Beyond the Book is the first book dedicated to studies of rare East Asian materials collected by individuals and institutions in North America. It sheds new light on the two centuries of cultural exchanges between East Asia and North America and provides fresh clues for East Asian studies scholars in their hunt for raw research materials.

“What a wonderful idea for an adventure! Absolutely inspired, timely, and important.” —Alistair Humphreys, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and author of The Doorstep Mile and Around the World by Bike Outdoor educator and field researcher Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle along­side monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration—a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. Equally remarkable, she did it solo, on a bike cobbled together from used parts. Her panniers were recycled buckets. In Bicycling with Butterflies, Dykman recounts her incredible journey and the dramatic ups and downs of the nearly nine-month odyssey. We’re beside her as she nav­igates unmapped roads in foreign countries, checks roadside milkweed for monarch eggs, and shares her passion with eager schoolchil­dren, skeptical bar patrons, and unimpressed border officials. We also meet some of the ardent monarch stewards who supported her efforts, from citizen scientists and research­ers to farmers and high-rise city dwellers. With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all.

How to repair the disconnect between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us: toward a more democratic internet. In this provocative book, Ramesh Srinivasan describes the internet as both an enabler of frictionless efficiency and a dirty tangle of politics, economics, and other inefficient, inharmonious human activities. We may love the immediacy of Google search results, the convenience of buying from Amazon, and the elegance and power of our Apple devices, but it's a one-way, top-down process. We're not asked for our input, or our opinions—only for our data. The internet is brought to us by wealthy technologists in Silicon Valley and China. It's time, Srinivasan argues, that we think in terms beyond the Valley. Srinivasan focuses on the disconnection he sees between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us. The recent Cambridge Analytica and Russian misinformation scandals exemplify the imbalance of a digital world that puts profits before inclusivity and democracy. In search of a more democratic internet, Srinivasan takes us to the mountains of Oaxaca, East and West Africa, China, Scandinavia, North America, and elsewhere, visiting the “design labs” of rural, low-income, and indigenous people around the world. He talks to a range of high-profile public figures—including Elizabeth Warren, David Axelrod, Eric Holder, Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Lessig, and the founders of Reddit, as well as community organizers, labor leaders, and human rights activists.. To make a better internet, Srinivasan says, we need a new ethic of diversity, openness, and inclusivity, empowering those now excluded from decisions about how technologies are designed, who profits from them, and who are surveilled and exploited by them.

Jeffrey Schnapp and Matthew Battles reflect on what libraries have been in order to speculate about what they will become: hybrid places that intermingle books and ebooks, analog and digital formats, paper and pixels. They combine the cultural history of libraries with innovations at metaLAB, a research group at the forefront of digital humanities.

November 2012 saw the joint annual conference of the British branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY UK) and the MA course at the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature (NCRCL) at Roehampton University. The theme of the conference was the investigation of aspects of literature for children that were ‘Beyond the Book’. From woodcuts to e-books, children’s literature has always lent itself to reinterpretation and expansion. In its early days, this was achieved through different forms of retelling, through illustration and interactive illustration (pop-ups and flaps), and then through music, film, television and stage adaptation. The contributors to the 2012 conference explored the variety of means by which we transform literature intended for children, and celebrated the vibrant world of creativity that has sought, and continues to seek, different ways in which to engage young readers. Bridget Carrington and Jennifer Harding have previously collaborated as the editors of earlier IBBY UK/NCRCL MA conference proceedings: Going Graphic: Comics and Graphic Novels for Young People; Conflicts and Controversies: Challenging Children’s Literature; and It Doesn’t Have to Rhyme: Children and Poetry (Pied Piper Publishing, 2010, 2011, 2012).

What does the secondary school library media specialist need to know about technology in the twenty-first century? This book answers the question with a wealth of practical information. Doggett explores the pros and cons of using technology in the schools and describes how it affects the roles and interaction of media specialists, teachers, students, administrators, school system, community, and parents. She also demonstrates how to get off to a successful start with technology. Various research processes, emerging technologies, filtering, and search engines are just some of the topics covered in this valuable guide.

This volume offers the first critical analysis of mass reading events and the contemporary meanings of reading in the UK, USA, and Canada based on original interviews and surveys with readers and event organisers. The authors interrogate the enduring attraction of an old technology for readers, community organizers, and government agencies, exploring the social practices inspired by the sharing of books in public spaces and revealing the complex ideological investments made by readers, cultural workers, institutions, and the mass media in the meanings of reading.