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November 2001 LibraryNet Monthly TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. FAREWELL TO WENDY NEWMANLibraryNet would like to take this opportunity to bid Wendy Newman a fond farewell from the LibraryNet Advisory Board and congratulate her on her new position as incoming President of CLA. Wendy's contribution to the Board will be sorely missed. LibraryNet would also like to acknowledge Wendy's significant contribution to the Federal Blue Ribbon Task Force on Smart Community Development and her more recent work on the Broadband Task Force, where she proved to be a forceful and effective advocate on behalf of Canadian public libraries. 2. YOUNG CANADIANS ON THE NET STUDY COMPLETEDOn October 24, the Media Awareness Network (MNet) released the final findings from its "Young Canadians In A Wired World" survey. The research project was a nationwide investigation of Internet use among Canadian youth, exploring what they do online, how they perceive the Internet and what they know about it. This final analysis of the students' survey more closely examined areas of potential risk to youth online, such as exploring private and adult-only chat rooms, meeting Internet acquaintances in person, being exposed to sexually-explicit and hateful material, and sharing personal information. According to MNet's interpretation of the survey results, Canadian children may be putting themselves at risk as they explore the Internet with little or no supervision. For example, more than half of older children (13 to 17) have entered private or adult-only chat rooms. Perhaps of more concern, the survey also shows that Canadian youth don't seem to understand the importance of safeguarding their personal information; 21% of young Internet users indicated they would give out both their name and address in order to win a contest prize. The likelihood of children engaging in risky behaviour on the Internet was closely tied to parental involvement in and supervision of online activities. The majority of youth who visited private and adult-only chat rooms, for example, claimed that they are at home but unsupervised when using the Internet (85%) and that they have no household rules relating to this practice (82%). This final report follows a March 2000 survey in which Canadian parents were asked about their perceptions of the Internet, and the June 2001 preliminary analysis of the student survey, both covered in previous issues of LibraryNet Monthly. For more
information: 3.ONLINE LEARNING CONTINUES TO GROWOn November 11, the New York Times published an article by Amy Harmon on the explosion in online learning. This coming spring will mark the graduation of the first large body of students from the three- and four-year programs only recently available online. The article highlights the online master's program in library and information science at the University of Illinois. The program's 95 percent retention rate, university officials believe, is boosted by a mandatory ten days on campus at the beginning of each term, after which lectures are delivered by streaming video over the Internet. Last month the program, with 155 graduates so far, was named the most outstanding graduate program in the first annual awards for excellence in online education given by the Sloan Consortium, an association of 80 higher-education institutions devoted to promoting online learning. The article estimates that more than a million people were enrolled in online for-credit courses over the 2001-2 academic year - not including the thousands of learners enrolled in non-credit courses. Information technology remains the most popular subject, with business courses close behind. Public libraries continue to be an important resource for online distance students, not only for information resources, but also to provide a location where students can write an exam supervised by a local librarian. To read the
full text of the article: For more
information: 4. WAYBACK MACHINE TAKES YOU BACK IN TIMEThe Wayback Machine was unveiled on October 24 at the University of California Berkeley's Bancroft Library. A free service provided by the Internet Archive, the Wayback Machine allows people to access and use the full range of the Archive's stored web sites. "It's preserving a record of something that otherwise literally vanishes," said Paul Grabowicz, Assistant Dean at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. At the Wayback Machine, users type in a URL in the search box provided, choose a date from the list provided and are then able to begin surfing on a fully archived version of the selected website. The Internet Archive is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to build an "Internet library," offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections which exist in digital format. With over 100 terabytes of data growing at a rate of 12 terabytes per month, the Internet Archive's digital library is the world's largest known database. To view the
Wayback Machine, or for more information: 5. CROSS-BORDER LIBRARY EXCHANGEThis month, teams of American and Canadian librarians took part in a training exchange program designed to show them both where to locate important information about each other's countries. The participating librarians were from both the Windsor Public Library (WPL) in Ontario and the West Bloomfield Township Public Library of Michigan. On November 14, a team of nine WPL librarians visited West Bloomfield, where they were introduced to local and government web sites helpful when seeking information on American pensions, travel, hunting and fishing licences, and recreational resources. On November 15, six librarians from West Bloomfield studied Canadian government information services and children's web sites, since Michigan schoolchildren are often assigned projects about Canadian topics. For more
information: 6. UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA LAUNCHES VIRTUAL MUSEUMOn October 24, the University of Alberta Museum launched its new virtual museum website. "Where Wonder meets Wisdom" is a virtual gateway into the University's 17 million objects and specimens, with material for all audiences - exhibits for the curious, access to academic research information, and resources for classroom use. The information in the museum is derived from research conducted by faculty and students at the University of Alberta and accessible in multimedia formats. Visitors can view objects in 3-D, take behind-the-scenes virtual tours of museums and research facilities, and search databases of art, fossils and insects. Special exhibits allow users to study a 2000-year-old mummy, or swim through an artist's reconstruction of a 410 million-year-old sea. The University of Alberta has thirty-five museums and collections for teaching, research and community outreach purposes, located throughout its campus. The new website is a perfect medium for providing one-stop access to the wealth of information and entertainment scattered across the various collections. The virtual museum will be developed and updated on an ongoing basis. For more
information: 7. CALGARY SMART COMMUNITY PROJECT LAUNCHEDOn October 24, Brian Tobin, Minister of Industry, announced the launch of the Calgary INFOPORTTM Community Empowerment Project. This Smart Community Demonstration Project seeks to reduce the digital divide for Calgary's disadvantaged citizens. The Community Empowerment Project will provide a combination of computer hardware, software and training at access points convenient to those at risk. Computer stations located in the Calgary Public Library, the Salvation Army, and other drop-in centres for low-income and homeless Calgarians will give them the ability to access all of the information available through the Internet. Training on how to use the computers to access social and health services as well as housing, employment and educational opportunities will be provided, and personal email will allow much-needed contact with friends, family and support workers. The project website, to be known as Connect Calgary, will offer integrated information on community services in the city of Calgary, focussed on the needs of Calgary's lower-income citizens. The project is a collaborative partnership of local organizations which share an interest in using technology as a tool to assist those less fortunate in the community, including the Calgary Public Library. The project will receive $4.5 million in funding from Industry Canada over three years. The Smart Communities program is part of the Government of Canada's Connecting Canadians initiative, which aims to make Canada the most connected nation in the world. For more
information: 8. ONLINE POLL ON SUBSIDIES FOR BROADBAND ACCESSOn November 15, the Globe and Mail published two articles by Gerry Blackwell about the National Broadband Task Force's recommendation of broadband connections in rural and northern communities. One article quoted both Michael Binder, an assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, defending broadband access as necessary for economic survival, and Internet consultant Michael Rozender, advocating extending basic Internet access instead. That week, the paper's website also conducted an online poll regarding subsidy of Internet access to remote areas. The poll asked "Should the federal government subsidize high-speed Internet access links in isolated communities?" and gave the option of Yes or No answers. Poll results at the time of writing showed "Yes" leading with 73% of the 2940 total respondents so far. To read the
full text of the articles, go to: 9. WINDSOR PUBLIC LIBRARY CREATES VIRTUAL MUSEUM EXHIBITOn November 2, Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray launched a new online exhibit about the 71 year old Windsor-Detroit tunnel, Canada's second busiest border crossing. "The Fleetway: An Exhibit of the Detroit-Canada Tunnel" was created by the Windsor Public Library (WPL) in partnership with Windsor's Community Museum as an exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC). It portrays the construction and engineering history of the landmark tunnel under the Detroit River. Camilla Stodgell Wigle, who was in the second car to go through the tunnel on its opening day, November 1, 1930, and was interviewed for the project, was also present as a special guest. "We are both pleased and honoured that the Virtual Museum of Canada has found our work worthy of exhibition in such a prominent place," said WPL Board Chair Peter Wright. Windsor Public Library has become a leader in producing heritage web sites. Thanks to grants from Canada's Millennium Partnership Program, these sites include: Bienvenue à Windsor, a history of French Culture in Windsor and Essex County; Some Assembly Required, a history of the labour movement; and Windsor on Wheels, a history of the automotive industry. The VMC is a federal initiative, a partnership between Canada's museum community and the Department of Canadian Heritage which harnesses the power of the Internet to bring Canada's rich and diverse heritage into our homes, schools and workplaces. VMC's Investment Program uses a limited-tender competitive contracting process in which submitted proposals are reviewed by an editorial board composed of members from the museum community and the private sector. To view the
exhibit: For more
information: 10. USEFUL INTERNET RESOURCESSubject
Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information Usable
Information Technology (useit.com) a.k.a.
(Also Known As) If
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