The Future of the Past: Archaeology and Anthropology on the World Wide Web

In the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a crate containing the object of Indiana Jones' quest is wheeled into an immense warehouse for indefinite storage and questionable research access. Unfortunately, this fate is not all that far from reality. Collections of archaeological and ethnographic materials ranging from stone axes, broken potsherds, and carved monuments to baskets, ceremonial masks, and skin canoes have been held by museums collections since the Renaissance. However, their inestimable value and unique conservation and curatorial requirements often conspire to remove them from the reach of all but the most diligent scholars. The potential of the Web to enhance the quality of research on archaeological and ethnographic collections is enormous. This paper will examine ways that one can use the Web to enhance research and improve access to a variety of materials; while there are many other resources for archaeology available on the Web, this paper focusses on museum-related sites. It will also explore the potential of the Web for innovative research strategies. Digitization of catalogs, associated documents, and images to help one locate and study collections and specific artifacts are just one approach. Others include the connection of devices to the Web, such as cameras and microscopes, the creation of virtual reference collections, and the establishment of research networks that will enhance the identification and analysis of material culture. This paper will also consider the role the Web could play in issues of cultural property, contributing to and in many ways intensifying ongoing debates of ownership, curation, conservation, and repatriation of sensitive materials.     

Health information for patients: The hospital library's role

Libraries today, including most hospital-based patients' libraries, are involved only peripherally in providing patient health science information. Hospital libraries should collaborate with health professionals in getting health information to patients--along with the library's more traditional roles of providing recreational reading for patients and serving the informational needs of the physician and medical staff. The library should act as the center for educational materials and programs within the hospital. Many health agencies, health educators, physicians, and librarians have been discussing the need for patient health education, but there are few effectively organized or established education centers. This paper discusses an overview of patient health education and intellectural freedom, proposes a new role for the existing hospital library in patient health education, and suggests guidelines for establishing a patient education center.     

Academic achievement following childhood brain disease: implications for the concept of learning disabilities.

The present study examined three hypotheses regarding the consequences of early brain damage for academic achievement: First, early brain insults will have a negative impact on achievement, even in children with normal intelligence. Second, underachievement in these children will be at least partially independent of IQ (i.e., not fully accounted for by a lowering of IQ within the average range). Third, normally intelligent children with histories of brain insult will also manifest selective cognitive dysfunctions. To test these hypotheses, we compared two groups of children who had recovered from Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis. The "complicated" group consisted of children who, as a consequence of having sustained neurologic complications during their illness, were more likely to have had brain insults. Children in the "uncomplicated" group did not have complications with their illness and were regarded as having escaped significant central nervous system (CNS) pathology. Only children with normal hearing and a prorated Full Scale IQ of at least 80 (WISC-R) were considered. Group differences on the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised were consistent with the first two hypotheses. Although the two groups had similar Verbal IQs, the complicated group also had a lower mean Performance IQ and performed less well on perceptually demanding neuropsychological tasks. Findings suggest that learning disabilities may have selective, brain-related cognitive antecedents; but they challenge the practice of using IQ criteria for clinical diagnosis.     

Medical Librarianship in Nigeria--a review of the literature and comments on some problems and prospects.

The literature of medical librarianship of Nigeria is reviewed. The staff structure of Nigerian univeristy libraries and, in particular, of the medical libraries attached to them is restrictive, unprogressive, and unconducive to the development of medical librarianship in Nigeria. These medical libraries should cease to be administered and regarded as just unavoidable appendages of the main university libraries. They should be independent, full-fledged libraries of their own, recognixed as full academic departments of their respective colleges or faculties, with their heads being in no way inferior in status to other heads of academic departments.The granting of faculty status to Nigerian unviersity librarians should go the whole way and let the principle of multiple professorships be applied to the staff structure of unviersity libraries. Efforts are being made to effect bibliographic organization of Nigerian medical literature. A national library of medicine for Nigeria, however, humble its beginning, should be established.     

电子政务应"抓住"SaaS趋势

2003至2004年，全球在SaaS（软件即服务）上的支出增长了39％，Netcraft预测，未来12个月内的活动站点增长率将达到28％，Web服务增长率将达到19％；IDC预测，2009年，全球在SaaS上的支出将达到107亿美元；Gartner预测，到2009年，美国托管收入将增长13％——这些都表明，SaaS的应用前景确实美好．     

Museums at the crossroad: Contributing to dialogue, curiosity and wonder in natural history museums

The first natural history collections opened to the public were inspired by a sense of curiosity and wonder about the products of nature. They were ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that offered a first-hand interaction between owner and visitors. Nowadays, these two facets of the museum experience—dialogue and wonder—have been lost, in part, due to the information overload coming via the media and the impersonal nature of the museum visit. This paper offers some reflections on the evolution of the museum visit, suggests some ways to rediscover this ‘sense of wonder’ and provides ideas on how to promote two-way communication with museum visitors. Two examples of exhibitions are offered as illustrations of the points discussed.