Describes the training process for the local takeover of the New York University--Reading (Pennsylvania) Consortium interactive cable television project for the delivery of social services to senior citizens. The process included hiring and training of staff, training of users, and creation and staffing of the organization needed to operate the…

Describes the two-way interactive cable television experiment underway in Rockford (Illinois) providing in-service teacher training in the elementary schools in metric education and four areas of language arts--creative writing, listening skills, use of children's language experience in teaching, and creative dramatics. (JMF)

Raises several policy issues concerning interactive cable television, including the role of government and the regulation powers, and the implications of telecommunication/social service system concerning privacy and confidentiality, approaches to electronic opinion polling, and the potential widening of the information gap between rich and poor.…

The article describes the use of an electrical communication system (the Cocom Center Model 25) to establish communication with and more accurately assess an apparently profoundly retarded, nonverbal, 28-year-old spastic quadriplegic female. (Author/PHR)

At the 19th General Conference of UNESCO a declaration on the "use of the mass media in strengthening peace and international understanding" was discussed. This article focuses briefly on views of the media by authoritarian and democratic states. (LBH)

Since 1972 the University of the South Pacific has participated in a series of experimental communications projects using the ATS-1 satellite. The experiments are aimed at determining what educational, social, and medical benefits can be derived from satellite technology. (LBH)

With funding from the National Library of Medicine, the University of Maryland at Baltimore instituted a formal strategic planning process for an integrated academic information management system. A general model for organizational change is applied to the situation, with references to the literature on systems models and formal planning. (MLW)

Survey of the history and current development of information technology covers hardware (economies of scale, communications technology, magnetic and optical forms of storage), and the evolution of systems software ("tool" software, applications software, and nonprocedural languages). The effect of new computer technologies on human…

The development and design of a telecommunications system for specialists in dental public health is described, data on usage patterns and costs are presented, and the content of typical messages is discussed and illustrated. (MSE)

Explores some dilemmas religious people face because of the phenomenon of electronic communications including television, video, and radio. States that people must critically judge these media, aided by religious and aesthetic criteria, so that they may control such communications instead of being controlled by them. (GEA)

Two articles explore the category of "sensitive but unclassified" information that is being used by the federal government. The policy directive which defined this category and its application by government departments are described, and concerns about freedom of information are discussed. (CLB)

Discusses some of the reasons why some schools are using their computers to form local area networks (LANs). Presents some low-cost alternatives to full-fledged networking systems. (TW)

Describes a technique for accessing a library system with limited interconnectivity by connecting the system to a gateway machine that is a host in the local area network and evaluates the performance of an existing prototype that has been implemented at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Author/CLB)

A survey of Library of Congress staff following implementation of four optical disk reader stations measured their satisfaction with training, documentation, equipment and printing, and system reliability and usefulness. Staff found no major flaws with the system, and they saw its usefulness primarily as an access tool. (CDD)

Explores issues relating libraries, telecommunications, the Communications Act of 1934, the Federal Communications Commission, and the common carriers. Computer networking technologies and standards are discussed and progress in library networking is compared to the development of a planned national science network. Future public policy issues…