Examines three topics related to electronic publishing and distribution: the national context, including NREN (National Education and Research Network); issues of market readiness, funding, delivery standards, access software, intellectual property concerns, and pricing and licensing models that must be resolved; and descriptions of seven services…

Describes humorous presentations to heighten adults' awareness of their dependence on printed materials in contrast to children's high level of comfort with electronic media, and the changes in information delivery that are already in place. (KRN)

This article assesses the state of electronic publishing outside the realm of the industrialized West. Topics include global information disparities in number of databases, telecommunications infrastructure, telephone service, and computer networks; recent projects by nongovernmental organizations; and remaining challenges, including costs, lack…

Examines current OCLC practices and future possibilities under the leadership of K. Wayne Smith. Topics discussed include the changing roles of libraries, business, and government; the electronic information future; network possibilities, including the NREN (National Research and Education Network); future collaborations; online databases; and…

Discusses the impact of electronic publishing, information networks, and new ways of accessing information on libraries. It is noted that the virtual library will still need human direction and that librarians' primary responsibilities will be in finding knowledge and teaching. (EA)

Examines technological innovation, analyzes books in academia, and refutes arguments in defense of the book, and discusses its reincarnation. A sidebar highlights the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, a research center focusing on economic, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and mass media. (PEN)

Describes a new scholarly review process for courseware and other interactive learning and information system products. The purpose is to provide a mechanism to support faculty in the creative scholarship of designing and developing interactive products, evaluating their quality, disseminating results, and providing opportunities for the…

Discusses the role of librarians in not only providing but also creating resources to fit users' information needs and describes the development of a Web-based statistical abstract called "Colorado by the Numbers" that was developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder library to provide state socioeconomic data. (LRW)

Discusses problems and as-yet unresolved questions about public access to government documents raised by electronic publishing. One solution is libraries should adapt to include electronic files of government publications and include them in the growing digital collections. The way that librarians approach the struggle to maintain free and open…

This article discusses the web and print resources used in selecting material for a dental sciences collection in an academic library at a public university without a medical library. The process of creating a collection quickly and with limited resources is described, from the initial collection assessment to the decision-making processes…

The selection of resources for nursing is influenced by the type of nurse client and the institutional setting. Clients include students, professionals and educators. They may use academic and public libraries or resource centers in patient care settings such as hospitals. Nursing collections support four purposes: education, research, clinical…

Within the existing system of education, student work rarely has any value beyond the particular course that it is created for. The work is graded and then usually discarded. The authors describe in this article a way that student work can be systematically made available for use by others beyond the immediate learning context within which it is…

This study analyzed the responses of K-8 human resource directors and principals to teacher education students' electronic portfolios used for hiring. From the focus groups several themes emerged. First, because the principals do not have much time to examine portfolios of any kind, the ideal electronic portfolio would include only a few clearly…

This article describes the evolution of communication technologies, accompanying transformations in everyday communicative activity, and pedagogical possibilities these tools support in second and foreign language (L2) settings. We begin with an overview of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and uses of the Internet to mediate…

This report discusses the educational uses of the "wiki," an increasingly popular approach to online community development. Wikis are defined and compared with "blogging" methods; characteristics of major wiki engines are described; and wiki features and selection criteria are examined.