Florida's mandate of open enrollment for the community colleges and maintenance of the state universities as a limited access system is examined from the perspectives of its origins, perpetuation, problems, and the need for articulation. (MSE)

Proposes a "critical mass" explanation for the diffusion of interactive media, such as telephone, electronic mail, or computer conferencing, within communities. Considers two special characteristics of interactive media: (1) that widespread usage creates universal access, and (2) that use entails interdependence, in which earlier users…

Investigates the degree to which instruction in teachers' manuals relates to the stories in basal readers. Finds that the instruction in teachers' manuals relates to children's stories less than 33% of the time. (SKC)

Reports on a study to determine if female high school students scored as high as male high school students on New York State Regents examinations in mathematics. Results indicated that if female students had an instructional history similar to that of male students they performed as well. (PK)

This discussion among seven experts in gifted education covers: (1) curriculum and formal/informal instruction; (2) social climate; (3) teacher characteristics; and (4) identification of gifted students for a special high school in Israel. (Author/KM)

Notes some of the conflicts between the use of hands-on science curricula and standardized testing. Discusses the state of testing and the state of science education with regard to the tests. Describes some promising developments in assessment in science education. (TW)

Forty Israeli teachers of normal and hearing-impaired students (grades 3 and 6) ranked relative linguistic complexity for several versions of the same story and from them selected reading texts for their classes. Ranking tasks were performed similarly, but teachers of hearing-impaired students chose a far more limited range of texts. (Author/VW)

Describes components of new elementary and secondary school textbook packages and reviews criteria for evaluating textbooks. Topics discussed include the development of teaching aids; curricular considerations; evaluating content-area textbooks; the whole language approach to instruction; and the role of librarians and media specialists in subject…

Discusses the selection process carried on in tertiary institutions. Argues that it is pointless to consider actual selection in isolation from the gathering of data and the way that data are treated. (PK)

Addresses several questions related to British secondary students' choices in science, particularly as they relate to gender differences. Cites several national surveys that suggest that girls tend to choose biological science courses, while boys choose physical and technological science courses. (TW)

Indicates that the (1) largest journalism libraries employ professional librarians, (2) size of acquisition budgets does not correlate with school enrollment, and (3) average library spends two-thirds of is budget on newspapers and periodicals and only one-third on books. Provides useful guidelines for designing a collection development policy for…

Prepared by an intellectual freedom committee, this issue is intended to aid librarians in thinking about intellectual freedom when confronted with the current creationism controversy. A manual containing documents and resources on intellectual freedom, a bibliography of pro- and anti-creationism materials, and results of a censorship survey are…

Describes functions comprising task analysis process--inventory, description, selection, sequencing, and analysis--and reviews distinctions between the micro/macro level, top-down/bottom-up, and job/learning task analysis processes. These functions and distinctions are combined into a quasi-algorithm suggesting which of 30 task analysis procedures…

Outlines procedures for selecting scientific journals for academic library collections and provides a model which ranks data sources according to their relative weights rather than ranking the journals themselves. Use of the model in scientifically less developed countries is discussed. (Author/LRW)

This sixth article in a series discusses planning for the installation and implementation of automated systems in the library, workstation design and location, scheduling of software implementation, security, data input, staff and reader training, job design, impact of automation on library procedures, evaluation of system performance, and future…