Article on metadata quality assurance and the experience of the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries.

Article discussing metadata approaches to preservation of digital resources and the experiences of the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries.

Article discussing archiving web-published materials and a needs assessment of librarians, researchers, and content providers.

Article discussing the deep web and the new resource discovery service of the statewide virtual Library of Texas (LOT).

This article discusses the American Library Association (ALA) midwinter meeting in 2006, which was held in San Antonio. The discussions include an increase in dues and several resolutions.

This article discusses the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in 2006, which took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Information about the topics discussed and issues that were brought up are included.

This book chapter examines the federal Executive Branch and Congressional vision of e-government and the role of the Government Printing Office's (GPO) Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) to demonstrate how the FDLP can effectively participate in existing e-government initiatives. The continuation of the Federal Depository Library Program's historic information dissemination, access, and preservation roles are now dependent upon multi-agency e-government collaboration. The collections and research expertise of Federal Depository libraries are the critical features missing in current e-government service models. The authors propose that the public service and resource discovery features now available at FDLP libraries be coordinated nationally via an AskUS-FDLP Library Portal.

This article discusses collection development practices to meet the unique characteristics of Web-published materials.

Article on developing the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for Africa and an overview of the barriers to harnessing the full power of the internet.

Article summarizing major findings of the MetaArchive and AmericanSouth projects, two of the seven projects of the 2001 Mellon Metadata Harvesting Initiative.

Article on gender and authorship in The Indexer from 1958 through 2007.

Article on the geographic distribution of authors in The Indexer from 1988 through 2007.

This article offers a comparison of strategies and policies for building distributed digital preservation infrastructure.

Article discussing the effectiveness of a community health worker as sole diabetes educator.

Article on the storage of electronic files of Federal Agencies that have ceased operation and a partnership for permanent access.

Article on e-government services and how libraries can provide helpful online government resources.

Article on the expansion of access to government web sites to include Internet-based educational resources for children, teachers, and parents.

Article on connecting constituents to government information and 150 years of congressionally designated libraries.

Article discussing the development of the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' Portal to Texas History.

Abstract: In this editorial, I express my views on how to understand and reconcile contradictory revelations among near-death experiences (NDErs). I address the issue of an NDEr proselytizing one's own unique interpretations in response to life's deepest questions.

Abstract: In this paper, I present four apparent near-death experiences (NDEs) reported in Roman times. Despite their uncertain reliability, they contain features deserving attention. Three reports involve taking the wrong person to the realm of death by mistake ("mistake cases"), and even include the claim that the correct person had died after the NDEr revived ("correction cases"). Though common in Asia, such cases are absent in contemporary Western NDE reports. The fourth report contains an alleged correct future prediction and xenoglossy, the latter being a novum to NDE research. After introducing the four cases, I discuss their peculiar features and some related aspects of near-death states with a focus on their relevance for future NDE research.

Abstract: Given the dearth of Muslim near-death experiences (NDEs) in the literature, I decided to take advantage of my contacts in the Muslim community to find more of this material. After advertising unsuccessfully in both traditional media and Internet groups, I recruited a student resident of Pakistan who had considerable contacts and help there to visit the area of a major earthquake in the Kashmir area in the hope that this would be a fertile terrain to find additional NDE accounts. Once again the results were disappointing. I conclude that NDEs are specifically designed for people who need them, and the need in certain communities may not be as great because of the persistence of traditional faith in an afterlife and a Creator.

Abstract: In Peter Novak's recent work (2003), he suggested the hypothesis that the human self is intrinsically bifurcated and separates into distinct components of consciousness at death. He referred to the near-death literature for evidence of this separation. His analysis of this literature implied that the after-death experience is not sequentially determined but is shaped simultaneously by different events corresponding to those components of consciousness. His proposal to reconcile those components addressed the need for self-integration at death. However, proponents of postmodernism question the singularity of self-identity and propose the multiplicity of self-experience. Their challenge to the belief in a wholly integrated self brings into question the therapeutic value of recognizing self-division in death. If the self lacks a foundation, then it is fruitless to seek an illusory level of integration. Rather, self-division in death points to a more astute understanding of the emptiness of the self.

Abstract: In the modern literature, the so-called 'vision of Er,' told by Plato, and the 'vision of Thespesius,' recorded by Plutarch, have sometimes been cited as examples of ancient near-death experiences (NDEs). However, in a recent study, classicist Jan Bremmer (2002) impugned this interpretation. In this article, I offer a fresh analysis of these two texts that challenges Bremmer's stance and that vindicates the similarity between the ancient reports and modern NDEs. The vision of Er emerges as the oldest known direct account of an NDE. I add to these cases Plutarch's description of the 'vision of Timarchus' as an example of an ancient NDE provoked by extreme isolation. Comparison of these reports of NDEs from antiquity with modern analogues suggests a few additional characteristic traits of NDEs.