Discusses the creation of "The Encyclopaedia of School Stories," a two-volume reference work on the much-loved but much-derided genre of school stories (with their single-sex cast and emphasis on values like honor, loyalty, and playing the game). Describes the origins of the project, and some of the decisions and experiences of the team…

Discusses the difficult and painstaking process of researching the lives of the writers of girls' school stories for "The Encyclopaedia of School Stories," published in the summer 2000. Notes that frequently, very little was known about the authors, and often existing information was inaccurate. Offers details of the encyclopaedia and…

Authors, scientists, mathematicians, newsmakers, pop culture icons, these are the people who are frequently the subject of the infamous "biography reports." Students tend to search for biographical information about individuals who have achieved some degree of distinction (or perhaps notoriety) during their lifetime However. it is important to…

This article describes the U-X-L encyclopedia "Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th Century America," a five-volume set, arranged chronologically with two decades in each volume. Each decade then is divided into topics, such as commerce (more exciting than it sounds with lots of inventions, consumer goods, and technology); film…

Reviews new educational materials designed for microcomputer use: compact disk encyclopedia derived from "Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia"; "PC Word Power," vocabulary enhancement game; "Public Domain Software on File," 250 programs for Apple II microcomputer users; "RightWriter," program designed to teach effective writing; "Kansas…

Discussion of information retrieval and relevance focuses on mutual information, a measure which represents the relation between two words. A model of a natural-language information-retrieval system that is based on a two-level document-ranking method using mutual information is presented, and a Korean encyclopedia test collection is explained.…

Covers the current revision of the "Encyclopedia of Islam," a major research tool in the study of Islamic civilization. Changes include the addition of new topics such as social and economic history, and new ideas such as freedom, constitutions, and agriculture. The revision includes more articles written by Middle Eastern and Indian scholars. (LS)

Describes a method of selective information presentation exemplified by an editor that produces an encyclopedia based on source articles, and needs access to dynamically-selected aspects of the articles for editorial decision making. Presents a system that provides a generic basis for summarization by building multilingual, genre-driven automatic…

Examines features of consumer online services (CompuServe, Source, Apple) highlighting electronic mail, job listing, news and "tip" information, financial services, programing, citizen band simulation, online encyclopedia, costs, Gamemaster (a game system in Evanston, Illinois), electronic bulletin boards, and communications software…

Discussion of electronic books utilizing CD-ROM technology presents a taxonomy that contains 10 classes of electronic books. Development models, design techniques, and access stations are discussed; and several examples of electronic books, including encyclopedias, information dissemination/retrieval services, educational products, and a thesis…

Describes a four-volume reference set for elementary and middle school students called "The Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students" edited by William Chester Jordan. Provides a sample lesson which includes library media skills objectives, curriculum objectives, grade levels, resources, instructional roles, activity and procedures for…

Suggests evaluation criteria for selecting CD-ROMs and describes some typical titles along with examples of learning activities. Highlights include reference titles, including encyclopedias, magazine indexes, newspaper databases, subject-specific indexes, timetables and almanacs, and atlases; and curriculum-specific titles. (LRW)

Three articles (1) present case studies that show how CD-ROM encyclopedias take ordinary lesson plans in core curriculum areas to exciting new spheres; (2) give an overview of available electronic encyclopedias; and (3) provide educators' views on how multimedia encyclopedias have affected the learning process. (AEF)

To help students understand that references are tools used to locate specific information, one librarian has her third-grade students create their own reference toolboxes as she introduces dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, and thesauri. Presents a lesson plan to introduce print and nonprint thesauri to third and fourth graders and includes a…

To teach computer skills to kindergartners, classroom teachers and library media specialists can take them on a multimedia field trip to the zoo. Provides a lesson plan that lists library media objectives, resources, instructional roles, activity and procedures for completion, class instructions, evaluation, and follow-up. (PEN)