This is a report of a hearing on December 10, 1981, before the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, regarding reauthorization of the Vocational Education Act of 1963. It focuses on the vocational education data system known as VEDS. Testimony includes…

Improvement of the two-way flow of information between the East-Pacific Region and the United States was the unifying theme of a seminar conducted by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and attended by representatives of 12 east Asian and Pacific countries at which this collection of five papers was presented. The papers address…

This summary of the deliberations and proposals of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science includes brief discussions of programs goals, a needs analysis, and the concerns of both libraries and the private sector. Recommendations for a national program are presented as eight priority objectives, and various facets of the…

The merging of print, broadcast, mobile, and common carrier communications services offers a challenge to federal regulatory agencies. A cause for concern that the information distributed must be as untarnished and unencumbered as possible and must afford the ultimate consumer the widest assortment and the greatest discretion over its…

User perception of data importance and the economic feasibility of hardware and storage devices will determine the future direction of online systems. A retrieval system's functions are ultimately dictated by database design. Early online sytems were designed for bibliographic information limited to citations only using sequential files. When…

This paper presented as part of a symposium on Issues in the Design and Implementation of Computer-Based Student Information Systems focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of these systems. It provides an update of the Buckley Amendment or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and a reminder of related codes of ethics. Four…

Description of database management systems for microcomputers highlights system features and factors to consider in microcomputer system selection. A method for ranking database management systems is explained and applied to a defined need, i.e., software support for indexing a weekly newspaper. A glossary of terms and 32-item bibliography are…

The first of two articles describes the inadequacies of existing decision support systems in meeting the needs of college administrators and examines the potential use of strategic information systems in higher education. The second describes the titles, responsibilities and backgrounds of chief information officers on college campuses. (CLB)

Discusses the need for a method to measure computer user abilities, and presents an instrument that identifies individuals' technical, modeling, and applications skills. An evaluation of the instrument in terms of validity and reliability is reported, and applications in user education research are suggested. (12 references) (CLB)

Two articles explore the category of "sensitive but unclassified" information that is being used by the federal government. The policy directive which defined this category and its application by government departments are described, and concerns about freedom of information are discussed. (CLB)

Survey of recent developments in microcomputer technology, mass-storage technology, and telecommunications technology shows how these new technologies are driving the development of a new generation of information systems. Major changes in the information industry precipitated by arrival of new information systems and telecommunication…

Five prominent consultants--Richard Boss, Susan Baerg Epstein, Rob McGee, Joseph Matthews, James E. Rush--discuss the most common mistakes vendors make in implementing library automated systems. Suggestions are made for correcting basic problems relating to identification of library needs, communications, delivery dates, inadequate systems, and…

Discusses the relationship between data and the recipient, and the academic library and its institutional information systems. Examples are drawn from the sciences, including medicine, because of their greater intensity of experimentation and change in information management. New roles for libraries and librarians are highlighted. (EJS)

Reports on axiomatic approach to systems design that has emanated from documentation work in field of chemistry and closely related disciplines. It is based on five axioms: definability, order, sufficient degree of order, representational predictability, and representational fidelity. Mandatory indexing is discussed; a glossary is appended. (106…

Summarizes difficulties in creating formal bibliographic citations to public access machine-readable documents (PAMD): no established format for PAMD references in tradition of scholarly writing; structure of computer conferencing results in authors using language different from that used in written communications; information storage problems of…