An interview with Barbara Barber, community information librarian at the Topeka Public Library, Kansas. (PF)

Although homework is assigned for a variety of academic and non-academic purposes, there is disagreement within the educational community about the value of homework and the amount of homework students should be assigned. This Literature Review summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of homework and examines how much time students should and…

Developing countries face a number of challenges in their efforts to compete successfully in the new global economy. Perhaps the most critical resource needed to achieve these goals is trained human capital. While many developing countries are trying to address this need through traditional means, this may not be the most effective or efficient…

Describes social, cultural, informational, and educational programs and services that are offered by some libraries in Louisiana to their adult patrons. (JD)

Article describes the evolution of a course for the community which de-mystifies the process of gathering information. (Author)

Reports on programs of, by, and for Native Americans in Iowa and Nebraska. (PF)

Suggests people in the community who may be sources of information: mailmen, bartenders, policemen, cabdrivers, number runners, and countless others. (LS)

Libraries must do some research before trying to establish a community information center. Librarians should consider feasibility, identify the target population, inventory community resources, define information needs, and provide for continuing study while the service is in operation. (LS)

An announcement of a study to be conducted by Leeds Polytechnic to describe and analyze ideas about information and the public library, and offer suggestions for future services. (Author/JAB)

Details of the Community Bulletin Board System (CBBS) of the Montgomery County Community College of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania are given. CBBS is an electronic bulletin board, designed so that anyone with access to a telecomputing terminal may call in to the college and make use of the system. (MP)

Models of telephone crisis intervention in suicide prevention and best practices were developed from a literature review and surveys of crisis centers. We monitored 2,611 calls to 14 centers using reliable behavioral ratings to compare actual interventions with the models. Active listening and collaborative problem-solving models describe help…

Reviews the evolution of library community service patterns in reference and adult services, recognizes the fluidity of community information needs in terms of library response, research, and technology, and discusses questions pertaining to service innovations. References are included. (FM)

In this article, the authors present an adolescent counseling intervention used by the California Smokers' Helpline and test in the largest randomized trials to date. In this study, more than 1,400 teen clients were randomly assigned to an intervention group or a control group. Participants in the intervention group received telephone counseling…

The neighborhood information service (NIS) is a relatively new social service which could benefit from the experience of the information profession. (Author)

For slumping libraries in search of a meaningful expansion of community services, this is the one most likely to do the trick. (Author)