Do librarians need basic HTML capabilities?

[James Vincett]

As for HTML skills, there are programs in the works now which make writing
HTML just like using a word processor. Type some text, press a button, and
the page is "published" on a server of your choice. See Netscape Gold and
Microsoft FrontPage. Remember the old word processors, where you had to type
in the codes if you wanted to bold, italicize or center text? In the future
(i.e. 3-5 years), writing web pages will be a job for secretaries, and
students will be taking HTML 101, akin to a typing class ten years ago.

Literacy in the age of the Internet should encompass _information_ literacy;
recognizing an information need, finding the information, evaluating the
information, and using the information for the best advantage. This is
something that librarians have been doing on a regular basis for decades:
needs assessment, collections development, classification, and reference.
Librarians need basic HTML skills if it will help in assisting others toward
information literacy (i.e. a web page for dissemination of information), not
as an end in itself.

At 08:31 PM 6/18/96 -0700, The Big Glee Bopper wrote:
>On Tue, 18 Jun 1996, Vivienne Cuff wrote:
>
>> On the other hand,  how to do you get people to understand the 
>> concept of hypertext without actually writing HTML per se? 
>> Maybe we should use something like Storyspace and get them to write 
>> hyperfiction or get people to participate in something like Waxweb?
>
>When you describe someone as literate it means they can _read_ & _write_. 
>Being literate in a digital environment means you have to be able to do 
>more than click on links for true understanding ... you have to be able 
>to program which is digital writing. Hopefully it will get easier but 
>writing is always difficult whether in text, audio, video or digits.
>
>--Thom
>
>
>
James Vincett
Information Systems and Services
California Lutheran University
Voice: (805) 493-3940, FAX: (805) 493-3842
Web: http://clunet.edu/~vincett/training.html