Hit->Internet and OPACs

[Floyd Pentlin <fpentlin@HOBBS.LEESUMMIT.K12.MO.US>]

Group,  I understand several of you are interested in the responses that I
have received to my original question of putting Internet gopher sites and
other reference areas into the OPAC.  Some of the responses follow along
with some comments.

Floyd and others,
     Whether you put Internet information on the OPAC, or just create a printed
list, I think there is a need for a list of resources which answer specific
needs, by subject. In other words, rather than coming up with a list of gophers,
which people would then need to explore, wouldn't a list of subjects and the
files, with their gopher or telnet addresses, which have information on those
subjects, be more useful, especially as a reference tool?  This subject list
would use headings like those used in the Readers' Guide. Then, if you needed a
copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, you could go right to
it!
     I have embarked on a project to create such a list. It's a lot of work, but
also lots of fun.
Ellen Berne
The Winsor School Boston MA 02215
eberne@a1.mec.mass.edu
===============================================================================

Would Elizabeth Miller's internet directory published by Libraries
Unlimited as mentioned by Dave Loertscher (posting July 28, 1994) be a
place to add updates for special cites?

Sandy Scroggs                   Kate Schenck Elementary School
Librarian                       101 Kate Schenck Avenue
sandyscr@tenet.edu              San Antonio, Texas 78223
                                1-210-333-0611
==============================================================================

You don't say what kind of access you have, but if you have SLIP or PPP,
you can quite easily create Mosaic pages which can be subject specific.
This doesn't even require that you be a WWW site! My media specialists have
made Mosaic pages on weather resources and on Holocaust resources.

Another option we are exploring is creating our own subject specific gophers.

Let me know what you come up with. I believe that we should consider the
Internet a collection of "selectable" resources, just as the library is a
collection of selectable resources.

Doug Johnson, District Media Supervisor | In times of change, learners
Mankato Public Schools, ISD77           | inherit the earth, while the
Box 8713, Mankato MN 56001-8713         | learned find themselves beautifully
507-387-7698                            | equipped to deal with a world that
palsdaj@vax1.mankato.msus.edu           | no longer exists.- Eric Hoffer
=============================================================================

Have you thought about using "bookmarks" to develop the list of sources
which students can then refer back to when they want to find something?
As I understand it there is space to add brief notes to identify what is
at the site that you have bookmarked.
..........................................................................
I have thought about bookmarks, but my concern was for those students who
don't have usual Internet access, for a variety of reasons, and if the
information was in the OPAC they would have to contact myself or my clerk
about gophering to the site.  There is also the question of the students
who have access but spending too much time wandering to use the Internet
sources easily.  That is where the media center could come in by making
the information easily available. [Floyd]
......................................................................

I haven't actually tried this, but I saw it demonstrated by two Internet
users at a recent session I attended.  It appeared that you could save
the list, print it, capture it on disk, etc.

Kay Maynard
cant@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us
==============================================================================
While this sounds like a terrific idea, and the new MARC format for
community information should support this, beware of investing a lot of
time on addresses.  The Internet is so fluid that an address that was
good one year or one semester might be invalid the next.  Do you want to
spend the time to verify the addresses all the time?  It's sort of like
someone coming in and reclassifying some of your library books and not
telling you!  Have your students make their own menu using gopher
bookmarks.  If one should happen to be invalid, it can be deleted on
the spot by the user.

Carol Simpson
............................................................................
Carol brings up a good point about the fluidity of the Internet addresses.
 Also, I checked out a suggestion last week about finding Clinton's
cabinet -- I don't remember the entire address but it was a gopher to
nifty.andrew.cmu.edu, I believe.  When I gophered there, I found the
folder "erotica" more quickly than I found the address for Clinton's
cabinet.  This may be a typical problem in using the Internet, but by
carefully selecting sources, it may be a way to direct student use.
Obviously we have to select and evaluate resources as carefully on the
'net as we do for print and electronic resources housed in the media center.

*****************************************************************************
Floyd Pentlin, Library Media Specialist / Lee's Summit High School, Div. 2
400 Blue Parkway / Lee's Summit, MO 64063 / VOICE: 816-251-3418
FAX: 816-251-3419 / E-MAIL: fpentlin@hobbs.leesummit.k12.mo.us
"What's another word for thesaurus?" - Steve Wright
*****************************************************************************