IRIS is a new Current Research Information System (CRIS) developed by Cineca to upgrade and replace two previous solutions that have been used by Italian universities in the last 10 years. At the end of 2015, sixty-three Italian institutions are using IRIS. One of the main components of IRIS is DSpace-CRIS, an open source solution that can also be…

Thomas Freidman (2005) asserts that technology has created a transnational platform for communication, collaboration, and competition that is stimulating global opportunity for all individuals. After years of robust study abroad programs and the recent "bricks and mortar" expansion of U.S. higher education overseas, we are now seeing the true…

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is the world's largest social science data archive. The data sets in the ICPRS database give the social sciences librarian/subject specialist an opportunity of providing value-added bibliographic…

Describes research undertaken at Open University (Great Britain) and Deakin University (Australia) in the use of international communication by electronic mail for (1) the collaborative study of distance education and (2) use of international course teams in preparing distance teaching materials. The electronic mail system and difficulties…

Describes collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley and four other universities to develop interoperable servers containing each participant's Computer Science Technical Reports and to make them available over the Internet using standard protocols. The proposed library architecture, approaches to indexing and retrieval, and…

Although visual databases exist for the study of art, architecture, geography, health care, and other areas, readily accessible sources of quality images are not available for engineering faculty interested in developing multimedia modules or for student projects. Presented here is a brief review of Phase I of the Engineering Visual Database…

With computers rivaling books and journals as information sources, academic libraries must learn to use computers and other technology as information tools. Some colleges have already developed consortia and other intercollegiate arrangements, but costs and the information explosion slow this process for many. (MSE)

California State University is exploring use of advancing technology to accommodate a student population that will grow rapidly in the near future. Demonstration projects under way include multicampus databases of art and biology teaching materials; an electronically delivered business administration program incorporating courses from different…

Involvement of the institutional research office at the University of Texas at Austin in integration of student-athlete data into the central database is described, including identification of data maintained in different offices, internal and external data reporting needs, and expansion of central files. Lessons learned from the effort are…

In researching articulation investigators discovered that 12% of students enrolled in U.S. educational institutions lost an average of 10 credits when transferring--a minimum total annual tuition waste of $270 million. It was determined that an online system was needed to provide academic institutions with information such as course equivalencies,…

Discusses the importance of databases and information systems in efforts to examine the interinstitutional transfer of credits, courses, curricula, and students. Highlights the achievements of selected states and institutions in developing systems to monitor student flow and academic performance and to evaluate and enhance transfer/articulation…

Pennsylvania developed a generalist physician initiative, inspired by that of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, initiating a longitudinal tracking system at six allopathic and two osteopathic medical schools to follow students from matriculation into professional careers. The statewide database includes information on over 18,000 students,…

Development, structure, and uses of multi-institutional and statewide student databases at the state level are examined, based on results of a national survey of state higher education agencies. The issue of confidentiality is also discussed. Construction and uses of a multi-institutional system in Colorado are then described, and its advantages…

In 1998, Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, established a transition program to help students in General Educational Development (GED) test preparation and English-for-Speakers-of-Other-Languages (ESOL) classes make a successful transition to community college. As of the end of the transition program's second year, it had developed into an…