June-July 2001

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Professional Development Program Experience The Professional Development Program assists the staff of member libraries in furthering their professional skills. Financial aid from this program enables staff to attend conferences, seminars, workshops and other educational activities which are not available locally and for which funds might not otherwise be available. Staff members who successfully apply for Professional Development funds are asked to share the knowledge and experience gained. Descriptions of some of their experiences from the events attended follow. The Professional Development Program assists the staff of member libraries in furthering their professional skills. Financial aid from this program enables staff to attend conferences, seminars, workshops and other educational activities which are not available locally and for which funds might not otherwise be available. Staff members who successfully apply for Professional Development funds are asked to share the knowledge and experience gained. Descriptions of some of their experiences from the events attended follow. * Karen Lago, Flower Memorial Library, Watertown, attended Info Today 2001. "... featured three core conferences ... KnowledgeNets, E- Libraries, and, the one I attended, National Online. Its focus was on information content and information delivery technologies. With the constant growth of the information industry, a multitude of new trends, products, and services were on display and under discussion. "I attended 10 sessions and visited scores of exhibit booths and came away feeling that for someone who began searching the Internet in 1992 and who literally spends all her days on-line, I have led a cloistered virtual life. I was introduced to areas of the ‘deep web’ or ‘invisible web’ that had eluded me ... many, many areas. I was led to treasure troves of images. But then, I heard librarians fluent with web-based medical information assert that while 1 in 4 questions in public libraries have to do with medical information, the web’s health information is erroneously geared to white, English speaking people who trust in the western medical tradition/industry and that the great majority of psychotherapy self-evaluation information for patients is unacceptable when judged using standard library practices. "I also came to realize how little time I might have left to roam freely ... literally for free ... at no charge. "Responding to the ‘exploding demand for highly trained professionals who can gather and analyze information that will help companies beat the competition,’ an advanced degree program and center for Competitive Intelligence has been established as part of the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at Simmons College. Every vendor his niche and every niche his vendor. "The keynote speaker on the conference’s opening day was Robert E. Kahn. Responsible for the system design of Arpanet, the first packet-switched network, Dr. Kahn conceived the idea of open-architecture networking. He is a co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols and was responsible for originating DARPA's Internet Program which he led for the first three years. Dr. Kahn also coined the term National Information Infrastructure (NII) in the mid 1980s, which later became more widely known as the Information Super Highway." * Betsy Brooks, Clinton Essex Franklin Library System, Plattsburgh, attended Computers in Libraries 2001. At the conference, Betsy attended a workshop called The Armored Desktop. A session sharing the information gleaned at this workshop was held at the North Country Reference & Research Resources Council Annual Meeting on May 24. Betsy also attended Grant Writing for Technology Projects. This workshop was interactive in style, and led the group in exercises designed to teach people to think about grant writing. Betsy notes: "One of these exercises involved identifying some ‘hot topics’ and how they were related to the current political atmosphere in Washington. Some of the topics and buzzwords we identified with his help were: assertive and adaptive technology, after school programs, charter schools, home schooling, faith based anything, juvenile violence, literacy, health care costs, telemedicine, and the word neighborhood, which is favored by the Republicans over the more Democratic ‘community.’ "The instructor urged us to be creative in combining several ideas or concepts together for a grant proposal that would draw the attention of grant makers. He also gave us guidelines for persuasive writing." In addition to these workshops, Betsy attended several conference sessions. In regards to the session, Dead and Emerging Technologies, she noted, "Some of the dead and dying technologies mentioned were 133 MHz PC’s, less than broadband Internet access, OCLC’s CORC and having to attend a conference in person (Where’s the streaming video?)." On Creating New Services and Opportunities Through Web Databases, she said, "Two presenters from California Polytechnic University told how they mounted a number of diverse databases on the web, including a periodical list, an index to a comic book collection, a faculty database, collection development policies and newspaper indices." On The Wireless Student In or Out of the Library, Betsy said, "This program provides a laptop computer with a wireless card to each student, and a wireless network throughout the campus. The library provides both wireless and wires network connections for users." On Maximizing Accessibility and Minimizing Vulnerabilities: Configuring Public Access Workstations, she said the speaker "... presented his approach to ensuring the stability of public computers. An interesting discussion of the ‘prevention’ vs. ‘cure’ approach followed the talk. Some unresolved issues: content filtering, printing (fee, free or none) and some tricks users still have of getting around all of the prevention measures." On XML in Action: An Overview of XML Today, Betsy said, "XML is a tool with exciting potential for libraries. According to the presenter, is described as Cinderella about to marry the prince! From what I could tell, it will be a tool to provide interoperability of data sources, and will be used heavily in publishing and digital library initiatives." On Wired or Wireless for Success: Technology, Partners and Lessons, she said, "This was about a library system in rural Maryland that funded, installed and now manages a wireless Wide Area Network. The network covers most of the 425 square miles area of Allegheny City. It began as a cooperative endeavor between the county government, county schools, the county library system and the city of Cumberland. It provides Internet access to non-profit, public and educational institutions for yearly membership fees of between $25 and $500." * Inger Curth, Jefferson Community College, Watertown, attended the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Annual Conference, Crossing the Divide. Inger noted the conference was attended by more than 2,000 academic librarians, with many interesting programs to choose from. She attended workshops on Faculty Collaboration and Assessment Tools for Student Outcomes in Information Literacy. "The ‘collaborative’ workshop was created around concepts of a recently published book, The Collaborative Imperative: Librarians and Faculty Working Together In the Information Universe, edited by Dick Raspa, Dane Ward. It involved analysis of initiatives at other campuses as well as different approaches to collaboration as a whole. "The ‘assessment’ workshop actually allowed us to start creating an information literacy assessment tool, using the rubric method. Many of the panel presentations also informed us about assessment tools, both in on-line and paper form. "The conference gave me practical ideas that can be implemented on my own campus." If you would like more information on the Professional Development Grant Program, it may be found on the Council’s website at www.nc3r.org , and click on "Continuing Education."