A Community of Practice: Librarians in a Biomedical Research Network

Providing library and reference services within a biomedical research community presents special challenges for librarians, especially those in historically lower-funded states. These challenges can include understanding needs, defining and communicating the library's role, building relationships, and developing and maintaining general and subject specific knowledge. This article describes a biomedical research network and the work of health sciences librarians at the lead intensive research institution with librarians from primarily undergraduate institutions and tribal colleges. Applying the concept of a community of practice to a collaborative effort suggests how librarians can work together to provide effective reference services to researchers in biomedicine.     

The Way Forward: Improving Interlibrary Loan Service Delivery at a Caribbean Academic Library

The Alma Jordan Library (AJL) is located on the St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago and is the largest academic library in the University of the West Indies' library system. This article examines interlibrary loan and document delivery (ILL/DD) services, discusses existing ILL/DD activities, and analyzes usage statistics at this Caribbean educational institution. It reviews the current literature that exists about ILL/DD in the Caribbean and other academic institutions outside the region. This article serves to add to the body of literature on this topic and provides practical recommendations for improving the current service.     

3. ELECTRONIC MEDIA

NARRATIVES AND SPACES: TECHNOLOGY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE by David E. Nye (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997—$45.00/17.50, ISBN 0–231–11196–7 hard, 0–231–11197–5 paper, 224 pp., index)

NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY: CULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL PERSPECTIVES by John V. Pavlik (Boston: Allyn and Bacon “Allyn &; Bacon Series in Mass Communication,”; 1998 [2d ed.]—$24.00, paper, ISBN 0–205–27093‐X, 400 pp., glossary, bibliography, index)

CULTURES OF INTERNET: VIRTUAL SPACES, REAL HISTORIES, LIVING BODIES edited by Rob Shields (London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996—$69.95/22.95, ISBN 0–8039–7518‐X hard, 0–8039–7519–8 paper, 196 pp., index)

VISUAL CULTURE: AN INTRODUCTION by John A. Walker and Sarah Chaplin (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press / New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998—$79.95/24.95, ISBN 0–7190–5019–7 hard, 0–7190–5020–0 paper, 231 pp., index, appendix, black and white illustrations and photographs, summaries at end of each chapter)     

General Media and Journalism

William E. Francois, Introduction to Mass Communications and Mass Media (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing Co., 1977—$9.95, paper)

John M. Phelan's Mediaworld: Programming the Public (New York: Seabury Press, 1977—$8.95)

Harvey L. Zuckman and Martin J. Gaynes' Mass Communications Law in a Nutshell (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1977—price not given but under $10.00, paper)

Communication Abstracts (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, quarterly beginning Spring 1978/$30.00 for individuals; $54.00 for institutions, and these are introductory rates)

Margaret Harmon, ed. Working with Words: Careers for Writers (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977—$7.95)

Walter Fox's Writing the News: Print Journalism in the Electronic Age (New York: Hastings House, 1977—$8.95/4.50)

Lee Finkle's Forum for Protest: The Black Press During World War II (Ruthorford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1975—$12.50)

Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin's The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450-1800 (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press [London: NLB], 1976—$27.00)

George Seldes' Even the Gods Can't Change History: The Facts Speak for Themselves (Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart Inc., 1976—$10.00)

Denis McQuail's Review of Sociological Writing on the Press (London: IIMSO, 1976—£16 or about $2.00, paper, including postage)     

Technology and culture

INTERFACE CULTURE: HOW NEW TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMS THE WAY WE CREATE AND COMMUNICATE by Steven Johnson (San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997‐$24.00, ISBN 0–06–251433–4, 272 pp., index)

IMMERSED IN TECHNOLOGY: ART AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS edited by Mary Anne Moser with Douglas MacLeod (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997‐$22.50, ISBN 0–262–63183–0, 368 pp., technical glossary, 64 illustrations, 18 in color)

INTERNET DREAMS: ARCHETYPES, MYTHS, AND METAPHORS by Mark Stefik (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996‐$30.00/$15.00, ISBN 0–262–19373–6 hard, 0–262–69202–3 paper, 412 pp., further reading, sources, contributors, index)

POSTMORTEM FOR A POSTMODERNIST by Arthur Asa Berger (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press/Sage, 1997‐$36.00/17.95, ISBN 0–8039–8910–2 hard, 0–8039–8911–0 paper, 184 pp., cartoons, bibliography, index)

THE NETWORKED SOCIETY: HOW TECHNOLOGIES ARE TRANSFORMING MARKETS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: A Report of The Fifth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, Aspen, Colorado, August 15–18, 1996 by David Bollier and Charles M. Firestone (Washington: The Aspen Institute, 1997‐$10.00, ISBN 0–89843–213–8, 43 pp., endnotes, appendix)

THE McDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL LIFE by George Ritzer (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1997 [2nd ed.]—$17.95, paper, ISBN 0–8039–9076–6 hard, 0–8039–9077–4 paper, 265 pp., bibliography, index)

PARCHMENT, PRINTING, AND HYPERMEDIA: COMMUNICATION IN WORLD ORDER TRANSFORMATION by Ronald J. Deibert (New York: Columbia University Press “New Directions in World Politics,”; 1997‐$49.50/$ 17.50, paper, ISBN 0–231–10712–9 hard, 0–231–10713–7 paper, 329 pp., illustrations, charts, index)

BEYOND THE HORIZON: COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE by Stephen Lax (Luton, England: John Libbey Media/University of Luton Press, 1997—price not given, ISBN 1–860–20514–3 paper, 133 pp., technical illustrations, index)

CYBERSCHOOLS: AN EDUCATION RENAISSANCE by Glenn R. Jones (Englewood, MA: Jones Digital Century, Inc., 1997—$19.95, ISBN 1–885400–60–8, 180 pp., appendices, index)

THE ORYX GUIDE TO DISTANCE LEARNING: A COMPREHENSIVE LISTING OF ELECTRONIC AND OTHER MEDIA‐ASSISTED COURSES by William E. Burgess (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1997 [2nd ed.]—$98.50, ISBN 1–57356–073–1, 497 pp.)

THE U.S. ALL MEDIA E‐MAIL DIRECTORY: COMMUNICATE VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL WITH MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER, TV AND RADIO MEDIA AND CONTACTS NATIONWIDE by Paul J. Krupin (Kennewick, WA: Direct Contact Publishing, 1997‐$49.00, ISBN 1–885035–03–9, 229 pp., index)

THE RISE, DECLINE, AND RENEWAL OF SILICON VALLEY'S HIGH TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY by Dan M. Khanna (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1997‐$52.00, ISBN 0–8153–2724–2, 182 pp., tables, notes, bibliography, index)

THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF KNOWLEDGE‐BASED RESOURCES IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY by Russell W. Wright (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1997‐$37.00, ISBN 0–8153–2785–4, 108 pp., tables, diagrams, bibliography, index)

MOTHS TO THE FLAME: THE SEDUCTIONS OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY by Gregory J. E. Rawlins (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997‐$10.00, paper, ISBN 0–262–68097–1, 184 pp., subject index)

TIME DETECTIVES: HOW SCIENTISTS USE MODERN TECHNOLOGY TO UNRAVEL THE SECRETS OF THE PAST by Brian Fagan (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1995‐$14.00, paper, ISBN 0–684–81828–0, 288 pp., index)

COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLITICS IN THE INFORMATION AGE by Gerald Sussman (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997‐$56.00/$27.95, ISBN 0–8039–5139–6 hard, 0–8039–5140‐x paper, 317 pp., tables, references, subject index)

THE NEW COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES by Michael M.A. Mirabito with contributions by Barbara Morgenstern (Boston, MA: Focal Press, 1997 [3rd ed.]—$32.95, paper, ISBN 0–240–80258–6, 256 pp., index)

COORDINATING THE INTERNET edited by Brian Kahin and James H. Keller (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press “Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project,”; 1997‐$25.00, paper, ISBN 0–262–11230–2 hard, 0–262–61136–8 paper, 491 pp., glossary of acronyms, tables, charts, notes, index)

THE INTERNET & WORLD WIDE WEB: THE ROUGH GUIDE by Angus J. Kennedy (London and New York: Rough Guides [distribution by Penguin Group], 1997‐$8.95, paper, ISBN 1–85828–288–8, 432 pp., illustrations, index)

TELECOMMUTING: MODELING THE EMPLOYER'S AND THE EMPLOYEE'S DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS by Adriana Bernardino (New York: Garland “Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity,”; 1996‐$46.00, ISBN 0–8153–2723–4, 169 pp., tables, charts, references survey instruments, index)     

Career development: Implications for providers of career services in higher education

Only recently have theorists and practitioners begun to consider and investigate the applications of developmental psychology to the delivery of career services. While there are several conceptual approaches to understanding the process of career development in general, the focus of this paper will be limited to the under-standing of career development in a college age population. In addition, the practical implications generated by this conceptual understanding will be discussed especially as they relate to the delivery of career services in higher education.     

Equality of educational access reconsidered: The postsecondary case in Ontario

This paper is divided into four sections. The first discusses a recent report of the Department of University Affairs, which suggests that, in terms of combined family income, economic differentials in access to postsecondary education have been greatly reduced in the past few years. The second section reviews some recent studies concerned with equality of access and suggests that variables other than income or financial need may well be equally relevant in any definition of what constitutes equality of access. The third section analyzes an existing pool of data to test and evaluate hypotheses set forward in the second section. The last section develops final conclusions from the findings and develops the authors' point of view.

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Résumé La présente communication se divise en quatre sections. Le premier traite d'un rapport récent du Ministère des affaires universitaires. D'après ce rapport, il semble que, au cours des dernières années et enfonction du revenu familial combiné, il y a eu une forte réduction dans les disparités économiques qui affectent l'accès à l'enseignement post-secondaire. Le deuxième section passe en revue certaines études récentes consacrées à l'égalité d'accès à ce niveau d'enseignement. Les auteurs estiment que des variables autres que le revenu ou le besoin financier pourraient être tout aussi valables lorsqu'il s'agit de définir ce qu'on entend par égalité d'accès. Quant au troisième section, il comprend une analyse de l'actuel pool des données destinées à vérifier et à évaluer les hypothèses éconcées au deuxième section. Le dernier section est consacré aux conclusions définitives tirées des observations recueillies et à l'exposé du point de vue des auteurs.