Background/Context: Parents are important consumers of educational information, especially with stipulations in ESSA. Yet, research on parental information needs is limited. It is important to understand how the information is displayed for parents in accessible and understandable ways. This study uses a theoretical perspective of parental…

An unprecedented amount of information encompassing almost every facet of human activities across the world is generated daily in the form of zeros and ones, and that is often the only form in which such information is recorded. A good fraction of this information needs to be preserved for periods of time ranging from a few years to centuries.…

Discusses applications of optical technology, especially CD-ROMs, to information management needs. Information retrieval problems are discussed; design questions that concern the format of the data, indexing methods, and retrieval capabilities are presented; the need for updates is considered; access requirements are discussed; and the importance…

Describes a prototype information access system developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) called NAM (NASA Access Mechanism) to access the Internet for research and development activities. Topics addressed include the Science and Technical Information Program, information needs, networking requirements, functional and…

Discussion of the potential of new developments in information technology for providing access to information highlights the potentials of hypertext and hypermedia technologies. Topics discussed include the interconnectedness of knowledge; skills needed for information handling; cooperative partnerships among professors, librarians, designers, and…

SchoolhealthLink, a Web-based information service for Missouri school nurses, is a promising resource to reach school nurses isolated from traditional professional networks. It also may serve as an important adjunct to stay abreast of the latest health information. Using a strategy to identify the health information needs of school nurses and to…

Personalization of user interfaces for browsing content is a key concept to ensure content accessibility. In this direction, we introduce concepts that result in the generation of personalized multimodal user interfaces for browsing XML content. User requirements concerning the browsing of a specific content type can be specified by means of…

At the center of hypertext is the link, an active connection from part of one document to another document (or part of that document). In the early days of the World Wide Web, it was easy for readers to identify the links on the page: the unvisited links appeared in blue and underlined, the visited links appeared in red or purple and underlined.…

Provides an overview of HYTREM (Hybrid Text-Retrieval Machine), a high-performance, cost-effective text-retrieval machine that handles information in large textual databases. Describes HYTREM's software and hardware design principles and presents an evaluation of system performance in relation to user demand and access versus system capacity. (JMV)

Discusses some of the hardware and peripherals available to people with varied disabilities as an introduction to the things that Web designers and librarians will need to take into consideration when designing a site and selecting materials. Suggests guidelines for good design and tools for increased accessibility. (AEF)

Evaluates Web sites representing businesses in 11 countries in East and Central Europe (ECE) by taking a stance of the Western business user. Findings indicate that the ECE business Web is showing a capability of survival usability, while lacking for the most part more competitive usability. (Author/AEF)

Describes a successful experiment at Oregon State University in which user access to an extensive CD-ROM library was improved through the development of a networked environment. Discussed are dial-in and Telnet access for users both on and off campus, future possibilities, and subscription and licensing fees. (three references) (EA)

Built using a distributed architecture, this prototype distributed information retrieval system uses statistical ranking techniques to provide better service to the end user. Distributed architecture was shown to be a feasible alternative to centralized or CD-ROM information retrieval, and user testing of the ranking methodology showed both…

Digital libraries are moving from research and development into commercial use. If they are to realize their full potential, however, the experiences of end users need to be taken into account from the earliest stages of design. Those end users are typically individuals who have no particular skills in information retrieval, and are accessing…

Describes tools that make the Web more accessible for people with disabilities and lists some of the basic rules for designing a page layout, focusing on HTML, color, buttons, images, links, image map, forms, columns and frames, applets and plug-ins. Discusses how to evaluate the Web page. (AEF)