From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 04/09):

Business & management:
• Ernst and Young LLP have produced a report on the privacy and security risks involved in telecommuting.
• Every year the construction and demolition industries dispose of tonnes of waste, much of it recyclable. “Deconstruction” takes buildings apart piece by piece to allow for better reuse or recycling.
• There are differences between Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 – giving people Web 2.0 tools and hoping that there will be good adoption inside an organisation probably won’t work – the value of the tools needs to be sold. Getting the right social tools for Enterprise 2.0 is important and there are 4 components that will dictate how well they work in an organisation.

Education
• In November, there will be a 5-day free online conference: “Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations 2008”. For information about how to attend and take part, check the conference wiki and blog.
• The argument about digital textbooks goes on – now a report by a student group in the US, says that the digital editions of textbooks don’t have the features that students want.

Environment & sustainability:
• The US, Australia and Iceland have formed the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology, to “aggressively foster and promote cutting edge geothermal technologies to promote energy security and address global climate change”.
• London’s mayor has launched its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy proposing the greening of the city to help deal with increased risk of floods, droughts and heat waves.
• This year’s Global Corruption Report is the first to assess how corruption affects the water sector worldwide.
• NIWA has developed a new web tool called Coastal Explorer to provide information about NZ’s shoreline and beaches, such as geology, topography, tides, sediment, etc.
• The Dept of Internal Affairs launched the discussion document “Building sustainable communities: designing a place-based approach to sustainable urban development in New Zealand”.

Health & wellbeing:
• Recent research by the Internet Watch Foundation has shown that paedophiles using the Internet to view images, are rarely, “just looking”.
• The World Health Organisation’s report: “Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health” has raised the issue that inequities in health are killing people and resulting in lower life expectancies.
• Massey University researchers have discovered that not only do children who live on farms have fewer incidences of asthma, allergies and eczema, but that pre-natal exposure also helps raise the protection.
•A trial using a virtual reality treadmill to help people walk again after illnesses such as stroke, “tricks” the brain into walking with better balance and more distance, improving recovery.

Law & Government:
• A US article “Improving technology utilization in electronic government around the world, 2008” shows that countries vary greatly in e-government and there has been a strong rise in the number of governments offering services fully available online. However, only 14% offer the ability to personalize government websites, and only 3% offer PDA access.
• “Should planners start playing computer games? Arguments from Simcity and
Second Life” is a free article from the journal “Planning theory and practice”. (This is a journal available via the Digital Library, but embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. Publishers often make occasional articles freely available on their websites as “tempters”.)
• Ongoing research into the Gender Equality Duty in the UK, has shown that in terms of gender and planning many people - usually women - are being left at a disadvantage because the layout of their local community takes no account of the different ways in which women use public space compared with men.

People, culture & diversity:
• While libraries in the US are thriving in the digital age, many libraries face cut backs in budget, reduced hours or closure.
• The International journal of heritage studies is a journal for scholars and practitioners from many disciplines with a common involvement in the heritage. Although the journal is available to council staff on the Libraries Digital Library databases in full text, it is embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. For that reason, LOGIS has purchased a print subscription to the journal that will be starting this year. If you are interested in being on the distribution list for the journal, please let the LOGIS Librarian know.
• The UK Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a viewpoint report on museums: “Can museums be a potent force in social and urban regeneration?”
• Computer scientists at the University of Washington are working on a way to make it possible for the deaf to use sign language via cell phones.
• UNESCO has announced that Melbourne is the 12th member of the Creative Cities Network, founded in 2004.
Science, technology & transport:
• Israel is backing an ambitious programme to change the way vehicles are powered, and will be a “guinea-pig” country to test the system’s ability to make the country completely independent of oil to run vehicles.
• The California Senate has approved an urban sprawl bill that ties billions of dollars of state and federal transportation funding to compliance with efforts to reduce sprawl, and by extension, commutes.
• The president of the British Cartographic Society is concerned that maps provided online such as those from Google and Multimap are leaving out the rich geography and history of Britain.
• A German power station is the first coal-fired plant in the world ready to capture and store its own CO2 emissions.
• Google has launched a beta version of an open source web browser called Chrome, to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Land Transport New Zealand’s “Pedestrian planning and design guide” outlines a process for deciding on the type of provision that should be made for pedestrians and provides design advice and standards. • Stephen Downes has written his take on 10 future trends on or a

LOGIS news alerts (ending 31/01):

Business & management:
• The World Economic Forum has released a report on global investments: “Globalization of alternative investments: Working Papers Volume 1: The global economic impact of private equity”. An executive summary is also available.
• A public discussion document has been released by the NZ Institute of Economic Research: “Is poor household saving the cause of New Zealand’s high current account deficit?”.
• The IMF has predicted a slowing in world economic growth in its latest quarterly update on the global economy, with a warning that “Monetary policy faces the difficult challenge of balancing the risks of higher inflation and slower economic activity”.
• The latest Urban Land Institute blog posting discusses the inter-relationship between housing, infrastructure and climate change – echoing discussions going on in NZ now.
• Organisations don’t always make the fullest use of the technology that is available to them. The current issue of Library Technology Reports looks at the technology-enhanced work environment versus the traditional work environment (ie face-to-face meetings, the telephone, e-mail, and videoconferencing). (NOTE: you’ll be prompted for your Libraries membership number & PIN to view these articles in the Digital Library database.)

Environment & sustainability:
• The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has launched a new information campaign to increase awareness about the support available from Energywise in the form of subsidies or financial support, awareness of energy-efficient appliances and the home energy rating system.
• The latest edition of the Greenpeace GE free food guide is now available. The guide covers 1200 food product brands available in NZ.

Health & wellbeing:
• A recent speech by ACC Minister Maryan Street describes changes to ACC legislation and the relationship between public health and the law.
• The FAO warns that in spite of progress on controlling the H5N1 virus globally, a global pandemic due to avian flu virus is still a possibility. Since last month, 15 countries have confirmed new outbreaks in poultry.
• An international survey by a team of economists has discovered that people are happiest at the early or late part of their lives, but the occurrence of depression peaks in middle age.
• The 2008 International Gambling Conference will be in Auckland from the 21st -23rd February. The conference theme is “Looking Forward: New Directions in Research and Minimising Public Harm”.

Law & Government:
• A UK academic suggests that innovation in public service will only occur in a meaningful way, when practical guidelines and processes are available which foster the process of innovation.
• The 2008 edition of the "New Zealand Official Yearbook" is due to be released this year, taking the theme of conserving the natural environment. The Yearbook theme information is provided in the form of sidebar articles, including topics and information not always available on the Statistics NZ website in the online equivalent “New Zealand in Profile”.

People, culture & diversity:
• AXA carries out an international survey on retirement investment, and the recent survey shows that while NZers are happy with their preparation for retirement, they prefer low risk investments, and have low levels of financial literacy skills.
• Online shopping is a global phenomenon, with 875 million consumers having purchased something online – and surprisingly, books are the most frequent purchase.

Science, technology & transport:
• Amendments to Land Transport Rules that came into effect on January 17th, have changed penalties for using mobility parking spaces without displaying a valid sticker. Whereas previously infringements were dealt with by local bylaw, they are now “consistent national penalties”.
• An international road assessment programme has been launched in NZ, that aims to raise awareness of the risk of being involved in a crash on New Zealand's state highways. Risk brochures with maps can be downloaded from KiwiRAP, that indicate to drivers the level of risk of being involved in a crash on each of the state highways.

LOGIS books – just arrived:
• The business guide to sustainability: practical strategies and tools for organizations
• Governing cities in a global era : urban innovation, competition and democratic reform
• Jane's urban transport systems 2007-2008
• Transforming neighbourhoods : a collection of stories about community empowerment

Some recent LOGIS books

The drag-and-drop, click-to-add features are an aspect of Blogspot I’m enjoying, because I like new techie toys as much as the next Kiwi, but I’m not into the nitty gritty of programming. So a nice feature that I’m going to use on a semi-regular basis, is the Link List option. If you look on the left, you’ll see that there's a new bit to the sidebar showing books on “Urban design”. It's rather taken over the top of the sidebar, since there've been a few bought on this subject in the last few months, and I’m using that term fairly widely to cover urban design, city planning and anything else that seems to fit into the category.
New subjects will appear as future Link Lists, replacing this one - sustainability books are an obvious choice for an upcoming one, but I’m happy to put one together if any of you want to know what LOGIS has in its book collection on a particular topic of your interest. I just can't guarantee how many recent ones there'll be on your topic!
Of course, your suggestion could result in me having to search out some more titles to order, but that’s all to the good – suggestions for new book titles that I may have missed are always welcome.
From the LOGIS Desk.