Discusses the application of win-win mindsets and strategy in the employment of LIS (library and information science) graduate assistants in academic library reference services. Considers recruitment, training and support, transition, treating graduate assistants as colleagues, differences from graduate assistants who are not LIS students, and…

Examines the development of undergraduate library and information science education at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in the context of educational change in the United Kingdom from 1967 through 1997. Discusses the joint honors program, the merger of the College of Librarianship Wales and the University College of Wales, and distance…

Describes a study that evaluated the impact and use of laptop computers when they were required for graduate information and library science (ILS) students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Topics include results of online and email surveys; student perspectives; previous computer experience; computer skills; and institutional…

Discusses the application of information science concepts to problems in museum collections management and describes a project in which the Vancouver Maritime Museum recataloged its historic watercraft collection. A list of fields to be used in computerized cataloging of historical watercraft is proposed, as well as cataloging protocol. (29…

This study examined journals in the field of library and information science to determine the institutional affiliation of authors and their use of descriptive versus inferential statistics. It was found that academic librarians published more research but relied on descriptive statistics, whereas faculty published less, but used inferential…

Discussion of efficient communication in research and development focuses on the use and nonuse of relevant information. Highlights include information overload and efficiency; nonuse of relevant information as policy; two kinds of overload; and implications for information science. (33 references) (LRW)

Identifies a set of objects that is genuinely indigenous to management information systems and constructs a simple model based on them. The model's four basic entities, which define the scope of information theory, are data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. (Contains 46 references.) (KRN)

Describes the role of the United Nations University (UNU) in promoting the effective use of new information technologies in support of science and technology for development. The UNU Information and Decision Systems (INDES) project examines the constraints preventing developing nations from using advances in informatics and from integrating their…

Proposes a new learning algorithm to improve the retrieval effectiveness of the search system used in the hypertext environment using an extended Boolean model with links to improve the ranking of retrieved items. Highlights include the basic retrieval scheme, the learning scheme, and a review of basic probabilistic retrieval models. (Contains 32…

Examines problems and issues in browsing behavior; summarizes various notions of browsing from six disciplines, including library and information science; suggests a multidimensional concept of browsing, including context, behavioral, motivation, cognitive, and resource; and proposes a conceptual framework for browsing, including context,…

Notes an antiscientific bias in writings that proclaim the value of qualitative approaches for studying information problems. Discusses the following methodological concerns: (1) scientific versus nonscientific traditions; (2) distinction between emic and etic perspectives; (3) artificial divide between qualitative and quantitative techniques; (4)…

When library education was institutionalized at universities, it pursued a social scientific path of disciplinary growth; objectivity and neutrality became ideals of library education. A different conception of social science provides the basis for recent challenges to the library and information science profession's traditional perception of…

Discusses information issues from the Caribbean perspective including the benefits of national information infrastructures (NIIs), developmental uses of telecommunication and information science, the need for global telecommunication policies, and collaboration of international governments. Reports on creating NIIs and reviews the need for…

Analyzes student dissertations at the School of Information Studies for Africa (SISA) at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) in order to present an overview of the library and information systems and services available in seven eastern and southern African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. (Author/LRW)

Argues that indexing and classification schemes rely on an understanding of "subject" and discusses several different conceptions of subject as epistemological positions. It is further argued that a theory of subject must be based in a theory of knowledge, and a theory based on a realistic/materialistic epistemology is proposed. (39…