Editorial

Citation

Gelfand, J. and Riggs, C. (2004), "Editorial", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 21 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2004.23921eaa.001

Editorial

This issue is an important compilation of many sources of information. The conference reports are plentiful and include coverage of meetings from around the world that promoted digital library service in many executable ways. We start in India at the International Conference on Digital Libraries where we get insights into not only the wonderful hospitality and logistics of this conference and its content, but how the Indian Government plans to continue work on the themes. Online Conference Netherlands, held in Amsterdam this year, offers another product update as it celebrates its tenth anniversary of conferences. Computers in Libraries had its 19th Annual Conference in Washington and a well detailed conference report highlights what transpired there. A trip to Indiana University/Purdue University's Indianapolis joint campus provides a conference report on The SURA/ViDe 6th Annual Digital Video Workshop, the first time LHTN has covered this interesting conference. The American Chemical Society held its annual meeting in Anaheim, California and several sessions reflected emerging technology applications for chemical informatics and new information products to encourage future ranges of research.

We have a second contribution by Alfred Martey from Ghana. His first article was about the development of consortia in Ghana. This time he describes the emerging ICT culture to support distance education in Ghana. Professors Alfred Bork and Philip Hui share a proposal they have for a global experiment in adaptive tutorial computer-based learning for young children. This method can be applied in different subject areas, but the experiment they describe is in the field of mathematics. What makes it all so interesting is that with this adaptive technology, teaching this way allows for scaling the process to students with a variety of learning strengths and difficulties, and makes it available worldwide, with success for all students the goal. The efficiencies of distance education for even primary school students leads to reduced costs, better outreach, utilizing peer learning, with student assessment as a key to motivate the learners, and it can supplement traditional classroom and home schooling environments.

The columns in this issue are full, with Gerry McKiernan exploring science and technology OAI data providers. Howard Falk expands the coverage of his traditional "ebooks" content to what we have coined "ehappenings" as his scope in this column extends beyond the boundaries of epublications. Keeping up with what has been released and published is found in the "New Books" and "New & Noteworthy" columns. Learning what is on the horizon forces one to review the Calendar and plan your meeting and conference schedule for the next few months.

As this issue is released, we are busy in June with a full schedule of professional meetings and we look forward to sharing the content in coming issues. Again, if you would like to participate as a conference reporter, we look forward to hearing from you.

Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Colby Riggs (cmriggs@uci.edu)Co-editors