There is no doubt that modern societies, or rather, modern society as a whole, must cope with an extremely interesting and, at the same time, equally critical social phenomenon of change. Although both social change and the management of change are not unknown in the history of human civilization and not outside the experience of the human race, this specific case nevertheless has the characteristics of a very difficult, serious, and urgent problem concerning both the present and the future of human societies.

It is obvious that the reference here is to the sudden, unexpected, extremely rapid, and unbelievably wide and deep penetration of the so-called Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in almost every aspect and side of modern human life. The quality of this change, i.e., the creation of a parallel digital environment for human day-to-day activities (e-banking, e-learning, etc.) and the quantity of this change, expressed in terms of speed, size, areas of influence, and magnitude of power, make this case of change unique in the history of humankind and, at the same time, its management by modern societies extremely difficult.

We should take into account that an enormous amount of changes, bringing forth many new and hitherto unknown things, activities, capabilities, possibilities, media, etc., took place almost within a single human generation. We should thus admit that society, and especially the scientific community, must react both in time and with the broadest possible view of the whole situation if we are to cope effectively with this modern kind of 'genie of Aladdin'. And, fortunately, this is obviously the case if we consider the extensive number of scientific activities (conferences, workshops, publications, etc.) organized all over the world, covering every aspect of the problem at hand.

The workshop entitled 'Surveillance in Academia', organized by the Ionian University, Department of Archive and Library Sciences, in collaboration with LiSS (Living in Surveillance Societies Programme), is a very good example of such a scientific reaction and approach, which tries not only to handle the unavoidable technicalities of a new environment but, at the same time, to address very important aspects of the whole situation, aspects related to attitudes, ethical and moral issues, established practices, etc.

[Excerpt from the publisher's text]