Info Newsletter Index
Y2K
Well, Y2K has come and gone. The world is still turning, computers are still up and running, and cash and credit are still legal tender. But, according to Mitch Ratcliffe, ZDNN, only 8% of all date-related errors were expected to hit on January 1, 2000. For an "awareness" update, check out the MSNBC article at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/227483.asp
Future Meetings
If you would like to host a future meeting, or if you have a suggestion for a future program, contact Ray Eydmann, SIS Vice-President, with your ideas.
News to Share
The SIS Newsletter is a great way to share news, conference announcements, achievements, and items of interest with all organization members. Please send your news to the Editor, Nancy Becker, so we can include it in our next newsletter.
From the Florida State Library
Folks interested in electronic intellectual property issues might want to take a look at "The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age" located at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/cpsma/cstbweb.nsf
According to Charles Parker, Florida State Library, "This is the best discussion I have encountered of electronic IP issues." The publication was prepared by the National Research Council's Committee on Intellectual Property Rights and the Emerging Information Infrastructure.
Cheryl Dee has been appointed by the Medical Library Association's Board of Directors to participate on two Medical Library Association task forces: Medical Library Association Mentoring Task Force and Medical Library Association Benchmarking Task Force. Cheryl is serving her fourth year on the National Library of Medicine's National Network of Libraries of Medicine Region 2 Regional Advisory Council.
Shirl Kennedy posted this review.
The Whole Internet: The Next Generation, by Kiersten Conner-Sax and Ed Krol. O'Reilly & Associates, $24.95. ISBN: 1-56592-428-2.
How long have you been on the Net? If you've been doin' the cyberspace thing since the early '90s, there's a good chance you bought, borrowed or at least consulted The Whole Internet: Users Guide and Catalog, published in its original version back in 1992. The newest version, issued in October 1999, is definitely worth a look.if only as a benchmark on the current "State of The Net." There are topics discussed in here that readers of the original edition could never have contemplated - Spam Busting, PalmPilot Browsing, Children and Privacy, Digital Cash, Buying Merchandise Online, High Quality Audio with MP3. You'll also find good, basic info on browsing and searching, creating Web pages, networking your home, managing e-mail, and there's a decent catalog of Web resources, chosen for quality and likely stability.
A couple of opinions, tossed out by the author/authors, did kind of throw me for a loop. The Children and Privacy section begins with the almost shrill declaration that "(t)he Internet is no place for children," opining that none of the resources or educational opportunities to be found online ".are worth the risk that either your child learns information objectionable to you, or that someone objectionable finds your child." The section goes on to offer some good, commonsense rules about protecting yourself online - rules that can readily be transmitted to and understood by any child capable of using the Internet. Why the need for the scare factor, I can't imagine.
I also did a doubletake at the author/author's recommendation that people who are particularly concerned about computer viruses should "consider an alternative operating system such as Linux." Uh, Linux has gotten a wee bit more user-friendly, at least in its shrink-wrapped, commercial incarnations.
But it's definitely not a no-brainer, especially for someone who may be intimidated at the idea of installing, configuring and keeping a good virus scanning program updated.
Of course, what do I know? If you want to go the Linux route, O'Reilly can help you there, too. Pick up a copy of Learning Red Hat Linux by Bill McCarty, $34.95. ISBN: 1-56592-627-7. Included is a complete copy of Red Hat Linux on CD-ROM.
Any questions, suggestions, inclusions, or any other news items or meeting summaries should be sent to Nancy at: nbecker@ij.net.
Epinions - http://www.epinions.com/
A well-designed consumer site that provides unedited opinions and reviews from user members about a broad range of products, services, and travel destinations. Links to professional reviews and buying guides are also available in many categories. Users can rate member reviews for usefulness, and reviewers for "trustworthiness."
Subjects: consumers | shopping
from [LIIWEEK] November 29, 1999
Learning how to update websites
NetLearn: Directory of Internet Learning Resources
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/~sim/research/netlearn/callist.htm
Internet Guides, Tutorials, and Training Information (Library of Congress) http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/internet/training.html
from: SOLOLIB-L, Paul T. Jackson, 10 Dec 1999
Qualitative Research Methods
QualPage -- resources for qualitative researchers. There is a methods section that may be useful.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~jrnorris/qual.html
Methods in Behavioral Research, an online textbook by Paul C. Cozby has a qualitative research section in the chapter Descriptive Methods.
http://methods.fullerton.edu/
Both of these have further links.
from: ResPool Research Network, 10 Dec 1999, Dena Rae
Uncle Sam - Migrating Government Publications -
http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/mig.htm
This page offers direct links to printed federal publications that are migrating to the Internet. The value here is threefold: the links are to the documents (not the opening page of the issuing agency), publications can be found directly by Superintendent of Documents classification number, or, more usefully, alphabetically by publication title. This valuable service is provided by the librarians of the Government Publications Department of the University of Memphis Library, the same people who maintain a similar page of links to electronic forms, Forms from the Feds.
Subjects: governments – federal
from LIIWEEK December 13, 1999
The February meeting will be held on Wed. Feb 9th at Mease Morton Plant. Karen Roth will host us as we view an SLA video on marketing the library, entitled "Selling the Invisible."
Arrivals after 5:30 p.m. with dinner/video [it is 90 minutes] to begin at 6 p.m.
Details on the cost of the meal will be available later this month. If you are planning to attend, please send an RSVP to Ray Eydmann at 813-228-1207 or email to: eydmanr@juno.com .
Directions from Tampa via Hwy 60 (Courtney Campbell Causeway):
Directions from Tampa via I-275:
The December meeting was held on Thursday, December 2, 1999 at TBLC (Tampa Bay Library Consortium) headquarters.
These notes on the TBLC presentation were taken by Ray Eydmann (TECO, VP of SIS):
Diane Solomon, Director Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) addressed the members.
She opened by discussing a group discount that TBLC has negotiated for members to attend Computers in Libraries 2000. Registration sent through TBLC is $129, a substantial discount from the regular $299 registration. Registrations must be sent to TBLC before February 15, 2000. Contact TBLC for more information.
TBLC was founded about 20 years ago as a multi-type library consortium. There are now six multi-type consortiums in the state. There are also public library cooperatives such as the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative and the Heartland Cooperative. Polk County has also formed a public library cooperative. The cooperatives work closely with the State Library of Florida. All cooperatives receive state library cooperative aid funded by the legislature. The current level of funding is $200,000 / cooperative; however, the authority has been raised to $400,000, although that level has not been funded.
TBLC is also looking at the formation of a Friends groups to assist the consortium. TBLC has 92 member libraries - 26 academic, a number of public libraries and special libraries both corporate and public. TBLC is funded by state and federal funding, member dues, grants and cost recovery services.
Diane discussed the grant the consortium has received to implement an 'Any Time, Any Where Library.' This will allow patrons to search across nine automated systems, see if materials are available and then allow patrons with a library card to be authorized and request ILLs. The system should be fully implemented by December 2000. It will be phased in beginning early next year and will allow mediated and unmediated ILLs.
TBLC is also investigating group purchases for electronic resources - TBLC would act as a broker for the group.
Diane introduced Karen Wilber, coordinator Continuing Education. Karen discussed TBLC's continuing education workshops and the lists that are available through TBLC. Information about and registration for the lists id available at lists.tblc.org.
Karen also discussed the Continuing Education Survey TBLC is conducting to see what workshops are in demand. TBLC also has teleconferences available; these are videotaped and then the videos can be checked out by staff who could not make the teleconference. TBLC is planning on making a list available on the TBLC website.
TBLC has also established a portable lab which allows them to provide on-site training for libraries where it is not possible for staff to attend training at TBLC. TBLC is also looking for instructors; if you have a specialty to share, contact Karen.
Diane then discussed TBLC's strategic plan. TBLC has recognized the need for increased Continuing Education. Karen is working to grow those services for TBLC libraries [Karen is the first full-time CE coordinator for TBLC]. TBLC is also looking to develop general advocacy and public relations strategies which libraries can use. This is in recognition that libraries sometimes are not as skilled at these important functions as they could be.
As part of its plan to better serve member libraries TBLC has formed a number of planning committees. Diane encouraged anyone who is interested in working on one of the committees to contact TBLC.
Additional services TBLC provide to members are the facilitation of OCLC ILL group access, the local contact for the state-wide ground delivery service - DLLI / Orange bags, and the Union List of Serials.
Some TBLC libraries have formed Sunline, an automated catalog and circulation system and the libraries are looking for ways to include smaller libaries in the system by allowing them to come in as 'branches' instead of agencies. This greatly reduces the cost involved.
After Diane completed her discussion of TBLC the meeting was adjourned.
SIS Minutes, December 2, 1999.
President
Mary Kaye Raddatz, St. Petersburg Junior College, Seminole Campus
727/394-6136, raddatzm@spjc.edu
Secretary
C D McLean, Paradyne Corp., Largo
727/530-8206, cmclean@paradyne.com
Newsletter Editor
Nancy Becker, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, Tampa
727/867-2005 nbecker@ij.net
Suncoast Information Specialists
c/o Tampa Bay Library Consortium
1202 Tech Boulevard, Suite 202
Tampa, FL 33619
Phone: (813) 622-8252
Email: sis@tblc.org
URL: http://tblc.org/sis/