Getting started with electronic mail

This paper gives suggestions to librarians on how to get started with electronic mail. It discusses the cost- and time-saving advantages of using electronic mail rather than TWX, United States mail, or telephones for communicating ILL requests and messages. For instance, preliminary cost data show that electronic mail is often half as expensive as TWX and costs no more than a 22 stamp. Key management concerns that must be considered when setting up electronic mail are discussed, including the need for subscribers to agree on one system. Also covered are the types of equipment that can be used with electronic mail, including print terminals.     

Negative incentive steering in a policy network

In this article the process of developing a policy for the recent comprehensive retrenchment operation in the Dutch university system is analysed from a theoretical point of view on decisionmaking. The article especially addresses the question whether some empirical evidence can be found for the rationalist view of collective decision-making, which states that a process of social communication should eventually lead to a unanimous and rational consensus concerning the selection of the optimal policy.The actual analysis concerns the way a retrenchment policy has been developed in a process of social communication between the most important actors: the Minister of Education and Science and the thirteen Dutch universities. It is assumed that the various communicative linkages between these actors can be interpreted as a policy network in which both governmental and non-governmental actors operate.The article concludes that in the Dutch university policy-network a complicated balance of interdependencies exists and that several sub-networks can be distinguished. It is also concluded that the Minister, while recognizing the interdependencies in the network, was able to use a special kind of (negative) incentive, inducing the universities to act as he wished.This negative incentive steering, however, also persuaded the universities to go to the utmost in their consultation efforts, thus trying to reach the rationalist ideal of collective decision-making. The final conclusion therefore is that the rationalist view of collective decision-making does not appear to be unrealistic. The article ends with a warning against a common mistake made regarding the normative appearance of the rationalist perspective.The case of the policy development process concerning the retrenchment operation in the Dutch university system in 1982 and 1983.     

Research in information science: An assessment

A critical analysis of research methods in the published literature in the field of information science. Report on the results of the comparison made between a set of 430 articles published 1969–1971 and another set of 152 articles published in 1974. Overall findings indicate that while the amount of research reported is remaining stable, the methods have improved somewhat in 1974, as compared to earlier years.     

Competition,Concentration and Diversity in European Television Markets

This study investigates how competition, concentration and public broadcasters influence diversity of programme supply in European television markets. It focuses on free, national generalist channels; studies programmes as provided throughout the day; and tests hypotheses with data on Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.K. for the late 1980s and 1990s. It concludes that competition is moderate in most markets. Under these conditions, competition and concentration contribute to a diverse supply of programmes that mirrors audience demand, while public broadcasters increase diversity of supply above competitive market levels.     

Using pencil‐and‐paper lexical‐decision tests to assess word decoding skill: aspects of validity and reliability

The viability of a pencil‐and‐paper version of the lexical‐decision (LD) task to assess children's word decoding skill was investigated. Participants in this study were Dutch second and third graders. Lexical decision and oral reading appear to be highly correlated, in second grade more than in third grade. Retest reliability of the LD tests is sufficient, at least for screening purposes, to good. The correlation with tests designed to measure pencil‐and‐paper test‐taking skills shows that such skills at most play a minor role. Materials of different phonological and morphological structure caused systematic differences in score level, but a single factor suffices to explain common reading test variance. LD scores appear not to be particularly subject to inappropriate strategies.     

Improvement of (didactical) assessment by improvement of problems: An attempt with respect to percentage

In recent attempts to reform assessment much attention is devoted to the formats of assessment and organizational aspects. Without good problems, however, it is impossible to improve assessment. This article focuses on the role of problems in the development of better assessment. An example of an attempt is given with respect to some key concepts and abilities on percentage. A series of problems for assessing these has been developed inspired by the ideas of Realistic Mathematics Education. The guiding principles were that problems should be meaningful and informative. The problems, which are rather different from the traditional kind have been tried out in two American grade 7 classes. The problems reveal a lot about the different levels of understanding of students. As such they can facilitate instructional decision making. Nevertheless it is clear that this is not the final stage of the search for better assessment problems. As a start to further developmental research, some recommendations will be given for the improvement of the problems.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at PME XVII in Japan (Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 1993b).