Questions the wisdom of permitting visions of the electronic library to drive budgets and strategic planning. Social and economic realities limiting user access to information, new roles for librarians, and models that guide management of information resources and services by real librarians for real users are discussed. A proposed action agenda…

Presents a holistic view of the management of licensed, networked information resources in a university library. Highlights include licensing and copyrights; collection development and acquisitions; aggregators, which combine electronic resources from disparate suppliers or locations into larger resource units for users; consortia; managing…

Focuses on the trend to combine Web access and CD networks, benefits of considering the community network environment as a whole, and need for flexibility in considering new technologies. Describes the Occidental College Library (California) experience of building and sharing a network and network file server. (PEN)

Provides background on the World Wide Web, reasons for its growth, its potential usefulness to gerontologists, and the results of an exhaustive search of over 300 sites. Relevant information was discovered in five general categories of gerontology-related information: academic institutions, government agencies, biomedical and health research…

Discusses the use of the Internet for ready reference and considers limitations, reference policy, and cost issues. Highlights include general reference sources; database searching on the Internet; Gopher; bibliographic control and access to Internet resources; personnel issues; and levels of service. (Contains 30 references.) (LRW)

Examines the current status of online developmental courses. Features descriptions of programs at several colleges, including the names and e-mail addresses of individuals to contact for further information. Describes the hardware requirements for offering online courses as well as how such courses typically operate. (MAB)

Proposes a user-centered framework for intranet design based on an understanding of people, their typical problems, information behaviors, and situated contexts. Argues that by adopting such an approach, intranets can be designed which facilitate organizational information access and use. (Author/AEF)

Describes access management problems associated with networked information systems and the two major architectural approaches used to address them, including discussion of related policy issues such as privacy, accountability, and collection of management data. Focus is on the concerns of colleges and universities and on developing practical…

Several federal science agencies have formed an alliance to work together and to make an interagency science portal, science.gov http://www.science.gov, a reality that will serve the needs of the research community and provide universal access to physical science information for citizens. While much progress has been made, challenges of resources…

In this paper we focus on mechanisms of coordination in agricultural contracts. Our approach is intended to advance understanding of social relations of production and distribution of power in agrofood systems. Through an analysis of contracts between farmers and intermediaries (e.g., processors, shippers, consignment agents) for California fruits…

Analyzing the activity of a group of students involved in an online university course with a simulation environment, this article considers and problematizes the idea of online community and its relations to learning. The analysis builds upon Dewey's conception of organic community and related perspectives. In valuing "joint action," such…

Multivariate statistical analyses were used to determine if there were differences in social community, learning community, and perceived learning between male and female students in 12 online graduate education courses in which female students (n = 162) outnumbered males (n = 31). Study results provided evidence that females felt more connected…

This article proposes a critical theoretical paradigm for the evaluation of university-community-school partnerships. Although numerous models have been posited for assessing these collaborative endeavors, few of them have granted adequate attention to the voices of community partners, and none have centered on systemic issues of power and…

This chapter examines the role of a national network of local and regional intermediary organizations in initiating and sustaining community-based youth worker professional development systems. This approach is instructive for other intermediaries in establishing training standards, assessing impact, providing organizational supports for youth…

This paper centres on the sense of isolation that online study may engender among learners, a factor often ignored by many educators, but one that may make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful online learning environment for many students. The importance of a proper appreciation of the learners' social context is stressed, as is…