TechKnowledge

Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2001

Dot-Coms Offer Libraries for a Fee
New services make it possible to do extensive research online

Librarians , anxious as they may be about the threat of the Internet to their careers, have remained fairly confident that they could supply things--personal assistance, full-length books, and research skills--the Net could not. But as of this month, a handful of Internet startups claim they can provide many of the services a library can--only faster--and that users will pay for the service.

Why would users be willing to pay? One such company, Questia ( www.questia.com), aims to provide a 50,000-item collection of books and journals that can be searched instantly by keyword and phrase. Subscribers will be able to read books and periodical articles online, but will not be able to print them out or copy and paste more than limited amounts of text.

Questia Public Relations Manager Ann Brimberry says that their research shows that students are willing to pay for the instant response and convenience of Questia's software tools. For example, students can copy and paste relevant passages into their research papers with the help of Questia's "'citation assistant"'--a tool that instantly creates, and adds to one's paper, formatted footnotes and bibliography entries. As to the estimated $20 to $30 monthly cost, she says, "'Students already pay the same amount for cable TV and Net access."'

Questia, say its representatives, is targeted at the undergraduate writing a paper "'at the last minute,"' or the adult who has returned to college while working and raising a family. Both need exactly the right information quickly and conveniently. The Questia service is scheduled to launch in the second half of this month, and it plans to allow users to subscribe for 48 hours, one month, or one year.

In its announcements to librarians, Questia is quick to point out that it has assembled a Librarian Advisory Board and used academic librarians to develop its initial collection. Yet to add content to its database, it has marketed itself to publishers in a way that might not be interpreted as library-friendly. A Questia ad in the December 4, 2000, Publishers Weekly shows a large stack of identical books with the caption, "'Number of times your book gets checked out from the library."' Beside it sits a single book captioned, "'Number of times you get paid for it."' Unlike libraries, Questia plans to pay publishers every time a subscriber looks at a page of an online book.

JonesKnowledge ( jonesknowledge.com ) is another dot-com offering library services; its "'e-global library"' is scheduled to go online this month. It aims (for a fee) to give participants in distance-learning programs library services, but it may also offer its services to individual subscribers. Besides a links directory and database access, e-global library offers as an option a "'reference desk...a team of reference librarians on-call to offer research assistance, counsel, and suggestions,"' according to the company Web site.

Asked if the service might tempt a cost-cutting administrator to do away with an educational institution's on-campus library, Kim Dority, a librarian who is a JonesKnowledge vice president, said that is not the company's goal. "'I'm careful that none of the decisions I make in this initiative damage existing libraries,"' she says. "'We train our salespeople to say to potential customers, 'Have you spoken to your institution's librarians to see if they can provide this service?'"'

Librarians don't seem too concerned that services like Questia and JonesKnowledge pose a threat. Bernie Sloan, senior library information systems consultant at the University of Illinois, says, "'Many students are conditioned to getting tons of information off the Web for free. Quality issues aside, I can see someone thinking 'Why should I pay for info from the Web when I can already get way more than I need--and way more than I can use--for free?'"'--Walter Minkel

A DOT-gov Contest
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), high school students now have an opportunity to create a Web resource linked to a U.S. government site. The DOT's Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program is sponsoring a contest for students to

develop a Web site that will encourage others to choose a career in transportation. Each entry must be created by teams of one academic advisor and one or more students in grades 9 through 12. The deadline for entries is March 15, 2001. The contest doesn't carry a monetary award, but the winning Web sites will be linked to the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Web site. Alex Landsburg, creator of the contest and the chairman of the site, says that the idea for the contest grew out of necessity. "We already have a transportation employee shortage, and that's just going to increase as the years go by," he says. "But if we can inspire children to have interest in transportation, that's a step in the right direction." For more information, point your browser to education.dot.gov.

Anime? Manga? Huh?
Two art forms popular with teenagers and other enthusiasts of "alternative" culture are anime (AN-i-may), or Japanese animation, and manga, or

Japanese comics. Now, Gilles Poitras, a librarian and writer based in Northern California, has taken it upon himself to provide librarians with up-to-date resources and information about this growing interest among teens. His "Librarian's Guide to Anime and Manga"( www.sirius.com/~cowpunk/Libguide.html) explains the two mediums for the librarian who keeps hearing about them but has no idea what they are. One note: the site also contains brief discussions of the violence and sexual content in some types of anime and manga.

SITEoftheMONTH
Portland (OR) Public Schools: www.pps.k12.or.us/district/depts/ edmedia/bestsites.shtml

The Web has many excellent sites that provide both professional tools for media specialists and resources for teachers and students. One place that's a good guide to those sites is "'Best Sites for Media Specialists,"' assembled by Edith Fuller and Mary Bush of the Portland (OR) Public Schools Professional Library.

Built for a conference:

Fuller ( efuller@pps.k12.or.us) and Bush ( mbush@mesd.k12.or.us) designed this page for a presentation they gave at the Oregon Educational Media Association (OEMA) conference last October. They had ideas of which sites to include, but turned to several online school-library discussion groups to see if they were really the ones media specialists would find useful.

Harvesting the e-mails:

Fuller and Bush also asked colleagues to suggest sites they found most useful, and they got a slew of responses. "'I sat back and harvested all the e-mails and put the suggested sites into a database in alphabetical order by name,"' Fuller says. She particularly liked one suggestion that each library's own Web site be considered a "'best site,"' a reminder to media specialists that their own site is one of their most critical online resources. Fuller turned the suggestion into a category by itself, and listed four examples from various school libraries. Other categories include search engines for students and teachers, sites for national, regional, and state library media organizations, sites on collection development and maintenance, and favorite content sites.

Structured and hands-on

: Fuller and Bush's presentation at the OEMA conference billed their site as a collection for the beginning media specialist or for the media specialist trying to deepen his or her knowledge of online resources. The three-hour session was a model research class that a media specialist could present to teachers, or--with some modifications--for students. "'Both Mary and I believe strongly that teachers need structured hands-on time to explore the Web,"' says Fuller.

If You Give a Kid a Mouse...
Teaching

students to use computers can be tough, especially if the kids are using individual terminals and all calling out for help. Dennis Sonius, the principal at Morningside Elementary School in Twin Falls, ID, thinks he may have a solution. It's called Mouse-Net, a device that lets teachers activate only one student's mouse at a time. That way, the whole class can follow along as one student demonstrates, for instance, how to use a search engine. The student's work would appear on a classroom monitor or screen. Using the system, each student gets a cordless, wireless touchpad that's linked by radio signals to a teacher's station. The teacher can control which mouse she wants to respond. Up to 32 touchpads can be used at a time. For more information, go to www.wirelessmousenet.homestead.com, or call (208) 736-0648.

TheLibrarian'sInternet by gail junion-metz
Policing the New: Keeping Your Guidelines Current
If it's been 18 months since you last updated your library's Internet User Policy (IUP), the following sites will get you up to speed on the latest topics, the most recent statistics, legal information you may not be aware of, as well as guidelines for advising your library's Board of Trustees. You'll also find case studies that can help you prepare for IUP dilemmas and offer enforcement scenarios.

The Internet and Public Libraries...Issues and Opportunities
www.iage.com/rusa.shtm
This recently updated site contains links to the most relevant Web-based information, as well as citations to books on IUP and Net use in public libraries. Source: Gail Junion-Metz, Information Age Consultants, Winfield, PA.

A Legal and Educational Analysis of K-12
Internet Acceptable Use Policies
ces.uoregon.edu/responsibleuse/analysis.htm
This site contains hard-to-locate legal information and opinions that relate to school, district, and public library IUPs, including due process, search and seizure, student safety, district liability, and First Amendment issues. Source: Nancy Willard, Information Technology Consultant, Eugene, OR.

Survey of Internet Access Management in Public Libraries
www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/research/internet.pdf
This June 2000 study contains important statistics and information about the way public libraries handle Internet access, including how Web-based information for both kids and adults is filtered and selected. This site is great for school librarians and also a good source for statistics to quote to trustees and board members. Required: Adobe Acrobat. Source: Library Research Center, University of Illinois, for the American Library Association.

Staff Internet Use Policy and Procedures
www.bham.wednet.edu/5260staf.htm

www.bham.wednet.edu/5260proc.htm

Student and patron IUPs are easy to find, but good staff IUPs are harder to come by. Use these two documents to help you write or update a staff IUP. Source: Bellingham Public Schools, Bellingham, WA.

Guidelines for School Web Pages
macserver.stjohns.k12.fl.us/guidelines.html
Most library IUPs don't include guidelines for the appearance of your library's Web site, such as how graphics should be displayed, and the importance of putting current dates on all pages. This site offers a few, including Web stylesheet examples, and a sample parental permission letter for Web activities. Source: St. John Country School District, St. Augustine, FL. Detour: Check out the parental permission letter created by Bellingham Public Schools at www.bham.wednet.edu/parent.htm.

IUP Role-Play Exercise for School (Public) Library Staff

www.iage.com/roleplay2.shtm

www.iage.com/roleplay.shtm

Once your library's IUP is in place, it's important for library staff to discuss how policies will be enforced and how they should respond to difficult situations that may arise. These role-playing exercises, based on imagined scenarios, will encourage communication between library staff and their supervisors. Source: Gail Junion-Metz, Information Age Consultants, Winfield, PA.

Testdrive

Microsoft Trackball Optical and Microsoft Trackball Explorer
Trackball mice
Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, (206) 882-8080. PC (Windows 98 or later; USB or PS/2 port) or Macintosh (Mac OS 8.5.1 or later; USB port). microsoft.com/hardware. Trackball Explorer, $74.95; Optical, $44.95.

Mouse manufacturers have been using optical tracking technology for more than 10 years. Optical mice replace the gears and pins of a standard mechanical mouse with light sensors and a chip for greater sensitivity. With its Trackball Optical and Trackball Explorer (pictured), Microsoft claims to have created two new ultra-sensitive trackballs geared for Internet exploration.

These two trackballs are identical, except for the placement of the buttons and the ball (which lights up). The Optical's ball is moved by the thumb, and the Explorer's by the index and/or middle fingers. The buttons are programmable; for instance, if you use a Mac, you can click the otherwise-unused right button to copy, paste, or become a second backspace key. There are two additional buttons, set to correspond to the "'Back"' and "'Forward"' commands of Internet Explorer, but you can change these functions with the IntelliMouse software included in the package. There's also a scroll wheel for long Web pages or Word documents.

Both models, for right-hand use only, are nicely responsive. Anyone considering moving to a trackball from a standard mouse, however, should test it first to make certain they are comfortable with it. Some people love the precise feeling of moving the ball with their fingertips; others hate trackballs and prefer to move a mouse around its pad. Curiously, the slate-gray Optical lists for $30 less than the silvery Explorer. I can't figure out why--the only difference I noticed was that I found the Explorer's ball easier to turn.

Britannica's Back
First it offered its respected encyclopedia for free online. Now, in a bid to capture schools that want services targeted at teachers and students, Britannica this month will launch a portal called BritannicaSchool.com. The portal

is geared toward classrooms and school libraries. In addition to providing all Britannica.com resources, it will link students to news, an educational Web directory, and other multimedia content, such as Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus. BritannicaSchool also has supplementary guides to math, social studies, and other staple subjects that link to current magazine and news articles, and it comes with teachers' guides and lesson plans.

What price for this portal? Three dollars per user will gain you access, with a 30-day free trial available. When Britannica.com debuted in 1999, it crashed spectacularly, because far too many users tried to log on at once. Roger Knight, a spokesperson for Britannica.com, says the company is already working to prevent that problem from happening again. To work out any kinks, Britannica's giving all public schools in Texas a six-month trial run of the product. The company says it hopes to sign up entire school districts at a time for BritannicaSchool.

Polling the Planet
This fall, students and classrooms got a firsthand look at the international reach of the Internet. Planet Project, a worldwide participation poll sponsored by the technology giant 3Com, was originally scheduled to take place November

15-18. But the poll received such an overwhelming response that it was extended to the first week of December. Poll organizers created a smaller, 20-question poll for students ages 13 to 18 called Planet Project Student Underground. After students answered the questions on topics such as religion, health, and self-image, they could immediately compare their answers to those of other students around the world. At press time, over 75,000 students worldwide had responded to the poll, which weighed in with 1.8 million replies overall. "We wanted to get a glimpse of what's possible with the Internet," says Mark Plungy, a spokesperson for 3Com. "Maybe we'll figure out that we're not so different from each other after all." A teacher's activity kit and the full poll results are at Planet Project's Web site ( www.planetproject.com).