Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Computer Systems Security: Planning for Success
Ryan Tolboom · Ryan Tolboom
The text, labs, and review questions in this book are designed as an introduction to the applied topic of computer security. With these resources students will learn ways of preventing, identifying, understanding, and recovering from attacks against computer systems. This text also presents the evolution of computer security, the main threats, attacks and mechanisms, applied computer operation and security protocols, main data transmission and storage protection methods, cryptography, network systems availability, recovery, and business continuation procedures.
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Pharo by Example 5.0
Stéphane Ducasse; Dmitri Zagidulin; Nicolai Hess; Dimitris Chloupis · Stéphane Ducasse · 2016
Pharo is an open-source, elegant and pure object-oriented language that supports truly immersive and life programming experience. Pharo offers excellent tools such as hot-debuggers and on the fly code update that change the programming experience. More at http://www.pharo.org.Pharo is a powerful language and IDE that companies use to deliver complex business-effective applications. More at: http://www.pharo.org/success In Pharo everything is an object, and anything can change at run-time under your fingers. Pharo is written in itself you can explore a complete world. You can feel and talk to objects. But Pharo does not stop there, with Pharo you can improve your object-oriented skills by rediscovering the essence of object-oriented programming. Pharo by Example 50, intended for both students and developers, will guide you gently through the Pharo language and environment by means of a series of examples and exercises. This book is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
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Squeak by Example
Andrew Black; Stéphane Ducasse; Oscar Nierstrasz; Damien Pollet · University of Bern · 2009
Squeak is a modern open-source development environment for the classic Smalltalk-80 programming language. Despite being the first purely object-oriented language and environment, Smalltalk is in many ways still far ahead of its successors in promoting a vision of an environment where everything is an object, and anything can change at run-time. Squeak by Example, intended for both students and developers, will guide you gently through the Squeak language and environment by means of a series of examples and exercises. The book helps you get started with A Quick Tour of Squeak and guides you through A First Application. The Smalltalk language is introduced in three chapters on Syntax in a Nutshell, Understanding Message Syntax and The Smalltalk Object Model. Development with Squeak is covered in The Squeak Programming Environment and SUnit. Several of the key classes are presented in chapters on Basic Classes, Collections, Streams and Morphic. The first edition of the book concludes with chapters on Classes and Metaclasses and Frequently Asked Questions.
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Digital Circuit Projects: An Overview of Digital Circuits Through Implementing Integrated Circuits
Charles Kann · Gettysburg College · 2014
Digital circuits, often called Integrated Circuits or ICs, are the central building blocks of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). To understand how a computer works, it is essential to understand the digital circuits which make up the CPU. This text introduces the most important of these digital circuits; adders, decoders, multiplexers, D flip-flops, and simple state machines. What makes this textbook unique is that it puts the ability to understand these circuits into the hands of anyone, from hobbyists to students studying Computer Science. This text is designed to teach digital circuits using simple projects the reader can implement. But unlike most lab manuals used in classes in Digital Circuits or Computer Organization classes, this textbook is designed to remove the barrier of a laboratory infrastructure needed in a face-to-face environment at a college or university. This textbook is designed to be used by the reader to create the circuits in their own homes. The textbook is free. The cost of the kits needed to do the labs is reasonable. And the projects are well documented and can be implemented by even novices to electronic projects. This text allows professors to add laboratory projects in digital circuits to students in online classes in Computer Organization. This enhances these classes with interesting and fun exercises that reinforce the classroom topics. This text can also be used by a hobbyist who wants to learn more about digital circuits and how computers work. The material is presented at a level that someone with no experience in digital circuits and electronics can successfully complete the projects, and gain an understanding of the circuits which go into making up a computer.
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Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach
Lori Anderson; Dirk Buengel; Joseph Simpson · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2025
Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach is intended for students in undergraduate business programs taking a course in strategic management. Because strategic management synthesizes many business topics and takes a holistic view of business, strategic management courses are often senior-level capstone courses. Most undergraduate business school students begin their business education with a broad introductory business course and then concentrate on courses in their major. Then they return to a broader lens of business to cap off their business education at a higher-level of learning. This textbook supports this level of comprehensive learning. If used with a senior-level capstone course, this textbook supports seniors to synthesize their business education through the lens of strategic management and helps them understand how businesses become successful by leveraging their competitive advantage. This textbook integrates strategic management and case analysis, with cases linked from an open access collection of business strategy cases, RMIT Strategic Management Case Studies. Students will get the most out of this textbook if it is used with cases that students analyze. Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach, integrates strategic management as a research-led field of study and practice-informed area of business practice with an experiential learning approach to conducting a case analysis. The book explains how strategic leaders and managers analyze their firm’s organizational performance, and external and internal environments; formulate corporate level and business level strategy, and innovation, sustainability and ethics, technology, and multinational strategy, which are embedded in business level strategies; and implement strategy across an organization. Students are in an active and engaged role with the subject and practice of strategic management as they apply the theories, concepts, and analytical frameworks and t
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Introduction to Business
Lawrence Gitman; Carl McDaniel; Amit Shah; Monique Reece · OpenStax · 2026
Introduction to Business 2e provides a strong, multidimensional foundation in the concepts, skills, and real-world examples of contemporary business. Welcoming and relevant narratives support students as they engage in core themes such as decision making, ethics, customer satisfaction, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing technological and societal changes. The material includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations. Extensive illustrations, case studies, review materials, and assessments offer instructors and learners the tools needed to develop a deep, practical understanding. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for success in further studies and careers. The Second Edition was written with extensive input from faculty, industry experts, and students. Revisions focus on currency, emerging technologies, changing business practices, and evolving legal and ethical dynamics. The authors emphasize course-wide themes, including the impacts and implications of artificial intelligence, the changing nature of the workplace, and new approaches to team dynamics. A detailed transition guide is available in the instructor resources.
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Financial Empowerment
Bettina Schneider · University of Regina · 2024
Financial Empowerment is designed for a single-semester introduction to financial planning and decision-making, in order to provide first and second-year students with the necessary financial literacy and skills needed to make sound financial decisions, assess financial risk, and achieve financial success. This textbook attempts to speak to the varied backgrounds, knowledge systems, and experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians by providing Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives on personal finance and financial planning using examples and information from Elders, the Canadian financial system, and the economy. Additional OER can be found at https://ctl.uregina.ca/open-education/publications-catalogue
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The Path to Funding: The Artist’s Guide to Building Your Audience, Generating Income, and Realizing Career Sustainability
Zane Forshee; Christina Manceor; Robin McGinness · The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University · 2022
Based on coursework developed at Peabody Conservatory, this book breaks down the process of developing an artist mission statement, generating new ideas for creative projects, and creating an engaging project description. It also covers methods for artists to identify their audience, generate a comprehensive project budget, collect compelling work samples, and identify potential funders to support their creative work. Written by a team of active artists and educators, this resource provides creatives with tools and strategies to communicate passionately and effectively about their work and take control of their financial and artistic future.
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Business Writing Style Guide
John Morris; Julie Zwart · Oregon State University · 2020
It is the goal of this book to help students do the following:• Apply basic concepts for effective and concise business writing.• Compile a well written report acceptable within a business context.• Follow a writing process designed for business students.• Demonstrate critical thinking, reasoning, and persuasion.• Communicate in writing using a business model.• Apply resources for improving business writing skills.
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Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order
Jeffrey Russell; Wayne Pferdehirt; John Nelson; Brian Price · University of Wisconsin - Madison · 2018
The Technical Project Management class is designed to help students build on their past experiences and develop effective strategies for managing complex technical projects, with an emphasis on applying project management concepts to real-world problems. In the weekly web conferences, the class comes together in community to discuss the lesson topics, considering the practical applications of the concepts in each subject area.
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Human Relations
Laura Dias · LibreTexts · 2012
Human Relations by Laura Portolese-Dias addresses all of the critical topics to obtain career success as they relate to professional relationships. Knowing how to get along with others, resolve workplace conflict, manage relationships, communicate well, and make good decisions are all critical skills all students need to succeed in career and in life. Human Relations is not an organizational behavior; rather, it provides a good baseline of issues students will deal with in their careers on a day-to-day basis. It is also not a professional communications, business English, or professionalism textbook, as its focus is much broader — on general career success and how to effectively maneuver in the workplace. From communication challenges to focusing on one's own emotional intelligence, the examples throughout Human Relations will help students understand the importance of the human side in their career. This book's easy-to-understand language and tone is written to convey practical information in an engaging way. Every chapter opens with a realistic example which introduces a concept to be explained in detail later. Each chapter contains relevant examples, YouTube videos, figures, learning objectives, key takeaways, exercises, and a chapter-ending case that offer different ways to promote learning. Many of the end-of-section exercises offer self-assessment quizzes, so students may engage in self-understanding and development.
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Technical and Professional Writing Genres: A Study in Theory and Practice
Eric Howerton; Michael Beilfuss; Katrina Peterson; Staci Bettes · Oklahoma State University · 2019
This modern, open-source guide to technical and professional writing explores workplace composition through theoretical and practical applications. Discussions of multiple writing genres will assist you in understanding how to apply for jobs, how to compose clear and precise business communications once the job has been acquired, and how to create documents -- such as proposals and reports -- that will be instrumental in helping to advance your career.
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Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand relating to real estate (an especially important business asset), as well as estate planning and insurance. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to property rights and duties, estate planning, insurance, secured transactions, mortgages, and related topics. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need when working with these concepts, which are critical to business planning and success.
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Corporate Governance
Cornelis de Kluyver · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Corporate Governance by de Kluyver is a primer on corporate governance. It is designed to help students understand corporate governance by looking at the subject from both a macro- and micro-perspective. Historical data and examples including the recent scandals that have torn the fabric of capitalism pave a pathway to the principal challenges facing today's corporate boards, and how to successfully manage them. Topics Include: Clear coverage on why proper corporate governance has become a moral imperative and how to corporations achieve it. Discussions on recent governance reforms in the United States. Outlines of the roles that each individual in the corporate governance process must take on and how to effectively execute on those roles. Exploration on the future of corporate governance in the epilogue Take some time to review Corporate Governance by de Kluyver to see if it is a good fit for your strategy courses.
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Electronic Commerce: The Strategic Perspective
Richard Watson; Pierre Berthon; Leyland Pitt; George Zinkhan · BCcampus · 2014
This book is written both for practitioners and business students. Managers wishing to understand how electronic commerce is revolutionizing business will find that our comprehensive coverage of essential business issues (e.g., pricing and distribution) answers many of their questions. Advanced business students (junior, seniors, and graduate students) will find that the blend of academic structure and practical examples provides an engaging formula for learning. The book's title reflects some key themes that we develop. First, we are primarily concerned with electronic commerce, which we define as using technology (e.g., the Internet) to communicate or transact with stakeholders (e.g., customers). Second, we discuss how organizations must change in order to take advantage of electronic commerce opportunities. In this sense, our book offers the strategic perspective (i.e., the best way to operate a successful business in the 21st century). Third, with the growing importance of the Internet and related technologies, organizations must take electronic commerce into account when they are creating strategic plans. Thus, electronic commerce is a strategic perspective that all firms must adopt, both in the present and in the future. In other words, an organization that does not explicitly consider electronic commerce as a strategic imperative is probably making a crucial error. Here, we focus primarily on the opportunities and tactics that can lead to success in the electronic marketplace.
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Strategic Management
Kennedy Reed · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2020
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT offers an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The authors draw on examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today’s firms—and how they go about implementing those strategies. Students will learn how to conduct a case analysis, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses. In short, they will understand how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. An older version of Mastering Strategic Management (2015) by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing can be found here: https://open.lib.umn.edu/strategicmanagement/
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Business English for Success
Scott McLean · Saylor Foundation · 2011
Business English for Success is a creative solution to a common challenge across Business Communication courses: Business English or Business Presentations? Some classes place an equal emphasis on oral and written communication. If that's the case for you check out our text Business Communication for Success. If, however, your class places the emphasis squarely on written communication and writing proficiency, then Business English for Success is for you. Business English for Success provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. This step-by-step approach provides a clear path to student-centered learning. A wide range of writing levels and abilities are addressed, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. The text opens with a discussion on the sentence and then breaks it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences, paragraphs, and larger assignments. Then, starting in Chapter 9: Effective Business Writing, the discussion applies lessons learned from the previous foundational chapters into common business issues and applications. From paraphrasing and plagiarism to style to the research process, the expectations increase as several common business documents are presented, including text messages and e-mail, memorandums and letters, the business proposal, business report, resume, and the sales message. This textbook has been used in classes at:Arizona Western College, Hostos Community College, Virginia State University, Truckee Meadows Community College, San Jose State University, Concordia University - Irvine, University New Brunswick - Fredericton, Cerritos College, University of Houston - Downtown, Flat World Knowledge University, A-C Central High School, University of The People, Truckee Meadows Community College, Danville Community High School
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The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business
Terence Lau; Lisa Johnson · Saylor Foundation · 2011
Terence Lau & Lisa Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a book for today's student, who expects learning to be comprised not only of substance, but also of interactive exercises and multimedia. This book streamlines the presentation of material to ensure that every page is relevant, engaging, and interesting to undergraduate business students, without losing the depth of coverage that they need to be successful in their academic journeys and in their professional careers. This is not Legal Environment of Business (LEB) ”light.“ Rather, this is LEB without risk of students' eyes glazing over in boredom or from lack of comprehension. This is LEB presented in an exciting way, where every page is interesting to students and relevant to real life. The authors recognize that the sheer volume of information to be covered in a LEB course makes it one of the more challenging courses for the business undergraduate. Not only do typical LEB texts read like the first year curriculum at law school, but also the LEB course is grounded in the humanities, which can make the subject even more demanding for students who are also taking statistics, economics, finance, and accounting. Each chapter contains not only substantive law, but also illustrative videos, interactive exercises for hands-on learning, and discussion questions for critical thought. Additionally, each chapter presents ”A Question of Ethics“ section, which contains real world ethical dilemmas relevant to the topic under study. These videos, exercises, discussion questions, and ethics sections all provide opportunities for students to apply concepts that they are learning in the context of relevant LEB topics that shape or restrain actual decision-makers' actions. It's real world practice in the safety of the classroom environment. Lau & Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a textbook that students will enjoy reading. This will encourage them to come to class prepared, and fre
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Principles of Marketing
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing · 2015
Principles of Marketing teaches the experience and process of actually doing marketing – not just the vocabulary. It carries five dominant themes throughout in order to expose students to marketing in today's environment: Service dominant logic — This textbook employs the term "offering" instead of the more traditional First "P" — product. That is because consumers don't sacrifice value when alternating between a product and a service. They are evaluating the entire experience, whether they interact with a product, a service, or a combination. So the fundamental focus is providing value throughout the value chain, whether that value chain encompasses a product, service, or both. Sustainability — Increasingly, companies are interested in the impact they are having on their local community as well as the overall environment. This is often referred to as the "triple bottom line" of financial, social, and environment performance. Ethics and social responsibility — Following on the sustainability notion is the broader importance of ethics and social responsibility in creating successful organizations. The authors make consistent references to ethical situations throughout chapter coverage, and end of chapter material in most chapters will encompass ethical situations. Global coverage — the authors deliberately entitled Chapter 1 "What is Marketing?" Whether it is today's price of gasoline, the current U.S. presidential race, or Midwestern U.S. farming, almost every industry and company needs strong global awareness. And today's marketing professionals must understand the world in which they and their companies operate. Metrics — Firms today have the potential to gather more information than ever before about their current and potential customers. That information gathering can be costly, but it can also be very revealing. With the potential to capture so much more detail about micro transactions, firms should now be more able to answer "well, what this marketing strategy
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The Power of Selling
Kimberly Richmond · Saylor Foundation · 2010
The Power of Selling is the perfect textbook to teach students about the proven process of selling. More important, it teaches students how to apply the tenets of selling to how to sell themselves and get the job they want, with the same process professional sales people learn (or brush up) on their own selling skills. What makes someone successful in sales? Are great sales people born or made? Is there one magic selling process, or does the process change based on the business‚ or the customer? How can the selling process really come alive for students in the classroom? How do students learn how to sell for life, not just for a course? The Power of Selling by Kim Richmond answers these questions and makes the principles of selling come alive. Kim looks at the topic of selling through a different lens, and provides inspiration and ideas. The Power of Selling provides an exciting and interactive experience for both professors and students through the use of 4 unique elements: 1. Content The content is based on the core selling tenets so instructors will find the familiar principles of selling. In addition, the impact of Sales 2.0 is addressed at every stage including how to use interactive tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, and wikis effectively. 2. Selling U: The last section of each chapter is called Selling U. It applies the concepts covered in the chapter to a student's job search. Selling U topics include how to think about yourself as a brand, how to create a powerful cover letter and resume, how to create your personal elevator pitch, how to use networking and informational interviews to get the word out about your brand, how to prepare and dress for an interview, and how to negotiate and accept the right job offer. What makes The Power of Selling different is that Selling U is integrated into every chapter, which makes this text the ultimate guide to selling yourself. 3. Video Resources:Videos are used throughout the book. Additional videos tha