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September 2001 LibraryNet Monthly TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. SUBSCRIBE TO LIBRARYNET MONTHLYDon't forget that you can sign up to have LibraryNet Monthly delivered automatically to your inbox every month. Just visit our website at http://www.schoolnet.ca/e/index.asp and enter your email address in the subscription form. 2. YUKON READY FOR HIGH-SPEED INTERNETHigh-speed Internet is now available to five more communities in the Yukon. Access started on August 16 and was available to all of these communities by mid-September, 2001. These communities join six others which received high-speed Internet capabilities previously under the program. "Almost 90 per cent of Yukon homes [now] have access to high-speed Internet," said Community and Transportation Services Minister, Pam Buckway. Connect Yukon is a cost-shared joint initiative between the Yukon government and Northwestel. The new services will enhance distance education options for schools and college campuses, enable a range of emerging health applications and allow business to take full advantage of worldwide Internet marketing and sales opportunities. Access to Internet services in the recently connected communities can be obtained by contacting local Internet service providers. For more
information: 3. NEW CAP SITES IN NUNAVUT AND ALBERTAOn August 21, Industry Canada's Community Access Program (CAP) and the Government of Nunavut signed an agreement to establish community Internet access sites in seven communities in the territory. Each government will contribute $130,000 towards establishing these sites. On August 24, a network of eight public Internet access centres, including four in public libraries, was launched in Beaver County, Alberta. CAP contributed $80,000 towards this network. Local residents will not only be able to access the Internet from these sites, but can also take advantage of training sessions, Web page development and other services relevant to the needs of their community. Like all CAP sites, the new sites involve community-based organizations, the private sector and all levels of government working together to capture the enabling power of the Information Highway. CAP is part of the Government of Canada's Connecting Canadians strategy, which is helping to keep Canada among world leaders in Internet access and applications. The program establishes public Internet access sites in remote, rural, and urban communities nation-wide. At present, 8,800 affordable Internet access centres have been established or approved. For more
information, please contact: 4. MORE SMART COMMUNITIES LAUNCHEDOn August 21, the Saskatchewan Smart Community Demonstration Project, called the Headwaters Project, was launched. With the concerted efforts of the involved partners, Smart Services will be available to the citizens of nearly 40 communities in Northern Saskatchewan. These services will include: e-learning, allowing students to complete high school, post secondary, and vocational courses on-line; e-commerce and e- tourism, allowing Northern Saskatchewan to be promoted on-line; e-business, where banking services can be completed online; e-health, where medical professionals can upgrade their skills online and residents can get information on the latest medical advances; and e-heritage, where these northern communities can showcase their heritage and culture on-line. On August 25, the Smart Communities Society project was launched to assist Yellowknife in providing on-line education, community, health and business services. The Yellowknife Smart Communities Society will offer four "Smart Services" linked by a "Smart Centre." The services will include: CityLink, offering residents access to city services and information; WellnetLink, offering access to health and social services through a single point of contact; BusinessLink, offering e-business services and employment and career planning; and KnowledgeLink, offering residents a range of on-line education services and hands-on computer orientation. Both projects will receive over $4.5 million in matching funds 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. Each of Canada's 12 Smart Communities is considered a demonstration project, because lessons learned and best practices will be shared with all other communities seeking to become "Smart." For more
information: 5. OLDER CANADIANS ON THE SIDE OF THE INFOHIGHWAY?Canadians 60 and over may be in danger of being left behind as the Internet increases in importance as a method of communication, since they are much less likely to use the Internet than younger people. According to data recently released by Statistics Canada, only 13% of older people surveyed had used the Internet during the previous year, compared to 63% of younger people. Twice as many older men (17%) as women (9%) were online. The profile of older people as a group is very different from that of older Internet users. For example, older Internet users have higher levels of education and income than other older people. Though most are retired, employment was also a positive factor related to Internet use. Being among the "oldest old," female, or living alone were related to lower incidence of use. Only 8% of older non-users were interested in starting. However, attitudes were not the only barriers to Internet use. Among those who were interested in starting, and did not already have a connection in their home, access to a computer or the Internet (30%), cost (26%), lack of time (15%) and lack of skills or training (14%) were most often cited as the greatest barriers. Most older Internet users use e-mail and use it frequently to communicate with family and friends. Seven in ten of those who used it in the previous month used it at least several times a week. Older Internet users rated their computer skills higher than did older people who used a computer but had not used the Internet. While 48% of older Internet users had developed some of their skills in the workplace, 35% were self-taught without training from a workplace or an educational institution. For more
information: 6. CANADIANS SURF LIKE SCANDINAVIANSA recent report from Ipsos Reid indicates that Canadian Internet users' online behavior is more like that of Scandinavians than US Internet users. Like Scandinavians, Canadians are more likely than their US counterparts to bank online, download music, and have broadband Internet access. Over 60 percent of active Internet users in Canada have banked online, in comparison with 29 percent active US users. Fifteen percent of the Canadians polled have invested online, while only 10 percent of US users have. Thirty-one percent of active Canadian users have broadband Internet access, while only 14 percent of those in the US have. American users, however, are still more likely to shop online. Seventy-seven percent of US users, and 68 percent of Canadian users, have bought online. On average, US users made more than twice as many online purchases as Canadian users did, and spent 50 percent more online. For more
information: 7. ONLINE INTERNET COURSES FOR LIBRARIANSLibrarians are invited to improve their Internet research skills by taking an online course this fall from the Continuing Education Program of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. All courses are conducted entirely through email, the Web, and chat. Study is self-paced, with weekly assignments and personal attention from the instructors. Mastering Web Searching builds skills in using the Web-search tools and applying strategies for better searches. The seminars cover subject guides and directories, search engines, meta-searchers, desktop software, and specialized tools. Students learn how to apply syntax in keyword searches, locate specialty services, penetrate the Invisible Web, mine newsgroups and mailing lists, find people, and much more. Internet Competitive Intelligence teaches the principles of collecting intelligence about competitors using the Internet. Students will learn about a wide range of Internet-based tools, techniques and resources, effective search strategies, and how to create a competitive intelligence mindset. Both courses run from October 9 to November 14, 2001, and the registration deadline is October 2. The course fee is $375 (Cdn). For more
information or to register: 8. LIBRARY FRIENDS OF THE YEAR AWARDThe Random House of Canada "Friend of the Year" Award is given annually to a Friends of the Library group for outstanding community and volunteer involvement. This year's award was presented to the Friends of the London Public Library in recognition of their innovation and community involvement. The over 350 Friends of the London Public Library serve as volunteers, fundraisers and advocates. An annual booksale is their major fund raising event, earning $42,000 last year. The Friends and the Library also co-sponsor author readings, open houses, and library anniversary celebrations. The $20,000 award will go to literacy programs within the London Public Library System, its Summer Reading Program, and the London Literacy Network (housed at the Central Branch of the LPL). $10,000 of the Friends' book sale profits will be used to purchase a CD-ROM workstation for the Westmount Branch Library, complete with child-size furniture, headphones, and a variety of other hardware and interactive computer software. According to Friends President, Hilary Bates Neary, "it is our long term goal to have at least one or two of these workstations in each of the London Public Library locations." For more
information: 9. NEW U.S. CENSUS BUREAU REPORT ON NET USEAccording to a "Home Computers and Internet Use in the United States" report released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 4 in 5 households with computers had at least one member using the Internet at home (44 million households) during 2000. When the Census Bureau first collected data on Internet use in 1997, fewer than half of the households with computers had someone who was able to go online. The report also measured the influence of the Internet on how people access and use information. Of the total U.S. population, about one-third of adults used email from home in 2000, and nearly one- quarter used the Internet to search for information about topics such as business, health or government services. Schools have "levelled the playing field" by giving computer access to children who do not have one at home. Computer use at school was more nearly equal across various income, race or ethnic groups than was access at home. Single-person households and households in the South were the least likely to have a computer or Internet access. High-income households and those in the West were the most likely to have computers and Internet access. The report used Current Population Survey (CPS) data obtained from about 50,000 U.S. households during August 2000. For the complete
report in PDF format: 10. ONLINE POPULATION APPROACHING HALF A BILLIONAccording to figures released by Nielsen/Netratings in August, the world's online population is approaching half a billion. The survey notes an increase of 30 million people online since the first quarter of 2001, reaching a projected 459 million people globally. The numbers are based on more than 40,000 telephone surveys conducted between April and June 2001 in 30 nations in North America, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. Nielsen/Netratings claims it currently measures 93 percent of the online population, after adding Argentina, India, South Africa and Israel to this survey. The U.S. and Canada together accounted for 40% of the world's online population, down 1% from June 2001. Europe and the Middle East-Africa region accounted for 27 percent of the world's Internet population. The Asia-Pacific region totalled 22 percent (up from 20 percent in the last quarter), and Latin America remained almost unchanged at 4 percent. For the first time, the survey found that in some nations, home and work were not the main access points for the Internet. For instance, in Latin America, nearly 9 million people - or 51 percent of the Internet populations in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico - used the Net at locations outside their homes. For more
information: 11. INTERNET TOPS LIBRARY AS RESEARCH SOURCE FOR STUDENTSAccording to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's recent "Internet & Education" report, the Internet has replaced the library as the primary tool for doing research for significant projects for many teenaged students. The Pew report found that nearly three-quarters of American students ages 12 to 17 have Internet access, and almost all of them use the Internet for school-related research. When asked about their most recent major school assignment, 71 percent of teenagers with Internet access said they relied mostly on Internet sources in completing the project, compared to 24 percent who said they relied chiefly on library sources. Students use not only the vast amount of information online, but the communications aspect of the Internet as well. 41 percent of online teens say they use e-mail and instant messaging to contact teachers or classmates about schoolwork. A survey of the teenagers' parents found that 87 percent believe that the Internet helps students with their schoolwork, 55 percent say the Internet has been a good thing for their children, and 55 percent believe that knowledge of how to use the Internet is essential for children to learn in order to be successful. The Internet can also make schoolwork a little too easy; about a fifth of online teens (18 percent) say they know of someone who has used the Internet to cheat on a paper or test. To read the
full text of the report: 12. GATES FOUNDATION AWARDS INTERNATIONAL GRANTSOn August 21, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the joint winners of this year's Access to Learning Award. Probigua, a Guatemalan non-governmental organization, and the Biblioteca del Congreso of Argentina will each receive a $US 250,000 grant to develop new initiatives. Probigua's outreach to low-income patrons is pioneering in a country where few communities have access to books or libraries. Probigua establishes and maintains public libraries in rural areas, using funding generated by its not-for-profit language school, and is also working to establish technology centres in affiliation with its libraries. The Argentine Biblioteca del Congreso originated and continues to function as a service for the country's legislature, but since 1917, the library has also been charged with serving the general public. Unlike almost all of the country's "bibliotecas populares," the Biblioteca del Congreso provides its services free of charge. The library's Multimedia Room, which includes public access Internet terminals, is open 12 hours a day and will become a 24-hour service by the end of the year. The Access to Learning Award is given each year to non-U.S. libraries, countries or organizations that provide unmediated access to digital technology for the general public. For more
information: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/libraries/ 13. MALAYSIA USING NETMOBILES TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDEAn article in the New York Times on August 23 reported on the Malaysian government's Mobile Internet Unit project - a 40-foot bus, loaded with 20 personal computers, which delivers technology to the country's poorest, most remote schools. More than 2,800 Malaysian children have learned to prepare homework on a computer, navigate the Internet, send email and even design Web pages since the bus hit the road two years ago. The original bus has already been supplemented by seven smaller versions, and the government plans to put two in each of Malaysia's 14 states by 2005. The United Nations Development Program, meanwhile, has organized a similar initiative in Ghana and says countries like Lebanon and Iran have expressed an interest. "Mobile Internet Unit" is not always completely accurate; the bus can establish Internet access only by stringing a telephone cord to a telephone jack nearby. If a phone line is not available, pupils on the bus surf websites stored on the bus's server. The program starts with such basics as learning how to turn the computer on and use a mouse, then progresses to basic word processing, e-mail, Web browsing, even manipulating spreadsheets and designing simple Web pages. The organizers leave behind a PC, a modem and an Internet account so that pupils can practice and teachers can find ways to work computers into the curriculum. Plans are now afoot to find a way to deliver computing to jungle communities in less-developed Malaysian Borneo, where roads have yet to reach, by building a mobile Internet boat. For more
information: 14. SOUTH AFRICAN LIBRARIES CORNER THE BUSINESS MARKETWesgro, a South African development agency, recently sponsored a new initiative to promote small business growth by establishing "business corners" in local public libraries. Each library received a 10,000 rand start-up grant (approx. $Cdn 2000) to acquire books, magazines, videos and other resources. So far, 24 business corners have been established in libraries in the Cape Town metropolitan area, and the agency aims to launch at least 20 more a year. For more
information: 15. CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTSCreating
a New Reference Librarianship The Corporation of Professional Librarians of Quebec is presenting this 2.5 day seminar in association with the OCLC Institute. It will be of interest to Heads of Reference/Public services, Corporate Librarians, University Librarians and anyone interested in creating changes in reference services. Please note that although some information in French is provided on the website, the seminar will be presented in English only. For more
information or to register: Creating
a New Reference Librarianship This two-and-a-half-day seminar, presented by the Vancouver Public Library and the OCLC Institute, will help librarians take a more active role in shaping the future of reference services. You will be challenged to ask difficult questions, gain hands-on experience with new technology applications and create an action plan for change. For more
information or to register: http://www.oclc.org/institute/events/ 16. USEFUL INTERNET RESOURCESSeptember
11, 2001 BusinessGateway.ca Libraries
and literacy Black
Gold Canada
in the Making If
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