Discusses the progress made toward obtaining freedom of information in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe. (CHC)

A guide to ongoing projects and recent publications regarding financial indicators in higher education is presented. Identified are: (1) current projects developing financial indicators for colleges and universities, (2) related work, (3) federal agency interest, and (4) readings on the topic. (MLW)

Offers a conceptualization of global newsworthiness, with implications for journalistic coverage of ideas instead of isolated events. Considers news reporting as heightening awareness of ideas, problems, and solutions. (RL)

Annotates such recently published sources of information as surveys of current practices and general discussions, describes the 1979 NIE (National Institute of Education) Minimum Competency Study (report to be published), and lists the addresses of organizations that collect information, develop their own tests, and publish useful studies and…

Education of teachers in Canada has done little to provide them with background from which to initiate Canadian studies. There exists a lack of awareness of information sources available to help locate Canadian learning resources. "Canadian Materials" is a quarterly review of periodicals and learning materials in all media formats. (SB)

Suggests action that performance technologists can take to incorporate multicultural considerations into institutional training programs: taking a multicultural inventory, developing screening tools, and using specific evaluation criteria. Alternatives for countering stereotypes/biases are presented, and information sources are provided.…

Reviews the operational steps in conducting a major needs assessment study. Discusses who should be involved in the process, when the process should be conducted, how the process should be conducted, general steps, and criteria for an effective model. (CT)

Provides citations and annotations of basic information sources for selected aspects of online databases and services, as well as suggestions on where and how to make professional contacts with groups and associations in the field. This is the first "outing" of the journal's new column on online services. (JD)

Discusses materials available in the field of alcohol education and the organizations that produce them. Included is a resource list for audiovisual materials and a directory of publishers. (Author)

Information about drugs is a basic component of any drug education program. This information must be perceived as credible and trustworthy by the target audience. Results of 16 studies indicate that friends, mass media, and professionals rank highly for most of the population as credible, trusted sources of information. (Author)

Tips for teachers on where and how to search for state history materials. (SJL)

Discusses the common practice within the media of relying on a few "science celebrities," rather than specialists conducting relevant research, for their scientific information. Cites the marijuana controversy as an example of this situation. (JMF)

Details a study of advertising appearing on United States and Canadian television. Findings suggest that the traditional economic defense of advertising as a source of information for the consumer is a weak one. (FL)

The focus of Part Two of this series is on techniques for searching special applications in the behavioral sciences, such as grant sources, dissertation abstracts, audiovisual materials, and government publications. A sample search demonstrates the extent to which retrieval may be enhanced by exploring multiple databases for interdisciplinary…

Evaluates these two bibliographic databases for geosciences information in terms of their content coverage, search methodologies, user effort, and analysis of results. (SW)