The sale of complimentary textbooks to used-book dealers, who then resell them to college bookstores is discussed, along with author compensation for textbook resales. The question should be not how cheaply to sell a book but rather how to get good books. (MLW)

Computing authorities at 34 research universities have launched an effort to create a national computer network for higher education several times as fast as the Internet. The network would be supported by several corporate partners in computer and telecommunications industries and by the federal government, would not replace Internet connections,…

After a painful period of belt tightening and learning to pay more attention to the financial side of publishing, university presses have emerged as bigger, healthier, more diverse, and more interesting. They are publishing and selling more books than ever, in greater variety. Some fear publication of pure scholarship is endangered. (MSE)

Some academics feel serving on corporate boards offers a chance to observe the inner workings of the corporate world, make contacts, learn industry needs, and help their institutions become better known. Critics feel faculty membership can compromise institutions' independence, risk conflicts of interest, and take too much time. (MSE)

The most important results of computer networking experiments on campus may be increased use of technology, but the projects did not always take the directions anticipated. The projects also highlighted problems in social and educational systems that must be solved before computing can be comfortably integrated into higher education. (MSE)

In the last decade, college radio has begun to play music too experimental for commercial radio, and people searching for innovative or controversial music are tuning into college stations. The music industry has welcomed the student broadcasters, many of whom enter the profession after college. (MSE)

Increasingly, major aerospace, automotive, chemical, and electrical companies are making only gifts to colleges and universities that they believe will eventually help them or their industries, through research or other partnerships. In response, institutions are seeking new strategies to prove to companies that they can fill industry's needs.…

The emerging field of book history focuses on the context in which printed materials are produced and received. Book history scholars are crossing disciplines and national boundaries to establish a new scholarship and pedagogy about the culture of books. Study of the history of reading is a central interest. (MSE)

A six-month-old court ruling requires teachers to seek permission to reproduce every piece of work in photocopied college course anthologies. The ruling has delayed production of the anthologies, increased their cost, left publishers and professors scrambling to deal with copyright permissions, and prompted more use of textbook and library…

The excitement and intense competition surrounding the search for new applications of superconductors resembles the entrepreneurial atmosphere of the early 1970s, when faculty were launching profitable companies based on developments in biotechnology and semiconductors. (MSE)

A group of faculty, scholars, and publishers were the first of several advisory panels to be convened to examine critically the role and direction of the humanities in the United States. (MSE)

The combination of the nascent National Education and Research Network and new imaging technology that could turn data into books in minutes would irreversibly change scholarly publishing. The Coalition for Networked Information is working to remove scholarly publishing from the commercial publishing industry. (MSE)

Public colleges have become aggressive and sophisticated fund-raisers and feel it is time the corporations notice that public institutions educate a large share of the corporate workforce and conduct research vital to business. At the same time, private colleges have had a decrease in corporate donations. (MSE)

Increasingly, colleges and universities are turning to corporations and corporate consultants for advice on institutional restructuring. Some observers are concerned that the fundamental differences between higher education and business will be compromised; others see the trend as primarily a public relations effort. (MSE)

The Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America coordinates scholarship programs for over 340 corporations, local scholarship programs, and experimental grants programs, distributing $19.8 million in scholarships to 21,000 students at 2,122 colleges and universities. Having an outside agency manage scholarship programs eliminates bias, reduces…