Social capital is the glue that holds a community together. It is the network of relationships among persons that can be used to get things done. Social capital is a necessary, but not sufficient, ingredient of community building. A community must mobilize its social capital and the mechanisms of its infrastructure to face and resolve collective…

Based on the experiences of the staff of the Community Membership Project of Bloomington, Indiana, this paper discusses how community builders have collaborated with 10 older persons with developmental disabilities to increase their community participation. The paper addresses the initial stages of community building with older persons, the…

This qualitative study asked three elementary principals what they did to learn about their school's culture, what informative sources were available, and what hindered their progress. The two principals having a successful year were aware of and responded to school culture; employed various strategies for gathering information from numerous…

The State Library Agencies (STLA) Survey is conducted annually and is the product of a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The Survey provides state and federal…

A school psychologist describes the experience of designing a database management system to keep daily records of services provided to students and parents. Information in the database included: dates, type of service, and time spent. A system such as this provides instant access to accountability data. How to create and maintain the database is…

This information memorandum describes revisions to laws relating to public libraries that were enacted in 1997 Wisconsin Act 150. The first section of the memorandum outlines the major provisions of the Act, including: county payment for library services; optional standards in plan of library services for county; report on library system…

This report describes a 3-year project funded by a grant from the Division of Nursing, Health Resources and Services Administration to provide continuing education in computer technology for nursing faculty in college-based nursing programs in the 15 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. The report begins with an overview of computer…

This directory was produced to help parents of children with special needs and professionals identify one another and form relationships to improve the health care system. The directory contains entries from families throughout the United States and Canada, and is organized alphabetically by state or province, with parents listed alphabetically…

This booklet explains the value of networking--a procedure for establishing connections, securing information, and making problem-solving bridges out of shared experiences of work. It advises looking for networking opportunities to discover career strategy techniques as well as to provide support and, perhaps, to find a new or better job. The…

This issue presents articles which, in some way, help to clarify and define library services. It is hoped that this clarification in library service will serve to secure the resources libraries need to serve the people of New York. The following articles are presented: (1) Introduction: "Clarifying and Defining Library Services" (Joseph…

A composition instructor inquired into the effect of computer conferencing in two composition courses taught entirely through computer-mediated instruction and infused with the pedagogy of feminist collaboration. The instructor encouraged the naming of self and the developing of relationship. The instructor prepared a composition curriculum,…

A collaboration between a university English professor and a high-school English teacher was successful in building community, yet rather unsuccessful in manipulating the Internet. Their collaboration worked, as far as it did, because of an absence of hierarchy. To create a basis for comparison with other studies, analysis of the collaboration can…

Framed by the rising costs of traditional scholarly publishing and the increasing restrictions on library budgets, the turn to electronic publishing seems to be the way of the future, according to the publisher of an electronic journal, "Surfaces." Costs and delays of production and distribution are massively reduced. The electronic…

This study examines the information sources used by practicing rural physicians in North Dakota to keep current with new information in their area of specialty. The hypotheses tested were: (1) there are more male than female rural practitioners in North Dakota; (2) rural physicians depend on printed material to fulfill regular need for information…

Literacy councils in central Pennsylvania recruited more potential students within their communities and increased the number of students enrolling in their programs through a staff development project. Direct-service personnel from local human service agencies that constituted important referral sources for literacy councils were targeted for…