Details types and causes of accidental injury to young children. Notes that of the average 5,000 accidents per day nationwide, falls account for the greatest number. Concludes with four cautions: check for hazards in child's environs; think safety at home; lobby and advocate for safer toys, furniture, and equipment; and report defects and…

Five steps designed to take anxiety out of statistics for social work students are outlined. First, statistics anxiety is identified as an educational problem. Second, instructional objectives and procedures to achieve them are presented and methods and tools for evaluating the course are explored. Strategies for, and obstacles to, making…

Presents steps taken by a librarian task force at Washington State University in planning, implementing, and evaluating the addition of LEXIS-NEXIS workstations; user policies; and instruction methods in an academic reference environment. Figures and tables display: workstation information including usage statistics, an outline of the Lexis-Nexis…

A study of 163 undergraduate social work students and 256 nonsocial work students found the social work majors had much higher levels of math anxiety than a cross-section of students enrolled in introductory statistics courses and were found to have taken fewer math courses in high school and college. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the use of library management data, particularly circulation data, in making selection decisions for library collection development based on experiences at Louisiana State University. Development of a collection based on actual use rather than perceived research needs is considered, and the decision-making process for serials…

Describes a survey of academic libraries that explored serials collection assessment. Highlights include serials budget allocations; serials cancellation projects; changes in ratio of allocation by subject area; use of computers for serials collection assessment; use of vendors, especially for statistics; and future plans for collection…

Describes a study that was designed to examine whether the computer attitudes of graduate students in a beginning statistics course differed based on their prior computer experience and the type of statistical analysis package used. Versions of statistical analysis packages using a mainframe and a microcomputer are compared. (14 references) (LRW)

Describes the model for decision making used in inferential statistics and real-world applications that parallel the statistical model. Discusses two activities that ask students to write about a personal decision-making experience and create a mock trial in which the class makes the decision of guilt or innocence. (MDH)

Argues that, as library roles change, providing access to information resources is becoming more important than acquisition of library resources and that libraries should be evaluated based upon what they actually do. Access and performance measures are proposed to supplement the statistics collected by the Association of Research Libraries. (30…

Monte Carlo techniques are used to examine the power of the "B" statistic of R. L. Brennan (1972) to detect negatively discriminating items drawn from a variety of nonnormal population distributions. A simplified procedure is offered for conducting an item-discrimination analysis on typical classroom objective tests. (SLD)

A survey of 139 teachers and 138 parents identified educational level and family income as predictors of attitudes toward gifted education. Analysis of extracted principal components found that socioeconomic status and contact with giftedness explained 12% and 10%, respectively, of the variance in attitude scores. (Author/DB)

Reports on a study of the association between computer anxiety and measures of positive and negative affect when using computerized vs. standard administration. Gender differences across the two modes of administration were assessed. Measures of state, trait, and mathematics anxiety were obtained to clarify the association between computer anxiety…

Course Technology Inc. has developed 10 products combining textbooks with commercial software for college accounting, business, computer science, and statistics courses. Five of the products use Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software. The products have been positively received by teachers and students. (DB)

Discusses the current status and proposals for the future development of library education in Sri Lanka. The roles of the Sri Lanka Library Association, Kelaniya University, and the Sri Lanka National Library Services Board are described; and the need for a statement of national policy and objectives for library education is stressed. (eight…

Two experiments with 172 undergraduate students (70 males and 102 females) examined the relationship among spatial, imagery, and verbal ability and the multitrial free recall of brief prose passages. Results suggest that the psychological mechanisms underlying prose learning performance clearly differ depending on the ability being examined. (SLD)