Search

The article offers suggestions on how to choose books to aid English learners with language acquisition and reading comprehension. The term English learner is used here to represent individuals who are in the process of learning English after learning a first or other language. A few essential elements to consider are: content accessibility, language accessibility, visual accessibility and genre accessibility. Considering the special needs of English learners is important in choosing books more selectively and successfully. Fiction titles that spring from the students' cultures are ideal in providing familiarity for ease of comprehension as well as for identifying with story characters. Once teachers and librarians have enhanced their library collections, they need to call students' attention to the many options available for reading and language learning. After teachers and librarians have sparked student interest, they need to provide a regular time and freedom of choice for students to enjoy the books in the library and continue to add to the collection as students' language proficiencies develop and their reading tastes mature.

The article presents the author's views on the historical development of information infrastructures and the dissemination of knowledge. The author has published a number of historical studies examining utopian schemes for managing knowledge, the evolution of institutionalized or organizational aspects of information infrastructure, and the emergence of what he thinks of as an interdiscipline. The "Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organization" was an initial study of a hitherto neglected figure. A Russian translation of this book was published in 1977 and a Spanish edition in 1996. With the advent of the Internet and the Web, it has become clear how pioneering and important historically the work of Paul Otlet and his colleagues was. It seems yet even more relevant today with the recently announced agreement between Google and a number of research libraries to digitize and make their collections available through the Web. In Information Processing and Management, "Some Schemes for Restructuring and Mobilizing Information in Documents: A Historical Perspective," the author examines the utopian information management ideas of John Dury and Samuel Hartlib.