Describes how the Northwestern State University library organized a successful technology fair that focused on the library and campus technology. Discusses reasons for organizing the fair, including the introduction of new workstations; academic department participation; vendor participation; marketing strategies and communication; and student…

Discusses the need to think of public libraries as businesses rather than as functions of society. Topics include keeping old customers and attracting new ones; taxes; competition from the private sector; the use of technology; training people to use technology; mission statements; library services; and marketing. (LRW)

Considers ways to include schools' food service departments in technology planning. Discusses school food service software applications, considerations and challenges of automating food service operations, and business-to-business Internet solutions. (EV)

Discussion of rural library technology concerns focuses on the Kalona (Iowa) public library and its attempts to acquire up-to-date technology. Topics include costs, politics, Internet service providers, personnel concerns, funding, and national and state-based opportunities. (LRW)

Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) revolves around the investigation and creation of knowledge, processes, algorithms, and mechanisms for retrieving knowledge from data collections. The article is an introductory overview of KDD. The rationale and environment of its development and applications are discussed. Issues related to database design…

Discusses how teachers can use automated voice recording systems (AVRS) in English-as-Second-Language classes. AVRS messages present an interesting way to involve students in active listening and response, while developing useful skills for daily life. (Author/VWL)

Offers a perspective on changes that have occurred in academic reference librarianship since 1980. Topics include librarians' responsibilities; the changing uses of reference services by students and faculty; technological advancements; the organization of libraries, including management styles and theories; roles of libraries and librarians; and…

Presents an interaction model and an experimental method for information retrieval. This automated method helps identify which user and system variables are relevant, which are independent of other variables, and which ranges of the variables are most important. Results show that relevance feedback consistently improves retrieval performance. (AEF)

Discusses technology and its effects on society and humans, particularly library and information technology. Highlights include the evolving history of technology; and values related to technology in libraries, including democracy, stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, privacy, literacy and learning, rationalism, and equity of access. (LRW)

Systems that automatically assess student programming assignments have been designed and used for over forty years. Systems that objectively test and mark student programming work were developed simultaneously with programming assessment in the computer science curriculum. This article reviews a number of influential automatic assessment systems,…

Living in the vast shadow cast by the spires of the Magic Kingdom presents special challenges for Orlando's Orange County Library System (OCLS), the most formidable of which is increasing its relatively small user base. The library additionally faces tension between the administration and staff, political strife on the board, and looming contract…

Innovations from Google[TM] and Amazon[R] are clear wake-up calls that as a profession and an industry things need to be done differently. Automation vendors and librarians must work together to ensure that the profession is positioned to take advantage of changing culture and technology to assume a rightful place at the table where rich and…

In recent years, many higher education institutions, from liberal arts colleges to major research universities, have integrated their information technology (IT) and library organizations. Still more institutions are actively exploring the possibility of doing so. Their reasons for combining the separate organizations range from positioning the…

The surprising success of Live Homework Help, a product of Tutor.com unknown to libraries before 2001, is in very large part owing to the company's effort to understand library funding and help libraries tap into all kinds of potential funding sources. The story is a model for partnerships between other companies and libraries. For the people of…

AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway--the world's first major FRBR implementation--was developed as a co-operative service involving eight universities and the National Library of Australia in 2000-2001. This paper traces the reasons for adopting the FRBR information model, implementation experiences, and user responses to the service. The paper…