By Stephen Vance, Staff
A Meaford area resident has shared in a prestigious award for a textbook project for which he was a co-author and production editor.
Murray Maloney told The Independent that The Discipline of Organizing, written and edited by Robert J. Glushko, Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley, has been awarded Information Science Book of the Year by The American Society for Information Science and Technology.
The book was published by MIT Press last year, and an e-book version was published earlier this year by O’Reilly Media, and is currently being used for Graduate and Undergraduate courses at 38 schools worldwide.
Maloney said that he was thrilled to have been part of the project, and he’s equally excited about the announcement of the award.
“I was visiting Bob (Robert J Glushko) when he showed me a draft of chapter one. My professional instincts kicked in and I edited it overnight. When he saw what I had done, he asked if I would like to serve as copy editor. I told him that I would do it only if I could also develop a glossary and index. He agreed and so it went,” explained Maloney when asked how he became involved in the project. “I have been a technical writer since 1977. I have worked on user manuals for hardware and software, technical specifications and international standards, a prospectus, several patents, and an owner’s manual for my property. This is my first academic work and it required considerable attention to detail, such as the comprehensive bibliography, glossary and index. We wanted to demonstrate building print and electronic books from a single document source, complete with citations and extensive cross-references.”
Maloney said that he hopes the award will increase the profile of the textbook, and encourage more schools to adopt it as a core text in information science courses. In the meantime, he and Glushko are already working on new editions of the book.
“We are continuing work on The Discipline of Organizing, with new editions planned for 2015, including accessible editions for use by persons with disabilities. In particular, we hope to produce a Braille-on-demand edition,” explained Maloney.
While information science textbooks aren’t for everyone, Maloney has other projects in the works with a broader appeal including a cookbook project that he is working on in British Columbia.
“Working on The Discipline of Organizing has been a great experience. Bob has allowed me to exercise a lot of technological and artistic licence, even when he wasn’t quite sure why I was doing some of the things I did. This book, in its many forms, represents my best work to date, and I am thrilled to be recognized by the American Society for Information Science and Technology,” said Maloney.
In celebration of the award, the e-book version of the textbook will be discounted by 50 percent by publisher O’Reilly Media. The discount will be in effect for two weeks.
More information about The Discipline of Organizing can be found by visiting:
