Argues that the economic trends of the past decade have led to the entrepreneurial nonprofit organization, with strengthened management, redesigned financial systems, revenue-producing ventures, and partnerships with the corporate world. Successful strategies used to meet the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations, including libraries, are…

Reviews literature since Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education (1961) decision. Notes scholarship moving away from discussing purpose and utility of adversarial proceedings, trend that may work against best interests of those institutions. Argues that research should consider the personal incentive mechanisms inherent in a structured…

Discusses issues that libraries need to understand as they attempt to deal with technological change. Highlights include the implications of information in electronic form; telecommunications and computer technology; cost effectiveness of technology; user needs and capabilities; user training; staff training; library education; and long-term…

Presents solutions for the problem of maximizing the generalizability coefficient under a budget constraint. Shows that the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality can be applied to derive optimal continuous solutions for the number of conditions of each facet. Illustrates the formal similarity between optimization problems in survey sampling and…

Expands on an earlier article which states that economies of scale cannot exist unless the production function exhibits increasing returns to scale. Argues that this is correct only to the extent that the firm faces constant input prices as output expands. Concludes that the assumption that product and input markets are competitive may be…

The University of Florida has implemented an online payroll certification system that exemplifies how computer applications can result in higher quality information and provide real cost savings. In this case, the combined personnel savings exceeded 6.5 full-time-equivalent positions, more than twice the computing costs incurred. (MSE)

Evaluates different types of storage media for long-term archival storage of large amounts of data. Existing storage media are reviewed, including optical disks, optical tape, magnetic storage, and microfilm; three models are proposed based on document storage requirements; performance analysis is considered; and cost effectiveness is discussed.…

Provides an overview of the articles in this special issue, which deals with the portability, or transferability, of educational computer software. Motivations for portable software relating to cost, personnel, and time are discussed, and factors affecting portability are described, including technical factors, educational factors, social/cultural…

This article describes examples of five orientation programs for new college faculty (presemester centralized, presemester mandatory, during semester decentralized, during semester centralized, and adjunct faculty). A summary of results and costs considers attendance, value for individual faculty members, and value for the institution. (DB)

Outlines the current status of satellite-delivered narrowcasting services in Europe; identifies potential applications, including electronic publishing and corporate data communications; compares various transmission technologies; and explores economic issues with the aid of a spreadsheet model for the cases of a facsimile broadcast and a weather…

The National Council on Standards and Testing's final report (1991) endorsed the concept of national education standards that reflect high expectations, provide focus, and embody a dynamic approach. Unresolved implementation difficulties include education system impact, improvement sequence, cost effectiveness, assessment purpose, multiple v.…

With partnerships between universities and corporations has come an intrusive focus on the bottom line. Traditional bodies like departments, faculty councils, and senates become less important in setting academic priorities. The university is moving toward a model in which producing and disseminating knowledge is efficiently targeted to specific…

In three task settings differing in difficulty and turnover rate in a truck assembly plant, structured on-the-job training (OJT) provided twice the financial benefits as unstructured OJT and required one-fifth the mastery time. Turnover rate had a greater effect on benefit size than did task difficulty. (SK)

Flexible-form cost functions estimated from survey data (205 responses from 265 day care centers) found that decreasing child/staff ratio by 1 child increases costs 3.4 percent. Staff turnover, educational level, and experience also had significant effects on cost. (SK)

Discusses captioning of instructional video programs for people with hearing disabilities. Topics addressed include closed captioning versus open captioning; captioning of prerecorded programs; external captioning sources; local captioning methods; captioning systems; lower cost alternatives for open captioning; and multimedia personal computers…