A study comparing citations received by patents in given year to number received in subsequent years found that, even though influential patents remain influential, both highly and infrequently cited patents age at same rate. Distribution of patents by number of citations received is stable over time. (17 references) (EJS)

Focuses on many ways to achieve excellence for the enrichment of industries and universities, such as financial support, technology transfer, and research improvement. (SK)

Responses to librarians' questions about library microcomputers cover simple applications to be used by staff with little experience, minimizing risk factor, choosing a microcomputer, hardware obsolescence, uses of mainframes and minicomputers, capacity planning for microcomputers, security of library's data, copyrighted software, and future use…

Data are presented from interviews with engineering management and a questionnaire survey in 1968. Included are recommended college courses, non-degree courses taken in continuing education, important course areas, demands of present job, factors contributing to promotion, and attitudes toward and reasons for continuing education. (TS)

In the coming decades, schools will change from closed teaching systems to open learning systems. Compulsory attendance, grades, and degrees will tend to disappear. Learning will be more future oriented, less retrospective. Survival in a changing world will mean that man must learn, unlearn, and learn again. (Author)

Triton College, River Grove, IL, has responded to the impact of advanced technologies and to a changing society by (1) modifying and upgrading programs, (2) developing new programs, and (3) developing programs for displaced workers. (JOW)

The scientific information diffusion theory is used to explain the increased citation frequency of recently published articles in respect to the normal exponential decay of older articles. Appendices illustrate this approach. (Author/FM)

Notes that students new to technical writing frequently have difficulty grasping the essentiality of technical definitions and learning how to create appropriate definitions. Suggests that exercises centered around a term that is lapsing into obsolescence offer some productive solutions to this common instructional problem. (RS)

Discusses the loss of stored knowledge due to the continuous obsolescence of digital formats and platforms. Topics include digital storage versus digital preservation; the use of metadata and efforts to create standards for it; information on the Internet; and the need for long-term planning to solve digital degradation. (LRW)

Reviews issues associated with the preservation of digital documents and their long-term viability. Topics include characteristics of digital information; physical deterioration of digital documents; life spans of digital media; technological obsolescence; digital artifacts versus digital objects; access versus preservation; intellectual…

The author states that two costs will be involved in the coming change in technology education: financial and personal. He questions what group of educators will teach technology education in the future. (CH)

Reports findings of a study of the 10-year use of 334 biomedical journals in the Lane Medical Library of Stanford University Medical Center. Use and density of use (use/shelf space occupied) statistics are tabulated and a ranked list of the journals, by use and use-density, is appended. (JD)

Discusses professional development in higher education; considers the work environment as the main site for professional development; and maintains that continuing professional development, in times of continuing professional obsolescence, is best served by attention to departmental cultures. Implications for staff development professionals are…

Two-thirds of what we waste could be reused without important changes in our life-styles. One benefit of recycling would be the diminishing contribution of raw materials prices to inflation. For a sustainable resource policy there are three basic components: waste reduction, waste separation, and waste recovery. The first can be met by producing…

An analysis of the process of disappearance in which each language is engaged. Information concerning their past, present and future as indicated by the sociocultural profile of the ethnic groups concerned is given. The reasons for the language disappearance and, on the dialectological level, signs of language death are noted. (AMH)