Western Illinois University Libraries has cut online serials subscriptions in the past 2 years. The librarians were guided by the statistics for downloads provided by the publishers of the journals. However, questions were raised by both professors and librarians regarding the exact meaning of the statistics. This caused the electronic resources…

The ability to use computer-based technology is an essential skill set for students majoring in chemistry. This exercise details the introduction of appropriate uses for this technology in the organic chemistry series. The incorporation of chemically appropriate online resources (module 1), scientific databases (module 2), and the use of a…

Using 2003 nursing home data from the Minimum Data Set (MDS) database, this study investigated the role of family support among nursing homes serving residents with a mental health history. Exploratory factor analysis was used to create and test a conceptual model of family support using indicators located within the MDS database. Families were…

To improve our understanding of the factors that influence persistence rates in STEM field majors, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided a grant to the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute in 2007 to study the question. The five papers in the symposium represent the output of the project. This introduction explains the motivation for…

Aim: To identify the use and utility of language comprehension tests for unintelligible or non-speaking children with severe cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Severe CP was defined as severe dysarthria (unintelligible speech) or anarthria (absence of speech) combined with severe limited mobility, corresponding to Gross Motor Function Classification…

The guided experimentation method requires that students learn how a database works by generating and testing hypotheses about it (i.e., become skilled at strategies of experimentation). These strategies are essential to learning by inquiry, which is linked to argumentation. We conducted a quasi-experimental field study to show that students who…

The present article focuses on data collection through web questionnaires, as opposed to the traditional pen-and-paper method for research in second language acquisition and bilingualism. It is argued that web questionnaires, which have been used quite widely in psychology, have the advantage of reaching out to a larger and more diverse pool of…

Objectives: To develop a comprehensive inventory of state physical education (PE) legislation, examine trends in bill introduction, and compare bill factors. Methods: State PE legislation from January 2001 to July 2007 was identified using a legislative database. Analysis included components of evidence-based school PE from the Community Guide and…

Objective: The authors conducted a meta-analytic review of adherence-outcome and competence-outcome findings, and examined plausible moderators of these relations. Method: A computerized search of the PsycINFO database was conducted. In addition, the reference sections of all obtained studies were examined for any additional relevant articles or…

This article presents a report on expanded-time (ET) schools in America produced by the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Extracting and analyzing information from NCTL's database of 655 schools, this report describes trends emerging among these schools, including issues…

This article is a guide to the NBER-Rensselaer Scientific Papers Database, which includes more than 2.5 million scientific publications and over 21 million citations to those papers. The data cover an important sample of 110 top U.S. universities and 200 top U.S.-based R&D-performing firms during the period 1981-1999. This article describes the…

The Brain Korea 21 program (BK21), an effort to improve Korean universities and research, has attracted a great deal of attention in Korea, producing the need to understand how well the program is meeting its goals. RAND developed a logic model for identifying program goals and dynamics, suggested quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods,…

Data Definition Languages (DDLs) have been created and used to represent data in programming languages and in database dictionaries. This representation includes descriptions in the form of data fields and relations in the form of a hierarchy, with the common exception of relational databases where relations are flat. Network computing created an…

In 2003, EDUCAUSE launched a program called the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service (CDS), which consist of: (1) an annual survey that collects data about IT environments and practices on (primarily) member campuses; (2) a Web-based, interactive database service available to all who complete the survey through which they can access data contributed by…

This paper provides a theoretical critique of the deficiencies of full-text searching in academic library databases. Because full-text searching relies on matching words in a search query with words in online resources, it is an inefficient method of finding information in a database. This matching fails to retrieve synonyms, and it also retrieves…