Presents a fictionalized account illustrating the process by which willful states, misguided experts, cunning marketeers, and overworked teachers and administrators produce textbooks that are ill-written, confusing, misleading, and boring. (BJV)

Outlines the business and production aspects of self-publishing, with some tips for desktop publishing, as it involves the design and development of Canadian English-as a-second-language instructional materials. (Author/CB)

Describes a project at the University of Zimbabwe undertaken to develop, evaluate, and publish teaching materials for use with small groups of teacher trainees in an emerging nation. Learning resources in Zimbabwe, the types of materials produced by the project, and evaluation of learning materials are among the topics discussed. (JL)

This report concerns public bilingual elementary schools for rural Indian (non-Spanish-speaking) children in Mexico. Materials production efforts as well as completed and projected research projects are described. (SJL)

Many textbook publishers are apparently at the limit of what they can do within the book form and within their accustomed development budgets. There are many steps which can be taken toward financing, writing, and producing better learning materials, particularly through the integration of video. (Author/SJL)

Following an outline of the educational facilities available for the children of the Sorb minority, the author describes the publication and distribution of children's books in the Sorb language in the bilingual districts of Cottbus and Dresden in the German Democratic Republic. (Author/CWM)

Discusses relationships among teachers, curriculum package authors, and publishers. Describes the Atlantic Science Curriculum Project's reform efforts. Recommends that curriculum development projects include: (1) lengthy informal development; (2) combined testing of design and materials; (3) the withholding of contracts until materials are in…

A new member of the mega-Universities, Bangladesh Open University (BOU) introduced a course team approach for developing effective course materials for distance students. BOU teaching media includes printed course books, study guides, radio and television broadcasts, audiocassettes and occasional face-to-face tutorials. Each course team…

As the century draws to a close, basic communication instruction at America's universities and colleges is experiencing a barrage of externally determined assaults. Departments are increasing enrollments-per-section while facing a decrease in the number of sections being offered. The agenda of many 1990s state legislatures and the federal…

This guide provides an overview of the academic publishing process and advice to prospective authors in academe on how to have their work published. Individual chapters focus on: (1) the author-publisher partnership; (2) finding an appropriate journal, submitting an effective manuscript, and speeding up the refereeing process; (3) revising a…

Faced with a market that puts a premium on newness, artwork, and copyright date, the textbook industry seems to have been forced into a hectic textbook revision cycle in which improvement in instructional quality takes a poor second place to more superficial changes. While educators think they are getting newer, different, and, therefore better…

This report, submitted to the 71st Texas Legislature in fulfillment of the mandates contained in House Concurrent Resolution 84, summarizes a study of the feasibility of an 8-year cycle for the adoption of certain textbooks and considers the feasibility of contracting with textbook publishers on a freight prepaid basis. First, 6-year versus 8-year…

A study (1) surveyed the views of educators and textbook publishers regarding suitable reading levels of textbooks used for instruction in reading and content area subjects; (2) examined preferences for difficulty of reading textbooks considering students' achievement levels and for reading content area textbooks when selections are made for…

Concentrating on the complexities of large scale primary and secondary school textbook production, this paper provides guidelines and information for creating viable publishing industries in developing countries. Statistical analysis, personal experience, case studies and responses to a questionnaire (appended) on the publishing roles of the…

Thirteen short papers are presented which discuss various aspects of library acquisitions, programing, and evaluation of services. Among the papers are the reports of the American Library Association's Committees on copyright and on legislation. Media topics included a compilation of bibliographies, primarily of film sources; a study of media…