Info Newsletter Index

From the Editor:  In this issue of SIS INFO, we bring you information about our next meeting, notes from previous meetings, and a brief article about the "Invisible Web" session at the Florida Library Association annual conference. I invite you to submit articles for future issues of SIS INFO. Please e-mail me at aliciae@tampabay.rr.com. Thanks!   - Alicia Ellison

Next Meeting, June 9, 2003

WHEN and WHERE. Monday, June 9, 2003, 6:00 p.m.
CAE USA http://cae.com (formerly BAE Systems and Reflectone)
4908 Tampa West Blvd, Tampa Florida 33634
813-887-1658 (library)
813-887-1658 (direct library phone)
813-885-7481 (main switchboard)

PROGRAM. Diana Sachs will give a presentation on the Florida Virtual Reference project and Anywhere Anytime Library (AlleyCat). Diana  is the TBLC Virtual Reference Coordinator and is currently working with CCLA on developing a statewide collaborative e-mail and chat reference service for all libraries in the state of Florida. She was previously at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County as their digital librarian, where she was the team leader for chat and email reference services as well as the library's consumer health web site, and a reference librarian.

FOOD. Dinner will be a catered buffet. Cost to be announced later, less than $10.00.

RSVP to kingbet@tampabay.rr.com or leave a voice mail at 813-887-1658 no later than Thursday, June 5, 2003. In fairness to our sponsor, we need to consider your positive response an obligation to attend, even though there will be no cost to us for the meal. Late reservations will be accepted only as space allows.

DIRECTIONS. The CAE facility is a secured facility, so all attendees must enter the front lobby between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Dinner will be served beginning at 6 p.m. If you can not make it prior to 6:00 p.m., please contact Betsy to make advance arrangements. Anyone arriving late can still get into the building. However, those who anticipate getting here after 6:00 should let Betsy know in advance if possible, so we can be on the lookout for them.

CAE 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. Contact Betsy for detailed instructions or see Mapquest® Interactive Map.

Past Meeting, April 7, 2003, Eckerd College

Notes from the meeting: 

Nineteen people (Paula McCahon, Judy Mullen, Betsy King, Ray Eydman, Theresa Burress, Harriet Thompkins, Tina Neville, Ramsay Jones, Karen Wilber, Alicia Ellison, Jean Andrews, Lexie Schwabel, Marie Miller, Joe Preston, Matthew Hatch, Mary Stull, Robin Leigh, and Beverly De Stories) attended the April 7 SIS meeting at Eckerd College. The meeting was hosted by Anita Lindsay, SIS President. Anita presented the evening's program, "Why Marketing and Mentoring Matters," from a biographical perspective.

 Anita moved to St. Petersburg from Live Oak, Florida, in 1988. She described how Workforce contacted her about placement testing and funding for an A.S. degree at Saint Petersburg Junior College. With the support of her caseworker, she was also able to negotiate funding for an A.A. degree towards marketing management.

A week after graduating from SPJC, she registered for classes at USF-St. Petersburg. Her first class was LIS 2001-Use of the Library, taught by Tina Neville of Nelson-Poynter Library.

In 1996, Anita graduated from USF with a bachelor's degree in mass communications, with a public relations and magazine journalism focus. She then felt ready to find employment.

She worked part-time for Pinellas Park Fire Prevention as a public education specialist. During that nine-month period, she created and implemented the Elder Safety Program (ESP): Fire Safety, Hurricane Preparedness and Falls Prevention. When fall turned the corner, she once again drove to USF-St. Petersburg to register for classes.

As an undergraduate living in St. Petersburg, she benefited from her contact with the librarians at Nelson-Poynter Library. She admired Tina's professional approach to library and information science and Jackie's friendliness and encouragement. Anita decided that the MLIS program would also suit her.

During her two years at USF in the MLIS program, she benefited from the interest faculty took in their students' progress. Cheryl Dee, Derrie Perez, Vicky Gregory, Kathleen Mc Cook, Elaine Yontz and many others in the profession encouraged involvement in professional organizations. Anita served as secretary of ALA Student Chapter and then as the organization's president.

During those two years, she attended four conferences funded by professional organizations or program grants. At ALA, she presented a poster titled Synergy - a Powerpoint collage of ALA student chapter activities. The poster now resides on a wall in the SLIS department of the CIS building.

While on a conference bus at a MLA conference in Lexington, Kentucky, she overheard a librarian sitting behind her say she worked at the Health Sciences Library in Memphis. Anita turned around introduced herself and said, "I graduate in May; hire me."

Email addresses were exchanged. Follow-up by Anita led to an interview and job offer. She also interviewed at Vanderbilt for a fellowship but was unable to follow through with either opportunity because of a sudden decline in her father's health.

Also during her MLIS course of study, faculty members told Anita that she needed experience in an academic library if she hoped to find employment in the Tampa Bay area. She applied to the USF's Health Sciences Library for a graduate assistant's position and was hired.

Anita worked at the Health Sciences Library until graduation. During that time both Danny O'Neal and John Orriola supported her professional goals. She created database handouts and Web pages, as well as provided library orientation and bibliographic instruction.

John Orriola encouraged her to apply for a part-time position at Eckerd College Library. He said, "You need experience in applying for a job. Eckerd Library is a good place to work. If they offer it to you, you can decide then whether or not you want to accept the position."

Anita said, "So I did and they did. I worked at Eckerd Library three years part time and am now into my second year of full time as a visiting professor. David Henderson, acting director, and Jamie Gill Hastreiter, technical services librarian, both provide professional insight and support on this portion of my professional journey."

Marketing yourself and your institution matters. Mentoring students and those new to the profession or the area matters. Students and new librarians need the direction and encouragement of seasoned professionals.

Anita said, "My marketing message to you: get out there, sign up, communicate, and share yourself professionally. My mentoring message to you: seek out a mentor, become a mentor or protégé, communicate and share yourself professionally. Marketing and mentoring is about communication - it's as simple as that."

Tina Neville, as head of the FACRL Mentoring Task Force, has almost completed the FACRL Mentoring Program guidelines, to be finalized at FLA.

Who is interested in more information on becoming a mentor?

Who is interested in more information about becoming a protégé?

Please contact Tina following the meeting. Email: neville@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu

(Notes submitted by Anita Lindsay, SIS President.)

Past Meeting, February 20, 2003, MacDill AFB

The meeting was held at McDill Air Force base on February 20th. A buffet dinner was presented to over 40 participants, many of whom came from outside the Hillsborough/Pinellas area. The keynote speaker was Jay Hines, Historian for U.S. Central Command.

Kathy Kaldenberg, Vice President, introduced Mr. Hines. He discussed his role as historian and the events leading up to his appointment. He emphasized the valuable role the library at the Air Force base provided to his research. The Central Command is concerned with the areas of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Various publications created by Central Command were distributed. After the speech, Mr Hines answered some questions from the audience.

Participants then carpooled to the library on the base. Ms. Kaldenberg announced that she and her family would be moving out of state and that a vacancy for the Vice Presidency would be created. She and Bill Foster, the library's director, gave a tour of the facilities. The dinner began at 6:30 and the meeting ended at approximately 8:45.

Respectfully submitted,
Paul Wetmore,
Secretary

“The Invisible Web” Session at FLA

Think you’re “searching the Web” when you use your favorite search engine? Wrong! What you’re really searching is the search engine’s database. And there is a lot of stuff – more than 80% of Internet-based information – that is undetected by search engines. This “Invisible Web” consists of many resources that are often of much higher quality that the visible Web.

Chris Sherman, co-author with librarian Gary Price of The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See (2001), spoke at the Florida Library Association annual conference in April. He shared these and many other insights, tips and tools as the featured speaker during FLA's Internet Interest Group session.

Sherman started with an anatomy of search engines, and an overview of how they work. He then described techniques for using general search engines, specialty search engines, and other tools to uncover news, real-time information, company documents, and other materials that reside on the web – but that are usually “invisible.”

The content of Sherman's presentation – including search strategies and links to finding aids (specialty search engines and invisible-web directories) – can be found at these sites:

• http://www.searchwise.net/p/iw-fla2003.pdf (slide presentation)
• http://www.searchwise.net/p/iw-fla2003.htm (directory of links discussed in the presentation)

-Alicia Ellison
SIS Newsletter Editor