Collection and analysis of pre-evacuation time data collected from evacuation trials conducted in library facilities in Brazil

Two evacuation trials were conducted within Brazilian library facilities by FSEG staff in January 2005. These trials represent one of the first such trials conducted in Brazil. The purpose of these evacuation trials was to collect pre-evacuation time data from a population with a cultural background different to that found in western Europe. In total some 34 pre-evacuation times were collected from the experiments and these ranged from 5 to 98 seconds with a mean pre-evacuation time of 46.7 seconds

Cheats offer lesson in learning

Plagiarism and the internet should make us rethink the purpose of assessment, says Tony Mann.

Redefining knowledge in an information world – a polemic

This paper looks at knowledge and information as different forms of the same ideas or "memes". Very different, for knowledge is live, and information is dead. Knowledge is personal, difficult to acquire; information is plentiful, a commodity. Dawkins coined the term meme to refer to a "unit of cultural transmission". I distinguish between forms of the meme that are live knowledge – the internal idea, or imago, and the external transient representation of it, the ephemeron – and those which are permanent information (artefact and permaphemeron). It is a mistake to talk of a "content-free" learning experience, as though content were "just information". Content is knowledge. The point of education is not just to regenerate live knowledge from one generation to the next, it is to extend and add to it through knowledge creation. And knowledge creativity does not operate in a knowledge vacuum. You need ideas to breed ideas.