Submitted by:
Jim Stemper
Student Reference Assistant
Reference
Steenbock Library, Univ. of WI–Madison
550 Babcock Drive
Madison, WI 53705 USA
v: (608) 262-9635
e: stemper@macc.wisc.edu
Categories:
Education, higher; Library
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Technology transfer; Local commitment to network-based activities; Leverage of public funding;
Supporting Documentation (contact author for more information):
Documentation (of a Gopher lecture/hands-on workshop we gave)
The Story:
Hi there–
I am responding to the call for stories in the March 3, 1993 Chronicle of Higher Education.
I am a library school student at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. I first learned about the Internet in my required Library Automation class. It has helped me professionally in many ways: For the class, I submitted my term paper to my instructor via Electronic Mail. The report never touched paper ’til the very end. This saves time, trees, and money.
Along with my Practicum Supervisor at Steenbock Library, I FTPed the WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) software from a remote site, and helped him install a client in our library so that patrons and staff could make use of its search and retrieval capabilities.
The same could be said of the Gopher software, which is already in use by patrons and staff. It lets us visit resources held all over the world, all for the price of our initial Internet connection. I have communicated with my job supervisors and library school professors by email in general, to build on my first point. Also, the helpful advice I get on such Bitnet Listservs as LIBREF, BI-L, and CDROMLAN has supplemented what I learned in my library textbooks immensely.
These are just a few stories. Soon our library hopes to make offer remote access to some patrons (subject to our CD site licenses, naturally). I hope this helps to convince our Congress that the Internet is a worthy investment of federal tax dollars and that libraries are worthy recipients of such funds.
Respectfully yours,
Jim Stemper
For additional information contact:
Bob Sessions
New Technologies Librarian
Reference
Steenbock Library, Univ. of WI
550 Babcock Drive
Madison, WI 53705
v: (618) 263-2385
e: sessions@macc.wisc.edu