Search

With the explosion in information resources being developed by computer scientists, subject specialists, librarians, and commercial companies, the challenge for the information professional is to keep abreast of the most significant developments and to distill the information for a wide range of users. This paper looks at some of the developments in electronic libraries on both sides of the Atlantic and the impact on the information professional. New projects involve multimedia, hypermedia, user interfaces, and other aspects of the integration of diverse libraries, and show that methods of research are also changing. Information professionals must continually keep aware of new techniques and sources if they are to contribute to their usefulness. Intelligent agents are beginning to replicate some of the tasks which are familiar to librarians, such as current awareness, but intelligent agents can also act as a tool for the librarian. The challenge for the researcher and developer, and also for the librarian, is to make an efficient transport system for the information superhighway. Knowledge robots and 3D visualization are tools to simplify the increasingly complex and diverse information world. However, pooling skills and resources between information professionals will become ever more essential. (Contains 41 references.) (Author/SWC)

The information-based technologies and the accompanying managerial sciences have come to symbolize the ideology of progress and operate as a material instrumentality in social governance systems. Developing countries have incorporated the technologies, but have lacked a developed knowledge or service sector; the linkage of knowledge-informatization-economic development has been incomplete. Social and institutional mechanisms to produce and utilize scientific and technological knowledge must be developed if this linkage is to be completed. This paper presents: (1) a model of technology and science policy in Argentina and Brazil which argues that anti-dependency scientific and intellectual elites form an epistemic community capable of intervening in national policy-making processes; (2) an alternative model for a national study of informatics technologies based on the Colombian experience which emphasizes the anchoring of informatics technology policy within concrete social conflicts, needs, and demands; (3) a conceptual model of the role of universities and research centers in the process of Colombia's informatization; and (4) an interpretation of the Colombian experience within the framework of compensatory legitimation and conflict management. It is concluded that informatics technologies play an important role within the political, economic, and social development of Latin American countries, but the extent to which these technologies are becoming tools for progress or instruments of control are yet to be determined. (35 references) (ALL)

An overview of the current status of new information technologies (NIT) in teaching, training, research, and administration of higher education internationally includes 25 papers: "The Impact of NITS of Higher Education" (C. Calude and M. Malitza); "Educational Implications of Artificial Intelligence" (M.A. Boden); "On Theory of Knowledge" (L. Iliev); "Computer Technology and Education" (L. P. Steier); "New Information Technologies: The Role of Artificial Intelligence" (G. S. Pospelov); and "The Challenges of Cognitive Science and Information Technology to Human Rights and Values in University Life" (M. Pellery); "Computers at Stanford: An Overview" (P. Suppes); "The Use of the Personal Computer in Education at the University of Buckingham" (J. E. Galletly); "End User Computing--A Challenge for University Organization" (P. Baumgartner and S. Payr); "The Influence of Informatics and the Use of Computers in the Content and Methodology of Higher Education" (H. Mohle); and "Informatics in Higher Education in Switzerland" (excerpt from a report on informatics issued by the Federal Ministry for Education and Science); "Searching for Patterns of Knowledge in Science Education" (A. Kornhauser); "Medical Educational Computing" (D. Ingram); "Patient Simulation by Computer--C.A.S.E.S., Software for the Construction of Computer Patients" (H. A. Verbeek); "Microcomputers in Statistical Education: the Buckingham Experience" (E. Shoesmith); "Courses in Computer Graphics in Faculties of Mechanical Engineering in Czechoslovakia" (J. Novak); "On the Way to Chaos--An Analysis of a Family of Logistic Models" (T. Kinnunen); "Educational Technology and the New Technologies" (P. W. Verhagen and T. Plomp); "A Knowledge-Base for Instructional Design" (F. C. Roberts); "Facilities Concerning the Infrastructure for Development of CAI in Advanced, Further, and Higher Vocational Education in the Netherlands" (R. van Asselt); "Some Thoughts on Structures, Objectives, and Management of Centres for Computation Sciences and Software Technology" (D. Bjorner); and "The Social Impact of Technology: An Issue for Engineering Education" (A. Bitzer and R. Sell); and "The Emergence of Institutional Research and the Use of Microcomputers: New Roles for Institutional Researchers in Western Europe Higher Education Institutions" (E. Frackmann); "The Student Information System of the University of Helsinki" (A. Heiskanen); "The Impact of Information Technologies on University Administration" (R. Bouchet); and "An International Centre for Computers and Informatics (ICCI) to Promote Third World Development" (M. Munasinghe). (SM)

This document is an interim report of a project funded by the Manpower Services Commission in Great Britain. The main aim of the project is to investigate how information technology (IT) may support the British Further Education Unit's proven curriculum development model. The report is structured around the five curriculum development processes in the model: values and needs, course design, implementation, evaluation and review, and support. Each of these elements is discussed in terms of a five-part classification of IT systems: information centers, information networks, computer-assisted learning, information processing, and image processing. The report contains introductory descriptions of various IT systems and explains how IT can apply to each of the five curriculum processes. Long-term and short-term aims are distinguished, and priorities for action are suggested. The report highlights management issues, staff development, and resources and provides an outline of phase 2 of the project. Finally, it offers detailed appendixes on computer-assisted learning, desktop publishing, expert systems, and interactive video, as well as a glossary and list of further reading. (KC)