Introduction: The pharmaceutical industry, by funding over 60% of programs in the United States and Canada, plays a major role in continuing medical education (CME), but there are concerns about bias in such CME programs. Bias is difficult to define, and currently no tool is available to measure it. Methods: Representatives from industry and…

From the ascendance of the reference database and web sites offering endless opportunities for cyber-promotion to the crowds swarming through the doors to avail themselves of new computers, the Internet has transformed the way public libraries do business. That is not news. What is exciting, though, is how the Internet continues to change public…

Twenty-three scholarly papers and twelve abstracts comprise the content of the eleventh annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The peer-reviewed proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of…

Pupil transportation is an essential part of the overall school program, which requires constant supervision and direction. Perhaps no other phase of the school program is more closely observed by the public or has a greater tendency to mold public opinion about the schools than the school bus system. The success of any school district pupil…

This study examined the user-interface design characteristics of 107 Fortune 500 B2C e-commerce Web sites and industry differences. Data were collected from corporate homepages, B2C product/service pages, B2C interactive shopping pages, as well as customer satisfaction of 321 online shoppers. The findings indicate that (a) to attract online…

The most elemental identifier of a book is the international standard book number (ISBN). It allows publishers, booksellers, and libraries to label works in a consistent way and to distinguish not only among different titles but also among different versions of the same title, such as newer editions, various bindings, audio products, and…

The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force consulted with IT security professionals on campus about concerns with the current state of security in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. From these conversations, it was clear that security issues generally fell into one of two areas: (1) It has become extremely difficult…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the credibility and timeliness of online business databases. The areas of evaluation were the currency, reliability, and extent of financial information in the databases. These were measured by performing an online search for financial information on five U.S. companies. The method of selection for the…

Examines the relationships between purchases of optical data disk products, publishers, and software suppliers. The discussion covers current pricing strategies for optical data disk software and information products, and possible future developments in marketing and pricing. (CLB)

Reports the results of a survey of libraries having authority control and using authority control vendors, which was conducted to examine online maintenance features of present systems. The features discussed include global updates; uniqueness, hierarchical, and reciprocity checks; human intervention; field validation; and frequency of authority…

Discusses the benefits and disadvantages for library uses of stand-alone and integrated computer systems, multi-user and single-user systems, local area networks versus shared logic systems, and the Macintosh Library System which combines features of both. (EM)

Examines growth in the number and size of exhibitors' booths at Online conferences from 1979 to 1986 to support notion that information has progressed from intrinsic knowledge to a commodity that is produced, marketed, and sold. Discussion covers downloading and specific successes and failures in the information marketplace. (EM)

This report details the seven categories tracked by the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education (CACE) between 1990 and 1999-2000: sponsorship of programs and activities, exclusive agreements, incentive programs, appropriation of space, sponsored educational materials, electronic marketing, and privatization. The 1999-2000 report…

Although it is becoming easier to share materials via the Internet, the process is still not transparent, especially when cross-platform transfers are involved. This article reviews common protocols and discusses several utilities and strategies for exchanging information online. Includes a table listing transfer and compression protocols, common…

U.S. federal and state legislative and regulatory information is increasingly available electronically. This article provides descriptions of source providers and lists all major commercial dial-in services and Internet sources, providing alphabetical tables of 55 information categories and noting the names of each file covering a category and…