Today, university instruction needs to prepare graduates for a changing and globally connected world. This book explores the role of technology in this scenario, and offers fresh insights and new strategies for understanding the nature of scholarly communication in higher education. Perspectives from many countries—Australia, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, the UK, and the US—are presented in this book. It has an international set of editors and authors, including some of the big names in the field. Various contributions examine the paradigms of e-learning and digital publishing from different perspectives, and synthesize ideas and experiences from a wide range of university staff.

The book’s three main parts provide a framework that points out the relationships between information literacy, e-learning, and digital publishing. The first part has an educational focus, the second covers digital publishing, and the third builds on the first two sections to examine the implications for the growth of knowledge and scholarly communication.

Contributions were sought on all of the main aspects of the e-learning relationship with digital publishing. The book presents 12 invited contributions, organized in topical sections. The opening part of the book, “Issues in Organizing and Disseminating Knowledge in the Twenty-first Century,” covers the structure of the book and the general context of globalization and e-revolution in higher education.

The first section primarily focuses on e-learning and distributed education. It begins with a case study of a global education project: the provision of nonlocal programs in Hong Kong, through the experience of the Open University of Hong Kong. The next contribution, “The Synergy Between Information Literacy and eLearning,” develops a model of e-learning in a Web context. In the next two chapters, “Changing the Mindset: From Traditional On-Campus and Distance Education to Online Teaching” and “Learning and Developing and Managing a Professional Development Distance-learning Program,” the Association of Research Libraries’ Office of Leadership and Management Services addresses interesting aspects of implementing and deploying e-learning solutions, communicating a very useful experience for other educational institutions in developing their strategic planning. The next contribution, “Learning to Learn in Networked Environments: A Focus on ‘Orientation,’” looks at the practice-based experience of some teachers that have used networked learning.

The second section of the book focuses on digital publishing and electronic content. The contribution “Trends in Electronic Publishing” is an overview of electronic publishing, analyzing the status, business model, and trends of this paradigm. The next paper, “‘Copy and Paste’ or Scholarly Communication: Changing the Balance Point,” looks at one of the most urgent problems of e-learning—plagiarism. It presents solutions and analyzes the role of university libraries in this process. The last chapter of this section, “Believing Six Impossible Things before Breakfast: Electronic Resource Collection Management in a Consortial Environment,” presents the library consortium’s perspective on the collaboration of libraries in the purchase process of more expensive electronic resources.

The third part of the book builds on the first two sections to examine overall implications for the growth of knowledge and scholarly communication. The contribution “Digital Publishing and the Knowledge Process” explains and analyzes the reasons for today’s scholarly crisis. The chapter “Development of, and Trends in, Scholarly Communication in China” presents a Chinese view of scholarly communications, describing the current status in China. The last contribution, “Global Changes in Scholarly Communication,” surveys the global changes of scholarly communications and emerging trends.

The book covers some important research and surveys from the fields of e-learning and digital publishing. This information is of great interest to a twenty-first century university teaching process. The main audience for this book is senior university library staff, library staff involved in training initiatives, directors of university presses, directors of staff development units, directors of flexible learning units, directors of information technology service centers, vice chancellors of teaching and learning, directors of international/offshore affairs, deans of faculties, and directors of university programs. Indeed, I think anyone who wants to deploy modern publishing and learning projects at his or her university will find useful information in this book.

The ability to understand the movements that are occurring in modern universities, and the movements that need to occur in the coming years, relies on the ability to analyze ideas and experiences from a wide range of universities. Books such as this one are vital to ensure that the progress of the methodological, theoretical, and practical aspects of e-learning and digital publishing are disseminated to all people involved in the modernization of university teaching. The book will appeal to a range of professionals who work in higher education libraries, university teachers, university policy makers, and staff who work in university publishing presses wishing to understand others’ experiences.