information-seeking behavior and scholarship, causing a renovation of libraries that revisits the idea of the "commons"—a public place that is free to be used by everyone. A Field Guide to the Information Commons describes the emergence, growth, and adoption of the concept of the information commons in libraries. This book includes a variety of contributed articles, and descriptive, structured entries for various information commons in libraries across the country and around the world.
A Field Guide to the Information Commons Review
I agree with Katie Fraser, who gave this book 3 stars out of 5 in her review for the Subject Centre for Information & Computer Sciences (UK). Fraser's expert opinion is worth noting, as she wrote her own dissertation on the evaluation of the landmark Information Commons at the University of Sheffield. Fraser writes: "While the first half of the book provides a background to information commons projects in a fairly traditional manner, the second takes the field guide idea to extremes, presenting a list of information, facts and figures about individual projects. These two halves contain interesting reading, but they do not mesh together particularly well..." Fraser expresses further concern that "...the detailed facts and figures might be of limited use to a researcher, unless focused on a specific aspect of information commons projects... Furthermore, the limitations of the field guide represent a large downside. It was last updated in 2005-2006, since when many other examples of information commons have been constructed, and a strong US focus provides little discussion of trends or projects outside the US or Canada." In comparing this book with others on the same topic, Fraser concludes: "..academics studying information commons may find a limited amount to interest them here, with other texts discussing information commons' unusual qualities and benefits in more depth." Fraser's complete review can be found at: [...]Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "A Field Guide to the Information Commons" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from A Field Guide to the Information Commons ...

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