Thursday, 3 January 2008


Oil Information, 2007 edition
International Energy Agency (IEA)

"Part II, World Oil Developments, provides summary tables of world oil market developments, with time series back to 1971. Part III, Detailed OECD Oil Data, provides in tabular form, a more detailed and comprehensive picture of oil supply, demand and end-use consumption for the OECD by region and individual countries. Part IV, Historical Series shows time series of major oil flows for all years beginning in 1977 and ending in 2006, where data are available."


Electricity Information, 2007 edition
International Energy Agency (IEA).

"Part I of the publication provides a short overview of the world electricity developments, Part II of the publication provides a corresponding statistical overview of developments in the world and OECD electricity and heat market. Part III provides, in tabular form, a more detailed and
comprehensive picture of the power and heat industry developments for OECD 30 Member countries." - introduction.

Monday, 24 December 2007


Insurance against Catastrophic Climate Change: How Much Will an Emissions Trading Scheme Cost Australia? (journal article)

by Philip D. Adams

from The Australian Economic Review, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 432–452

" ...If a worthwhile reduction in risk costs 50 per cent of income, then living with the risk may be
preferable. But if it costs 1 per cent of income, then taking the insurance policy may be the
best option. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the possible cost in the context of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) for Australia."

Genetic ethics and "superbabies" (journal article)
by Patrick Tucker
from Futurist, Vol. 42 No. 1, January 2008, pp. 18-19
"This article focuses on ethical issues associated with the use of genetic engineering to improve the health of human as well as his/her other capabilities. In the next few years, researchers believed that science will be able to recognize and eliminate congenital diseases across the world. It is also expected that genomics may allow people to change their own DNA, and in the process, improve his/her athletic prowess or brain power. There are several types of genetic enhancement, and one of which is somatic gene modification."

Friday, 21 December 2007



We know that privacy is important to users, and to librarians, but we also know that sharing and open access matter.

Thursday, 20 December 2007


Library 2.0 : a guide to participatory library service
Michael E. Casey & Laura C. Savastinuk

Gives practical advice on how to improve library services using web 2.0 technology and describes a service model of constant and purposeful change, evaluation and user participation.



by Cynthia G. Wagner

from Futurist, Vol. 41 No. 6, Nov 2007, pp.54-58

"The article discusses the highlights of the World Future Society conference titled "WorldFuture 2007: Fostering Hope and Vision for the 21st Century" held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from July 29 to 31. Among the topics discussed in detail include global warming, terrorism and poverty. "Reason" magazine science correspondent Ronald Bailey cited improving agricultural productivity as a success story in the U.S. According to anthropologist Helen Fisher, women are gaining in economic power, health, literacy and other measures of progress."

Is Clean Coal Feasible? (journal article)
by Patrick Tucker
from Futurist, Vol. 41 No. 6, Nov 2007, pp.8-9
"This article focuses on the technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS), seen by government officials and scientists as the ideal way to reduce the carbon emissions from power plants. It describes how the CCS technology would allow the public to meet its energy needs at the same time as cutting carbon emissions. It discusses the effort of the U.S. and Great Britain to invest in the development of a CCS power plant. It outlines the various obstacles to CCS implementation and the arguments against CCS implementation."

Wednesday, 19 December 2007


Our water mark : Australians making a difference in water reform
Victorian Women’s Trust & Watermark Australia

"Outlines a set of guiding principles and the ranges of actions we can take to conserve this precious resource, wherever we live, whatever we do." - page 5.



Provides guidance on the establishment, implementation, maintenance and improvement of an environmental management system (EMS) and its coordination with other management systems.

Now available in Library & Research Services' Ref Standards Collection.

Global trends in R&D spending (journal article)
by Dirk Pilat
from Issues in Science & Technology, Vol. 24 No 1 Fall 2007, pp. 85-88
"The article discusses international trends in research and development (R&D) spending. Increased spending is found in most of the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including the major industrialized countries of Europe, Japan and the U.S. The combined R&D expenditure of China, Israel, Russia, and South Africa was equivalent to almost 22% of that of OECD countries in 2005, up from 9% in 1995, and these countries attract a growing share of investment by foreign affiliates."

Is Stern Correct? Does Climate Change Require Policy Intervention? (journal article)
by Paul H. Jensen and Elizabeth Webster
from Australian Economic Review Vol. 40 No.4, pp. 421–431
"In this Policy Forum, we provide an assessment of the Stern Review and its critics. In
doing so, we focus on the key aspects of Stern’s model and how they shape his policy conclusions.
We concentrate our attention on whether policy intervention on climate change is necessary
(and if so, how much), as opposed to what any policy intervention should look like."



by Warwick J. McKibbin
from Australian Economic Review Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 410–420
"Climate change policy is a classic case where international cooperation is essential. Climate
change is partly caused by the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from all sources. Thus to address this problem all major emitting countries will need to be involved in a
solution."

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

The Post-Scientific Society (journal article)
by Christopher Hill
from Issues in Science & Technology Fall 2007, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 78-84
"The article discusses the continued economic success of the U.S. There are growing indications that new innovation-based wealth in the United States is arising from something other than organized research in science and engineering. The emergence of the post-scientific society poses a fresh round of challenges to the U.S. The task of innovation policy is to ensure that the nation has a coherent, well-managed, and well-funded set of private and public institutions that function well as a national innovation system (NIS.)"

Beyond Kyoto: Climate Change Policy in Multilevel Governance Systems (journal article)
by Barry G. Rabe
from Governance Vol 20 No. 3, pp. 423-444, July 2007
"Climate change increasingly presents itself as a challenge not only of international relations but also of multilevel governance, thereby creating considerable opportunity to learn from domestic policy experimentation"

Monday, 17 December 2007


Renewables Information 2007
Author: OECD
"Renewables Information brings together in one volume essential statistics on renewables and waste energy sources. Part I of the publication provides a statistical overview of 2005 developments in the markets for renewables and waste in the OECD member countries. It also provides selected renewables indicators for non-OECD countries. Part II provides, in tabular form, a more detailed and comprehensive picture, including 2006 preliminary data, of developments for renewable and waste energy sources for each of the 30 OECD member countries. It encompasses energy indicators, generating capacity, electricity and heat production from renewable and waste sources, as well as production and consumption of renewable and waste products. "

Monday, 10 December 2007



Covers the pivotal role the colour schemes and menu formats play in the perception of an online brand, and how to encourage and retain traffic flow through competitions, vouchers, and giveaways, moderated forums, or subscription-based membership.

Monday, 3 December 2007

Climate change and Australian coastal shipping
Andrew Macintosh / Australia Institute
Concludes that "actively pursuing mode shifting from land modes to coastal shipping as a means of reducing emissions is unlikely to be an effective or efficient greenhouse strategy." - summary.



Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)

"The most important tools for addressing climate change are markets, prices and investment in low emission technologies." - page 3.


South East Queensland : towards a short-term water balance
Queensland Audit Office
Examines the systems used by the Queensland Water Commission to manage water usage and projected demand in drought conditions.