• Welcome and Awards Presentation. Tom Hogan, Information Today, Inc.

• Online Trivia Quiz. Tom Hogan, Information Today, Inc.

• Highlights of the Online Database Industry and the Internet. Martha E. Williams, University of Illinois.

• Keynote Speech: Staying Integral to the Information Process in a Web-Based Industry: Challenges and Opportunities for Information Professionals, Publishers, and Providers as We Move into the 21st Century. Dorothea Coccoli Palsho, Dow Jones Interactive Publishing.
  • Information professionals and publishers of information are in a similar position. In this fast-moving electronic information age, we, as publishers, must use innovative technologies to grow and move our business into the 21st century. Your mission, as information professionals, is to use those technologies to enrich the knowledge in your organizations and of your clients. In order to be successful, it’s important to be where our contribution is essential and to be part of an industry where our skill set is indispensable. How do we stay integral to this industry? Dorothea Coccoli Palsho, president of Dow Jones Interactive Publishing, will share her opinions regarding the challenges and opportunities that await both our professions and the industry as a whole.

• High Quality Free Web Databases for Ready Reference. Peter Jacso, University of Hawaii
  • There are hundreds of free Web databases that offer responses to short, factual questions or provide directional assistance. Many of them sport user interfaces and search capabilities that beat hands down those of the fee-based databases. The top-notch and free directories, almanacs, fact books, yearbooks, atlases, dictionaries, and encyclopedias on the Web are discussed and illustrated.

• Most Bang for the Bucks Databases. Peter Jacso, University of Hawaii
  • There are Web resources that charge either a transactional fee (such as Northern Light) or a flat subscription fee for unlimited usage (such as The Electric Library and most of the well-known encyclopedias). However, these fees are very reasonable for individuals and corporations alike and can provide far more value per dollar than the traditional online services and CD-ROM products. Simple case studies will illustrate the superior cost effectiveness of the best databases born on the Web.

• Full-Text Databases on the Web. Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee
  • Journals, magazines, and newspapers are widely available on the Web, many for free, others for a subscription fee. Some Web versions are either enhanced or reduced versions of print periodicals, others are unique sources. This session will examine full-text periodicals on the Web, compare them with other versions, and discuss search strategies.

• Multimedia Search Engines. Peter Jacso, University of Hawaii
  • As the Web goes more and more multimedia, there is an increasing need for using search engines that can find images, sounds and even video by subject as well as by their unique attributes. Beyond the mainstream search engines that enhance their capability by offering filters to find sites with images and sound recordings, there are media-specific search engines that were developed from the ground up to search by audio and visual attributes. The special characteristics of some multimedia search engines such as Excalibur, Virage, and Magnifi will be demonstrated.

• Title Indexes for Remote Host Full-Text Databases: Alternatives to Traditional Serials Cataloging. Marc Langston, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico
  • In an environment of stagnant materials budgets and rising serials costs, the collection of journals at California State University, Chico has been greatly expanded through the use of full-text enhanced online indexes. While these indexes have improved access to journal literature, they present bibliographic control challenges to which traditional cataloging methods cannot easily respond. A journal title index to seven full-text enhanced indexes has been developed which includes coverage dates and links from journal title to the appropriate database. Data used in the index was provided by the database vendors. The amount of work required to construct the index was a fraction of that required by traditional cataloging methods. The library can respond to changes in database holding with quick updates to the local title index. Construction of the index and its actual use is discussed, as are future enhancements and opportunities the index offers in collection management analysis.

• Strategies for Content Integration: Working with Vendors. Steven Ellis, Becton, Dickinson, and Co.
  • With content and systems vendors vying for position in the knowledge management marketplace it is becoming increasingly difficult to select products which will work effectively with other products. The first step to making right decisions is establishing a baseline every vendor must meet in terms of both systems and content. This can be accomplished by establishing an integration strategy and making sure each vendor has something to offer it. Mr. Ellis presents such a strategy, taking into account the requirements of (and sometimes tension between) quality content and effective intranet integration. Participants will take away an understanding of how to work with both content and systems vendors in a complementary way.

• Authentication Issues in Today's Library. Marshall Breeding, Heard Library, Vanderbilt University
  • One of the main challenges in the university environment has to do with integrating the library automation system with the authentication infrastructure in the campus environment. Unfortunately, not many IOLS include support for Kerberos, X.500, or other mechanisms for patron authentication for tasks such as ILL and document delivery. Various approaches are discussed.

• Indexing Libraries: Past, Present, and Future. Peter Scott, University of Saskatchewan
  • Peter Scott will talk about his work with indexing library resources during the past 9 years. He will touch briefly on his first index, HYTELNET, which was the first electronic directory of Internet resources. webCATS, a current index of web-based OPACs, will be shown. LIBDEX, a new resource, currently under development, will be presented. This resource amalgamates information from HYTELNET and webCATS, and will also contain links to library home pages. He will also discuss how libraries may obtain web space, use online web-creation resources, and download software, in order to create home pages.

• Nova Southeastern University's Library Web Site. Tom Rogers, Director for Internet Services and Legal Technology, Nova Southeastern University
  • Nova Southeastern University continues to integrate technology into the curriculum and library through a requirement for laptops by all students. As the World Wide Web continues to expand as a primary information distribution resource, libraries are challenged to make this vast amount of information available to students and patrons. Tom Rogers will present Novas system for maintaining a library web site which offers links to over 12,000 resources. This system involves a highly customizable online database which manages and delivers to the user links to resources created on-the-fly based on user input. The system allows for access for staff to add, modify, and delete links to resources (internal/external) and to identify the topic or category of the subject matter. The resource is instantly available on all the appropriate topic pages throughout the Web site.

• Library Web Pages: Where to Start, What You'll Need, and How to Succeed. Helene Gold, Electronic Services Librarian/Assistant Professor, Eckerd College
  • Library Web sites are created with one key issue in mind how to organize and present electronic information to patrons in a useful, well-organized manner that will not only broaden the user base of the library, but ensure repeat use. The very first steps Web developers for library sites will need to take are deciding what to offer to your new Web patrons and audience: operating hours? library event information? online reference? a Web-based catalog? a virtual library? database access? Each of these aspects takes careful planning and consideration, not only among the library staff, but also the many people who might be involved in the creation process (i.e., graphic designers, Internet Services Providers, technology support staff, etc.). This tutorial will address issues faced when building a site from the ground up (as I have done in the previous year and a half for a small, liberal arts college), what software products or books will be helpful in writing HTML and planning a design structure, and steps you can take to ensure the success of your Web site (visibility, search engine inclusion, links from other local resources to your Web site, etc.). The two most important aspects of library Web site development will also be addressed: infinite patience and a great sense of humor!

• Effective Library Web Sites: How to Ask Your Users What Will Work for Them. Karen Diller and Nicole Campbell, Washington State University, Vancouver
  • Librarians at Washington State University Vancouver Library decided to test the effectiveness of their library's Web pages to find out if the organization and content of these pages were useful to their reference staff and patrons. Since the library had limited staff time and budget to spend on this project, the methods used needed to be simple, time efficient and involve little cost. Two librarians sorted through the various methodologies for testing and selected three tests: card sorting, category membership expectation, and a short survey. In addition to testing the current organization and content of the library's Web site, the combination of these three tests also demonstrated how the users would organize the librarys Web pages. This session will cover the general principles of each of these test methods, the planning involved in implementing each test, and the analysis of the test results.

• Beyond Static HTML: Creating Dynamic Pages for a Web Site and a WebPAC Paul T. Adalian Jr., Assistant Dean for Information and Instruction at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo Judy Swanson, Multimedia Specialist for the Kennedy Library at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo

  • Dynamically created Web pages utilizing Access, a database program, bring a new dimension to developing and maintaining a Web site along with expanding the access to online and print sources through the Librarys Webpac.

    To enter sources on the Librarys Web site, a Web-based template is used to enter a title, URL, summary, subjects, and categories. Knowledge of HTML is not required to add or edit entries, and all information is available immediately, thus eliminating the most time-consuming part of maintaining and updating a Web site. The need to transfer files to the server, another time-consuming and potentially troublesome area, has also been removed. Once each element is entered into the database it can be assigned to any number of categories within specific subject guides such as GIS, Maps, Employment Sources, etc. Subject guides are then cataloged and are available from the Webpac as well as the Librarys Home Page.

    When a user selects a subject guide from either the Web site or the Webpac, all the elements that have been assigned to it are culled from the database, presenting the user with a dynamic, current listing of the librarys offerings within a particular subject area.

    In addition, utilizing a database program has provided an avenue to adding value to the sources and services of the library. For example, the MyLibrary page and the Data Genie interface gives users the opportunity to create their own interface of resources to meet their unique and individual research needs.

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Last updated June 23, 1999