Post-Conference Workshops
Friday, May 18th, 2001
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InfoToday
2001: The Global Conference and Exhibition on Electronic Information &
Knowledge Management
Post-Conference Workshops Friday, May 18th, 2001 |
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Workshop 12
9:00 a.m. -
4:30 p.m.
Intranet Taxonomies and
Metadata: Creating Them, Using Them
Marjorie Hlava,
President, Access Innovations, Inc.
Heather Hlava,
President, Data Harmony
Putting content
on the Internet with a flexible, effective and easy-to-use interface requires
a strong metadata set and accompanying taxonomy or taxonomies. Metadata
and taxonomies are the two major components that allow for quick, easy
navigation and excellent search results, and when they are linked to well-formed
data, create the basis of successful sites. Several standards are in the
process of being set, and many techniques have evolved to help achieve
these goals. Learn about the Dublin Core Metadata, the INDECS data dictionary,
the EPICS project, the latest BISAC initiatives, the RDF from W3C, and
other metadata projects that can be used in your own Internet or intranet
development projects. Taxonomy management deals with the core concern of
content developers and disseminators—how to quickly convey meaning of a
record or document so that it can be found precisely and accurately. Ambiguity
is the ever-present enemy of clarity. Thesaurus (taxonomy) design and control
provide tools and techniques for disambiguation. As designers and developers
of databases for over 20 years, presenters discuss techniques for building
and managing vocabularies and metadata and define the various types of
word control, including rules for distinguishing among different word control
formats. The Hlavas also demonstrate an XML RDF solution for text management
as an example of how these new standards can work together for an effective
outcome.
Workshop 13
9:00 a.m. -
4:30 p.m.
Designing Usable Library
Sites—Keep Your Eye on the Users
Darlene Fichter,
University of Saskatchewan Libraries
Frank Cervone,
DePaul University Libraries
Now that you’ve
built it, does it work? How do you know? Building a successful library
site is becoming a mission-critical application as libraries’ services
and resources become digital. What design factors should you consider?
Learn about various usability tests and techniques that will help you have
a “user-focused” design. Practice some of the tests and take home some
useful guidelines for your own project. Anyone who is charged with managing
or designing a Web site will have an interest in the live demos, tests
and guidelines.
Workshop 14
9:00 a.m. -
12:00 p.m.
Getting Down to Business:
How Super Searchers Find Business Information Online
Mary Ellen
Bates, Bates Information Services
This half-day
workshop tackles the problems of finding reliable, high-quality information
on business and financial topics on the Net. Bates, the author of the recently
published books, Super Searchers Do Business and Mining for Gold on the
Internet, looks at issues related to conducting research online efficiently
and cost-effectively, validating sources, using Web-only information resources,
and staying updated on new business and finance information. The workshop
provides practical, innovative ways of mining the Net for information;
advice on how and when to encourage library clients to conduct their own
business research; and tips on when to use the free or nearly free Web
sources and when to open up your wallet and use the big-ticket information
sources. While the focus of this workshop is on the resources found exclusively
on the Net, it also covers unusual or unique resources from the traditional
online services. Attendees will leave the workshop with improved business
research skills, ideas on new ways to drill for information, and a collection
of links to the best business resources on the Web.
Workshop 15
9:00 a.m. -
12:00 p.m.
Knowledge@Work: Models
and Processes
Tim Powell,
Managing Director, TW Powell Co., The Knowledge Agency
Want to start
a knowledge initiative? Want to harness the knowledge within your
organization and use it to drive strategy and produce business results?
This half-day workshop provides real working models and process templates
to help you do just that. Tim Powell has spent over 15 years developing
knowledge initiatives in large organizations and fixing broken ones.
His knowledge initiative development process is the distillation of his
experiences in the professional services, consumer products, pharmaceuticals,
and oil industries. He will present this and other key parts of his
workshop “Knowledge: The Engine of Value,” which he has recently conducted
in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and South America.
Workshop 16
9:00 a.m. -
12:00 p.m.
Extreme Searching: Using
Web Search Engines to the Maximum
Randolph Hock,
Online Strategies, Author of The Extreme Searcher’s Guide to Web Search
Engines
Web search engines
have quickly become a critical tool in the serious information seeker’s
toolbox. They provide a kind and extent of access barely imaginable a very
few years ago. The major search engines provide powerful (and often under
used) search features that can make the difference in whether we really
get what we need and also whether we do it efficiently. In addition, each
provides a combination of unique features, options and pleasant surprises.
On the down side, most engines are neither as straightforward, as accurate,
nor as understandable as we might wish and as many of the search engine
producers would like us to believe. To make full use of these services,
there is a lot more to fruitfully be known than is apparent from the documentation.
The emphasis in this half-day workshop is on providing the searcher with
the information necessary to have better control over what is retrieved.
To help accomplish this, we look behind the scenes to see how the search
engines are put together and what factors are involved in their retrieval
algorithms. The seminar will cover the variety of options and features
provided by the major search engines (AltaVista, Excite, Fast Search, Google,
HotBot, Lycos, Northern Light, plus Yahoo!) and provide tips for optimal
strategies and usage. The individual search engines will be summarized,
compared, and reviewed. “Meta-Search engines” such as DogPile, are also
addressed in terms of what they do and do not accomplish. A course booklet
is provided and should serve as an ongoing reference aid.
Workshop 17
1:30 p.m. -
4:30 p.m.
Beyond Yahoo! Beyond Google!
Subject-Specific Sites and Searches on the Net
Margot Williams,
Research Editor & Internet Trainer, The Washington Post, Author of
Great
Scouts! CyberGuides for Subject Searching on the Web (with Nora Paul)
Yahoo! was the
genesis, the beginning of a noble attempt to organize the unruly Web. Years
later, Yahoo! is still the beginning point for many Web users. This subject-oriented
session provides background and guidelines to evaluating resources in specific
subject areas, and gives users of subject-specific resources some alternatives
to Yahoo! and Google when looking for the most comprehensive and dependable
sources of information on the Web.
Workshop 18
1:30 p.m. -
4:30 p.m.
Cost-Effective Online
Research
Amelia Kassel,
President, MarketingBase
Cost-effective
online research requires a keen knowledge and understanding of vendor and
publisher pricing. Moreover, professional searchers must have more than
a casual knowledge of features that enhance productivity and save money.
Time is of the essence and searchers must be able to formulate targeted
search strategies using the best sources possible, whether Web-based or
commercial databases. Since many database producers distribute through
various channels, it’s necessary to know the differences in both pricing
and content when there is more than one choice. This half-day workshop
by a business researcher specializing in market research, competitive intelligence,
and worldwide business information since 1984 presents the latest in cost
effective and power searching—including strategies, techniques, tips, and
sources that cover the best approach for achieving results. She explains
pros and cons of free Web versus fee-based database research and why it’s
important to use commercial sources for certain types of projects in order
not to sacrifice confidentiality or privacy for price while also covering
her own expert searcher’s secrets for using both the Web and commercial
databases.
Topics include:
Workshop
18
1:30 p.m. -
4:30 p.m.
The Global Village and
Competitor Intelligence: Around the World in 80 Hyperlinks
Helene Kassler,
Northern Light
This half-day
workshop, focusing on the creative uses of the Internet for competitive
intelligence research, begins with the basics and then moves on to more
advanced research techniques. It is an international-based seminar that
identifies useful resources from around the globe and examines their value
for competitive intelligence research. Specific examples include Canada’s
SEDAR database (similar to the U. S. SEC EDGAR database), the European
Patent Office’s free Web database, country-specific publications, search
engines and directories—and even Alta-Vista’s free translation service.
Examples are drawn from job postings, resumes, patents, alerting services,
news stories, live Webcasts of important corporate presentations, industry
surveys and association Web sites
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