Information Today, Inc.

Dancing with digital natives; staying in step with the generation that's transforming the way business is done.

Digital natives, as defined by the editors, are people born after 1984 who have grown up using digital technology. This collection of 19 essays by contributors from the worlds of business and academia, aims to show members of the previous generations how to understand, market to, and work with digital natives. Essays are grouped thematically into categories of working with digital natives, marketing and selling to digital natives, entertaining the digital native, and educating the digital native. Specific topics broached include Facebook in the workplace, adapting old-fashioned marketing values to the needs of digital natives, learning to engage the digital native, and teaching digital literacy digitally. Manafy is director of content at FreePint Ltd. and Gautschi previously taught in the French university system. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Introduction to information science and technology.

This introductory text for students and practitioners covers essential topics of information science and technology. After a brief history and foundation of the field, chapters cover information seeking and use, representation and organization of information, computers and networks, and structured information systems and applications. Other areas examined include evaluation of information systems, information management, publication and information technologies, information policy, the information professions, and information theory. The text includes a glossary and a few b&w screenshots. Davis and Shaw teach in the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University-Bloomington. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Mob rule learning; camps, unconferences, and trashing the talking head.

For conference planners, teachers, program coordinators, and human resources professionals, Boule, a librarian, shows how camps, unconferences, and peer learning strategies can be more effective than traditional conferences for learning. She first discusses the problems with traditional conferences, the definition of a camp or unconference, and their benefits and challenges, then gives instructions for planning one and applying the structure to other areas. She provides case studies of Foo Camp, BarCamp, THATCamp and PodCamp, GovCamp Canada 2010, Social Software Showcase, the ALA Unconference, and Mashup Camp. In the second half, she discusses learning environments in higher education and organizations, staff training and continuing education, how the idea of mob rule is changing how people learn and how to create this type of learning, and the benefits and challenges of moving beyond traditional classroom ideas, with case studies of universities. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)