Library Juice 3:11 - March 15, 2000


Contents:

1. HighWire Press Announces Free Access to over 130,000 Articles
2. _Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology_
3. Summary of responses to Information Literacy query
4. Indexes of Conference Proceedings
5. Interview with Shirl Kennedy
6. Marxists Internet Archive
7. The Real Beer Page
8. five golden rules to librarianship


Quote for the week:

"I dream of a zine that startles me.  I am amazed at how similar in
format many zines are to their mass media counterparts.  It's not enough
to just take a different position than Newsweek.  How about questioning
the validity of any position at all?  The fundamental assumption of nearly
all publications available today is that there is a right and a wrong, and
this writer knows which is which.  Come on!  Truth is a figment.  All
things change.  When a zine professes certainty about who should be
president or what we should do with murderers, I am often frustrated. 
I am not reading to find out what I ought to believe; I don't want to
be converted.  I'd like to see more people admitting their confusion,
exploring the truly ambiguous nature of nearly every important issue in
modern consciousness..."

-E. Persimmon, "I dream of a zine..."  _A reader's guide to the
underground press_ No. 12.


Home page of the week: Norman Buchwald
http://www.library.arizona.edu/users/buchwaln/index.html

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1. HighWire Press Announces Free Access to over 130,000 Articles

Free Online Full-text Articles
http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl
Press Release
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/00/000301highwire.html
HighWire Press
http://highwire.stanford.edu/

In yet another major step forward in the provision of free
scholarship online, Stanford University's HighWire Press (last
reviewed in the February 16, 2000 _Scout Report_) has announced that
publishers of the science, technology, and medicine journals it hosts
now provide free online access to the full text of more than 137,000
articles. This makes HighWire "the second-largest free full-text
science archive in the world - and the largest in the life sciences -
with three entirely free journals, 51 journals offering free back
issues and 32 offering free trial access." Please note that the
availability of back issues and length of the free trial period vary
widely by journal. Users can consult the site for a list of
participating journals, the back issues they offer, and the ending
date of the free trial period. Click on the journal's name to access
the articles. As an additional service to users who subscribe (as
individuals or through their institution), some journals offer
"toll-free linking" of articles, which allows users to access the
full text of related articles from other journals whether or not they
subscribe to those journals. [MD]

> From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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2. _Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology_

http://www.harcourt.com/dictionary/

Academic Press along with Harcourt Inc. has made available the
_Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology_. The site is
designed as a free scientific resource for educators, librarians,
students, business professionals, scientists, and researchers. Users
can perform a keyword search or browse scientific topics such as
Engineering Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine, Physical Sciences,
Mathematics and Computer Science, and Social Sciences. From these
broad topics, users can select from over 130 specific fields,
bringing up lists of terms for that specialization. Entries include a
short description of terms, and some illustrations and .wav
recordings of pronunciation. [JEB]

> From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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3. Summary of responses to Information Literacy query


From: Esther Grassian <estherg[at]library.ucla.edu>

Hello. A non-librarian friend forwarded this message to me. It's long, but
I thought it might interest BI-L subscribers. I don't remember
seeing it on BI-L--apologies in advance if it's a duplicate.
   Esther

Esther Grassian
Instructional Services Coordinator
UCLA College Library
Box 951450
L.A., CA  90095-1450
Phone: (310) 206-4410
Fax: (310) 206-9312
Email: estherg[at]library.ucla.edu

>From CIO Digest - 3 Mar 2000 to 6 Mar 2000 (#2000-36)

Date:    Mon, 6 Mar 2000 11:57:40 -0800
From:    Bret Ingerman <ingerman[at]LCLARK.EDU>
Subject: Summary of responses to Information Literacy query

It has taken a while, but here is a summary of the responses that I
received to my query about Information Literacy requirements.  I have
included quotes from the respondents, as well as any url's that they
provided or that I could dig up on my own.  I have also included
contact information for each summary.

The list is somewhat long, but I think it represents a very
interesting cross-section of approaches to this issue.  Thank you all
for sharing the information...I know it will help in our own
endeavors along this line.

>=============================================================

The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher  Education
is  a good document to look at.  You can view the "parent" web site:
http://www.ala.org/acrl/infolit.html  which offers a few additional
links to  materials.  [thanks to Jim Kopp at Lewis & Clark College,
kopp[at]lclark.edu;  and  John Balling at  Willamette University,
jballing[at]willamette.edu]

The University of Calgary has a  Library of the Future Task Force on
Information  Literacy.   They, in turn, have a White Paper available
at
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/departments/INFO/library/lftf/WP3-1.html
It is  slowly on  its way to becoming a formal requirement. [thanks
to Morven Wilson at  the University of  Calgary, jmwilson[at]ucalgary.ca]

Calvin College has an ad hoc committee on Research and Information
Technology  whose  task is to develop a Research and Information
Technology core course  (they are one of 3 ad  hoc committees working
on parts of the new core  curriculum).  They presented their results
to the faculty last month.  Their  web site is at:
http://www.calvin.edu/admin/rit/   [Thanks  to Henry DeVries at
Calvin College, hdevries[at]calvin.edu]

Villanova University "...has an information Literacy program in place
to educate  students how to navigate the Web intelligently. We do not
have a computer  literacy program in place and are not sure if it is
really needed as more an  more freshmen are computer literate when
they come here." [thanks to Karin  Steinbrenner  at Villanova
University, karin.steinbrenner[at]villanova.edu]

East Tennessee State University "...requires all freshman to take a
"Using  Information Technology" course that is now mainly taught
online.  All students  must complete a technology-intensive course
before graduation..."  [thanks to  Carl Dury at East Tennessee State
University,  Duryc[at]ACCESS.ETSU.EDU, who  suggests contacting Dr.
Linda  Doran, Assoc. Provost, doran[at]etsu.edu, for more  info]

Wheaton College has a "New Century Challenge" that incorporates
technology and  its use.   Info is at
http://www.wheaton.edu/President/newcentury.html [thanks  to Karen
Leach at  Colgate University, kleach[at]mail.colgate.edu]

Caroll College (Wisconsin) "...has a computer competency graduation
requirement  that is supposed to be satisfied in the freshman year.
Until this last fall,  this was normally  satisfied through a
computer lab attached to the freshmen  year seminar and taught by the
comp sci dept.  A half-semester compsci course  was an alternative.
Last summer this  responsibility was moved to ITS.."  Their  web page
describes this as a "...Freshman Year  Seminar...Computer
Familiarization course. The purpose of this part of FYS100L is to
introduce  you to computing tools that will be useful both in your
work here at Carroll   College and also in your off-campus
life...FYS100L consists of 7 modules that  are  essentially tutorials
on topics  related to computing at Carroll College  and using
computers  in general...FYS100L also includes optional in-class
tutorials that cover the same  information contained in the on-line
modules..."    The web site is at:  http://carroll1.cc.edu/~fyscl/
[thanks to Janet Price at  Carroll College,  jprice[at]carroll1.cc.edu]

  The University of Rhode Island has "...developed a 3 credit
Information  Literacy course  that can be taken as part of the
general ed. requirement here  at URI.  We also have developed a 1
credit lab course that can be added into  general introductory
courses in a  particular major.  Thus far, on an  experimental basis.
we have offered this 1 credit course  in conjunction with an
introductory business course..."  Information about the courses can
be found at
http://www.uri.edu/library/instruction_services/instruction.html#LIB
120   [thanks to Paul Gandel at URI, gandel[at]uriacc.uri.edu, who
suggests contacting   Mary MacDonald, a library faculty member, for
more details, marymac[at]URI.EDU]

The University of New Brunswick (Canada) is addressing this issue
with what they  refer  to as their FITness program.  This is based
upon a book entitled "Being  Fluent with  Information Technology"
which was created by the National Resource  Council (see
http://stills.nap.edu/html/beingfluent/).  UNB wants to  "...develop
a Web based literacy program that all students will be required to
complete. We then want to encourage  all faculty to build on this
program by  having students use their FITness skills in upper  year
classes to post material  to Web sites, plot and analyze data, give
presentations, search  for on-line  resources, etc.... The members of
the UNB Teaching and Technology  Roundtable  group recommend that the
University move aggressively to adopt a FITness   initiative aimed at
improving the information technology skills of the entire
multi-campus community.  Every student who graduates from UNB should
have a good  working  knowledge of basic IT skills and these skills
should be used  extensively throughout the  entire curriculum...We
feel the University should  develop (and maintain) a Web-based
FITness course. The on-line course would be  available 24 hours a day
to all students (from  the day they are admitted) and  to employees.
Students completing this required course  would receive credit on
their transcript. The course would consist of several modules, on-
line testing  for each module, and automatic recording of progress.
The on-line material   would be supplemented by hands-on tutorials
conducted in an instructional lab...  This FITness program should be
in place by September 1, 2001. UNB should promote  its students as
being very well prepared to live and work in the Information  Age."
[thanks to Greg Sprague of UNB, gls[at]unb.ca]

Greg Sprague of UNB also offers the following additional sites of
interest:  "...Ohio State: A 100 level course on computing is
available, based on NetTutor  a web based page developed by the OSU
library. Not yet required, but highly  recommended.
http://gateway.lib.ohio-state.edu/tutor/    However, I am most
familiar with Susquehanna  University...They have a required course
called Using  Computers"

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has a Computer Literacy
component of  their  General Education requirement.  Information can
be found at   http://www.utc.edu/GeneralEd/ComLit.html#CLRequirement
(make sure to read down   towards the bottom of the page).  [thanks
to Richard Gambrell at UTC, richard-  gambrell[at]utc.edu]

EDUCAUSE has a number of relevant items.  They include "IT Literacy
for General   Education and Online Community, Summary of a
presentation at the EDUCAUSE '99   conference,
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=EDU9938
Being Fluent with Information Technology , 1999 book by the National
Research  Council,  available online at
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=URL0198 Readin',
Writin',  Arithmetic, and Information Competency: Adding a Basic
Skills Component to a  University's Curriculum, Paper from a
presentation at CAUSE '97  conference,
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=CNC9750 Making
Being There as  Good as Being Here, 1999 CAUSE/EFFECT article --
includes a  section about the  University of Minnesota Libraries'
information literacy initiatives
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=CEM992A CAMPUS
PROFILE: Santa  Barbara City College, 1996 CAUSE/EFFECT article --
mentions the development of  an information literacy course
http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=CEM9647 [thanks to
Edie Clark  at EDUCAUSE, eclark[at]educause.edu]

In South Dakota "...we have a General Education Curriculum
policy...[that] has  several  references to information and
technology literacy requirements.  Some  of the most specific
requirements though are institutional requirements."   [thanks to
Warren Wilson at the South  Dakota Board of Regents,
WJWILSON[at]ris.sdbor.edu]

Cal State University Hayward offers "...10 sections of "Fundamentals
of  Information  Literacy", a  10-week formal, credit-bearing course
(linked to  General Education thematic  "clusters") taken by all
entering freshmen...The  classes are taught by library faculty,
rather  than jointly with other  discipline-based faculty or computer
professionals."  The web site is  at:
http://www.library.csuhayward.edu/liby1010.htm [thanks to Ilene
Rockman at CSU   Hayward, irockman[at]csuhayward.edu]

At "...Richmond: the American International University in London have
recently  incorporated just such an induction into our English
foundations/principles of  writng  program. Our scheme was piloted in
Spring 1999, and ran for the first  time properly last  semster. We
are currently on our second semester and the  results so far are
encouraging...we have a one hour session in the computer  labs (soon
to be the library  seminar room!) as part of the ENG 102 course. We
aim to  introduce students to the variety  of resources (book,
journals,  newspaper, CD-ROMS, Internet etc.) AND try to encourage
them to critically  evaluate their sources. thes eare the two main
strands of our program..."   [thanks to Frank Trew at Richmond,
trewf[at]richmond.ac.uk]

==============================================================
Bret Ingerman                                   e-mail: ingerman[at]lclark.edu
Assistant Vice President for                            phone: 503-768-7227
Information Technology                                    fax: 503-768-7228
Lewis & Clark College
0615 S.W. Palatine Hill Road
Portland, OR  97219-7899
USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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4. Indexes of Conference Proceedings


----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter West" <peter.west[at]pei.sympatico.ca>
To: "ResPool Research Network" <respool[at]listbot.com>
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 12:41 PM
Subject: Indexes of Conference Proceedings?


> ResPool Research Network - http://rtiess.tripod.com/respool.htm
>
> ResPoolers,
>
> I am looking for indexes to conference proceedings, preferably with the
> proceedings available on-line. Subject areas of particular interest
include:
> knowledge management, learning organization, and information technology.
>
> Regards,
> Peter West
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________top
> To unsubscribe, write to respool-unsubscribe[at]listbot.com
>


Date: Mar 04 2000 06:29:48 EST
From: "Shirl Kennedy" <sdk[at]tampabay.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Indexes of Conference Proceedings?


http://www.hcibib.org/
HCI Bibliography : Human-Computer Interaction Resources
"non-profit multinational volunteer effort to provide a free comprehensive
online bibliography of the field of Human-Computer Interaction" -- sources:
~19,600 books and reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, and
online publications

http://phoenix.trentu.ca/jci/
Journal of Computing and Information
electronic journal which publishes the proceedings of the International
Conference of Computing and Information

http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/index.html
Database Systems and Logic Programming Bibliography
ables of contents of conference proceedings and journals

http://www.computer.org/
IEEE Computer Society
"Members and nonmembers alike can explore highlights of important recent
coverage from the Computer Society's magazines, journals, and conferences in
our current focus: The State of the Internet"

http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/
Lecture Notes in Computer Science WWW-Database
The Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) file is a bibliographic
database covering the literature from volume 500 to current volumes of LNCS
of Springer-Verlag. The file contains actually about 22.400 citations.
Citations are in English and contain bibliographic information, indexing
terms, abstracts (facsimile of the first page of each contribution and its
corresponding ASCII-Version) and classifications according to the ACM
Computing Classification System.  Access to tables of contents and abstracts
is free for everybody.

http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/docs/ci/bibtex_collection.html
CI Collection of BibTeX Databases
databases for a growing number of journals and conference proceedings

http://dweb.waikato.ac.nz/research/ejrot/cmsconference/papers_infoknow.htm
INFORMATION/KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Conference papers are listed alphabetically by author surname (A-Z),
followed by the title of their conference paper. Conference papers are in
.pdf format (Acrobat Reader).  (Only a few here, but full-text is
available.)

http://riss.keris.or.kr:8080/pubs/contents/proceedings/series/cikm/
ACM Digital Library:  Conference on Information and Knowledge Management

http://www.bus.utexas.edu/kman/
Knowledge Management Server
Mix of papers, publications, etc.

http://www-db.ics.uci.edu/pages/links/proceedings.shtml
database research group of the Department of Information and Computer
Science of the University of California
Online Proceedings and Journals

You may also want to go picking around in here:
http://www.brint.com/interest.html
BizTech Research Library & Searchable Knowledge Map

Shirl Kennedy
Web Doyenne
City of Clearwater (FL)
http://www.clearwater-fl.com
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5. Interview with Shirl Kennedy


Shirl Kennedy's name became familiar to me as a member of the "RESPOOL." 
She is a frequent poster, regularly contributing the most thorough
and quickest answers to many upon many queries to list (as in the
previous item).  List members have even been driven to break the rules
governing postings to ask her publically how she does it.  I asked her
if I could interview her for Library Juice, and she said yes.  The
interview follows:

> Hi, Shirl
>
> I've been tied up with other things, such as work, and also thinking about
> what I wanted to ask you.  To start I'd like to get clear on your bio.  I
> know you work for the city of Clearwater, Florida, as their webmaster,
> right?  And do you still write the Internet Waves column for Information
> Today?

Yes.
>
> Okay, some more questions:
>
> Q. Are you now, or have you ever been, a librarian?  Did you make a
> transition from librarianship to webmastering or is it not like that?
What
> has your career path been?  Where are you headed?

What a long, strange trip it's been!  Sit back, enjoy, edit as you see fit.
I really have to get all this stuff out in some coherent form, so bear with
me.

My first "real" job after undergraduate school was writing installation
manuals for the telephone company.  I did some other corporate-type work --
p.r., speechwriting, etc. -- did a stint in journalism graduate school, and
the became a newspaper reporter.  After working at two afternoon newspapers
that folded, I decided...what the heck.  Maybe it's time to have a child.

When number one son was a baby, I started thinking about what I wanted to be
when I grew up...again.  In the meantime, I took a part-time job as a
reference assistant at the public library in Largo, FL (just south of
Clearwater - http://www.largo.com/departments/library/library.html).   This
seemed like a natural thing to do, coming as I did from a family of avid
readers and booklovers, where the library has lways been like an extension
of home.  Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I really liked
reference work -- the thrill of the chase -- and was pretty good at it.  So
I enrolled in the graduate program at the University of South Florida School
of Library and Information Science (http://nosferatu.cas.usf.edu/lis/), and
after I got my masters degree, went to work as a youth services librarian at
the Clearwater Public Library (http://www.clearwater-fl.com/cpl/).
Subsequently, I worked at Clearwater as a branch circulation manager, a
reference librarian and coordinator of The Database Place, which was the
reference department's online search server.

In August 1991, number two son was born.  Since he was to be my last chick,
I decided to take an extended leave from full-time work.  I continued doing
freelance writing, and volunteered to do the newsletter for our local
professional organization, Suncoast Information Specialists
(http://www.tblc.org/sis/).  A local colleague by the name of John Iliff  *a
name that might be familiar to you if you were on the Internet since way
back when) suggested that I get an e-mail account on the Florida Information
Resouce Network (FIRN - http://www.firn.edu/), the state network that links
all of Florida's public education institutions and entities.  Back then, you
could get a free Internet e-mail account if you were a public educator or a
librarian.  I already had a computer and a modem so I figured...what the
heck?

At that time, FIRN was kinda primitive -- clunky old DEC All-In-One shell
wrapped around VAX/VMS.  I knew vaguely that something called "the Internet"
was behind all this, but there wasn't a heck of a lot you could do on it
back then.  There were some listservs.  Most of them were pretty geeky, but
I signed onto something called WX-Talk -- for meteorologists and related
academics.  Weather is A Big Deal in FL, so I figured I'd learn something.
Little did I know I was about to have a life-changing experience.

I was your basic lurker on WX-Talk, understanding maybe 2/3 of the content
that was landing in my inbox.  One day,  I read a message from some
professor who said he had a graduate student that wanted to interview people
who had been struck by lightning and survived.  Coincidentally, I'd been
clipping articles about this, as it was something I wanted to write about at
some point.  So, good librarian that I was, I wrote up a concise
bibliography and sent it off to the list.  A day or so later, I received an
e-mail from a guy who wanted to know if I was "the same Shirley Kennedy
who..."  He turned out to be a fellow I attended kindergarten with a whole
lot of years ago, at a tiny Quaker school outside Philadelphia.  He also
turned out to be a Unix guru.  With his help, I figured out how to escape
from FIRN's DEC All-in-One shell and get to a dollar ($) prompt.  I learned
telnet.  I learned command line FTP.  I was wandering all over the Internet,
day and night, marveling at the resources "out there."

My youngest son learned to make modem noises before he learned to talk.
This child was fully capable of stealing long distance service.

John Iliff (http://nosferatu.cas.usf.edu/lis/faculty/ilif.html) and I and a
few other adventurous local librarians began pooliing our knowledge of
Internet resources.  After discovering Diane Kovacs' Directory of Scholarly
and
Professional E-Conferences (http://www.n2h2.com/KOVACS/), all of us signed
up for way too many mailing lists, to the point where we had to begin a
"just say no to listservs" support group.  We also started building the
Suncoast Free-Net (http://www.scfn.net/), Tampa Bay's free community
computing network.  And John and I were giving Internet dog-and-pony
shows...first to teachers and librarians, later to business people who were
amused by the novelty of it all, but didn't really get it...yet.  I had been
doing part-time doing reference in the library at Stetson University College
of Law in Gulfport (http://www.law.stetson.edu/lawlib/), and the took a
one-year part-time gig as a private school media specialist.

1994.  The Tampa Bay Library Consortium (http://www.tblc.org/) had gotten a
grant to provide Internet access to roughly 80 libraries in 10 counties in
west central Florida.  There was a salaried position in that grant, which
became the Network Information Manager, which became me.  I did everything
from running cable through dropped ceilings to nursemaiding servers to
teaching workshops.  It was such an exciting time, introducing so many
librarians to the Internet, desperately wanting them to love it as much as I
did.  I also built one of the first gopher servers in the Tampa Bay area,
and TBLC's first Web site.

Well, the grant money ran out -- as grant money is wont to do -- after about
18 months.  I knew I wanted to -- had to -- keep working with the Internet.
But jobs in this niche were still very hard to come by in 1995.  I landed a
gig as an Internet trainer for the Bibliographic Center for Research (BCR --
http://www.bcr.org/), a large library network serving Colorado, Iowa,
Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.  I traveled constantly and, since
my family was still in the Tampa Bay area, commuted back and forth
regularly.  In about a year, I was completely worn down, and knew that I had
to go back to FL.

Somewhere around this time, I took over writing the Internet Waves column
for Information Today (http://www.infotoday.com/it/feb00/kennedy.htm) from
my friend, Michael McCulley
(http://www.best.com/~mcculley/Travels/index.html).
And luck stayed with me.  I'd been approached by an editor at ALA Editions
(the publishing arm of the American Library Association) to write a book
about...ta da!  The Internet!  I got a small advance, and also took a
part-time job as technical information specialist at Honeywell Space
Systems, in Clearwater (http://www.sac.honeywell.com/), and subsequently
began contracting to do intranet work for them as well as project management
in the I.T. Department.

My book -- Best Bet Internet:  Reference and Research When You Don't Have
Time to Mess Around -- was published in June of 1998.  The URLs from the
book live here:
http://www.ala.org/editions/openstacks/beyondthebook/bestbet.html and when I
checked today, it was number 42,053 on Amazon.com's "hot list" --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0838907121/o/qid=952213018/sr=8-1/002
-7946053-2197815

Later that year, I got a call from former colleagues at the Clearwater
Public Library, who asked me to apply for the Webmaster's job.  And here I
am, almost back where I started.  Although the Webmaster maintains the site
for the entire City, the position at this time is based in the technical
services department of the main library.  It's a wonderful place to
work...on the top floor, where all the new books come in, with a big window
overlooking Clearwater Bay and the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.
(http://www.clearwater-fl.com/cpl/hours.html)  Beats the heck out of working
in a cubicle in the I.T. Department over in the Municipal Services Building
(http://www.clearwater-fl.com/facilities/msb.html).

And score one for the librarians...  Last year I was one of 20 finalists in
Hewlett-Packard's National APpreciation Day Challenge.  There's a picture of
me and the other winners here (http://www.hp.com/printers/is/ -- the page
was acting funky when I checked it just now.)  They made us all put on black
plastic "nerd glasses" for this picture.

Where am I headed?  Who knows?  I love the job I have now, but I am a writer
first, last and always.  It might be nice to be a full-time technology
pundit.  On the other hand, I have this novel I'd love to get published...

> Q. I am constantly amazed by the depth and amount of information you
supply
> to people on RESPOOL, and the speed of your answers.  First, how do you do
> it?  What resources do you use?  And second, Why do you do it?  I am sure
> it takes up a fair amount of you time, and you aren't getting paid for it.
> Do you do it at work? (You don't have to answer that if you don't want).
>
I've been in the Internet searching game so long now that I just have an
innate feeling for where stuff might be.  The first question I always ask
myself is "Who would have a vested interest in making this kind of
information available?"  And I go from there.  I've done reference work in
so many different types of libraries by now that I have at least a passing
acquaintance with a variety of subject areas...and a killer bookmark list!

Most people begin their Internet research by heading straight for one of the
major search engines.  Many times, that's not the best way to go, unless
you're dealing with something very specific or esoteric and you're not even
sure there's anything "out there."  The Web is so huge today that, whatever
it is you're looking for, the odds are very great that someone else has
already "been there, done that" -- someone who probably knows more about the
subject in question than you do.

My favorite fishing holes -- the places I return to again and again -- are:

The Librarian's Index to the Internet (http://lii.org/)
The Argus Clearinghouse (http://www.clearinghouse.net)
The Internet Public Library Associations on the Net
(http://www.ipl.org/ref/AON/)
Infomine Scholarly Internet Resource Collections (http://infomine.ucr.edu/)
Scout Report Signposts (http://www.signpost.org/signpost/)
Gary Price's List of Lists (http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm)

Note that all of these resources are largely the work of librarians.  Why
does this not surprise you?  Why poke through a bunch of search engine
results when you can access resources that have already been vetted by folks
who know what they're doing?

Whenever I'm really, really stumped in a particular subject area and none of
"the usual suspects" is helpful, I tend to go poking around in university
library Web sites.  I try and track down which institutions have strong
departments in certain subject areas, and then go looking at their library
Web sites to find relevant Internet resource "pathfinders" built by
subject-specialist librarians.  I'm rarely disappointed.

Why do I contribute so heavily to Respool?  Well, first of all, it's a way
of keeping my Web searching skills sharp since I don't do reference work
anymore.  Also, I feel it's well-suited opportunity for me to "give back to
the Net."  I've gotten so much from the Internet -- a whole new life,
mainly -- and I've benefitted so much from the work of others.

And no, I don't do it at work.  <grin>  (I don't access my personal mail
from there at all.  I'm a "public servant," and under Florida's Sunshine
Law, anything on my City computer is fair game for the media or interested
citizens.)  I usually do Respool stuff at home (where I have a cable modem
connection), at night, after the kids are in bed, to wind down before going
to bed myself.  It's satisfying.  It's relaxing.  It beats watching the ol'
idiot box.

> Those are my basic questions - I might ask you more specific ones based on
> your answers.  Don't worry about length - I will work with whatever you
> want to give me.  But I think the longer it is the more interesting it
will
> be for my readers.

Well, it did get kind of long, didn't it?  But it was a good opportunity for
me to reflect on where I am and how I got here.
>
> And my last question will be,
>
> When are you going to have your personal website up?

You've heard the old aphorism about the shoemaker's children having no
shoes.  Actually, I do own a couple different domain names; just have to
figure out what to do with them...
>
> Okay, that's a start.
>
> Looking forward to your reply,
>
> Rory Litwin
>
I did my best.  Over to you!

S


> Obviously since it's a web zine and itself full of internet resources
> Library Juice tacitly advocates the internet as a resource, if not the
> fundamental resource, for librarians.  But at the same time, I am
> sympathetic to critical voices on the "information age."  I am wondering
> what your thoughts are on the broad issues of the information society, the
> digital divide, and virtual life.  Subjects of interest to you?  I think
> that the people most heavily involved with the internet are often in the
> best positions to ask critical questions about it and its place in
society.
>
> Or tell me anything you want!
>
> Rory


Sorry, Rory.  I've been having the proverbial week from hell.  Rushing
around to get read to leave town for Computers in Libraries Conference this
coming week.

Actually, I do have a favorite rant that bleeds across a few different
issues.

Re:  The Digital Divide...  I see evidence of this every week, when I
volunteer in my younger son's second grade classroom.  I've been teaching
the kids word processing -- setting up a document, adding graphics, using
the spell checker, etc.  Fortunately, I've been able to work with each kid
individually.  And what I've noticed is that some kids are whizzes at this
stuff, and others are just struggling.  Inevitably, the presence or absence
of a computer in the home -- I ask each child if he or she has one -- is
what makes the biggest difference.  Even if pretty much all a kid does on
the home computer is play games, he or she is still comfortable with the
whole keyboarding situation.  Kids who don't have the advantage of regular
exposure at home to a computer are hesitant...fearful, even, that they might
break something or that every keystroke is a matter of life or death.

Certainly at this point in time, where home computers are not universal,
Internet workstations in public libraries fill a vital need.  It's not just
a matter of...well, who else in the community would provide this service.
It just makes a heck of a lot of sense to offer Internet access to the
public in a location that is already a nexus for information resources --
and where trained professionals can nudge people along the rocky road to
information literacy.  To be blunt, any librarian worth his or her MLS
degree knows that the Internet is not always the first, best choice...and
that even when it is, there is an awful lot of crap out there in the ether.

At the Clearwater Public Library, where I have my office (such as it is),
the Internet computers are almost always fully booked for all the hours the
building is open to the public.  Our reference staff boasts an exceptionally
high level of Internet literacy as well as technical expertise, and they
offer (free) weekly Internet training classes to the public, in addition to
the day-to-day help and tech support.  (These folks are amazing, by the way.
Last year, according to the Library Research Center at the University of
Illinois -- http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/research/lrc.html -- the
Clearwater Public Library System ranked # 1 out of 410 reporting libraries
serving populations over 100,000 in the category of Reference Transactions
per Capita-- that is, the number of reference questions answered.  I can't
brag on 'em enough...)

I'm especially proud of our library system when I read messages from
colleagues on library-related mailing lists asking things like:  "How can we
block access to chat?"  "How can we keep people from doing e-mail?"  "How
can we keep patrons from playing games online?"  I'm thrilled beyond belief
that this mindset doesn't exist at Clearwater Public.  Patrons come in and
sign up for their hour or half hour at an Internet workstation, and what
they do with their online time -- within the limits of the law and the
library code of conduct -- is their own business.

I can see where staff members in an academic library might be concerned if
all the Internet computers are occupied by people checking their e-mail,
especially if there are campus computing centers where this could just as
easily be done.  But in a public library?  I don't think library staff
members are in any position to make value judgements on what is or is not a
"worthwhile" use of the Internet.  The patron using e-mail could be
communicating with another amateur genealogist, reading messages from a
mailing list on southern history or sending a quick hi to a grandchild
spending a semester abroad.  The person in the chat room may be
participating in an online AA meeting or a Bible study class.  And online
gaming....well, my 8-year-old son plays chess at http://games.yahoo.com/.

Are you going to stand over a patron's shoulder and police what he or she is
doing?  If so, then you are in the wrong profession.

Those who think e-mail, chat and online gaming are "frivolous" should also
be working to rid their collection of romance novels, Arnold Schwartzenegger
films, pop music CDs and anything else that qualifies primarily as
entertainment.  Why single out the Internet?

Shirl
____________________________________________________________________________top


6. Marxists Internet Archive

http://www.marxists.org/

Touted as the "most complete database of Marxism hitherto made," The
Marxists Internet Archive is an extensive collection of Marxist
material, compiled and distributed completely by volunteers. The
materials are organized into focused collections which are found in
the site's four main sections: Writers Archive, Non-English Archive,
History Archive, and Reference Archive, an ever-expanding collection
of secondary material. The most developed compilation is the Writers'
Archive, which contains large collections of writing and information
about Marxists including Trotski, Lenin, Draper, DeLeon, and of
course, Marx, as well as smaller collections on Cannon, Guevara, and
Morris, among others. This site is an invaluable resource for both
novices and experts interested in Marxism. [EM]

> From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
____________________________________________________________________________top


7. The Real Beer Page

http://www.realbeer.com/

This amazing site, coming in at over 75,000 pages, is the ultimate
online resource for beer lovers and homebrewers. Among its many
offerings are breaking beer news, spotlight features, an events
calendar, a searchable brewery and pub with over 3,500 entries, a
searchable library with original publications and a host of links to
related online offerings (a trial search for "porter" returned 1,100
hits!), a BREWMall with retail items, and a collection of classified
beer and brewing links. Other features include contests, games, and
polls. Whatever their depth of interest or knowledge, Beer
enthusiasts of all stripes will quickly lose themselves in this site.
[MD]

> From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
____________________________________________________________________________top


8. five golden rules to librarianship


Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 14:42:24 +1300
From: "Alistair Kwun" <a.kwun[at]auckland.ac.nz>
To: "New Librarians" <newlib-l[at]usc.edu>
Subject: five golden rules to librarianship
MIME-Version: 1.0

Hi everyone:

Here are my "rules". What do other people have?

1) equality and openness
2) lucid communication
3) accuracy
4) flexibility
5) sense of humor

Alistair Kwun
____________________________________________________________________________top


  L I B R A R Y   J U I C E

| http://libr.org/Juice/                  
|
| Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription
| fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and
| desire to pay.  You may send a check payable in US funds
| to Rory Litwin, at PO Box 720511, San Jose, CA  95172
|
| Original material and added value in Library Juice    
| is copyright-free; beyond that the publisher makes
| no guarantees.  Library Juice is a free weekly 
| publication edited and published by Rory Litwin. 
| Original senders are credited wherever possible;
| opinions are theirs.  If you are the author of some
| email in Library Juice which you want removed from
| the web, please write to me and I will remove it.
|
| Your comments and suggestions are welcome.   
|
| Rory[at]libr.org


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