Info Index

SUNCOAST INFORMATION SPECIALISTS
INFO NEWSLETTER
VOL 12, NO 4
JULY 1998

EDITOR'S CORNER
by Jackie Jackson

The last two months have been a busy time for SIS members. At the last meeting new officers were selected for 1998/1999 and Trudie Root will become President, Mary Kay Raddatz will move into the Vice President position and Mary Marna Brady will act as Secretary; Betsy King will continue as Treasurer. I am resigning as SIS Editor, and a late breaking bulletin has reached me in time to announce here that Shirl Kennedy will reassume the editorship. (Shirl was my predecessor). So congratulations to the new appointees, who will commence their duties with the September meeting. September is the beginning of our new membership year also.

Several members attended the annual conference of Text and Academic Authors, a national group which has its main offices on the St. Petersburg Campus of the University of South Florida. Ed Sanchez has contributed his account of one of the presentations, which covered getting down to the business of writing! Good advice was also given in the areas of working with publishers, copyright, legal considerations and library research. Our thanks to Ed for his report.

A good representation of SIS members also attended the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in June. There was a record attendance, close to 20,000 members, as well as an increase in the number of presentations, meetings, and other professional activities. The weather was incredibly hot, but did not seem to slow too many people down, and many of us gathered to hear the keynote speaker Amy Tan, spend an enjoyable evening at the reception at the Library of Congress (which included snacking on strawberries dipped in chocolate) and visit the Smithsonian, the Capitol and other local points of interest.

As this is the last edition of the SIS newsletter that I will be producing I want to mention the wonderful support I have received from Betsy King who has been a constant source of encouragement and ideas over the last three years. I have really enjoyed putting the newsletter together, but Betsy has also contributed enormously by taking care of the copying, collating, labeling and forwarding of the newsletter to the St. Petersburg Times, who mail each edition out for us. Finally, I want to give my best wishes to Shirl who will be taking over as editor. She did a stellar job for us the first time and, I am sure, will have a lot of original and interesting ideas again. I urge every member to contact her with any snippets you may have to enrich the newsletter, any simple items such as reports of conferences, unusual web sites you have run across, or any other interesting items of information which you would like to share with our group. I am continuing my membership and look forward to seeing everyone at the meetings.

AUGUST MEETING
by Trudi Root

If you would like to pursue an additional Masters degree or are thinking of Ph.D. opportunities to boost your knowledge, skills and marketability, please join us for a meeting devoted to continuing education opportunities available in the Tampa Bay area and through distance learning.

The next SIS meeting will be held at the Steak and Ale restaurant in Tampa at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, August 3 and our speakers will be:

• Alan Hevner, Ph.D., Eminent Scholar and Professor in the Information Systems and Decisions Sciences Dept., College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida, Tampa, and Director of the Master of Science in Management Information Systems (MS/MIS) program at USF;
• Hope Botterbusch, M.L.S. from the Marine Science Department at U.S.F., St. Petersburg, who will tell us about Nova University’s distance education programs;
• Maria McCaffrey, M.L.S., Member Services Coordinator at TBLC, who will talk about new training programs in the works at TBLC, and
• Chet Lyskawa, Ph.D. System Administrator for the Florida Center for Instructional Technology and Adjunct Instructor, at U.S.F. who will tell us about U.S.F.’s Doctoral Program in instructional technology.

The Steak and Ale is located on 204 North Westshore Blvd. near the Westshore Mall, Tampa. From Pinellas County, come across the Howard Franklin Bridge and take the first exit for Westshore Boulevard. For Tampa folks, the restaurant is one block north of Kennedy Boulevard on Westshore. We will receive individual checks. Please Rsvp to Trudie Root at (727) 547-5671 or e-mail at hn3750@handsnet.org by Friday, July 31, 1998 if you plan to attend.

JUNE MEETING
by Debbie Factor

19 members attended the June meeting at the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clearwater. Joyce Burkhart called the meeting to order and introduced the speakers Melissa Howard and Chuck Leachman who came from Ebsco. It was announced that Trudie Root has lists of past SIS presidents and meeting places. Contact her if you would like a copy.

Old business: the feedback on the joint SIS/ASIS meeting was that the subject was interesting but the message was more appropriate for a different audience. It was agreed that SIS should have a joint meeting with ASIS once a year.

The slate of officers for the 1998/99 year was presented and voted upon. The new officers are:

• President - Trudie Root
• Vice President - Mary Kay Raddatz
• Secretary - Mary Marna Brady
• Treasurer - Betsy King

Jackie Jackson, our excellent newsletter editor, has resigned. There was discussion as to whether we should continue to mail the newsletter. It was decided to continue with the newsletter since it reaches some members outside the area, and more people are apt to read it in paper form than Listserv. The St. Petersburg Times very generously pays for the postage. A volunteer is needed to be newsletter editor.

New business: The student chapter of the Special Library Association will probably have Susie Hayes (incoming president of SLA) as guest speaker at the University of South Florida in the Fall.

Announcements: Joyce Burkhart is now on the Seminole campus of St. Petersburg Junior College. She is instructor in charge of the Information Commons. This is a library without books which houses 120 computers. Classes will combine traditional classroom techniques with Web based supplements.

Shirl Kennedy mentioned that Margaret Adkins, Program Director of SPJC’s Business Technologies Department, is looking for an instructor with expertise in graphic design, networking, JAVA, and Web development, to teach on a part-time basis.

U.S.F. is expanding into Pasco/Hernando counties. Library courses will be offered there and in Brooksville. Check U.S.F.’s web site for further information.

Presentation: Bob Leachman spoke about some of the services Ebsco offers. Ebsco covers serials collections, primarily electronic journals. Information and access to information are given through one common interface. At present there is some Internet congestion however.

Ebsco handles over 300,000 print journals with sales reaching over $1 billion last year. They publish over 40 electronic databases. In 1987 there was only one database, now there are over 70. Eventually EBSCO hopes to combine the past and present databases to search them all currently.

There are 8,000 electronic journals that are individually published -- only 4,000 are true Web based journals. Ebsco has 1,900 of these licensed and authorized for access, with about 200 more journals being added per month.

Ebsco Online enables students to research many databases using one search string. Users can create their own set of Ips or passwords. It enables searches across full text as well as access to all tables of contents.

Ebsco’s goal is total integrative management for serials. If a user cannot access full text through the electronic journals to which their library subscribes or the article is not available through print collections of local libraries, Ebsco can provide document delivery. Ebsco Host will be linked with online document delivery in the Fall. Future plans are for libraries to select their own journals for their core collection.

Chuck Leachman welcomes feedback at www.ebsco.com.

SIS thanks to the Ebsco representatives who came to our meeting and to Trudie Root for arranging the dinner at the Bombay Bicycle Club.

WRITERS AND WRITING
by Ed Sanchez

I recently attended the 1998 Text and Academic Authors Convention held in St. Petersburg and would like to share with the SIS a summary of just one of several excellent presentations.

"The Marathon: Building and Maintaining Momentum" was the topic delivered by Roy Peter Clark, Ph.D. Associate Director and Senior Scholar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Dr. Clark discussed how writers can develop some daily work patterns and explore strategic issues on building momentum for the writing marathon. He suggested ten tools for the writer:

The first tool was "a Compass", meaning a brief statement of intent and a well imagined destination, although the direction may change. Share the "intent" with others. This adds energy to the project.

Tool number two was "Guidebooks", meaning books to read for both form and content (factbooks, and Dickens).

The third and fourth tools were a hybrid of "string and a rake", i.e. facts and ideas (threads balled up and saved), composted into fertile material relating to the writing topic.

Fifth in the toolbox was "a friend", someone who loves you no matter how bad the writing is, and who tells you to continue.

The sixth tool was "a tape measure", to measure your standards. You can overcome writer's block by temporarily "lowering your standards." Write the words that have to be said, then go back and build the characters.

"A trowel" was the seventh tool. It helps you focus on the building the framework first and layering in examples and side journeys later.

Tool number eight was "a training routine". Some prefer writing seven days a week, most less. Dr. Clark recommends five days a week, and morning hours. Impose a deadline (adrenaline is the writers' drug) and break the 30,000 word work into 30 works, 1,000 words a day. Remember the adage, "250 words a day is a book a year!"

Nine and counting was "a laptop". Not the kind with wires, however, but the Day Book style for when ideas come that become part of the compost.

And last but not least, "a shrink", to help you deal with the negative feedback you will get. Even then, however, you can sometimes turn negative feedback into fruitful criticism by explaining what you were trying to accomplish and listening.

If it is true that the craftsman is known by the uniqueness of his work and judged by the quality of his tools, then Dr. Clark has certainly given the novice the best of the toolbox with which to polish his/her art.

SIS OFFICERS, 1997-1998