This conference proceedings compares various approaches to the development of key indicator systems which would provide reliable information spanning the social, economic and environmental domains.

The aim of this book is to synthesize the role of information throughout the history of civilization’s development. This will be defined through the convergence of (a) the cumulative evolution and revolution of the intellect (cognition as data, information, concepts, knowledge, and wisdom), (b) labor, and (c) politics which seek to control the environment, society, and the world, applying culture and infrastructure as tools. Whereas researchers reveal the myriad of dimensions of the social order and its historiography, this book provides a synthesis of the relations, which is limited to information (and its informing systems) and civilization within the context of historiosophie (history with judgment). The method presented in this book—the architectural approach to the dynamics of civilizational development—is a new layer over the quantitative history based on statistical data. In an architectural synthesis of civilization, we seek a “big picture” of “civilization waves” in order to develop some criteria-oriented views of the world and its future predictability. To understand the crises and conflicts of civilization which are driven by technology in recent centuries, such a synthesis as well as optimism for human proactive adaptation, survival, and, development must be undertaken. This approach to civilizational development should allow humans to eventually “reinvent the future” in a continuous manner. We, in due course, should be able to predict the “rate of change” and provide “civilization bridging solutions” based on original thinking. It is important to remind ourselves that information is as old as our world (about 15 billion years) because plants and trees and, in general, non-human nature produces all sorts of information, for example, the changing colors of plants and trees, which is associated with the different seasons. When the first living organisms appeared on our planet, they had ability to inform as well by changing forms, colors, signals and, so one. The first signs of life on our planet came into being about 3.85 billion years ago. Therefore, organism-based life on the Earth actually came to be over a period of just 130 million years. Hominids diverged from apes some 10-6 million years ago (instinct-driven info-communication, i.e., behavior less controlled by cognition), and the first humans (bipeds with large brains who could use tools and sound-driven info-communication) took form around 6-2.5 million years ago in Southeast Africa. Homo symbolicus, who could skillfully use language, appeared about 60,000 years ago. The origin of civilization some 6,000 years ago marks the beginning of the first advanced info-communication systems applied by humans, who could even record information.

How should the war on drugs be fought? Everyone seems to agree that the United States ought to use a combination of several different approaches to combat the destructive effects of illegal drug use. Yet there is a remarkable paucity of data and research information that policy makers require if they are to create a useful, realistic policy package-details about drug use, drug market economics, and perhaps most importantly the impact of drug enforcement activities. Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs recommends ways to close these gaps in our understanding-by obtaining the necessary data on drug prices and consumption (quantity in addition to frequency); upgrading federal management of drug statistics; and improving our evaluation of prevention, interdiction, enforcement, and treatment efforts. The committee reviews what we do and do not know about illegal drugs and how data are assembled and used by federal agencies. The book explores the data and research information needed to support strong drug policy analysis, describes the best methods to use, explains how to avoid misleading conclusions, and outlines strategies for increasing access to data. Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs also discusses how researchers can incorporate randomization into studies of drug treatment and how state and local agencies can compare alternative approaches to drug enforcement. Charting a course toward a better-informed illegal drugs policy, this book will be important to federal and state policy makers, regulators, researchers, program administrators, enforcement officials, journalists, and advocates concerned about illegal drug use.

Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles—-the New Warriors-—are fighting to shift public opinion. New Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada’s central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Authoritarian leadership. Permanent political polarization. The tales cast a vivid light on a story that is crucial to Canada’s future; yet they are also compelling history. Swashbuckling marauder William Stairs, the Royal Military College graduate who helped make the Congo safe for European pillage. Vimy Ridge veteran and Second World War general Tommy Burns, leader of the UN’s first big peacekeeping operation, a soldier who would come to call imperialism the monster of the age. Governor General John Buchan, a concentration camp developer and race theorist who is exalted in the Harper government’s new Citizenship Guide. And that uniquely Canadian paradox, Lester Pearson. Warrior Nation is an essential read for those concerned by the relentless effort to conscript Canadian history.

A revitalized version of the popular classic, the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Second Edition targets new and dynamic movements in the distribution, acquisition, and development of print and online media-compiling articles from more than 450 information specialists on topics including program planning in the digital era, recruitment, information management, advances in digital technology and encoding, intellectual property, and hardware, software, database selection and design, competitive intelligence, electronic records preservation, decision support systems, ethical issues in information, online library instruction, telecommuting, and digital library projects.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation's report card, has chronicled students' academic achievement in America for over a quarter of a century. It has been a valued source of information about students' performance, providing the best available trend data on the academic achievement of elementary, middle, and secondary school students in key subject areas. NAEP's prominence and the important need for stable and accurate measures of academic achievement call for evaluation of the program and an analysis of the extent to which its results are reasonable, valid, and informative to the public. This volume of papers considers the use and application of NAEP. It provides technical background to the recently published book, Grading the Nation's Report Card: Evaluating NAEP and Transforming the Assessment of Educational Progress (NRC, 1999), with papers on four key topics: NAEP's assessment development, content validity, design and use, and more broadly, the design of education indicator systems.