DOCUMENT RESUME 
ED 276 088 
EA 018 213 
AUTHOR 
Oliver, James M.; And Others 
TITLE 
Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination System. 
Final Report. 
INSTITUTION 
Virgin Islands of the United States Dept. of 
Education, St. Thomas. 
SPONS AGENCY 
National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC. 
PUB DATE 
7 Nov 85 
GRANT 
NIE-G-78-0016 
NOTE 
96p. 
PUB TYPE 
Reports - Research/Technical (143) 
EDRS PRICE 
MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. 
DESCRIPTORS 
Communication Research; Communication Skills; 
Educational Change; *Educational Improvement; 
Educational Resources; Elementary Secondary 
Education; *Information Dissemination; *Information 
Networks; Information Services; Information Systems; 
Interaction; Management Development; *Professional 
Development; Program Development; Program 
Implementation; *Technical Assistance 
IDENTIFIERS 
*Linkage; *Virgin Islands; Virgin Islands Educational 
Dissemination System 
ABSTRACT 
This document reports on a 5-year project developed 
by the Department of Education of the U.S. Virgin Islands to create a 
useful information and technical assistance system for professional 
personnel to bring about educational change and growth. The project 
was based on the original Interstate Project in Dissemination model 
(with the exception that the territory consisted only of two school 
districts) and depended upon the development of (1) linking, (2) 
management, and (3) resources. Of these three components, linking 
proved to be the key to successful dissemination. Contents of the 
report include sections on the following topics: methods of 
procedures; impact; client responsiveness and satisfaction; 
significant learnings; outside agencies; the project's first year of 
institutionalization (1982-83); equity; summary of results to date; 
before and after National Institute of Education funding; and an 
evaluation of the 5-year project by Sam D. Sieber titled "Getting It 
Together." The main document contains six tables. Sieber's 
evaluation, which occupies the last half of the document, contains 16 
tables. An appendix includes client and nonclient questionnaires. 
(IW) 
VIRGIN ISLANDS EDUCATIONAL DISSEMINATION SYSTEM 
FINAL REPORT
Office of Federal Programs,
Dissemination and Special Project 
Activities 
Government of the Virgin Islandss of the UNited States
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER 
P.O. Box 6640, Charlotte Amalie 
St. Thomas. V.I. 00801 
November 7, 1985 
Ms. Lois E. Vaughan 
Contracts and Grants 
Management Division 
U.S. Department of Education (NIE) 
1200-19th Street, N.W. 
Room 822 
Washington, D.C. 20208 
RE: VIEDS ,#NIE-G-78-0016 
Dear Ms. Vaughan: 
The purpose of this letter is to transmit (12) 
twelve copies of the Virgin Islands Educational 
Dissemination System's Final Report, NIE-G-78-0016. 
On behalf of the educational community and the 
people of the Virgin Islands, I wish to take this 
opportunity to thank the National Institute of Education 
and its fine staff for the assistance and cooperation 
it has given us over the years.
Sincerely, 
Charles W. Turnbull, Ph.D. 
Commissioner of Education 
Final Report 
Project Number 7-0224 
Giant Number NIE-G 78-0016 
Virgin Islands Department of Education 
V.I. Dissemination System 
P. 0. Box 6640 
St. Thomas, V.I. 00801 
Charles W. Turnbull, Pr.D., Commissioner 
November 7, 1985 
The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a grant with 
the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. 
Contractors/Grantees undertaking such projects under government 
sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their professional 
judgement in the conduct of the project. Points of view or opinions 
stated do not, therefore, necessarily represent official National 
Institute of Education position or policy. 
Final Report 
Project Number 7-0224 
Grant Number NIE-G 78-0016 
V.I. DISSEMINATION CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT 
Office of Federal Programs 
and Dissemination System 
Prepared by: 
Mr. James M. Oliver, Director, Federal Programs 
(with assistance of Beverly Nieves, 
Patricia Murphy and Sam Sieber) 
Final Report 
Capacity Building Dissemination Project 
Virgin Islands Department of Education 
P. 0. Box 6640 
St. Thomas, V.I. 00801 
Project Number 
7-0224 
Grant Number: NIE-G 78-0016 
Period: April 1, 1978 to September 30, 1983 
Date of Submission : November 7, 1985 
Name of Agency: V.I. Department of Education 
Title of Project: V.I. Educational Dissemination System Project 
Project Director: James M. Oliver 
Assisted by Beverly Nieves, Patricia Murphy 
and Sam Sieber 
NIE Project Officer: Arch K. Steiner, Ph.D. 
Abstract 
The Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination System (VIEDS) 
was designed to improve education in the territory by providing 
information and technical assistance to professional personnel 
in order to bringabout positive changes and growth, Other persons 
who have legitimate interest in the educational community are 
also served. 
The project is based on the original Interstate Project in 
Dissemination (IPOD) model with the exception that the territory 
is small and consists only of two school districts. 
The usual 
state education structure becomes easier to manage since VIEDS' 
smallness is the key to its success. 
Management: The project is managed by the Virgin Islands 
Department of Education's Office of Federal Programs. This 
means part-time management, but it is effective since managerial 
requirements are small. 
The expertise of the Director of Federal 
Programs is brought to bear on all fiscal and reporting require-
ments. There is also direct linear contact with the Commissioner 
of Education's office, since the project falls under that agency. 
Linkage: 
This is highly successful in the territory because 
the linkers may visit all of the schools several times a semester 
and make direct one to one contact with clients. The building 
of credibility is an essential ingredient since word spreads and 
more clients seek out the linker for service. 
Resources: Because of its smallness, the project uses a 
double base: one in the states, the San Mateo Educational 
Resource Center (SMERC) for in-death, longer range searches and 
its own local data base for Immediate information responses. It 
becomes necessary to be tied to a large exterior information 
source since it would be impossible to create a large computerized 
data base on its own. 
VIEDS developed over a five year period in partnership with 
the National Institute of Education (NIE) starting in 1978. By 
1983, VIEDS was fully institutionalized and using its own funds 
to operate the project which is still growing. It is achieving 
its goals of creating change for growth through its services. 
There are measurable changes in the local school system as verified 
by our consultant and evaluatpr, Dr. Sam Sieber, See "Getting 
It Together." 
Table of Contents 
Page 
Abstract 
4 
Table of Contents 
5 
Introduction 
6 
A. 
Methods of Procedures 
9 
B. 
Impact 
13 
C. 
Client Responsiveness & Satisfaction 
23 
D. 
Significant Learnings 
40 
E. 
Outside Agencies 
44 
F. 
VIEDS' 1st Year of Institutionalization 1982-83 46 
G. 
Equity 
49 
H. 
Summary of Results to Date 
51 
I. 
Before and After NIE Funding 
52 
J. 
"Getting It Together" 
55 
An Evaluation of the Virgin Islands 
Educational Dissemination System (A Five 
Year Follow-Up) - Sam D. Sieber, Ph.D. 
Appendix 
89 
Introduction 
In 1977, the Department of Education of the U.S. Virgin 
Islands applied to the National Institute of Education for 
a Capacity Building Dissemination grant. This was awarded 
and thus began a liaison with several agencies that was 
to help develop a useful, usable information system that 
would have a very positive impact on education in the Ter-
ritory. Such an effect is difficult to evalute in the short 
term, since the complete ripple effect from the first in-
formation "pebble" takes a long time in being perceived 
and understood. The accumulation of ripples over a period 
of time would further complicate the perception. Be that 
as it may, the various evaluations that we have done along 
the way have given us very positive glimpses into the suc-
cessful functioning of the National Institute of Education 
Dissemination System. 
It is our experience that an information service fol-
lowing the Interstate Project on Dissemination (IPOD) model 
is only as good as its linker. A good linker can perform 
"miracles" even with a limited data base and or part-time 
management. A linker should be an experienced educator who 
has developed the necessary sensing mechanisms to diagnose 
problems from a mass of amorphous compliants. In other 
words, what might appear to be a casual conversation between 
a linker and a client is in reality a structured session 
from which flows problem identification and appropriate 
linkage with data and or other usable resources which can 
be brought to bear to help the client. These should include 
not only personal delivery and explanation of the informa-
tion, but professional follow-up as well. 
To us it has 
become apparent that of the three major units in an educa-
tional dissemination system, linking, management and 
resources, effective linkage is the key to success. 
Otherwise it would be a passive information service which 
a trained librarian could administer. 
The Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination System 
is an actual example of a functioning dissemination model. 
Even with a relatively weak local data base, physically 
small size, isolation, part-time management and limited 
financial resources, our project functions well because 
of highly professional and dedicated linkers who understand 
their role and have at their disposal both national data 
bases and a self-developed one. These concepts will be 
more clearly understood as the reader gets further into 
this document where they are explored more thoroughly. This 
type of "hands-on" one to one linking operates very well 
in our small community which has only two school districts 
and things are close to one another. 
If any general conclusions may be drawn from the Virgin 
Islands experience it is that to be successful in dissemina-
tion a school district must have a minimum of one good linker 
and supportive staff, which ideally would include an excellent 
secretary and a retrieval specialist other than management 
of course. There needs to be a locally developed data hase 
for limited immediate information response, but the system 
also requires access to at least one fully-developed national 
data base for more rounded information responses. Of course, 
like all conclusions, ours will be limited to school dis-
tricts and not state oriented dissemination programs, since 
the distances between schools and or districts can sometimes 
be enormous such as exist in some of our western states. 
Nevertheless, it is our contention, based on our experience, 
that the National Institution of Education's Dissemination 
Capacity Building Program has brought to the Virgin Islands 
the benefits that were visualized by the early resourchers 
in educational dissemination. Our system provides the latest 
scientific or practical information to the professional 
educator or other interested person for the improvement 
of education in the territory. Seen from another point 
of view, Virgin Islands Education Dissemination System is 
a formal, structured organization providing informal teacher 
training on a one to one basis to professionals who are 
receptive to such a situation or who have become receptive 
through contact with the linker or other aspects of our 
project. Thus we can see clearly the results of one of 
the ripple effects that we referred to earlier. 
We feel that the National Institute of Education's 
funds have been well spent resulting in very positive and 
observable changes in education in the territory. We would 
venture to suggest as well, that our experience could serve 
as the bases for a model for other small communities to 
follow if they wished to reap the benefits of an educational 
dissemination system. 
A. Methods of Procedures 
When the Virgin Islands Department of Education first 
discovered the concept of educational dissemination in 1976 
the IPOD group had completed its study and published its 
report. A number of Capacity Building Grants had been awarded 
by NIE and interest was building in other states to acquire 
funding for these purposes. It was then that the department 
decided to submit an application which was funded as of 
April 1978. 
Management: It was difficult for the department to 
find a suitable director in the territory and it was decided 
after long and fruitful negotiation with NIE to permit VIEDS 
to hire a highly qualified professor of educational research 
from our local college to be its first and part time director. 
Unfortunately, the director left in less than one year and 
VIEDS had to find new management. One must understand that 
a small population such as ours cannot provide all of the 
specialized talent we require. The decision was made to 
place VIEDS under the Office of Federal Programs of the 
Virgin Islands Department of Education. This, of course, 
continued our part time management design since the director 
of Federal Programs is a talented individual who can wear 
many hats and whose special emphasis on fiscal and reporto-
rial aspects of the project kept us in compliance with NIE's 
technical requirements. The director has almost daily direct 
contact with the Commissioner of Education and is therefore 
a facilitator as far as VIEDS is concerned for top level 
support. This is extremely important for the growth of 
the project because the Commissioner is personally informed 
on a regular basis of VIEDS activities and successes. It 
is thus that our manager epitomizes what all managers should 
be and that is a facilitator who permits, guides and encour-
ages his professional staff to achieve project goals and 
in this case brings about positive changes in the education 
system. 
Linkage: In the beginning VIEDS hired two highly profes-
sional linkers, one for each of the two school districts. 
Support staff was also hired for each district and VIEDS 
was off and running. The methodology employed by the linkers 
varied, but each approach was highly professional with appro-
priate positive results. 
The St. Thomas/St. John District: Here the linker built 
her clientele on a one to one bases building cradibility 
as she went. First the linker attended as many administra-
tive and faculty meetings as she could, always requesting 
time to make awareness presentations at those meetings. This 
would be followed up by direct personal contact with 
principals at which time the linker requested permission 
to visit the school. The first clients appeared in teachers' 
lounges. The informal nature of these contacts set the 
tone for future visits, since the linker was seen as a friend 
and colleague and not as a representative of the administra-
tion or a threat to the teacher who dared expose her profes-
sional weaknesses by requesting help. The assistance in 
the form of information packages and other technical aid 
became sought after once certain members of the faculty 
became aware that a free professional improvement service 
was available. Visits to schools became more regular as 
calendar programs were scheduled and the pending visits 
were announced in advance. The school library became another 
meeting place for linker and client. The linker also walked 
the halls and approached teachers who were in their rooms 
but without students present. Over the years the faculties 
of most of the schools have learned to use the service and 
much beneficial activity has resulted. The linker also 
directs her attention to non-teaching persons: school 
administrators, legislators, social workers, police, health 
personnel and community groups all of whom have legitimate 
need for information in liaisons with education. 
The St. Croix District: The linker here has proven 
that different approaches can also be fruitful. Her approach
was office oriented rather than field oriented. She did 
more work for administrators and used the telephone and 
librarians as sources for client requests. There was adequate 
response but the missing ingredient was the direct contact
with the classroom teacher and other clients. 
VIEDS' experience in linking indicates several steps 
for success: 
1. Awareness presentations
2. Creating readiness in prospective clients 
3. Actively seeking clients 
4. The interview 
5. The use of professionally developed sensing
mechanisms for determining the actual nature of 
the client's need 
6. Supplying assistance through the resource base 
(information, technical assistance, resource persons,
networking, etc.) 
7. Personal delivery of the aid package including 
mention of the nature of the aid and how it might 
be used
8. Follow up and evaluation 
It is clear to VIEDS that linking is the primary 
component in a dissemination project and that even with 
the best resource and management a project will fail without 
effective professional linkage. 
Resources: VIEDS' first director, because of his back-
ground in educational research, was able to establish our 
need for an off island data base and again, after long nego-
tiation with NIE we were permitted to contact for services 
from SMERC. This proved to be a successful if somewhat 
distant relationship. It took about two weeks for a search 
to arrive after the initial request, although that has varied 
over the years taking sometimes as long as four weeks. 
It was also understood that VIEDS would commence 
developing its own information base. This was done and 
over the years a small but very useful local resource has 
been developing which permits the linker to supply the client 
with an immediate response. It is our contention that because 
of our size it would be extremely costly and if not impossible 
to have a complete data base of our own. We feel now after 
all of ot.• experience that our approach works best for us 
and could be a model for small, isolated communities. We 
are, however, looking forward to the time when we will have 
the technical ability and sufficient funds to introduce 
computer terminals in our system in order to have direct 
access to the nations data bases. 
VIEDS has approached establishing its dissemination 
project as its needs dictated. Our use of part time manage-
ment, varied approaches to linking and our dual resource 
bases are reflections of special problems and our attempt 
to respond to these. Our methods might be considered somewhat 
unorthodox but our successful evaluations indicate we are 
working in the right direction. Our major goal is to bring 
about positive changes and growth in Virgin Islands education. 
We are achieving that goal. 
B. Impact 
The dissemination project has had a variety of impacts 
on a large segment of the educational system. 
Awareness, enlightenment. This function of dissemination 
systems has been cited by researchers as highly important, 
especially in isolated communities. Indeed, it has been 
considered an essential prerequisite to more active uses 
of information. The extent to which awareness building 
has occurred in the Virgin Islands is indicated by responses 
to one of the questions in our periodic evaluation surveys: 
"Please indicate the response below that most accurately 
describes the degree to which you have actually been able 
to use the information or materials that you received." After 
the first year of the project, 65 per cent of the clients 
indicated the response "the information helped me to keep 
aware of developments and activities in education," and 
in the fifth year 57 per cent gave the same response. The 
written response of an elementary school principal illustrates 
the impact of VIEDS in this respect: 
Your research provided me with a wealth of re-
search and literature and saved me hundreds 
of hours of work. 
My energy and time can now 
be put into the more practical aspects of my 
work. 
And an evaluation specialist in the Department underscored 
the problem of isolation: 
SMERC is a wonder, particularly since I always 
seem to want such obscure information. I've 
found that the available resources in the Virgin 
Islands are limited to general topics and are 
frequently not very useful for the types of 
information I need. Thanks again! 
Individual problem-solving. Many clients, of course, went 
beyond the stage of enlightenment and sought to solve some 
problem in their work. Several responses to our latest 
survey reflect this function: 
1 
Have been able to use the information to 
make minor 4 mprovement in a programs 
or practice 
34% 
The information helped me to conduct 
research or evaluation 
30% 
Have been able to use the information 
to actually initiate a new program 
or practice 
12% 
Have been able to use the information 
to make major improvements in a program 
or practice 
6% 
(135) 
Some typical responses follow: 
I made changes in the reward system of a behavior modi-
fication program that already exists. The information 
was shared with teachers interested in beginning a 
program of their own. 
We changed the scheduling of classes for the lunch 
program. This enabled us to have a smoother running 
program with more time for the students to eat. 
Used the information, gotten from the articles, to 
try and help a 6 year old child deal with his first 
experience where someone close to him had died. 
Capacity building. Another common form of impact entailed 
the use of information to develop plans and proposals for 
educational change. Here are some relevant statistics: 
Have been able to use the information 
to develop a plan to improve existing 
programs or practices 
38% 
Have been able to use the information to 
modify or alter an existing plan for 
improving programs or practices 
30% 
Have been able to use the information 
to write a position paper or other paper 
that could be used in practice in the
future 
27% 
(135) 
Use of the information system by top level staff and other 
policy makers suggests that most of these planning activities 
will come to fruition. Even the legislature was a frequent 
user in this respect. At a presentation to the Senate Educa-
tion Committee, for example, the linker was asked to supply 
information on how students could be put to work in school 
as a means of coping with destructive attitudes. The majority 
of the Senators planned to appropriate funds for such a 
project. 
A major undertaking by the Department of Education 
was planning for curriculum centers, and VIEDS was requested 
to conduct searches. The results were circulated and, largely 
on the basis of these searches, plans were drawn up for 
the future. In this case the linker herself was a member 
of the planning group. Another exemplary capacity build 
up effort was a needs assessment conducted b} VIEDS during 
the first year of its existence. This report was studied 
carefully by the Superintendent and his staff in developing 
plans for the system as a whole. 
Proposal writing was also a major reason for using 
VIEDS. 
Indeed, the VIEDS project director was personally 
involved in helping the department prepare several proposals. 
In one case, after a great deal of interaction with the 
NDN 
coordinator and the administrative staff of a junior 
high school, an Alternative Education Program application 
was developed and submitted requesting $750,000 for LEA 
funding over a three year period. The proposal was even-
tually approved and the program was implemented. 
Examples of capacity building efforts that were sup-
ported significantly by VIEDS are too many to mention, but 
one further case deserves notice. VIEDS was very active 
in supplying the latest research in bilingual studies, bi-
lingual teaching techniques and educational models for the 
St. Croix community in its preparation of a proposal for 
training centers. In fact, the linker on that island played 
a leadership role in preparing such plans in cooperation 
with other staff. 
A special type of capacity building concerns the dis-
semination and utilization of knowledge, and here again 
VIEDS took several significant steps. In the first place, 
whenever the VIEDS staff played a leading role in develop-
ing plans in each case use of external information was insti-
tutionalized in the planning and implementation process. 
For example, because our St. Croix linker served on the 
planning committee for the curriculum center, dissemination 
activities became an integral part of the new center. In 
addition, schools and offices have been helped to develop 
their own collections of microfiche and other educational 
documents. Thus, the head of the math department at one 
junior high school has collected approximately fifty titles 
in math and computer education in his office. These are 
available along with microfiche readers and computers for 
all math teachers at this school. Further, depositories 
of 'microfiche on specialized areas in bilingual education 
have been set up by the foreign language supervisor, the 
bilingual psychologist at the diagnostic conter, and the 
coordinator of the Caribbean Bilingual Education Center. 
In addition, VIEDS has been able to copy and store informa-
tion in its own offices. At present we hold over 7,000 
documents, which has made it possible to provide in-house 
information in twenty-four hours or less. (In the past 
year, in-house searches increased 300%. A special section 
of our latest evaluation report compared in-house and SMERC 
searches, and found that the only difference was in the 
greater satisfaction with the turnaround time for in-house 
searches.) Finally, it should be noted that several libra-
rians have started microfiche files based on VIEDS' searches. 
All such files, incidentally, include an increasing number 
of local resources that have been placed on microfiche by 
SMERC, including the Virgin Islands Career Education State 
Plan, the Unified Mathematics Curriculum for the Virgin 
Islands K-12, Summer School in the Virgin Islands -- A Needs 
Assessment, and papers regarding the Virgin Islands from 
the 7th Annual Caribbean Studies Association Conference. 
In addition, VIEDS has collected and mimeographed locally 
written materials (by teachers and their classes) such as 
plays and poems on local holidays and favorite heroes. 
In-service education. Another important arena of impact 
has been in-service education. Thus, VIEDS identified a 
need to improve school scheduling on the secondary level 
and referred the problem to the district superintendent, 
who authorized the linker to develop workshops and coordinate 
future planning. The linker contacted the Appalachia Educa-
tional Lab and asked them to design workshops to fit Dur 
needs. 
In the fall of 1981 VIEDS offered these workshops 
in conjunction with staff from AEL. They were well attended 
by administrators, registrars, and guidance counsellors, 
and several schools began experimenting with computerized 
scheduling in 1982. Principals and teachers began talking 
about other uses for computers in the schools, and more 
staff training was planned. As a result of these activities, 
more than 50 computers were made available in the public 
schools and computerized scheduling will soon become routine. 
The linker in St. Croix has conducted a workshop on 
bilingual education and has taught a graduate summer course 
at the College of the Virgin Islands for staff members con-
cerned with bilingual education. She has also acted as 
liaison between World University in Puerto Rico and the 
Virgin Islands Department of Education in developing a pro-
gram for sensitizing adminsitrators to the problems and 
scope of bilingual education in a multicultural society. 
Her in-service activities in this field have been invaluable. 
Many other examples of support or leadership for in-
service programs could be cited, since the linkers make 
special efforts to address the participants on the value 
of external information and regularly offer their services 
to the workshop leaders during the planning stage. And 
it is worth noting that 23 per cent of VIEDS clients in 
the past year indicated that they had used the information 
in their own course work. 
Networking. VIEDS has played an important role in creating 
linkages between people, programs, and resources. This 
role has been evident in the frequent sharing of informa-
tion among clients, the stimulation of mutual assistance 
among personnel, and the creation of better working rela-
tionships between the two islands and between school building 
and district levels, and the forging of special relation-
ships with stateside labs and other external agencies, other 
local agencies and educational programs, and other Caribbean 
islands. 
With respect to sharing of information, 41 per cent 
of VIEDS' clients this year indicated in our evaluation 
survey that they were "able to provide the information to 
others who needed it." And when we asked if the client 
talked about the information or shared it with anyone, 75 
per cent replied in the affirmative. And when asked approxi-
mately how many persons they shared it with, the average 
number per client was 7.5 persons.
Sharing of information has also occurred in a more 
organized context, of course, as shown by the workshops 
that VIEDS has stimulated or participated in. Bringing
staff members together for mutual assistance has been another 
major form of networking. For example, a teacher of reading 
on the high school level was asked, for their teachers'
day, to conduct a workshop on reading in the areas of math. 
The linker brought her together with the math supervisor 
at SAFA who had already ordered information from VIEDS.
Consequently, a successful workshop was held at the island's 
largest high school. In another case, as mentioned earlier, 
the linker brought together persons interested in improving 
their school scheduling process, which led to computerized 
scheduling workshops and the adoption of computerized sched-
uling. Other examples of networking have already been men-
tioned in connection with bilingual education workshops, 
development of curriculum centers, and preparation of pro-
posals for federal funding. All of these efforts entailed 
the integration of resources, personnel, and information 
from a variety of sources. 
A special effort has been made to serve other federal 
programs in the Department. Thus, searches are frequently 
conducted for the local NDN project, and many follow-up 
requests are made by teachers as a result. Further, per-
sonnel of ESAA, SAFA, ESEA Title I and Title IV projects 
have been heavy users of our services. And when federal 
funds were made available through Title VI for the purchase 
of hardware for innovative programs in reading and math, 
the linker brought the message to the schools and encouraged 
them to participate in the competition. In addition to 
improving ties with such projects, VIEDS personnel have 
participated in a variety of local committees, conferences, 
and workshops, and have travelled to the States to establish 
closer relationships with R & D agencies, including NIE. 
One of the linkers participated in the Youth Planning Com-
mittee which brought together a number of agencies to deal 
with problems confronting VI youth. The same linker also 
attended a conference at the College on West Indian Literary 
Criticism and appealed to the participants to submit their 
papers to VIEDS for dissemination, while another linker 
presented a paper entitled "The Education Dissemination 
Model: Toward a Solution to Fragmentation" at a conference 
of the Caribbean Studies Association. Through this and 
other efforts, closer ties have been established with other 
Caribbean islands, and especially with Puerto Rico (as de-
scribed earlier). 
Finally, VIEDS has become increasingly active in 
referring personnel to others with special skills or interests 
in the educational system. Thus, a human resource file 
has gradually taken shape. Geography teachers have been 
brought together, an art teacher who individualized her 
crafts lessons was put in touch with a young principal who 
is adept at finding grant money, a high school teacher and 
her troupe of young dancers was persuaded to give a dance 
and storytelling performance at an elemmentary school, and 
so on. Examples of this sort could be multiplied many times. 
Overall use. Finally, our recent survey of clients revealed 
that the great majority used the information in some way. 
When asked about the specific uses of the information and 
given a check-list for response, only 7 per cent of the 
clients said that they "have not been able to use it at 
all." The free-answer responses of the clients to another 
question that asked them to describe their specific uses 
confirms this high level of impact. 
C. Client Responsiveness and Satisfaction 
Three surveys have been conducted to measure the 
responsiveness and satisfaction of educational personnel
with the project's services. The first survey collected 
base line data on information use before the project be-
gan; the second was conducted with reference to the first 
year of the project (1978-79); and the third survey was
conducted among clients and non-clients in 1983. The 
purposes of the surveys of clients were to measure satis-
faction with various aspects of the service (information 
quality, linker performance, turnaround time, etc.), to 
identify specific ways in which the information had been 
used and the extent of such use, to learn about the char-
acteristics of clients who were being served more or less 
satisfactorily, and to elicit suggestions for improving 
the service. Since many of the same questions were asked 
in successive surveys, we were able to measure changes 
in clients' perceptions over a five year period. (for 
a description of research methodology and complete results, 
see Knowledge for What? -- An Evaluation of an Educational 
Dissemination System (January, 1981), and Getting It To-
gether -- An Evaluation of the Virgin Islands Educational 
Dissemination System (A Five Year Follow-Up), (October, 
1983). 
The same questions (with one minor exception) about 
satisfaction with information and personal assistance 
were asked of a sample of all educational personnel be-
fore VIEDS, of clients after one year of VIEDS, and in 
the recent survey of both clients and non-clients. These 
questions were: 
Information about educational practices or ideas 
comes from many sources, including journals, books, per-
sonnel in your school or district, workshops, curriculum 
guides, etc. 
A. During this school year, how adequate was the 
availability of 
Information Personal assistance 
(check one) 
(check one) 
Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none this year 
B. In general, how would you rate the usefulness 
of the information and personal assistance that 
you acquired in this school year? 
(SAME CATEGORIES AS ABOVE) 
First, it is worth noting the proportion of clients 
and non-clients in the most recent school year who said 
that they had "had none this year" in reply to both of 
the above questions. With regard to availability of in-
formation, none of the clients gave this response, com-
pared with 12 percent of the non-clients; and with regard 
to availability of assistance, 4 percent of the clients 
gave this response, compared with 17 percent of the non-
clients. Clearly, non-clients were not as likely to receive 
information or personal assistance as the clients of 
VIEDS. (See Table 1). 
With regard to usefulness of information and personal 
assistance, the differences between clients and non-clients 
are even larger. Only 2 percent of the clients said they 
had not received any useful information, compared with 
19 percent of the non-clients; and only 5 percent of the 
clients said they had not received any useful assistance, 
compared with 23 percent of the non-clients. Thus, in 
TABLE I 
Proporsions of Clients and Non„Clients Who Did Not 
Receive Any Information or Assistance During 1982-83 
received nono 
 
Clients 
Non—clients 
Availability of 
information 
 
 
(139) 
12% 
(77) 
 
assistance 
 
4% 
(124) 
17% 
(70) 
Usefulness of 
information 
2% 
(133) 
19% 
(73) 
assistance 
5% 
(116) 
230
(57) 
the absence of V1EDS, one might assume that about one-
fifth of the Department's personnel would be without useful 
information or assistance; while in the presence of VIEDS, 
this is almost never the case among clients. 
Moreover, the information and assistance that is 
received by non-clients is valued much less than that 
received by clients. Table 2 presents the relevant figures, 
including the responses of educational personnel before 
the implementation of VIEDS and after one year. The per-
centage of personnel who felt that availability of infor-
mation was "very adequate" has increased markedly: 3 per-
cent before the project, 34 percent the first year, and 
50 percent in the most recent year. In contrast, among 
non-clients in the most recent year only 22 percent gave 
this response. 
It is noteworthy, however, that even non-clients 
in 1982-83 were more highly satisfied with availability 
of information than were personnel before the project 
was implemented. 
Closer inspection of our data reveals 
that this is mainly due to the responses of those non-
clients in 1982-83 who had formerly been clients. These 
former clients were a good deal more likely to say that 
availability of information had been "very adequate" than 
were persons who had never been clients. This result 
suggests that former clients had developed a capacity 
for knowledge utilization as a result of their involve-
ment with VIEDS that endured beyond that initial involve-
ment. And indeed, a larger proportion of former clients 
than of never clients (25% vs 5%) reported in another 
part of our questionnaire that they had received information 
from VIEDS indirectly in the current year. In sum, the 
large minority of non-clients who were highly satisfied 
with availability of information owed their satisfaction 
to VIEDS despite their not being direct recipients of 
the service in 1982-83. 
TABLE II 
Satisfaction of Clients Before Project, One Year 
Later, and Five Years Later with Availability 
of Information and Assistance 
Before project 
1978-79 
Availability of information 
1982-83
Clients Non-
clients 
Very adequate 
3% 
34% 
50% 
22;1 
(725) 
(205) 
(139) (68) 
Availability-of-aszistance
Very adequate 
43% 
(185) 
Clients 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
55 ó 
26 
(119) (58) 
'78-79 
82-83 118-79 '82-83 
Availability of information 
Very adequate 
36% 
56% 
36% 
49% 
(116) 
(70) (66) (37) 
Availability of Assistance
Very adequate 
43% 
641 491 
41 
(106) 
(61) (59) (32) 
* Not asked in survey 
before project.
With regard to satisfaction with the availability 
of personal assistance, here we find that a lesser improve-
ment occurred over the past few years. In the first year 
of the project 43 percent indicated that availability 
of assistance was "very adequate," and in 1982-83 55 per-
cent gave the same response. The improvement is signifi-
cant, but not as strong as in the case of information 
per se. However, these figures mask a major difference 
between the two districts. In St. Croix, favorable judg-
ments of assistance slightly declined, while in St. Thomas 
was a marked increase. All of the data referred to can 
be found in Table 2. And here we confront a difference 
in linker styles between the two islands. (Clients of 
persons who were assisting the full-time linker in St. 
Thomas are removed from this comparison between islands 
so that the two experienced linkers may be compared more 
sharply.) As can be seen, 64 percent in St.Thomas felt 
that availability of assistance was "very adequate" com-
pared with 41 percent in St. Croix in 1982-83. One linker 
increased her availability to a pronounced degree while 
the other decreased it slightly. 
Thus far we have been discussing sheer availability 
of information and personal assistance. When we turn 
to the usefulness of these two types of resources, we 
find a similar trend of improvement over the past five 
years, as shown in Table 3. And once again, we also find 
that ratings of assistance declined in St. Croix, but 
increased significantly in St. Thomas, between the first 
and most recent year of the project. Usefulness of infor-
mation remained fairly constant in both districts, as 
measured by this question. Further, non-clients were 
not significantly more satisfied with usefulness of infor-
mation in 1982-83 than were personnel before the project 
commended. However, these findings should not distract 
our attention from the important point that clients of 
 
TABLE III 
Satisfaction of Clients Before Project, One Year 
Later, and Five Years Later with Usefulness 
of Information and Assistance 
Before project 
1978-79 
1982-83 
Clients Non-
Usefulness of information 
clients 
Very adequate 
15% 
(681) 
401 
(202~ 
441 
(131) 
19% 
(59) 
Usefulness of assistance
Very adequate 
44% 
(183) 
56 
(110) 
3o 
(44) 
Clients 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix
School year: 
'78-79 
'82-83 
178-79 
'82-83 
Usefulness of information 
'Very adequate 
41~ 
(112~ 
49% 
(70) 
37% 
(67) • 
38% 
(34) 
Usefulness of assistance 
Very adequate 
45% 
(103) 
59% 
(58) 
45% 
(6o) 
38% 
(31) 
the service in the most recent year were far more likely 
than non-clients to say that information was very useful 
(44% vs 19%) . 
Responses to another question reveal a much greater 
trend in favor of usefulness over the past few years. 
Clients in 1978-79 and 1982-83 were asked: 
How about the practical value of the information 
as a whole (abstracts, articles, packages, micro-
fiche, etc.)? 
 
Very useful  
Moderately useful 
 
Only slightly  
Not useful 
useful • 
In the first year of the project, 44 percent said 
that it was "very useful," but a few years later 64 per-
cent gave the same response. Here once again we detect 
a marked improvement in the service. Further, virtually 
the same level of improvement occurred in both districts. 
One final overall question that bears on personal 
assistance remains to be discussed. Clients and non-clients 
in 1982-83 were asked whether they desired more help with 
implementation: 
In general, do you feel that you need more personal 
help in implementing new ideas or practices in 
your work, less help, or about the same amount 
of help as you have been receiving? 
More help 
Less help 
About the same 
Table 3 presents the responses to this question among 
clients and non-clients. 
While more than half of the 
non-clients asserted that they needed more help with imple-
mentation, only a third of .VIEDS' clients gave this re-
sponse. About three-fourths of the latter felt that as-
sistance should remain about the same. These data attest 
TABLE IV 
Proportign of Clients and Non—clients in 1982-83 Who Said 
They Needed dove Help, Less Help, or the Same 
Help with Implementation 
Clients 
Non—clients 
More help 
Less help 
Same amount 
28% 
8 
64 
53% 
1 
46 
100% 
100% 
 
(91) 
(74) 
to the contribution that VIEDS' 
personnel have made to 
the actual implementation of new practices and ideas in 
addition to the provision of information. (The same mag-
nitude of difference between clients and non-clients oc-
curred on both islands.) 
To summarize: We have seen that the clients of VIEDS 
are much more likely to receive useful information about 
new ideas and practices than non-clients. Moreover, the 
information that is received by non-clients is not valued 
as highly as that received by clients, which testifies 
to the superiority of a national data bank with an efficient 
retrieval capacity over conventional methods of dissemina-
tion. Further, since VIEDS' clients were also much more 
often satisfied with personal assistance, it is obvious 
that the work of the local linkers is also quite valuable. 
And improvemènt has been very marked in these respects 
since the inception of the project. We have also noted 
that former clients keep in touch with the project indi-
rectly, and are therefore better served than personnel 
who have never been clients. This indicates that exposure 
to the project is not a hit and run experience for clients. 
Apparently, their own c4pacity for information use inde-
pendently of direct involvement with linkers has been 
enhanced. And the greater involvement of opinion leaders 
among VIEDS' clients suggest^ that information and assist-
ance will radiate throughout the system. That this is 
indeed taking place is indicated by the large number of 
secondary recipients reported to us by the primary clients 
of VIEDS. 
If these generalizations are reliable, then we should 
find that both clients and non-clients of VIEDS 
would 
welcome the opportunity for continued assistance from 
the project. And this is indeed the case, as signified 
by the responses to the following question: 
Would you like to be contacted by us in the near 
future for assitance in acquiring information 
on a particular topic or problem related to your 
work? 
Yes 
No 
Seventy-seven percent of the clients and 78 percent 
of the non-clients responded affirmatively to this ques-
tion. Since this question bears on a real desire to re-
ceive information on a concrete, personal topic or pro-
blem, it is probably more reflective of a genuine need 
for the service than some of the broader questions referred 
to earlier. In short, it is evident that more than three 
quarters of educational personnel 'are anxious to avail 
themselves of'VIEDS' services "in the near future." 
Satisfaction with particular aspects of the services 
Turnaround time. Owing to the isolation of the Virgin 
Islands and the sluggishness of the postal system, a 
critical question is the amount of time that is required 
to obtain resources from the states. As mentioned earlier, 
the linker in St. Thomas has set up her own data bank 
comprising previous SMERC information, and in the past 
year she and an assistant made extensive use of this 
localized source. Thus, it becomes important to see if 
satisfaction with turnaround time was enhanced as a result 
of this activity. That this was indeed the case can be 
seen in the responses to the following question: 
With regard to your needs, was the amount of 
time it took to receive the information: 
Too long 
A reasonable length of time 
Sooner than expected 
 
In 1978-79 19 percent said "sooner than expected." 
In 1982-83, of those who received information from the 
retrieval agency in the states, 37 percent gave this re-
sponse; and of those who received information from our 
local data bank, 67 percent so responded. Clearly, there 
is greater satisfaction than previously, and expecially 
if the local resource files were utilized. 
In terms of actual time spent in retrieving informa-
tion, clients who were served by the stateside agency 
waited 5.4 weeks on average, while those who were served 
by local files waited only a few days. It is not surpris-
ing that the latter would feel that the information was 
provided 'sooner than expected," therefore. Later we 
shall see if this method of retrieval was more or less 
likely to have impact than reliance on the stateside agency, 
and more or less likely to be favorably evaluated for 
its content. 
Before leaving the matter of turnaround time, it 
is informative to note that almost all requests for infor-
mation were classified as "somewhat" urgent (as opposed 
to "very" or "not" urgent) on the information request 
forms. Thus, clients are generally perceived as needing 
information in as short a time as possible -- although 
this notational habit might also be due to the linkers' 
fear that a "not urgent" request would be ignored by the 
retrieval agency. 
Characteristics of the information. Since clients on 
the whole are satisfied with turnaround time, other aspects 
are perhaps more important. A very critical aspect of 
the service concerns the characteristics of the information 
itself. The clients were asked to indicate their judgment 
of the information supplied to them with respect to seven 
attributes: relevance, comprehensiveness, newness, useful-
ness without further information or help, understandability, 
guidance provided, and ease of implementation in their 
setting. (See question 8 in the appendix.) Table 4 shows 
the proportion of clients in 1978-79 and in 1982-83 who
gave a score of 1 or 2 to each dimension on a scale of 
7 points, thereby indicating a high degree of satisfaction. 
And we see little change in the rank order from one period 
to the next, with the exceptions of relevance and usability
without any additional resources. Both of these attri-
butes were scored higher than a few years ago. Autonomous 
usability made an especially strong showing, moving from 
next to last in rank order to next to first; and this
shift occurred in the case of both linkers. (Relevance 
improved only with respect to St. Croix.) This improve-
ment suggests that the linkers became more skilled in 
acquiring information that would "stand alone." 
Characteristics of linkers' performance. The clients 
in 1978-79 and 1982-83 were asked to rate the linkers 
according to• four scales: initial understanding of the 
problem or need, helpfulness in interpreting the materials 
or information, helpfulness in using the information, 
and availability when needed. Table 5 shows the proportion 
of clients in each of two periods who rated the linkers 
"excellent" on a five point scale ranging from "excellent" 
to "poor", the proportion who gave other ratings, and 
the proportion who said that this aspect of the linkers' 
role "did not occur." The only notable difference between 
the two periods is that a smaller proportion said that 
helping use the information did not occur and a larger 
proportion rated the linkers excellent on this dimension. 
Thus, it appears that helping the client to implement 
a new practice or idea was a more prominent feature of 
the linkers' role in the more recent period. But this 
change applies to only a single linker -- the linker in 
St. Thomas, whose "did not occur" rating dropped from 
30 percent in 1978-79 to 2 percent in 1982-83. Ratings 
of the other linker actually moved in the opposite 
direction: from 37 percent saying that help in using 
information did not occur in 1978-79 to 44 percent 
responding in this 
TABLE V 
Clients' Evaluations of Various Features of the 
Information in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
$ highly favorable 
(1,2 on scale 1-7) 
1978-
1982-
 
1979 
1983 
Easily understood, no difficulty 
 
with language or ideas 
78% 
(205) 
79% 
(114) 
 
Very comprehensive in coverage 
45% 
(205) 
48a 
(~~4) 
Highly relevant to my need or request 45% 
(205) 
Provided guidance for implementa— 
  
tion or use 
41% 
48% 
(199) 
(114) 
Would be easy to implement or use 
in ray school or agency 
40% 
42% 
(196) 
(1141 
Could be used or applied without  
additional information or help 
38% 
(202) 
56% 
(115) 
Very new to me n 
 
quite enlightening 
27% 
(205) 
30% 
(115) 
* Bases of percent9ges vary owing to variation in number 
of respondents who answered each scale. 
fashion in 1982-83. Once again, therefore, we detect 
a divergence in the styles of the two linkers. This find-
ing is consistent with our earlier observation that favor-
able judgments of assistance actually declined in St. 
Croix, while the St. Thomas linker elicited a much higher 
level of approval than before. 
These contrasting trends in the two islands may be 
due to the reduced time commitment of the St. Croix linker 
together with her tendency to focus on district level 
administrators who were involved in writing planning papers. 
This focus of attention would reduce the need for personal 
assistance on the linker's part. And indeed, we have 
seen that the single largest percentage increase in positive 
attitudes towards the information occurred in St. Croix 
with respect to "could be used or applied without additional 
information o'r help." Further, when asked about the need 
for more, less, or the same amount of help with implemen-
tation, as many as 18 percent of the Crucian clients said 
less help compared with only 3 percent of the St. Thomian 
clients. In short, the amount of help that the linkers 
gave in each district seems to have been an accommodation 
to their respective clients, which in turn, of course, 
was influenced by the linkers' own decisions about which 
clients she wished to serve. 
Similar, although less pronounced, differences occur 
between the two linkers with regard to "helpfulness in 
interpreting the materials or information received," and 
"availability when needed." The Crucian linker elicited 
a much higher percentage of "did not occur" responses 
than the St. Thomian linker, and especially with regard 
to "availability." Twenty-nine percent of the Crucian 
clients in 1982-83 indicated that availability "did not 
occur," compared with only 2 percent of the St. Thomian 
clients. And this difference is largely due to a decline 
in availability of the Crucian linker between 1978-79 
and 1982-83. As mentioned earlier, this is no doubt 
TABLE VI 
Clients' Evaluations of Various Features of the
Linker's Rolo in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
1978-79 1982-83 
Initial understanding of your
problem or need 
Excellent 
68% 
67% 
Other response 
32 
31 
Did not occur 
* 
2 
1007, 
Ó
l0 
(212) 
(117) *
Availability tirhen needed 
Excellent 
54% 
56% 
Other response 
38 
35 
Did not occur 
8 
9 
100 7 
lÓ0 
(202) 
(110) 
Helpfulness in interpreting the 
materials or information received 
Excellent 
47% 
47
Other response 
28 
33 
Did not occur 
.20 
Helpfulness in using the information  
(204) 
(108)
• 
Excellent 
3Oó 
43%
Other response 
34 
37 
Did not occur 
36 
20 
lÓ0 
 
l0 
 
(198) 
(97) 
* Bases of percents vary because of variations in replies. 
** Less than 1%. 
owing to the reduction of time spent by the Crucian linker 
on dissemination as a result of her increasing commitment 
to other professional endeavors. In sum, one linker moved 
in the direction of being more available for help with 
implementation, while the other moved in exactly the 
opposite direction. 
It should be noted, however, that when the Crucian 
linker did offer these services, she was rated as highly 
as the St. Thomian linker, with one exception: "initial 
understanding of your problem or need." While 85 percent 
of the St. Thomian clients rated the linker excellent 
on this dimension, 58 percent of the Crucian clients gave 
their linker this rating. Further, this approval rate 
increased over time for the St. Thomian linker but decreased 
for the Crucian linker. And this shift is confirmed by 
data on the extent to which the linkers reported they 
assisted the clients in developing the statement of the 
problem or need (as indicated on the Information Request 
Form). As shown in Table 12, 51 percent of the clients 
in St. Thomas were helped "extensively," while none of 
the clients in St. Croix received this amount of help. 
This notable difference is a function of different types 
of clients as well as different role definitions in the 
two districts, as mentioned earlier. 
D. Significant Learnings 
From the beginning, the St. Thomas/St. John school 
district linker/supervisor has used the IFOD dissemination 
model: going into the field, discovering needs, delivering 
the latest research findings in education and showing clients 
how to use this material. We have learned that an experienced 
linker working in the field develops sensing mechanisms which 
often permit her to identify the nature of a client's problems 
even before the client is able to ascertain them. We have 
made it a practice to see at first hand what are the needs 
of educators by visiting the schools and establishing cred-
ibility for VIEDS. By appearing to. be a helper, and not 
a person in a supervisory capacity (electing to be on a 
first name basis), the linker is better able to establish 
non-threatening relationships with administrators and teachers 
wherever they are: the lunch room, lounge, office, library 
or unused classroom. Except for protocol, when the linker 
visits the principal first, she is separated from the admin-
istration in the eyes of the teachers. This disassociation 
is important since a teacher might be otherwise reluctant 
to expose weakness or inexperience to an authority figure. 
Affording privacy, and providing reliable and useful help 
are among our main goals in the dissemination process. 
The negotiation session has proven to be the most fruit-
ful step for the client and linker. It affords the time 
when the linker is able to help the client sort out his 
own thinking, give reassurance, and allow him to talk about 
what he is doing in the classroom or office. The client 
feels unthreatened by a person who is not going to rate 
or criticize him. It is during this session that the linker 
suggests the kinds of information which can prove invaluable, 
whether it consists of curriculum guides, teaching techniques, 
special projects, latest research in a specific area and 
so forth. It also gives the linker the opportunity to sug-
gest assistance from people in the community who have similar 
interests and/or concerns. This person-to-person linking 
has been successful. An example of this is a recent linkage 
by the disseminator of various groups heretofore unknown 
to one another in the community, all working on an effort 
to curb teen-age pregnancy. Another example of this kind. 
of linkage was for kindergarten teachers of various schools 
to phone one another to see how each was managing highly-
struct-'red programs. The linker acted as mediator between 
the two program persons in getting relief for the 
over-burdened and harried teachers. 
Delivering searches, personally, offers yet another 
opportunity for the linker to work with the client. 
Th.' 
client's problems are reviewed and the linker can then 
motivate and encourage him to read the information (both 
microfiche and hard copy) and apply the data to his situation. 
Subsequent follow-up is essential because it gives the linker 
another opportunity to reinforce, support and suggest sharing 
the material with others. The client is asked again, if 
he needs further information and/or linkage. 
Because we are a small island, information is sometimes 
unavailable, unreliable or difficult to get. Mail delivery 
is slow. We cannot simply hop into a car and drive to a 
university library. Going abroad to seek higher degrees 
or training is costly and sometimes creates a hardship for 
a teacher who mignt have to leave her family behind. Real-
izing this, VIEDS has instituted a file of the most popular 
searches that have been requested. Over the five years, 
we have developed it to the point where we can furnish some 
requested information in less than twenty-four hours. Be-
cause we have asked that microfiche supplied by SMERC or 
,VIEDS be returned when they are no longer required, we are 
able to recirculate the fiche and enhance the hard-copy 
in-house searches. Through the years, we have collected 
and filed articles from current educational journals and 
periodicals which are the basis of our data bank. 
However, this does not mean that a small island or 
rural area like ours can hope to build a large enough prac-
tice file to meet all of its information needs, nor can 
it easily go on-line to an outside base since by its physical 
isolation it is poor in technical resources. When machines 
break down, there are few if any persons to repair them, 
or keep them maintained. We believe that an area like the 
Virgin Islands is best served by being associated with an 
all-service information data bank like SMERC which has proven 
to be efficient, reliable and sensitive to the needs of 
our educators, as well as by developing as large a local 
base as possible. This kind of organization permits the 
linker to be in the field, linking, which is the most 
important function of an educational dissemination system, 
freeing her from the headaches and disappointments of 
break-downs in the flow of information to clients. 
Over the five years we learned that there is a great 
need for current', useful information properly presented, 
and that good linking is akin to teacher training in that 
it enables clients to grow professionally without insurmount-
able obstacles. 
E. Outside Agencies 
During the second year of VIEDS the two linkers, on 
the advice of NIE, visited the Appalachia Education Labora-
tory in West Virginia. It was felt that the lab served 
communities not unlike the Virgin Islands. The visit re-
sulted in establishing a good relationship which we have 
kept up over the years. We brought back helpful career 
education materials and learned about the outreach programs 
in parenting. These models have been useful in working 
with groups interested in such programs here. In addition, 
AEL and VIEDS set up workshops in school scheduling on both 
St. Thomas and St. Croix. Now, after much study and team 
work, two pilot junior high schools on St. Thomas have suc-
cessfully used the computer programs for scheduling fall 
classes and teacher assignments. We continue to receive 
AEL's linking news and are looking forward .to turning to 
them once again in our RDU effort at one of the pilot schools, 
this time it will probably be in the area of parent/teacher 
communication. 
We have also gotten RDU initial training from the Net-
work in Andover, Massachusetts and hope, after funds are 
made available, to receive additional training. Northwest 
Laboratory has been very generous with their materials on 
computer education and software evaluation. We are in cor-
respondence with them. Our relations with our local NDN 
person are very good, as well. VIEDS supplies much research 
material to her before she begins any program, and she, 
in turn, acts as linker and liaison when our clients need 
help which NDN programs can serve. She nas been especially 
successful in implementing the Prevention of Early Child-
hood Failure, and we work together in trying to trouble-shoot 
in that area. 
F_ VIEDS IST YEAR OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION 1932-1983_ 
We have completed the institutionalization of VIEDS 
as a result of the consolidation of federal grants under 
Title V. P.L. 95-134, Omnibus Territories Act. 
In addition, we have further coordinated the dissemina-
tion components of existing federal and local programs through 
the coordination of efforts and the networking of funding. 
VIEDS has further improved communications and relations
with other agencies such as local public health and public 
safety, processing their information for our clients and 
disseminating our stateside data to them for their outpatients
and clients. 
For a short period, we were able to obtain the services 
of a full time linker/retrieval specialist to enhance our
field services and to bring greater efficiency to the opera-
tion or our in-house data bank. This support staff effort 
had to end because of monetary difficulties.
We continued to further develop networking of people 
and agencies with information sources for the improvement 
of education. Highlights of this effort were in the area 
of school accreditation. VIEDS supplied many model curricu-
lum guides for departments of secondary schools and other 
literature pertinent to school improvement in addition the 
linker brought principals and teachers, librarians together 
to discuss common problems. To date two secondary schools 
in the district of St. Thomas/St. John have been accredited 
by the Middle States Association for ten years. 
The linker's role as support personnel continues for 
major change projects in the area of use of computers in 
school administration and instruction, once again bringing 
personnel of various schools together to gain technical 
assistance. A highlight of this is the workshop arranged 
by VIEDS and given in the fall term by an original partici-
pant of the AEL workshop in school scheduling to interested 
persons in another school who wished to adopt the system. 
The human resource file continues to grow and is fre-
quently tapped by, the linker in bringing various persons 
together who have common goals. An example is supporting 
community groups who share the growing concern for teaching 
sex education in the schools, and disseminating information 
about venereal disease and teen-age pregnancy to these groups. 
VIEDS has subscribed to certain publications which 
are unavailable in the islands and which have proven indis-
pensable to teachers, especially in the field of computer 
aided instruction. 
Finally, we have increased our ability at very little 
extra expense to provide more current information to our 
client through the use of in-house searches. 
The year 1982-83 saw the beginning of an RDU effort 
in the Virgin Islands. In the fall of 1982 Y'IEDS received 
partial training from the Network, Andover, Mass. 
In the 
spring the St. Thomas/St. John linker received support from 
a junior high school principal to start a pilot project 
at the Addelita Cancryn Jr. High School. An orientation 
meeting was held for administrators and guidance counsellors. 
Plans were made to form a task force composed of administra-
tors, teachers and parents. That task force is now a reality 
and their work is in progress with the linker acting as 
liaison and data provider. 
While the number of stateside acquired searches (from 
SMERC) remains at 500, VIEDS has been'able to increase 
the St. Thomas/St. John volume. In 1980-81, 25 in-house 
searches were done. In 1981-1982, 38 were done. But in 
1982-83, 220 were completed. This dramatic increase was 
due to the extra support staff and the increase of data 
collection. 
G. Equity 
The population of the Virgin Islands is underserved 
and is almost totally made up of minorities. This situation 
applies as well to the entire educational community as 
indicated in the narrative of our NIE grant applications. 
It should be clear that any and all activities undertaken 
by VIEDS respond to the equity needs of our society. It 
should also be evident that VIEDS has worked toward improving 
the education climate, and helping to develop basic skills 
for our needy students. We have also served the community 
in nontraditional ways which reflect our attempts to improve 
equity in education. 
Highlights of these more unusual aspects of our program 
which address equity are as follows: VIEDS hosted a Women's 
Equity Conference in Grantsmanship. We supplied supporting 
documentation that has helped to bring about major changes 
in attitudes on the part of the school authorities concern-
ing the handicapped; 
as a result, a review and revision 
of high school diplomas for the handicapped was initiated. 
A community child abuse program was afforded information 
from our data base and the information was subsequently 
used on numerous educational T.V. programs over our local 
PBS station. VIEDS has also provided documentary support 
to alcohol and drug abuse programs for the Department of 
Public Safety. Since the Virgin Islands has an extremely 
high rate of teen-age pregnancy, VIEDS has provided human 
resource and documentary support for establishing various 
programs for youth on sex education and teen-age pregnancy 
prevention. We were instrumental in researching and pro-
viding models for school and community alternative educa-
tion programs. Now that these programs are in place, we 
continue to provide the teachers and administrators with 
instructional help, for example, providing special curriculum 
guides, local career education aides and Black history and 
supplementary cultural materials. Most recently, we have 
provided personal linkage and data for á community effort 
to start up a shelter for battered women and their children. 
g. Summary of Results to Date 
It is essential to read the following data carefully 
and reconsider the comments made in the introduction to 
this document in light of this information. We have not 
arrived at these data in a casual manner. They are the 
results of careful professional analysis and consultation 
with one of the "gurus" of educational dissemination, Dr. 
Sam Sieber of Columbia University, who, fortunately for 
us, resides in the territory. 
There is enough positive information in these last 
pages to gladden the heart of any grant officer. Clearly 
Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination System is an ex-
cellent example of how federal seed money can function to 
bring about change, or positive results; by establishing 
in•this case, a system whose main function is to bring about 
change and whose- linker is a change agent. 
Educational 
dissemination is alive and well in the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
Project Status Before and After NIE Funding 
BEFORE 
Linkage 
No feeling that information 
could solve problems 
Belief that information was 
acquired only in college 
Little confidence in ability 
to acquire information be-
cause of isolation 
Little knowledge among teachers 
about professional journals or 
organizations 
Complete ignorance about 
existence of ERIC 
Poor understanding of educa-
tional planning in States; 
sense of professional isola-
tion 
Little knowledge of funding 
sources and technical assist-
ance that is available 
Little awareness of special 
education needs and rights 
Little willingness to share 
problems; ignorance of pro-
blem-solving models and no 
problem-solving process 
AFTER 
Greater confidence in accepting 
and using information and 
assistance 
Awareness of multiple sources of 
information and local program 
personnel 
Widespread awareness of available 
resources. 
Staff aware of professional organ-
izations, available services, con-
ferences, etc. 
Majority of educational personnel 
have received ERIC microfiche 
Awareness of common ;roblems and 
available solutions from elsewhere 
A number of federal projects based 
on information supplied for pro-
posals and operations 
Parent groups made aware, commit-
tees to protect handicapped based 
on information, etc. 
Optimism about problem-solving 
and that information can be used 
and shared 
No trained information/dis-
semination specialists 
No educational information 
service for legislature or 
school board 
No communication among Carib-
bea_z islands re: education 
Little awareness or sensitiv-
ity regarding bilingual educa-
tion needs 
Limited relations between 
Department and College 
Resources 
No usable ERIC 'file in 
college library
Only one microfiche reader 
in school system 
No dissemination office 
Limited network of resource 
personnel 
No external resource center 
available for computerized 
retrieval 
No means of storing local 
materials for retrieval 
Two linkers with support staff 
trained in dissemination 
Use of service by legislators 
and school board 
Use of Caribbean Studies Associa-
tion for dissemination functions 
Training of teacher aides for bi-
lingual education and development 
of program based on information 
and TA of project 
Closer relationships with college 
for staff development 
ERIC file is fully operational 
in college 
At least one reader in each 
school 
Project office with readers, 
printer, files, etc. 
A human resource file that is 
rapidly growing 
Annual contract with SMERC; 
relations with AEL & NW lab 
SMERC file of local materials 
available 
No packaging of materials on 
selected topics 
No depositories of microfiche 
in offices and schools 
No local file of hard copy
or microfiche from SMERC 
for in-house retrieval 
Leadership 
Fragmented development of 
curriculum 
No means of needs assessment 
uncoordinated in-service
• 
activities 
No coordination of dissemina-
tion activities at Dept. 
level
No evaluation of information 
needs and use/impact of dis-
semination 
Packaging of in-house searches 
(220 in '82) 
Depositories in curriculum centers, 
several school libraries, and a 
few offices 
More than 7,000 items on file for 
in-house retrieval on selected 
topics 
Curriculum committees dependent 
on information 
Needs assessments conducted by 
dissemination project 
Several in-service programs based 
on technical assistance and infor-
mation from project e.g., computer 
literacy 
Advisory Board comprised of staff 
with dissemination obligations 
Periodic evaluation of needs and 
use/impact for top level planning 
GETTING IT TOGETHER 
An Evaluation of the Virgin Islands Educational 
Dissemination System 
(A Five Year Follo,r-Up) 
Sam D. Sieber 
Educational Research 
Consultant 
U.S.V.I. 
October, 1983 
CONTENTS 
Page 
The Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination 
System 
56 
Evaluation Surveys 
58 
Results 
Who uses the services and why? 
59 
Satisfaction with availability and usefullness 
of information: 
clients vs non-clients, and 
1978-79 vs 1982-83 
65 
Satisfaction with particular aspects of the 
service 
Turnaround time 
73 
Characteristics of the Information 
74 
Characteristics of the linkers' performance 
74 
Microfiche 
80 
How the information is used 
81 
Long distance versus local retrieval 
85 
Concluding remarks 
87 
APPENDIX - Client and non-client questionnaires 
89 
The Virgin Islands Educational Dissemination System 
The overarching purpose of the V.I. Educational•Dissemination Sys-
tem (VIERS) is to provide useful information about educational 
practices, policies, and ideas upon reou~ to educators who are 
working in a very isolated setting w
ith extremely limited local 
resources. The project was supported for several years by the
National Institute of Education (with increased funding from 
the local Department as federal funds declined) as a participant 
in the State Dissemination Capacity Building program in NIE. This 
program vas extended to 44 states, but is now virtually at an end. 
A unique feature of VIEDS has been the effort of full-time "linkers" 
who meet with clients at all levels of the local educational 
system to learn about their needs for assistance or information, 
to refer the client's request to a computerized retrieval agency 
in the states (San I.ateo Educational Resources Center, San Mateo, 
California, or SMERC), and to deliver the information to clients when 
it arrives in the V.I. Of the 44 states or territories that received 
grants for dissemination, the Virgin Islands is the only one that 
created full-time linkers and continued their suppórt throughout the 
five years of the project, thereby following the successful model of 
the Pilot State Disbeuination Project (USOE-NIE, 1970-71). This 
arrangement was made feasible in the Virgin Islands by the small 
size of the territorial school system. In contrast, the other 
grant recipients have concentrated on developing resource banks at 
the state level and trying to adapt existing personnel and structures 
for linking purposes. Thus, owing to the uniqueness of the V.I. 
project, this report might be of special interest to stateside 
dissemination personnel at both state and local levels. 
One full-time linker . has been employed in each of two districts 
(St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix) for the past five years. These 
have been assisted from time to time by part-time linkers, including 
a few librarians, and by office personnel. In the past year the 
linker in St. Croix reduced her time commitment to dicsemination 
because of involvcmënt in other professional activities of the Department. 
The information that is delivered to Virgin Islands clients from
SMERC migh t take the form of abstracts, bibliogr:phies, copies of 
articles (usually on microfiche card), or references to other sources. 
This informrtion might be supplemented by locally produced resources, 
of course; and indeed, many local products hr.ve been supplied to S?.TRC 
for inclusion in its own data bank. Finally, it should be noted that 
the linkers perform a variety of other cervices, such as facilita-
tin: com u .i,r.tion and assistance among personnel, initiating? and 
p^rticipr.ting in workshops, evaluating information that has been 
sent by SMERC, retrieving information locally, consulting in areas of 
their special expertise, and personally assisting in the implementa-
tion of new practices. In one of our two districts, a data bank has 
been compiled based on materials sent by S'..ERC over the past several 
years, and this data bank is regularly consulted by the linker when 
trying to answer a request. 
Types of clients, information, purposes of requests, and specific 
uses of information and assist_nce will be presented in the remainder 
of this report. 
Ir. particular, we shall be concerned with the 
impact of the project on the educational system, and the extent to 
which educational personnal at all levels have come to rely on the 
project. But first, we need to describe our evaluation surveys past 
and present. 
Evaluation Surveys 
The present survey is the third in a series of evaluation surveys 
of VIERS' clients and non-clients. The first survey collected base 
line data on information use before the project began; and the second 
was conducted with_ reference_ to the first year of the project (1978-79). 
The purposes of the. latter survey were to detG.raine the satisfaction 
of clients with various aspects of the service (information quality, 
linker performance, turnaround time, etc.), to identify specific ways 
in which the in:'orme Lion had been used and the extent of such use, to 
learn about the characteristics of clients who ware being served more 
or less satisfactorily, and to elicit suggestions for improving the 
service. A special purpose was to determine whether clients who had 
been identified in the earlier survey as most likely to need, use, 
or share information actually did so. In other words, the project 
sought to determine whether the impact of the service could be enhanced 
by concentrating on certain "promising clients," a procedure that is 
technically known as market segmentation. And indeed, this was found 
to be the case. A general purpose of the second sur-:ey, of course, was 
to gain data for comparison with the state of affair:; prior to the 
implementation of VI_DS. In this respect we found a substantial 
imurovenent in satisfaction with the availability and the usefulness 
of both information and personal assistance. For a complete presenta-
tion of the results of this earlier survey, see Knowledge for What? 
An Evaluation of an Educetional Dissemination System (VIEDS, V.I. 
Dept. of Education, January, 19$1). 
The present survey vas conducted in the fifth year of the project. 
Because many of the same questions were
ached in earlier 
years, it becomes possible to measure trends in information availabi-
lity, quality, and use over a Period of several years. 
Moreover, the 
fact that the same two linker: have been employed in each of two 
districts (ce_'.rated by fifty miles of open sca) gives us an opportuni-
ty to compare the effects of different linker styles in the same socio-cul-
tural 
setting. This comparison, 
       as we shall see, suggests 
       a fundamental 
dimension in information linkage that is often overlooked. 
Questionnaires were mailed to all clients of the service who had 
received information between September 31, 1982, and March 15, 1983. 
Since questionnaires were mailed .n April and May, 1983, all clients 
had had at least two weeks to evaluate or use the information. The 
number of clients who received questionnaires in St. Thomas-St, John was 
138, of whom 11 were eliminated because they were not served by 
the linkers; and the number in St. Croix liras 45.* The return rates 
for St. Thomas and St Croix were 84 percent and 87 percent, respective-
ly. 
A random sample of educational personnel who had not been served 
by VIEDS in the designated time period was also selected, and a special 
questionnaire was sent to them to measure their evaluation of the 
availability and usefulness of information and personal assistance 
in the absence of being served by the project. Every fourth and fifth 
name
was alternately selected from the Department's directory in 
order to obtain a sample of approximately 200 non-clients (the exact 
number was 204) in St. Thomas; and every ninth name' was selected 
for St. Croix, which yielded 100 non-clients.**Fever names were 
selected in St. Croix because time was running out at the end of 
the school year and office personnel were more limited than in St. 
Thomas. The return rates of non-clients' uestionnaires were 25 percent 
and 40 percent in St. Thomas and St. Croix, respectively. !any uncomplet-
ed questionnaires were returned because the respondent was no longer 
in the school system or was otherwise unavailable. 
Results 
First, we shall try to answer the following basic questions: who has 
used the service (position, level, subject, and opinion leadership), 
and for what general purposes? Second, we shall examine the satisfac-
tion of clients and non-clients with the availability and usefulness 
of both inf orr:,-ti on and personal assistance, and their need for more 
help in implementing new practices; and the satisfaction of clients 
with turnaround time, features of the information, end the activities 
of the linkers. Third, we shall look at specific uses of the informa-
tion and try to determine level of impact. And finally, we shall see 
whether local retrieval of information from our own data bark has 
been ae effective as retrieval from SMERC. Several of these cucst ionc 
will be addressed over tine by comparison with past survey results. 
Who usez the service and why? 
The distribution of clients according to their position is shown in 
Table 1 where we also show the figures for 78;79. Since administra-
tors seep.iee only about 8 percent of educational personne-1, the fact 
that 19 percent in'7P•-72 and 24 percent in'E2-£3 were cliente shows that
edmi niee r_ tors arc over-represented ar.:orn clientele. (The èietribu-
in St. .: on: e are: St. Croix is very :imilrr, with the cxcer.tion that 
* Many more requests for information were processed than Indicated by 
the number of creme:, for mar; client: were _ope:tors. 
*# C: cian nor.-clients are weighted double in the totals for non-client:-
referred tc ii this report or appecrirg in tables. 
TABLE 1 
Distribution of Clients in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
1982-83 
1978-79 
1982-83 
St. T. 
St. C. 
Administrators 
District 
12% 
9% 
6% 
17% 
School 
12 
10 
13 
2 
Specialists 
7 
12 
13 
11
Librarians 
6 
4 
6 
Teachers 
59 
65 
65 
64 
School Board 
2 
Legislators 
2 
100 
100% 
100% 
100% 
(191) 
(162) 
(115) 
(47) 
TABLE 2 
Grade Levels of Clients (1982-83) 
in Two Districts  
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
Total 
K-6 
56% 
48% 
54% 
7-8 
4 
15 
7 
9 — 12 
15 
11 
14 
Other pos. 
25 
26 
25 
100% 
100% 
100% 
(117) 
.(46) 
(163) 
TABLE 3 
Subject Areas of Clients in 
197 8-79 and 1982-83 
197E-79 
1982-83 
Lan3ua•_e arts 
15,E 
124 
Spe cic.1 ed. 
14
_cs 
9 
::atnenL.t;
78 
Fine arts (music, etc.) 
9 
6 
~oiei:ce 
7 
e 
r:F••c..? ed. 
7 
4 
Bosi'1 studies 
 
5 
3 
. _ r_ctc:1 arts ( voc. ed., 
drivers er.:., buz., etc. 
t..-:.n one of cbove 
3 
_31
loo-
6 
6
100;
ç 
( 125) 
(117) 
district level administrators are more often served in St. Croix, 
while school level administrators a:e more often served in St. Thomas. 
Thus, almost one out of five clients in St. Croix was a district 
level administrator. This was three times the proportion of district 
level administrators who were clients in St. Thomas. We shall return 
to this point when we discuss the different linkage styles of the 
two major linkers.) 
Concerning grade levels of teachers served by VIEDS, Table 2 shows 
that more 
ñalÍof'—the clients were elementary teachers, only 
7 percent wore junior high teachers, and 14 percent were senior 
high teachers. 
The under—representation of junior high teachers 
was especially marked in St. Thomas, where only 3 percent of the 
clients were located at this level compared with 15 percent in 
St. Croix. 
All subject. areas were served by the project, as can be seen in 
Table 3. St. Thomas devoted somewhat more attention to science 
ane. the fine arts, while St. Croix was more involved in math. But 
these differences are not large. 
Concerning this general purpose of the information recuest, we see 
in Table 4 thit, according to the information requ$st forms filled 
out by the linkers, classroom planning/instruction and awareness 
were most frequently cited. (These data cannot be compared with '78-
'79 because purposes were not multiple coded for that you.) Cif grsäter 
interest, however, is the sizable difference between the two islrnds.. 
While St. Croix concentrated its resources on curriculum development 
and special program plarnin.3 (35% and 40%), St. Thomas concentrrted 
on awareness and classroom plrnning/instruction (45% and 40%). And 
he-re we note a major difference in the two linking styles, with 
St. Croix being moro involved in providing inforr:.í:.tion for district 
level curriculum development while St. Thomas was more involved in 
raising levels of awareness and classroom activities of teachers. 
This difference reflects the fact that the St. Croix linker was 
core often involved with district administrators, and 
aleo that she reported to the Deputy Corriasioner of Curriculum 
and. Instruction who is located ir. St. Croix. In St. Thomas the 
iirk:r reported to the VIBDS project director, who in turn reported 
directly to the Commissioner. Thus, the St. Thomas linker was freer 
to serve "the field," w::ile the St. Croix linker was more restricted 
to "headquarters." These roles were not involuntary in either crse, 
however; for both linkers preferred their respective strategies 
F_216. felt that they were dircctin; their energies at the most 
suits:b_u 
TABLE 4 
General Purpose of the Requests
in Two Districts 
(1982-83) 
St. T. St. C. 
Total 
Awareness (backgroundlreeding assistance) 45% 
-- 
32% 
 
Classroom planning/instruction 
 
40 
8 
31 
 
Regular curriculum development/revision  
15 
35 
21 
 
Special program/project planning 
 
10 
40 
19 
 
Program evcluetion 
 
--
15 
4 
 
Dissertation, thesis research 
 
1 
--
1 
 
Speech or report  
Policy development  
Graduate course 
 
-- 
7  
12 
2 
1 
5 
9 
 
Other personal professional development  
7 
5 
137%* 
100% 12% 
 
(115) 
(48) (163) 
* The linker in St. Thomas sometimes checked more than 
one purpose for her clients. 
A final feature of VIEDS' clients deserves special attention: their 
opinion leadership. It has lone been known that certain individuals 
in an organisation or community are more often sought out for informa-
tion, opinions, advice, and so on, than other members. Zany of the 
individuals whom we identified as "promising clients" in our earlier 
study were this type of person on the assumption that, one, they 
would be more interested in receiving information, and two, they 
would be more likely to share it with others. Thus, in order to 
see if VIEDS' clients were more likely than non-clients to be opinion 
leaders, we asked the following question of both types of personnel: 
How often arc you asked for your opinion or advice by 
educational personnel about an educational issue? 
Very often 
Fairly often 
Sometimes 
Rarely 
Table 5 shows the proportions of clients and non-clients who responded 
according to the above categories. And it is obvious that the clients 
were much more likely to respond "very often." This is a gratifying 
result, for it means that the information will have an audience 
beyond the primary recipient. and that this audience will take 
it seriously bemuse of its source in an opinion leader. Indeed, 
if we add together the clients who said they were asked for 
advice very or fairly often, almost half (477J) have special influence 
over their peers. This contrasts with only a third (31) of the 
non-clients. Clearly, VIEDS has directed its energies toward the 
more significant personnel in the system. 
It is of further interest that this involvement of opinion leaders 
is not due to the concentration on district administrators in St. Croix, for 
in both districts almost exactly the same proportion of clients said 
that they were asked for advice very often or fairly often. Clearly, 
not all administrators are opinion leaders. 
In fact, a slightly 
higher percents.~e of clients in St. Thomas indicated that they 
were very often asked for advice than in St. Croix (32'; and 240, 
respectively) , despite the fact that St. Thomas had 13 percent fewer 
district administrators or specialists among its clientele. 
It would be a great mistake to assume, therefor that the only clients 
of VIEDS are those whom we have described on the basis of their 
cuest!cnn ire responcec and request forms. Indeed, when we asked, "Did you 
talk about the information or share it with anyone (other than the 
person who delivered it)?", 75 percent of VIEDS' client: replied 
in the affirmative. 
And when asked approximately ho,. '.:and. persons 
they shared it with, the av•~r ee nu._m'zer per client was 7.5 persons. 
<.uitc obviously, the total pool of clients extends fer :e Ord the 
-rim__ry recipients Of information. This was confirmed 'hen we asked 
TABLE 5 
Proportions of Clients and Non-Clients 
Vt..; Are Opinion Leaders 
(1982-83) 
How often asked 
Clients 
Pon-clients 
for advice: 
Very often 
2810 
7% 
Fairly often 
Sometimes 
19 
33 
25 
37 
Rarely 
20 
31 
 
100% 
l00-ó 
 
(118) 
(81)
our so-called non-clients in 1982-83: 
To the best of your knozrledae, has any information you 
received this year been supplied by our service Lames 
of linkers wee supplie]either directly or indirectly 
through someone not working for the service? 
A third of these individuals said they had received information 
directly, and a fifth said they had received it indirectly. And 
yet, none of these individuals vas listed as a client of the service 
in 1982-83. If we may generalize from these data, then it appears 
that more than half of the personnel in the Department of Education 
are annual recipients of VIEDS' services, even though the number of 
recorded primary clients is only about 10 percent of the Department's 
professional staff. If this projection is even approximately cor-
rect, it reflects quite favorably on the efforts of just two linkers 
with limited part-time help. 
Now let us see whether clients believed that the sezwices they 
have been receiving are valuable. First, we shall examine their 
general attitudes, and then turn to some specific features of 
the service, including the activities of the linkers. 
Satisfaction with availability and usefulness of information: clients 
vs non-clients, and 1978-79 vs 1982-83 
The same questions concerning satisfaction with information and 
personal assistance were asked of a sample of all educational per-
sonnel before VIEDS , óf clients after one year of VIEDS, and in the recent 
survey of both clients and non-clients. These questions wire: 
Information about educational practices or ideas comes from 
many sources, including journals, books, personnel in your 
school or district, workshops, curriculum guides, etc. 
a. During this school year,'how adequate was the availability of 
Information Personal assistance 
(check one) 
(check one) 
Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none this year 
b. In general, how would you rate the usefulness of the informa-
tion and personal assistance that you acquired in this school 
year? 
(SAME C,TECOHIES AS ABOVE) 
First, it is worth noting the proportion o4' clients and non-clients 
in the most recent school year mho said that they had "had none this 
year" in reply to both of the above questions. With regard to 
availability of Information, none of the clients gave this response, 
compared with 12 percent of the non-clients; and with regard to avail-
ability of assistance, 4 percent of the clients gave this response, 
compared with 17 percent of the nor-clients. Clearly, non-clients 
were not as likely to receive information or personal assistance as 
the clients of VIEDS. (See Table 5. 
With regard to usefulness of information and personal assistance, 
the differences between clients and non-clients are 
even larger. Only 2 percent of the clients said they had not received 
any useful information, compared with 19 percent of the non-clients; 
and only 5 percent of thº clients said they had not received any 
useful assistance, compared with 23 percent of the non-clients. 
Thus, in the absence of VIERS, one might assume that about one-
fifth of the Department's personnel would be without useful informa-
tion or assistance; while in the presence of VIEDS, this is almost 
nover the case among clients. 
Moreover, :he information and assistance that is received by non-
clients is valued much less t:.an that received. by client:. Table 7 
presents the relevant figures, includir.g the msponses of educ: tional 
personnel before the implementation of VIEDS and after one year. 
T: e persentc c of personne_ who felt that av ilability of in±'orm.:tion 
was "very adequate!' has increased markedly: 3 perzcnt before the project, 
34 percent the first year, and 50 percent in the most recent year. 
In oont_:st, among non-clients in the most recent year only 22 percent 
gave
this response. 
TABLE 6 
Proportions of Clients and Non-Clients Who Did Not 
Receive Any Information or Assistance During 1982-83 
70 received none  
 
Clients 
Non-clients  
Availability of  
information 
 
 
(139) 
12% 
(77) 
 
assistance 
 
4%  
(124) 
17% 
(70) 
Usefulness of  
information 
 
2% 
(133) 
19% 
(73) 
 
assistance 
 
55  
(116) 
23% 
(57) 
TABLE 7 
Satisfaction of Clients Before Project, One Year 
Later, and Five Years Later with Availability 
of Information and Assistance 
Availability of information 
 
Before nro ject 
 
1978-79 
1982-83 
Clients Won-
clients 
Very adequate 
 
3%  
(725) 
 
34p  
(205) 
50% 22% 
(139) (68) 
Availability-of-assistance 
Very adeouate 
* 
 
43% 
 
55% 26%
 
(185) 
Clients 
(119) (5e) 
 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
 
'78-79 
ó2-83 ?8-79 '82-83 
Availability of information 
Very adequate 
 
36, 
,r 
56% 
36;~ 
-r
4,4,2 
 
(116) 
 
(70) (66) (37) 
Availability of Assistance  
Very adequate 
43%  
(106) 
 
64% 
49;n  
(61) (59) 
41%
(32) 
* Not asked in survey 
before project. 
It is noteworthy, however, that even non-clients in 1982-83 were 
more highly satisfied with availability of information than were 
personnel before the project was implemented. Closer inspection 
of our data reveal that this is mainly due to the responses of 
those non-clients in 1982-83 who had formerly been clients. These 
former clients were a good deal more likely to say that availability 
of information had been "very adequate" than were persons who had 
never bee“ clients. 
This result suggests that former clients had 
developed a capacity for knowledge utilization as a result of their 
involvement with VIEDS that endured beyond that initial involvement. 
And indeed, a larger proportion of former clients than of 
never clients (25;; vs 5,) reported in another part of our vest-
ionnaire that they had received inform- tion from VIEDS indirectly 
in the current year. In sun, the larde minority of non-clients 
who were highly satisfied with availability of information owed 
their satisfaction to VIEDS despite their not being direct recipients 
of the service in 1982-83. 
With regard to satisfaction with the availability of personal 
assistance, here we find that a lesser 
improvement occurred 
over the past fort. years. In the first year of the project 43 percent 
indicated that availability of assistnnce was "very adequate," and 
in 1982-83 55 'percent gave the same response. The improvement is 
significant, but not as strong as in the case of information Per sé. 
However, thase figures mask a major difference between the two 
districts. In St. Croix, favorable judgments of assistance slightly 
reclined, while in St. Thomas there was a marked increase. All of 
tae data referred to can be found in Table 7. And here we confront 
once again the difference in linker styles between the two islands.(Clie
.persons who were assisting the full-time linker in St. Thomas are 
removed from this comparison between islands so that the two experienced 
linkers may be ceelpared more sharply.) As can be seen, 64 percent in 
St. Thomas felt that availability of assistance was "very adequate" 
compared with 41 percent in St. Croix in 1982-33. One linker increased 
her availability to a pronounced degree while the other decreased it 
slightly. 
Thusfar we have been discussing sheer availability of information 
and personal assistance. When we turn to the usefulness of these 
two types of resources, we find a similar trend of improvement over 
the past five years, as shown in Table o. 
And once a-ain, we also 
find that ratings of assistance declined in St. Croix, but increased 
significantly in St. Thomas, between the first and most recent year 
of the project. Usefulness of information remained fairly constant 
in both district:, as measured by this Cueetion. Further, non-clients 
were not significantly more satie icd with usefulness of information 
in 1902-c3 than were personnel before the project co-alenced. However, 
these finding should not distract our attention from the important 
point that cliente of the service in the most recent year were far more 
likely than non-client: to say that information was very useful (44% 
vs 19_). 
TABLE 8 
Satisfaction of Clients Before Project, One Year 
Later, and Five Years Later with Usefulness 
of Information and Assistance  
Before project 1978-79 
1982-83 
Clients Non-
clients 
Usefulness of information 
Very adequate 
Usefulness of assistance 
15% 
(681) 
40% 
(202) 
44% 
(131) 
19% 
(59) 
Very adequate 
44% 
(183) 
564 
(110) 
30 
(44) 
Clients 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
School year: 
'75-79 
'82-83 
ILL71 
'82-83, 
Usefulness of information 
Very adequate 
41;; 
49 
(112) 
(70) 
37% 
38 
(67) 
(34) 
Usefulness of assistance 
Very adequate 
45% 
59% 
(103) 
(58) 
45% 
38% 
(60) 
(31) 
Responses to another question reveal a ouch treater trend in favor 
of usefulness over the past few years. Clients in 1978-79 and 1982-83 were
asked: 
How about the practical value of the information as a 
whole (abstracts, articles, packages, microfiche, etc.)? 
Very useful 
I'oderately useful 
Only slightly useful 
Rot useful 
In the first year of the project, 44 percent said that it was "very 
useful," but a few years later 64 percent gave the sane response. 
Here once asain we detect a marked improvement in the service. 
Further, virtually the sane level of improvement occurred in both 
districts. 
One final, overall question that bears on personal assistance remains 
to be discus:.ed. Clients and non-clients in 1982-83 were asked 
whether they desired more help with implementation: 
In general, do you feel that you need more personal help 
in implementing new ideas or practices in your work, less 
,help, or about the same amount of help as you have been 
receiving? 
More help 
Less help 
About the same 
Table 9 presents the responses to this question among clients and 
mon-clients. While more than half of the non-clients asserted that 
they needed more help with implementation, only a third of VIEDS' 
clients gave this response. About three-fourths of the latter felt 
that assistance should remain about the same. These date attest to 
the contribution that V1ED3' personnel have made to the actual im-
plementation of new practices and ideas in addition to the provision 
of information. 
(The same magnitude of difference between clients 
and non-clients occurred on both islands.) 
To summarize: We have seen that the clients of VIEDS are much more 
likely to receive useful information about ne,•1 ideas and practices 
than non-clients. ?:oreover, the information that is received by 
non-clients is not valued as highly as that received by clients, 
which testifies to the superiority of a n_t'_onal data bank with 
an efficient retrieval capacity over conventional methods of dis-
semination. Further, since VIERS' clients were also much more often 
satisfied with persohel assistance, it is obvious that the work of 
the local lir::erc is also cuite valuable. And improvement tars been 
very n. rI:eµ in these respects since the inception of the rroject. 
e hr:vc '1: o noted that former clients veer, in touch with the pro ject 
indirectly, and are therefore better served than personnel 
        who have 
nevt - been clients. This in:._c't(;s that exposure to the _ _o ject is 
TABLE 9 
Proportiºn of Clients.._ and Non—clients in 1982-83 Who Said 
They Needed More Help, Less Help, or the Sane 
Help vith Implementation 
Clients 
Non—clients 
More help 
Less help 
Same amount 
28 
8 
64 
53% 
1 
46 
 
100 
100;; 
 
(91) 
(74)
not a hit and run experience for. clients. Apparently, their own 
capacity for information use independently of direct involvement 
with linkers has been enhanced. And the greater involvement of 
opinion leaders among VIEDS' clients suggests that information 
and assistance will radiate throughout the system. That this is 
indeed taking place is indicated by the large number of secondary 
recipients reported to us by the primary clients of VIEDS. 
If these generalizations are reliable, then we should find that 
both clients and non-clients of VIEDS would welcome the opportunity 
for continued assistance from the project. And this is indeed the 
case, as signified by the responses to the following cuection: 
Would you like to be contacted by us in the near future 
for assistance in acquiring information on a particular 
topic or problem related to your work? 
Yes 
No 
Seventy-seven percent of the clients and 78 percent of the non-
clients responded affirmatively to this question. Since this 
question bears on a reel desire to receive information on 
a concrete, personal topic or problem, it is probably more reflective 
of a genuine need for the service than some of the broader questions 
referred to earlier. In short, it is evident that more than three 
quarters of educational personnel are anxious to avail themselves of 
VIEDS' services "in the near future." 
Satisfaction with particular aspects of the service 
Turnaround time. Owing to the isolation of the Virgin Islands and 
the slu¿gishness of the postal system, a critical question is the 
amount of time that is required to obtain resources from the states. 
As mentioned earlier, the linker in St. Thomas has set up her own 
data bank comprisinn previous S2ERC information, and in the past 
year the and an assistant made extensive use of this localized source. 
Thus, it becomes important to see if satisfaction with turnaround time 
was enhanced as a result of this activity. That this was indeed the 
case can be seer in the responses to the following question: 
question: 
With re^ard to your needs, was the amount of time it took 
to receive the information: 
Too lora 
A reasonable ler.th of tine 
Soo.Zt r than expected 
In 1970-79, 19 percent said "sooner then expected." Tn '902-83, 
of t_-osa who received inform._'tion from the 'retrieval n^ency in the 
ates, 37 percent Cave thin response; and of those who received 
information from our local data bank, 67 percent so responded. 
Clearly, there is greater satisfaction than previously, and especially 
if the local resource files were utilized. 
In terms of actual time spent in retrieving information, clients 
who were served by the stateside agency waited 5.4 weeks on average, while 
those who were served by local filos waited only a few days. It is 
not surprising that the latter would feel that the information was 
provided "sooner than expected," therefore. Later we shall see if 
this method of retrieval was more or less likely to have impact 
than reliance on the stateside agency, and more or less likely to 
be favorably evaluated for its content. 
Before leaving the matter of turnaround time, it is informative to 
note that almost all requests for information wore classified as 
"somewhat" urgent (as opposed to "very" or "not" urgent) on the 
information request forms. Thus, clients are generally perceived as 
needing in orea.tion in as short a time as possible -- although this 
notational habit might also be due to the linkers, fear that a 
".not urgent" request would be ignored by the retrieval agency. 
Charecteristibs of the information. Since clients on the whole 
are satisfied with turnaround time, other aspects are perhaps more important. 
A . very critical aspect of the service concerns the characteristics 
of the information itself. The clients were asked to indicate their 
judgment of the information supplied to them with respect to seven 
attributes: relevance, comprehensiveness, newness, usefulness with-
out further information or help, understandability, guidance provided, 
and ease of implementation in their setting. (See question 8 in 
the appendix.) Table 10 shows the proportion of clients in 1970-79 
and in 1982-83 :rho gave a score of 1 or 2 to each dimension on a 
scale of 7 points, thereby indicating a high degree of satisfrction. 
And re see little change in the rank order from one period to the 
next, with the exceptions of relevance and useability ;;ithout any 
additional resources. 'Both of these attributes were scored higher than a few 
years ago. Autonomous upeability made an especially strong showing, 
moving from next~ to lamet Sank order to next to first; : and this shift 
occurred in the case of both linkers. (Relevance r roved only with 
respect to St. Croix.) This improvement suz3ests that the linkers 
became more skilled in acquiring information that would "stand alone." 
Chart c ter_ stics of linkers' nerformarce. The clients in 197s,;-79 and 
1982-83 wore asked to rite the linters according to four scales: 
initial urdc_standin* of the problem or nccd, helpfulness in interrretin 
the ...7.ter_als or inform Lion, helpfulness in using the information. and 
evailcbiliiy when needed. Table 11 shows the pros. rtion of clients in 
TABLE 10 
Clients' Evaluations of Various Features of the 
Information in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
highly favorable 
(1,2 on scale 1-7) 
1978-
1982-
1979 
1983 
Easily understood, no difficulty 
with language or ideas 
78% 
(205) 
79g 
(114) 
Very comprehensive in coverage 
45% 
48% 
(205) 
(114) 
 
Highly relevant to my need or request 450 
(205) 
5E5-
(116) 
Provided guidance for implementa-
 
tion or use 
41% 
48g 
(199) 
(114) 
'ould be easy to implement or use 
in my school or agency 
40 
421 
(196) 
 
(114) 
Could be used or applied without 
additional information or help 
38ó 
(202) 
56% 
 
(115) 
Very new to me, quite enlightening 
27% 
30% 
(205) 
(115) 
* Bases of percentages vary owing to variation in number 
of respondents who answered each scale. 
each of two periods who rated the linkers "excellent" on a five 
point scale ranging from "excellent" to "poor," the proportion who 
gave other ratings, and the proportion who seid that this aspect 
of the linkers' role "did not occur." The only notable difference 
between the two periods is that a smaller proportion said that 
helping use the information did not occur and a larger proportion 
rated the linkersexceller_t on this dimension. Thus, it appears that 
helping the client to implement a new practice or idee was a more 
prominent feature of the linkers' role in the more recent period. 
But this change applies to only a single linker -- the linker in 
St. Thomas, whose "did not occur" rating dropped from 30 percent 
in 1978-.79 to 2 percent ir. 1982-83. Ratings of the other linker 
actually moved in the opposite direction: from 37 percent saying 
that help in using information did not occur in 1975-79 to 44 percent 
responding in this fashion in 1982-83. Once again, therefore, we 
detect a divergence in the styles of the two linkers. This finding 
is consistent with our earlier observation that favorable judgments 
of assistance actually declined in St. Croix, while the St. Thomas 
linker elicited a much higher level of approval than before. 
These contrasting trends in the two islands may be due to the 
reduced time commitment of the St. Croix linker together with her 
tendency to Focus on district level administrators who were involved 
in writing planning papers. This focus of attention would reduce 
the need for personal assistance on the linker's part. And indeed, 
we have seen that the single largest percentage increase in positive 
attitudes towards the information occurred in St. Croix with respect 
to "could be used or applied without additional information or help." 
Further, when asked about the need for more, less, or the same amoúnt 
of helm with implementation, as many as 18 percent of she Crucian 
clients said less help compared with only 3 percent of the St. 
Thomian clients. In short, the amount of help that the linkers 
gave in each district seems to have been an accomodation to their 
rez ec tive clients, which in turn, of course, vas influenced by 
the linkers' own decisions about which clients she wished to serve. 
Similar, although less pronounced, differences occur between the 
two liners with regard to "helpfulness in interpreting the materials 
or information received," and "availability when needed." The 
Crucian linker elicited a much higher percenta;e of "did not occur" 
respo::cec than the St. Thomiar linker, and especially with reEand 
to "availability." Twenty-nine percent of the Crucian clients in 
l?~é-v3 , r.~1C°ited that a:".1_~.bi_ity "did not 
~ occur," conprred with only
-
2 percent of the St. Thomia. clients. And this Jiff e=cnce is largely 
du: to a decline ir. _vtila.bility of the v_ucicn linker between 197e-79 
and 19:.2-c3.— mentioned earlier, this is no doubt ()win,
. to the 
reduction o: tine spent by the Crucian linker on . 
.:n_nation as a result of 
her _'rc_:_z_ni co mitnent to other 'rcfe.:sioral enicevors. 
Tr. sun,
TABLE 11 
Clients' Evaluations of Various Features of the 
Linker's Role in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
1978-79 1982-83 
Initial understanding of your 
problem or need 
Excellent 
68% 
67% 
Other response 
32 
31 
Did not occur 
* 
2 
loo ^, 
100 
(212) 
(117) * 
Availability when needed 
Excellent 
54% 
56% 
Other response 
38 
35 
Did not occur 
8 
9 
100= 
 
157 
(202) 
(110) 
Helpfulness in interpreting the 
materials or information received 
 
Excellent 
47A 
47% 
 
Other response 
 
28 
'33 
 
Did not occur 
Helpfulness in usina the ir!ormation 
(2Ó4)
n 
20  
Q0 
(1
ÓS) 
 
Excellent 
30% 
43% 
 
Other response  
Did not occur 
 
34  
36 
37 
20 
 
106 Ó0 
(198) 
(97) 
* Bases of percents vary because of variations in replies. 
** Less than 1%. 
one linker moved in the direction of being more available for__ 
he lv with imelementation, while the other moved in exactly the . 
opposite: direction. 
It should be noted, however, that when the Crucian linker did 
offer these services, she was rated as highly as the St. Thomian 
linker, with one exception: "initial understanding of your 
problem or need." While 85 percent of the St. Thomian clients 
rated the linker excellent on this dimension, 58 percent of 
the Crucian clients gave their linker this rating. Further, 
this approval rate increased over time for the St. Thomian linker 
but decreased for the Crucian linker. And this shift is confirmed 
by data on the extent to which the linkers reported they assisted 
the clients in developing the statement of the problem or need 
(as indicated on the Information Request Form). As shown in Table 
12, 51 percent of the clients,in St,; Thomas were helped "extensively," 
while none of the clients in St. Croix received this amount of help. • 
This notable difference is a function of different types of clients 
as well as different role definitions in the two districts, as 
mentioned earlier. However, the lower rating for the Crucian 
linker also suggests that clients in that district were not as 
well served with regard to the linkers' understanding of the 
problem as in St: Thomas. And lover ratings on the availability 
and usefulness:of personal assistance in St. Croix, referred to 
earlier, point to the same conclusion. Thus, while there is some 
justificrtion for being less proactive in St. Croix, there is 
still a need for a more active dissemination presence than 
prevailed in 1982-83. 
Virtually the same story can be told with respect to another question: 
Did this person help you in any other way (e.g., put you 
in touch with other personnel, assisted with a meeting, 
etc')? 
Yes 
No 
Don't recall 
IF YES: How would you rate their assistance in this 
respect? (Check one) 
Excellent 
Fair 
Poor 
:'ot only did the Crucian linker loss often help in other ways, 
but her ratin (based on a very few cases) was porhans lower, rs seen 
in Table 11. The frequency with which the St. Thonian helped
ir. other wcys, incidentally, shows that the project is not strictly 
limited to dissemination of external information. A rood deal of 
networking and leadership also occurred, at least in one of the 
èistr sts. Ttis is a point that is often overlooked. Dissemination 
TABLE 12 
Amount of Help Given by Linker to Client in 
Developing the Statement of the Problem or Need in 
Two Districts, 1978-79 and 1982-83 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
1978-79 
1982-83 
1978-79 
1982-83 
To what extent did you (linker) 
assist the client in developing 
the statement of the problem 
or need? 
Not at all 
11% 
l% 
2r0 
— 
Limited 
52 
14 
11 
2 
t.oderately 
23 
34 
87 
98 
Extensively 
14 
 
l0Ó 
100;, 
3T)07 ; 
1JOá 
(92) 
(73) 
(54) 
(45) 
 
TABLE 13 
Proportion of Clients Who Said that Linker Helped 
in Other Ways in Two Districts, ir. 1975-79 and 1982-83, 
and Clients' Evaluations 
St. Thomas 
St. Croix 
1978-79 1982-83 1978-79 
1982-83 
 
Helped in other way?  
Yes 
 
31  
(117) 
38, 
(50) 
 
465 
(65) 
153 
(22) 
How rated? 
 
Excellent 
 
64;; 
 
634 
581 
— 
 
(36) 
 
(19) 
(31) 
( 3) 
projects are not fulfilling only dissemination functions. When 
full-time linkers are able to become involved in the daily 
professional activities of their clients, a uniquely integrative 
role emerges that reaches far beyond the standard definition. of 
dissemination. 
And because the linker is not in a superordinate-
subordinate relationship with educational personnel, as in the case 
of administrators,:•. supervisors, and official coordinators, he 
or she is able to gain the voluntary commitment of personnel to 
follow-through on activities which they themselves have defined as 
urgent. 
The different levels of performance that we have observed be-
tween the two linkers reminds us of a conclusion that we reached 
in our earlier study. There we compared the performance of two 
full-time linkers with a part-time one. We concluded: 
The differences that occurred in client response strongly 
suggest that full-time linkers are superior to part-tine 
personnel as disseminators of educational information and 
resources. . • . we find a lower level of satisfaction 
with the availability cf both information and personal 
assistance, and with the usefulness of personal assistance, 
in the ease of the part-timer. . . . we note that 
several activities of linkers were less often performed 
or rated lower. . . These results Give persuasive evidence 
of the benefits to be derived from full-time linkers. Not 
only do part-timers spend less time on dissemination 
functions, but these functions are subordinated to other 
obligations. The dissemination role. does not emerge as 
a distinct and vital aspect of educational assistance, and 
consequently clients are not as well served as they night 
otherwise be. (p. 16, Knowledge for What? 1981) 
Apparently, the lesson to be drawn fron this observation was not 
heeded in the subsequent years of VIEDS, at least with respect to 
one of the two districts. 
Now let us turn to another major feature of the service: the use 
of microfiche cards and readers. 
I:ic_ofiche. In 1978-79 we found that 69 percent of the clients 
indicated that they had access to a microfiche recaer (see ouestion 
9 in the Appendix). In the more recent year, 86 percent so responded. 
Thus, there has been an increase in accessibility over t e years. 
The same proportion in both years indicated that they had actually 
used the machines (86 percent). .The districts r._e almost identical 
in le7els of accessibility and use. 
How the information is used 
The specific uses of thé information were measured in two ways: 
by a check-list and by a free answer question that asked the 
clients to describe their use in detail. First we shall look at 
the responses to the check list. The ouestionsas as follows: 
Please indicate the responses below that most accurately 
describe the degree to which you have actually been 
able to use the information or materials that you 
received (please check all items that apply). 
The responses of the clients in 1978-79 and 1982-83 are presented 
in Table 1¢. 
The rank order of uses is very similar for the two time periods. 
The main exceptions are two: a greater tendency in the most 
recent period to use the information 'to write a position paper 
or other paper that could be used in practice in the future," 
and a greater tendency to use the information for course work. 
It is also noteworthy that a smaller percentage than formerly , 
said they had"been able to read it, but have not been able to 
actually put it into .practice." All three of these shifts in 
response -were dde to Crucian clients. Thus, while only 14 percent 
of the latter sdid .they had written a position paper in 1978-79, 
39 percent gave this response in 1982-83; and while 14 percent 
mentioned course work formerly, 30 percent did so more recently. 
But perhaps of even greater sigr_ificEnce, the proportion who 
said they had only read it and not used it dropped from 47 percent 
to 17 percent in St. Croix. In addition, the proportion who used 
it for research and evaluation increased from 21 percent to 39 
percent. St. Thomian clients showed much less change on all these 
items. 
These date underscore the shift in role definition of the linker 
in St. Croix over the several years of the project toward a more 
reactive type of response to clients who are more capable of using 
information on their own, particularly in the preparation of 
planing documents. The St. Thorian linker, in contrast, has been 
consistently more concerned with raisins the awa.rcresc of a 
broader spectrum of educational personnel. It is perhaps not surprising, 
then, that 34 percent of these clients said that they had only 
read the information compared with 17 ' e=cont • in St. Croix_ 
Still, it must be borne in mind that the greEt majority of clients 
in both islands had' "used" the information in come way, i`_' only 
for enliLhterme:.t. Only 7 percent of the c_icr.tc in 'all iclt rds 
..a 
said thct
Ala. ~ they "have not been able 
to useita
at all." Further, 
 
TABLE 14 
Specific Uses of the Information Reported by 
Clients in 1978-79 and 1982-83 
1978-
1982-
1979 
1983 
The information helped me to keep aware of developments 
 
and activities in education 
65% 
57% 
Was able to Provide the information to others who 
 
needed it 
53 
41 
Have been able to read it, but have not been able to 
actually put it into practice 
40 
27 
The information gave me a better understanding of my 
work or my rrofessional relationships 
34 
31 
Have been able to use the information to dev
elop a Plan 
to improve existing pro.lrams or practices 
33 
38 
Have beer. able to use the informr:.tion to modify or alter 
an existing plan for improving programs or practices 
31 
30 
Hare been able to use the information to make minor im-
provement in a program or practice 
28 
34 
Have been able to'lise the information to iustifv existinn 
programs or practices 
28 
34 
The 
in orration helped ine to conduct research or 
evaluation 
18 
30 
The information caused me or others in my organization to 
reconsider a Plan of action that was underway 
17 
 
10, 
Have been able to use the information to actually 
initiate a new program or practice 
16 
12 
Have been able to use the information to write a 
position paper or other paper that could be used in 
practice in the future 
15 
27 
Tho information helped me in my own course work (e.g., 
in the College of the V.I.) 
9 
23 
Have been able to use the information to make maior im-
provemenw in a program or practice 
6 
6 
Have not been able to use it at all 
8 
7 
(213) (135) 
34 percent said they had used it to make a "minor improvement" 
in an actual program or practice, and 6 percent said a "major 
improvement." (Four clients said both a major and minor improve— 
ment.) And 12 percent said the information had helped them to 
initiate a new program or practice. Over all, 42 percent of the 
clients nave at least one of these three responses indicating 
an actual change in a practice or nroaram. (The level of this 
type of response was the same in both districts.) If we add 
to these individuals those who used the information for some 
type of planning, then it is clear that the great majority 
of clients made some use of the information. 
This does not mean that the level of actual use could not be 
raised; and the frequency with which clients (and non—clients 
as well) expressed a desire for more help with implementation 
(tee our earlier discussion) shows that there is much room 
for improvement in this respect, and much desire on the part 
of educational personnel to enrage in such improvement. 
It is difficult to gain a realistic picturs of how information is 
used without reference to actual cases, however. The following 
responses to our free answer question give flesh to our statistics. 
The çuestioii we,s: 
If you were able to use the information in any way, please 
describe in as much detail as possible the actual use 
made of the information or assistance. 
A sampling of replies follows: 
The material was used to develop a parent attitude ouest— 
ionnaire based on the 14th annual Gallup poll and to give 
background information and cite related literature in an 
independent study done at CVI. 
I made changes in the reward system of a behavior modifi— 
cation program that already exists. The information was 
shared with teachers interested in beginning a program of 
their own. 
Kastcr s thesis for CVI or. schedulin, -- however, using the 
new plan to implement chan._es in our school. 
I used the informetior. to improve my o::r: understanding 
en ho,: to use the computer and as such introduced a program 
wherc;:y I have exposed My students both at the Junior High 
School anc: at the Collel,e of the Virgin. _sin•nds, St. Croix 
campus where I am a tutor. 
In cicscroom te^.chin?, I cm 2'.o:7 more aware of FoiO_ble reasons 
f0:' the many d`iicult:6s ^': students face in trTM'irl to solve 
word _,rob_er..: in nat:^.:matic]. 
(1)Development and implementation of after school agr. 
program was made possible via use of material. 
(2)Info made available to teacher doing research paper. 
(3)Info used in Alt. Ed. Resource Center and is available 
to all community program serving youths. 
Assisted me in formulating strategies for an alternative 
education proposal. 
Used to decide value of tests to be used in V.I. for 
all students. (Hopefully) 
Recommendations on Special Ed. service here PIr94-142
tt 
" rights of parents (at PTA) 
Treatment of behavior problems ir. classrooms 
Understanding of drug treatment of hyperkinetician. 
Explanation of test validity to staff and committees. 
The information .ras used to support this individual's 
position on techniques to alleviate students' misconduct 
in the classroom., 
We change& the scheduling of classes for the lunch program. 
This•enAbled us to have a smoother running program with 
more time for the students to eat. 
I was not really able to use this particular item in my 
job, but became more aware of related fields of work. It 
was more of a personal benefit than anything else. 
The articles were shared with professionals and other adults 
in direct contact with deaf persons. 
I read all the ma-:erial and used it to prepare myself for a 
lecture in 6th grades about "Marijuana and Drug Abuse." 
It is helping me compare our world history course and what 
is taught to some on contemporary issues and area studies. 
It also save me an ides of how to no about teeching the U.N. 
Used the inform_-.tion, gotten from the articles, to try and 
help a 6 year ole. child deal with his first experience where 
someone close to him had died. 
A search of research literature must be made prior to writing 
a proposal. The local libraries are f?J , but one needs to 
examine a broader _:n.'. . of 1i tert.turc thrn provided, to actually 
select out the mora appropriate materials. 
These responses illuminate the various items in our check list 
of uses, including planning, course work, classroom practices, 
initiating a program, legitimation, keeping aware, and providing 
the information for others. 
As noted earlier, many more persons received information than were 
covered in our surveys. It is impossible at present to say how 
many of these secondary clients used it in some fashion. 
Ir. any 
event, it is clear that the effects or impact of the service 
extended to many more individuals than we are able to identify. 
LonA-distance versus local retrieval 
We mentioned at the beginning of this report that a data bank 
comprising materials previously sent by S! RC and other locally 
available information has been compiled in the one of the districts. 
About one-fourth of the clients in this district were served 
by retrieval of materials from this local file in the past school 
year. Thus, it becomes important to determine whether the clients 
served in this manner were at least as satisfied with the informa-
tion and at least as likely to put it to practical use as those 
served by the retrieval agency in the states. Clearly, locel 
retrieval is less expensive; thus, attaining even the same level 
of impact would make this practice more cost effective. 
The first question concerns the clients' evaluation of the informa-
tion itself. 
Table 15 shows the proportionsof clients served by 
the.two methods who favorably evaluated the information according 
to several features. And it is clear that those served by local 
retrieval were no less favorably inclined times those served by a' 
SING search. In one instance ("easily understood") the clients 
who were served locally were more likely to be satisfied with 
the information. The other differences, given the small size of 
the locally served clientele who replied to these items, are 
insignificant. In short, it appears that the value of the informa-
tion is not jeopardized by local retrieval. 
Uhen we turn to the question of practical usefulness of the informa-
tion, we find a similar situation: loc^lly served clients were no 
less likely to say that the materials h=d been "very useful," and 
were perhaps even slightly more likely to reply in this fashion. 
And when we look at responses to the check-list of specific uses, 
we find that locally served clients were no more likely to say 
"h7vc not been able to use it" or "have been able to read it, 
but have not been able to actuclly part it into practice." The 
cIr.tr ^re shown in Table 16. 
:'i2:r.11y, it is worth l:ct:2:_ that client:. who were lOCC:lly served 
were no less likely to rcçueut the linker tc contrct then in the 
::err future "for assistance in !Ic^llir":' information on a n?rticu-
:. r topic or problem related to fdhL1J work." 
Eut then, they 
were no more li;:cîy to do so oitIïer. 
TABLE 15 
Clients' Evaluations of Information, According 
to Whether They Were Served Locally or Through SMERC 
highly favorable 
Served 
'Through 
locally 
Si.ERC 
Easily understood, no difficulty 
with language or ideas 
94ó (16) 
75% (48) 
Very comprehensive in coverage 
 
57;', (16) 
524 (48) 
Highly relevant to my need or request 62% (16) 
51% (49) 
Provided guidance for implementa-
tion or use 
57% (16) 
47% (48) 
Would be easy to implement or use 
in my school or agency 
44% (16) 
49% (48) 
Could be used or applied without 
additional information or help 
56% (16) 
58 (48) 
Very near to me, quite enlightening 
19% (16) 
29% (47) 
 
* Checked 1,2 on a scale 1-7. 
TABLE 16 
Clients, Evaluation of Usefulness and Specific 
Uses, According to Whether They Were Served
Locally or Through SIERC 
Served 
Through 
 
locally 
SrhERC 
Practical value of informa- 
tion: "very useful" 
 
78% (14) 
62', (45) 
Regarding specific urea:  
Not been able to use it 
 
6 (17) 
11% (45)
 
Read it only 
 
29:; (17) 
36'1) (45) 
Apparently, the main benefits of local retrieval are economy 
and speedier service. (The latter benefit was referred to earlier 
in the discussion of clients' satisfaction with turnaround time.) 
These are not minor benefits. Thus, the project should try to 
expand this service. 
Concluding Remarks 
In the estimation of its clientele, VIEDS has shown remarkable 
improvement over the five years of its operation. Annually more 
than half of all educational personnel benefit from its services, 
either directly or indirectly (thtt is, as primary or secondary 
clients). And the great majority of clients report some actual 
use of the materials that they receive. Finally, the linkers 
provide a variety of services beyond the mere dispensation of 
information, and their former clients seem to have increased 
their capacity for knowledge utilization on their own. The 
only problem seems to be it. reduction of service (at least with 
respect to personal assistance) in St. Croix. Since Crucian 
clients are es desirous of additional help with implementation 
as St. Thomian. lients, this reduction means that clients''needs in 
that district are not being fully met. 
The different styles of the two linkers suggests a divergence between 
focussing on planning and administration, on the one hand, and 
day to day classroom practices, on the other. The latter style 
is more comprehensive and flexible in the services offered, with
equal attention to awareness raising, problem clarification, 
information provision, and help with implementation at all levels 
concerning day to day practice. The former concentrates on serving 
the self-defined, long range needs of higher level personnel.who 
require fewer services from the linker. Neither style is superior 
to the other under all circumstances, of course; and yet it is 
possible that individual linkers tend to specialize in one or the 
other. For convenience, the two styles may be referred to as idiographic 
and nomothetic. 
Whether these styles arc dictated by temperament, occupational 
back?roL'nd, or situational constraints (or a combination thereof), 
the nomothetic-ideographic dimension is one that has not received 
attention in the literature. A tendency of linkers to assume one 
or the other style was -alluded to in the study of the Pilot State 
Evaluation Project (The Use of Educational !:nowled-.c, Sieber, Louis, 
and :.:etz er, U.S.O.E.N.I.E, 1972), but its significance was not 
_
cl•..borztec. Two major reviews of linkers' roles also rive the 
dimension little or no attention (Crandall, '^rmirin.l c--.d Supporting 
Linking agents
 
" 
 
 
/~ 
{~sh a;Culbertson,T 
:- ^ 
s in Educa-
tional ?-nrovem.:ent, UCEA, 1977; Louis, " xter.sl ..;ants and Knowled,e 
Utilization; Dimensions for Analysis ^.n:. ;.cti0::," in Lehminn, and Kane, 
, 
Inv o-i_: Schools -- Jz -Q What Ve Know,Sape, 1981.)Clearly, the 
dimension cuts across all the other dimensions described in the 
literature, such as internal vs external, generalist vs specialist, 
technical assister vs information provider, .high vs low intensity, 
and so forth, although empirically there might be some association 
between the idiographic-nomothetic dimension and some of the 
others. In fact, the selection of a style according to these 
other dimensions might hinge to some extent on one's idiographic-
nomo thetic . tendencies. The hypothesis seems worth pursuing in 
future research on linkers. 
APPENDIX
Client and Non-client Questionnaires 
1. Information about educational practices or ideas comes from many sources, including journals, 
books, personnel in your school or district, workshops. curriculum guides, etc. 
a. 
During this school year (1982 - 83), how adequate was the availability of 
Information 
Personal assistance 
(check one) 
(check one) 
Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none this year 
b. 
In general, how would you rate the usefulness of the information and personal assistance 
that you acquired in this school year? 
Information 
Personal assistance 
(cheek one) 
(check One) 
Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none last year 
2. Do you recall receiving the information that was mentioned un the first page of this 
questionnaire? 
Yes 
Nu 
IF NO: 
Do not fill out the remainder of this questionnaire. hut please return it to us in the 
enclosed envelope..Thank you very much. 
3 
Was this information requested primarily for your use or for someone else's use? 
Own use 
Someone else's use 
1F FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S USE: For whom was it requested? 
Name 
School or Office 
(Thank you. Do not fill out the rest of this questionnaire, but please send it to us in the enclosed 
envelope.) 
4. 
With regard to your needs. was the amount of time that it took to receive the information: 
Too long 
A reasonable 
Sooner than 
length of time 
expected 
5. 
Please rate the individual who acquired the information for you on the following items (see first 
page of this questionnaire for the person's name): 
(Check one on each scale, 
Did not 
Don't 
Excellent 
Fair 
Poor 
occur 
recall 
Initial understanding of your 
problem or need 
(irlrfuines 
urtrrf•retu;_ the 
mat:fiar or informa► rr.;; received 
Heipfuln.e,in using the i:;:ormation 
\va.lal~ii;t. w Then needed 
9. 
If you received microfiche (micro-printed film in card form), did you have access to a machine 
for reading it? 
Yes 
No 
Did not receive microfiche 
IF YES; Did you actually read any of it? 
Yes 
No 
10. How about the practical value of the information as a whole (abstracts, articles, packages. 
microfiche. etc.)? (Check One) 
Very Useful 
Moderately useful 
Only slightly useful 
Not useful 
11. Please indicate the responses below that most accurately describe the degree to which you have 
actually been able to use the information or materials that you received (Please check all items 
that apply.) 
Have not been able to use it at all 
Have been able to read it. but have not heen ahle to actually put it into practice 
Have been able to use the information to write, a position paper or other paper that could 
be used in practice in the future 
Have been able to use the information to develo p ;r plan Io improve existing programs or 
practices 
Have been able to use the information to modify. or alter an existing plan for improving 
programs or practices 
Have been able to use the information Io lustily existing programs or practices 
The information caused me or others in my organisation to reconsider a plan of action 
that was underway
Have been able tu use the information lu actually jniltate a new programs or practice 
Have been able to use the information tu make minor improvements in a program 
or practice 
Has e been able to use the information to snake major improvements in a program 
or practice 
The information helped nie to keep aware of developments and activities in education 
Was able toprovide the information to others who needed it 
The information gave nie a heiter understanding ul niy work or my professional 
relationships 
The information helped me to conduct research or evaluation 
The information helped me in mY own course work (e.g.. in the V.I. College. U. of Phoenix) 
Other t please specify I: 
NON„CLIENT QUESTIONNAIRE 
VIRGIN ISLANDS EDUCATIONAL DISSEMINATION SYSTEM 
Department of Education 
Box 6640 
St. Thomas 
U.S. Virgin Islands 00801 
(809) 774-4319 or 774-8315 
Department of Education 
Box "I' 
Christiansted, St. Croix 
U.S. Virgin Islands 00820 
(809) 773-6495 or 773-1095 
Dear 
Would you please help us to determine the needs of Department of Education personnel for information 
about new practices and ideas? 
We ask only that you fill out the enclosed one page questionnaire and return it to us in the self-addressed 
envelope. Your identity will be kept absolutely confidential. 
Thank you very much for your cooperation. 
Cordially, 
James M. Oliver 
Project Director
1. 
Information about educational practices or ideas comes from many sources, including journals, 
books, personnel in your school or district, workshops, curriculum guides, etc. 
a. 
During this school year (1982-83), how adequate was the availability of 
Personal 
Information Assistance 
(check one) 
(check one) 
Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none this year 
b. 
In general, how would you rate the usefulness of the information and personal assistance 
that you acquired in this school year? 
Personal 
Information 
Assistance 
(check .one) 
(check one) 
- Very adequate 
Adequate 
Inadequate 
Very inadequate 
Had none this year 
2. 
In general, do you feel that you need more personal help in implementing new ideas or practices • 
in your work, less help, or about the same amount of help as you have been receiving? 
More help 
Less help 
About the same 
3. 
To the best of your knowledge, has any information you received this year been supplied by our 
service (Beverly Nieves, St. Thomas; Patricia Murphy, St. Croix) either directly or indirectly through 
someone not working for the service? 
Yes, directly 
Yes, indirectly 
No 
Not sure 
4. 
Would you like to be contacted by us in the near future for assistance in acquiring information on a 
particular topic or problem related to your work? 
Yes 
No 
5. 
How often are you asked for your opinion or advice by educational personnel about an educational 
issue? (Please check one) 
Very often 
Fairly often 
Sometimes 
Rarely 
Thank you very much for your cooperation. If you have any questions or further comments, you may 
call us at: 7748315