In order to help researchers and staff in the community colleges, we (the Research & Planning Unit in the Technology, Research, & Information Services Division of the System Office) produce abstracts from a periodic review of publications (both electronic and paper media). These abstracts try to distill essential information from these publications that tend to be lengthy and esoteric in nature. To create broad and unfettered access to these abstracts, we have "deposited" them in the BiblioTrek information bank so that field staff and the public may "withdraw" them at no cost.

In terms of content, the abstracts span a wide spectrum of topics. To facilitate the location of items of relevance to you, we divide the abstracts into the following categories:

• Research Methods
• Data Analysis
• Survey Research
• Other

• Strategic Planning
• Accountability
• Planning and Management
• Social Trends

• Student Learning/Participation
• Distance Learning and IT
• Participation and Learning
• Student Diversity and Achievement

• Teaching and Faculty
• Higher Education
• K-12

• Workforce Development
• Community Colleges
• Other Educational Levels
• Labor Market Issues
  

We hope that field staff finds use for these abstracts. In particular, we encourage others to quote, reprint, or redistribute these abstracts with their own network of colleagues. Of course, we do appreciate any acknowledgment of our work that you happen to use. We hope that the format of these abstracts facilitates such information-sharing in the field. The abstracts include verbatim quotations, the original source and author(s), and modest attempts to interpret and or explain the material for the general audience. In fact, if he/she so desires, a field person should have enough information in an abstract to obtain the original article or report for closer scrutiny.

Because these abstracts are labor-intensive and the system office has a limited labor pool to do them, we concede that we may miss topics that field staff really need. In that case, please e-mail Willard Hom (the unit chief) at whom@cccco.edu, and we will work to remedy that. On the other hand, some of the abstracts may either repeat stuff that field staff already know or stuff that field staff have no interest in knowing. In this case, we hope that field staff recognizes (a) that the system office tries to appeal to very diverse audiences and (b) that we also present material that we consider relevant (but which seems to have too little attention in our system).

We value the user's input, whether positive or negative, so feel free to
e-mail us. Thanks.

Willard Hom
Director, Research & Planning Unit
Technology, Research, and Information Services Division
System Office, California Community Colleges