Discusses difficulties in defining instructional systems design (ISD) and presents five ways the field is viewed, ranging from a narrow view emphasizing media selection to a complete ISD view. The ISD view emphasizes five main components: educational theory and research, system analysis, diffusion, consulting/interpersonal relations, and project…

Presents a fictionalized account illustrating the process by which willful states, misguided experts, cunning marketeers, and overworked teachers and administrators produce textbooks that are ill-written, confusing, misleading, and boring. (BJV)

Discusses both the advantages and the limitations of the Canadian cataloging-in-publication (CIP) system, a decentralized system which began in January 1976 with three principal library agencies--the University of British Columbia, York University (transferred to the University of Toronto in 1982), and the Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec in…

Growth in audiences and collections cannot mask the directionless drift of the American museum as it is buffeted by the moods and fashions of the moment in art, politics, and entertainment. The museum's current problems are examined. Museums must recover a historical sense of their social role in America. (RM)

Describes a faculty training program instituted by the Instructional Media Center at University of California Northridge, which helps faculty members to become competent content specialists by working with media specialists to produce instructional media, and exposes them to the media center's operation. The program's objectives, operation, and…

Discussion of public access microcomputer service areas in public libraries covers walk-in access, software/hardware circulation, online call-in services, and special programs. Principles for successful public access programs are also discussed, including hardware/software selection. Problems relating to equipment breakdown, diskette storage, and…

Recounts experiences of the Carbon Dioxide Information Center, a technical information analysis center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has utilized a microcomputer for exchange of automated bibliographic references. Procedures and problems in adding microcomputer information to mainframe databases are noted and other microcomputer…

Describes facilities for paraprofessional training and professional education in library and information work in Pakistan. Highlights include University Grants Commission Curriculum for Library and Information Science, lack of teaching staff and professional literature, post-experience courses offered through Anglo-Pakistani cooperation program,…

This article examines the state of development of library education in Jordan and Tunisia and pinpoints problems affecting this development in order to verify if library education in countries with similar cultures and type of economy evolves similarly and faces same problems. A brief introduction to the countries is provided. (EJS)

Notes four Ages of Access to published knowledge--Individual, Local, National, and International--and considers impact of computers and electronic technology. Speed of access, automatic catalogs, digital text storage and transmission, need for observance of common standards and procedures, international cooperation, and worldwide system of…

Suggests that if librarians and libraries are to continue to fulfill their true tasks, they need to adapt to changes resulting from new technology and overcome the professional paralysis that has made most major libraries largely unusable. Problems of size, arrangement, and catalogs are identified as contributors to unusable library. (EJS)

Relates problems prompted by implementation of online circulation and cataloging systems in Polytechnic of North London's Library Service. Conversion of records from former card catalog to computer file and organizational problems (position of central technical services unit, position of Library Service in total information handling structure of…

Discusses two major categories of problems relating to literature access in developing and peripheral countries--inability to access/use secondary services and inability to obtain relevant primary literature in timely and cost-efficient fashion. Two approaches for solutions involving regional and subregional networks are suggested. Eight sources…

Explores instructional design aspects of authoring software used to develop computer-assisted instruction; discusses nature of authoring languages and systems; describes instructional design implications and practical considerations in using authoring systems; and outlines needed developments in authoring software including intelligent tutoring…

Identifies four basic categories of assistance contributing to improvement of West African library service, depending on whether outside resources (international agencies, bilateral assistance programs, individual institutions, philanthropic foundations) are directed toward personnel development, collection development, library construction, or…