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INFOhio State Users Group Meeting
Works-in-Progress
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
Ramada Plaza Hotel
Columbus, Ohio
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
SUMMARY
IMPORTANT: This is an archive
document containing many time-sensitive links. INFOhio does not guarantee the reliability
of links to other sites.
Theresa M. Fredericka,
INFOhio Executive Director |
The first State Users Group meeting for the 2000-2001 school year focused on
INFOhio's "Works-in-Progress." The meeting--attended by more than 60 Users,
Providers, staff, and guests--combined Task Force updates, participant feedback, and a
work session to chart the direction of two upcoming projects. The meeting was facilitated by Dave Ambrose, INFOhio
consultant for communications, implementation, and training. Two members of the INFOhio
Governing Advisory Board participated in
the meeting: John Myles,
Liberty Center Local Schools (Henry County), a MultiLIS user through NWOCA; and Joan
Schlitter, Olmsted Falls High School (Cuyahoga County), a MultiLIS user through
LEECA.
After a brief overview of the meeting's agenda, Ambrose
introduced INFOhio's Executive Director, Theresa M. Fredericka, who
reviewed INFOhio's accomplishments during the 1999-2000 school year. Significant growth in
INFOhio's Library Automation component has resulted in use of the DRA/MultiLIS software in
1,299 buildings in 351
districts. The total number of students served has reached 643,000. Fredericka reviewed
the Thousand Building Celebration held at the
May 17, 2000, State
Users Group meeting, where several state legislators and legislative assistants were
able to attend to learn more about INFOhio and our role in providing information resources
for Ohio's students and teachers. |
Other accomplishments during 1999-2000 include:
-- Implementing Web-based online catalogs (OPACs) for both INFOhio automation components:
DRA/MultiLIS for school library/media
centers, and Dymaxion/Medianet
for booking software for special collections serving Ohio's K-12 students and
teachers.
-- Expanded use of INFOhio's Electronic Resources,
with the number of queries and articles downloaded reaching more than 2,226,000.
-- The Ohio visit of then-editor Renee Olson of School Library Journal and the
subsequent feature SLJ article about INFOhio. (Highlights page)Fredericka looked ahead to the 2000-2001 school year and emphasized
the following tasks for INFOhio leadership:
-- Managing growth as all components are seeing increased participation and activity.
-- Submitting INFOhio's request for funding in the next state biennial budget.
-- Preparing for Statewide
Resource Sharing.
-- Preparing for the transition to Taos,
the next generation library automation from DRA/MultiLIS. |
Ambrose provided several general project updates:
-- LSTA grant information
has been updated on the State Library of Ohio's Web site; a direct link is located on the
"Quick Links" section of the INFOhio home page. Among the changes: Automation
grants have been separated from the traditional Minigrant and Full Grant programs.
Minigrant applications are due November 22, 2000; the State Library plans to begin the
Automation Grant cycle in December 2000. Since 1998 more than $5.7 million has been
awarded more than 700 Ohio schools, most for automation projects with INFOhio.
-- INFOhio training efforts continue. The next series of InfoLit Workshops will be
announced soon, and work progresses on implementing the LSTA grant INFOhio received for
developing prototype material for library automation training.
-- INFOhio, ORCLISH, and the OECN are sponsoring Making Your Website
Accessible for People with Disabilities, a conference to be held in Columbus in
December. Mike Paciello, president and chief accessibility officer of WebABLE! Solutions, will present a session for DASite
personnel (December 7) and will conduct a day for library media specialists, technology
coordinators and school Webmasters (December 8). Watch for additional information and
registration directions. |
In the first of four "What's New" reports, Jean Banks,
INFOhio Technical Support staffer, and Linda Ehrnschwender, Provider from
LEECA, showed the results of the Library Automation Task Force recommendations for a
primary interface for the Web OPAC called INFOhio CAT Jr. Two sample screens are shown
below. See the full PowerPoint presentation for two more
sample screens. Work will continue to refine CAT Jr., with a projected rollout later this
fall.
Other 2000-2001 goals for the Library Automation
Task Force: conducting a survey of INFOhio's DRA/MultiLIS users to help improve the
Reports module; preparing for the Transition to Taos; analyzing the last Users survey,
especially to gauge training needs; and working to implement Statewide Resource Sharing. |
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Trish Baker, Provider from
LACA, and Charles Schmiesing, an INFOhio Technical Support staffer,
presented the Union Catalog Task Force update as the second "What's New" report.
Much effort has gone into eliminating duplicate print records in the INFOhio Union Catalog, so much so that
where about 1.8 million print records existed before dedupping, now only about 700,000
remain. Baker illustrated this work by showing three "before and after" example
searches. Routines have been written to avoid future duplicate records, when DASite
extractions resume.
Schmiesing reported on the status of INFOhio's
SuperMARC project. Routines are in place as part of the dedupping process to identify
unique components of similar MARC records for the same material, collecting these
scattered elements (e.g., reading and interest level, summary paragraphs, subject
headings) into a master MARC record, the SuperMARC. There are about 300,000 in the current
Union Catalog (in Bank 110), and more will be added as the extraction process resumes.
Librarians searching for records to copy from the Union Catalog will automatically search
the SuperMARC bank, in most cases the best record available. SuperMARC records are also
identified by a notation in their 042 fields.
Lois Lequyea, Co-chair,
Union Catalog Task Force |
Lois Lequyea, co-chair of the
Union Catalog Task Force, continued the report by explaining
CatExpress, an effort of
INFOhio and OHIONET to allow districts to purchase
MARC records from OCLC at a low
cost. Lequyea reviewed the Task Force goals for 2000-2001: assist in the dedupping of
nonprint materials in the Union Catalog; provide Authority Control for the Union Catalog
and the DASites; and prepare for the transition to Taos by assuring that appropriate
search capabilities are present. |
The third "What's New" report focused
on new information about INFOhio's Electronic Resources and was presented by Mary
Nemeth, Provider from MEC. Nemeth introduced American
National Biography, our newest resource added in September 2000. She explained a
few search strategies and demonstrated a sample search. Nemeth also explained new aspects
of SIRS Discoverer Deluxe (a new current events
feature and a PowerPoint presentation explaining how to use the resource), and INFOhio ProQuest Collection (59 new subscriptions
providing a total of 217 titles and a new database selection screen organized by
periodical type), and Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
and Encyclopedia Britannica Intermediate (home
access through INFOhio is now available for both encyclopedias, with usernames and
passwords available from DASite
Providers). The new training
& implementation page for INFOhio's resources was displayed; a link to the page is
active from the INFOhio home page.
The following Electronic Resources Task Force
goals for 2000-2001 were listed: conduct Vendor Preview 2001, improve the training page at
the INFOhio Web site, collect examples of successful training and teaching materials that
support electronic resources, and collect statistics to help justify future funding for
current and additional electronic resources.
All INFOhio Electronic Resources are funded by
appropriations of the Ohio General
Assembly and are provided without charge to every public and private K-12 school in
Ohio through any Internet-ready computer. Funding is assured through June 2001.
Due to the absence of Tony Marshalek,
the Instructional Development Task Force report, the last of the "What's New"
items, was presented by Dave Ambrose. Significant progress in OH! Teach is occurring, through the
efforts of Drs. Carolyn Brodie and Greg Byerly of Kent State University's School of Library and Information
Science. Many additional curriculum sites have been added, and a "What's New" page provides a
quick overview. Suggestions for additional OH! Teach sites should be submitted to Brodie and Byerly.
Ambrose reviewed the Instructional Development
Task Force goals for 2000-2001: develop online tutorials for current electronic resources
provided by INFOhio, collect examples of "Best Practices" that incorporate information literacy skills throughout the
curriculum, and investigate a Summer Institute for K-12 faculty to develop and enhance the
use of various forms of educational technologies--print and nonprint.
| The meeting's "What Works"
presentation featured Media Booking Task Force co-chairs Lisa Santo,
Franklin County ESC Media Center, and Kathy Silk,
Newark City Schools. They demonstrated several new features of Medianet,
INFOhio's media booking software. The "Medianet Options" section allows
users to display a list of late items, current and past bookings, and
extend or cancel reservations. The options page also provides an easy
way for Medianet |
Lisa Santo controls the visuals, while Kathy Silk explains
how Medianet helps teachers locate and book materials from her district collection.
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| users to change their passwords. Silk
distributed a handout of her Medianet training materials. Medianet has
grown significantly over the past year, both in the number of sites
using the software and because of the convenient Web-booking module. The Media Booking Task Force goals for 2000-2001 include: establish active
regional users groups throughout the state, provide additional training to all sites, and
investigate future software enhancements. |
Carla Southers, Library/Media/Technology Consultant,
Ohio Department of Education
Dave Colombo, Schools Account Manager,
Data Research Associates |
Four INFOhio partners brought brief greetings from their
institutions.Carla Southers,
newly hired Library/Media/technology Consultant for the Ohio Department of Education, explained the current
process underway to develop new Academic Content Standards for
Ohio. Southers urged all those involved in INFOhio to visit the ODE's Web site to read
the draft standards for
English Language Arts (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) and
provide comments through the feedback form.
SarahJane Holzhauer, President of the Ohio Educational Library/Media Association,
reminded the Users Group that the OELMA conference, GOTEC 2000, will be held October 25-27,
in Columbus. Holzhauer noted that the OELMA Web site also features a copy of the membership form.
Dave Colombo, Schools Account Manager for Data Research Associates, the company that provides
MultiLIS, INFOhio's library automation software, thanked INFOhio for our long association
with his firm. Colombo announced that two MultiLIS modules can now be purchased at
INFOhio-negotiated pricing, for those districts interested: Acquisitions and Serials.
Chris Sakelaris, Senior Account Executive
for bigchalk.com, listed the four constituents his
company strives to serve with their products: library/media specialists, teachers,
students and parents. He urged INFOhio participants to visit the company Web site to see the resources available for all
four groups. Sakelaris also introduced Linda Bessmer, bigchalk.com's
regional sales manager, Central Region. INFOhio purchases the INFOhio ProQuest Collection
and SiteBuilder from bigchalk.com. |
Following lunch, the Users Group reassembled into two groups for work session on
Statewide Resource Sharing, led by Jean Banks and Lois Lequyea,
and Migration to Taos, led by Terri Fredericka and Terri Shutt,
INFOhio Technical Support staffer. Ambrose brought both groups back together for brief
reports.The Statewide Resource Sharing group
reviewed the policies developed to date, discussed the technology required to make
Statewide Resource Sharing workable, and considered several delivery issues. Several related documents
can be visited at the OPLIN Web site.
The Migration to Taos group discussed the presence of the
library automation features INFOhio values and wants incorporated into Taos, stressed that
whatever product we adopt is better than what we are now using, and agreed that rigorous
evaluation of the Web-based OPAC (a Taos module) most INFOhio schools are now using is
worthwhile. A Transition to Taos Team is being selected to oversee this process and keep
all players in the transition informed; those interested in serving should contact INFOhio
Executive Director Terri Fredericka.
Following a brief evaluation of the day's agenda, Ambrose
announced the dates for the remaining meetings, thanked everyone for their attendance and
participation, and adjourned the Users Group.
State Users Group Meeting: January 31, 2001 (Ramada
Plaza Hotel, Columbus)
State Users Group Meeting: May 16, 2001 (Location to be determined)
INFOhio Retreat: June 12-14, 2001 (Location to be determined) |
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Handouts
Agenda
Migration to Taos
Statewide Resource Sharing: How Do We
Get There?
Statewide Resource Sharing:
Policies
OHIONET
Training Calendar
Photos provided by Joanna Hart
McNally and Rose Seighman
Summary of Meeting Evaluation Forms
Submitted by Attendees |
