Uses chaos systems concepts to analyze a case study of rapid growth and conflict in a southwestern school district. Difficulties arising from the need for very precise initial measurements, data forms adaptable to pattern modeling, and precise meanings for chaotic systems concepts limit chaotic theory's application to educational administration…

Explains how a new systems administrator can make good first impressions, become familiar with the library, and take charge. Describes ways of working effectively with equipment and human resources, and outlines types of library staff personalities the systems librarian may encounter. Discusses organizing the data gathered into action plans. (AEF)

Uses a reliability framework to examine the role that relevance judgments play in quantitative information retrieval (IR) performance measurement with an eye toward issues introduced by Internet IR. Argues that a theoretical basis for reliable measurement is possible if the relevance yardstick is reconsidered in light of recent research and if the…

According to any accounting method, ERP investments are among the largest single concentrated investments in dollars and human resources ever made by higher education in any area.

Designing an EAP course requires collaboration among various concerned stakeholders, including students, subject teachers, institutional administrators and EAP teachers themselves. While needs analysis is often considered fundamental to EAP, alternative research methodologies may be required to facilitate meaningful collaboration between these…

Quality of e-learning systems is one of the important topics that the researchers are investigating in the last years. This paper refines the concept of quality of e-learning systems and proposes a new framework, called TICS (Technology, Interaction, Content, Services), which focuses on the most important aspects to be considered when designing or…

Social studies education has been endangered for a long time, with no aspect more threatened than the elementary program. This situation is problematic in itself, but its effects on the total social studies program are also pernicious. In this article, the author discusses the problems and challenges in social education, particularly in elementary…

Information systems (IS) process modeling using the technique of Data Flow Diagramming (viz., Systems Analysis) can be defined as a complex task for IS designers. This study draws from the domains of educational psychology and organizational behavior in examining the training of novices in conceptual process modeling. Specifically, an experiment…

Traditional organizational theory mandates that organizations predict and stay in control in order to avoid chaos. This book proposes that members of organizations work at developing a new frame of reference for understanding organizational life. The book combines insights from the new science of complexity with insights from psychoanalysis and…

This report details a study performed as an interplay between modeling and reality which was designed to find operators that affect the information organizer of an individual in a social system. The operator is defined as a system element that affects other elements. The information organizer is defined as a coordinating interface between the…

Different people have a diversity of needs and expectations when approaching an information retrieval system, and providing people with the ease and efficiency to access information is important when designing systems. By examining the man-machine interface from the cognitive viewpoint, it is possible to investigate how a person interacts with an…

Although most models of connected discourse are strikingly similar in the types of relationships they describe, they are strikingly different in two areas: the unit of analysis and the dimensions on which cohesion versus coherence are described. Common systems for analyzing written text use the sentence, T-unit, clause, or proposition as the unit…

Based on analysis of the current system and comparison with existing and possible alternatives, this report evaluates the effectiveness of the Indiana library cooperative network, a de facto network based on the activities of individual libraries, Area Library Services Authorities (ALSAs), the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority…

In the first part of the paper, the author discusses his observation that teachers perceive any form of theorizing in schools to be intellectually dependent on educational researchers. Teachers assume that their access to educational theories depends on a group external to themselves and that theory has little practical value in the classroom. In…

Describes a group of systems analysis courses which utilizes a computer model of a company which makes house wire to provide a realistic representation of the complexities involved in industrial management. (CP)