The Handbook of Communication Science, edited by Charles R. Berger, Michael E. Roloff, and David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen was a communication resource that was mentioned in our reading this week, in the article, The Communication Journal Collection.
This handbook is published by Sage, a trusted publisher in academic publications, and it is currently in its second edition. Its 538 pages are divided into 5 parts (Overview, Communication Codes, Fundamental Processes, Functions, and Communication Contexts), and a total of 29 chapters, with both an author and a subject index to make for easier navigation of the book's contents.
Specific chapters in the book reveal the broad scope of coverage that communication is given in the Handbook of Communication Science. The handbook begins with a broad overview, here the book explores the nature of the discipline in addition to the history of the field. This overview does not miss the opportunity to draw out certain controversies in the discipline right from the beginning, and even the first part features two chapters explaining alternative routes to studying Communication Science.
Part two, Communication Codes, focuses on two aspects of communication, verbal and non-verbal. The third part, Fundamental Processes, outlines the process of the production of codes and messages in interpersonal communication, as well as in organizational communication. Part four, Functions, is considerably longer, featuring eleven chapters. These chapters cover topics from conflict and resolution, to negotiation and decision making, as well as a couple chapters on the effect of mass media. The final part, Communication Contexts offers seven chapters that discuss different communication contexts, such as health communications, political and campaign communication, and technological and scientific communications.
All together, these five parts produce a rather encompassing and slightly nuanced introduction for a new communication student to help them get their bearings in a complex and highly interdisciplinary field. These chapters should help to serve as a springboard for new students and will help them to know where their particular area of interest might lie for future research projects and classwork. Each chapter features different authors, most of the chapters are collaborative efforts, and this should help to ensure that the work features arguments from different perspectives within the discipline and help to eliminate potential biases that might have arisen in any particular scholar's communication theory.
Charles R. Berger, one of the book's editors, is no stranger to writing in the communication field. His Wikipedia page states that he has published over 100 books and articles in the field, and a search in Kent Link reveals that Kent State University Library has around 21 books by Dr. Berger on communication.
Showing posts with label Social Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Science. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
International Journal of Contemporary Sociology
The International Journal of Contemporary Sociology: A Discussion Journal of Contemporary Ideas and Research is published bi-annually in April and October by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Auburn University. The Kent State University Library has the journal in print from 1996 to the current issue (April, 2014).
The journal's call for papers describes itself as interested in publishing of both quantitative and qualitative research with an emphasis on theory, including interdisciplinary research, research of an international view, and interesting scholarly studies without technical jargon (this information can be found either on the back page of the print journal, or on their website http://www.cla.auburn.edu/ijcs/).
As a contemporary journal, the International Journal of Contemporary Sociology is broad enough in scope to cover theoretical essays on contemporary issues such as the Arab Spring, American responses to recent natural disasters and crises, and recent global financial collapses. The journal also fulfills many of the functions of an information literature resource in sociology, by which I mean that it covers issues from a theoretical viewpoint that examines aspects of social theory in real life contexts. In addition, it does so while examining issues of accessibility, inequality, as well as other issues regarding gender and race, and how these issues shape policy and public perception.
I would consider this journal to be an excellent starting point for a student who is interested in writing an upper level research paper in sociology. This journal is likely to give the student a lot of ideas for the direction that their research might begin, or lead to. In addition, it might show a student how a certain social theory has been used and applied in past research, that might be on a similar topic.
Contributors to the journal are professors and assistant professors of sociology from around the world, including contributors from Portugal, Mexico, Kenya, and the U.S.. The essays are exceptionally high quality and the issues are discussed at an advanced level and assume some degree of knowledge and familiarity with the issues discussed from the reader.
The journal's call for papers describes itself as interested in publishing of both quantitative and qualitative research with an emphasis on theory, including interdisciplinary research, research of an international view, and interesting scholarly studies without technical jargon (this information can be found either on the back page of the print journal, or on their website http://www.cla.auburn.edu/ijcs/).
As a contemporary journal, the International Journal of Contemporary Sociology is broad enough in scope to cover theoretical essays on contemporary issues such as the Arab Spring, American responses to recent natural disasters and crises, and recent global financial collapses. The journal also fulfills many of the functions of an information literature resource in sociology, by which I mean that it covers issues from a theoretical viewpoint that examines aspects of social theory in real life contexts. In addition, it does so while examining issues of accessibility, inequality, as well as other issues regarding gender and race, and how these issues shape policy and public perception.
I would consider this journal to be an excellent starting point for a student who is interested in writing an upper level research paper in sociology. This journal is likely to give the student a lot of ideas for the direction that their research might begin, or lead to. In addition, it might show a student how a certain social theory has been used and applied in past research, that might be on a similar topic.
Contributors to the journal are professors and assistant professors of sociology from around the world, including contributors from Portugal, Mexico, Kenya, and the U.S.. The essays are exceptionally high quality and the issues are discussed at an advanced level and assume some degree of knowledge and familiarity with the issues discussed from the reader.
More on Subject Headings and Information Literacy
Our reading this week began with the essay, Information Literacy: the Partnership of Sociology Faculty and Social Science Librarians (Caravello, Kain, Kuchi, Macicak, & Weiss, 2008). This essay introduces the reader to information literacy as it applies to the sociology student, and the ways in which faculty and librarians can work together to ensure that these information literacy requirements are being met by the sociology curriculum.
Like other essays on the topic of information literacy, we learn that what is meant by IL is the ability of individuals to identify their information need, access the relevant information, critically evaluate the information, digest and incorporate the information in order to perform some specific task, and to use this information ethically and legally (pp. 9). A sociology student's definition of IL gets more specific to their research with the addition of understanding the relationship of social structures and information. This involves understanding social inequalities, access to technology, and the social structures that are generally responsible for the creation and dissemination of information. The reference librarian, in the field of sociology, should have an understanding of these needs and work with faculty to ensure that students are aware of these aspects of IL.
But, the library is made up of more than just liaisons, reference desks and reference librarians. Before anyone can access a resource, it first needs cataloged so that that resource is discoverable and accessible to students. The way in which this is accomplished will effect access to the resource and can make the difference between a resource being missed and a resource being found.
While exploring the web site of the ANSS (Anthropology and Sociology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries) I was surprised to find the way in which the ANSS addresses the problem of accessibility of library resources for sociology. Like any other field in academia, sociology is not a static field. Rather, it is constantly in flux. New knowledge is constantly being added. New knowledge means new theories, new research fields, new research questions, and new terminology. In terms of access, this means that subject headings are constantly being added in order to ensure that resources are findable using up-to-date terminology.
University libraries mostly use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in order to describe the subject of a resource. Using this kind of controlled vocabulary is a way of ensuring consistency and formality to subject analysis, and gains the benefit of uniformity and predictability for the end-user. The LCSH is not a static set of subject headings, rather, it, like knowledge itself, is constantly in flux. They update in order to keep up with the changing nature of resources, experimentation, research, and discovery. By keeping up to date subject headings, the LCSH remains relevant, and catalogers are given the tools they need to describe new resources.
But how is a cataloger suppose to keep up with a constantly changing database of subject headings that cover virtually all areas of knowledge that appear in resources from monographs to music and movies? The answer that the ANSS has adopted on their website is to include a section on New Subject headings (http://anssacrl.wordpress.com/publications/new-subject-headings/). It is here that a catalog librarian can keep updated on what new subject headings were added to the LCSH in the fields of sociology and anthropology in order to describe new resources (or even update existing records of old resources) so that they are current as to how researchers will look for the resource.
This list benefits researchers, students, and reference librarians as much as it benefits catalog librarians. By checking the list of new subject headings, any researcher can have an idea of what new subject terms she or he may use while conducting a search. Even by casually scanning the list, a researcher might be inspired to look into a given new heading to see if their library has any items on the subject.
Out of my own interest, I decided to test some of the new subject headings from the list on KentLink to see if Kent State University has yet made use of any of these new headings. In a very non-scientific way, I chose some subject headings at random and ran a subject search in KentLink
2014 headings:
Jewish Morning Customs - None
Melodrama, Polish - None
Ethiopian American Art - None
Cell phone users - None.
2010 headings:
Aleut literature - none
Pets and older people - none
College student parents - none
Coming of age - 16
2007 headings:
Custodial parents - 1
Transgender prisoners - 1
Social gerontology - 3
Punk culture and art - 2
First responders - 47
This raises some interesting research questions:
Caravello, P. S., & Kain, E. L., & Kuchi, T., & Macicak, S., & Weiss, G. L. (2008). Information literacy: the partnership of sociology faculty and social science librarians. Teaching Sociology (36). pages 8-16.
Like other essays on the topic of information literacy, we learn that what is meant by IL is the ability of individuals to identify their information need, access the relevant information, critically evaluate the information, digest and incorporate the information in order to perform some specific task, and to use this information ethically and legally (pp. 9). A sociology student's definition of IL gets more specific to their research with the addition of understanding the relationship of social structures and information. This involves understanding social inequalities, access to technology, and the social structures that are generally responsible for the creation and dissemination of information. The reference librarian, in the field of sociology, should have an understanding of these needs and work with faculty to ensure that students are aware of these aspects of IL.
But, the library is made up of more than just liaisons, reference desks and reference librarians. Before anyone can access a resource, it first needs cataloged so that that resource is discoverable and accessible to students. The way in which this is accomplished will effect access to the resource and can make the difference between a resource being missed and a resource being found.
While exploring the web site of the ANSS (Anthropology and Sociology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries) I was surprised to find the way in which the ANSS addresses the problem of accessibility of library resources for sociology. Like any other field in academia, sociology is not a static field. Rather, it is constantly in flux. New knowledge is constantly being added. New knowledge means new theories, new research fields, new research questions, and new terminology. In terms of access, this means that subject headings are constantly being added in order to ensure that resources are findable using up-to-date terminology.
University libraries mostly use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in order to describe the subject of a resource. Using this kind of controlled vocabulary is a way of ensuring consistency and formality to subject analysis, and gains the benefit of uniformity and predictability for the end-user. The LCSH is not a static set of subject headings, rather, it, like knowledge itself, is constantly in flux. They update in order to keep up with the changing nature of resources, experimentation, research, and discovery. By keeping up to date subject headings, the LCSH remains relevant, and catalogers are given the tools they need to describe new resources.
But how is a cataloger suppose to keep up with a constantly changing database of subject headings that cover virtually all areas of knowledge that appear in resources from monographs to music and movies? The answer that the ANSS has adopted on their website is to include a section on New Subject headings (http://anssacrl.wordpress.com/publications/new-subject-headings/). It is here that a catalog librarian can keep updated on what new subject headings were added to the LCSH in the fields of sociology and anthropology in order to describe new resources (or even update existing records of old resources) so that they are current as to how researchers will look for the resource.
This list benefits researchers, students, and reference librarians as much as it benefits catalog librarians. By checking the list of new subject headings, any researcher can have an idea of what new subject terms she or he may use while conducting a search. Even by casually scanning the list, a researcher might be inspired to look into a given new heading to see if their library has any items on the subject.
Out of my own interest, I decided to test some of the new subject headings from the list on KentLink to see if Kent State University has yet made use of any of these new headings. In a very non-scientific way, I chose some subject headings at random and ran a subject search in KentLink
2014 headings:
Jewish Morning Customs - None
Melodrama, Polish - None
Ethiopian American Art - None
Cell phone users - None.
2010 headings:
Aleut literature - none
Pets and older people - none
College student parents - none
Coming of age - 16
2007 headings:
Custodial parents - 1
Transgender prisoners - 1
Social gerontology - 3
Punk culture and art - 2
First responders - 47
This raises some interesting research questions:
- How long does it take a new subject heading to go from being added to LCSH to being widely used?
- How does attention in media effect the usage of a subject heading?
Caravello, P. S., & Kain, E. L., & Kuchi, T., & Macicak, S., & Weiss, G. L. (2008). Information literacy: the partnership of sociology faculty and social science librarians. Teaching Sociology (36). pages 8-16.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
The Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART), is an international journal that is focused on evaluating and anticipating administration policy and procedure. J-PART began in 1991 and is available both in print and electronically as part of JSTOR, Business Source Complete, Political Science Complete, and other journal databases. The print journal is available at the Kent State University Library, Ohio University, and several other libraries in the Ohio Link network.
J-PART is sponsored by the University of Kansas, Syracuse University, Southern California University, and Indiana University. Its editor-in-chief is from the University of Kansas, which is also the university responsible for publishing the journal. There is a long list of board editors, all of whom are affiliated with various universities, including Harvard, Princeton, and Berkeley. J-PART also credits itself with being affiliated with the Section on Public Administration Research, and the American Society for Public Administration.
According to a statement intended for contributors, the journal describes itself as an international and interdisciplinary quarterly which is devoted to building the body of knowledge relating to public administration through “empirical research and theoretical inquiry.” The articles take a look at actual public administration policy and examine it under the lens of administrative theory, in a way that is primarily interested in looking forward. Articles in the January 2000 issue, for example, are keenly interested in administration in the dawning new Millennium.
Titles taken from the index suggest that abstract topics typically covered in this journal examine bureaucracy, red tape, administrative reform, administrative organization, and the balance of power. More concrete ideas covered by articles include environmental issues, voting, health care, information technology, and budgeting all in relation to administration efficiency and strategy in the handling of these problems.
J-PART would be an appropriate resource for a student researching public administration theory, organization, reform, and policy. It is an authoritative journal that focuses on an interdisciplinary and international perspective, which would be appropriate for allowing students to link these ideas and theories with a broader world of issues connected to governmental activities and problems. The journal can also offer perspectives of how the constantly changing world directly pressures and causes changes to public administration practices and theories. It is widely available in both print and electronic form, and so it should be a very accessible resource for most college students, either through their own library or through inter-library loans.
According to a statement intended for contributors, the journal describes itself as an international and interdisciplinary quarterly which is devoted to building the body of knowledge relating to public administration through “empirical research and theoretical inquiry.” The articles take a look at actual public administration policy and examine it under the lens of administrative theory, in a way that is primarily interested in looking forward. Articles in the January 2000 issue, for example, are keenly interested in administration in the dawning new Millennium.
Titles taken from the index suggest that abstract topics typically covered in this journal examine bureaucracy, red tape, administrative reform, administrative organization, and the balance of power. More concrete ideas covered by articles include environmental issues, voting, health care, information technology, and budgeting all in relation to administration efficiency and strategy in the handling of these problems.
J-PART would be an appropriate resource for a student researching public administration theory, organization, reform, and policy. It is an authoritative journal that focuses on an interdisciplinary and international perspective, which would be appropriate for allowing students to link these ideas and theories with a broader world of issues connected to governmental activities and problems. The journal can also offer perspectives of how the constantly changing world directly pressures and causes changes to public administration practices and theories. It is widely available in both print and electronic form, and so it should be a very accessible resource for most college students, either through their own library or through inter-library loans.
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