Federal agencies are increasingly using electronic means to create, exchange, and store information, and in doing so, they frequently create federal records: that is, information, in whatever form, that documents government functions, activities, decisions, and other important transactions. As the volume of electronic information grows, so does…

Digital materials are vulnerable to a number of different kinds of failures, including decay of the digital media, loss due to hackers and viruses, accidental deletions, natural disasters, and bankruptcy of the institution holding the collection. Digital archives can best survive failures if they have made several copies of their collections at…

Survey of the history and current development of information technology covers hardware (economies of scale, communications technology, magnetic and optical forms of storage), and the evolution of systems software ("tool" software, applications software, and nonprocedural languages). The effect of new computer technologies on human…

An examination of the nature of memory reveals that the representation of knowledge cannot be separated from the uses of knowledge. The answering of questions is not a simple retrieval and response of stored information; rather the process is embedded in a general structural framework containing knowledge of the questioner, the question, and the…

Digital information can be lost for a variety of reasons, including magnetic decay, format and device obsolescence, human or system error, among many others. A solution is to build an archival repository, a system capable of storing and preserving digital objects as technologies and organizations evolve. Designing an archival repository is a…

The use of microcomputers with online catalogs is a partnership that is gaining wide acceptance and leading to dramatic changes in how we think about online catalogs. There are two major ways in which microcomputers are used in an online catalog system: (1) the microcomputer provides all the computer support for the entire system, i.e., the…

An initial but comprehensive attempt to formally discuss the archiving of Chicano social science data archiving, reveals the range and quality of archivable datasets on Chicanos with a proposed taxonomic scheme for archiving them, and addresses technical and procedural issues and the strategies being adopted to establish a Chicano data archive…

The Lister Hill Experimental Computer Assisted Instruction Network has existed since July 1972. It has connected three university data bases to as many as 80 user institutions. The paper presents a history of the network, compares computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with information storage and retrieval, and summarizes the uses made of the CAI…

During the early 1980s the Indonesian government made a policy decision to develop fisheries as an important sector of the national economy. In doing so, it recognized the need for the collection and dissemination of fisheries research information not only for the scientists themselves, but also for the ultimate transfer of technology through…

A resource network can serve as a strategy for personnel-multiplying by performing many activities and functions that the linking agent would otherwise have to perform; e.g., such a network can provide an organized method for identifying and collecting resources, as well surveying the kinds of resources available. The Illinois Resource and…

The Northeast Academic Science Information Center (NASIC), a program of the New England Board of Higher Education which was initially funded by the National Science Foundation, represents an attempt to apply on a regional basis the concept of brokerage or wholesaling to the provision of computer-based information services. The center expects to be…

Designed to assist physical education teachers realize the benefits of microcomputer usage, this paper presents the case study of a hypothetical middle school teacher who utilizes Apple computers for record-keeping, planning, teaching, and coaching. The case study shows how the computers save time, assist in individualizing instruction, help…

In response to a growing need for a comprehensive evaluation and cataloging of nontextbook materials in the field of health sciences, the Educational Materials Project, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, developed a clearinghouse system called AVLINE (Audiovisual on Line) for the dissemination of information about these materials. To…

The Vocational Education Data System (VEDS) data base was created as a result of the Vocational Education Amendments of 1976. VEDS statistics were to be collected in the form of state-aggregate data (that is, state-level data is submitted by each state, based upon records and data collected by the state for this and other purposes); and VEDS data,…

The process of planning the role of the microcomputer in higher education administration is investigated through a survey of a sample of universities and colleges in California engaged in such efforts, and through a review of literature in education as well as computing. A major objective of the study was to systematically investigate the…