Using mobile digital devices--iPods, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Tablet PCs or advanced cell phones--is becoming a big campus trend. Their advantages include convenience and the ability to hear lectures or course-related music just about anywhere. PDA's such as Palm Pilots and BlackBerrys, iPods such as Apple's and Tablet PCs, including…

August in the U.S. capital is typically quiet. Congress is in recess, and most bureaucrats choose this hot steamy month for their vacation. In a normal year, serious legislation is put off until September; in a close election year such as this one, it is put off until "after the elections." This year, with the exception of agency…

There are many chasms in the library profession: among different libraries and between public services and technology staff, users and librarians, and research and practice. Susan Gibbons bridges all of them. As director of digital library initiatives at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries, Gibbons was an early adopter of MIT's…

Almost everyone on campus today grasps the benefits of easy availability of information technology, but for college presidents, the expectations for information technology have been high from the early days. The grail in futurist dreams has been a machine that "thinks," using a very big base of information to sift evidence, make judgments, and…

Eureka is similar to the Big6(super TM) research skills by Michael Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, as both methods simplify the complex process of critical information gathering into six user-friendly steps. The six research steps to Eureka are presented.

In this article, Brian L. Hawkins, President of EDUCAUSE, interviews Clifford A. Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and the recipient of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Award for Leadership in Public Policy and Practice, about, among other things, the current CNI initiatives, digital assets preservation, e-science,…

In this second part of a two-part interview with Clifford A. Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, Lynch talks to Hawkins about the most provocative and exciting projects that are being developed in the field of networked information worldwide. He also talks on how institutional repositories are being currently…

This article discusses the scope of activities of the Network Policy Council (NPC), which has been designed to provide a more direct channel of communications within EDUCAUSE and to provide policy formulation more visibility. The NPC is an advisory council to EDUCAUSE whose members are selected from those who have interest in this area and are…

In this article, the influence of timesaving and inspiring reference technologies on the field of reference services is assessed. Library media specialists are advised to be aware of and embrace such emerging technologies, as these will enable them to make information gathering effective and efficient and create information-literate students.

The focus of "Synthesis", the most visible part of the information problem-solving process, varies depending on the original task. Organizing information and presenting information are the two forms of Synthesis and they are very important for the students as they can save time and effort, and do a better job, by using technology in meaningful…

Claims that investing in information technology will save money for a college or university have rarely proven true. In fact, realizing the promised dollar savings is so rare in higher education that the credibility of many IT professionals has been jeopardized by making the claim. Not producing promised savings only exacerbates the sense, among…

Today's world demands an expansive search environment. The universe of information resources is immense and is growing rapidly. The content needed for research and scholarship is dispersed among publishers, aggregators, repositories, library catalogs, e-print servers, and servers throughout the Web. Users do not want to jump from one interface to…

This article discusses six maxims by which to run library automation. The following maxims are discussed: (1) Solve only known problems; (2) Avoid changing data to fix display problems; (3) Aut viam inveniam aut faciam; (4) If you cannot make it yourself, buy something; (5) Kill the alligator closest to the boat; and (6) Just because yours is…

This article, the second installment of CIL's (Computers in Libraries) 2005 Helping You Buy series, provides an in-depth look at library selfcheck systems from 10 vendors. The product comparison chart will help you to quickly and easily compare products from competing vendors. All of the information on the product comparison chart came directly…

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study of critical factors associated with e-business success. An a priori model relating the success factors to e-business success is developed. The study uses the "balanced scorecard" methodology to measure the success of e-business organizations, as the authors believe that financial measures are…