The University of South Alabama's Baugh Biomedical Library recently initiated a chat reference service targeted at distance education students in the biomedical sciences. After one year of service, the library conducted an evaluation of the chat reference to assess the success of this mode of reference service. Both traditional reference and…

Vision impairment affects approximately 17% of Americans age 45 and older. Yet, 94% of adults with self-reported vision loss did not receive any type of vision rehabilitation services to help them retain independence. These findings underscore the need for promoting awareness about what can be done when vision fails. A national dissemination…

It has just been announced that the 11th European Prison Education Association (EPEA) International Conference will take place in Dublin, Ireland from the 13th to 17th June 2007. Further details and an application form will be available in September 2006. Regular updates will be available at www.epea.org.

An interesting and effective way to showcase the wide variety of fields to which differential equations can be applied is to have students give short oral presentations on a specific application. These talks, which have been presented by 30-40 students per year in our differential equations classes, provide exposure to a diverse array of topics…

The Follett library software system is the literary conscience of St. Francis High School. It reports on overdue books, checkout statistics, and online catalog search records. The circulation numbers tell that reading is a tough sell for today's teens. As the school's custodian of books and information, the author describes his efforts at leading…

This paper examines the postgraduate student body studying by distance learning within the Department of Information Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The demands of both students and employers have been the chief influences on the evolution of the specialist postgraduate programmes and also the later generalist and further…

Library media specialists in Hawaii, like many of their colleagues elsewhere in the nation, are exploring ways to design and implement a type of student-oriented assessment that focuses on student performance. To tackle the issue of assessment in Hawaii's school library media centers, twenty-four K-12 library media specialists are currently…

There has been a national call for increased use of computers and technology in schools. Currently, however, little is known about how students use and learn from these new technologies. This study examines how students search for, browse, and learn specific information when performing an on-line (Web) versus an off-line (Library) search.…

It is not surprising that the expanding American waistline is correlating to a growing need for health information. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity contributes to an increased risk for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and some cancers. And though general medical books that list 100 different…

In this article, the author reports the ripple effects of the energy squeeze due to Hurricane Katrina and other factors that sent energy costs skyrocketing. Energy costs are a good part of why budget growth, which has been steady over the past five years, has been slowing down. The projected change from FY2005 to FY2006 is only 3.3%, compared to…

In a world progressing with dizzying acceleration into the Information Age, the slow, measured approach of the traditional university can place administrator, faculty member, and student alike at a disadvantage. To move into this brave new world, the academic animal needs tools. "Beyond 2020: Envisioning the Future of Universities in America" is…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their…

Given the abundance of open education initiatives that aim to make educational assets freely available online, the time seems ripe to explore the potential of open education to transform the economics and ecology of education. Despite the diversity of tools and resources already available--from well-packaged course materials to simple games, for…

Some students at the master-level viewed research methodology courses negatively. This study investigated six factors that changed attitudes of graduate school students toward research during the course of a semester at a mid-sized university (University X) located in a western state. To facilitate this study, a survey instrument (Student Research…

The ever-increasing availability of electronic information resources online and on CD-ROM presents library media specialists, teachers, and students with a new set of challenges for accessing information. Electronic information resources enable access to nonlinear information, which allows searchers to explore relationships and make connections…