We are finding ourselves in a rapidly growing and complex digital environment which has in turn increased our dependency on information. But there is increasing evidence that our information skills are not keeping pace in any systematic fashion. We all need help to sharpen the techniques and skills to manage information. Present paper is an attempt to present the current status of information literacy and the emerging roles of libraries and schools of LIS education in augmenting the information literacy campaign.

A descriptive analysis of the histories of the Institute of Professional Librarians of Ontario (1960â 1976) reveals not only the circumstances surrounding the creation, growth, and decline of this singular expression of the professionalization of librarianship but also foregrounds the ways in which the historical narration of the profession must look beyond the traditional delineation of intrinsic traits in order to circumscribe librarianship more adequately. To that end, consideration is given to one important factor, the Royal Commission Inquiry into Civil Rights (1964-71). It is evident that historical recovery of this sort is crucial to the profession's self-understanding as it negotiates its contemporary stance with respect to both librarians and the publics that they serve.

<p>Digital games are marketed, mass-produced, and consumed by an increasing number of people and the game industry is only expected to grow. In response, post-secondary institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) have started to create game degree programs. Though curriculum theorists provide insight into the process of creating a new program, no formal research contextualizes curriculum planning for game degree programs. </p><p> The purpose of this research was to explore these processes when planning undergraduate game degree programs. The research methodology included an explanatory mixed-methods approach, using a quantitative survey of participants in the UK and the US, followed by an interview of several participants selected on the basis of their institution's demographics. The study provides insight into the curriculum planning process, including factors that influence the final program content, and a list of recommendations for educators, trade associations, and the games industry to improve game degree programs. </p>

<p> The Information Science doctoral program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, faces many of the same challenges found in highly interdisciplinary programs across educational institutions worldwide such as complex curricula development, abundant discipline languages and cultures, and stakeholders clinging to the traditional, single-discipline university system. In 2006, the University at Albany Information Science Ph.D. program faculty redefined the program's structure in hopes of addressing the challenges it was facing. Program structure is a social process shaped by community participation and is influenced by many factors including students, faculty members, and both informal and formal knowledge production. </p><p> Drawing on data collected with both students and faculty present before, during and after the transition to the new program structure, a mixed-method research strategy was performed to examine student retention rates and time to degree, and to explore the experiences of program faculty members' and doctoral students' sense of community and connectedness. Drawing on Wenger's (1998) Community of Practice model and Tinto's model of Institutional Departure, this study occurs in three stages: [1] program and participants' content analysis, [2] surveying of student and faculty members, and [3] select interviews with student and faculty members. </p><p> The data presented here highlights the unique challenges of doctoral interdisciplinary programs and supports the need for collaboration among faculty, and calls for the unquestionable patronage of the institution and the diverse departments involved. Seeing that interdisciplinary programs work across different disciplines, students and faculty alike often find it difficult to assimilate the diverse ways of teaching and methods of research thus calling for unique organizational and pedagogical strategies addressed in the curricula. Successful interdisciplinary programs need faculty who are broad-minded and willing to embrace and learn new methodologies, and respect sometimes conflicting viewpoints. Departments need to develop new models of organizational structure and funding sources to facilitate interdisciplinary research and interdisciplinary community. University leadership needs to move away from rigid hierarchical structures, add more flexibility to allow faculty members to have some movement between disciplinary departments, and needs to provide physical spaces to pull the diverse faculty and student communities together.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research was to determine if the effectiveness of technology education can be significantly increased through use of team-based activities including both real-time team encounters and results-driven team assignments. The research addresses this purpose by examining perceptions regarding effectiveness of team-based learning in several degree programs in Information Technology education. Survey data was gathered from adult students about their experience with recent team assignments. All participants were enrolled at a large private non-profile university on the west coast within the School of Engineering, Technology and Media. The Team Work Survey was administered and hosted on the Survey Monkey website and released to about 200 courses in programs for a Bachelor of Science or a Master of Science degree. Over four periods, survey responses were returned for 96 learners enrolled in undergraduate courses and 126 learners enrolled in graduate courses. The researcher was granted permission by DiFonzo (2010) to use a survey instrument adapted and piloted that was based on an earlier Team Performance Survey originated by Peters (1997) who developed, validated and determined its reliability. Several comparisons were made using statistical analysis to determine the interesting patterns relevant to this research. The interpretation of findings included evidence that team effectiveness was indeed positively aligned with team members' perceptions about ability to learn, with their interest in the topic and the motivation of individual members to commit time and energy to the team assignments.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize a list of implementation risk factors and suggested mitigation measures for the development team of the California Community Colleges (CCC) Online Education Initiative (OEI) to improve the probability of successful implementation. This study led to the development of an authoritative and comprehensive prioritized list of risk factors and user-recommended mitigation strategies for the risks of a large-scale shared learning management system (LMS) implementation. The data collected and the conclusions derived from surveying college administrators and faculty are intended to augment the literature as well as advance the understanding of how to successfully implement a new shared LMS of this scale successfully. The participants in the policy Delphi study were 10 administrators, 10 full-time faculty members, and 7 adjunct faculty members from the cohort of the first colleges accepted to adopt the OEI. Two rounds of questionnaires were administered using the online electronic survey program SurveyMonkey. The first round asked participants to prioritize software implementation risk factors and make mitigation suggestions for the highest priority risks. The second round asked participants to rank the mitigation suggestions for the top 10 risks identified in the first round. Only 2 of the top 10 risk factors were statistically significant: underfunding of maintenance and support, and lack of faculty and staff responsibility, ownership, and buy-in for the project. There were no statistically significant differences in risk factor assessments based on job type, length of time in job, legacy LMS, legacy LMS experience, or size of college. OEI leadership and colleges should evaluate and implement the top mitigation suggestions for at least the first 2 risk factors and preferably all of the top 10. Engaging the early adopters in assessing potential implementation risks, prioritizing them, brainstorming mitigation measures, and prioritizing those measures yielded an actionable list the team can use to reduce implementation risks and improve the probability of success of the new OEI system.</p>

<p> Today's economy is driven by information technology (IT). Education and business should come to an agreement that functional technology skills should be integrated with core academic courses to create an educational system that truly prepares workers for the 21st Century. The business realm theoretical foundation for this study laid on the match/mismatch established between technology&mdash;math education and business' readiness&mdash;[math] skills. The level of education and skills of workers needed by business and industry has increased. Nonetheless, scholars underlined the belief that the skills workers possess are generally not sufficient for the demands of the more sophisticated jobs in today's economy. With this study this researcher pretended to fill the gap in the literature by examining the hypothesis that poor education results in low skills is hampering U.S. businesses and the disparity between what employers need and what workers offer is getting serious enough. Within this investigation the researcher tested for first time three theories: the AST/TML theory, the TAM theory, and the Constructivist theory, whereas having behind scenes K-12's mathematics arena. This study found that "there is no statistically significant relationship between the degree to which teachers accept new technologies and technology usage in mathematics instruction" and that "teachers' individual affective reactions to technology toward integrating computers and technology into math instruction are not related to readiness skills." However, a Post Hoc analysis demonstrated that at least for one of the individual predictors, problem solving construct scores, the null hypothesis was rejected. It means in a long path to academic success, small waves of effectiveness in education are penetrating the sandy beaches of skills. Additionally, this researcher confirmed some scholars' assertion about Confirmatory Factor Analysis, which described that sample sizes smaller than 100 as dangerous and recommended using sample sizes larger than 200 for safe conclusions. Finally, the researcher tested and validated the Technology-Mediated Learning (TML) theory while adding his research positive conclusion(s) to the body of knowledge.</p>

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4528. Adviser: Linda C. Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-205) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Alberta, 2010. / "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Psychology and the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta." Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on July 23, 2010) Includes bibliographical references.