Utilizing a 77-item questionnaire, the marketing and credit practices of the Spanish American poor in New Mexico were examined. Randomly selected from the Community Action Program files, approximately 100 households in Las Cruces, the main urban center, and 60 households in the small rural communities of Dona Ana and La Mesa (30 in each) were…

An audiovisual consultant presents a guide to selecting suitable and cost effective tape and cassettes. He describes and illustrates physical properties of tapes and includes a list of manufacturers and suppliers. (MF)

Reports results of survey of 21 smaller to medium-sized (50,000-200,000 volumes) libraries which was conducted to determine factors used to make selection decisions in purchase of automated turnkey systems from established vendors. Factors examined include costs, software, hardware, and vendors for parts A (actual experience) and B (hypothetical…

Describes services of Educational Products Information Exchange Institute, a nonprofit organization operating on the campus of Teachers College at Columbia University (New York City) that provides comprehensive assessment tools for educators. Included are software reviews based on detailed analysis, an educational television series on computers,…

Summarizes market pressures and applications of use of electronic communication technology in scientific information dissemination and presents publishers' short-term response (electronic manuscript standardization, database orientation, provision of journal articles on demand, improvement of online search software); publishers' long-term response…

Reaffirms necessary elements for the successful operation of college purchasing and maintenance programs (e.g., purchasing calendar, bidding procedures, vendor selection, contracting services, budgeting for maintenance, and workforce analysis). Discusses ways some colleges are saving on operating costs (e.g., solar energy, energy management,…

Suggests well-defined selection policy to assist secondary school librarians in building collections that will instruct, challenge, stimulate, present new ideas, and entertain, a process complicated by diversity of community standards and interests and needs of teenage readers. Selection criteria are delineated: purpose, author, publisher,…

Discusses features of online library catalogs and their cost characteristics, including financial management and planning (hardware and software options, turnkey vendors); approaches to cost analysis (actual experiences, building blocks); baseline estimates for two average academic libraries; and vendor estimates. Forty-five references and a…

Provides a chart to organize information needed in ordering science materials/equipment. Includes a checklist for such ordering considerations as approvals required, request route, funding (how paid), descriptions required, criteria related to "best buy," and others. (JM)

Administrators in an Alabama school district found that purchasing their own data processing equipment was a better buy than the public consortium they had been using to supply data processing needs. The system, its uses, and advantages are described. (MLF)

Satirical projection of the future of education up to 1994 when, says the author, public school enrollment will have dropped to only 13.2 percent of all school children and tuition tax credits will have led to a greatly expanded enrollment in private schools and increasing computer sales. (JBM)

Most adults are both learners and consumers of goods and services across their life span. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of literature that analyzes consumer behavior in the light of lifelong learning. Learning activities, whether formal or experiential, have both costs and benefits. Interviews with hundreds of persons,…

Identifies a number of techniques that can help keep down the cost of operating plant management programs. Discussed are administrative economies, purchasing economies, manpower savings, maintenance saving, and cost-benefit analysis. (Author/DN)

Based on online searching experiences on microcomputer at a small liberal arts college, this article outlines for the novice advantages and disadvantages of micro-searching, legal implications, future trends, and factors to consider in selecting hardware and software. A 16-item bibliography arranged in order of usefulness and 10 references are…

Discusses evaluation of microcomputer courseware for school libraries, noting the evaluation process (selecting evaluation instrument, selecting and obtaining courseware for review), and steps of the evaluation program. Sources of evaluation instruments and courseware reviews, and evaluation forms of California Library Media Consortium for…