Evaluating a monolingual multinational digital library by using usability: An exploratory approach from a developing country

In this paper the authors present a preliminary discussion on some of the results from a survey aimed to explore, describe and explain some of the usability characteristics in digital libraries evaluation in the Mexican context. The study is framed in the evaluation of a multinational and monolingual digital library: the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, from the University of Alicante in Spain. The evaluators were Mexican “expert” users (i.e. Spanish-speaking professional university librarians specialized in electronic reference services) who were asked to carry on an evaluation instrument based on usability criteria as taken from some models in developed countries. Some questions that might be answered with future research are outlined in this paper.     

Diversity in the Information Seeking Behaviour of the Virtual Scholar: Institutional Comparisons

The logs of four universities using the OhioLINK journal system were evaluated for a period of fifteen months using deep log analysis methods in order to compare and contrast the information seeking behaviour of their users. Large differences were found, especially between the research and teaching universities. Methodological problems associated with making the comparisons are discussed in some detail especially in terms of defining online sessions.     

论科技编辑的前沿性选择

论述了科学前沿的重要意义，概述了当代科学前沿的主要问题，指出科技编辑只有立足科学前沿，才能作出高水平的选择。     

International Education and Training at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausées/La Formation a l'international a l'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées

The programme of the Département de la Formation Internationale at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausées (ENPC) was created in 1981 to address the ever‐increasing international role of today's engineer in the scientific, economic and social spheres. Each year, 75 ENPC students spend at least 3 months abroad, mainly in Europe. ENPC has double degree programmes in engineering studies with three European partners in Germany and Spain: TU Munich and TU Berlin; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Twenty per cent of the student curriculum is devoted to language study; the students are required to study English plus one of the following languages: German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese or Chinese. French courses for foreign students are also provided. Language teaching aims to provide students not only with the linguistic skills necessary for communication, but also to make them more sensitive to other cultures as well as their own.     

REPORT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTORS CONFERENCE*

This article examines the psychoanalytic concepts of object-relations theorist Christopher Bollas, applying them to a view of the Bible as “transformational object.” Emphasizing the connection between psychological process and religious experience, this article suggests that each person's innate ability to choose and use objects is a key factor in their ability to appropriate the Bible for constructive use. By offering religious objects with psychological awareness, religious educators may come to appreciate that silence, empathy, and open-ended lesson plans are important incubators of transformation; and that aggression has a potentially positive role in the healthy development of worship communities.     

Stress sensitivity and reading performance in Spanish: A study with children

This paper investigates the relationship between ability to detect changes in prosody and reading performance in Spanish. Participants were children aged 7–8 years. Their tasks consisted of reading words, reading non‐words, stressing non‐words and reproducing sequences of two, three or four non‐words by pressing the corresponding keys on the computer keyboard. Non‐word sequences were constructed with minimal non‐word pairs differing in a single phoneme (/kúpi/ ‐ /kúti/) or in the stress pattern (/mípa/ ‐ /mipá/). Results showed that performance on phoneme contrast sequences (e.g. /kúpi/ ‐ /kúti/) predicted word reading. In contrast, performance on stress contrast sequences (e.g. /mípa/ ‐ /mipá/) predicted non‐word reading, but only when two‐non‐word sequences were analysed. This suggests that stress sensitivity may be one of the factors related to reading fluency as most errors at reading non‐words consisted of false starts and pauses between syllables. Results also showed that stress sensitivity (scored in two non‐word sequences) predicted stress assignment, and that knowledge of stress rules predicted both word and non‐word reading. This suggests that stress sensitivity may help in learning stress rules, and that knowledge of stress rules is relevant for reading.