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HSRC Press is South Africa's open access publisher committed to the dissemination of high quality social science research based publications, in print and electronic form. The Press publishes the research output of the Human Science Research Council and externally authored works. A formal peer-review process guarantees the highest academic quality and the Press has a very active local and international marketing programme, in addition to collaborating with foreign publishers on specific titles.

Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and psychological and anthropological studies of learning. Learning Science in Informal Environments draws together disparate literatures, synthesizes the state of knowledge, and articulates a common framework for the next generation of research on learning science in informal environments across a life span. Contributors include recognized experts in a range of disciplines--research and evaluation, exhibit designers, program developers, and educators. They also have experience in a range of settings--museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, aquariums, zoos, state parks, and botanical gardens. Learning Science in Informal Environments is an invaluable guide for program and exhibit designers, evaluators, staff of science-rich informal learning institutions and community-based organizations, scientists interested in educational outreach, federal science agency education staff, and K-12 science educators.

Lee Rainie will describe the latest findings of the Pew Internet Project about libraries and the new mix of services they are offering their patrons-and considering offering. He will also discuss the implications for libraries of the Project's research into how Americans use e-books and how patrons experience borrowing e-books from their public libraries. Lee will also run through the latest findings about how Americans use digital technology.

As the internet replaces library databases as students' primary research option, a new discussion is emerging in academic circles: Is the vast amount of information at students' fingertips changing the way they gather and process information for the better--or for worse?

"In this eBook, Project RED - a national research and advocacy effort - shares preliminary results from a survey of technology-rich schools and takes a look at what past research and current observation tells us about the keys to successful technology implementation. What do we know about curriculum reform or the leadership, funding and legislation changes that will allow technology to transform learning and schools, just as it has transformed homes and offices in almost every other segment of our society? "

Every day more people join the world of eBook lovers, having suddenly decided to take the plunge and buy a new Kindle or some other eBook reader. Along with your new purchase (or your decision to buy) comes the realization that you now need to know a lot more about how you're going to find great free eBooks to read. At MakeUseOf, we've written plenty of articles on how to find free eBooks, but it was about time we made a primer for those of you who haven't been researching very long. There are a number of different ways to get great free content on to your eBook reader, to organise your eBooks and to read eBooks without a dedicated eBook gadget. Here's everything you need to know.

If librarians truly wish to be where the user is and to be user-centric, they need to be present in those spaces that users are. Embedded librarianship is a major focus for the future for the profession. The physical library will continue to provide  a place for research, for study, and for group work. But, with the dramatic increase in electronic resources and technological capabilities, bringing the library and the librarian to the user, wherever they are-office, laboratory, home, or even on their mobile device-is at the forefront of what it means to be embedded. 

Though Google Book Search has the largest collection of digitally scanned books of its kind, and the initiative has captured a great deal of attention, researchers should keep in mind there are other book-search sites that can help them find rare works as well

"Nearly ten years' worth of research conducted by The Pew Internet & American Life Project examines the growing role of technology in our lives, our changing expectations about how to find and use information, and the impact these changes will have on libraries and other institutions in the future."

Does the word Internet2 conjure images of a mythical realm off-limits to the masses of web-surfing plebeians? A forbidding place where computer engineers and the academic research elite speak in esoteric computer programming dialects and move terabytes of data through big pipes at the speed of light? At Horace Mann Elementary School in West Allis, Wis., Internet2 is helping transform the school library into the heart of digitally enabled innovation and learning. So what is the real Internet2, and why does it matter to K-12 schools and libraries? James Werle and Louis Fox have the answers!

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 a

The References Notes blog is devoted to providing profiles of significant or substantive developments and news of potential interest to Reference and Research Librarians worldwide.

Web search can be a remarkable research tool for students - and we've heard from educators that they could use some help to teach better search skills in their classroom. The following Search Education lessons were developed by Google Certified Teachers to help you do just that. The lessons are short, modular and not specific to any discipline so you can mix and match to what best fits the needs of your classroom. Additionally, all lessons come with a companion set of slides (and some with additional resources) to help you guide your in-class discussions.

The expansion of secondary education is now the world's most pressing educational challenge. This carefully prepared and thoroughly researched book should inspire policy-makers and educational planners to explore how open schooling can expand secondary education cost-effectively in their jurisdictions.

A book or a screen - which of these two offers more reading comfort? There are no disadvantages to reading from electronic reading devices compared with reading printed texts.

I love the way that this list has been structured. Will defintely go into my reference section! Let's say you have this idea for a visualization or application, or you're just curious about some trend. But you have a problem. You can't find the data, and without the data, you can't even start. This is a guide and a list of sources for where you can find that data you're looking for. There's a lot out there.

Information Literacy is a transformational process in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes. Information Literacy shares a fundamental set of core thinking- and problem-solving meta-skills with other disciplines. Authentic cross-disciplinary problems which include observation and inference, analysis of symbols and models, comparison of perspectives, and assessment of the rhetorical context, engage students in developing mastery information literacy over time.