U.S. government (depository items)

The new frontier of electronic access was fully explored in the past year. Government agency “gophers” proliferated on the Internet, featuring a wide variety of government information previously only available in print. Likewise, many gophers at academic institutions posted significant new government reports in a timely manner. A good example is the National Performance Review's From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government that Works Better & Costs Less, which was posted on the Internet well before many depositories received their print copies. The one constant is that GPO (Government Printing Office) continues to issue publications containing valuable information. In addition to the National Performance Review, many other important reports were published by GPO this year, including those of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, the National Commission on AIDS, and the ATF Investigation of the David Koresh/Waco incident. This list does not even mention the Clinton Administration's Health Security Act and the full depository release of the Clarence Thomas Hearings. It has been a full year. The documents included in this Notable Documents issue were received by depository libraries from midyear 1993 to midyear 1994. They were selected for their general interest, lasting value, research significance, or timeliness. Most of the documents are available from the Superintendent or from one of the GPO bookstores around the country (see Monthly Catalog for a listing). Those documents that do not list a stock number or price may be available in limited quantities from the issuing agency.     

Fighting terrorism,making war: Critical insights in the management of information and intelligence

This article reviews and analyzes the essential lessons of information and intelligence management lessons from recent terrorist attacks and the decision to attack Iraq. It draws on evidence from the 9/11 Commission, the Senate investigation of intelligence and the war in Iraq, the Butler Commission in Britain, and other sources. It identifies and explores several themes, including the following: relationship between intelligence work and other information work; inconclusive nature of intelligence; role of executive leadership in successful intelligence work, including the leader's need for information and decision-making style; role of organizational culture and human factors; the need for sound information management practices and systems; and the need to evaluate information for decision making and other actions. The article concludes with a discussion of strategic information management policies and approaches that are essential to improve the nation's information and intelligence management capacity.     

Bibliographic Instruction:

In April, 1994 Mercy College completed an extended self-study in preparation for a team visit from The Commission on Higher Education, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. This article examines the impact of institutional evaluation on the library's bibliographic instruction program, and its evolution into an information literacy program responsive to changes in student demographics, curriculum content, assessment methods, and communication technologies. Three initiatives are described: (1) an effort to increase course-integrated information literacy instruction in the general education requirement; (2) development of an information literacy assessment plan; and (3) recruitment and training of information literacy peer tutors to assist public services librarians. Although still in a formative stage, eight future directions are recommended for successful implementation.     

Information Skills of Librarians Working at Public Universities in Bangladesh: A Task-Based Analysis of Pre- and Post-Training Performance Scores

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to empirically examine the information skills of public university librarians and whether attending a short training on navigation to e-resources results in improvements in their knowledge base. A group of 33 librarians working at different public university libraries participated in this study. They were participants in a 90-min long training program on navigation to e-resources conducted at University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. The survey questionnaire, consisted of 12 information tasks, was distributed and answered before the training. The same tasks were repeated at the end of the training session to see the improvement of information skills. It was found that librarians did not have adequate knowledge of information skills; in fact, a major proportion of university librarians demonstrated inappropriate and insufficient knowledge before the training. The training helped improve their performance score significantly in six out of 12 tasks. The study concluded that the provision of systematic and regular training will improve the skills of librarians and it will positively affect their service outcomes.     

The Poor Man's Lamb Revisited? Assessing the State of LPFM at its 10th Anniversary

In this article the authors report the results of a year-long investigation into the state of the low-power FM (LPFM) industry on its 10th anniversary. They question whether LPFM stations give voice to the previously voiceless as envisioned or, as some research has indicated, benefit religious communities' efforts to expand their cultural reach. Using a 2-phase study, the authors first mapped the LPFM industry using Federal Communications Commission data and public information provided by LPFM stations and their owners and operators over the Internet. The authors then conducted interviews with dozens of LPFM operators across the United States. Results indicate that large interests, in particular religious organizations, have created de facto networks that rely on outside entities for the majority of programming, thus circumventing the spirit of the original policy.     

A Moral and Legal Obligation

The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group (both US organizations) created a task force to study the requirements for preserving digital information. The report, published in May 1996, recommends a certification process for digital archives and calls for a legal authority to rescue digital files in danger of being lost. The paper reviews the reactions of the library, archival, and educational communities and describes the current actions being taken.     

Freedom of information spreads to Europe

Europe is gradually embracing freedom of information principles while at the same time restricting dissemination of information generated by public agencies through electronic databases. Both Britain and Germany are moving to adopt freedom of information laws, and the European Commission has published a regulation allowing access to European institution materials. These developments are important for the rest of the world, including the United States, because the Internet is already becoming a vast virtual library facilitating global access to statutes, court decisions, and administrative agency decisions that make up the raw ingredients of a rule of law. Meanwhile, however, the European Commission issued a directive limiting certain uses of electronic databases, broadly enough drafted to include electronic repositories of primary legal information. This kind of state-sponsored monopoly over public information is inimical to a rule of law and democratic values. Europeans and Americans should work to realize the increased transparency promised by the freedom of information developments, and work to minimize the extent to which the database directive and similar proposals on this side of the Atlantic restrict redissemination of primary legal information.     

Pakistani University Library Web Sites: Features,Contents, and Maintenance Issues

ABSTRACT

This study explores the current status and features of Pakistan's academic library Web sites. A checklist describing features and content was prepared based on a review of the literature related to academic libraries’ Web sites. Then, all 85 library Web sites of Pakistani universities and degree-awarding institutions recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan were surveyed and analyzed using the checklist. Interviews with library professionals were conducted to learn more about the problems and issues with building and maintaining library Web sites. Results indicate that Pakistani academic library Web sites have effective features such as contrasting color schemes, easily readable text, minimal use of horizontal scrolling, and English-language text. Staff information, OPACs, and navigation features are also widely found on the Web sites. Features found less frequently include the use of Web 2.0 technologies, Web site aid tools, information about library buildings, and general library information. By offering information about the status of Pakistani academic library Web sites, the study can serve as a foundation for discussion between libraries and other parts of the university, as well as a benchmark for evaluating the progress of academic library Web sites in Pakistan     

A Moral and Legal Obligation: Preservation in the Digital Age

The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group (both US organizations) created a task force to study the requirements for preserving digital information. The report, published in May 1996, recommends a certification process for digital archives and calls for a legal authority to rescue digital files in danger of being lost. The paper reviews the reactions of the library, archival, and educational communities and describes the current actions being taken.     

U.S. Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity: Progress Issues and Strategies

The 1998 Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity study (Bertot & McClure, 1998) sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) collected public library outlet Internet connectivity data by outlet metropolitan status, poverty, and region strata. Based on a national survey, the results show that there are disparities in public library outlet Internet connectivity, public access provision, and speed of public access Internet services. Such disparities have implications for future connectivity policy development such as the e-rate, state library-based connectivity programs, and library-initiated connectivity initiatives that this article identifies and explores. Community Access Points (CAPS), in addition to public libraries, may be necessary to reach national goals related to universal service and equality of access to the Internet.     

Federal Trade Commission Resources and Information

Abstract

This pathfinder is designed to assist the novice researcher with the appropriate places to begin research regarding the functions and responsibilities of the Federal Trade Commission. Identifying and locating typical agency information including laws, regulations, complaints, opinions, decisions, acts and interpretations are included.     

Memory, records, history: the Records of the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste

This paper examines the implications of the context of creation on the current and potential future uses of the records produced by the Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao de Timor-Leste (Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, or CAVR). Given that the CAVR relied heavily on the testimony of the East Timorese people in its investigations that addressed a 25-year period, this paper considers the nature of memory and the role it played in creating and shaping the CAVR records. It also addresses the potential influences of the CAVR records, particularly the final report, Chega!, in shaping what will be known about this period by the Timorese people. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential role of the CAVR records in contributing to the history of Timor-Leste. Although truth commissions are a problematic form of truth telling, with significant implications for the writing of history, the records of the CAVR are an invaluable source of information for Timorese history. If future users can recognize the CAVR records as the products of the context of their creation, these records will have a critical role to play in the development of history within Timor-Leste.     

美国公共图书馆STEM教育实践与启示——以爱达荷州图书馆委员会STEM教育项目为例

[目的/意义] 通过对美国爱达荷州图书馆委员会STEM教育项目进行个案研究，为我国公共图书馆开展STEM教育提供借鉴。[方法/过程] 通过网络调查法对美国爱达荷州图书馆委员会STEM教育项目进行调查，并对项目的实施情况进行分析，总结其特点，在此基础上对我国公共图书馆开展STEM教育提出建议。[结果/结论] 指出我国可以从成立公共图书馆STEM教育委员会，将阅读推广嵌入STEM教育中，促进STEM教育与创客教育融合发展，重视成人STEM教育等方面着手，推动公共图书馆STEM教育向纵深发展。     

The utilitarian and hedonic outcomes of music information-seeking in everyday life

This qualitative study focuses on what contributes to making a music information-seeking experience satisfying in the context of everyday life. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted with 15 younger adults (18 to 29 years old). The analysis revealed that satisfaction could depend on both hedonic (i.e., experiencing pleasure) and utilitarian outcomes. It was found that two types of utilitarian outcomes contributed to satisfaction: (1) the acquisition of music, and (2) the acquisition of information about music. Information about music was gathered to (1) enrich the listening experience, (2) increase one's music knowledge, and/or (3) optimize future acquisition. This study contributes to a better understanding of music information-seeking behavior in recreational contexts. It also has implications for music information retrieval systems design: results suggest that these systems should be engaging, include a wealth of extra-musical information, allow users to navigate among music items, and encourage serendipitous encountering of music.     

From Document Delivery to Information Access:

The American Library Association's program priorities since 1977 have increasingly centered on redefining the mission of the library in a broader context of total information access. Access has been addressed by the Association in relation to national information policy. The Association's response to the work of its Commission on Freedom and Equality of Access to Information illustrates the difficulties that arise when member-governed organizations consider information policy options in public forums. Such debates may challenge fundamental professional values. The need to reexamine policy positions an conflict with the importance of maintaining a consistent public advocacy stance. ALA has identified access as its highest priority and has begun enumerating characteristics of adequacy in the information access environment. There is little indication that the ALA organizational structure itself, however, yet reflects the transition from document delivery to information access.     

The European commission's online public databases

In the context of its role in providing the day-to-day administration of the European Union, the European Commission is responsible both for stimulating the development of interactive electronic information services in Europe and for providing public online databases of information on the Union's activities. Following a brief survey of the background to the Commission's activities, this article outlines the Union's current telecommunications policy and the ongoing transition towards closer integration of the various telecommunications networks in Europe. It then describes the various practical arrangements for obtaining access to the Commission's online services, presents two of its programmes, which are intended to stimulate the professional use of electronic information services, and lists the various databases that it provides for public access.     

Information resources for competitive intelligence: An approach to the information available on the European Union's websites

Companies need to use information from multiple sources to improve their competitiveness. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, the European Union has developed a number of instruments for this purpose. This article gives an overview of the information resources that are most important for businesses and that originate from institutions and other bodies of the European Union. It is divided into five parts: European agencies; resources of the Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs; resources provided by other European Commission DGs & services; Points of Single Contact (PSCs) of the EUGO Network; and other support networks.     

Children's website adherence to the ftc's online privacy protection rule

This study examines the extent to which online marketers comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. COPPA requires online operators to seek parental permission before collecting personal information from children and to post links to their privacy policy on their homepage and every page where personal infor mation is collected. A majority of the 162 popular children's websites analyzed in this study collected personal information from children. Only four of those sites fully com plied with major components of the law. The difficulty associated with obtaining parental permission and the recency of the law may explain the lack of compliance observed. The authors conclude that parents and schools need to educate children to protect their privacy online. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission should continue dissem inating information about the law and actively enforce it.     

The Online Government Information Movement

Abstract

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science published recommendations for a national information policy in 1976, and concerns regarding the protection of privacy and equal public access to online information were introduced. From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s, federal government agencies were beginning to publish materials and maintain records electronically. Most current U.S. government information was available on the Internet by the late 1990s, and depository libraries were required to provide workstations that would facilitate access to documents. Documents librarians, already concerned with the lack of attention to archiving online federal information, were provided with an example of the vulnerability of online publications in the early 2000s when federal agency Web sites were made inaccessible-quickly and easily. The possibility that too much government information was available to anyone with access to the Internet was becoming a national concern. Using government documents as resources, this article retraces the events that were occurring in federal government agencies during the movement of government information to the Internet.     

Serving a Fragmented Field: Information Seeking in Higher Education

This study examines the information seeking habits and needs of scholars of higher education. Because higher education is a field which draws on many disciplinary traditions rather than a pure discipline in itself, the information needs of these scholars require diverse information seeking strategies. Phenomenological interviews with productive scholars of higher education were conducted and analyzed for this study. Ellis' (1989) common information seeking behaviors of social scientists are used as a framework to examine the behaviors of these applied social scientists in the modern information seeking environment.