North Country Reference and Research Resources Council 7 Commerce Lane Canton, NY 13617 (315) 386-4569

November 1999

Take A Course On-Line The North Country Reference and Research Resources Council will be offering on-line courses to library personnel beginning December 3. The program is being provided through DPEC, an interactive computer-based training group. The program is being supported by Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds, awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institution of Museum and Library Services, so there is no cost to you for taking a course. There are two different types of courses to choose from: end-user or technical. Some of the end-user courses include Customer Service, Internet/Netscape, Lotus Notes, Office 97, and Windows. Some of the technical courses include COBOL, Dynamic HTML, Exchange Server, LANs, JAVA, PowerBuilder, and Visual Basics. To get a look at the entire course offering, we ask that you go to DPEC's homepage at www.dpec.com and click on "Course Catalog." Here a complete listing of the courses will be before you. To find out more about a course, simply click on the title you are interested in. Here you are provided with a synopsis of the course, who it targets and the time it will take to complete the course. You will also receive information on the course objectives, topics and features. If you would like specific information about the series that a course is listed under, simply click on the name of the series. Each course offered under that series is listed here, and it suggests what order they should be taken in if you would like to complete the entire series. Once you have decided what course you would like to take, contact Pam Ouimet at the Council office at pouimet@northnet.org and provide her with your name, the course title, the name of the library where you work, and the name of the system you work in. She will provide you with the UserID that is needed to sign on. You will create your own password, that will be known only to you. When you are ready to begin the course, go to the DPEC home page and click on "Take A Course." You will enter your UserID and password, and then simply click on the course you want to take, and begin. The Council is asking that everyone who enrolls in a course complete it in a timely fashion. The Council will be able to track if a "student" is actively working on their class, and if we see that a class has not be completed within two months, you will be dropped from the course. If for any reason, once you get into a course and decide it is not something you want to finish, please contact Pam at the Council office and let her know. This will not preclude your taking a different course. The enclosed flyer will explain why you should take advantage of this web based training opportunity. It also talks about Course Completion, Improving Your Score, Skill Assessment, Scores and Bookmarks. Please make a special note of the Skill Assessment and Bookmarks sections. Once you have received your UserID and begin the course, it is recommended you take the Skill Assessment to see if this is, indeed, a course you will be interested in taking. If it is not, you may decide to choose another course which may be of more interest to you. If you do decide upon a different class, again please notify Pam so she can delete your name from the file of the course you are not taking. In regards to bookmarking, once you have gotten into the coursework, always remember to click the "Exit" button. The next time you return to work on the course, you will be asked your UserID and password and after you click on the course you're taking, you will be brought directly to where you left off. Please notify Pam by phone or email after you have completed your course, and the Council will send you a course completion certificate. If you have a technical question while taking a course, DPEC's Help Desk may be reached at 1-800-223-3732 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.