Describes customer call centers that provide customer service and support in business and considers how their routines could be adapted to library operations. Topics include centralized staff; interactive voice response; automated call distribution; question analysis; sophisticated software; training and monitoring; telephone reference; and…

Discusses the use of computer networking such as the Internet for the creation and dissemination of copyright works. Topics include the need for data structures for organizing and identifying units of digital information; and the copyright status of original works of authorship structured as digital objects. (LRW)

Describes the Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), a public service telecommunication program developed to facilitate the use of telecommunications and information technologies. Highlights include the historical development; digital capabilities; cooperation and collaboration with users, government, and…

Describes paperless classes developed at Carleton College that augment traditional classes by giving students and faculty the ability to share digital course-related materials via the campus computer network. Presents a case study of a managerial economics course, and includes problems with various aspects of the course and solutions. (LRW)

Discusses how the library vendor's role is expanding to encompass a more active coaching component in a digitized environment. Topics include centrality of the reader; professional expectations for librarians; and coaching in the areas of bibliography information, licensing, networking, product/service awareness, and industry/market advice. (LRW)

Includes four articles that discuss the use of digital objects to represent value in a network environment; digital library initiatives at the central public funding organization for academic research in Germany; an application of the Digital Object Identifier System; and the Web site of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. (LRW)

This article provides a list of the essential steps to keeping a school's or district's network safe and sound. It describes how to establish a security architecture and approach that will continually evolve as the threat environment changes over time. The article discusses the methodology for implementing this approach and then discusses the…

While schools rightly fear break-ins to their computer systems by professional criminals, students are increasingly giving educators almost as much to worry about. Reports of students' gaining access to school networks to change grades, delete teachers' files, or steal data are becoming more common, experts say, and many districts remain highly…

Classroom network requires every student to think actively, which enhances student participation in mathematics and science. Classroom-specific networks use software designed to enhance communication between teacher and students.

Wireless hotspots are popping up in local coffee shops everywhere. Anyone with a wireless-ready laptop or PDA can surf the Internet at one of these hotspots. The same is now true for all 32 branches of the Orange County Public Library (OCPL) in California. Though many public library systems are moving toward wireless access, most require patrons…

U.S. Supreme Court justices struggled in a lively debate with how to balance the competing interests of the entertainment industry and developers of file-sharing technology. Some justices sharply questioned whether it was fair to hold inventors of a distribution technology liable for copyright infringement, while others suggested that it was wrong…

At the beginning of an academic year, thousands of students move into campus housing on Indiana University's Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses within a three-day period, and more than 96 percent arrive with at least one personal computer (and possibly also a PDA, cell phone, and gaming system), and most expect to connect to the campus network…

This article de-mystifies network patch cable secrets so that people can connect their computers and transfer those pesky files--without screaming at the cables. It describes a network cabling activity that can offer students a great hands-on opportunity for working with the tools, techniques, and media used in computer networking. Since the…

The declining cost of computers and wireless networks has made laptop programs more affordable than ever. At the same time, the internet resources available to teachers and students have grown exponentially in the 15 years since web browsers first became practical. As a result of these trends, growing numbers of students nationwide are provided…

After nearly three years of planning, Ohio's higher-education officials are finalizing an ambitious program to grant college credit for some technical courses offered at the state's adult-education centers. The program, called the Career-Technical Credit Transfer, is the latest in a string of state efforts to more closely link work-force training…