Discusses the development a national information policy in the United Kingdom (UK): policies for national information infrastructures, electronic information services, privacy and data protection, copyright, public and national libraries; reviews problems inhibiting Internet use; compares the UK's and the European Commission's approaches to…

Describes the political process behind the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), a new article of the Uniform Commercial Code, and implications for academic libraries and higher education. Uses group theory as a conceptual framework and draws conclusions regarding the higher education community's responses to future public policy…

Examines the nature of privileged communication in educational research under the laws, and provides guidelines for the development of a scholar's privilege for those engaged in academic research. Two court cases, Cohen v. Cowles Media Co., 1991, and Scare v. United States, 1993, illustrate the potential vulnerability of educational researchers.…

Analyzes the relationship between standardization and intellectual property rights (IPRs) and presents case studies of conflicts generated between the two. Examines IPR policies of major standardization organizations to find out how they solve such conflict, and provides suggestions for solving problems with recently implemented standardization…

Reviews recent legal developments in information policy related to digital information, particularly on the Internet. Focuses on trends in which information ownership is encroaching on public uses of information or on public information space, that is, control and ownership of information versus public access to and use of information. (Contains…

Discussion of interoperability among computer networks focuses on the need for information policy and information standards to ensure information access. Highlights include library standards; challenges of networked environment standards; and interoperability as a technical goal for information access. (Contains 9 references.) (LRW)

Addresses concerns about school personnel records and legal precedents regarding privacy. Recommends inclusion in teacher education of content about teachers' privacy rights. Lists fair information practices for schools regarding the accuracy of and access to personnel records. (SK)

Explores the link between Internet connectivity and access to global markets, and uses the South African wood furniture producers as they are integrated into global value chains and exposed to the demands of more sophisticated markets. Articulates policy recommendations to promote greater diffusion of e-commerce technologies in the wood furniture…

Under current policies, cell phone consumers face a lower probability of finding the best carrier for their usage patterns than winning at roulette. Corroborating survey data consistently show significant dissatisfaction among cell phone users, network performance is a major issue, and customer "churn" is high. This problem may be traced to a new…

This paper on Southeast Asian government information and official publications (GIOPs) begins with a general overview of new ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members (Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, and Vietnam) as well as founding members (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore). Information technology (IT)…

Discusses advertising on the World Wide Web and examines the issues that have to be resolved before such activities can proceed. Suggests a boilerplate policy for other institutions that may wish to explore this avenue for publicity and revenue generation. (Author/AEF)

Reports on 1996 library programs, activities, and information policy: American Library Association's responses to President Clinton's "America Reads" program, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Communications Decency Act; Family Friendly Libraries; certification for Kansas media specialists; federal funding of libraries; the…

Describes several projects aimed at building the Information Commons, including: Knowledge Conservancy plans to create a database of all freely available digitized content; the Universal Library, a project with the long-term goal of providing free, online access to all books; and several projects of the Creative Commons intended to build a robust…

Presents results of an analysis of the Canadian federal government information policies that govern its Web information systems (WIS) that was conducted to better understand how the government has adapted its information policies to the WIS. Discusses results that indicate new policies have been crafted to take into account the WIS context.…

Examines UNESCO guidelines for developing national library and information policies, and describes common policy elements of developing countries. Also identifies obstacles that Africa faces in creating policies: lack of awareness by government officials of information uses, the poor image of the library profession, and the low quality of national…