Virtual communities of Practice (VCoP) offer a flexible option for professional development that may be employed by geographically dispersed communities. Due to unique and dynamic operational demands and a reduced training budget, the United States Coast Guard's (USCG) afloat community has limited opportunity for formal professional development,…

As educational attainment grows increasingly more essential to individual and societal prosperity and simultaneously more expensive, policymakers' appetite for evidence of the return on the investment in a college education has swelled and they increasingly want to equip prospective college students and their families with concrete information…

The current version of the IP protocol, IPv4, is the most widely used protocol in computer networks. This article describes mechanisms that can be used to facilitate the transition to the new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, and examines usability, usefulness and manageability. Describes how some of these mechanisms were applied to the Greek…

This document summarizes and highlights the main findings of a large scale research project concerned with the problem of innovation dissemination in adult basic education (ABE) providing an abbreviated, non-technical account of the research and pointing up the implications of the findings for policy decision-making at the State and national…

Based on recent study on availability of publications in two developing countries, this article outlines methodology for similar studies in a wide range of settings. Acquisition and interlending policies, barriers to availability, and survey of interlibrary loan demand are discussed. Checklists for discussions, coding instructions, and…

The Articulation Committee Telecommunication project was undertaken to assess how communications technologies are currently being used to facilitate articulation committee business across the province of British Columbia (BC). The project provided an opportunity to determine the level of use of communications technologies such as e-mail, list…

This paper discusses a formative evaluation method by which to assess World-Wide-Web (WWW) documents. Also presented are the results from a pilot evaluation which examined users' interactions with Web documents and the effects of providing "document maps" to guide users to specific information. A video-split screen technique was used to…

Describes and illustrates the main characteristics and methods of data collection and analysis used in compiling the National Register of Current Research, a major element of the Unesco pilot project initiated in the Sudan for the creation of an information service on research in progress. Eight sources are given. (EJS)

Discusses the development of a model for providing user-centered access to collections of information that uses a standard terminology to represent the information collection and a set of possibly overlapping user domains to represent a social network. Describes results of a pilot study using the Metathesaurus of the Unified Medical Language…

This project provided access to telecommunication networks and research databases at 13 sites in the Mid-Atlantic region from May 1 to June 4, 1993. The project objectives were to pilot a regionally-developed education database; to provide access to this database and the Internet; to train participants to use telecommunications technology; to…

Describes the events that led to the creation of the Rural Information Center (RIC), a joint venture between the Extension Service and the National Agricultural Library to provide information to government officials involved in rural development. The databases accessed by RIC are described, and plans for a gateway system and network of all…

Purpose: To outline the conceptual and technical difficulties encountered, as well as the opportunities created, when developing an interlinked collection of web-based digitised primary sources on eighteenth century London. Design/methodology/approach: As a pilot study for a larger project, a variety of primary sources, including the "Old…

This report describes a study on the need for and feasibility of establishing an international system for facilitating access to materials on early childhood development. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) investigated international need for and interest in the establishment of a common pool of information from international sources, and…

An initial survey of medical information resources in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, Australia, reveals a lack of adequate collections, insufficiently trained staff, few formal lines of communication between service providers, and paucity of mechanisms to ensure user awareness of available services. Detailed proposals are provided for…