Uses chaos systems concepts to analyze a case study of rapid growth and conflict in a southwestern school district. Difficulties arising from the need for very precise initial measurements, data forms adaptable to pattern modeling, and precise meanings for chaotic systems concepts limit chaotic theory's application to educational administration…

Explains how a new systems administrator can make good first impressions, become familiar with the library, and take charge. Describes ways of working effectively with equipment and human resources, and outlines types of library staff personalities the systems librarian may encounter. Discusses organizing the data gathered into action plans. (AEF)

Uses a reliability framework to examine the role that relevance judgments play in quantitative information retrieval (IR) performance measurement with an eye toward issues introduced by Internet IR. Argues that a theoretical basis for reliable measurement is possible if the relevance yardstick is reconsidered in light of recent research and if the…

Designing an EAP course requires collaboration among various concerned stakeholders, including students, subject teachers, institutional administrators and EAP teachers themselves. While needs analysis is often considered fundamental to EAP, alternative research methodologies may be required to facilitate meaningful collaboration between these…

This field guide provides a look into education in relation to a concept that has already been established in science, business and therapy. This book will encourage and educate readers about systemic thinking through examples and ideas pertinent to education and its reform. Following a Foreword (Michael Fullan) and Introduction (Blane Despres),…

To evaluate the adequacy and efficiency of preschool education, the RAND Corporation has undertaken the California Preschool Study to improve understanding of achievement gaps in the early elementary grades, the adequacy of preschool education currently given, and what efficiencies or additional resources might be brought to bear in early care and…

Most universities in Canada are spending enormous amounts of effort collecting vast amounts of data, but are still--in some quarters--perceived to be unable to report data effectively. In other countries, this kind of problem has been resolved in two different ways. But in Canada, this hasn't happened. The purpose of this paper is to shed some…

Newborn screening has existed as a state-based public health service since the early 1960s. Every state and most territorial jurisdictions have comprehensive newborn screening programs in place, but in the United States a national newborn screening policy does not exist. This results in different administrative infrastructures, screening…

Traditional organizational theory mandates that organizations predict and stay in control in order to avoid chaos. This book proposes that members of organizations work at developing a new frame of reference for understanding organizational life. The book combines insights from the new science of complexity with insights from psychoanalysis and…

This report details a study performed as an interplay between modeling and reality which was designed to find operators that affect the information organizer of an individual in a social system. The operator is defined as a system element that affects other elements. The information organizer is defined as a coordinating interface between the…

Different people have a diversity of needs and expectations when approaching an information retrieval system, and providing people with the ease and efficiency to access information is important when designing systems. By examining the man-machine interface from the cognitive viewpoint, it is possible to investigate how a person interacts with an…

Although most models of connected discourse are strikingly similar in the types of relationships they describe, they are strikingly different in two areas: the unit of analysis and the dimensions on which cohesion versus coherence are described. Common systems for analyzing written text use the sentence, T-unit, clause, or proposition as the unit…

Based on analysis of the current system and comparison with existing and possible alternatives, this report evaluates the effectiveness of the Indiana library cooperative network, a de facto network based on the activities of individual libraries, Area Library Services Authorities (ALSAs), the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority…

In the first part of the paper, the author discusses his observation that teachers perceive any form of theorizing in schools to be intellectually dependent on educational researchers. Teachers assume that their access to educational theories depends on a group external to themselves and that theory has little practical value in the classroom. In…

Describes a group of systems analysis courses which utilizes a computer model of a company which makes house wire to provide a realistic representation of the complexities involved in industrial management. (CP)