'Darkest Before Dawn' by Katie Flynn

'Darkest Before Dawn' by Katie Flynn (Arrow Books, London, 2005) - another good read.

This revolves around the Todd family at the time of the 2nd World War. There is Martha and Harry Todd, with their 3 children, Seraphina, Angela and Eve (the first 2 names being very cherub-like names which was why the 3rd was called 'Eve' and not Cherub). You see the family go through various highs and lows in war time, with jobs and relationships etc. But the love and loyalty between them all remains strong, and finally we see Eve and Toby (after Toby originally went out with Seraphina) fall in love.

'Sweethearts' by Emma Blair

'Sweethearts' by Emma Blair (Sphere, London, 2007).

This was another good read; when I started reading it though, I realised that I had read it before. Still, I very much enjoyed reading it again.

The story revolves around two sisters, Lexa and Coredlia Stewart, and how they cope with life leading on from the death of their father. First of all, they tried to take over and run their father's fruit and vegetable business, but this became impractical, particularly given the prejudice against women. Then, they both get other jobs and fall in love, but inevitably there are various complications.

Invitation to a Book Launch for 'Digitisation Perspectives'

INVITATION TO A BOOK LAUNCH FOR ‘DIGITISATION PERSPECTIVES’

Digitisation Perspectives
Edited by Ruth Rikowski
Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2011

ISBN 978-94-6091-297-9 (pbk); 978-94-6091-6 (hdbk);
978-94-6091-299-3 (e-book)
£35.00 (pbk); £75.00 (hdbk)
https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1158&osCsid=f255a6ffa2e20417688cf96c4ae8976e

Part of Book Series:
‘Educational Futures: Rethinking Theory and Practice’
Series Editor: Michael A. Peters

Digitisation Perspectives will be launched on Wednesday 16th February 2011, 17.30 - 20.00
At: Wilkins Terrace Restaurant
University College London
Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT, England

Digitisation Perspectives includes contributions from 22 experts worldwide.

Foreword by Simon Tanner, Director Digital Consultancy, King’s College London, who says that the book: “…seeks to address and answer some of the big questions of digitisation…It succeeds on many levels…”

Topics covered include: electronic theses, search engine technology, digitisation of ancient manuscripts, citation indexing, reference services, digitisation in Africa, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, new media and scholarly publishing. The final chapter explores virtual libraries, posing some interesting questions for possible futures.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

FOREWORD: SIMON TANNER, DIRECTOR, KING’S DIGITAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON

INTRODUCTION: RUTH RIKOWSKI

PART 1: BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW TO DIGITISATION AND DIGITAL LIBRARIES

Chapter 1: The Rise of Digitization: An Overview - Melissa M. Terras
Chapter 2: Digital Libraries and Digitisation: an overview and critique –
Ruth Rikowski
Chapter 3: Digital Knowledge Resources – M. Paul Pandian
Chapter 4: Digitisation: research, sophisticated search engines, evaluation: all that and more – Ruth Rikowski


PART 2: DIGITISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Chapter 5: Improving student mental models in a new university information setting – Alan Rosling and Kathryn Chapman
Chapter 6: Electronic Theses and Dissertations: promoting ‘hidden’ research – Susan Copeland
Chapter 7: Learning Systems in Post-Statutory Education – Paul Catherall
Chapter 8: Going Digital: the transformation of scholarly communication and academic libraries – Isaac Hunter Dunlap


PART 3: DIGITISATION AND INEQUALITIES

Chapter 9: Hegemony and the Web: the Struggle for Hegemony in a Digital Age – Tony Ward
Chapter 10: Digital libraries: an opportunity for African education – Dieu Hack-Polay
Chapter 11: Critical Perspectives on Digitising Africa – by Leburn Rose


PART 4: DIGITAL LIBRARIES, REFERENCE SERVICES AND CITATION INDEXING

Chapter 12: Digital Library and Digital Reference Service: integration and mutual complementarity – Jia Liu
Chapter 13: The New Generation of Citation Indexing in the Age of Digital Libraries – Mengxiong Liu and Peggy Cabrera


PART 5: DIGITISATION OF RARE, VALUED AND SCHOLARLY WORKS

Chapter 14: Building the Virtual Scriptorium – Tatiana Nikolova-Houston and Ron Houston
Chapter 15: SPARC: creating innovative models and environments for scholarly research and communication – Heather Joseph
Chapter 16: Impacts of New Media on Scholarly Publishing – Yehuda E. Kalay


PART 6: FUTURISTIC DEVELOPMENTS OF DIGITISATION

Chapter 17: Meeting and Serving Users in Their New Work (and Play) Spaces – Tom Peters
Chapter 18: Virtual Libraries and Education in Virtual Worlds: twenty-first century library services – Lori Bell, Mary-Carol Lindbloom, Tom Peters and Kitty Pope

CONCLUSION: RUTH RIKOWSKI

Cover designed by Victor Rikowski

Refreshments provided.

Confirmed speakers at the launch include:

An Introduction by Andy Dawson, Senior Teaching Fellow and MSc Information Science Programme Director, Department of Information Studies, UCL.

Ruth Rikowski is a Freelance Editor, commissioning books for Chandos Publishing, Oxford. She is an Associate of the Higher Education Academy and a Chartered Librarian. Ruth Rikowski is the author of Globalisation, Information and Libraries (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2005) and the editor of Knowledge Management: social, cultural and theoretical perspectives (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2007). She has also written numerous articles and given many talks; focusing in particular on the topics of globalisation, knowledge management and information technology. Ruth Rikowski is on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education and Information for Social Change. The Rikowski website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’ can be found at www.flowideas.co.uk and her blog, ‘Ruth Rikowski Updates’ is at http://ruthrikowskiupdates.blogspot.com/

Paul Catherall is a librarian currently working at University of Liverpool, UK. Paul has worked in E-Learning and technical support roles over a number of years and his current role involves providing library services to students studying online. Paul also worked for several years as a college lecturer in Information Communications Technology. Paul is also undertaking a PhD within the area of E-Learning and is a graduate of Glyndŵr University, formerly the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (B.A.) and John Moores University (M.A. Dist). Paul is also an associate of the Higher Education Academy and chartered member of Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Paul has also been active in various CILIP affiliated groups, including the Career Development Group and is a member of the Editorial Board for the collective forum and journal Information for Social Change. Paul has authored various published journal articles and texts including a stand-alone book Delivering E-Learning for Information Services in Higher Education (Chandos 2005).

Julianne Nyhan – on behalf of Melissa Terras, who is a Senior Lecturer in Electronic Communication in the Department of Information Studies, University College London, and the Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. With a background in Classical Art History and English Literature, and Computing Science, her doctorate (University of Oxford) examined how to use advanced information engineering technologies to interpret and read the Vindolanda texts. She is a general editor of DHQ (Digital Humanities Quarterly) and Secretary of the Association of Literary and Linguistic Computing. Her research focuses on the use of computational techniques to enable research in the arts and humanities that would otherwise be impossible.

Places limited for the book launch: R.V.S.P: Rikowskigr@aol.com

Purchasing Digitisation Perspectives:

From Sense Publishers:

Paperback: https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1158&osCsid=6db6323c10ad4cd5490353b1a892f650

Hardback: https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1159&osCsid=6db6323c10ad4cd5490353b1a892f650

From Amazon.co.uk:

Paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912974/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640711&sr=1-5

Hardback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912982/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640711&sr=1-6

From Amazon.com:

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912974/ref=sr_1_2_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640919&sr=1-2

Hardback: http://www.amazon.com/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912982/ref=sr_1_2_title_1_h?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640919&sr=1-2