The Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) database has been developed to support students' progressive discourse. Students can externalize their thoughts in the database in the form of texts or graphics, and then they can manipulate their represented knowledge in building further knowledge. They can asynchronously…

The School District Data Book is an electronic library containing social, economic, and administrative data for each of the 15,274 public school districts in the United States. It contains the most comprehensive demographic database ever developed for the nation's children. The School District Data Book is maintained on a set of 44 CD-ROMs. With a…

This thesaurus identifies nearly 4,000 subject heading terms that pertain specifically to the 41 countries that make up Africa south of the Sahara. The process of identifying these terms began with a search through the "Library of Congress Subject Headings," followed by searches of other subject heading materials and bibliographic…

The authors' experiences with electronic bulletin boards are recounted. Begun in 1986, the Physics Forum bulletin board for Massachusetts high school physics teachers spent its first few years as a resource of limited use only. In 1989, however, the National Science Foundation awarded the Five Colleges/Western Massachusetts Partnership a grant…

The World Wide Web provides a convenient source of databases and examples of survey resources for those who teach research methods. For example, lottery numbers as sources of data, demographic-based search engines, and surveys and their results can be found on the World Wide Web. These can stimulate discussion and lead to student analyses…

The Prince George's County Public School District is a multiculturally diverse district in Maryland serving a heterogeneous population of students, most of whom are black (70.3%) and many of whom qualify for free or reduced-price meals (40%). The school system welcomes the opportunity to participate in research projects, but has acknowledged its…

This ERIC curriculum package is intended to help people use the ERIC database, and may be used in a workshop setting under the guidance of a trainer or independently by individuals who want to learn about the ERIC system and how they can search the database and use its contents and services. The package consists of the following parts: (1) a…

This project provided access to telecommunication networks and research databases at 13 sites in the Mid-Atlantic region from May 1 to June 4, 1993. The project objectives were to pilot a regionally-developed education database; to provide access to this database and the Internet; to train participants to use telecommunications technology; to…

The complexity of the modern workplace means that decision makers are entertaining the idea of providing employees with software applications that are designed to provide true support and on-the-job training from the employee's desktop computer. An electronic performance support system (EPSS) is the tool that can make such training a reality when…

This paper examines some of the finding aids (e.g., information that provides insight into a group of records in an archival collection) currently used or being developed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It explores their practicality and whether and how they can be improved. In addition, the paper analyzes the factors…

This report presents the results of a study whose purpose was to determine what automation is present in the library media centers in Georgia secondary schools and how it has been funded. A three-part questionnaire was sent to the media specialists in 50% of the secondary schools in Georgia, which were randomly selected. The analysis of the…

It is a given today that we are living in an information age. Numerous studies and statistics attest to this fact. But not only is information proliferating at a rapid rate, the manner in which people are using information is changing, as is the nature of information itself. Such changes as these have meant that accessing and using information…

This book gives an overview of the leading-edge Internet application areas (streaming multimedia, collaborative tools, Web databases) and key information policy issues (privacy, censorship, information quality, and more). The text serves as a primer on understanding the forces--economic, legal, social, as well as technological--that are shaping…

Each semester at Miami University (Ohio) the secretaries struggle to update the Campus Directory database in order to print the campus telephone and office/class hours directory. It is a time-consuming process and the directory is usually late and out-of-date by the time it is printed. The university's Computer Services Manager has created a Web…

This document presents two papers given at a 1996 conference on children's mental health. The first paper is "New Approaches to Evaluating Systems" by Heather B. Weiss. This paper discusses the need for evaluations of systems change through the development and use of evaluation databases of both comprehensive programs and system reform efforts. It…