Description: This article discusses book jackets as access mechanisms. Abstract: Book jackets provide a model for access to documents on the World Wide Web. They demonstrate a means for making available many of the representational attributes important to making relevance judgements. Such attributes have been posited for retrieval models for some time, but have not been implemented in most formal access systems. Even in the Web environment physical availability is not the same as accessibility. The attribute categories discussed here emerged from 228 book jackets for non-fiction works in a medium size academic library. Models of document searching and book jacket design are discussed in relation to the individual scholarly searcher and new modes of document searching.

Description: This document describes an application profile for the use of 'ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1995, Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification' [10] for search and retrieval of cultural heritage information. This profile is named the CIMI Profile, where CIMI refers to the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information. Cultural heritage information includes resources covering art, architecture, cultural history, and natural history. The CIMI Profile includes specifications for using Z39.50 in this application, although specifications in the Profile, such as the CIMI-1 Attribute Set for searching museum information, may have utility outside of Z39.50 implementations.

Description: This article discusses educators', administrators' and students' perceptions of principles of technology programs in Pennsylvania. Abstract: This study assesses the Principles of Technology Applied Science high school courses taught in Pennsylvania. Specifically, this study determines: 1) the number of Level I and II Principle of Technology courses taught; 2) teachers', administrators' and students' perceptions toward the Principle of Technology high school curriculum; 3) Principle of Technology teachers' perceptions of student achievement on state outcomes in science and technology; and 4) how Principle of Technology courses are being infused into the existing curriculum. Findings from this study indicate that both administrators, teachers, and students react favorably to the Principle of Technology Applied Science high school courses.

Description: This article discusses changes in technology. Abstract: Technology can be defined as the utilization of theory, processes, information, and materials to improve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of a society. Since 1973 there have been many technological changes in the field of vocational education. This article offers a broad look at some of the technology changes in the last 25 years, as well as strategies for implementation and planning in the new millennium.

Description: This paper discusses application of qualitative and quantitative content analysis techniques to assess metadata records from 42 Federal agencies' implementation of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). GILS databases respond to a late-1994 initiative to "identify public information resources throughout the Federal government, describe the information available in those resources, and provide assistance in obtaining the information [and] serve as a tool to improve agency electronic records management practices". GILS metadata records describe agencies' automated information systems, Privacy Act systems of records, and locators that cover its information dissemination products. The authors used record content analysis, and several other methods, to examine whether GILS is meeting user expectations. Criteria used in the current analysis were informed in part by results of user and service-implementor questionnaires and focus groups. The record content analysis itself, in turn, informed creation of a scripted online assessment for users, and data from that user assessment supplemented results of the content analysis. The quality of metadata for networked resources is as of yet a relatively unexplored research area. At this point, no consensus has been reached on operational and conceptual definitions of quality; likewise, validated procedures for assessing metadata are lacking. On the basis of the ...