SUNCOAST INFORMATION SPECIALISTS
INFO NEWSLETTER
VOL 11, NO 4
JULY 1997
EDITOR'S CORNER
by Jackie Jackson
This is the time of the year when many of us try to scale down our activities a little, and perhaps take a vacation, lounge on a nearby beach and swim a few laps, or picnic at a local park; even indulge in a combination of these activities. And, of course, the one vital thing we need in our hand is a good book! I came across an interesting looking website at
http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/bookrvws.htm
prepared by Glen Engel-Cox who is a writer for the Internet Daily News (a daily newspaper on the World Wide Web) who has gathered together a number of links to book review sites. He has accorded them his own rating system. He includes a broad range of interests and genre so although I am thinking of books for relaxation, you will find links to professional and technical sources, children's literature, and so on. On one occasion I had a little trouble accessing the URL I list above but was able to access the site via just owt.com/. I hope you all have a relaxed and refreshing summer!
AUGUST MEETING
by Joyce Burkhart
The next SIS meeting will take place at 11.30 a.m. on Monday, August 4, at the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County. We will begin with a short business meeting, followed by lunch and a presentation by Robert J. Doody, Ph.D., Director of the Juvenile Welfare Board Training Center, on understanding personality types, your own and others. After the meeting, librarian (and incoming SIS Vice-President) Trudie Root will offer a tour of the facility.
The Juvenile Welfare Board is located at 6698 68th Avenue North, Suite A. For those coming north or south, just take 66th Street to 68th Avenue North, Pinellas Park. For those coming from Tampa, take I 275 to the Pinellas Park, SR 694 exit. Proceed west (the road becomes Park Boulevard) to 66th St. Turn left and take 66th Street to 68th Avenue, which is just a few blocks south. The Juvenile Welfare Board will be on the west side of 66th Street.
Lunch will be catered by a local deli - sandwiches, salads, drinks and dessert for $5 a person. Please RSVP to Joyce Burkhart, 341-4732, by Thursday, July 31.
MINUTES FROM JUNE MEETING
by Tina Neville
More than forty people turned out for the June dinner meeting at the Westshore
Steak & Ale in Tampa. Several long-time SIS members determined that it may
have been the largest turnout in SIS history! The business portion of the
evening began with the Treasurer's Report when Betsy King announced that, as of
June l, 1997, we had $628.53 in the treasury and 101 paid members.
SIS webmaster Shirl Kennedy requested URLs for members' favorite web sites, to be added to our home page. She also queried the group on their thoughts as to whether the SIS membership directory should be included on our home page. While this might be useful to some, it could also increase the amount of junk mail that we receive. It was noted that personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers should not be included. Betsy King suggested that, instead of adding directory-type information, we might want to add links to members' institutional or personal web pages. It was decided that this issue could be a discussion item for next year's officers.
The next item on the agenda was the annual election. Officers for next year will be:
| President: | Joyce Burkhart |
| VP/President elect: | Trudie Root |
| Secretary: | Debbie Factor |
| Treasurer: | Betsy King |
Many thanks to our colleagues for their willingness to serve SIS in an official capacity. They will take office in September 1997.
The main program for the evening was Ken Kister's discussion of electronic references sources. As many of you know, besides Ken's national reputation as a reference source expert, he is also an insightful and witty speaker. The program began with Ken's declaration that, while he is not a Luddite, he does have a certain sympathy for them. With that statement on the table, he proceeded to describe the origin of the term "Luddite." We then enjoyed a brief excursion into the eighteenth century English world of Ned Lud.
Ken continued his discussion with a review of the many benefits of electronic resources, particularly electronic encyclopedias. Electronic encyclopedias are not limited in size, they are easier to keep updated, they can incorporate multi-media components and they are much more cost-effective than their print equivalents. Of course, electronic references sources are not without their problems. For instance, additional software may be needed to access the resources, making it difficult or impossible for some users to have access. Perhaps the biggest problem with some electronic resources, however, is in quality control. Much of the information, particularly that which is located on the Internet, is outdated, lacks authority or is inaccurate.
The question and answer period following Ken's talk focused on the problem of evaluating information on the Internet. Several SIS members, including Shirl Kennedy and Drew Smith, have been publishing in the area of evaluating the quality of Web sources. The good news is that the word does seem to be getting out that not everything on the Web is accurate or worthwhile. Suggestions for locating quality information included identifying reputable organizations and following their links or, as we often do with print materials, checking several sites to see if the information given is consistent.
This lively discussion flew by at "warp speed" and could have continued for hours. Our thanks to Ken Kister and the many SIS participants for a fascinating and informative evening.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
by Betsy King
Special Libraries Association, Florida and Caribbean Chapter, had a regional meeting on April 11, in St. Petersburg.a part of the Spring Worskhop on "Telecommunications," The workshop was held at the Florida Marine Research Institute and hosted by Jan Boyett. Annual elections were held at the morning meeting. Tim Pasden (Tampa Technical Institute) was elected Secretary; Betsy King (Reflectone) was elected Treasurer.
NATIONAL ONLINE MEETING
by Joyce Burkhart
In May I was fortunate enough to attend the National Online Meeting in New York City. This annual event, sponsored by Information Today magazine, was attended by more than 2,500 librarians, information professionals and information providers. Three days of meetings confirmed my suspicions about the current trend in the provision of electronic information: the Internet is the front runner as the medium of choice. Whenever workshops were offered, those related to the Net were filled to overflowing, while takers for others, even those on CD technology, were relatively few.
Two noteworthy discoveries for me were:
Needless to say, I came home with more ideas than I will ever have the time or opportunity to pursue, but I'm hoping to at least incorporate the very best into my daily job pursuits.
SIS OFFICERS, 1996-1997