The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

Unsuccessful programing attempts by university business students in introductory COBOL classes were analyzed to determine most frequently occurring syntactical errors. Results indicate the most common errors were use of undeclared data in Procedure Division, missing periods, misspelled reserved words, missing hyphens, and use of wrong margin area.…

Describes a study that examined the necessity for prerequest bibliographic verification for interlibrary loans by identifying request error patterns and critical bibliographic elements. The discussion analyzes the effectiveness of a modified verification process, in which the interlibrary loan technician decides which requests to verify, in terms…

This report includes data on the cognitive and affective behavior of college students who were given the tasks of interpreting and formulating Boolean search statements. Two versions of written point-of-use instructions on Boolean searching, affectively elaborated and unelaborated, were given to investigate comprehension, self-confidence, and…

Describes a study which analyzed problem solvers' error detection processes by instructing subjects to think aloud when solving statistical problems. Effects of evaluative episodes on error detection, detection of different error types, error detection processes per se, and relationship of error detection behavior to problem-solving proficiency…

Reports on a study that examined spelling errors of keywords in a university library online catalog. Data are presented on distribution of errors by machine-readable catalog (MARC) field location, part of speech, origin of the bibliographic record, and error type. Commonly misspelled word roots and specific mistakes are listed. (12 references)…

Presents the results of a study of graduate-level library school students to determine the types of errors that appeared on original cataloging copy by entry-level catalogers. Records were analyzed for any errors affecting access, including description, headings, encoding of MARC format, capitalization, and punctuation. Types and percentages of…

Describes a study conducted in 1988 that investigated book availability in an academic library by providing a quantitative measure of library performance based on outcomes of card catalog searches and that can serve as a model for ongoing assessment in the library. Results are compared with earlier research from 1986. (Contains 12 references.)…

College students from colleges and universities throughout the United States were surveyed about the location of the world's 50 most populous countries. Over 3,300 responses were examined to determine the perceived geographic range of given countries, the regional degree of accuracy among students, and the overall significance of response errors.…

Describes a study of undergraduates in a biology course for nonmajors that examined the effects of four methods of immediate corrective feedback during computer-based instruction (CBI). The relationship between types of corrective feedback and types of errors made by learners during CBI and during a later retention test is also examined. (33…

Describes a study that investigated the effects of end-user search experience on searching behavior in the use of an online information retrieval system by monitoring the QUICKLAW searches of University of Toronto law students over a one-year period. Highlights include hypothesis testing, error patterns, search speed, and attitudes. (Author/LRW)