Analysis of non-urban end users' MEDLINE training.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) Library mailed a MEDLINE End User Practice Survey Form to 310 health professionals who had attended MEDLINE seminars supported by a two-year NLM grant. The survey sought to determine how many respondents had obtained NLM codes, reasons for not obtaining a code, searching time done since the seminar, differences in the use of information since taking the seminar, factors helpful in successful searching, and factors contributing to frustrations. The most prevalent reasons for not obtaining a code were lack of a microcomputer and modem, infrequent use of MEDLINE, cost, lack of time, complications, and ability to obtain free searches.     

Engineering Education in Developing Countries: social relevance versus international comparability

The growing frustration of developing countries with their relatively slow rate of economic progress, their increasing dependence on imports of technology despite genuine efforts for endogenous developemt, and the flight of their skilled manpower for employment in developed countries have combined to focus attention of their educational planners on the ‘appropriateness’ of their engineering education programmes. Since technology is nation- and culture-specific, it is argued that all educational programmes in the field of engineering and technology should be specifically designed to meet the needs of the country concerned. Formulation of such programmes may, however, inhibit mobility of engineers across national boundaries, hamper transferof technology and decelerate global economic and technological development. The paper examines the observable differences in the characteristics of developing and developed countries, the technological framework and projections of economic growth of developing countries and the special features of the engineering educational system needed to respond to their needs. Implications of recent advances in information technology, biotechnology and manufacturing technology on engineering education planning are analysed. The compatibility of socially relevant engineering education with that of internationally comparable standards is examined in detail. It is shown that it is possible to develop programmes in developing countries which are intellectually challenging, meet international standards of achievement and at the same tiem equip students with competence in technology assessment, with awareness of pitfalls of technology transfer and with experience in use of technological solutions for current social and economic problems. It is argued that such programmes while essential for developing countries will be equally useful to developed countries and would accelerate international appreciation of problems of development. The reversal of brain-drain is proposed through the creation of challenging opportunities at home coupled with the utiltisation of intellectual and financial resources of emigré nationals abroad.     

Computer-aided searching of bibliographic data bases: Online estimation of the value of information

The study presents and synthesizes the results of a series of five experiments on human information-seeking behavior in three different information-seeking environments. The first three experiments utilized a highly-controlled, simulated information-seeking task developed to study human search strategies in citation networks. Emphasis in the fourth and fifth experiments was placed on assessing the value of information for humans in realistic search environments. Subjects search on a topic of their own choice in a data base of fiction in Experiment Four and a data base of technical literature in Experiment Five. After summarizing the experimental results, a conceptual model of how humans value information is presented. The model is then used as a basis for a broad interpretation of the empirical results. Implications of both the empirical and modeling results are considered for the areas of information retrieval logic, system flexibility, retrieval methods, types of aiding, online estimation of information value, and computerizing versus computer-aiding.