Explains the Open Directory Project (ODP), an attempt to catalog the World Wide Web by creating a human-compiled Web directory. Discusses the history of the project; open source models; the use of volunteer editors; quality control; problems and complaints; and use of ODP data by commercial services such as Google. (LRW)

Discussion of women and leadership focuses on women in librarianship. Highlights include the evolution of thought about women and leadership; feminist research and theory; Margaret McIntosh's model for leadership, including womanless leadership, problems in leadership, and leadership redefined; equity in leadership; and implications for…

Explores why, although Golden Key has gained a large membership, many other honor societies question its mission. Its founder has been ousted amid charges of lax standards and improper encounters with students. (EV)

Describes how, backed by a wealthy alumna, Wells College's efforts to spruce up Aurora, New York have angered residents. (EV)

Considers some of the most fundamental problems in music information retrieval, challenging the common assumption that searching on pitch alone is likely to be satisfactory for all purposes. Discusses special issues related to polyphonic music, user-interface issues, and the notion of relevance for music information retrieval. (Contains 52…

Describes the goals of the CLEF (Cross-Language Evaluation Forum) series of evaluation campaigns for information retrieval systems operating on European languages. Examines the difficulties of organizing an activity which aims at an objective evaluation of systems running on and over a number of different languages. (Author/LRW)

Makes the case that undergraduate science education is debilitating and crippling because of its focus on memorization and rote learning. (MM)

Academic anxiety interferes with achievement and performance, as well as social and psychological development among children and adults. Although the writings of Michel Foucault do not address anxiety directly, his themes of knowledge and power have been applied to education and describe relationships that are likely to create anxiety among some…

With the processes of globalization and localization, the local availability of knowledge and skills, and the transfer of technology and innovation to industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and the wider society have become increasingly important. In recent years, there have been many initiatives across Organization for Economic Cooperation…

This qualitative study highlighted student perspectives on barriers to success at a community college located in a south Texas city. The study examined barriers to student success, the knowledge that successful students possess to overcome the barriers, and the actions that successful students undertake to overcome the barriers. Padilla's (2004)…

A 2006 study of apprentices commencing with a Group Training Organisation in an Australian regional centre identified factors that appear to support apprentices in their first year. The research demonstrates that school subject selection and access to work-related experiences while still at school make an important difference to completion of the…

This article presents the state education finance and governance profile of North Carolina. The state has 214 school districts and a total enrollment of 1,461,740 students in 2,513 public elementary and secondary schools. The current expenditures per pupil in 2007-2008 added up to $8,521, equaling 19.8% of the median state household income. As in…

Recently, more and more researchers have been exploring uses of mobile technology that support new instructional strategies. Based on research findings related to peer and self assessment, this study developed a Mobile Assessment Participation System (MAPS) using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) as the platform. In addition, the study proposes…

In the previous report in this series, Web browser loading times were measured in 12 Asian countries, and were found to be up to four times slower than commonly prescribed as acceptable. Failure of webpages to load at all was frequent. The current follow-up study compares these loading times with the complexity of the Internet routes linking the…

An individualized English composition laboratory at a community college maintained a student completion rate of only 45% to 55% over a period of several semesters as a result of the following factors: the week long pretest administered to determine student needs was intimidating to students; students became frustrated at being asked to work on…