[WEB4LIB] Fwd: Peter Scott's "retirement"

[Roy Tennant]

I first heard of Peter Scott when he created an elegant and compelling 
solution to a problem librarians had in the early days of the Internet. 
HyTelnet was a hypertext directory of Internet resources available via 
telnet that made it easy to discover the address and connection 
instructions to a burgeoning set of resources on this new and unsettled 
network. Peter's work in large measure presaged directory services such 
as Yahoo! that we now all take for granted.
HyTelnet was also one of the first uses of hypertext on the Internet, 
long before the web or even gopher were to come on the scene.

The fact that he did all of this from Saskatoon, Canada, a place that 
most people using his product had never heard of, was one of our first 
lessons on the power of the Internet. It didn't matter whether Peter 
was the head of the library or the janitor, whether he was male or 
female, rich or poor. On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog. Or, 
in Peter's case, a British transplant who writes blues songs and looks 
like Ernest Hemingway.

As a rabid fan of HyTelnet, I quickly struck up a long-distance 
friendship with Peter that lasts to this day. The fact that we had been 
corresponding for many years before we finally met is another lesson of 
the Internet. Relationships can be established and maintained in many 
ways, not just in person.

Peter's curiosity and ability to avidly pick up new technologies and 
understand how they can be applied to library (and indeed societal) 
issues is remarkable. The fact that he grew up in the age of the manual 
typewriter rather than the iPod makes it all the more amazing.

I'm pleased that Peter has been able to find a way to quit his day job 
while he still has many years and lots of energy to continue to 
contribute to the profession in his inimitable way. I know he will find 
time to pursue many personal interests, but I'm not yet ready to give 
up all the many projects that he has created and nurtured over the 
years, some of them only minutes old even in Internet time.

Congratulations Peter, and I'll see you on the net!
Roy

On Apr 7, 2005, at 6:09 PM, Roy Tennant wrote:

> Forwarded by request of David Fox, I'll be posting my own message on
> this subject in a bit.
> Roy
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: David Fox <david.fox at usask.ca>
>> Date: April 7, 2005 2:47:08 PM PDT
>> Subject: Peter Scott's "retirement"
>>  
>> Dear colleagues... I regret to announce that Peter Scott is retiring
>> after 29 years of service to University of Saskatchewan Library! Peter
>> began his career at the UofS in 1976 as a member of the Cataloguing
>> Department, following which he was promoted to the position of Head of
>> the Order Department. In Feb 1992, Peter was reassiged to the Systems
>> Department, allowing him the scope to explore his growing interest in
>> a new fad called the Internet (a.k.a. the Information Superhighway).
>>
>> Peter is best known for his pioneering work in developing the popular
>> hypertext directories HyTelnet and WebCATS/LibDex. These extremely
>> useful tools have been followed by a steady stream of additional
>> information "products" from the fertile mind of Mr. Scott. For nearly
>> 15 years Peter has managed to stay in the forefront of Internet
>> knowledge and practice. His great value to UofS Library has been as
>> the harbinger of technological trends. In recent years Peter has been
>> in great demand as a speaker on Blogging and RSS.
>>
>> Peter's scholarly output over the past 15 years has been prodigious.
>> He has given over 50 invited conference presentations internationally.
>> An entertaining speaker with a gift for making technical material
>> understandable to a non-technical audience, Peter has been a frequent
>> presenter at the Online Information, Internet Librarian, Internet
>> Librarian International, Access, NetSpeed, and Saskatchewan and
>> Manitoba Library Association conferences. He has also served on the
>> organizing committees for  some of these conferencess. Peter has also
>> published numerous articles about his developments, and his work has
>> been acknowledged in many information industry publications.
>>
>> Among other honours, Peter received the 1992 Meckler Internet Software
>> Award for HyTelnet. He was named to the editorial board of Internet
>> Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy for 1995. In
>> 2004 He was named to the Library Advisory Board for xrefer.
>>
>> Peter's extracurricular interests are also noteworthy. At various
>> times he has been a broadcaster on community radio, a blues singer and
>> harmonica player, and a Juno award winning songwriter. Delegates to
>> the Access 97 conference in Vancouver will remember Peter as the lead
>> singer of the house band The Dukes of URL.
>>
>> At the UofS Library Peter has been a tremendous resource person to
>> other staff. He is down to earth and approachable. He is a natural
>> educator and communicator, and enjoys nothing more than sharing his
>> expertise on a one-to-one level with "keeners" who are eager to learn
>> "new stuff". His colleagues in the UofS ITS Division will miss Peter's
>> laidback, often politically incorrect, sense of humour.
>>
>> Peter's "retirement" will be a great loss to the UofS, but for him
>> it's really just a change of focus. I'm sure he will continue to be
>> actively engaged in his alternate life as an Internet consultant and
>> Website  developer, and will continue to be much sought after as a
>> conference speaker and organizer.
>>
>> Peter's accomplishments and years of service will be recognized, along
>> with other retirees, at a special occasion at the UofS Faculty Club on
>> April 20. His last day of work will be April 29. If you'd like to send
>> Peter your best wishes he can be contacted at peter.scott at usask.ca.
>> For more on Peter's career and personal interests, visit his Website
>> at: http://homepage.usask.ca/~pas508/
>>
>>
>> Regards.... David
>>
>>
>> David Fox
>> Head, Information Technology and Technical Services Divisions
>> University of Saskatchewan Library
>>
>> phone: (306)966-6031   (ITS)
>> phone: (306)966-5949   (TS)
>> fax: (306)966-6040
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