SUNCOAST INFORMATION SPECIALISTS
INFO NEWSLETTER
VOL 12, NO. 1
JANUARY 1998
WEB SITE ADDRESS: http://snoopy.tblc.lib.fl.us/sis/
EDITOR'S CORNER
by Jackie Jackson
Happy New Year to all members of SIS (I write this in the first week of January although it will not be read until later in the month - by which time everyone will be well embroiled in their normal activities and the holidays will be a memory!) For those of us who are counting down to the turn of the century - we have less than two years to go! Here is a website with the appropriate clock:
http://www.stud.ntnu.no/USERBIN/steffent/aar2000.pl?e
For those SIS members who are not FLA members and did not receive the latest issue of Florida Libraries, FLA now has a website (we beat them to it!). It is:
http://www.fau.edu/library/fla/flahome.htm
The Annual Conference and Exhibition will again be held in Tampa, April 27-30, 1998. FLA is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
FEBRUARY MEETING
by Trudie Root
The SIS meeting for February will be held in the evening on Monday, February 2, 1998 at Reflectone, Inc. The meeting will start at 6:00 p.m. with a cold supper (approximate cost of $10 per person). After eating we will have a roundtable discussion on a topic relevant to our profession, followed by a tour of the Reflectone facility and Betsy’s NEW library.
Please RSVP to Betsy King, (kingb@cftnet.com or 887-1658 by end-of-day on Thursday, January 28th.
Reflectone is in Tampa, about 2 miles north of Tampa International Airport, near the southeast corner of Anderson Road and Waters Avenue, in Tampa West Industrial Park. The Park is accessible from either Waters Avenue or Anderson Boulevard. For a map, see:
http://www.reflectone.com/Main/directio.htm
Suggested directions:
From Pinellas County take I-275 to Tampa to the Dale Mabry exit. Go north on Dale Mabry for 5 miles to the corner of Dale Mabry and Waters Avenue. From USF and east Tampa, take Busch Blvd. west across town. Exit Busch at Dale Mabry and go south 1 mile to Waters Ave.
At the Dale Mabry/Waters intersection (Burger King on NW corner), go west on Waters about 1.3 miles (past the railroad tracks) and turn left onto Saverese Circle (United Technologies and Federal Express at the intersection). At the stop sign, turn right and follow the road around until you get to Reflectone. Park in the front parking lot and go to the main lobby.
If you would like to attend February’s meeting, but find the cost prohibitive, please contact Joyce Burkhart (burkhartj@mail.spjc.cc.fl.us or 341-4732). SIS has set aside funds to subsidize members who might otherwise be unable to attend some of our special events.
MINUTES FROM DECEMBER MEETING
by Debbie Factor
The December 8 meeting of the Suncoast Information Specialists was held in the St. Petersburg Times Tramore Cafeteria. There were 19 in attendance with three first time visitors. Thanks to Cary Kenney for providing the space, a very interesting program and an excellent lunch. Also many thanks for the wonderful support of the St. Petersburg Times through the years.
The next meeting will be in the evening at Reflectone in Tampa. There will be an announcement in the next letter about the dinner meeting. Students or other interested people can contact Joyce Burkhart for a subsidy, if needed.
Bahaa el Hadidy, Dean Emeritus of the USF library science school, approached SIS about co-sponsoring a meeting with the American Society for Information Science (ASIS). He met with the officers before the general meeting and it was agreed there would be a joint meeting or workshop in the Spring. Joyce Burkhart will meet with Bahaa el Hadidy to discuss the program or speaker. ASIS will provide the speakers, location and money. SIS will handle the publicity and organizing. It was moved and seconded that SIS enter into a one time joint meeting with ASIS. ASIS will have a May meeting on telecommunications cooperation in Orlando.
Treasurer Betsy King reported we have $672.28 in the treasury. Fifty four members are paid through 1998. We seem to be holding steady with about 100 members.
Diane Solomon was contacted about getting a Listserv which could provide a way for open unmoderated area wide communication. Diane has to contact the TBLC Board for the software, and Betsy King agreed to be the List owner.
Jackie Jackson said she would be glad to hear from members who attend conferences, etc. or have any information/news they would like to share with the membership through the newsletter.
Betsy King reported that she has two drawers full of SIS archives-- mostly old directories, newsletters and financial materials. She would like to find a place to house this information. Trudy Root, Jordana Bernstein and Debbie Factor will work on this.
Joyce Burkhart announced she will be conducting two workshops on the Internet for TBLC. On February 26 the subject will be the Internet and on March 26 the class will be on advanced research using Search engines and new trends. Both classes will be held from 9:00 to noon. Joyce is also teaching two weekend courses on the Internet. These are one credit courses held at SPJC. The first, from February 6 to February 8, concerns electronic access to information, and the second from February 27 - March 1 will be Introduction to the Internet as a Research Tool. Congratulations to Joyce for the acceptance by the Popular Culture Association of her proposal to make a presentation on the image of a librarian as a romantic heroine at their national conference in April. Her paper is entitled "Of Love, Libraries and Librarians".
It was suggested that SIS collect photographs of librarians and their libraries for our Archives. Jackie Jackson recommended that the librarians be responsible for taking the photographs and submitting them. Another idea was to have past presidents write annual reports to be kept in the SIS Archives.
After the luncheon meeting we were divided into two groups for our tour of the St. Petersburg Times Newslibrary and Graphics Section.
The librarians at the Newslibrary are John Martin and Barbara Oliver. John Martin conducted the tour. The Newslibrary contains approximately 2,000 reference books, some journals and microfilm of the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune, and 50 years of the New York Times. Research is done mostly online using Lexus Nexus, Dow Jones and Dialog.
Reporters do their own searches of the clips in the archives. By the end of January everyone will be on Pentium 2's. There is an Intranet site which links to particular Web sites and is for access solely in the newsroom. It’s set up in basic categories such as Computer Assisted Reporting, Virtual News Researcher, Newsroom Technology and Training, and grouped according to areas such as Nation and World, Metro and States, Sports, Florida Business, etc. There is a LISTSERV of news librarians. If reporters don’t find the information they need using these sources, they will use the USF or Tampa Public libraries or document delivery.
The URL for the St. Petersburg Times web site is:
http://www.sptimes.com
After visiting the Newslibrary we were taken to the 4th floor where Claire Giglio showed us the Graphics Section. The Graphics Archives (art) were started in 1990 and the images and photo graphics collection began in 1992. About 126,000 images are available today. Fifty percent of the material used comes from the filing system. Graphics and photos are used only on the editorial side of the newspaper. The St. Petersburg Times is a member of Associated Press and can access their graphics for a fee.
Material comes from a satellite to a live system, and then can be retrieved and put into the archives. The Graphics Section also has maps, charts, diagrams and up to two years of film. It was interesting to see images were retrieved online as well as from photo files.
Our appreciation goes to the St. Petersburg Times for their hospitality and a very interesting visit.
SIS ADDRESS
Suncoast Information Specialists
c/o Tampa Bay Library Consortium
1202 Tech Blvd., Suite 202
Tampa FL 33619Phone(813) 622-8252
Fax(813) 628-4425
URL: http://snoopy.tblc.lib.fl.us/sis/
SIS OFFICERS, 1997-1998
President -- Joyce Burkhart (St. Petersburg Junior College, (St. Petersburg
Campus)
(813) 341-4732, (burkhartj@email.spjc.cc.fl.us
Vice-President -- Trudie Root (Juvenile Welfare Board, Pinellas County)
(813) 547-5671, (hn3750@handsnet.org)
Secretary -- Debbie Factor, 167 Almero Way NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33704
(813) 896-8962.
Treasurer -- Betsy King (Reflectone, Inc.)
887-1658 (kingb@cftnet.com)
Newsletter Editor -- Jackie Jackson (Poynter Library, USF-St. Pete)
(813) 553-3581 (jackson@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu)
Webmaster -- Shirl Kennedy (Honeywell, Inc.)
(813)539-3256 (sdk@mindspring.com)