Describes a statewide demonstration project at the University of Illinois at Chicago to provide consumer health information to public libraries and clinics using InfoTrac's Health Reference Center CD-ROM database. Highlights include system specifications for the client-server network, planned enhancements, and preliminary evaluation results. (LRW)

Describes how riddles can help children develop intellectually and interact socially. Discusses riddles for children in various works: geography, poetry, mathematics, and folklore. Presents a sampler of creative activities for children, including play-acting, interviewing parents, designing exhibits, imitating news reporters, and setting up a…

Discusses censorship in school districts and in school libraries. Discusses controversial material, handling objections, censorship by omission, and book selection. (SR)

Describes access to Canadian government information and compares it to the U.S. depository library system. Topics include the Canadian Depository Service Program, privatization, electronic publications, departmental autonomy, cost recovery for information, government policies, and future possibilities. (LRW)

An Associate Head of Information Services and the Internet Gopher project leader discuss the future of Gopher with the arrival of the World Wide Web. Strengths and weaknesses of both systems are addressed. One expert sees a future with new versions of both; the other predicts a next generation of information systems combining their features. (PEN)

With the advent of CD-ROMs, libraries began to limit online searching via DIALOG. To increase DIALOG's market share, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) Corporation is developing graphical user interfaces using World Wide Web and Windows technology and has reached agreements with Knight Ridder Information and with most of their database…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science held the 1996 Annual Meeting and Science Innovation Exposition in Baltimore (Maryland). Symposia considered interdisciplinary research issues, and seminars and multimedia presentations highlighted the librarian's role in Internet use and infrastructure, "The Textbook of the Future,"…

Discusses wife assault and reports on two studies in which the social service network is viewed as an information system and which question the effectiveness of community responses to the information needs of battered women. Library services to individual women, social services providers, and public policy or decision makers are suggested.…

Guidelines on the review writing process for librarians are provided. Reasons for reviewing, tips on getting started, and suggestions for great reviews are presented. Benefits include expanding personal knowledge, stimulating scholarly debate, and giving young librarians in undergraduate and college libraries a place to start publishing. (AEF)

Examines the digital divide in the United Kingdom and the United States. Topics include the adequacy of government initiatives; findings from the "Barriers to Libraries as Agents of Lifelong Learning" research project; issues related to social class, gender, and age; personal computer ownership; and general use of libraries. (LRW)

Asserts that ever-increasing Internet access is rendering the functions of reference librarians obsolete. Presents the points of view of several two-year-college librarians, who insist that libraries will always require experienced reference librarians to act as organizers and guides to information seekers. Also discusses librarians' changing…

Discussion of access to electronic resources and library services via Web sites focuses on accessibility barriers to the disabled that have created a digital divide. Topics include legal requirements, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act; barriers to implementation; and implementation…

Discusses sequential art, also known as comic books or graphic novels, as reading motivators, as content, as literature, and as the subject itself. Includes comic resources for school library media specialists and describes the White House Conference that Laura Bush has promoted that has given library media centers national visibility. (LRW)

Discusses work done by information professionals and the increase in teleworking, using telecommunications technology; considers teleworkers' information needs; examines ways in which library and information science professionals can facilitate teleworkers' information access; and investigates information environments of 20 teleworkers and 20…

Describes the Research Assistance Program that was developed for African American undergraduates to improve their library research skills. Topics include cognitive style of African American students; and skill objectives, including formulating a research topic, effective search strategies, discernment and source equivalence, and information…