SIS INFO
Vol. 13, No. 4
July 1999
Have any of you guys dipped your big toes into the roiling waters of the online auction world yet? Me neither, but both my brother and my oldest son are hopelessly addicted. In the August issue of PC World, a special report called "Sold! How to Win at Web Auctions," offers plenty of advice for both newbies and the addicted alike.
Online auctions basically come in two flavors - "merchant" (which deal mainly in manufacturers’ overstocks and refurbished items) and "person-to-person" (which exist as venues to bring individual buyers and sellers together). PC World reviewed a number of online auction, and chose Ebay (www.ebay.com) as the top person-to-person site and Onsale (www.onsale.com) as the top merchant site.
Before you place a bid, PC world advises that you take the following steps:
PC World also offers advice on how to avoid auction scams, how to bid by proxy and what exactly happens after you score the winning bid - how you "get the goods." Read the whole special report, with live links at PC World’s Web site: h ttp://www.pcworld.com/heres_how/article/0,1400,11503,00.html
And while you’re out there on the Net, check out these URLs as well:
The next meeting is a luncheon meeting on August 2, 1999, 11:30 am -1:00 pm at Raytheon in St. Petersburg, Florida. Sue Weiss, the Raytheon Technical Information Center librarian, will be the host.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much bandwidth. Kerry Huelle, an account representative from Road Runner, Time Warner's high speed online access company, will talk about cable modem access to the Internet.
Where:
Raytheon Systems Company
1501 72nd St. North; St. Petersburg, FL
727-302-2182
When: August 2, 1999, 11:30am - 1:00pm or a little later
Meal:
Lunch will be about $ 6.50. Selections are
RSVP:
Mary Kaye Raddatz, raddatzm@spjc.edu, or 727-341-3657 by Monday,
July 26th.
When you RSVP, let Mary Kaye know:
Directions:
Raytheon is south of Tyrone Mall off 22nd Avenue North; turn South on 72nd
Street North, across from Azalea Park. North lot is first on left, South Lot is
beyond the flag pole on left.
Parking is available in visitor and non-numbered spots in the South and North parking lots. Check the South lot first, since the non-numbered spots in the North lot are a farther walk. Alternate parking would be on the streets, but not convenient. 15 slots have been requested in South lot (across from Azalea Park off 72nd St N), but this will probably not be enough for everyone. The North lot is at least 10 minutes farther from the meeting location, so it would be best to allow for this extra walk. You will have to park and come in to the closest lobby (Engineering at South lot and Guard's Post in North Lot) to call x2182 for escort to the meeting site.
SIS meeting: May 18, 1999
Tampa-Hillsborough County's Main Library was the site for SIS's meeting on May 18, 1999. The May date was chosen in place of the regular June meeting due to a scheduling conflict with SLA in June.
Upon convening in the library's auditorium, our group of 34 enjoyed a catered
buffet and had time for catching up on everyone's news. After dinner, since
President Trudie Root was attending a meeting in New York City, Vice-President
Mary Kaye Raddatz presided over the business meeting. Mary Kaye also introduced
our much-anticipated speaker, John Iliff, who spoke on web site development. The
meeting ended with an opportunity to
tour the Main Library's computer lab, funded by the Gates Library Foundation's
1997 grant.
After opening the meeting, President Mary Kaye Raddatz asked for any changes to the minutes of the prior meeting. Since no changes were given, the minutes were approved.
Betsy King gave the treasurer's report, indicating that for fiscal year 1998-99, we had 92 paid members. Our treasury balance as of May 18 was $549.99.
This being the meeting for the election of next year's officers, Mary Kaye presented the following slate and asked for other nominations:
Mary Kaye, our current Vice-President, will automatically become President next year. The motion was made and seconded that the slate be accepted.
We elected the new officers with a show of hands.
Mary Kaye announced an upcoming reception the following Thursday at Stetson University College of Law to honor Madison Mosley. We all congratulate Madison on his up-coming term as President of the Florida Library Association. He assumes office July 1, 1999.
Mary Kaye urged members to contribute to our newsletter, especially to send write-ups on workshops/conventions they have attended. Our web site and listserv are under-utilized. Officers get frequent calls for information that is available on these two sources.
Web site: http://tblc.org/sis/
Listserv: SIS-L
To post messages send your message to SIS-L@lists.tblc.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your email address or other options, or to view archived postings, go to http://lists.tblc.org/mailman/listinfo/sis-l
Records show that 30% of the members who have e-mail have not subscribed to the listserv. Be sure to let Betsy King know if she can drop your paper copy of the newsletter.
[Editor's addendum: Note that the TBLC list manager software has recently changed, and therefore the subscription directions have also changed -- to a much simpler, web-based system. If you have difficulties subscribing, etc., email the listowner at sis@tblc.org for assistance. All current SIS-L subscribers have been transferred and do not need to do anything.]
John Iliff is renowned in the library world for early and continuing interest in making the best use of computers in libraries. Although he has spoken all over the country on technology and libraries, we can claim him as our neighbor, since he was for many years the leader in web page design and reference librarian for Pinellas Park Public Library.
Recently, John has entered the business world and is Internet Research Librarian for Global Employment Solutions, Inc. He works at home out of a virtual office with co-workers in such far-flung places as New Hampshire, Tallahassee, and Orlando. Part of the management is in Tallahassee, and company headquarters is in Colorado. Everyone keeps in touch via AOL Instant Messenger.
In his presentation centered around some of his pet peeves about web page design, John gave us some valuable tips.
He dislikes HTML. Browsers will do what they will with the "markup" suggestions of HTML. Sites do not look the same when viewed on different browsers or different browser versions, so do not expect perfection. If you are in the market, a new browser to examine is Mozilla (www.mozilla.org).
Monitors have different resolutions. You should settle on a couple of base resolutions and can test them on your computer with Windows options.
Do not use a lot of graphics; they are slow in loading and are frequently pointless. One half to one-third of the people looking at your site will not have the same speed as you do on your computer. A 28.8 modem is a good test for a baseline. A good site for testing your web page is netmechanic.com. Here, you can check the speed of loading, check for bad links, and check your HTML.
Learn Java Script and insert it into your HTML to help with navigation, etc. The publisher O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. has a good HTML book: HTML The Definitive Guide, by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy.
Remember that architecture underlies and makes a site work. John recommends another O'Reilly and Associates book, Information Architeture for the World Wide Web, written by two librarians, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville.
Put yourself in the place of the user. Be consistent with instructions, signage, and commands on the web site. Do not use too much library jargon, e.g., "bibliographic instruction." Test your site and target a baseline user.
Ask yourself, "Why do a web site?" and "For whom?" The site should be a team effort so that one person does not claim ownership, with that resulting in a loss of objectivity. In addition to co-workers' input, there should be opportunities for users' feedback and comments. If comments are hostile, give them consideration and do not just become defensive.
John feels that libraries in a certain area should divvy up
information for their web pages and make sure to offer information that is
unique (e.g., Clearwater's inclusion of City Council agendas).
Pinellas Park had 50,000 - 60,000 hits per month on its site, and 2/3 of
them were for its links to the state offices of vital records and offices
for unclaimed funds.
One bit of local information John has little use for. He thinks library
layout maps on a web page are pointless. Remember your broad audience on the
web and the wide geographic spread.
Development tools John uses for editing include Notepad and UltraEdit. UltraEdit, which is preconfigured for HTML and Java, etc., also does automatic backups. It is shareware which can be downloaded from www.tucows.com.
Remember that web page creation tools, such as Frontpage tend to be couched for particular browsers, and you need to know the underlying code.
John created a site for us to consult that will reinforce his comments and give us additional information. See:
www.mylibrarian.com
We very much appreciate the opportunity to learn from John's expertise.
At the close of our program in the auditorium, Marilyn Sheck and Judy Iglesias of Tampa-Hillsborough's Main Library took us up to the second floor to see the Gates lab.
From the 1997 Gates Library Foundation grant, Tampa-Hillsborough installed 20 terminals at the Main Library, 16 at Ybor City, and 4 at College Hill. Tampa-Hillsborough was the only library in Florida to receive the large grant that year.
The purpose of the grant, established by Bill and Melinda Gates and now called the Gates Library Initiative, is to diminish the "digital divide" among the population. It is intended eventually to be offered world-wide.
The grant does not cover staff. However, at Tampa-Hillsborough, it has covered equipment, staff training, lesson materials, and technical support for the lab. Staff was sent to Technical Resource in Seattle for training. Everything provided has been high quality.
The intention is to proceed from training the staff, to training groups, to training the public. The groups currently being trained are organized classes. Eventually, training will be given to staff from other libraries and organizations.
With the second round of funding (from the Gates Library Initiative through the state of Florida), Tampa-Hillsborough hopes to establish 11 more sites.
We congratulate them on their grant awards and on their work and initiative to obtain these services for our community.
-- Mary Marna Brady, Secretary
SIS OFFICERS, 1998-1999
| President | Trudie Root: Juvenile Welfare Board, Pinellas County 727/547-5671, troot@jwbpinellas.org |
| Vice President | Mary Kaye Raddatz, St. Petersburg Junior College,
Health Education Center 727/341-3657, raddatzm@spjc.edu |
| Secretary | Mary Marny Brady, 2601 53rd Street N, St., Petersburg,
FL 33710 727/323-0078, sfzznsh1@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.u s |
| Treasurer | Betsy King, Reflectone, Inc, Tampa 813/887-1658, kingb@cftnet.com |
| Newsletter Editor | Shirl Kennedy, City of Clearwater/Clearwater Public
Library Sys 727/462-6800 (x254), skennedy@reporters.net |
| Immediate Past President (87-98) |
Joyce Burkhart, St. Petersburg Junior College,
Seminole Campus 727/394-8775, burkhartj@spjc.edu |