Although scholarship has addressed issues around serving international students in U.S. and Canadian libraries, reports on how Chinese graduate students use information in Chinese universities, especially for a particular discipline, are rare. In this study, the author interviewed 15 graduate students and researchers in a top-ranked chemistry…

This report considers universities as information systems because their effective operation is based on the storage, processing, and communication of various types of information. Three basic types of information systems (administrator-, teacher-, and researcher-oriented) are discussed in an attempt to understand each system's operation from the…

To assess the potential user population for Project TALENT data and to identify barriers to usage of the data for secondary analysis, a small telephone survey of leading large-scale survey researchers was undertaken. The survey was designed to elicit suggestions for strategies for reducing barriers to use of the data. Four levels of barrier were…

Review of selected studies on use of social science information indicates that social scientists tend to use private sources and informal networks rather than libraries; value of citation studies as guides to library collection building is disputed; and machine access to social science databases is increasing. Eighty references are cited. (EJS)

Institutional research and the role of information systems are examined and three types of information provided by institutional research offices are discussed: institutional studies, management analyses, and periodic management reports. The varying characteristics of research offices are described and the role of the institutional research office…

Factors that affect the utility of financial data collected through the Higher Education General Information Surveys (HEGIS) are examined. Attention is also directed to the process associated with the collection and use of that data; roles and responsibilities of various parties to that process, with a focus on researchers' roles; and possible…