The authors discuss the long-term accumulation of unstandardized and inaccessible content within the Libguides system and the decision-making process to create and implement a set of standards using the migration to the LibGuides2 platform as a vehicle for change. Included in the discussion are strategies for the creation of standards and…

This 2014 document is an adaptation of the 2012 release of "Data Sharing Agreement Checklist" intended for K-12 audiences. Presented as a checklist, the document summarizes the requirements for the written agreements under the audit or evaluation exception that is specified in FERPA and that also applies to the IDEA for Part C early…

This article offers an overview of the framework that Sampson County Public Schools (North Carolina) used to critically reflect on the current state of their middle grades schools. The article also highlights the changes that resulted from the district-wide analysis and the ways in which these changes led to a significant increase in the academic…

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) uses a Blackboard course management system (CMS) to support faculty and students. To supplement the CMS, the university created a custom "Check My Activity" (CMA) self-service feedback tool for students. In addition to comparing their online course activity against a class average,…

Finding new repertoire poses endless obstacles for musicians. Often the search for an unknown piece or composer presents such an unforeseen challenge that the actual aesthetic and technical success of the work becomes secondary. A major contributing factor is the lack of an accessible and centralized database. Many notable bibliographic reference…

Because the transition to a knowledge-based economy requires an educated workforce, colleges and universities have made retention of students--particularly those who are academically underprepared--an institutional priority. College completion leads to economic and social advancement for students and is also critical to the nation's economic and…

Describes the nature and function of source and reference databases in the geosciences and discusses current trends in the development of such databases. A 32-item reference list and a directory listing geoscience databases from around the world (including information on organizational sponsors and online accessibility) accompany the text. (JL)

Because experience with large information retrieval (IR) and database management (DBM) systems has shown that they are not adequate for the handling of textual material, two Swedish companies--Paralog and AU-System Network--have joined in a venture to develop a software package which combines features from IR and DMB systems to form a Text Data…

The three articles in this special section on document image files discuss intelligent character recognition, including comparison with optical character recognition; selection of displays for document image processing, focusing on paperlike displays; and imaging hardware, software, and vendors, including guidelines for system selection. (MES)

Provides a checklist of concerns for libraries planning to implement shared research databases in a consortium environment, based on experiences at OhioLINK. Highlights include database selection criteria, licensing, pricing, funding, vendor considerations, database profiling, custom data processing, hardware selection, database access,…