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

December 1999

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The Education Committee At Work The Continuing Education Committee met on Tuesday, November 30 at the Council office in Canton. Items discussed included: - Professional Development Program - The program is being publicized to be sure all eligible library staff are aware of its availability. The newsletter, web page and other sources will be used for publicity for the program. The Council's Five Year Plan requires a biannual evaluation of this program, with an evaluation due in the year 2000. It was decided that the committee will include this item on their agenda at a meeting to be held at the Council's Annual Meeting in May. - Needs Assessment - The Council's Five Year Plan also requires a biannual needs assessment. This will be carried out in fall of 2000, and will be a survey. To the greatest extent possible, the survey will be carried out online, using an interactive form. Paper copies will still be mailed to libraries lacking good Internet connections. - 2000 Workshops - The committee discussed the continuing efforts of trying to carry out computer workshops amid the problems of lab availability and winter weather. Beginning in January 2000, the Council will experiment with offering some small workshops planned only for the libraries in the immediate area of the workshop locale. Thanks to winter recesses, computer labs are somewhat more readily available. Therefore, the workshops offered will be computer workshops. Two days of workshops will be held in both Plattsburgh and Watertown in January. (See schedule listed below.) The Council will offer several workshops in 2000 which have come to be regarded as "annual" events. These include the Automation workshop, the Interlibrary Loan workshop and the Library Assistants workshop. Other workshops will cover long term and strategic planning for library administrators, Internet and microcomputer workshops, database searching, archival materials management and grant writing. A spring / summer calendar of workshops will be published with the March issue of Points North.