Policy intervention and power shifts: an evaluation of South Africa's education restructuring policies

This paper argues that the South African educational restructuring policy proposals are unlikely to become interventions that help bringing about greater development, equity, participation and redress. The reasons for this are manifold. It is contended that the policy proposals are flawed in their conceptualization of the problems and misjudge the educational context and dynamics on the ground. These interventions favour the interests of the more organized and privileged sections of society and only indirectly address the needs of the excluded and disadvantaged. The policy proposals are also based on problematic assumptions about policy and the policy process, and the relationship between policy and practice. Finally, these proposals do not have an appropriate understanding of the change process and are unable to develop strategies to influence the reform process and empower the disadvantaged to struggle for a fairer, more equitable and effective education and training system.     

Using Workflow for Projects in Higher Education

The WWW is increasingly used as a medium to support education and training. A course at the University of Twente in which groups of students collaborate in the design and production of multimedia instructional materials has now been supported by a website since 1995. Workflow was integrated with other components in the website to investigate whether workflow can help instructors and students to have a better overview of group progress. Our evaluation shows that the introduction of workflow does provide added value. Another outcome of the experiment is that the transfer of a business application (workflow) into the educational domain has highlighted some differences and similarities between educational and business processes. This article explores some of these issues as highlighted by the application of workflow in education.     

GaIN (Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Information) study on health professionals' search requests and continuing education needs

Health sciences librarians are being called upon to be more proactive in their institutions' continuing education efforts. In an effort to identify whether search requests indicated CE needs, a study was conducted by a group of members of GaIN (Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Information). MEDLINE requests from health care professionals for subject specific clinical topics were collected during a six-month period via a standard search request form created for the study. Copies of all completed requests were collected and broad ICD-9 codes assigned to the search topics. Institutional reports were generated for each participating library to share with hospital CE coordinators. They were also compiled for the group as a whole, and reflected the "hottest" topics requested during the study period for physicians and for non-physicians (nurses, allied health, administrators). A survey to hospital librarians and CE educators showed some value in the reports, but greater potential for further collaboration between librarians and CE coordinators.     

Susanne von Below: Bildungssysteme und soziale Ungleichheit. Das Beispiel der neuen Bundesländer

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Using a journal availability study to improve access

PURPOSE: Identify journal collection access and use factors. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Health Sciences Library patrons. METHODOLOGY: Survey forms and user interactions were monitored once a week for twelve weeks during the fall 1997 semester. The project was based on a 1989 New Mexico State University study and used Kantor's Branching Analysis to measure responses. RESULT: 80% of reported sought journal articles were found successfully. Along with journal usage data, the library obtained demographic and behavioral information. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Journals are the library's most used resource and, even as more electronic journals are offered, print journals continue to make up the majority of the collection. Several factors highlighted the need to study journal availability. User groups indicated that finding journals was problematic, and internal statistics showed people requesting interlibrary loans for owned items. The study looked at success rates, time, and ease of finding journals. A variety of reasons contributed to not finding journals. While overall user reports indicated relatively high success rate and satisfaction, there were problems to be addressed. As the library proceeds in redesigning both the physical space and electronic presence, the collected data have provided valuable direction.