Presents issues and questions involved in online privacy from the information professional's perspective. Topics include consumer concerns; query confidentiality; securing computers from intrusion; electronic mail; search engines; patents and intellectual property searches; government's role; Internet service providers; database mining; user…

Reports findings from research that compared personal qualities demanded by employers with actual attributes of information and library studies (ILS) students in the United Kingdom. Discusses personality and ILS students and concludes that there is a gap between educators', students', and employers' views on whether students have the qualities…

This column assesses the state of library and information studies (LIS) research. Researchers and practitioners in various LIS fields address questions related to the research front and agenda for collection development; what the field needs to advance further; whether it needs a more sophisticated conceptual or theoretical framework; operational…

Illustrates that teachers in Great Britain select ideas from a set of traditional ecological values, theories, and practices originally developed for rural, not urban, environments. Presents an alternative conceptual and theoretical approach. Contains 51 references. (DDR)

Suggests that students and others often lack knowledge of how to act during departmental seminars in which scientists present their work. Presents a list of do's and don'ts for such occasions. (DDR)

Discusses the foundations of engineering design and highlights the problems confronting students who are required to make creative input into a design problem. Describes a way to implement creativity in teaching engineering design. Contains 38 references. (DDR)

Examines the perceptions and self-reported practices of 18 scientists participating in a year-long seminar series designed to explore issues of gender and ethnicity in science. Offers insight into how scientists can address the problem of women and ethnic minorities in science education, constraints encountered in attempts to implement pedagogical…

Examines the provision of information on disability to users with or without disabilities, and the role of information professionals. Highlights include obstacles to finding appropriate information; why access to information is important; differences between advocacy and information; and how the provision of disability information is being handled…

Examines how 20th century philosophers of science have influenced current physics educational research. Examines the introduction of a study of these philosophers in several courses, including the calculus-based introductory physics course on optics and modern physics. Concludes that students seem to have made a marked improvement in their…

Outlines the classical digital library model, which is derived from traditional practices of library and information science professionals, as an alternative to the database retrieval model. Reports preliminary results from an evaluation study of library and information professionals and endusers involved with primary care medicine. (AEF)

Information professionals and those who educate them face enormous challenges. Increasingly easy access to communication media and information is altering perceptions of the very nature of information work, globally. There is no doubt that there are many challenges facing present and prospective information professionals too. These include issues…

The author's primary purpose of this article is to share her working process--that is, the organization of a three-credit undergraduate course entitled Women in Science and Engineering, as well as the design and development of its curriculum, pedagogy, and methodology--and to reflect upon the results. To give life to this structure, a variety of…

Just how open-minded are modern scientists? In this paper we examine this question for the science faculty from New Zealand and UK universities. The Exeter questionnaire used by Preece and Baxter (2000) to examine superstitious beliefs of high school students and preservice science teachers was used as a basis for a series of in-depth interviews…

An apt analogy for busy, pacey and accountable classrooms is the industrial production line. In this, the teacher (or supervisor) controls the transmission of ready-made packages of knowledge by providing appropriate tasks, and then monitors and assesses their acquisition. The pupils (or labour force) work to complete these tasks. Classrooms like…

With the rise of poststructuralist critiques of the autonomous subject, attention has shifted from the nature of "intentional persuasion" to the constitutive nature of discourse. Although this turn has led to valuable new insights into the nature of rhetoric, it also threatens to discount one of the most vital contributions of the rhetorical…