This paper contrasts the arguments offered in the literature advocating the adoption of open source software (OSS)--software delivered with its source code--for teaching and learning applications, with the reality of limited enterprise-wide deployment of those applications in U.S. higher education. Drawing on the fields of organizational…

An ongoing project is being conducted in San Francisco, California to study the social and psychological factors among the elderly which influence their utilization of outpatient health services. A preliminary study of the project explored associations between the informal support network and the formal social support system as they converged in…

The use of health and social services is influenced by economic, community, geographic, organizational, societal, and environmental factors. A study was conducted to examine predisposing, enabling, and need-for-care factors related to the use of home health care services by a stratified random sample of 400 older adults. Predisposing factors…

Although the oldest-old are the fastest growing segment in the rural population, little is known about their social and economic needs, their awareness of social programs, or their use of social services. This study was conducted to assess the social, economic, and health needs of the oldest-old (over the age of 85 years) as compared to those of…

The ability to function independently in the later years has been defined as a combination of capability and support. To examine factors affecting older adults' use of services provided in an accommodating environment, 52 physically independent residents of an Arizona apartment complex for the elderly were surveyed. Time spent living in the…

The role of information research centers in institutional research activities was explored, based on 1,040 requests for student data at an information center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, during 1980-1985. Three distinct information center markets were identified and mechanisms for serving each market were recommended. The first was…

While many recent publications have explored aging in rural America, virtually none have examined differences within a rural environment in terms of public policy issues. It is very likely, however, that residing on a farm has different consequences than residing in a village. The elderly in the country may be particularly disadvantaged when they…

An attempt was made to determine predictors of service need, use, and outcome among chronically impaired adults and aged who were living in the community and using the home-based, long term care services of the Chronic Illness Center (CIC) of the Cuyahoga County Hospitals (Ohio). Randomly selected consumer service records (N=200) were coded for…

Needs assessments are conducted with the expectation that the information obtained will be used to make rational decisions. A prior review of the anticipated utilization of needs assessment data and evaluation of the appropriateness of such utilization may prevent inefficient use of resources. A structured interview was developed to evaluate the…

Social and health service utilization have been the subject of numerous studies, but most have examined service utilization from the perspective of the type of service delivered to older adults. To determine the factors that predict overall utilization of services, data that had been collected in 1975 for the General Accounting Offices' survey of…

This paper presents a needs assessment project developed to establish drug-related services in a small black community. A literature review reveals the influence of social issues relevant to the population on research methodology, program planning, and social action. The convergent analysis approach used in the needs assessment is explained and…

This collection of symposium paper summaries presents analyses of data addressing the role of system changes in decision-making and service utilization in child and adolescent mental health emergencies. The analyses compare data for child and adolescent (C/A) recidivists at mental health emergency screening sites in pre-and post-managed care time…

Five issues must be considered if a more effective information and bibliographic delivery system is to be developed for Canadian education. (1) The size and characteristics of the reference group in Canadian education should be studied. With all its subgroups, this group may comprise as many as 200,000 people. (2) The number and types of documents…

Paul Hurder's model of the service delivery process (plus an organization variable) was used to examine factors which influenced effectiveness of special education resource teachers in small, rural elementary schools serving 250 or less English-speaking students in Quebec. Five resource teachers and 72 teachers they served rated each other in…

During the summer of 1982, 218 randomly-selected migrant farmworkers in Wayne County, New York were interviewed to determine the significant factors affecting use of health services among migrant farmworkers. Three groups were identified: immigrants, recent migrants, and long-term migrants. Medical utilization patterns, use of community medical…