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Measures of readability, which assess the expected difficulty in reading a specific text, provide one means of assessing the quality of documentation for computer‐based systems. In this study documentation designed for physicians searching the PDQ cancer database was analyzed using readability formulae in AT&T's Writer's Workbench software package. The user manuals' reading grades ranged from tenth to thirteenth grade levels. This should be appropriate under normal circumstances for sophisticated searchers such as physicians. However, the distractions that are common in many online environments can decrease reader comprehension at any level.

This paper aims to compare how undergraduates in Kuwait and Indiana Universities assess information resources for class assignments.

Social science majors at Kuwait University and Indiana University Bloomington completed the Project Information Literacy survey.

The students are comparable in how often they ask instructors or classmates for advice, but Kuwaitis are more likely to ask other people for assistance. Kuwaiti students generally are less critical in their evaluation of both library-based and web information resources but are more likely to consider librarian recommendations.

Institution-specific factors that were not specifically addressed include the following: the survey was administered online in Indiana and on paper in Kuwait, and the types of course assignments and/or students’ information literacy instruction may also vary by institution.

Librarians should continue to present information clearly and use a variety of instructional methods so that material is accessible. Librarian recommendations and modeling of evaluative behavior can assist international students. Social media may be useful in working with these students’ more collaborative approach to assessing resources.

The work updates the 2010 Project Information Literacy survey on undergraduates’ evaluation of information resources for coursework. It also extends that survey to identify how students from Kuwait are different than USA undergraduates.

The purpose of this paper is to inform or alert readers to the extensive use and ready availability of genetic information that poses varying degrees of social and legal danger. The eugenics movement of the 1920s and the general acceptance of genetic essentialism provide context for considering contemporary examples of the problem.

This paper takes an argumentative approach, supporting proposals with ideas from historical and current research literature.

The limits of data protection, extensive use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing and use of genetic information in white nationalist circles portend a resurgence of eugenic beliefs from a century ago.

Research-based recommendations may help to avoid extreme consequences by encouraging people to make informed decisions about the use of genetic information.

The paper counterposes contemporary understanding of genetic testing and data accessibility with the much older ideology of eugenics, leading to concerns about how white nationalists might further their aims with 21st century technology.

A bibliometric profile of four information science journals is developed. Data on acknowledgements to funding sources, authors‘ nationalities and the citedness of published articles are analysed. The relationships among these variables are explored. Citedness appears to be associated with journal of publication and an author’s nationality, but not with funding.

With any new skill, the time comes when one must put together the various steps that have been practiced and actually ‘play the game’. For many students of library and information science, online searching is a new search for a ‘real world’ client. This paper describes some problems these novice searchers have in putting it all together.

Data were gathered on acknowledgements in five leading information science journals for the years 1991‐1999. The results were compared with data from two earlier studies of the same journals. Analysis of the aggregate data (1971‐1999) confirms the general impression that acknowledgement has become an institutionalised element of the scholarly communication process, reflecting the growing cognitive and structural complexity of contemporary research.