Public Libraries In The Smart City

Download or read book Public Libraries in the Smart City written by Dale Leorke and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-10 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from heralding their demise, digital technologies have lead to a dramatic transformation of the public library. Around the world, libraries have reinvented themselves as networked hubs, community centres, innovation labs, and makerspaces. Coupling striking architectural design with attention to ambience and comfort, libraries have signaled their desire to be seen as both engines of innovation and creative production, and hearts of community life. This book argues that the library’s transformation is deeply connected to a broader project of urban redevelopment and the transition to a knowledge economy. In particular, libraries have become entangled in visions of the smart city, where densely networked, ubiquitous connectivity promises urban prosperity built on efficiency, innovation, and new avenues for civic participation. Drawing on theoretical analysis and interviews with library professionals, policymakers, and users, this book examines the inevitable tensions emerging when a public institution dedicated to universal access to knowledge and a shared public culture intersects with the technology-driven, entrepreneurialist ideals of the smart city.

Download or read book Handbook of Research on the Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Achieving Civic Engagement and Social Justice in Smart Cities written by Taher, Mohamed and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2021-11-12 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In achieving civic engagement and social justice in smart cities, literacy programs are offered in the society by three essential information service providers: libraries, archives, and museums. Although the library and museum services are documented in literature, there is little evidence of community-led library or museum services that make a full circle in understanding community-library, community-archive, and community-museum relationships. The Handbook of Research on the Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Achieving Civic Engagement and Social Justice in Smart Cities examines the application of tools and techniques in library and museum literacy in achieving civic engagement and social justice. It also introduces a new outlook in the services of libraries and museums. Covering topics such as countering fake news, human rights literacies, and outreach activities, this book is essential for community-based organizations, librarians, museum administrations, education leaders, information professionals, smart city design planners, digital tool developers, policymakers engaged in diversity, researchers, and academicians.

Download or read book Public Libraries and Resilient Cities written by Michael Dudley and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2013 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public libraries are keystone public institutions for any thriving community, and as such can be leaders in making cities better places to work, play, and live. Here, Dudley shows how public libraries can contribute to 'placemaking', or the creation and nurturing of vital and unique communities for their residents.

Download or read book The Smart Enough City written by Ben Green and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

Download or read book Smart Cities written by Germaine Halegoua and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts for understanding smart cities, along with discussions of both drawbacks and benefits of this approach to urban problems. Over the past ten years, urban planners, technology companies, and governments have promoted smart cities with a somewhat utopian vision of urban life made knowable and manageable through data collection and analysis. Emerging smart cities have become both crucibles and showrooms for the practical application of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and the integration of big data into everyday life. Are smart cities optimized, sustainable, digitally networked solutions to urban problems? Or are they neoliberal, corporate-controlled, undemocratic non-places? This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a concise introduction to smart cities, presenting key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts, along with discussions of both the drawbacks and the benefits of this approach to urban life. After reviewing current terminology and justifications employed by technology designers, journalists, and researchers, the book describes three models for smart city development—smart-from-the-start cities, retrofitted cities, and social cities—and offers examples of each. It covers technologies and methods, including sensors, public wi-fi, big data, and smartphone apps, and discusses how developers conceive of interactions among the built environment, technological and urban infrastructures, citizens, and citizen engagement. Throughout, the author—who has studied smart cities around the world—argues that smart city developers should work more closely with local communities, recognizing their preexisting relationship to urban place and realizing the limits of technological fixes. Smartness is a means to an end: improving the quality of urban life.

Download or read book Rural Community Resource Centres written by Shirley Giggey and published by Commonwealth Secretariat. This book was released on 2000 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Commonwealth Secretariat has found that there is a need throughout the developing world for a book describing the setting up and operation of rural learning resource centres. On behalf of the Secretariat, and using her own practical experience, Shirley Giggey has drawn up this comprehensive training guide.She first provides a complete description of the best method for setting up a rural resource centre, right from the initial idea and planning (taking local circumstances into account), through to financial and staffing arrangements. She covers suitable designs for the buildings to be used and their interior layout, with much detailed advice.The practical, day-to-day running of the centre is dealt with clearly, simply and thoroughly. The need for methodical arrangements in acquiring and storing materials, and how (and even whether!) to lend them out are covered at length. Duplicating and other services are examined. Such matters as keeping of accounts, keeping records of the centre's activities, filing, stock-taking, insurance, maintenance and repair are amply explained. Samples of form letters and accounts pages are included. There is a list of organisations that provide useful materials.The main business of the centre – the gathering and selecting of materials and making them available – is given pride of place, but the many other possible services that can be offered are suggested and described. The effective use of resources is the aim throughout, an a fund-raising is shown to have a continuing importance. Suggestions are given on all relevant topics.This guide offers workable, solid, thorough advice and information for anyone in the developing countries who is either working in this field already or who wishes to do so.It is written for anyone living in or working with rural communities (community leaders, teachers, extension workers, women's group leaders, youth group leaders, etc.) and who feel their community could benefit from having informational and learning resources. It is written as clearly and simply as possible and uses examples from various parts of the world. There are ample illustrations and checklists.

Download or read book THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE CITY written by Ralph W. Conant and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: