CHECK THESE OUT!

Mary Pagliero Popp, Indiana University Libraries
Our colleagues in business and educational training often have good ideas librarians can use. For this issue, I have pulled together useful recent articles from the education and training literature.

A series of columns in the January, February and March issues of TechTrends, the official publication of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), gives readers practical information for developing Web pages:

Don Descy's "All Aboard the Internet" column provides a three-part series of brief articles about page design for the World Wide Web:

"Web Page Design (Part One)." TechTrends   42 (January/February 1997): 3-5. 
Covers general design decisions, file size, placement of information on the page, colors, and backgrounds.

"Web Page Design (Part Two)." TechTrends   42 (March 1997): 3-5.
Includes graphic file formats, use of dithering and cache to make pages load more quickly.

"Web Page Design (Part Three)." TechTrends   42 (April/May 1997): 7-9.
Use of the tag extension in HTML code, practical tips to organize files and make pages easier to maintain, and a list of Web sites containing graphics and fonts.
 

Another series, also from TechTrends, can help the reader observe copyright when creating multimedia materials.  Esther Sinofsky's column, "Copyright and You" includes:
 
Talab, R. S. "An Educational Use Checklist for Copyright and Multimedia." TechTrends   42 (January/February 1997) : 9-11.

Botterbusch, Hope and Sharon Gray. "Copyright Resources on the Web." TechTrends  42 (March 1997): 9-10.

Holcomb, Terry and Mark Mortensen. "From Atoms to Bits: Suggested Readings on the Road from Traditional to Digital Copyright." TechTrends  42 (April/ May 1997): 10-12.
Includes special resources for distance education, multimedia, and instruction via the Web.


AECT and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) are working on a new generation of guidelines for school library media centers. Then latest draft of "Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" appears in the January 1997 issue of TechTrends (pages 52-53) with requests for comment. These can also be found on the AASL Web site URL: http://www.ala.org/aasl and the AECT Web site URL: http://www.aect.org

Several other excellent articles should be on your must-read list:

Fueyo, Vivian. "Teaching Language-Minority Students: Using Research to Inform Practice." Equity & Excellence in Education  30 (April 1997): 16-26.
Provides information about core principles in language acquisition and teaching techniques for students learning English as a second language. Focused on children, but there is useful information for librarians in all settings.

Newman, Butler and Robert W. Riner. "Designing Accessible Online Help." Training & Development   51 (March 1997): 41-44.
Argues that fundamental concepts and intellectual skills should be separated from content and particulars in planning training. Once concepts are learned, performance can be supported by tools that give the user content and details. These can be provided in a computer-based design driven by the tasks performed by users (performance-based) with a predictable structure and designed for a particular audience. A dictionary is suggested as a model of predictability, structure, and ease of use.

Caudron, Shari. "Can Generation Xers Be Trained?" Training and Development   51 (March 1997): 20-24.

Owston, Ronald D. "The World Wide Web: A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning?" Educational Researcher   26 (March 1997): 27-31.
Considers the pros and cons of using the Web for instruction for K-12 and higher education in three contexts: accessibility, learning improvement, and costs.

Welsh, Thomas. "From Multimedia to Multiple Media: Designing Computer-Based Course Materials for the Information Age." TechTrends  42(Jan./Feb. 1997): 17-23.
Looks at ways instructors can design instruction to be used in different contexts, in the classroom and electronically. Covers design principles, hardware and software considerations, and techniques for updating information.

IN BRIEF

Don't miss these articles from the library press!

ACRL Instruction Section. "Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries." College and Research Libraries News   58 (April 1997): 264-266.

Jurist, Susan. "Designing with Type, Part 1." College and Research Libraries News   58 (March 1997): 160-163.

Kafai, Yasmin and Marcia J. Bates. "Internet Web- Searching Instruction in the Elementary Classroom: Building a Foundation for Information Literacy." School Library Media Quarterly   25 (1997): 103-111.

Mary Pagliero Popp is Electronic Services Librarian at the Indiana University, Bloomington Libraries.

LIRT News, June 1997. Volume 19, number 4.
To report problems, please contact the LIRT News Production editor at edwards@ufl.edu

WELCOME BACK ISSUES Last revised January 5, 2000.