Changes in information technology threaten the traditional role of the college library on campus. Library administrators must position the library politically as well as technologically to play a central role in services, technology, and organization, and to enable the library to retain an integral place in the university's intellectual life. (MSE)

In the humanities, scholars accord libraries high prestige and use them extensively. Despite the availability of electronic mail and digital libraries, humanists persist in more traditional forms of scholarly communication. Because it will be many years before print records can be given digital form, this population will likely continue library…

Advances in information technology are forcing librarians and administrators to reinvent scholarly information exchange. The old question of what constitutes a research collection remains, but is transferred to a new medium. This is an opportunity to take advantage of the new possibilities and to correct some previous mistakes in collection…

Successful higher education institutions of the next century will be learning-centered; successful college libraries will become teaching libraries that equip students with lifelong learning skills; librarians of the future will be knowledge managers. Libraries must become user-centered, which will require a substantial initial investment that…

The mission of the college library of the future will be principally a teaching one, directly linked to the institution's educational mission. Therefore, assessment and accreditation should be directed primarily at the library's relationship to the teaching and learning functions of the institution. Evaluation should emphasize how interaction with…

The library of the next decade will answer the demands of its changing community rather than implement new technology simply to facilitate traditional operations. Library users are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the use of technology and diverse resources, and will demand a high level of service and accessibility. (MSE)

Individual profiles from an ethnographic study of gay/bisexual male students at Pennsylvania State University are presented, focusing on the experience of coming out while in college. Issues discussed include the relationship of language, culture, and power in shaping experience; overt student actions as political statements; and efforts to open…

A study investigated the extent to which 210 college students' learning orientations were shaped independently and jointly by their academic and nonacademic experiences. Findings indicated that the two kinds of experience each made statistically significant and unique contributions to gains in intellectual orientation after controlling for…

In interviews with 18 college faculty actively collaborating on research in the field of higher education, a variety of metaphors were used to explain the nature of the collaborative process, reflecting 6 distinct dynamics of the relationship: degree of jointness, definition of roles and responsibilities, flexibility of roles, similarity of…

Based on a year-long cultural study, undertaken for the 1994 merger of Bethany Theological Seminary (Illinois) and Earlham School of Religion (Indiana), this essay describes distinctive aspects of the two institutional cultures, identifies potential cultural conflicts, and discusses the implications and benefits of using cultural research to guide…

As part of a cross-disciplinary project to develop interactive, multimedia college instruction, a mathematics team developed a hypertext version of an existing textbook and created seven modules in basic calculus. Lessons and principles learned about courseware development are presented here to help faculty without previous software experience to…

Computer software designed to help college students of history think like historians is described. The software enables students to search for patterns in large bodies of evidence using interactive access, through a map interface, to historical county-level United States census data. The software and a history course in which the software has been…

MediaMatrix, a new, computerized instruction, authoring system, enables instructional developers to build adaptive programmed instruction and adaptive testing systems. Instructional development can focus simultaneously on systematic improvement of comprehension and problem-solving skills while providing for adaptive content presentations that…

Factors driving the shift from analog to digital video storage and retrieval are discussed, including improved compression techniques, reduced hardware costs, and increased network demands. Characteristics of digital video and various compression procedures are described. Applications and guidelines for use of digital video in higher education…

A project demonstrated the feasibility of accessing library information (online public access catalogs, commercial online databases, Internet) from a distance using handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) equipped with cellular communication capability. The study is described, and other uses of wireless communications in libraries and…