Online Workshop - Library Services and Instruction for Distance Learners

[Isabel Danforth]

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ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY FROM L.O.S.T.

 L.O.S.T. (Librarian's On-line Support Team) is sponsoring 
another free on-line professional development workshop 
available to library personnel with Internet capability.  This 
session, entitled: Library Services and Instruction for 
Distance Learners, will provide for an exchange of 
experiences and ideas between librarians from all over.  This 
session will address some of the following issues.

How  does your library support distance education?   Can 
students request ILL for books and journal articles?  Can they 
get the resources that they need?   Do you use the Internet, 
telephone, snail mail?  How do they get instruction in how to 
use the resources that you provide, electronic or otherwise.  
Does your library meet ACRL guidelines for distance 
education?  Our panel of librarians from Central Connecticut 
State University and University of Southern Florida at Tampa 
will share their experiences.   Come and share some of your 
own, and see how others are doing it.

This session will be offered on Wednesday, March 11, 1998 
at 1 PM, EST and will be repeated at 7 PM EST.  Librarians 
need not leave their homes or worksites to take part in the 
seminar.  Participants will log onto Diversity University's live 
"virtual campus" environment from their home or work 
computer.   Organizers anticipate the workshop will last about 
an hour and a half.   Each workshop is limited to twenty 
people and pre-registration is necessary.   Email Isabel 
Danforth at danforth at tiac.net by February 27 to register and 
obtain a conference information and direction packet.

Panel members are:

Emily S. Chasse, Online Search Services librarian at Central 
Connecticut State University for the past 16 years.  She's just 
completed a 6 month sabbatical exploring and implementing 
library services for the Distance Education program within 
the Connecticut State University System.  She also produced 
2 videos introducing the Distance Education students and 
faculty to the libraries, their policies, and the electronic 
resources available to them.  Back at work with Online 
Searching and Reference she'll continue to work for equal 
access for these students

Ilene Frank, Reference Librarian, Tampa Campus Library, 
University of South Florida since 1974. She recently helped 
write a grant to establish the Florida Distance Learning 
Reference Referral Center providing reference services to 
post-secondary public institutions in Florida. For the past two 
years, she has been teaching graduate course for the School 
of Library at Information Science, USF, on "Internet 
Resources" using email and the web.

Drew Smith, Instructor, School of Library and Information 
Science,University of South Florida.  He is the webmaster for 
an informationliteracy website.  In 1994 he created an 
undergraduate introductoryInternet course which he 
continues to teach, and he has twice taught thecourse entirely 
via e-mail and the Web.  He is currently teaching 
anundergraduate bibliographic instruction course using the 
Web, a MOO, andface-to-face meetings.

The Librarian's On-Line Support Team (L.O.S.T.) is a an 
organization that is coordinated by a steering committee 
consisting of academic, research, public, and K- 12 librarians 
from wide-spread locations. The group provides space for 
librarians, many of whom are being thrust into cyberspace 
with minimal training and support, to get both formal and 
informal instruction and mentoring.  Librarians with various 
levels of background can meet to share ideas and experiences 
informally.   The group is currently based at the virtual 
campus of Diversity University, a cyberspace location that 
offers both real-time and delayed interaction via computer 
and currently supports over 4,000 educators and students 
world-wide.  Information about L.O.S.T. and its programs can 
be found at:
	http://admin.gnacademy.org:8001/~lost

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Isabel L. Danforth   Reference Librarian, Wethersfield Public Library
danforth at tiac.net     Coordinator of Librarians' Online Support Team
		       http://admin.gnacademy.org:8001/~lost/ 
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