18th Annual National Online Meeting & IOLS '97
Tuesday
May 13, 1997
Track A: Internet Searching
Track B: CD-ROM and Multimedia
Track C: Information Workers


Welcome
9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.
Tom Hogan, Information Today, Inc.

Awards
9:10 a.m. - 9:35 a.m.
D & B Online Champion Award
UMI/Data Courier Library Technology Award
OCLC Award

Online Trivia Quiz
9:35 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.

Highlights of the Online Database Industry and the Internet
9:40 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Martha E. Williams, University of Illinois

The Internet Today and Tomorrow
Keynote Speech
Morris Goldstein, Thomson Corporation Technology Ventures
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
The Internet has grown rapidly during the last few years and has made a significant impact on our professional and personal lives. Creative technology and revolutionary application proposals abound. Funds are readily available to those with grand plans designed to reap fortunes from the Internet and World Wide Web. What will the future hold? How will this investment change our industry? How do we prepare for the rapid changes that are anticipated? What can we look forward to after the shakeout when financial reality strikes?

This Keynote will focus on these and other fundamental issues that our industry must confront relative to the Internet. We will extrapolate from the past and postulate future scenarios. A road map of milestones and checkpoints will be discussed in order to focus our planning initiatives. Most importantly, we will identify the core competencies that we must develop in order to survive.

Track A: Internet Searching

Internet and Search Engines: Producer Views (1)
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Representatives of Hot Bot, Alta Vista, Excite and Lycos will talk about the design and implementation considerations associated with their search engines. How is matching of query to file accomplished? How are sites selected and indexed? How many sites are included? How frequently are they updated? What general trends are anticipated and how will the anticipations be met? What improvements and new function/features are planned?

Hot Bot: Design and Implementation Considerations
Eric Brewer, Chief Technology Officer, Inktomi

12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Lunch Break - Visit the Exhibits

Internet and Search Engines: Producer Views (2)
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Lycos: Design and Implementation Considerations
Mark Simmer, V.P. of Online Publishing, Lycos Inc.

Internet and Search Engines: Producer Views (3)
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Alta Vista: Design and Implementation Considerations
Bob Lehmenkuler, Alta Vista Search Product Marketing Manager, Alta Vista

Internet and Search Engines: Producer Views (4)
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Excite: Design and Implementation Considerations
Graham Spencer, Chief Technology Officer and Founder, Excite


Track B: CD-ROM & Multimedia

CD-ROM Workshop 1
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Multimedia on CD-ROM and the WWW:
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly... and the Dysfunctional (Part I)
Péter Jacsó, University of Hawaii
Multimedia elements such as pictures, maps, animated sequences, narration, pronunciation guides, sound effects, and video clips can enhance the textual content, and increase users' involvement--if they are well done. Multimedia can also act as a smoke screen by hiding serious deficiencies of content and/or access. This multimedia tutorial will illustrate what makes multimedia good and bad, nice and ugly, useful and dysfunctional, and how the quality of multimedia can be better defined by quantitative measures.


12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Lunch Break - Visit the Exhibits


CD-ROM Workshop 1 (continued)
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Multimedia on CD-ROM and the WWW:
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly... and the Dysfunctional (Part II)
Péter Jacsó, University of Hawaii

CD-ROM Workshop 2
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
The Hardware and Software You Need for Using Multimedia Web Sites and CD-ROMs (Part I)
Péter Jacsó, University of Hawaii
Powerful base systems with smartly selected peripherals, appropriately tuned systems software, and well-chosen browser utilities (plug-ins, and ActiveX controls) can significantly enhance the multimedia experience of users of CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web. This tutorial will explain what hardware components have the most impact on multimedia performance. What a difference the new MMX processor, more memory, larger screens, wider bandwidth can mean for high resolution images, hi-fi audio, and smooth video. The built-in multimedia capabilities of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, and the pros and cons of various types of add-on browser utilities for playback of audio, still and motion images will be discussed.

CD-ROM Workshop 2 (continued)
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Hardware and Software You Need for Using Multimedia Web Sites and CD-ROMs (Part II)
Péter Jacsó, University of Hawaii


Track C: Information Workers Today

Training by and for Use of the Internet
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
World Wide Web-based Tutorials to Teach On-line Searching in Distance and Self-Teaching Environments
Michael Hamlin, Thomas Jefferson University
Providers of databases and information services are increasingly turning to online tutorials and computer-based teaching programs to help users learn in non-traditional settings. Because tutorials can be either at a distance or in independent learning situations they provide increased opportunities to learn. Unfortunately, although they may be more efficient than traditional classroom instruction, these online tutorials are often boring and tedious. If we expect people to use online training aids, these resources must be relevant to the user's needs and maintain their interest. In this session, Michael Hamlin will focus on techniques for combining multimedia, World Wide Web and database technology, with case-based techniques to teach information searching skills. Elements of the learning environments to be discussed include: the case content, online testing, online tutorials and interfacing to Oracle databases for record-keeping.

Webpages as Courseware: Bibliographic Instruction on the Internet
Ka-Neng Au and Roberta L. Tipton, Rutgers University
In collaboration with members of the teaching faculty, Ka-Neng Au and Roberta Tipton have developed webpages that serve three functions: teaching outlines for information literacy classes; handouts for students in a range of related courses; and access guides to print, online, and Internet resources for specific research needs. These webpages, based on course syllabi, teaching notes, and traditional library pathfinders, have been inter-linked, enabling new sets of handouts to be developed with relative ease. At the same time, these webpages are available for research guidance anytime, from any computer with access to the Web. The speakers will describe the process and practice of bibliographic instruction using the Internet.

Concepts in End User Training:
How Well Established Research Techniques Can Be Translated into Effective End User Tools
Veronica M. Adams and George R. Plosker, Information Access Company
The growth and acceptance of the Internet has exposed the breadth of information available by electronic access far beyond the traditional information professional environment. Anyone ith the appropriate hardware and software can now access data on virtually any topic instantaneously and relatively inexpensively. Anyone on the threshold of a content database must be trained to appreciate the value and benefits of a similar investigative process if successful information retrieval is to take place. Successful end-user training can be achieved by translating the established techniques of information professionals into well-defined steps. Specific tips and guidelines will be provided in this session.


12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Lunch Break - Visit the Exhibits



Information Professionals: Expanding Roles and Renewed Importance
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
The Situated Intermediary: Remote Advice Giving in a Distributed Reference Environment
Elisabeth Davenport, Rob Procter, and Ana Goldenberg, Queen Margaret College
The authors will describe a project to develop a pilot multimedia service to support collaboration between experts and reotely-located users of online retrieval systems. It is reported that 30-50% of bibliographic searches result in no 'hits'. Elisabeth Davenport and colleagues have been investigating how to use multimedia to make expertise available to remote users in order to improve search results. A pilot service using various forms of multimedia tools, including video conferencing, email, and FAQ lists, has been implemented in order to investigate their roles in multimedia-based reference consultation.

Studies of Information Professionals Cited with Enterprise Information Successes
Greg Gerdy, Dow Jones Business Information Services
This session will examine "real life" examples of leadership among information professionals that have resulted in successful enterprise-wide information systems. It will provide two to three examples of how information professionals have increased their values to a corporation by their diligent efforts to bring relevant, timely, external information to corporate decision-makers, and in the process increased their own value through increased awareness of their role as information experts. The role of the information professional has changed from a searcher of articles or stock quotes or new product announcements, to a searcher of information that is delivered with analysis, intelligence and strategic research that affects all segments of a corporation.

Information Professionals = Knowledge Workers
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
New Searching Technologies and Interfaces
Michael L. Weiner and Peter F. Rusch, Manning & Napier Information Services
The growing demand for information has resulted in an increasing number of duties for the corporate library staff. With the advent of the library without walls, librarians and information specialists are tasked to provide a variety of digital library services beyond the traditional intermediated search. Searches of high economic value remain the purview of the skilled information specialist who has both subject and information skills. Preliminary screening searches, competitive intelligence searches, and searches of lower economic value are now performed by the end-user. A new range of databases and search engines with natural-language interfaces are available to help both experienced searchers and occasional users perform high quality searches.

Choosing the Desktop Information Product That's Right for You: The Inside Scoop
Brian Cannan and Jan Williams, CAS
Figuring out which search package matches the requirements of an organization's end-users is no longer a simple affair. The information professional must consider which online services are available, what options they have, such as more than one front end or delivery channel, and whether there are now CD-ROM, World Wide Web, and client server products that are alternatives to the online file. Information professionals must blaze a trail for their clientele through this maze of technologies, interfaces, and pricing plans. Brian Cannan and Jan Williams will discuss how the information provider and information professional can work together to leverage the use of scientific information.

Organizing and Managing Electronic Information for the Net
4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
NAICS Pit: Don't Get Bitten When SIC Codes Are Retired
Jennifer Boettcher, Texas A&M University
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes have been in wide use for decades by the federal government to measure the nature of business. But SIC Codes will be discontinued in 1997. In its place will be the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS, pronounced "nakes"). The new system has been produced in conjunction with Mexico and Canada and will allow easier comparison of data between the NAFTA trading partners. Outcries against NAICS come from researchers and information providers. The loss of integrity of time series data is a serious issue for researchers. Information providers have to decide how to present their data: should they keep the established codes or should they adopt the new ones or should they ignore the codes altogether and just use natural language? Jennifer Boettcher's presentation will address the background in formation of NAICS and highlight some the differences between the two code systems. A description of how some database providers are dealing with the situation will be included.

Organizing the Chaotic Medical Internet
Milton Craig Heuston, Heuston Consulting Inc.
Milton Craig Heuston presents an approach to the organization of an important database of medical information, which now exists in a very chaotic form in the Internet World Wide Web. The medical Internet is valuable to physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals, and patients as supplements to normal medical library searching. However, the URLs, other newsgroups, and files are not standardized. Users are confused by this chaos and need an easy, well organized, and quick way for efficiently accessing the most important medical resources. They need to solve clinical problems, educate patients, learn about new drugs and medical devices, and support medical/legal problems by using the real value of the Internet.

Libraries and Computers: New Links to the Medieval World
Jane Bambrick, The William Paterson College of New Jersey
Most librarians are aware of the use of computers within the humanities. However, perhaps not all are aware of the many changes which have occurred within the last several years. Specifically, technology has dramatically changed the nature of research in medieval studies. Through the Internet students and faculty can visit web-sites, subscribe to Listservs and discover citations to books and medieval manuscripts. In some cases one can view magnificent illuminated letters produced by medieval scribes. Librarians and the medieval world are strange bedfellows, but this dyad provides us with resources previously unaccessible. Research will expand as more medieval icons and manuscripts are added to the Web. Technology has enhanced research in all disciplines, and medieval studies illustrate these exciting changes.

* NOM/IOLS '97 Home Page