Discusses Jamaican music, especially "reggae," in terms of national identity, autonomy, and public policy. Reports a survey that shows that the majority of Jamaican youth identify with "reggae" and find music vital to their existence, but that the upper classes prefer foreign over local music. (PD)

Concludes that people selectively attend to campaign information based on its editorial format rather than its orignating format and that a surveillance/vote guidance motivation to attend to a campaign is more strongly related to degree of selectivity than is a diversion motivation. (FL)

Presents results from a study of the use of broadcast teletex where decoders in 50 locations were equipped with meters recording use patterns. The role of indexes in the way users move through the database, use of chained pages, and variations in use patterns during the day are analyzed. (MBR)

This study develops a three-stage model of the question-answering process and investigates several potential sources of extraneous variability. Discussion includes implications of findings concerning what it means to "use" library materials and services, adverbs used as response category labels, and subject's responses as predictors of…

Describes the Massachusetts Home Care Corporation network, which provides alternatives to institutional long-term care. This investigation confirms that home-based support service can be targeted to selected subgroups, that targeting can be maintained, and that the recipients of these services are indeed the individuals who risk…

Examined predictors of service usage in a study of 5,700 nonmetropolitan elderly. Results revealed only slightly higher service utilization for urban versus rural residents. Marital status, income, and age were related to service use for both groups. Among the rural aged, lack of transportation was related to service usage. (Author/JAC)

A questionnaire survey was administered to reference librarians and patrons to determine relationship between patron-staff encounters and user satisfaction. (KP)

The proliferation of Web pages and digitized material mounted on Internet servers has become unmanageable. Librarians and users are concerned that documents and information are being lost in cyberspace as a result of few bibliographic controls and common standards. Librarians in cooperation with software creators and Web page designers are…

The usability test team examined design problems that limit the ability of instructors at the Indiana University to use data entry forms on the School of Education Web site. The forms permit instructors to publish information about themselves and about courses they teach on the School of Education Web site. Faculty and graduate student instructors…

The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect a pre-session given prior to a typical library instruction class had upon the affective experience of freshman composition students. Students in six paired classes were given pre-test and post-test questionnaires to determine if there was a difference in scores in four areas measured by the…

This paper investigates how knowledge workers utilize the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Thirty-four participants from seven companies were interviewed about their information needs and preferences. In addition, a custom-developed software application recorded each participant's Web behavior for a two week monitoring…

This study examined the demographic characteristics of Internet users compared with those of the general U.S. population, the characteristics of areas where broadband Internet transport is available and of consumers who selected a broadband transport provider, and the factors influencing consumers' choice of an ISP (Internet service provider) and…

Because of its interactive and multimedia nature, the Internet has been highly touted as an increasingly important aspect of elementary and secondary education. Research on Internet use, however, indicates that few teachers are actually integrating this medium into their lesson plans in a meaningful way. The paper discusses how the National…

A study examined media use patterns among a large, nationally representative sample of children ages 2-18, and which explored how children choose and interact with the whole array of media available to them, including television, movies, computers, music, video games, radio, magazines, books, and newspapers. The goal was to provide a solid base…

Since the popularization of networked computing that began in 1993, many excited educators have employed networked computers to improve motivation and learning in the classroom. Computers have also become a focal point for the improvement of instruction through the introduction of teaching methods that better support constructivist learning. While…