Some years ago, bringing up peak oil--the concept that oil production will crest and then decline, leading to all sorts of trouble in society--might have made one seem like the kind of person who frequents Web sites that sell survival books and freeze-dried food. Today such discussion has pretty much hit the mainstream. Last month The Wall Street…

School improvement without will and moral purpose--without a genuine commitment to all students--is an empty exercise in compliance that, in the authors' experience, can do more harm than good. The authors have seen educators use data to "more accurately" track students, further widening the opportunity-to-learn gap. In response to achievement…

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) software research and development project described explores information seeking behavior of end-user energy experts and develops software offering tutorials on front-end use of DOE/RECON databases and active help in performing online searches. Software development is described and results of prototype testing…

Presents a synopsis of the results of the first phase of a study project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that examined trends, opportunities, and problems in the dissemination of scientific and technical information in the United States. Findings that are summarized concern the use of information, information technologies, and…

Provides background to microcomputer use in information management within Europe by discussing spread of microcomputers and their types and uses; microcomputers as system components and functions to which they are applied; development of microcomputer use; and role of funding and development institutions. Addresses for products, projects, and…

The California Department of Education commissioned a study to help guide ongoing information dissemination practices to the educational community. A pilot study, department of education staff interviews, and field interviews preceded document tracking. Phone interviews were conducted with district administrators, principals, and teachers…

Describes The RightPages Service developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories library and computer researchers to enable AT&T employees to access the library from their workstations. The service incorporates ASCII text, bitmap images, and an alerting service. Copyright issues, user interface, image and text processing procedures, results, and…

Reviews recent and current research and development projects in the United Kingdom dealing with online information systems. Main areas of research (systems design, impact on user behavior and organizational structure, ergonomics and bibliographic factors) and research techniques (features analysis, transaction log analysis, surveys and comparative…

Over the last decade, studies of online catalogs have revealed that they frequently discourage users. Subject queries often fail to produce retrievals or produce retrieval sets that are too large and unwieldy to be easily scanned. Research shows that users are seeking alternative approaches to those that manipulate the subject headings in catalog…

This report examines the state of computer based learning (CBL) in the Soviet Union based upon information gained during a visit to the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, Moscow State University, and the Institute for Problems of Higher Schools. The visit had two aims: to study the political, educational, and technological pressures on CBL in…