Internet update

Citation

Almond, N. (2010), "Internet update", Property Management, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2010.11328bag.001

Internet update

Article Type: Internet update From: Property Management, Volume 28, Issue 2

For academics and like-minded professionals alike, having access to the latest text books is important. As a researcher in the private sector I have often referred to a number of texts and my mini library of mainly real estate investment and housing texts is testament to this. For academics they provide a useful source of lecture material and ancillary reading. My natural search for text books is usually via Amazon, or for more specialist real estate books through the RICS or Estates Gazette. With the internet an important means of advertising products, what do some of the main publishing houses have to offer? For the purpose of this update I have taken a look at a number of publishers, primarily based on texts I already have.

One of the first things that struck me was of consolidation, or perhaps how dated some of my texts are! Taking the first publisher I had in mind, E&FN Spon, it became clear from searching that they were now part of the Taylor Francis group, which included Routledge, a publisher also on my list. Taylor Francis (www.tandfbuiltenvironment.com/) are focussed on the built environment and their home page is primarily focussed on advertising new and recently published books. Selecting one of the books provides some brief details on the text, the ISBN, publications date and type of binding (hardback or paperback). There are also some brief details about the author.

The majority of links from the site can be accessed from the toolbar at the top of the page. Under the “books” section you can search for texts or review forthcoming titles. For academics there is a useful section called “Textbooks” from where you can link to key subject areas covering for example architecture, landscape, planning, civil engineering and building. The number of subject areas was limited. Choosing the “Browse by subject link” under the books header, you can select a wider range of topics. Under property you can get for example, property and real estate, valuation and estate management. I found the menu system a little tricky to work, that said, you may find the menu on the left of the screen easier to use.

Under the resources section, you can review various catalogues of books available. There is also an e-updates section where you can keep up-to-date with the latest publications and special offers, and receive regular news in your areas of interest. At the time of writing I could not access this section. Finally, readers may wish to take the link to the Routledge site (www.routledge.com/).

Estates Gazette, was more limited in its offer, and perhaps a reflection of its focus on other media solutions (www.estatesgazettegroup.com/welcome/our-brands/eg-books/). There was so little it is not worth commenting further. Readers may wish to take a look at the parent group, Reed Business Information site (www.rbi.co.uk).

Another publisher on my list is Palgrave, part of the Macmillan group (www.palgrave.com). Given the wider range of books from Palgrave, the easiest way to find related books is to select “subject areas” from the right-hand bar on the home page, here you can select over 30 subject areas from anthropology through to theatre and performance. For real estate the “built environment” link is the best choice, and provides details on related books. You can also select sub-areas, covering fields such as construction and engineering. If you are a lecturer you can select “Information for lecturers” on the right-hand bar and is an easy way access mailing lists, or information on how to gain access to inspection copies. There are also similar sections for librarians and teachers. In some subject areas (not the built environment) you can access author blogs, though when I looked there was little in the built environment arena.

Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.co.uk/) is another group which contains a number of different publishing houses, including, for example, the Financial Times. Finding a particular subject area was not necessarily easy. If you know a particular publishing house or “imprint” (as they refer to on the web site), you can select different subject areas this way. The alternative approach is to use the product search. I typed in “real estate” and this returned four results from which you can access some basis book details.

I also tried selecting the academic link, which then provided a range of subject areas, and a listing of books. In this instance I chose a book on macroeconomics, from which there were additional links to a table of contents, sample chapter (available to view in pdf), information new to this edition and details about the author. From this page, there was also a range of other links to “instructor support” as well as “student support”. For the purposes of this editorial I have not delved deeper, but it may be worth a look if there are texts of interest.

Although not directly of interest to the field of real estate, there is Oxford Publishing (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/). You can search for texts by subject area – for example taking the “Academic, Professional and General” link provided a list of more details subjects such as, business management, dictionaries and law. You can then narrow down the search further by the price or date of publication of the book, or even a sub area. For example under “Business & Management” there were areas such as ethics, e-commerce and innovation. You can also keep up-to-date with developments though signing up to e-mail alerts. These are organised by different areas such as “Academic, Professional and General” or “Dictionaries and language reference”. On the former there is a monthly e-mail alert, which is available by leaving your e-mail address. Readers might also wish to try the Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org), although as with Oxford the range of texts in the built environment filed is relatively limited.

Finally, I should not forget the publishers of this journal – Emerald. Those wishing to access more information can do so via the homepage (www.emeraldinsight.com), where individuals can gain access to the wider product offer from the group. The books section itself, like other sites offers a search facility, along with more details on purchasing books and access to inspection copies. I will let you browse at your leisure.

There are no doubt other publishers who I have missed in this review, and as ever welcome suggestions which can be added to future updates.

Acknowledgements

The views expressed are those of the author and not those of DTZ.

Nigel AlmondAssociate Director, DTZ. E-mail: nigel.almond@dtz.com