Library
To enter the Library please click here.
The library
comprises around 8000 books that have been read, skimmed,
quoted, etc. over the past 12 years by key full-time
I.S.C.E. staff in their explorations into complexity
thinking, systems, cybernetics, the philosophy of science,
social systems, etc.
Some of these
titles explicitly deal with complexity, but the vast
majority do not - complex systems need to be explored from
many different directions and the greatest understanding
often comes from sources that we might least expect.
The library
is accessible in full-text form to assist in conducting
research.
The full text versions are
only available to library members -- who will need to
check out each book for viewing in 2 hour increments,
one book per member at a time/ one reader per book at a
time -- much like a regular library's reserve
room. No books are available for download or for
print.
Membership in the ISCE Library is
required.
Our goal with the
library is to give the user an Internet version of
serendipitously browsing in a library stacks. To do
so, we provide several tools to help you find items which
are "more like this" -- where "this" is the focus of your
query. On each book's page there is a word cloud which
displays the keywords from the book. Clicking on a
word in the cloud will bring up a search of related books
found in the ISCE library. In addition, under each book's
cover is a list of 'concepts' extracted from the book.
Clicking on a concept will bring up a search of related
books found in the ISCE library; while clicking on the
pop-up icon beside the concept will bring you to the
concept's definition and links in dbpedia.
In addition you can
use your own text to make a query. Just click on the
"my research" link in the upper right hand corner.
For more detailed
instructions please
click here.