Nobody was reporting on the changes in the newspaper industry as the chains were becoming larger and more dominant, owning 80% of the nearly 1,500 newspapers in the US. In the middle 1990s, journalists no longer working for newspapers (to avoid conflict of interest) launched the Project on the State of the American Newspaper, projected to produce some 20 articles that would appear in the American Journalism Review and be the foundation for two volumes.

Leaving The Reader Behind: The Age Of Corporate Newspapering surveys a generation of relentless "corporatization" that has radically transformed journalism and newspaper publishing. Unprecedented in the 300 year history of American newspapers, the blitz of buying, selling, and consolidation of newspapers has effected the industry from small town weeklies to the nationally renowned dailies. Gene Roberts (an immensely respected newspaper reporter and editor) has provided the reader with a unique and documented history that is as engaging as it is informative. Leaving The Reader Behind is essential reading for aspiring journalists and students of American newspaper publishing.

Yvonne Fern a former Nun, spent months with Gene and his wife Majel whom the book is dedicated to. I am not a Trekie and originally bought the book for my son who is a major Star Trek fan. But I opened the book and read a few pages, then a few more pages. Then within days I was 3/4 thru the book and had gained such respect for the man Gene Roddenberry and realized he was much more than the man behind Star Trek. On page 2 I see my Father speaking, thru MsFern/Mr Roddenberry: "Gene Roddenberry did not believe in time. He never spoke of the future in the future tense, to me. It was always, "the future is", not "the future will be".

The book is wonderful because it also covers the marriage he had, and the uniqueness of his personaility. On page 95 Ms Fern notes: "Like many writers he carries a population sround inside of him-ideas, fancies,noions,characters,theories,possibilities,dreams. They buzz constantly with opposing suggestions,contraditory philosphies, conflicting needs. They make demands on him that they begiven life." This is why he was a genius. An eccentric of sorts. So many people live "safe" lives. People like Mr Roddenberry take risks and lead the lives they are meant to live. Interetsing that people admire men/women like him, yet how few people are have that spirit of adventure. Mr Roddenberry didn't see race, religion, gender, but LIFE in its fullest form. The book covers his feelings on these subjects as well as sex.

This book is a modern day Homer. Everyone should buy it ! I bought copies for my local library.

Growing up Learning is used primarily in our VoWac teacher training sessions. It is a wonderful tool for teachers to be familiar with. It provides them with vital information in determining a child's learning strength(s), and methods and ideas that can be use to help teach children. Teachers and parents will be able to determine their own learning strength and apply that knowledge in dealing with their own children and students. Although Amazon is telling you 4 - 6 weeks...call VoWac Publishing at (605)598-4492. Delivery in 2-3 days $13.00 plus s/h. If I could recommend only one resource book for teachers and parents....THIS IS IT!

Gene Smith's treatment of the l868 impeachment and trial against President Andrew Johnson is beautifully written and presents fair, yet compelling portraits of all of the major players. In the wake of the most recent impeachment crisis concerning President Clinton, this book becomes more important than ever.

This volume is an excellent thematic/theological introduction to the Torah. Historical-critical issues, while assumed, are not a major focus of this book, and are addressed specifically only insofar as they are necessary for a discussion that is largely thematic and theological. Fretheim offers a solid proposal for reading the Torah as a unity within the framework of several governing themes, viz., promise, creation, et. al. His insights along the way are fresh and inspiring in a field that can all too often digress into technical concerns alone. The strength of this book lies in its articulation of major theological themes that govern the entire narrative of the Torah, and in its subsequent proposals for reading the individual books with these themes in mind. Very highly recommended for anyone engaged in this field of study at any level.

Please excuse my spelling, it's terrible This book is terrific. I started reading this book and couldn't put it down. It is a fine collection of stories ranging from the great soilbank days when Kansas alone had 4 million birds to the Royal hunts in Europe where an average daily bag mesaures in the thousands, It has stories more like mine where the average hunt ends with tired dogs and few birds. The book through it's many differant authors also explores the ethics associated with hunting. This book is for the bird hunter who's cleaning his gun for the third time this week when hunting season isn;t for 6 months. It's for the guy who can't stop dreaming of how his new pup will do his first time out. It's for the guy who spends more time with his dogs than with his wife. All hunters will enjoy this book, but the true bird hunter won;t be able to put it down.

Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate

by Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber, and Gene I. Maeroff

(San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1997)

In the Carnegie Foundation report, Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate, authors Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber and Gene I. Maeroff create an even more inclusive vision of scholarship from the late Ernest L. Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, the Foundation's 1990 report. With the blessing of Boyer, The Carnegie Foundation's past president, these authors suggest standards and applications by which the entire range of an institution's scholastic endeavor (research, writing, teaching, etc.) can be documented and evaluated. The new report will greatly benefit institutions of higher education desiring to define and evaluate the academic performance of faculty.

The authors are impressively credentialed and each has been, or is currently, associated wit! ! h The Carnegie Foundation. Charles E. Glassick served as interim president of the Foundation between January 1996 and July 1997. Mary Taylor Huber is presently serving the Foundation as a senior scholar, and Gene I. Maeroff served the Foundation between 1986 and 1997. Presently Dr. Maeroff directs the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The report is remarkably thorough and extremely well done. In every respect it supports the paradigm Boyer proposes in his initial work. Therein is both its strength and weakness. One has only to read Boyer's work in order to predict the logic of the new report. This is not to question the merit of the new work, but rather to suggest that as much effort seems to have been spent in reconciling the two reports as in the stated purpose of formulating standards of assessing scholarship and evaluating the professoriate.

The report responds to what it considers to be a major societal transition! ! that requires higher education to keep pace and even facil! itate change. At stake, according to the authors, is "the capacity of higher education to meet its responsibilities for teaching, research, and service to society" (p. 5). The mission of higher education must be current, and the activities of faculty must relate "more directly to the realities of contemporary life" (p. 6). The authors link the evolution of higher education with historical precedents and key events from the educational philosophy of colonial days to its pragmatic role in the present. Within that philosophical shift, the priorities of faculty are established. While virtually all institutions continue to address education on the undergraduate level, some enjoy distinction in the areas of research, publishing, and service through the application of knowledge. The report observes that the performance of the professoriate is most often determined by the reward structure of their institution.

At the conclusion of the report, the questionnaire us! ! ed for the survey and the survey results are presented in table form. Responses are reported collectively and broken down per institutional classification. The results profile research, doctorate granting, comprehensive, and liberal arts institutions in an impressive manner. An institution should be able to compare its own policies with others, and, at the same time, determine progress in addressing critical issues in higher education. The survey is as much a report card on higher education as an effective tool for the construction of the report.

Scholarship Assessed discusses the strengths of Dr. Boyer's suggested definition of scholarship, specifically, "the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching" (p. 9). Thereafter, however, it begins to construct a timely system of evaluation intended to recognize, assess, and even link the contributions of the professoriate in its broadest sense! ! in a uniform and equitable manner. The results are both lo! gical and practical. It proposes six shared standards, comprising 1) clear goals, 2) adequate preparation, 3) appropriate methods, 4) significant results, 5) effective presentation, and 6) reflective critique. This methodology reflects the thinking of a broad range of higher education and para-educational systems. With little adaptation the standards can be applied to the evaluation of the professoriate.

The versatility of Boyer's system of standards is best demonstrated by its application to specific tasks such as teaching assessment. The system can potentially provide uniform evaluation of teaching performance when it is administered by administrators or students or by faculty during self-evaluation. Results might prove interesting when three vantage points are combined into a single profile. The system is a powerful diagnostic tool for identifying strengths and weaknesses in teaching. If applied in this way it can potentially influence faculty behavior and in a larger sen! ! se, provide focus for remedial attention.

Boyer's system might also be applied to learning assessment, providing certain adaptations are implemented. His fourth standard, "significant results," requires stronger definition. Specifically, it requires a clear means of learning measurement in conjunction with planned goals. His final two standards, "effective presentation" and "reflective critique," should be sufficiently defined to differentiate learning styles. An ultimate determination as to the system's suitability to assess learning would be its application to different learning theories.

Scholarship Assessed inseparably links itself to Dr. Boyer's initial report. While the first twenty-one pages of the work serve as interesting background, they are essentially unnecessary, other than to recognize the vision of a distinguished scholar. Initially, the tone of the report is reminiscent of a family mourning the loss of a loved one. Perhaps the ! ! report would have been even stronger and more credible if t! he authorship had extended beyond family members. The report could have very easily eliminated the tribute portion and stood on its own merit. Still, Scholarship Assessed is certainly worthy to be recognized as a stand-alone work. It will undoubtedly assume a place as a valuable resource of institutions of all classifications. It will almost certainly inspire further study for many years to come.

William G. Sunday

Hi, I have just purchased this book and found it very insightful and would reallly like to know how I can hold of the video series advertised in the book. Thank you Theo van Rensburg P O Box 51320 8002, Waterfront E mail: iejd@yahoo.com or alternatively, iejd@dockside.co.za

A fun vacation read. Anecdotes from a real wild west lawman -- who didn't do a lot of shooting and killing but somehow managed to be in the action none the less. It reminded me a little of the excellent Dustin Hofmann film, Little Big Man.

given the title, i was prepared to be unfavorably amused by this book but wound up thoroughly charmed by the direct and often witty descriptions and characterizations by this bona fide turn of that century wild west lawman, who, one must assume, was just as tough and unyielding as the 'hard cases' for whom this work is titled.

harkey's plain style and simple accounting of the events develops a remarkable bond of trust with the reader, and i came away almost with a casual sense of familiarity with some of the most savage and desperate bad men produced by that savage and desperate era.

recommend it very highly for anyone who would like to get a highly entertaining -- but pretty much unvarnished -- picture of life on the edge at that time.

More than fifty years ago I read Dee Harkey's account of his experiences as an old time western lawman, and "Mean as Hell" still sticks in my memory as the best account of what it was like to wear a badge in the old days. I give this book five stars not as a literary composition but as a highly intertaining account of how things really were in the heyday of the wild west. It is fast and easy reading, written in colorful language as it was spoken. As you read Harkey's writing you are soon magically transported into another era that will never return. You find yourself not just reading about his exploits, but living his experiences with him. I feel as though his unique unsophisticated writing style has expanded my own life experiences to include an important part of history that occurred long before I was born. Not many writers can do this.If you want to actually experience the old west, read this book.

Once you have a grounding in matrix analysis and linear algebra this book makes a good reference. His explanations tend to be terse (even exceptionally so)- more suited for reminding someone who already knows how the algorithm works or was derived and simply can't remember the details. It lost a star as I've found some annoying typos (for example, in the pseudocode for the GMRES algorithm).

A few years ago this book permitted me to go reliably from
theoretical linear algebra to practical large-scale numerical
computations, using also LAPACK. I think this is its place:
from the university course level to the practical side.
On the other hand, one cannot really say it is as readable
as, say, Numerical Recipes: it has a quite terse style.

This book should be placed alongside "Principles of Mathematical Analysis" by Walter Rudin and "Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces" by Paul Halmos as a classic text, one which students/professionals of mathematics will use for years to come. A solid book covering computational matrix theory. I myself used it as a tool to bridge the gap between my formal training in Mathematics and my serious interest in computers. Reader should have some knowledge of basic linear algebra(ie understanding of vector spaces, L2 norms, etc..) before attempting this book. Excercises could be better. A good purchase for those with a more than passing interest.