CIT Infobits - May, 2000
Issue 23
ISSN 1521-9275
About INFOBITS
Infobits is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.
Distance Education Policy Primer
Author Foresees No Utopian Digital Age
The Social Life of Information
Information for Beginning Grant Seekers
Oxford University Press Reading Room
Resources on Electronic Publishing
New Textbook Guide on the Web
Recommended Reading
DISTANCE EDUCATION POLICY PRIMER
"The new distance education force transforming higher education may not be controlled by the traditional structures or providers of education services or by traditional academic policies. Not only do the new forms of distance education portend a change for student populations, but also they will force faculty to develop new modalities of teaching and administrators to provide a new infrastructure for support. As a result, the advent of distance education is forcing many institutions to review and amend many of their existing policies and procedures." The American Council on Education (ACE) Division of Government & Public Affairs has produced "Developing a Distance Education Policy for 21st Century Learning" as a primer to help colleges and universities rethink and reformulate policies dealing with intellectual property rights and ownership of distance education courses. The complete report is available on the Web at http://www.acenet.edu/washington/distance_ed/2000/03march/distance_ed.html
ACE is dedicated to the belief that equal educational opportunity and a strong higher education system are essential cornerstones of a democratic society. Membership includes accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities from all sectors of higher education and other education and education-related organizations in the United States. For more information, contact American Council on Education, One Dupont Circle NW, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-939-9300; fax: 202-833-4760; Web: http://www.acenet.edu/
AUTHOR FORESEES NO UTOPIAN DIGITAL AGE
"The media seemed to have gotten caught up in the Internet craze, almost in a pop culture sense, and became prone to endlessly repeating a single idea: that the new technologies were going to profoundly change our lives in the realms of business, education, health care, and just about any other realm of human activity that could be thought of." Thomas S. Valovic, past editor-in-chief of Telecommunications magazine and currently a research manager at International Data Corporation and an adjunct lecturer in scientific and technical communications at Northeastern University, has observed the transformation of the Internet from a government and academic communications network into a "potent force in the world economy." His recently-published collection of essays, Digital Mythologies: The Hidden Complexities of the Internet (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000; ISBN: 0-8135-2754-6), examines the social and political aspects of the Internet and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the industry that grew out of the Internet.
Valovic shares some of his thoughts on the Internet's present and future impact on education in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education interview ("Logging In With . . . Thomas S. Valovic: Author Warns That the Digital Age Will Be No Utopia," by Scott Carlson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2000, p. A46). You can read the interview on the Web at http://chronicle.com/free/2000/03/2000031601t.htm
The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033; Web: http://chronicle.com/
Annual subscriptions, which include full access to the Chronicle's Web site and news updates by email, are available for $75 (U.S.); $123.05 (Canada); $150.00 (all other countries). To subscribe contact: Circulation Department, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037 USA; tel: 800-728-2803 or 740-382-3322 (outside U.S.); email: circulation@chronicle.com; Web: http://chronicle.com/about-help.dir/subscrib.htm
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INFORMATION
In their book The Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000; ISBN: 0875847625), John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid argue for the "important role human sociability plays in the world of bits . . . [and] show how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, knowledge, and judgment can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives." The authors have a Website, which includes links to all the chapters that are available online. The address is http://www.slofi.com/
A public forum to discuss The Social Life of Information can be found at http://www.slofi.com/slofidis.htm
INFORMATION FOR BEGINNING GRANT SEEKERS
This month's issue of Computers in Libraries (vol. 20, no. 5, May 2000) features articles on getting grant funds. Although the focus is on getting money for libraries, much of the information is useful for any grant seekers. In "A Wealth of Information on Foundations and the Grant Seeking Process," Janet Camarena, of the Foundation Center, has compiled this primer for people who are just beginning to understand grant writing. The article is available on the Web at http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may00/camarena.htm
Computers in Libraries [ISSN 1041-7915] is published ten times per year by Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750 USA; tel: 609-654-6266, fax: 609-654-4309; Web: http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/ciltop.htm
Annual subscriptions are $89.95 U.S., $99.95 Canada/Mexico, $107.95 other countries.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS READING ROOM
The Oxford University Press (OUP) Reading Room offers scholars an opportunity to sample the Press's new publications in the areas of anthropology, biochemistry and molecular biology, business, classical studies, economics, history, law, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, politics, and religion. Readers can browse through the individual areas or search the entire Website at no charge. The OUP Reading Room is at http://www.oup.co.uk/readingroom/
Note that sample chapters in the Reading Room are in PDF format and require Adobe's Acrobat Reader in order to read them. Acrobat reader can be downloaded for free from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html
RESOURCES ON ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
Marian Dworaczek's "Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information" has been updated this month. The index, and its accompanying bibliography, "deal with all aspects of electronic publishing and include print and non-print materials, periodical articles, monographs and individual chapters in collected works." This edition includes 1,239 titles. Both the Index and the Bibliography are continuously updated. The Subject Index is on the Web at http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/SUBJIN_A.HTM
"Electronic Sources of Information: A Bibliography" is at http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/BIBLIO.HTM
Instructions on how to use the Subject Index and the Bibliography are located at: http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/SUB_INT.HTM
For more information, contact: Marian Dworaczek, Head, Acquisitions Department and Head, Technical Services, University of Saskatchewan Libraries, Room 24, Main Library/Murray Building, 3 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A4 Canada; tel: 306-966-6016; fax: 306-966-5919; email: dworaczek@sklib.usask.ca; Web: http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/
Dworaczek also compiles "Electronic Publishing Reference Resources on the Internet" at http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/ESOURC.HTM
"Electronic Journals: A Selected Resource Guide" is an "overview and summary of resources on issues relating to electronic journals, covering such topics as technical standards, legal and business issues, scholarly publishing issues, preservation and archiving, and cutting-edge topics such as reference linking and pre-print servers." The resource is provide free of charge on the Web by HARRASSOWITZ Booksellers and Subscription Agents at http://www.harrassowitz.de/ms/ejresguide.html
The Times Higher Education Supplement's 24-page guide to new textbook titles is now available on THEIS (Times Higher Education Supplement Internet Service) Website. Areas covered include: literature; economics; philosophy; geography and environmental sciences; and cultural, media, and gender studies. In addition, the Website features a cumulative guide of all reviews published to date. The Textbook Guide is available on the Web at http://www.thesis.co.uk/
The Times Higher Education Supplement is published weekly by TSL Education Ltd., Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY; Web: http://www.tes.co.uk/
Subscription information is available at http://www.subscription.co.uk/home/subs.asp?m=30
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful. Send your recommendations to kotlas@email.unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.
The Irascible Professor: Irreverent Commentary on the State of Education in America Today [ISSN 1527-3849] is an electronic newsletter that comments on the "successes, failures, and foibles of the American education establishment." Editor Mark H. Shapiro publishes one article twice weekly and makes it available for free on the Web at http://www.irascibleprofessor.com/
Readers can also subscribe to a weekly mailing list that briefly describes new articles.
Shapiro is Chair of the Department of Physics at California State University, Fullerton. He can be reached by email at: mshapiro2@home.com
The newsletter is not affiliated with Cal State.
