Sustainability of Scholarly Information

Professor Gobinda Chowdhury BSc Hons, MSc, PhD, FCLIP is Professor in Information Science at iSchool@northumbria, and Head of the Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences at Northumbria University. Before joining Northumbria University he was a Professor and Director of the Centre for Information and Knowledge Management at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. For over 25 years he has worked as an academic and researcher in information science in different parts of the world including Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. For the past few years he has been actively involved in the iSchools activities. Professor Chowdhury has written or edited 15 books and over 150 research papers.

• 1. The sustainability of information: an outline IntroductionThe concept of sustainabilitySustainable developmentInformation about sustainability vs sustainable informationAbout this bookSummaryReferences 2. The three dimensions of sustainabilityIntroductionEconomic sustainabilitySocial sustainabilityEnvironmental sustainabilityThe three pillars of sustainable developmentAn integrated approach to sustainable developmentThe sustainability of informationSummaryReferences 3. The economic sustainability of information IntroductionThe publishing industryThe generic business model for scholarly informationOpen accessAccess to digital informationAccess to journals and databasesThe economics of digital informationValue-added informationSummaryReferences 4. The environmental sustainability of informationIntroductionThe IPCC report and GHG emissionsThe carbon footprint of ITGreen ITMeasuring the environmental impact of information servicesSummaryReferences 5. The social sustainability of informationIntroductionRelated studiesUsers, community and social sustainabilityIndicators for the social sustainability of informationHow to study the social sustainability of informationInformation systems and services for sustainable developmentLegal and policy frameworksTechnology, infrastructure and social sustainabilityUsers, culture and social sustainabilitySummaryReferences 6. Printed vs digital content and sustainability issues IntroductionEstimating the carbon footprint of printed contentFactors responsible for GHG emissions from printed and digital contentSummaryReferences 7. Open access models and the sustainability of information IntroductionOpen access policies of institutions and funding bodiesOpen access content and dataGold open access and the sustainability of informationSummaryReferences 8. Sustainable management of open access information: a conceptual model IntroductionManaging open access informationAttributes of a new open access content and data management systemThe conceptual modelOpportunities and challengesThe sustainability of the proposed open access content and data management systemSummaryReferences 9. Green information services: a conceptual model IntroductionCloud computingA framework for green information services for the higher education sectorSummaryReferences 10. Information access and sustainability issuesIntroductionCloud computing and information retrieval researchMeasuring the environmental impact of information access: the lifecycle analysis approachMeasuring the environmental impact of information retrieval: an alternative approachGreen user behaviourSummaryReferences 11. The sustainability of information modelsIntroductionThe three pillars of sustainable information servicesScholarly communication processesAn integrated approach to research on the sustainability of digital informationThe sustainability of specific information servicesSummaryReferences 12. Research on sustainable informationIntroductionOpen access and a paradigm shift in information management, education and researchFacilitating content-specific access and useInformation research directionsConclusion References

...an extremely useful introduction to the increasingly important topic of sustainability, and one which will undoubtedly provoke discussion amongst information researchers.