Elliott Books

Oh, what a help this book would have been when I was a library director. It's tough trying to convey to city commissioners, city managers and other funding entities what the value is for library services. (VA)
"This book is designed to serve large to medium-sized public libraries, gives librarians the tools to conduct a defensible and credible cost-benefit analysis (CBA). This hands-on reference covers the economic basics with librarian-friendly terms and examples, preparing library leaders to collaborate with economist-consultants." (summary by South TX Library System)
Here's what the book covers:
1. Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis for Public Libraries
2. Cost-Benefit Analysis Fundamentals
3. Important Considerations Before Commissioning a CBA Study
4. Preparing to Measure Benefits
5. Measuring Library Benefits: Identifying and Sampling Library Users
6. Measuring Library Benefits: Preparing the Survey Instruments
7. Measuring Library Costs
8. Measuring Return to Taxpayer and Donor Investment in Your Library
9. Wrapping Up Your Study: Communicating Your CBA Findings
10. Conclusions: Evaluating What Your CBA Study Accomplished
Appendix A. Measuring Consumer Surplus by Using Contingent Market Purchases or Rentals of Substitute Goods: A Technical Appendix for Economists
Appendix B. Sampling Cardholders
Appendix C. Survey Instruments
Appendix D. Calculating and Reporting Survey Response Rates
Appendix E. Technical Insights for the Project Consultants
Glossary
Bibliography

Written by the research team of Donald S. Elliot, Glen E. Holt, Sterling W. Hayden and Leslie Edmonds Holt, who spent more than a decade developing, testing, and refining their methodologies, Measuring Your Library's Value: How To Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Your Public Library is a straightforward guide for any librarian under pressure to quantify the value of benefits provided to the public. Written in librarian-friendly terminology, chapters cover "Important Considerations Before Commissioning a Cost-Benefit Analysis Study", "Measuring Library Benefits: Identifying and Sampling Library Users", "Preparing the Survey Instruments", "Measuring Return to Taxpayer and Donor Investment in the Library", and much more. Step-by-step instructions, examples, charts, walkthroughs of mathematical calculations and their principles, numerous appendices including sample survey forms, and much more round out this first-rate guide for any library professional especially in today's era of tightening budgets and higher demands of accountability from public services.

Lang Elliott's MUSIC OF THE BIRDS combines an engaging and informative text with some of the finest bird photographs ever published, then ices the cake with a bird-song CD like no other. Bravo!

If you love nature and are not familiar with the work of Lang Elliott, then do yourself a favor and get acquainted with him pronto! Elliott is one of America's foremost natural sound recordists and nature photographers, and here, in "Music of the Birds," he uses both talents to great effect. The author of "Common Birds and Their Songs," "Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region," and numerous CDs of nature's sounds here presents an examination of bird song and why it has fascinated humans for many centuries.

The book examines bird song from two main perspectives: scientific and aesthetic. Elliott dispenses solid, basic science on why birds sing, the functions of specialized bird vocalizations, and other topics that have been examined by ornithologists. He also discusses how bird songs have influenced poets, with many examples from the writings of some of the greatest of all time. Indeed, it is not difficult to see how the songs of such great singers as thrushes, larks, or others inspired writers as diverse as Shelley, Whitman, and Thoreau.

Aside from the text, the book is graced with spectacular photos, virtually all of them taken by Elliott and in magificent color, of singing birds. Any birder who knows the difficuly in spotting such songbirds as warblers will be astonished by Elliott's photos of these and many more, in the act of singing no less! As if this were not enough, tucked inside the back cover you will find a compact disc of bird songs also produced by Elliott and technically superb (as are all of his productions). Virtually every bird mentioned in the text is heard on the CD, and Elliott takes time to examine special cases of particularly striking bird songs. For example, he plays the songs of thrushes at normal and slowed-down speeds so you can hear how complicated they really are (the human ear is ill-constructed to grasp all of the sounds contained in the songs of many birds).

For its combination of both educational and entertainment value, this book is hard to beat. Lang Elliott is carrying the torch of a mostly-vanished generation of naturalists who believed in exposing the wonder in the simple worlds not so far from our own backyards (most of the birds presented here are common in at least some parts of North America). Look at these glorious pictures, listen to the splendid sounds of the birds on your CD player, and if you haven't cultivated a love of birds, you probably never will.

An excellent book for the understanding of gait in dogs. It allows a untrained person to understand and see gait faults that may be potential problems for the dog later. And absolute must for anyone planning to show or breed dogs and also useful for the any potential owner in picking out a new pet.

This is one of the great dog books, and any person interested in breeding, showing or judging dogs should own a copy. It is written for the novice, but is an excellent learning tool for anyone. The author explains the fundamentals in easy to understand terms. She makes the understanding of canine structure and gait as simple as a complicated subject can be. Betty-Anne Stenmark

The term "African American" doesn't usually invoke images north of the 49th parallel, but it should. Not only because Canada was the longed for "Canaan Land" of so many spirituals and therefore, the ultimate home of many escaped slaves, nor because Nova Scotia and New France also had slaves, but because black communities have been a part of what we now call "Canada" since the beginning. George Elliott Clarke , an award winning poet, playwright, critic and scholar , is very much part of the literary map of Canada; this book gathers together a representative selection of his essays and reviews published over a decade and demonstrates that African-Canadian literature is not a recent phenomenon. His map covers vast and diverse territory , including the status of African-American culture as a "model for blackness," black and white racial metaphors in Quebecois literature, black women's search for history and more. This is a great introduction for newcomers, and a foundation for students in the field.

The term "African American" doesn't usually invoke images north of the 49th parallel, but it should. Not only because Canada was the longed for "Canaan Land" of so many spirituals and therefore, the ultimate home of many escaped slaves, nor because Nova Scotia and New France also had slaves, but because black communities have been a part of what we now call "Canada" since the beginning. George Elliott Clarke , an award winning poet, playwright, critic and scholar , is very much part of the literary map of Canada; this book gathers together a representative selection of his essays and reviews published over a decade and demonstrates that African-Canadian literature is not a recent phenomenon. His map covers vast and diverse territory , including the status of African-American culture as a "model for blackness," black and white racial metaphors in Quebecois literature, black women's search for history and more. This is a great introduction for newcomers, and a foundation for students in the field.

Artist Holly Meade well remembers her childhood visits to her grandparents dairy farm. She writes that it was one of the highlights of her young life, "I would wake early in my feather bed to the lowing of cows.....I wish that every child could experience having the natural world as excitingly near as it is on the farm."

Today not many children have that experience yet David Elliott and Ms. Meade have created a happy reminder of what life was like on a family farm. For the first time, Ms. Meade uses woodcuts for a picture book and they are stunning - full page illustrations enhanced with watercolors bring all of the animals to eye-popping life from the crowing strutting rooster to the sly barn cat to the silent rabbit.

Mr. Elliott's easy, descriptive verse will be a pleasure for young eyes and ears. Of the snake he writes, "Coils in the garden like a spring or the wild and winding melody he hears but cannot sing."

This one's a keeper!

- Gail Cooke

The illustrations are beautiful. The woodcuts are colourful without being overly complex. The text is short and descriptive for each animal. My little girl adores this book with special affection lavished on the cow, dog and pig. :) I would love to see more books from this author and illustrator duo as this is one of the best picture books I've seen though my taste tends towards the more old-fashioned books with less flash such as
Virginia Lee Burton's and Dr. Seuss.

This book by Slack et al is an excellent introductory text to the subject of Operations Management. The book is well structured, clearly written and provides good coverage of the subject including operations strategy, design, planning and improvement. To enhance the learning process, each chapter contains numerous practical examples and illustrations.

In this textbook the writers learn the reader every step of the operation management from the design of the product, the needed design for a factory, layout and flow and job design, to all steps of planning and control, till the first product is created and from then on improvements on the system and the production process. A thick book that provides minor information of a lot of different subjects, but still the writers succeed in giving the reader the idea to read and learn new thinks. Especially for people new in production industry this book is useful for a first introduction in the jargon used and the problems encountered.

I like the book for the following reasons and many more: -covers both routers & switches -covers the show commands as well as the equivalent SNMP objects -tells me the inside information (e.g.) Which ver of IOS started supporting sub-interfaces, IOS hidden commands -tells me how I can leverage applications like HpOV NNM, MRTG etc

And it tells all this and more in a simple language (e.g.) The chapter on monitoring CPU & Memory resources explains lucidly how one can be proactive about monitoring these 2 key elements.

The chapter on VLAN management is another good example. One of the topics it covers is about monitoring spanning tree topology changes, how you can use community string indexing to get vlan information for each individual vlan

I am certainly not a professional but found this book very informative. The writing was "reader friendly" but, of course, having a computer and being networked certainly are not enough credentials to fully understand the nuances of this book. I highly recommend this book for people "in the business."

Dr. Elliott raises awareness about some very socially significant points. The issues raised range in topic from bioethics, language, and psychology. It is very nicely written; he presents his points very logically. A great philosophy book.

The funny thing about the mid-20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is that it's nigh on impossible to understand what he means if one just readd his Philosophical Investigations (PI)... yet when Elliott applies Wittgenstein's PI to issues in medicine, it becomes possible to see why Wittgenstein is considered such a revolutionary figure.

One of the excellent things about this work is that Elliott, himself, is so clearly fascinated by the subjects he delves into that his enthusiasm is infectious. The book is thus quite engaging. It helps that Elliott uses familiar references. For example, in Chapter 2, "You Are What You Are Afflicted By", Elliott deals with how it is that the way we label ourselves (particularly when we have been diagnosed with a disease) constructs our identities. One of his epigraphs at the beginning of the chapter is a quote from Casablanca... Major Strasser: What is your nationality; Rick: I'm a drunkard. Elliott then proceeds to apply Maggie Little, Art Frank, Wittgenstein, and anthropologist Clifford Geertz to the matter of identity and disease, with particular reference to deafness and intersex (children who are born neither clearly male nor clearly female).

This sort of connection between the mundane/real and elegant philosophy persists throughout. Who can fault an author who uses the Talking Heads to introduce a chapter that tackles the philosophically tricky issue of how the use of Prozac affects our very sense of self, and our relation to social problems?

The material is presented in a way that is easily understandable for a therapist without a background in chemisty or biology. The author looks at the whole person, rather than simply a physiological reaction to a drug.

MD or non-MD, this is a keeper. Most psychopharm books (a number of which are gathering dust on my shelf) adopt either a strictly-allopathic medical approach or a strident anti-medication stance. This book manages to avoid BOTH "political correctness" and histrionics. It's an honest-but-no-axe-to-grind look at ALL aspects of psychopharmacological treatment as it relates to counseling. Moreover, it's short, readable and even entertaining in places. I found some of the biochemistry a bit overwhelming at first, but don't give up - it's one of the RARE professional/educational books I've actually read from cover to cover. This one won't be gathering any dust.

The authors are quick to acknowledge that some of the med info may quickly become outdated. However, in addition to well-researched biomedical info, Drs Ingersoll and Rak present the "bigger picture" of psychotropic medication that won't be going away anytime soon: issues like social pressure to take (or not take) medication, economics, direct-to-consumer advertising and FDA processes. They even touch on stickier topics like psychoactive drugs, herbaceuticals, and the ethical dilemmas that arise when counselors can be held legally liable for med-related concerns but must avoid all appearance of "practicing medicine without a license."

Most remarkably to me, the authors manage to challenge the Western "magic pill" mindset without apology but also without med-bashing. This book includes clear, helpful tools like side-effect profiles, diagnostic indicators associated with good response to medications, how to advocate for clients' access to the newest and best medications, and tips for consultation with prescribing docs.

Because it is not a blind endorsement of allopathic pharmaceutical treatment, this book will no doubt ruffle some feathers. However, since the authors are clearly NOT in the anti-meds camp, their thought-provoking little book is not easily dismissed. Highly recommended!

Reading Rebounding From Death's Door I found myself crying, laughing & cheering. Most of all, I was left completely inspired. A must read for the entire family!!!

Rebounding From Death's Door is an inspirational book that tugged at my heartstrings from every direction! From the moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.