Web-based distance continuing education: a new way of thinking for students and instructors

As people have more difficulty taking time away from work to attend conferences and workshops, the idea of offering courses via the Web has become more desirable. Addressing a need voiced by Medical Library Association membership, the authors developed a Web-based continuing-education course on the subject of the librarian's role in evidence-based medicine. The aim of the course was to provide medical librarians with a well-constructed, content-rich learning experience available to them at their convenience via the Web. This paper includes a discussion of the considerations that need to be taken into account when developing Web-based courses, the issues that arise when the information delivery changes from face-to-face to online, the changing role of the instructor, and the pros and cons of offering Web-based versus traditional courses. The results of the beta test and future plans for the course are also discussed.

Self-organized phase transitions in neural networks as a neural mechanism of information processing.

Transitions between dynamically stable activity patterns imposed on an associative neural network are shown to be induced by self-organized infinitesimal changes in synaptic connection strength and to be a kind of phase transition. A key event for the neural process of information processing in a population coding scheme is transition between the activity patterns encoding usual entities. We propose that the infinitesimal and short-term synaptic changes based on the Hebbian learning rule are the driving force for the transition. The phase transition between the following two dynamical stable states is studied in detail, the state where the firing pattern is changed temporally so as to itinerate among several patterns and the state where the firing pattern is fixed to one of several patterns. The phase transition from the pattern itinerant state to a pattern fixed state may be induced by the Hebbian learning process under a weak input relevant to the fixed pattern. The reverse transition may be induced by the Hebbian unlearning process without input. The former transition is considered as recognition of the input stimulus, while the latter is considered as clearing of the used input data to get ready for new input. To ensure that information processing based on the phase transition can be made by the infinitesimal and short-term synaptic changes, it is absolutely necessary that the network always stays near the critical state corresponding to the phase transition point.

Educating a New Cadre of Experts Specializing in Digital Collections and Digital Curation: Experiential Learning in Digital Library Curriculum

Integration of experiential learning into the library and information science (LIS) courses has been a theme in LIS education, but the topic deserves renewed attention with an increasing demand for professionals in the digital library field and in light of the new initiative announced by the Library of Congress (LC) and the Institution of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for national residency program in digital curation. The balance between theory and practice in digital library curricula, the challenges of incorporating practical projects into LIS coursework, and the current practice of teaching with hands on activities represent the primary areas of this panel discussion.

Reverse Offshoring of Services: The New Wave of Emerging Offshorers. ACES Working Papers, August 2010

Offshore outsourcing of services accelerated at the end of 1990s in developed countries. In recent years, developing countries have also offshored services, not only to developed countries but also to other developing countries. Yet, to date little attention has been paid to the emergence of this reverse offshoring. The focus of this research is on the determinants of reverse offshoring of services; as such we will investigate what drives these firms from developing countries to offshore services.

Choosing a career; a circular of information for girls,

Mode of access: Internet.

ENTERPRISE: Evaluating New Technologies for Roads Program Initiatives in Safety and Efficiency. Final report.

Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix

Sources of information in the social sciences: an annotated bibliography

Mode of access: Internet.

Cooperative extension and electronic technology : new initiatives in information delivery, educational delivery, and problem solving.

"September 1985."

Modern motherhood; a book of information on complete maternity care: prenatal - delivery - aftercare,

Bibliography: p. [243]-252; "Suggested reading" at end of chapter on development of the child.

The history of Australian exploration from 1788 to 1888 : compiled from state documents, private papers, and the most authentic sources of information. Issued under the auspices of the governments of the Australian colonies /

Facsimile of title page. Originally published : Sydney : Turner & Henderson, 1888.

New projections of the veteran population : a review of the data.

Cover title.

Memoirs of Robert E. Lee; his military and personal history, embracing a large amount of information hitherto unpublished,

The appendix (p. 501-699) contains many reports, lists, etc., relating to the Army of northern Virginia.

South America, social, industrial, and political; a twenty-five-thousand-mile journey in search of information in the isthmus of Panama and the lands of the equator,

Mode of access: Internet.

United States government publications as sources of information for libraries,

Mode of access: Internet.