In the past, everyone knew what a school librarian did--a librarian helped kids find good books and find facts in big, fat dictionaries and encyclopedias. Then, in more recent years, the Internet appeared in schools and knocked the rationale for school libraries over like a set of bowling pins. Many librarians have spent more than a decade…

Genie Tyburski did not set out to be a law librarian. When asked at Drexel's library school what kind of librarian she wanted to be, she was surprised that "a good one" was not one of the options. But six weeks into the semester, she landed a part-time cataloging job at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia; six months later she was…

Purpose: The paper aims to provide advice, suggestions and encouragement for small budget-restricted libraries contemplating the need for web site redesign where an underlying goal for improving users' information literacy is a key factor. Design/methodology/approach: The initial planning is set within the context of a broader project examining…

Finding quality Internet resources for high school students is a continuing challenge. Several high-quality web sites are presented for educators and students. These sites offer activities to learn how an art conservator looks at paintings, create a newspaper, research and develop an end product, build geometry and physics skills, explore science…

E-mail has never been a foolproof way of sending information. It would make sense to follow-up with a phone call if something crucial is sent to make sure it has arrived. This is particularly true if a large file or files are to be sent by way of an e-mail attachment. ISPs typically limit attachments in received e-mails to 2-10 megabytes, which is…

Although there are many news search engines on the Web, finding the news items one wants can be challenging. Choosing appropriate search terms is one of the biggest challenges. Unless one has seen the article that one is seeking, it is often difficult to select words that were used in the headline or text of the article. The limited archives of…

Assessment is an ever changing and challenging topic for teacher-librarians and teachers. Designing authentic assessment tools that help students know what is expected of them as well as providing options for unbiased evaluation are feats for even a master educator. This column focuses on Web sites that provide insight into the authentic…

Transcript fraud is a common problem for colleges and universities, businesses, employers, governmental licensing boards, and other agencies, with some experiencing it more so than others. The only difference between a large and small institution is the volume of degree and transcript fraud it experiences. This article discusses the types and…

Misspellings, phonetic spellings, deliberately idiosyncratic spellings, typographical, and other errors are examined in relation to the Internet's lack of standardization. Despite the dramatic effect different spellings have on the outcome of searches, this topic has not been adequately addressed in the literature nor have solutions been suggested…

Research library catalogs serve as authoritative sources of access. The increasing practice of including Web sites in the catalog, resources not under the library's control, raises new issues of the catalog's accuracy and reliability. An analysis of ARL libraries' catalogs examined the persistence of cataloged URLs. Error rates ranged from a low…

As more educators serve as "Web masters" of Web sites for courses, they soon discover that as a site grows it becomes increasingly inconsistent and more difficult to manage. The situation results, to some extent, from the fact that there is a lot learned along the way and the site represents a growing level of expertise. However, it also arises…

Collaborative e-learning delivers many enhancements to e-learning technology; it enables students to collaborate with each other and improves their learning efficiency. Semantic blog combines semantic Web and blog technology that users can import, export, view, navigate, and query the blog. We developed a semantic course blog for collaborative…

Online texts rapidly are becoming central to children's out-of-school literate lives. However, children's engagement with such unofficial texts rarely is addressed in schools, or is addressed in limited ways. To address this gap, we argue for conceptualizing popular media, including websites, as the new literatures of childhood, tracking how…

Distance education provides many nontraditional students with the opportunity to pursue a college education not possible through traditional brick and mortar education. Although not meeting face-to-face, student activities help promote a stronger connection between the classroom and university community. This paper will discuss strategies for…

More than 53 million children and 6 million adults in the United States spend their days in elementary and secondary schools. Reducing environmental risks inside these buildings is critical to maintaining the public health. Almost all of New England's children will spend a large portion of their childhood in school. To help children stay healthy,…