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.

World Digital Library Initiative Announced
Google Scholar: One Year Later
Do Employers and Students Take Online Educations Seriously?
UIUC's Scholarly Communication E-Newsletter Converted to a Blog
Readings in Higher Education IT Issues
Recommended Reading

WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY INITIATIVE ANNOUNCED

The U.S. Library of Congress, in partnership with Google, announced a plan to begin building a World Digital Library (WDL) for use by other libraries around the globe. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said that the WDL "would bring together online 'rare and unique cultural materials held in U.S. and Western repositories with those of other great cultures such as those that lie beyond Europe and involve more than 1 billion people: Chinese East Asia, Indian South Asia and the worlds of Islam stretching from Indonesia through Central and West Asia to Africa.'" For more details about the World Digital Library go to http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-250.html.

Also of interest:

"What Is a Digital Library Anymore, Anyway? Beyond Search and Access in the NSDL" by Carl Lagozei, Dean B. Kraffti, Sandy Payettei, and Susan Jesurogaii
D-Lib Magazine, vol. 11, no. 11, November 2005 Volume 11 Number 11
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november05/lagoze/11lagoze.html

GOOGLE SCHOLAR: ONE YEAR LATER

Google Scholar was launched a year ago this month as an aid to searching for scholarly literature located on the Web. Now that scholars have had time to put the service to a test, some are beginning to point out critical deficiencies and pitfalls. Criticisms include:

-- it's a single search tool, and no single search tool searches the entire bibliographic universe

-- it does not offer full disclosure about content (what is and is not included) in the database

-- current research appears late in the database

-- indexing is incomplete

-- it does not provide equal coverage of all subject areas

Péter Jacsó provides in-depth evaluation of Google Scholar in "As We May Search -- Comparison of Major Features of the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar Citation-Based and Citation-Enhanced Databases" (Current Science, v. 89, no. 10, November 25, 2005, pp. 1537-47). His article is available online at http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/nov102005/1537.pdf.

Librarian Joe Buenker's webpage, "Google Scholar's Impact on Libraries," includes a bibliography of critiques of Google Scholar at http://www.west.asu.edu/jbuenke/librarianship/google-scholar.html.

Google Scholar is available at http://scholar.google.com/.

Another article of interest:

"A Risky Gamble With Google" by Siva Vaidhyanathan
The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 52, issue 15, p. B7
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i15/15b00701.htm
(Online access requires a subscription to the Chronicle.)

DO EMPLOYERS AND STUDENTS TAKE ONLINE EDUCATIONS SERIOUSLY?

The research firm Eduventures recently asked about 500 corporate training managers if they thought that an online education is equal to or better than an on-campus education. Sixty-two percent felt it was, but still that "means 4 in every 10 employers are looking at online degrees with some degree of skepticism," said senior analyst Sean Gallagher. Only a third of the 500+ students surveyed agreed that the two delivery methods were of comparable value. The survey report, "Assessing Consumer Attitudes toward Online Education," is available online at http://static.wbz.viacomlocalnetworks.com/~wbz/onlineed505.pdf.

For more information about Eduventures, go to http://www.eduventures.com.

Also of interest:

"Web-Based Learning: Factors Affecting Students' Satisfaction and Learning Experience" by Kyung-Sun Kim and Joi L. Moore
First Monday, vol. 10, no. 11, November 2005
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_11/kim/index.html

The article reports on a study that surveyed eighty–two graduate students taking a Web-based course on their learning experiences and styles.

UIUC'S SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION E-NEWSLETTER CONVERTED TO A BLOG

Issues in Scholarly Communication ceases distribution as an emailed newsletter with the November 15, 2005, issue. The purpose of the newsletter, published since August 2001 by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne Library, has been to bring to readers' attention a variety of topics that affect the current system of scholarly communication. This task will continue in a blog located at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/. The newsletter will also be available through an RSS feed.

Back issues of the newsletter are available at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/administration/scholarly_communication/.

READINGS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IT ISSUES

The article "Recommended Readings on the Top-Ten IT Issues" (EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 6, November/December 2005, pp. 114–15) provides a list of recommended readings on information technology issues identified by the 2005 EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey. The article is available at http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0566.asp. The complete survey and a longer version of the reading list are available at http://www.educause.edu/2005SurveyResources/6323.

EDUCAUSE Review [ISSN 1527-6619], a bimonthly print magazine that explores developments in information technology and education, is published by EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu/). Articles from current and back issues of EDUCAUSE Review are available on the Web at http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/.

Information Technology Services at UNC-Chapel Hill

Teaching and Learning

CIT Infobits - November, 2005

Issue 89 ISSN 1521-9275

Resources

Back Issues

Issue 89
ISSN 1521-9275