Course management systems (CMSs) support thousands of courses at colleges and universities worldwide, delivering fully online courses as well as supplementing traditional face-to-face instruction. While quite a few studies have focused on the numerous benefits and technological advantages of CMSs, there is a paucity of empirical work focused on…

Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies led the social whirl of the information industry. Publishers and librarians tried to keep their products and services relevant by mixing authoritative content with user involvement, but that was not enough. Enhancing interfaces, adding new forms of content, and making strategic acquisitions--all are…

In our attempts to track changes in geological practice over time and to isolate the source of these changes, we have found that they are largely connected with the germination of new geologic subdisciplines. We use keyword and title data from articles in 68 geology journals to track the changes in influence of each subdiscipline on geology over…

Three hosted federated search tools, Follett One Search, Gale PowerSearch Plus, and WebFeat Express, were configured and implemented in a school library. Databases from five vendors and the OPAC were systematically searched. Federated search results were compared with each other and to the results of the same searches in the database's native…

Students acquire an understanding of the differences between TCP and UDP (connection-oriented vs. connection-less) data transfers as they analyze network packet data collected during one of a series of labs designed for an introductory network essentials course taught at Boise State University. The learning emphasis of the lab is not on the…

Effectiveness studies have largely concentrated on the school as the unit of analysis, although an increasing number have directed their attention to the teacher as the main unit of interest. But policy is often directed through organisations at the district level or what is sometimes known as the Education Authority (EA). Few studies have…

While the traditional uses of InterLibrary Loan (ILL) can be cumbersome, much of the work is now done electronically. Google and WorldCat can tell patrons which libraries in their areas owns the the titles they want, but they cannot always tell patrons whether there is a copy on the shelf available for loan. Several ILS vendors and OCLC are…

Electronic information is a vital but complex component in the modern health care system, fueling ongoing efforts to develop a universal electronic health record infrastructure. This innovation creates a substantial tension between two desirable values: the increased quality and utility of patient medical records and the protection of the privacy…

This book includes basic information to locate and compare available options for library automation based on various criteria such as hardware requirements, operating systems, components and applications, and price, and provides the necessary contact information to allow further investigation. The major part of the directory lists 211 software…

This paper describes the techniques for implementing a full-screen, custom SPIRES interface for a public-use library database. The database-independent protocol that controls the system is described in detail. Source code for an entire working application using this interface is included. The protocol, with less than 170 lines of procedural code,…

Manually managing student test record data at the college level can be inefficient in terms of both time and accuracy. A computer database program was implemented at a community college in Florida to improve student test record management. The database consisted of the test records of students currently enrolled in College Preparatory English and…

This paper describes analytical concepts that can be applied to a comprehensive database containing information on students, teachers, and schools. The concepts are presented in terms of displays, potential inferences, and possible difficulties. Statistical techniques are mentioned, but not rigorously developed. Focus is on displays that can be…

This paper reviews the services provided by the ERIC system and suggests ways to broaden its scope through coordination with other existing education databases. The first of four major sections chronicles the evolution of ERIC and explains why it has not been able to exercise true bibliographic control over the literature of education. The second…

During distributed virtual laboratory experiment sessions, a major problem is to be able to collect, store, manage and share heterogeneous data (intermediate results, analysis, annotations, etc) manipulated simultaneously by geographically distributed teammates composing a virtual team. The electronic notebook is a possible response to this…

Discussion of issues concerned with providing library reference services to machine readable data files focuses on numeric databases. The team approach used at the University of Florida, which incorporates reference librarians, programers and data managers, database producers and vendors, and professional associations, is described. A bibliography…