Special Libraries Association Annual Conference

Citation

Meredith, M., Piety, J.Z. and Piety, J. (2001), "Special Libraries Association Annual Conference", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918hac.002

Special Libraries Association Annual Conference

Meri Meredith, Jean Z. Piety and John Piety

The 92nd Special Libraries Association Annual Conference called "An Information Odyssey: Seizing the Competitive Advantage" was held in San Antonio, Texas from June 9-14, 2001. The following are three submissions that describe some of the more interesting aspects of this well-attended conference.

Meri Meredith writes about a number of interesting sessions ranging from: Web site creation and maintenance, the latest on information acquisitions, a report on student information seeking behaviors, a review of the best international Web sites, Web site usability testing methodologies and a review of new skill sets for librarians. She concludes that this was one of the best conferences she has attended.

Jean Piety provides an update of the standards environment reported at SLA. Jean's report describes: the current international food standards, a summary of the Standards Roundtable session, a description of a successful standards management program and a summary of the joint meeting held by the Committee on Cataloging and Technical Services Standards Committee.

John Piety's contribution is a summary report of the Academic Science and Engineering Librarians Roundtable session titled "Public relations and marketing services to users."

The 93rd Special Libraries Association Annual Conference -- Putting Knowledge to Work ­ will be in Los Angeles, California, June 8-13, 2002.

Meri Meredith

SLA Program Report

The Opening General session, given by Molly Ivins, a well-known journalist, had a strong undercurrent of Bush criticism stating that Bush is "bi-ignorant, but not actively dumb." She said that although he is pro "our children's learning," he has cut funding for research and libraries which will have a very long dribble-down negative impact on our educational system. She ended her speech on a positive note that Laura Bush, a former librarian, is a strong ally for libraries and literacy.

I attended several sessions on which I offer a report.

Tech Zone: How to Create Your First Web Site ­ A Hands On Learning Lab.

hese sessions were quite popular as most of them seemed to be sold out. In this session Kevin Vrieze introduced us to HTML, its goals, its scope, the basic software ­ a text editor, a Web browser, a graphics tool and a Web server. He explained the Hyper Text Markup Language and Markup Tags. He showed us how to create a hot link and confirm that the link was working. Many may ask why they need to know this, but if one is dealing with URLs in a paper or article, it is imperative to get the links correct. He had several real exercises to work through. This workshop designed for non-techies or those new to working with documents was valuable.

Maximizing the Value of Your Business Information Acquisitions

Bill Noorlander, president of TFPL, Inc, delivered the keynote at Maximizing the Value of Your Business Information Acquisitions. While Bill has extensive knowledge and experience in consulting with firms about their informational needs, his address was really for those at the upper echelon of management. He talked about accessing the overall goals and needs of the entire firm and getting a handle on the total amount of monies being spent on information within the firm. This can be a very difficult job to accomplish since many departments want their information spending kept confidential. Vendors tend to interact with each other and repackage information to suite their clients' needs. He stressed this is not a back office part-time position, but rather a highly visible position constantly monitoring the market and talking with colleagues. After salaries, acquisitions are the largest operating costs; probably three times what one thinks they are actually paying. There are firms and industries that spend greatly on information needs and products such as banks and investment firms. There are several methods to deliver the information a firm needs such as by pay-as-you-go, pay on usage, fixed fee anywhere within organization, fixed fee anywhere in the world. The price is NOT the bottom line here. The content is the key element. Are your users getting the information in a way to make it useful to them? If you run into a vendor that says, "That's not the way we do business," walk away. A company needs to be flexible and adaptable. Acquiring information is a negotiable process, so hopefully the end result is a win, win situation.

The Information Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Library Programs.

Jason Frand, assistant Dean and director of Computing and Information Services for UCLA's Anderson School of Management presented this session, which focused on post-graduate education. He conducted an informal survey of students to ascertain their information seeking and management skills and found all students lack "critical thinking skills." Most students have never had to do an in-depth research paper and few know how to deal with multiple formats of information. It appears that students often do not comprehend what they are reading. They want things handed to them on a silver platter. They certainly appear to not want to gather the information, digest it and do some critical thinking to come to valid conclusions about their research. They are hunters, gathers, copiers and pasters. Some do not even want to read the Harvard Business Case; they want an abstract that tells them in black and white the answers to the critical questions. How does this affect the way we do our jobs as librarians. Are we replaceable? We have digitized collections, virtual classrooms, virtual libraries, and e-reference services. Students need to develop some "librarian" skills and we librarians need to be the impetus for change. We need to educate students on the processes of gathering, organizing, storing, retrieving, sharing, collaborating and disseminating information. We need to teach them the difference between "information" and "value added information." We need to teach the difference between what is valuable information and what is just someone's opinion. We need to teach the value of content and how to manage it.

One Dot Shopping: the Best of International Business Sites

This was a session packed with useful Web sites from around the world. Iris Anderson had some wonderful sources from the World Bank and the IMF and would be a helpful person to walk one through these huge Web sites ­ ianderson@imf.org. Some of the more practical sites are development http://gateway.org/; http://www.infodev.org for information development sources; http://www.ifc.org for private funding sources and http://www.ipanet.net for investment promotion networking. She suggested that one bookmark http://www.worldbank.org, then conduct an advanced search, in the topic "development gateway." Ann Griffith (ann.griffith2@ey.com) presented the best Latin American Business Web sites and I was glad to see my old standby is still in number one place ­ http://lanic.utexas.edu. This site is maintained by the University of Texas and continues to be valuable. The IRLA (Internet Resources for Latin America) is a Web site http://lib.nmsu.edu/subject/bord/lagui/ maintained by Molly Molloy (mmolloy@lib.nmsu.edu) and gives key contacts for doing business in Latin America. For those interested in trading with countries in Latin America there is the LATCO Tools of the Trade ­ http://ww.latco.org/tools.htm. Next, Ann Sweeney of the European Commission Delegation gave a presentation of the best European sites. Her e-mail for a complete listing over which you can review at your own leisure - ann.Sweeney@cec.eu.int . Some of the sites are http://www.eurunion.org; http://www.eurunion.org/infores/euindex.htm; http:// europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat for Eurostat statistics. From these sites one should be able to get to policies, laws, news, grants, pronouncements, and legislation. Finally, last but not least was Tesse Santoro's (Tesse_sabtiri@dialog.com) presentation on the best Asian/African Web sites. Asian and Pacific Development Center (http://www.apdc.org); Asian Development Bank (http://www.adb.org); Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (which has a bizAPEC sub file) (http://www.apecsec.org.sg); ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations (http://www.asean.or.id). For Japan, among others, there is Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (http://www.jcci.or.jp) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (http://www.meti.go.jp). For Africa two important sites are African Business Network (http://ifc.org/abn) which includes an Emerging Markets Database and African News (http://www.africanews.com), which covers 80 local newspapers and news organizations. There are three basic Web sites, which cannot be overlooked when looking for current international information. One is the (OECD) The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (http://www/oecd.org); the next is the CIA World Fact book (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook and the last is the State Department Commercial Guides (http:www.state.gov. /www/aboutstate/business/com guides/2001/index.html). These of course have just scratched the surface but they are reliable sites provided by knowledgeable people in their fields and will only grow.

Testing 1, 2, 3 ­ Can Your Web Page Pass?

This was an excellent presentation given by Jerilyn Veldof of the University of Minnesota. She had performed several user ability testing surveys using several research methods. She describes the "utest" as know thy user for they are not you. There are two methodologies: the user-centered design that is an interactive process; and the library-centered design that is not interactive. She said, "test, rebuild, test, rebuild, test, rebuild." In other words this is a constant work in process. Students want a search box immediately. Put quick links on the page, use "tips" instead of a "help" box, offer a site overview versus indexes, and use icons. A good process is to observe a handful of students and see where they are running into trouble to determine the effectiveness of the site. Remember people browse computer files; people read paper. Use guerrilla tactics: just grab four to six users and conduct a mini test or conduct simultaneous testing. Identify what people do on a library home page. Customize your page to what it is they need to do.

I do not know if it was coincidental, but it seems to me that all the sessions I attended were excellent. Maybe this is just true of this conference as it was an outstanding conference, with everything conveniently located, perfect weather, and top "camaraderie." The last session I attended embodied the total theme of the conference, "Seizing the Competitive Advantage", You're a Futurist and You Don't Know It: A New Skill For Librarians. This was a three-part presentation: overview of futures research, providing environmental scanning, and skills involved in making predictions. Wendy Schultz (http://infinitefutures.com) stated that "presentation skills that make change exhilarating" and was right on target. First, she said, one must grasp the macro and the microenvironment, identify emerging changes, and imagine alternative futures. Involved in this overview are current conditions, history of the industry, cycles, trends, and growth patterns, emerging issues, power and political shifts. One needs to do a timeline of milestones, start daydreaming, create scenarios, and do a SWOT analysis. This is just the beginning. Next, Cody Clark (http://www.sfd-online.com ) talked about providing environmental scanning for a client. This is more than just a clipping service. One must determine the informational needs of the client, how the client intends to use the information given them and the information risk to develop a formal list of sources, network, acquire, organize, store, and distribute information and then do an analysis. As part of the analysis, one needs to do adaptive behavior/planning that translates into building scenarios, doing SWOT analysis and issues management assessment. The final speaker was Richard Fletcher, Senior Knowledge Manager with Deloitte Consulting (rfletcher@dc.com) who gave a holistic perspective of futures studies. Some of his comments were a welcome back kind of thing since I had not heard them for quite some time. One must have a love of learning, ask who, what, when, where, how, how much and what is the LC number! Maintain that human touch, we build natural knowledge networks. Maintain an eye for perverse and an ear for the inane or insane. Read widely even those things with which we do not agree. Think outside the box. One needs to be comfortable with uncertainties, seek out remarkable people and unconventional thinkers, and read outside one's area of specialization. This is no short order, but it makes for wonderfully informed and interesting colleagues.

Meri Meredith (meredith.18@osu.edu) is a Business Reference Librarian at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Jean Z. Piety

SLA Standards Sessions

International Food Standards

This session, sponsored by CABI/CAB Int'l was presented by the Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division and moderated by Carolyn Speakman of the National Center for Food Safety & Technology.

Of all the standards covering food products, one important for world trade is the Codex Alimentarius, the published product of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Patrick Clerkin, from the US Department of Agriculture, described the history and the significance of the 39-year-old Codex. Created in 1962 by two United Nations organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the name comes from the Latin meaning code or law. The membership consists of 165 countries, covering 98 percent of the world population, with headquarters at the FAO in Rome, Italy. The secretary is the chief of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Committee. Purpose of the Codex is consumer protection, facilitation of trade, and coordination of food quality and safety. In the USA, the US Codex Steering Committee oversees Codex activities.

The major influence today in international markets is the World Trade Organization (WTO). Lack of agreement with the WTO may restrict trade. A country has the sovereign right to select the level of adoption, but a dispute could exist if adoption is more rigid than the national standard. For example, standards in the USA require the pasteurization of cheese, but the Codex does not. This discrepancy could become a technical barrier to trade and could be challenged. When that happens, the WTO assembles a dispute panel consisting of three scientists from countries not involved in the dispute.

Structure of the Codex commission consists of intergovernmental and national delegates. Representatives from government, industry, and academia can be delegates, while observers include international societies, such as the Institute of Food Technologists and grocers' associations. Observers can observe and comment, except in the final decision.

The Commission meets every two years, usually in Rome or Geneva, where officers are elected. Current chair is Thomas Billy, from the USA. The structure of the executive committee includes the chair, three vice chairs, and seven members, geographically picked from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, south-west Pacific, and the near East. Twelve committees deal with commodities, such as milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, natural mineral water, cereals, pulses, and legumes. Nine committees cover food labeling, additives, pesticide residues, hygiene, and methods of analysis. Other committees include regional coordinating, terms of reference, and expert advisory, for example, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Some committees meet annually.

The elaboration process covers eight steps before codification. Step one is what and where the work is performed, often where the chair is located. Step two is the draft document. Step three is issuing the draft for comments. Step four covers meeting, debating, advancing the draft, amending, or returning to committee. Step five is mid point where adoption is viewed, with step six mailing to members for comment. Step seven has the delegates meeting again to discuss all points. Step eight is adoption.

Current issues include risk analysis principles, biotech labeling, traceability, and defining the country of origin on labeling. The European Union uses the term "precautionary principle", a phrase that is becoming a regulatory wildcard.

Mr Clerkin finished the session by showing the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Web site. That site shows the Codex relationship to the FSIS and to other government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The US Codex Office is found at www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/codex/. That site includes who, what, and why on the Codex Alimentarius Commission. This excellent session at the SLA Annual Conference formed a mini continuing education course on the purpose and the impact on world trade of the Codex.

Standards Roundtable

Karen Kreisman-Reczek, ACTS Testing Labs, Inc, moderated this session, sponsored by Information Handling Services and ILI Infodisk, Inc., and presented by the Engineering Division and the Science-Technology Division.

This annual session is a favorite among SLA Librarians who struggle daily with industrial standards questions on procurement and retention. Described as a round table, format has varied, but the strength of the meeting lies in the sharing of information. This time the session actually had round tables, but more chairs were added for the overflow crowd. As ILI so eloquently expressed it, this year's session became a roast for Global Engineering Documents, the delivery arm of Information Handling Services. About two weeks previous, Information Handling Services announced a minimum charge of $100.00 on its document deliveries. Discussion centered on this decision and on ideas for the round table for 2002.

Some attendees complained about the minimum charge, some offered alternatives, and some tossed out ideas that evolved into a wish list for the future. Solutions to the expensive delivery costs included deposit accounts and more electronic access to standards. The latter caused more discussion, for the difficulties in printing range from license restrictions to printer problems. Other distributors exist, such as Document Center, DECO, Techstreet, USA Information Systems. (A source that I recommend to patrons is Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, MO.)

In defense of management, representatives from Information Handling Services explained the reasoning behind the decision. Management had analyzed the number of orders for standards that cost $20 to $30 each and realized the costs in filling orders for one or two. The company felt that the overall response had been a lot less negative than expected. Work continues on server and Web issues. Attempts are being made to address cross-referencing, especially when a standard lists other standards. The purchase of one standard often leads to the need to buy others that are pertinent to the subject.

Delivery problems led to a discussion on consortia. Independents and smaller libraries seemed to favor forming consortia. Unfortunately, vendors consider a consortium the same as a reseller. The audience felt that vendors were losing money by not addressing such groups. Perhaps the Engineering Division of SLA could take the lead in forming a consortium. It never hurts to ask for a discount from a vendor.

Another problem mentioned was that BOCA (Building Officials and yet municipalities are not up to date. More information on BOCA can be found at www.bocai.org. Problems exist in finding city, county and state codes and specifications.

Program ideas for the next round table were presented. How standards developing organizations (SDOs) develop and promulgate standards, the thinking behind a standard and how to update one could be a future program. Perhaps American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Department of Defense (DOD), or a society, such as American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), could be part of the program. Progress in current awareness services, similar to ILI's bookmark service, was another program idea.

In closing the audience mentioned some Web sites. Someone liked the attractiveness of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) site at www.iec.ch/. On the international scene, www.newapproach.org offers EC directives and working groups of harmonized standards in the European internal market. Other sources included www.interregs.com for automotive and mobile construction equipment and non-road engine manufacture, www.wto.org for standards that affect world trade, and www.europa.org, the official site of the European Union. The moderator announced that notes from this session would appear on the SLA Engineering Division Web site, www.sla.org/division/deng/engdiv.html.

A Successful Standards Control and Dissemination Program: Meeting a Company Need

This session was presented by the Materials Research & Manufacturing Division, Communications Division, and Transportation Division and sponsored by ASTM.

Linda Senkus, manager of Library Services at The Torrington Company, presented the history of a successful standards management program carried out at her engineering firm, The Torrington Company. Internal and external standards were needed for the company's success as a producer of high-quality, precision bearings and motion control components and assemblies. All parties in numerous departments had to be kept informed of the latest standards needed to meet customers' demands. The Company organized problem-solving teams. Team one determined scope, while team two proposed the solution. Team three implemented the plan. It was team two that thought of using the librarian. Requirements for the solution fit what the librarian does routinely. A list of required standards had to be created, maintained, viewed by all employees, and kept current. What could better serve as the necessary tool than the online catalog, the OPAC, in Torrington's information center?

To implement the plan, the Library Manager used regular ordering and receiving methods. The OPAC had a routing module that could be used after the distribution list was created and the standards were identified for current and archival needs. The Information Center used BASIS/Techlib software. The staff started with 1,000 standards. After evaluating information delivery sources, Ms Senkus chose ILI InfoDisk, with its bookmark feature. ILI also provided its record to load into the OPAC. As a result employees viewed a customized OPAC with search screen capability. Ms Senkus provided the audience with a handout showing the OPAC modifications. The default record resembled the MARC record, using the industry standard number as the call number. The machine-readable record from the ILI InfoDisk Standards Database was loaded into BASIS/Techlib, creating the permanent record. Other records created included circulation, subscription, routing, and claims processing. BASIS/Techlib and Lotus Notes provided the mechanism for electronic routing records. E-mail was used for notification to employees.

Impact on the library showed in several ways. Shipping was doubled. The library received wonderful PR. Plant employees discovered the library. Non-library users perceived it as a critical business tool. The library manager was viewed as a change agent. Other advantages to the entire company included keeping the employees on target and the cost savings. This method cost one-tenth of the annual cost of providing each item individually.

Thoughts on future developments included electronic notification by the vendor of standards updates to be sent to employees automatically, reasonably priced licensing of individual electronic standards, and a licensing model that would permit one interface for all publishers. Loading the text of the standard electronically behind the catalog and the storing of standards were future considerations.

Standards Update and the Special Librarian

Two Association level committees sponsored this session, Committee on Cataloging and Technical Standards Committee. Four speakers reported on activities that affect librarians, Cynthia Whitacre, OCLC; Dorothy McGarry, UCLA; Patricia Harris, National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and Marjorie M.K. Hlava, Access Innovations, Inc. Marjorie Hlava also moderated the session.

Both the Committee on Cataloging and the Technical Standards Committee have members appointed for overlapping terms. Some may represent the Association at meetings of other organizations with similar purposes. The committee reviews and comments on proposed cataloging rules and technical standards. Descriptions of the committees are found at www.sla.org/content/chdiv/committee/catalog/index.cfm and www.sla.org/content/chdiv/committee/tech.cfm

Cynthia Whitacre and Dorothy McGarry reported on current activities in the cataloging world. The former provided a handout of the outline of upcoming changes for the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition, 1998 revision (AACR2). The latter showed the audience how high the sheets stacked when she printed out the descriptive draft text for monographs and for continuing resources.

Cynthia Whitacre mentioned that the draft of the amendments appear as a free download in PDF form at: http://www.ala.org/editions/updates/aacr2/ which contain currently the 1999 ones and, coming soon, the draft of the 2001 ones. The AACR2 revision process includes the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) which meets twice a year. The minutes appear on the Web at www.nic-bnc.ca/jsc/. The committee consists of representatives from the American Library Association, the Australian Committee on Cataloguing, the British Library, the Canadian Committee on Cataloging, the Library Association, and the Library of Congress. SLA sends a representative to the ALA Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CCDA) which is the USA body that proposes rule changes for AACR2 to the JSC. Upcoming changes are in cartographic materials, computer files, and serials. Changes proposed in cartography incorporate digital geospatial information into the rules. Changes in computer files include harmonizing internationally and clarifying terms. The phrase "electronic resource" will replace "computer file" in the general material description. Definitions of "disc", meaning optical, and "disk" meaning information on a disk will be added to the glossary. Changes in continuing resources will be appreciated by serial librarians, for slight title changes will not require a new record. Previous titles will become a field note. Other changes show how detailed AACR2 is as a uniform standard. The CCDA Web is http://www.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/ccda/ccda.html.

Dorothy McGarry covered similar changes in the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). She described the cataloguing section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The IFLA section analyzes cataloguing activities and proposes cataloguing rules. Close relationships exist with numerous organizations, including the International Standards Organization (ISO) committee TC46, with the aim of making communication easier. The ISBD review group meets during the IFLA conference, this year in Boston. More on the current changes and other projects can be found at the IFLA site www.ifla.org/VII/s13/sc.htm . Included in this site is the invitation to review and the main text of the drafts for the "International standard bibliographic description for monographic publications (ISBD(M))" and "International standard bibliographic description for serials and other continuing resources (ISBD (CR))".

The Committee on Cataloging prepared a list of cataloging and metadata resources. The handout was titled "Reference resources for special libraries" and is found at www.sla.org/committee/catalog1/index.html . Prepared by Marcia Zeng, contact mzeng@kent.edu , it contains recent projects and issues, tools and Web sources, and a list of subject specific thesauri and classification schemes.

Patricia Harris described the NISO. NISO develops and maintains technical standards used by libraries, publishers, and information services throughout the world. In this country, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognizes NISO as an accredited standards developer. All NISO standards are available as free, downloadable pdf files at the NISO Web site: www.niso.org. Her handouts included the NISO Press 2001/2002 Catalog, some issues of Information Standards Quarterly, and a sheet listing NISO's priorities. Another handout announced the NISO co-sponsored conference on e-books to be held in Washington, DC. November 5-7, 2001. Besides this 4th annual conference on the electronic book, NISO sponsored a forum in February that dealt with performance statistics and measurements.

Recent NISO standards range from the design of title pages of conference proceedings (Z39.82) to environmental conditions for library and archival material (Z39.79). The Digital Object Identifier (Z39.85) identifies digital content, and under development is an international identifier for film, broadcasting content, and audio-visual content. Other standards under development include circulation protocol on the Web, a national profile to complement Z39.50 and an open URL, that will transform searching by connecting users to the most appropriate copy of a chosen resource. NISO's involvement on the international scene resulted in several ISOs on records management to one on country codes (ISO 3166).

Ms Harris suggested ways to participate in standards activities. One could plug into a SLA standards network. Another way is to join the library standards alliance, a new category of membership in NISO. Many librarians have contributed to the development of NISO standards and this alliance gives them a way to support NISO directly.

Marjorie Hlava closed the session with a brief wrap-up of international standards activities. Her report was packed with acronyms that ranged from IAF, the International Accreditation Forum to the WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, with a sprinkling of familiar ones like ISO and WTO. ISO 8632 is a data dictionary that includes Dublin Core. Time ran out as she mentioned the quasi standards organizations, such as onix.org in the book trade industry. Amazon.com serves as a working example of that standard.

Jean Z. Piety (Jean.Piety@cpl.org) is Head of the Science and Technology Department in Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio.

John Piety

Academic Science and Engineering Librarians Roundtable

Public Relations and Marketing Services to Users

Michelle Tennant, of the Health Science Center Libraries started the program. She stated, "a first step in public relations and marketing is to run a survey of user needs and attitudes then solve for complaints." In this electronic age, it is still necessary to have face to face meetings as well as electronic access to users and their needs. A place to find articles about liaison work is the Journal of Academic Librarianship, http://bubl.ac.uk/journals/lis/fj/jacalib/. A useful article in the journal is by a researcher named Yang. He has devised a good form to get information to measure success in liaison duties (Yang, 2000). Using the survey form and following up on what it revealed, increased library contacts from around 24 per year to 608 per year. A beneficial result to Yang's library is that the specialty departments have budgeted for salaries of library liaisons. For a full report on the program, read the article Michelle published with five colleagues in Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (2001).

Olga Paradis, of Baylor University Science/Engineering Library had a specific hurdle to overcome. She described the task of bringing together the collections held in several science and engineering departments to form one library collection. She commented that some of the "old-timers" had a definite chip on their shoulder over the consolidation. Olga showed the many improvements now possible, through a newsletter promoting new services and personnel that were not available under the old system. Among other services, there are no more fines in the library; printing from the microfilm holdings is free, and so on. To help bring in users, a snack shop and a computer lab have been installed. The primary marketing thrust of the library is to the graduate students in science and engineering.

Ann Koopman of Thomas Jefferson University Health Sciences Library was the third and last speaker of the panel. Her major task has been reaching Web-based library users. She faced an unenviable chore. All of her users seem to be "type A" personalities, and they are all palm pilot users ­ connected to the Web on a 24/7 basis. They wanted library services available on that 24/7 basis. In response, many reference staff now have additional online duties. Face to face reference transactions are down by two-thirds. The Web site is now a primary nexus of services. When this happens, she suggests you get a slogan, get a logo, and have attitude! The Web page for the library has pop-up surveys. "Wanted ­ your opinion..." is one of them. They are easy to change. The library developed a Cyber Café with an in-depth Web menu that helps promote library services. The librarians do e-training, always under the logo of JEFFLINE can be viewed at http://jeffline.tju.edu/.

The following represents the flavor of the question and answer session, which is always an interesting part of this meeting: Question ­ "How do you in the library solve a problem of access that is based on the network or PC configuration?" Answer ­ "By hook and crook. Often problems replicate and are recognized, and solutions found. If standard instructions work, they can be placed on the Web site." Other answers to common problems: keep all informed with electronic messaging, especially graduate students ­ they are heavy library users. Open computer classrooms to student use at times they are not in use for class ­ otherwise you get a "dog in the manger" reputation. All in all, the session was quite informative and well worth the time and effort.

John Piety (piety@jcu.edu) is a Science Reference Librarian at John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio.