Discusses the developments that have positively or adversely affected abstracting and indexing services over the past several decades, addressing such topics as the impact of computers and the migration from print-on-paper to online information provision. Forecasts for the near and long-term future are made and a reference list is included. (JL)

Presents a brief description of 10 current videodisc projects being conducted in the United States as examples of educational applications of this technology. Issues and problems associated with the videodisc are discussed as they relate to various projects. (JEG)

Discusses why, when preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Facilities Condition Audit (FCA)--including software-based delivery of findings--facilities managers should avoid complicating the bidding process with nondescript data-linking requirements. Presents ways to get an apples-to-apples comparison of bids for a proposed FCA project and…

Surveys the field and literature of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial data representation as it relates to GIS. Highlights include GIS terms, data types, and operations; vector representations and raster, or grid, representations; spatial indexing; elevation data representations; large spatial databases; and problem areas and future…

Describes and evaluates a system that selects key information from an event database by reasoning about event frequencies, frequencies of relations between events, and domain-specific importance measures. The system aggregates similar information and plans a summary tailored to a stereotypical user. (AEF)

This manual provides guidance and documentation for users of the public release data for the student component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). The general aim of NELS, a continuing long-term project, is to study the educational, vocational, and personal development of students at various grades and the factors that…

This guide discusses four types of microcomputer-based communication programs that could prove useful to evaluators: (1) the direct communication of information generated by one computer to another computer; (2) using the microcomputer as a terminal to a mainframe computer to input, direct the analysis of, and/or output data using a statistical…

Columbia University's major program to distribute its central administrative data processing to its various schools and departments is described. The Distributed Administrative Management Information System (DAMIS) will link every department and school within the university via micrcomputers, terminals, and/or minicomputers to the central…

This report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission was prepared in response to a Congressional mandate to study data banks, automatic data processing programs, and information systems of governmental, regional and private organizations to determine standards and procedures in force for the protection of personal information. Recommendations…

This account of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) provides information on its background and origin, and traces the development of the system from initial planning in 1962 through mid-1979. Although this is essentially an overview of the growth of the system, some of the more complex aspects of the ERIC story are included in the…

Two basic requirements for the successful initiation of a program for test assembly are the development of detailed item content classification systems and the delineation of the professional judgements made in building a test from a pool of items to detailed content, ability, and statistical specifications in terms precise enough to be translated…

The requisites for the development of sophisticated and meaningful information systems being applied in varying degrees in universities and colleges are discussed. It is suggested that a philosophy that provides for an adequate, reasonable amount of computer power for administrative use is mandatory, and that users should not be slaves to the…

Proposed training procedures and materials, and participants' questions on the use of the Southwest Regional Laboratory's (SWRL) student monitoring system data base in the Instructional Management System (IMS) are described. The training sessions were undertaken because IMS Version 3 requires classroom teachers to use special materials and…

Computer routines designed to determine if a song already exists in a song file data base are described. Written in FORTRAN IV, SONG FILE DATA MATCH compares the note sequence of songs in the data base and the one to be added to it. Information is then presented to the user which analyzes the sequence of notes and compares them to other songs.…

This study was designed to determine the relative impact of dichotomized task performance data compared to percent time-spent estimates for those members performing each task on the group job descriptions determined through application of the Comprehensive set of Occupational Data Analysis Programs (CODAP). Using groups identified by a routine…