Investigates engineers' information-seeking practices based on case studies in two organizations. Results show engineers search for documents to find people, search for people to get documents, and interact socially to get information without engaging in explicit searches. Discusses the design task and how computer systems could support searches…

A survey was conducted to test the coverage of search engines and to decide whether their partial coverage is an obstacle to using them to calculate Web impact factors. Results indicate that search engine coverage, even of large national domains, is extremely uneven and would be likely to cause misleading calculations. (Author/AEF)

Outlines the importance of chemical patents as an information source, highlighting the area of structural information and some of the special characteristics of the generic (Markush) type of description. Summarizes important research at Sheffield University (United Kingdom) performed from 1979 to 1995 by a team led by Mike Lynch. (PEN)

Provides background information on award-winning illustrator of children's books, Jerry Pinkney, recipient of three Caldecott Honor Medals and lists sources of biographical information. Suggests learning activities and includes an annotated bibliography of selected books illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. (AEF)

Using a content analysis approach, this investigation systematically studies messages about HIV/AIDS contained in young adult novels and considers the effects of these messages as an information source for the reader. Young adults and young adult fiction are defined, and coding sheets and bibliographies are appended. (Author/LRW)

Gives examples of how research can inform practice in correctional education by building theory and providing evidence of impact. Describes information sources: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, National Institute for Literacy, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, and National Center for…

This guide to the Internet for educators and parents of gifted children covers e-mail, talk, listservs, news groups, bulletin boards, Telnet, Gopher, World Wide Web, Mosaic, Netscape, file transfer protocol, and WAIS (Wide Area Information Service). Examples of sites for educators are included throughout the article. (DB)

Presents guidelines for the development and evaluation of training sessions for the use of electronic information resources. Outline includes audience level, content, audience size; registration/publication, length of session, trainer's experience, location and facility, workstations, handouts, other equipment and resources, type of presentation,…

Thirty-six learning disabled (LD) and 36 nondisabled children (mean age = 12) were presented with sentences under either of 2 conditions and then given a recognition and source attribution task. The study concluded that, though LD children did not differ in recognition performance, results did suggest that children with LD possess a general…

Survey responses from 179 community members in 3 rural Northern Ontario areas determined that involvement with information technologies that link individuals with sources outside the community was not related to local community participation. The exception was a negative relationship with participation on committees. (SK)

Investigates the effect of journal self-citedness on "Journal Citation Reports" (JCR) rankings of library and information science and genetics journals using data from 1994 on CD-ROM. Results for library and information science indicate that the effect of self-citedness on both JCR impact factor and total citation rankings was minimal.…

Discusses the need for students to be able to evaluate the information on Web sites. Topics include finding the source of a Web page; biases; timeliness; Web citations; links; grammatical and spelling errors; and digital literacy. A list of Web sites that discuss evaluation is included. (LRW)

Seeks to assess people's perceptions of the credibility of various categories of Internet information. Finds that respondents considered Internet information to be as credible as that obtained from television, radio, and magazines, but not as credible as newspaper information. Explores the social relevance of the findings and discusses them in…

Describes how weblogs (a form of online journal which provides series of snapshots of day-to-day Internet-related activity) are integrated with educational activity as resources for students and teachers. Suggests that educators can use weblogs to encourage students to access the Internet for useful information; weblogs can also help students…

Proposes a model, based on a "maximum ranking method," for more simply estimating the frequency of any same-frequency words and identifying the boundary point between high-frequency and low-frequency words in a text. This model was used successfully with English and Chinese texts, demonstrating that the frequency of words and number of…